Chapter 18Out of nowhere a small old woman grasped me by the arm, directing a flurry of words at Grady.
“This is the shaman, Red Woman,” he said. “She said you can get changed in her teepee as the one you’ll be staying in isn’t quite ready. The captain and the chief might be a while, once they get gabbing…” he shrugged and walked off toward a group of solemn looking men. The old woman bobbed and smiled a toothless grin as she tugged me along, and I found myself smiling back. Her hair was neatly braided, and there were some beads and bones bound by a leather thong, just behind her ear.
She could have been anywhere between sixty and a hundred, considering the wrinkles that lined her face, but her eyes were bright and merry as she chatted away at me. I respected that the tribe chose to use
