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People of the Longhouse(38)



Sindak whispered, “Put it away, Towa. Our eyes should not look upon such a Powerful thing.”

Towa tucked it back into his shirt and gestured to the door. “Open the door to the prisoners’ house, Ober. In the meantime, Akio, tell the guards on the catwalk that the chief has ordered the palisade gate to be opened.”

“Yes, Towa.” Akio waddled up to the palisade gate and shouted, “Bostum? The chief has ordered that the gate be opened so that War Chief Koracoo and her party may leave.”

“What?” Bostum shouted back. “You’re just a fat boy, Akio. I’m not going to listen to you. Where’s Nesi? I want to hear it from him.”

Akio turned back to Towa, obviously thinking Towa would bring out the pendant again. Instead, Towa said, “Go and fetch Nesi. The fewer people who know about the gorget the better.”

“I’m going.” Akio hurried across the plaza and ducked into the Hawk Clan longhouse.

As Ober lifted the locking plank and swung open the door to the prisoners’ house, Sindak waited beside Towa. His friend was breathing hard, as though the weight of the pendant resting on his chest was suffocating him.

Sindak whispered, “How’s your belly?”

Towa gave him an askance look. “Why would you want to know?”

“Not even a hint of weasels thrashing around in there, trying to get out?”

“Well, small weasels …” He halted when War Chief Koracoo and Deputy Gonda walked out and stood quietly in the brilliant moonlight. Koracoo adjusted her cape, then tied her belt more securely around it.

“Towa. Sindak.” She looked both of them straight in the eyes. “Are you ready?”

Towa answered, “Yes, War Chief. You should know that Atotarho has instructed us to obey your orders as we would his.”

Gonda’s heavy brow wrinkled. He glanced suspiciously at Towa, then Sindak, and finally said, “We’ll see how long that lasts.”

“What do you mean?”

Gonda grimaced as he walked past, heading toward the palisade gate.

Koracoo looked at Towa. Her chopped-off hair fell in uneven lengths around her beautiful face. “As I understand it, Towa, you are the chief’s personal representative. You are carrying his sacred gorget, aren’t you?”

“I am.” Towa shifted uncomfortably.

Koracoo searched his eyes, and Towa must have felt her scrutiny like a blow to the stomach, for he stopped breathing. “Very well. It’s after midnight. Let’s get as close to the clearing where we found the baby as we can; then we’ll eat and try to rest until we have enough light to track.”

Without waiting for a response, she led the way to stand beside Gonda in front of the gate.

“They must want to be out of here badly,” Sindak said.

“Wouldn’t you? They took their lives in their hands when they brought the baby here.”

“They must have thought that baby was very important,” Sindak commented. “We should have killed them. They’re our enemies.”

“Well, keep that to yourself. The chief says that in this one instance, they are our allies and we are to treat them as such.”

“Until they prove otherwise, you mean.”

Towa tightened the laces on his leggings. “Atotarho told me our first duty is to protect Zateri, then ourselves, and finally the other children.”

“He gave no orders about protecting Koracoo or Gonda?”

“They can protect themselves, and he knows it.”

Sindak turned when Nesi stalked forward with Akio trotting behind him. In the darkness, Nesi looked like a wounded giant. The scars on his face might have been a tangle of white cords.

He marched straight to Towa, placed his hands on his hips, and barked, “Who gave you the authority to tell the guards to open the gate?”

Towa turned so that Koracoo and Gonda could not see the pendant, and drew it out for Nesi. Nesi’s face slackened. For several heartbeats, he seemed confused as to what to do about it. Sindak thought Nesi might even be thinking that Towa had stolen the sacred gorget.

Finally, Nesi said, “Why do you have that?”

“The chief is sending us out on a special mission with War Chief Koracoo to find his daughter and bring her home safely.”

Nesi’s scars twitched. “Why you two? You’re the last two warriors I’d choose.”

Sindak shrugged expressively, and Towa said, “You should, perhaps, ask the chief.”

Anger, or maybe suspicion, flared in Nesi’s eyes. He looked up and lifted a hand to Bostum. “Open the gate, Bostum. Let them out, then close it up tight.”

“Yes, War Chief.”

Nesi glanced hatefully at Koracoo and Gonda, gave Sindak and Towa a final unnerving appraisal, and stalked back toward the Hawk Clan longhouse.