“We backed off pretty quick, you bet—and we told the foreman we weren’t gonna dig there. He got hot; called the boss on the cellular. The boss said we by god were gonna dig, and what was more, we were gonna burn the stuff we found or throw it in the river and not say anything about it.” He gritted his teeth, and it didn’t take a shaman to sense his anger. “He said if we told anybody, there’d be people from the college and everything coming in and stopping work.”

She grimaced. “And you were mad—”

“I wasn’t the only one!” he said. “We started arguing, and we even got the white guys on our side. I was just about to see if I couldn’t sneak off and like, call the college or something, just to delay things, when—” He shrugged.

She sat silent for a moment. “So, what do you think happened to cause that?” she asked cautiously.

“Well—I thought it was just faulty equipment, but the guys said it was sabotage. My brains say somebody probably planted a bomb in the dozer, and god only knows why.” He shook his head. “Nut cases, who can tell, with them? But my gut—”

She noticed he was sweating, and she knew why.

“—you know, I am really glad you’re the Medicine Woman and all,” he said, and he sounded genuinely grateful. “Anybody else would laugh at me for this, but—my gut says it happened because the Little People are after his ass, and they kind of got us because we were involved. You know how they are.”

She did, indeed, know how They were. Mi-ah-luschka had a mixed reputation. Vindictive, vicious at times. “You didn’t hear any—owls—did you?” she asked. “Just before the explosion?” The mi-ah-luschka, the Little People, often took the form of owls.…

“Not that I’d noticed, but I wasn’t noticing a lot except the fight between the foreman and the other dozer driver.” He sighed. “That’s why I’d really appreciate it if your grandfather could get on over here, you know?”

“Oh, I know,” she assured him. “Uh—wait a minute, let me check on something—”

She dug into her purse, vaguely remembering that trip to Lyon’s and the one to Peace Of Mind earlier this afternoon. Some things she always had with her, of course, but others she didn’t necessarily take with her all the time. She’d picked up some herbs for herself and Grandfather, as well as the goodies for her father. Had she taken the packages out of her purse yet?

No!

“Would you accept a Medicine Woman instead of a Medicine Man?” she asked him carefully. “I won’t be offended if you’d rather it was Grandfather.”