People of the Lakes(241)
“Hello, Silver Water,” Hollow Drill greeted, dropping to one knee. “You’re every bit as beautiful as your mother.”
Silver Water nodded, clearly unconvinced.
“What’s happened to you?” Star Shell’s nervous fingers picked at his clothing. “You look as though you haven’t eaten.
Why did you point me in this direction? Isn’t my brother feeding you? You haven’t been sick, have you?” “Only in my heart,” he said gently, standing and taking her hands in his. Looking into his eyes, she could see torment just beneath the surface. His skin looked ashen and cold.
“What is it, Father?”
“Robin, the Blue Duck war leader, came here. Looking for you, of course. We came very close to a war with the clans in the Moonshell valley.” He clasped her to him, patting her anxiously.
“The ancestors help me, I’ve been so worried about you.
Frightened. And at night, your mother’s ghost is near. She’s trying to tell me something. She seems angry, wailing, but I … I can’t quite understand.”
“I’m all right, Father.” She held him, aware of bones where muscle had once been. “You need to go back. Finish with the earthwork planning. I’ll wait at the house. We’ll—”
“No. You can’t.” He pushed away, blinking at tears and sniffling. “It’s too dangerous for you here. I’ve got to hide you somewhere. Let’s see. Maybe among your mother’s clan, down on the—”
“Father!”
He raised his hands, the gesture more for himself than for her. “Daughter, people are afraid. Afraid of you and the Mask and of what it might mean for them. You must leave here. Go to safety. Your mother’s clan will take you in. They’re—”
“They’re a moon’s walk to the south! I have to go north, Father.”
He frowned, confused. “North? We don’t have any relatives up that way.”
“I know. It’s my responsibility to take the Mask to the Roar562 Kathleen O’Neal Gear and W. Michael ‘ Water. You heard Tall Man’s words the night of Mother’s cremation. Don’t you remember?”
He nodded, looking miserable.
“I just wanted to let you know that I was alive, to spend one night with—” i
“No, child. It’s too dangerous.”
“This is my home!”
He lowered his eyes.
She knotted her fists, frustrated with the whole miserable mess. “I should have known. No matter which way I turn, there’s nothing left, no place to go.”
“I’m so sorry. I … I’ll come with you. Join you. Help you to—”
“No, Father.” She steeled herself. “But you can do something for me. Take Silver Water. Keep her safe.” ‘
“Mama?” Silver Water asked, bending her head up to stare with fear-wide eyes. >
“Tadpole, it’s the best thing I can think of. That’s why we \
came here. Your grandfather can—”
“Do nothing,” Hollow Drill interrupted dully. “She’s a member of your husband’s lineage. Her clan is Sun Mounds, daughter—not Starsky. They’ll discover that she’s here with me. I would do anything I could, but you know that her people will ask for her. They’ll consider her abandoned, an orphan.”
“They won’t have to know who she is! She’s just a little girl!
Send her to cousin Slow Foot. He lives out on that farmstead all by himself. Who’d know?”
Hollow Drill frowned. “You’re not thinking clearly, daughter.
Are you that desperate? Think, girl! You’re at the center of | the biggest storm to blow across this land in generations. In the last moon, the Many Paints have gone to war against the Rattlesnakes.
Evidently they’re going to settle that old territorial \ feud in blood. The story is that trophy heads are being taken.
Like circling hawks, everyone is watching the Starsky Clan: | Silver Water will be seen. Perhaps. not immediately, but certainly within a moon. Someone will notice an extra little girl— even at Slow Foot’s. They will tell someone else, and the \ speculation will begin. You know where it will end.”
Star Shell shook her head, refusing to believe. “I must find | a place to keep her safe.” “Now do you understand?” Tall Man asked as he stepped forward. “I did not take the back trails by accident. Your father is quite right. There is no safe place. As long as the Mask is abroad, men will not rest.”
Star Shell searched her father’s face, looking for any sign of salvation—and saw only wretched sadness in those haunted brown eyes.