‘No. It is the one the Trickster desires you to call. Do you not remember him whispering to you from his prison of rock when you faltered in your plans that day?’

Sam said nothing but Calvin took his silence as affirmative.

‘He is powerless in the rock but he can see and hear and sometimes reach out his black jester’s fingers. And he wanted you so badly to call that which you did.’

‘Why, Calvin? I am lost.’

The shaman sighed. ‘I know, my son. That is why I am here. If you are lost when he faces you then we are all lost.’ The fire sparked as if in agreement and Calvin’s voice became eager. ‘He is a fool. He thinks that if you call that which cannot be contained he will enter you when it takes its leave. Then he would be spirit and shaman-flesh, and his evil would know no boundary. The Isksaksin is his boundary. The line he cannot cross.’

‘Why then do we call up such a demon that could release him?’

Calvin put a finger to his lips. ‘You have seen why with your spirit, Hunting Wolf. We must not speak it. He is the Trickster that must be tricked.’

Sam stared at him in confusion. ‘I do not understand.’

‘You do. You will. When it is time.’

Sam buried his head in his hands, exhausted and broken.

‘Listen to me, Hunting Wolf,’ Calvin said sharply.

Sam looked up, imploring Calvin with eyes that were both desperate and respectful. ‘I am listening, Soaring Eagle. Tell me of my father.’

Calvin’s heart soared like his spirit guide’s name and he looked across at Sam with love. ‘It left him after the blackness took you. I came into the room as it was wreaking its revenge on the body that had let it come this far. You know what it did. The carnage covered you with its mark. You were like a hunter who has spent the night in the carcass of a slaughtered caribou for warmth, no part of you not bathed in your father’s blood. But it was not at your hand. It was under the vengeful talons of that which Moses called.

‘I saw it and thought I would die at the sight. When it turned its great filthy bulk to regard me in the doorway I thought I would never be sane again. But then it turned away and raged harmlessly over your unconscious body, screaming like a tortured soul as its power dissipated and it faded from the room like mist. Then you woke.’

Sam swallowed, remembering that awakening.