“You have everything to do with it,” I say. “But then you don’t own up to your mistakes, do you? Any more than you take the time to think a thing through before you set it into motion.”

The blind gaze stays on mine, leaving me with the disconcerting impression that he can actually see me.

“After all these years,” he says, “you still know nothing about me. My clan is the clan of wisdom, and what you took from me was the ability to study the ancient texts as they are laid out in the Yisual patterns of the world. I can feel them, but thanks to you, I can’t see them.”

“No,” I tell him. “Salmon are the clan of knowledge, not wisdom. It’s easy to acquire information. Wisdom comes from knowing how to use that information. So using me as the reason you stayed stupid is no excuse.”

If his voice was stiff earlier, now it’s positively frosty.

“I don’t make excuses,” he says. “Just as nothing I do is unplanned. If I’d wanted to orchestrate a war, I could have easily done it. But this nonsense the cerva have put into motion is their own doing, not mine.”

I don’t know if he’s trying to convince himself or me, but I’m not buying it. One thing with cousins: we know the connectedness of everything, so it’s easy to see where one thing begins or another ends. He might be blind, but he shouldn’t be blind to that.

“However it got started,” I tell him. “I have to stop this thing.”

“Since when are buffalo your concern?”

“A friend asked me to help. Besides, it’s what I do.”

“You stop wars,” he says, sarcasm thick in his voice.

“No, I try to help people. It’s just usually not on such a large scale.”

“Like you helped me.”

I just look at him for a long moment.

“We both know how that really went down,” I say finally. “And I take responsibility for it. But you’ve either got to let it go, or we really have to deal with it here and now. Today.”

“What about your mission?”

He’s good with the sarcasm, I’ll give him that. Just the right sneer of superiority in his voice. But I’m not going to play into it, and I decide to take what he’s saying at face value.

“Why would you care?” I ask.

“What makes you think I do?”

I sigh. “We’re not high school kids, Odawa, so can’t we let go of the posturing here for just a minute? I need to talk to Raven, to see if he’ll help stop the buffalo. Will you let me do that before we finish this business between us? The Grace knows, you’ve waited long enough that another few minutes shouldn’t kill you.”