You don’t know Joe like I do. He’s got resources he can call on. Ones he couldn’t use when he was trying to be diplomatic.

Diplomatic? I repeat, remembering the things Joe told the war chief earlier.

Yeah, diplomatic. The one on one was for the benefit of the army. But now the army’s gone and Joe doesn’t have to play fair anymore. I figure he’s about to let Minisino see his real face . . .

I have no idea what Jack’s talking about, but then I look back at where the pair of them are facing off. There’s something wrong here. Minisino had towered over Joe, but now they’re about the same size. No, Joe’s bigger, and he’s still getting bigger as I watch.

I sense the crackle of power in the air—an old, dark power.

“Joe,” Raven says.

There’s a warning in his voice, but he sounds nervous, too. I look at Walker and Ayabe and they’re both backing up a little. Walker motions to the humans for them to move further back as well.

What the hell’s going on here? I ask Jack.

Joe’s a bit of a wild card, Jack says. Everybody talks about him being the clown crow dog. They point at his mixed blood, like it makes him less, but it only makes him more.

I still don’t get it.

Joe’s got something old inside him, something that came down from the long ago through the mixed blood of a red dog and a black crow. Wake it up too much and you could have some serious world-shaking on your hands.

But—

Yeah, I know. Look at him most of the time and he’s just some raggedy cousin with crazy eyes. But it’s like all the old powers.

He starts counting them off on his fingers. Raven and Ayabe here. Cody and Grandmother Toad. Old Man Hummingbird and you don’t want to forget Turtle, who bears the weight of us all. They don’t walk around with that old power hanging from them like a cloak for anybody to see, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

I remember that moment in Raven’s study, when he was suddenly more.

And the thing is, Jack adds, if Joe plays this right, he doesn’t even have to kill Minisino. He just needs to take it to where that cerva knows that he’d better be walking the straight and narrow in the future, or he’ll have that on his ass, looking for the reason why.

He nods with his chin, and I look over to see that Joe’s the one towering over Minisino now.