People of the Lightning(108)
“Yes, Elder,” Tailfeather said with a nod. “Well, it was a curious situation. We were sitting around his fire, eating clams, when he suddenly turned to me and blurted, ‘Did I tell you about Musselwhite?’ I said ‘no,’ and his eyes widened. He leaned toward me and whispered, in that … bizarre … manner he has”—Tailfeather’s mouth puckered distastefully—“he whispered, ‘Musselwhite streaked through those warriors like a Lightning Bird, but not like the one inside Pondwader, that one is too young yet to streak about at all.’” Tailfeather gestured his irritation. Moonsnail caught Kelp’s startled expression before her granddaughter glanced up, saw Moonsnail watching, and forced her face to go blank. Moonsnail lifted a brow, but let it go … for now. Tailfeather continued, “I took the first part to mean that Musselwhite was there, and that she had fought bravely in the battle … but I did not know what to think of the rest.” Tailfeather glanced from elder to elder, hoping one of them understood. Curtains of mist wavered behind him, resembling tiptoeing ghosts. Drops had condensed on the rafters and began to drip. The fire hissed in protest.
Sun Hawk said, “I assume you are correct about Musselwhite’s actions, but as for the rest, I have no idea what Dogtooth meant. Do you, Moonsnail?”
All eyes turned to peer inquisitively at Moonsnail. She shrugged. “None. Dogtooth’s words about Pondwader are completely meaningless to me—” she paused briefly to watch the red creeping up Kelp’s cheeks “—but if Musselwhite was present at the battle, she killed as many as she could. Of that, we may be certain. If Cottonmouth sent those warriors, he will be even more angry when he hears of his losses. He is sure to hunt down Musselwhite, and any of her relatives—”
“If she survived,” Floating Stick said softly. He had fixed his gaze on his sandals, perhaps not wishing to see their expressions when he uttered the words.
Rivercobble and Sun Hawk leaned their heads together and whispered softly, worriedly. No one who knew Musselwhite, or her reputation, would find such a thing easy to believe. She had worked so many miracles in the past, gotten out of so many impossible situations, how could she fail now? Just because she is over four tens of summers, has borne twelve children, and has just suffered devastating losses which certainly must have left her weak and lost inside … Moonsnail’s souls went cold.
“Yes,” Tailfeather agreed. “If she did. As I mentioned, Dogtooth said that there were so many enemy warriors he could not count them. If Musselwhite ran head-to-head with three or four tens of warriors, survival would be unlikely.”
“Hallowed Shining People,” Moonsnail whispered.
If Musselwhite had been killed, Pondwader’s chances dropped to almost zero. Moonsnail’s souls recited the litany of possibilities: Perhaps Seedpod had been able to protect her grandson; maybe Musselwhite had ordered Pondwader to hide in the forest; maybe those warriors had fled at the sight of a Lightning Boy and left him unharmed; and maybe Pondwader was dead, along with everybody else at Windy Cove.
The sudden thought jarred her. “Tailfeather,” Moonsnail asked, “did Dogtooth see any survivors? Anyone at all? How did his Dream end?”
Floating Stick turned anxiously. “Yes, you haven’t said. What was the rest of Dogtooth’s Dream?”
Kelp seemed to be holding her breath. Her dark eyes fastened on Tailfeather’s triangular face. Rivercobble and Sun Hawk had drawn their blanket tightly closed over their frail old chests, and listened quietly. Perhaps at their ages, it required too much energy to get upset—or maybe, after what they had witnessed in their long lives, little could surprise them.
“Again,” Tailfeather said, gesturing awkwardly with his hand. “His words were meaningless to me. He spoke about ‘a little boy turning into Badger and hiding in a badger hole,’ and said that ‘people became spiders and crept through the forest hidden in the shadows.’ Things like that. I am sorry that I can’t recall more of his words, but they bewildered me so much that I—”
“We know,” Floating Stick said with a sigh, “Dogtooth bewilders everyone. He always has.” Then he turned to peer at Moonsnail. “But I think all of his talk about ‘hiding’ means that people did escape. That some of the villagers managed to run into the forest and conceal themselves from the enemy warriors. What do you think?”
Moonsnail frowned. “It sounds reasonable. Rivercobble? Sun Hawk?”
Both old women nodded. Sun Hawk sucked thoughtfully on her lower lip for a time, then said, “Someone almost always survives. We would be shirking our duties to our new relatives if we just assume no one could have.”