People of the Lakes(326)

Good luck, Star Shell. Blessed Spirits, I pray you live.

But the Mask … If that Power object went over the falls, he’d know. He’d feel its terror in his soul.

I told you the truth. Star Shell. He pushed through the brush, found a faint trail back into the trees and broke into a run … The truth. No matter how much it hurts us.

The hollow rapping of the pileated woodpecker echoed through the forest.

Is this it?” Grizzly Tooth scanned the silent forest on either side. Ahead, he could see what appeared to be another channel.

“Maybe this land off to the right is an island?”

“Perhaps so.” Wolf of the Dead glanced around uneasily.

“For the time being, I’m more than happy to be off that accursed sea. Water is meant to have banks around it!”

“Tell that to the warriors who drowned,” Grizzly Tooth answered.

“At least this time we had the sense to follow the shoreline.” “We’re close,” Wolf of the Dead said soothingly. And why shouldn’t he expect his people to be short-tempered? They’d been gone for almost three moons, and for what? Nine out of ten of his warriors had drowned or were missing. They’d tramped, fought mosquitoes and ticks, sweated in the sun, shivered in the rain, and felt their souls quake as they crossed yet another immense body of water in narrow war craft that could scarcely withstand whitecaps on a river, let alone storms on great seas.

“Will they be here?” Grizzly Tooth asked. “What if they’ve come and gone?”

That same fear had echoed hollowly in Wolf of the Dead. “I have faith.”

But the problem with faith was that it could crumble like sun dried sand when any pressure was placed on it. “If they’re not here, we’ll rest for a couple of days, fish and recuperate. If they haven’t arrived in ten days, we will paddle back upriver and raid those settlements we passed. Acquire supplies, and perhaps a few women to amuse us as we travel.”

“And what do you have in mind?” Grizzly Tooth continued his inspection of the banks as the rivers joined and the channel bore them straight into the west. The direction of home.

Wolf of the Dead rested his paddle across his lap. “Consider this. Several portages lie south of this lake. Follow the rivers, portage across the headwaters, and you end up flush in the middle of the Serpent Clans. They have a great deal of wealth—

just waiting to be plundered.”

“And I’ll remind you that the last time we tried that, they sent your father and his warriors home—whipped!”

“But they knew we were coming,” Wolf of the Dead objected.

“Every Trader on the river had heard of my father’s plans. Word ran like fire through dry grass, pushed by the west wind. No, my friend. This time we drop out of the north with no warning. We’ll be among them before they know it. We loot their clan houses, take their clan leaders and society chiefs as hostages, and we’re gone, flying downstream to the Serpent River. There we raid the holdings, and we return home with such wealth as has never been seen. The reputation of the Khota will be restored, my friend. No one, no one will ever have committed a raid of such devastation. Traders will be talking about it for … for generations!”

Grizzly Tooth lifted his chin, rubbing his throat thoughtfully.

“As long as we don’t get too greedy, weight down the canoes with booty, it might work.”

“It will work!”

“Is it my imagination, or is the channel running faster here?”

Grizzly Tooth peered nervously over the side of the canoe.

Wolf of the Dead craned his neck, letting his practiced eye study the roiling river water. “Faster. Look, you can see it in the current, as if the river itself is growing excited.”

Grizzly Tooth paddled warily, studying the surface, seeking the better channel. “I think we should—” He gaped.

“What? What do you see?” Wolf of the Dead rose, warily searching for a snag.

“Put in!” Grizzly Tooth cried. “There, that canoe. Do you see it?”

“Yes, but I—”

“It has a keel … a keel"

Wolf of the Dead stared at the beached canoe, lying canted away from the river. The long keel ran the entire length of the hull.

“Land there! Warriors, prepare yourselves! Be ready!” And Wolf of the Dead strangled his desire to whoop. He would have Pearl now. Her and the Water Fox! And when he’d finished, he’d still swoop down on the Serpent Clans and deal them a blow they’d never forget!

Black Skull raced down the bank, bursting through brush, leaping deadfall. From the corner of his eye, he’d seen the canoe dash over a rock, spin around in the wash and flip end over end, spilling the woman and her little girl into the raging white water.