People of the Longhouse(102)

Sindak shouted, “Koracoo, get down!”

She dove for both girls, dragged them to the ground, and covered them with her own body as Sindak raced by her to block the blow meant for Koracoo’s spine. The crack of their war clubs sounded thunderous.

The enemy warrior roared, shoved Sindak away, and swung with all his might. Sindak ducked under the whirring war club, skipped sideways, and with all his strength brought his own club around to bash the man in the back of the head. The warrior reeled forward, weeping and mumbling. Sindak hit him again, and he collapsed to the ground.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s get out of here! There’s no telling how many more survivors there are out here who want to kill us.”

Koracoo leaped to her feet, hauled both girls up, and ordered, “We have to run hard.”





Forty-four

Three hands of time later, they crouched around a tiny fire in the dark depths of a narrow valley that cleft the long mountainous ridge. Thick plums and sumacs surrounded their camp on the northern slope and kept them hidden from prying eyes. High above, the campfires of the dead wavered through a smoky haze.

Sindak sipped his spruce needle tea and scanned the dense branches of the staghorn sumacs. Scrub trees that grew four or five times the height of a man had dark smooth bark that reflected the multiple shadows cast by the flames. Beyond the sumacs, a thicket of thorny plums spread fifty paces in every direction. The sweet tang of rotting fruit filled the air. Most of the sharp-toothed leaves had, thankfully, been blown into the branches, leaving their small clearing almost bare.

Gonda kept feeding twigs to the blaze to keep the children and the tea warm. Despite their desperate situation, the muscles of his round face had relaxed. It made him look ten summers younger.

Sindak glanced at Koracoo. She stood five paces to the east, watching the game trail they’d followed to get here, while Towa watched the trail as it left the clearing and headed west.

None of them seemed inclined to talk, least of all, Towa. He’d been brooding over something, but they hadn’t had a chance to discuss it yet.

Hehaka, Baji, Odion, and Tutelo huddled together on the opposite side of the fire from Sindak. From their expressions, Sindak suspected three of them would be standing shoulder to shoulder for the rest of their lives. All of them except Hehaka. The other children acted as if they had to watch what they said around him.

That intrigued Sindak.

He could tell that Baji was from the Flint People, and even if he hadn’t known, he would have guessed Tutelo and Odion were Standing Stone—but he hadn’t been able to place Hehaka’s People. And the boy was … odd. His starved face resembled a trapped bat’s, all ears and flat nose, with small dark eyes. The boy kept lifting his chin to sniff the air, as if scenting them to identify whether they were predator or prey.

Odion shifted, as though he’d come to a decision, and called, “Father?”

Gonda looked up. “What is it, my son?”

“Tomorrow. We have to go to fire cherry camp.”

Gonda tossed another twig on the flames. “I don’t know where that is, Odion.”

“It’s less than a day’s walk away.” Odion blinked and stared up at the night sky. After five or six heartbeats, he wet his lips, then pointed slightly southwest. “It’s there … I think. I’ll find it.”

Gonda exchanged a curious glance with Koracoo, who had turned to listen to the conversation. Gonda said, “I’m not sure it’s safe to head west, Odion. What’s at this fire cherry camp?”

Odion stiffened his spine as though to bolster his courage. “Wrass is going to meet us there. He told me. He’ll be there waiting for us at dawn. He—”

“Odion?” Koracoo called, then hesitated. She turned and walked back into the clearing. Her red cape looked orange in the firelight. She knelt beside her son, and he looked at her with his whole heart in his eyes.

“Yes, Mother?”

Koracoo petted his dark hair. “Odion, forgive me. I was going to tell you tomorrow, after you’d eaten and slept, but … Wrass won’t be there. He was captured by Gannajero. I watched—”

“No!” The high-pitched scream rang through the forest.

Sindak instinctively clutched his war club.

Odion leaped to his feet and stared at Koracoo as though she were a complete stranger; then he charged up the dark eastern trail like a man running for his life.

“Odion?” Gonda lunged to his feet and chased after him, calling, “Odion? Odion, no! We’ll find him, but not tonight!”

Chaos erupted among the children. Baji and Tutelo stood up and started talking at once. Hehaka bent forward and put his hands over his ears, as though he couldn’t bear to hear any of this.