She swallowed hard, unable to tear her gaze from his. “Tall Man said that he’d met a woman, the most wondrous of women.
She came to a Healing. He … he fell in love with her, went to a place he knew she’d be and offered his love. She told him no, that she could love only her husband.”
“And then what did he do?” “He said that he used Power to take her. That he made charms so that when he coupled with her, she Dreamed that it was her husband who had entered her. He said he did that whenever he could, and that she never knew.”
“He usually told them eventually. Why didn’t he tell her?”
Her heart had begun to race, her blood fearful in her veins.
“He said that he had truly loved her and could not have endured seeing hatred for him in her eyes. And then … then she died.”
The words came tumbling out of her, rushing like the river toward a torrential plunge into chaos. “Her ghost, it knew what he’d done. He said that he was trying to atone, to lessen the ghost’s anger by helping me to remove the Mask of Many Colored Crow. He said that he’d be doing a great good for the woman … that by helping me, perhaps he’d earn her forgiveness for the evil he’d done.”
Pale Snake’s hands tightened on her shoulders, and Star Shell bit back a cry at the pain. “Did he tell you her name? The woman’s name, Star Shell!”
“No … just that she’d recently died.”
Pale Snake’s throat worked, as if convulsively. “Where … where did you meet Tall Man? When?”
A fist seemed to close about her throat and choke off her air.
“No! No! It can’t?..”
The corners of Pale Snake’s mouth turned down. “Did he mention any Healing at that time? Any that your mother might have … “
Star Shell closed her eyes, nodding. She remembered … back to the time just before the carved stone tablet was offered. Now she wanted to fall, to crumple down onto the wet sand and die.
Mother? He … did that to you?
“Star Shell.” Pale Snake’s voice brought her back from the gray abyss. “I see the trap now. It’s not Silver Water.” He turned loose her shoulders, looking curiously broken. “I thought he’d had you after all. You, the most beautiful woman alive, would have been ripe for him.”
He balled a fist, watching the tendons leap in his wrist as the muscles swelled. “I thought he’d charmed you, taken you. And in spite of that, I would still have loved you. Made you my wife. I would have known that Silver Water was his daughter, and I would still have loved her, helped her to become the great Dreamer that she will someday be.”
“What?” Star Shell cried. “Silver Water? His … You’ve lost any sense you might have had!”
He shook his head, and grief welled in his eyes. “No, he never took you, Star Shell. He wouldn’t. But the desire he must have felt for you gave him the idea to trap me. Or perhaps it was the crime that you were committing with my idiot brother, Greets the Sun.”
“What crime?” Star Shell backed away as quickly as she’d pursued.
“Tall Man wanted you to leave Greets the Sun, didn’t he?”
Pale Snake glared at her. “He did anything to get you to leave, didn’t he? Even coaxed Silver Water to talk to the Mask that night. He knew that would break you away from Greets the Sun!”
“What are you talking about!”
His lips curled.. “Incest, Star Shell.”
Words strangled themselves in her confusion.
Pale Snake’s smile soured. “He loved your mother. To have charmed her that way, he must have been obsessed by her. He would have planted a child within her, Star Shell. He conceived you. And when your mother died, he went to you, to save you from Mica Bird’s mad rages.”
“You … you’re as mad as Tall Man!” Incest? She felt dazed and directionless. Incest? Of all the horrible crimes … “No, Star Shell. I’m just another of his victims, like your mother, like you. I’m sure that in his desperation, he really thought that your mother, the fine woman that I’m sure she was, might truly forgive him if he saved you.” Pale Snake closed his eyes, and tears began to leak down his cheeks. “He didn’t send you to me until he knew that his death was close at hand.”
She shook her head dully. None of this could be true. None of it!
“He knew then. There, on the verge of death, he knew that she’d be shrieking her hatred and anger for what he’d done. So he sent you to me. I was there, in the right place, and he took the gamble that I would feel sorry for you and help you, because I would believe you to be one of his many victims. I don’t know if he planned that you—my sister—and I would commit incest, or whether in the last moments, he knew only that I would save you. It doesn’t matter. He certainly knew that I would love you.”