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heart.
    He found his stone, gleaming smooth in rough gravel: a blue-lined white agate, as big as his father’s fist. Power stretched
     from the stone—
pick me up.
Kai El obeyed, and found it solid and heavy, though he could see light through it. His hands tingled. Warmth skittered up
     his arms.
    Yes,
he thought.
This is the stone, the
only
stone that can show my love.
    The Moonkeeper’s son walked to the circle, touched the magic stone to his forehead, and placed it on the ground on the side
     of her heart. He didn’t look at her face. He was afraid of what he would see. Looking at the sky, he silently prayedto the spirits he knew best, Sun and River, for whom he was named.
    Warm her. Make her strong. She’s not just the Moonkeeper of these people. She is my Amah.
    Kai El thought the spirits heard him. He thought his mother heard him, too. If he had courage enough to look at her face,
     he believed he might see her smile.
    The boy had done all that he could for his mother. He went back to Elia, hiding behind the boulder where he’d darted when
     they first saw the tribe of strangers.
    He nudged his friend.
    “Go find a rock. The Other Moonkeeper said Amah needs all of us.”
    Elia shook his head. Kai El smelled fear.
    “How can you be afraid of your own people?”
    Elia crossed his arms over his chest, frowning.
    Kai El was sorry for his words—his friend had talked about how they had beaten him. But still, Tenka said everyone must help.
    He squeezed Elia’s arm. “This is important. Amah needs you, or she will die. Your people will see you sometime.”
    “Not now.”
    “If you don’t go by yourself, I’ll push you!”
    Not that he could—Elia was much bigger—but he was getting angry enough to try. Kai El made a fist and shook it.
    Elia opened his medicine pouch and took out a stone: white with blue lines, like the one Kai El had found, but small as a
     baby’s hand.
    “I take when leave here many seasons gone. Look, I carve.”
    Kai El leaned closer. He could see the rough shape of a bear. Elia touched the fetish to his forehead, put it in Kai El’s
     hand, and closed his fingers over it.
    “Courage of bear. Give Moonkeeper.”
    “I’m sorry I yelled,” Kai El said. “We must be spirit brothers. I found the same kind of rock.”
    Kai El went to the medicine circle and placed the rock near his own.
    “The bear’s courage,” he said. “From Elia.”
    He took a deep breath, and looked at her. The earth colorof her skin said she was asleep, not dead. Remembering the grandfather, Ehr—and the ash color people turned when they died—Kai
     El began to believe she would be fine. He wished he could touch her, just to be sure, but he knew Tenka wouldn’t let him.
    From the hiding place behind the boulder, Kai El watched his people, and these
other
people, all wandering around in a trance.
    He was not surprised to find strangers here. Amah and Adah had told the tribe that another tribe lived at the Great River.
     Kai El even knew their name: Klikit. What surprised him was how different they looked.
    They were almost naked. Hanging down in front from a thong around their waists, men and women wore a woven grass mat no larger
     than a rabbit pelt. A few had something wrapped around their feet—nothing like good Shahala moccasins. That was all—no leggings,
     shirts, or robes. Warm in his leathers and furs, Kai El thought how cold they must be. Their dirty skin was dull in the early
     sunlight. Men and boys had chopped-off hair that stuck out stiff. Women and girls had longer, matted hair. They all had well-fleshed
     bodies. Some of the women were so fat, with hanging breasts and drooping rears, that he couldn’t stand to look at them.
    Their puny weapons made him shake his head. Some had short, thin spears. Others had blades or hand clubs with stones on the
     ends. Many had no weapons.
    So different from his people. And yet they were walking around looking for healing stones just like his people were.