People of the Longhouse(101)
Softly, Gannajero ordered, “Tear their packs off their backs. Get everything loaded in the canoes, along with the children.”
“But what about the men? They’re sick. Shouldn’t we try to—”
“Bring only the men who didn’t eat from the pot. Leave the others.”
She tramped away across the camp, shouldering between laughing warriors, heading for the canoes, wondering who’d done it. A rival Trader in the camp? Or one of her own men? A traitor who wanted everything for himself? It wouldn’t be the first time she’d been betrayed by one of her own.
Gannajero’s gaze involuntarily slid to the northern hill. “Isn’t that right, Brother?”
She had to clench her fists to keep from shaking as she hurried for the landing.
Forty-three
Koracoo clutched CorpseEye in both hands and chased after Tutelo and the other girl, Baji. Baji was leading Tutelo at a dead run through the towering pines, sticking to paths choked with brush and no wider than the span of her own girlish shoulders, which made it tough for adults to follow her. The girl thought like a warrior.
Koracoo kept catching glimpses of their dresses, and thrashed after them. She battered her way through a thicket of nannybushes and charged ahead. Behind her, she heard Sindak curse as he followed.
“Tutelo?” she called loud enough her daughter might hear her, but not so loud the warriors in camp would. “Wait!”
As she ran, Koracoo shoved aside the fact that Sindak had disobeyed her order to stay behind. Between the weave of trunks, she saw warriors moving, heading for the clearing where Gonda and the others had been. They would, of course, be gone by now, headed for the overlook hill to wait for her arrival. But the warriors would go crazy when they found their dead friends. The hunt would be on. And there were so many of them.
A horrifying cry rent the night. Koracoo jerked to look.
At the western edge of camp, a boy had broken free and was making a run for it. Two warriors chased him, cursing at the tops of their lungs. In less than twenty paces, the lead warrior tackled him and knocked him to the ground. The enraged scream split the darkness. He fought wildly, biting and kicking until the big warrior clubbed him senseless. The man dragged the boy to his feet and hauled him, stumbling drunkenly, back to the other children, where he roped him to the line.
When the boy lifted his head, Koracoo saw his face … . Wrass. At least she thought it was Wrass. He’d been beaten so badly it was impossible to tell for—
“Koracoo, there! To the right,” Sindak said.
She tugged her gaze back to the forest and glimpsed flashes of copper slipping behind the bare branches of an elderberry shrub forty paces ahead.
“Tutelo! Stop running!”
There was a moment of shocked silence; then her daughter called, “Mother? … Mother! Baji stop! Let me go! That’s my mother!”
“It’s a trick, Tutelo. We can’t stop!” Baji shouted.
Koracoo leaped a fallen log, rounded the edge of the elderberries, and ran flat-out for the girls. They were now ten paces ahead. Baji was still dragging Tutelo by the hand, trying to get away, while Tutelo tugged as hard as she could to make her stop.
“Baji, let me go! Please, that’s my mother!”
Koracoo called, “Tutelo, I’m here. I’m right here! Baji, please stop!”
Baji finally whirled around to look, saw Koracoo, and her eyes narrowed uncertainly. Tutelo dropped to the ground and started wrenching to get her hand free of Baji’s grip. “That’s my mother! It really is!”
Baji released Tutelo. As Tutelo struggled to her feet, Koracoo ran forward, grabbed Tutelo, and hugged her hard. “It’s all right. I’ve got you.”
Tutelo wept, “Oh, Mother, Mother,” and buried her face in the hollow of Koracoo’s throat. “Odion said you were coming. He knew you’d come for us!”
“Of course, Tutelo.”
When Koracoo looked up, she saw Baji eyeing Sindak with murderous intent. The girl looked like she was on the verge of running away again.
Baji said, “You’re not Standing Stone. You’re Hills. You’re the sworn enemy of the Standing Stone People.”
“Yes, I am,” Sindak replied. He slowly spread his arms as though in surrender. “But not today. My name is Sindak. I’m a friend to Tutelo’s parents.”
Koracoo rose to her feet, holding CorpseEye in one hand and Tutelo’s fingers in the other. “Gannajero’s warriors are on their way, Baji. We have to—”
Sindak glimpsed the man silently running toward them, his body flashing between the trees, but before he realized it was not Gonda or … a crazed Dawnland warrior rushed out of the trees with his war club raised, crying, “You Standing Stone filth! I’m going to kill you!” and charged.