Towa gave him a skeptical look. “Found it?”
“I know you don’t believe it, but I swear upon my Ancestors’ graves, it’s true. Around midnight we were talking when suddenly Koracoo got a worried expression on her face. When I asked her what was wrong, she said that CorpseEye was old and sometimes he saw or heard things that she did not. When he did, he tried to tell her.”
“Her club talks?”
“No … at least I don’t think so.” Sindak made an uncertain gesture with his hand. “She says the club grows hot, sometimes painfully hot—and that’s what happened to her last night. That’s why we started searching in the darkness.”
Towa stepped over a pile of deer droppings and followed the path as it curved back out into the frosty meadow. Deer trails twined through the fallen leaves, creating a braided weave of shadows, but there was no sign that humans had passed this way. Especially not a war party with an exhausted group of children. Men might carefully follow in each other’s tracks to hide their numbers, but children generally failed. They didn’t seem to have the ability to concentrate on the task.
“All right. Let’s discuss this,” Towa said, sounding very logical. “Did CorpseEye actually lead you to the trail?”
“Well, no, not exactly. I found the trail, but—”
“That’s what I thought. You’re an excellent tracker.”
Sindak scratched the back of his neck with his war club. “Maybe, but that pale blue line of stones that we found at the base of the toppled tree? I think CorpseEye led Koracoo to it, and it connected with the trail.”
“But the line of stones was natural. It hadn’t been placed there by someone. And you told me that you thought the line of stones was in a different place than the blue glimmer you’d seen in the night.”
“True, but—”
“Nonsense. It was an accident.”
Sindak shrugged. It was generally useless to talk to Towa about supernatural events since he thought they were all wild flights of imagination. “Think what you want, my friend. You didn’t touch CorpseEye and feel his Power run up your arm like icy ants.”
“Sindak, it’s just a very old piece of wood with a red quartzite cobble tied to the top.”
“And two black spots for eyes. It watches me, Towa. Really.” Sindak stabbed a weed with his war club. No matter what Towa said, he’d felt something when he’d touched that club, and he didn’t believe in tempting Spirits. “I’m going to do everything I can to make that club like me.”
Towa laughed. “You remind me of my cousin.”
“Which cousin?”
“The one I despise. Neyot.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“Neyot once spent three moons trying to make a dog like him, in the hopes that the ‘woman of his dreams’ would come to agree with her pet.”
“Did it work?”
“No. He was always grabbing the animal by the ruff and talking right in its face. The poor frustrated dog had no choice but to chew off his nose. The incident did not impress the woman of his dreams.”
Sindak dredged up memories of Neyot’s mangled face. The dog had eaten off the flesh and half the bones. “Your cousin is a dull-wit.”
“True. But your wits over the past few days haven’t been any too sharp, either. Do you really believe you can seduce Koracoo?”
Sindak tipped his head. “I’m not trying to seduce her. It’s just very pleasurable to look at her and dream about her. What’s the harm in that?”
“What’s the harm? I can’t believe you said that. You’re going to wake up some night with Gonda’s war club embedded in your skull. He still loves her.”
“Really? He has a curious way of showing it. All he does is whine and shout at her.”
The deer trail wound through the meadow and headed toward the broad granite slope covered with stubby trees. Boulders and broken spalls the size of a longhouse littered the base of the slope. The chances of finding anything up there would be slim. On the other hand, that’s exactly where Sindak would have gone if he’d been trying to hide his trail.
Towa massaged his left shoulder. While he’d been sleeping with his sling on, he took it off during the day. Walking with his arm hanging straight down obviously caused him pain.
“I don’t know why you don’t wear your sling during the day, too. It would be easy to throw it aside if we get into a fight.”
“If the pain gets too bad, I will.” He gave Sindak an askance look. “And you can’t change the subject that easily. Every time you talk to Koracoo I want you to keep the image of a war club embedded in your skull right behind your eyes.”