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no one was left feeling deprived. The plan was to build on

the inter-clan trading that had proved so successful the previous year,

but Cadillac proposed that from now on, bartering should be a

year-round process. Delegations from each clan would still meet at the

annual Plainfolk Council, but the venue should be changed from year to

year. So far, these gatherings had managed to avoid the attention of

'arrowheads' from the Federation, but they could not expect to remain

immune to attack from the air.

Cadillac also won the delegates' support for two other parts of his

master plan: first, the setting up of a skills cadre, formed by the

newly-returned Mutes. Aided by wordsmiths from the three bloodlines,

they would draw together everything they had learned about animal

husbandry, crop cultivation and the other occupations which had filled

their working day. The wordsmiths would help to organise this

information into a coherent body of knowledge, and the ex-slaves - who

had already broken through the mental barriers that separated one clan

from another - would become the first generation of itinerant teachers

who would train others to pass on what they had learned, and so the

process would be repeated until all the Plainfolk were versed in the

'New Ways'.

The second proposal involved the election of equal numbers of male and

female delegates to a permanent council which would travel around the

territory held by the Plainfolk, visiting the various clans to bring

them up to 'date with what was happening elsewhere, check on how they

were progressing and settle any disputes that had arisen with their

neighbours.

Cadillac knew that the changes he was trying to introduce were not

going to bring peace and harmony overnight, but when the Second Council

broke up and the delegations departed, he had every reason to feel

satisfied with what had been accomplished. Best of all, he had

established his authority and, despite his youth, had gained the

respect previously accorded to his much-loved teacher, Mr Snow.

Through the late spring and summer, as Roz's child grew within her,

and Sand-Wolf learned first to crawl, then attempted to take his first

faltering steps, Clearwater was never far from her side. Both had now

settled down to life with the Clan M'Kenzi, and had become firm friends

of Magnum-Force, the clan's female wordsmith.

Cadillac, now heavily into his role as the first of The Chosen, was

totally immersed in his twin tasks as head teacher and member of the

roving Plainfolk Council.

Both took him away for weeks at a time, but he had promised faithfully

that he would be at Roz's side during the last month of her pregnancy

from mid-August to mid-September when the baby was due.

All the Plainfolk knew of the eruption - the word that the great

mountain in the West had spoken with a tongue of flame had been passed

around during the gathering at Sioux Falls. Everyone's expectations

had been raised, but Cadillac still had no idea that the Sky Voices had

told Roz she was carrying Talisman.

An inner voice also told her she should pass on the parts of her

medical knowledge that could be usefully applied in a world where there

were no thermometers, stethoscopes or diagnostic instruments of any

kind, no antibiotics, sterile bandages, swabs, IV-drips, scalpels,

suture needles, thread, clamps- in a word, nothing.

Apart from Dream Cap - a narcotic used as a painkiller - all the Mutes

had were herbal remedies to cure sickness, stop infection and heal

wounds. They knew how to set simple bone fractures and amputate limbs,

and there was the occasional shaman, like Mr Snow, who had 'healing

hands', but basically, only the healthy survived. The process of

natural selection.

As a doctor, Roz's primary concern was the coming birth of her child.

Her studies had covered the various stages of pregnancy and childbirth

and it was this, above all, that she wanted to pass on to Clearwater.

All clans had female elders who acted as midwives, but their knowledge

was based on practical experience and observation. It was totally

unscientific and they had very little idea of what happened inside the

womb.

The fact that infant mortality was relatively low and complications few

was entirely due to the basic toughness and physical fitness of female

Mutes.