People of the Lightning(188)

She dipped a cup of hot pine-needle tea from the boiling basket hanging on the tripod, and checked the leftover strips of raccoon in the wooden bowl at the edge of the coals. The meat steamed. Running her finger around the lip of the bowl, she found the coolest spot, then lifted it and the gourd cup, and rose to her feet.

Pondwader looked up when she walked around the firepit to crouch beside him. Love for her filled his pink eyes. “Thank you, Kelp, but I think it would come right back up. I’m not hungry.”

“I want you to eat,” she said. “You’re skin and bone. Did you starve yourself on the journey north? Did you think it would make you a better warrior?”

He grimaced. “I doubt that anything could do that, Kelp. It’s just not in me.”

“Seagull dung,” she said. “You’re one of the bravest people I know. Now, eat.” She put a hand on his shoulder, and lowered her voice. “Please, try, Pondwader.”

Diamondback gazed at her warmly, as though touched by the affection she showed her brother. He looked so handsome, his turned-up nose and high cheekbones gleaming in the firelight. Kelp smiled at him. Dace had taken the first watch, leaving the three of them to talk, and Kelp appreciated his sacrifice, especially knowing that Dace longed to speak with Pondwader almost as badly as she did.

“She’s right, you know,” Diamondback said. “Remember when you walked into the middle of the battle at Windy Cove, Pondwader? I was awed by your courage.”

Pondwader’s mouth tightened.

Kelp sat down beside her brother and shoved his bowl closer. “Eat,” she ordered.

He sighed, picked up a piece of roasted raccoon, and took a small bite. When he swallowed, he closed his eyes, as if waiting. But it stayed down. He finished the first piece and reached for a second. Relief spread through Kelp.

Diamondback waited until Pondwader had finished the second piece and reached for a third before asking, “Did you get a good look at the village, Pondwader?”

Pondwader frowned. “I never get a good look at anything, Diamondback, but I squinted at every blur on the beach. There were many people in the plaza, laughing. I know because I could hear them.”

“What about the guards? Did you see any?” Diamondback braced his elbows on his knees and fire shadows flowed into the lines in his young forehead.

Pondwader chewed his bite of meat and swallowed it. “No, I—I didn’t. But Musselwhite said there were ‘too many’ guards. On the south side of the village, there is a sand spit that juts out into the water. She told me that six men were stationed there.”

“On the water?” Diamondback said. “That’s odd. Unless Cottonmouth fears—”

“An attack from the ocean, yes. Musselwhite wondered the same thing.”

Kelp shook her head. “I think it’s something else,” she said. “The guards may not be out there looking for enemy warriors at all.” Pondwader and Diamondback peered at her, and she continued. “Don’t you recall Cottonmouth’s Dream? The Lightning Birds are supposed to come in with Hurricane Breather. From out at sea. Maybe he has guards posted to keep a lookout for them—not us.”

“Hallowed Spirits,” Diamondback whispered. “That makes sense.” Diamondback did not move. His gaze remained glued to Kelp’s face.

Pondwader finished his piece of raccoon and cleaned his hands in the sand. “Musselwhite also said that she thought your father would be in the council shelter on the northern side of the village. I went there and saw many people. One man, the man inside the shelter, stayed on the ground the whole time. I couldn’t tell if he were sitting or lying down, but he never got up. And I—I wondered if perhaps he weren’t tied up.”

Hatred, cold and vengeful, rose in Diamondback’s dark eyes. He clenched his fists in his lap, but his voice stayed calm. “If it was my father, and he witnessed my mother’s capture …” Diamondback glared at the wind-blown flames. “My father will find a way of getting out of his bindings. Even if it means dying, he will make sure the men who hurt her suffer for what they did.”

Kelp said, “He loves her that much?”

“More than I could ever tell you,” Diamondback replied. “I have been with the two of them on war walks and seen them rush headlong into certain death to save the other. It’s … unfathomable. And wonderful.” Admiration touched his voice. “When she loves, she loves with all of her souls.”

“Yes,” Pondwader murmured. “She does.”

Diamondback tossed another branch onto the fire and the flames crackled, sending a whirl of sparks whirling upward into the swaying tree boughs. In a tender tone, he said, “She treats her children the same way. The entire world could have withered and died, but not her love for us. It was the one constant in our lives. The only thing we could depend on.”