Her spirited eyes flashed. “Do you attribute everything to a mercenary motive?”
“When he’s concerned, yes.”
“He saved my life that first time at the Blue Duck Clan when Robin would have killed me.”
“Of course. You were his escort into Sun Mounds.”
She shook her head in disgust and turned away. “What about yourself, sorcerer? You’ve heard about me, so what about you?
Did you ever love, Pale Snake? Or do you just brag about it with Stone Wrist?”
She’d discovered a subject that could drive his thoughts completely away from the allure of her body. He paddled for a time, aware of the challenging stare she shot over her shoulder.
“Yes, I loved. It was after my father and I had parted company at the Serpent—at the earthwork where the society keeps its grounds and secret artifacts.” “Viper clan grounds,” she said.
“Yes, you know of the place then. The final fight we had was rather spectacular. I’d come to know him for what he was, conniving, sneaky, lustful. I went home, having vowed to have nothing to do with him anymore. I moved in with my mother’s people, saying little, conducting a Healing now and then. I was young, and Power ran strongly in my blood. The news of my skill and ability began to spread, and people came from all over to see me.”
You don’t want to do this. It’s just picking a scab off an unhealed wound. But he kept talking, absently aware that he wasn’t going to stop.
“The first time I saw her, my heart leaped. She was small, with long black hair that hung like a mantle down past her knees. And when she turned and looked at me, her eyes shone with an impish sparkle. She didn’t have your classic beauty, but a more petite charm, as if she were a doll, to be cherished and held.
“I was entranced, totally and helplessly. And she, of course, saw me as a promising young man who could provide her with everything her clan couldn’t. She came from down south of the Serpent River, having traveled north with her father to visit relatives —and, of course, to seek a husband. My mother’s lineage was important among the Many Paints, and her father saw it as the perfect solution to both his daughter problem—he had seven of them, she the oldest—and a way to align his clan with the Paints.” “Did she love you?” Silver Water asked from where she lay on a pack, watching him, her chin propped on her hands.
“At first maybe. I don’t know. I was young, and deadly serious about what I was doing. Mostly, what I was doing was rising in popularity among the Many Paints. I supervised the lineage labor during the building of the outer square of the enclosure.”
“To be placed in charge of labor indicates a great deal of respect,” Star Shell said. “My father was doing that the last time I saw him.”
“Yes, a great deal of respect.” Pale Snake remembered the fresh dirt they had piled up, basket-load upon basket-load, along the creek terrace. He’d climbed the ridge to the north with the clan leaders, looking down on the finished work, where the great central mound and the society houses had been laid out in perfect order.
A time to be proud of.
“And then Tall Man came?”
Star Shell’s question shook him from his thoughts. “How could he ignore me? My fame and reputation were expanding.
The new, young leader among the Many Paints! And I was doing it on my own. Almost in spite of him.”
“Why didn’t you throw him out when he showed up?”
“When he arrived, I was gone … to my wife’s clan to perform a Healing. She was pregnant with our first child, and it was my thought that she shouldn’t risk traveling. Silly of me now that I think about it, for that was my second mistake.”
“And your first?”
“Not telling her about my father and what a slime he was.
You see, I thought that such things were between a man and his son and not the business of other people. My mother knew, but since she herself had once fallen prey to him, she didn’t like bringing it up and reminding herself. Perhaps I got that trait from her.
“Be that as it may, Tall Man arrived at our farmstead in a driving rain, and my innocent wife took him in. To be sure, he was his charming and delightful self—all the time feeding her teas and herbals, which to this day I credit with causing her miscarriage. He, of course, was there, kind, thoughtful, exploiting the fact that I was far away in her time of need.”
“And your mother?” Star Shell asked. She’d picked up her paddle, causing curls to spin backward in the -water as she helped to propel them downstream.
“After some days, one of my cousins mentioned that Tall Man was at my farmstead—but since she, too, gave him more credit than he was due, she considered him simply solicitous of my wife’s condition.”