People of the Lakes(321)
Star Shell had backed yet another step away. “I don’t believe any of this.”
Pale Snake pointed at the Mask pack. “Do you think the Mask did it? Fool, the only reason Mica Bird went crazy was that he wasn’t strong enough. He wasn’t prepared. You have to learn how to exist with Power before you can use it. A stripling boy can’t just pick up the Mask and see through a great Spirit’s eyes. He’ll go mad!”
“Why didn’t Tall Man look through it? He knew the ways of Power.”
“Because he was using the Mask. Blaming everything on it, covering the tracks of his own evil! Power isn’t evil, any more than it’s good. Human beings, people, are either—” He jerked away, staring upriver. “No! Not yet! I’m not through!”
Star Shell turned, and her breath caught in her throat. Up the channel, four canoes rounded the bend.
“Silver Water!” Pale Snake shouted, waving his hands.
Star Shell watched as her daughter came trotting back, a grin on her face.
“Into the canoe, sister,” Pale Snake ordered grimly. “I’ll do what I can. Quickly, paddle like you’ve never paddled before.
That, or Robin will be roasting your pretty intestines before sunset. I’ll earn you as much time as possible, but save the Mask And yourself, if you can.”
“Save it? Save it! I came here to destroy it!”
“Don’t! Now go. Hurry!”
As Silver Water clambered in, Pale Snake shoved the canoe into the current, pointing to the west. “Take that channel. It’s shorter. They haven’t seen you yet. Stay close to the bank until you’re out of sight.”
Star Shell paddled frantically, barely taking time to look back.
Her last image was of Pale Snake, his feet braced in the water, shoulders squared as he awaited the coming of the Blue Duck warriors.
In desperation, she paddled closer to the overgrown bank, struggling against the tears of disbelief that shimmered in her eyes. Incest? Not me … not me!
“Mama?”
“Hush, baby. We have to run now. We have to save ourselves.”
Unless, of course, it was already too late.
The canoes shot across the calm surface of the Roaring Water River, their V-shaped bow wakes mingling as they passed in stealthy silence. Robin rode in the bow of the Ilini canoe, scanning the tree-covered banks as he paddled.
Uneasy glances were cast back and forth by his warriors. It was one thing to talk about the Roaring Water, another to be driving down upon it. The race, however, had grown desperate.
Star Shell might already be at the falls, and even as he thought about it, she might be casting the Mask out, over the edge, to fall into the depths below.
And if that’s the case, I shall make her die a thousand deaths.
” Paddle!” he ordered. ” Harder!”
The men strained, as they had already been doing throughout the long day. How could the woman have made it this far?
Unless she knew how close he was. Perhaps they’d glimpsed his pursuit and traveled all night. Or had they enlisted others to paddle?
He paused long enough to touch the sets of human mandibles that he wore for a breastplate. Star Shell’s would be there soon.
Mask or no Mask..
A warrior called, “Leader? Which way?”
Robin lifted his head to study the split in the channel. He barely noticed the man standing on the beach—a fisherman, no doubt, someone from the settlements. Then he gave the man a second look. He’d know the way.
Before Robin could draw a breath, the man on the beach cupped his hands around his mouth, the strong voice carrying across the water: “Robin, War Leader of Blue Duck Clan!
Heave to!”
Robin rose, balancing, shouting back. “Who are you? How do you know me?”
“I am Pale Snake! A sorcerer of the Serpent Society! A warrior who fights for Many Colored Crow! I bear you a message from the Dark Twin. Turn back, you men of Blue Duck Clan.
Those who pass this point will never return. Your death will be followed by an eternity of wailing, your ghosts trapped beneath the Roaring Waters. You will hear only the pounding roar beating you down and down into the darkness … forever!”
Robin chuckled over the sudden uncertain buzzing of his warriors.
“A sorcerer, you say?” They’d coasted in toward the shore, the men backwatering to hold them in place. “The last sorcerer we dealt with screamed for hours while we cooked his guts in boiling water.”
“Tall Man’s ghost told me!” Pale Snake called grimly. “But did you know that he was dying? Already possessed of an evil that was eating his insides? Do you think you caught him by accident, Robin? He went to you, knowing full well what you intended to do.”