Her grip tightened on his hand. “That’s what I’d do.”
“Well,” he replied reasonably, “if they do, we won’t have to solve all of these hard problems for High Matron Weyra.”
Baji lay for a moment, not certain what to say. It was the first time he’d ever sounded so casual about his own life. She didn’t like it. She released his hand and rearranged herself into a cross-legged position at his side, looking down at him. Her long hair fell forward in a black torrent. “Do not ever speak to me so offhandedly about your death again, or I’ll—”
“Beat me to death to spite me?”
“Don’t joke.”
He laughed softly and forcefully took her hand again, though she tried to pull it away. “Let me hold it. Until your head wound is better it’s one of the few things I can touch.”
She smiled and yielded. As he stroked her fingers, she said, “I think you need to remember the lessons Wakdanek taught you.”
“Wakdanek? The Dawnland Healer? There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about him.” His deep voice turned soft, like cattail down against the skin. “He told me that everything in the world is related. People, animals, trees, stones, the Faces of the Forest, the Cloud People. We are all One. I remember Wakdanek telling Sindak that every time he placed his fingers upon a branch, the tree recognized him, and that if he listened he could hear the tree calling his name, trying to reach across the gulf that separated them to touch his heart.”
“What did Sindak say?”
“He said that was usually when the first blow landed.”
Baji chuckled. “That sounds like Sindak.”
“Yes.” Sky Messenger seemed to be lost in memories, smiling sadly. He caressed her hand. “Wakdanek also said that because all things are related, we must name our enemies carefully, because killing the enemy has only one outcome: We kill a part of our own soul. And by doing so, we cripple the world itself.”
Baji laced her fingers with his and squeezed hard to get his full attention. When his gaze focused on her, she asked, “Do you believe him?”
“With all my heart.”
“Then you must carry his words with you when you enter Shookas Village.”
He stroked her hair. “I will. Thank you for helping me, Baji.”
In a quiet voice, she answered, “That’s why I’m here.”
Twenty-six
The scent of hickory smoke filled the council house in Atotarho Village. A round structure forty paces across, it had been constructed of log saplings and roofed with elm bark. Six rings of wooden benches encircled the central fire. High Matron Kelek restlessly paced from one side of the house to the other, moving through the flickering firelight like a lone ghost.
Hadui buffeted the walls, rushing between the bark slabs and banging the sacred False Face masks that hung around the house. On occasion, he whistled or whimpered through their contorted mouths.
Kelek drew her long buckskin cape closed beneath her wrinkled chin and tried to keep her eyes off the large mask that hung to her left. The old stories said it had been created by Hadui himself. Called He-of-Divided-Body, the mask seemed to be trying to get her attention; its shell-inlaid eye sockets flashed, while a soft eerie hooting erupted from its mouth. He-of-Divided-Body was a Powerful Spirit. During the Creation, Hadui had traveled to a place where lay the body of a freshly dead human, and exclaimed, “Come, you who are my brother,” then he’d bent down and divided the corpse in half. Taking up one half of the cold flesh, he’d conjoined it with half of his own Spirit body, and the two halves had become one. As a result, one half of the mask’s head was covered with white human hair and the other half glistened with Hadui’s coal black hair. He-of-Divided-Body was a creature of life and death, human and supernatural, of death and Requickening. One half of his face was red, the other black. He had chosen to live forever on the earth in the forests, so that he could help human beings in time of need.
Kelek refused to face him. Instead, she turned her attention to the door, watching for Little Matron Adusha. Adusha led the Bear Clan in Turtleback Village. Scouts had seen her hurrying up the southern trail with two guards. Kelek had ordered that she be escorted to the council house when she arrived, but that had been more than one-half hand of time ago. What was taking so long?
He-of-Divided-Body let out a long shrill wail that chilled Kelek’s blood. As though to emphasize his words, he shuddered violently, battering the wall. She looked around. Every mask seemed to be rocking back and forth, as if ready to leap from the walls and pounce upon her elderly body in punishment for her crimes.