“Two hundred! I didn’t know the Walksalong Clan had so many warriors!”
“Oh, yes.” Cornhusk waved a negligent hand. “Perhaps even three hundred. But naturally the matrons would not allow Jumping Badger to take them all. That would have left their village defenseless.”
In a small anguished voice, Spotted Frog asked, “Blessed Spirits, how can Blue Raven and the children hope to escape?”
“They won’t escape,” Cornhusk prophesied. “At least, it seems unlikely, since Jumping Badger is being guided by the Spirit of Lamedeer himself.”
Gasps rang out, and a chorus of shouted questions.
“Great gods, why? … Lamedeer was one of us! He wouldn’t … Oh, it cannot be! I don’t …”
Over the chaos, Spotted Frog shouted, “Lamedeer was my cousin’s son. He would never betray the False Face Child!”
“Not while he was alive, no,” Cornhusk yelled back, and waited until the excited villagers went quiet again. “But Jumping Badger is Powerful. He cut off Lamedeer’s head, and called out to the most worthless, evil Forest Spirits in the land. No one knows how he did it, but Jumping Badger managed to convince the soul inside Lamedeer’s rotting skull to do his bidding. They talk constantly.”
Spotted Frog blanched. He set his pipe on one of the hearthstones, and hunched forward. “You mean Lamedeer speaks with Jumping Badger? That he actually hears my dead cousin’s voice?”
“Speaks to him? Lamedeer shouts at Jumping Badger! I stayed in old Frost-in-the-Willow’s longhouse for several nights, and the things I heard quivered my souls. Jumping Badger never slept. Whispers and moans came from his bedding. Sometimes he leaped to his feet, grabbed the staff where Lamedeer’s head perches, and shook it with all his might. Shook it until I thought the severed head would fall to pieces. But it didn’t. Lamedeer’s jaws just fell open in a hideous mockery of laughter. I swear. I saw it!”
Spotted Frog nervously twisted his bloated hands. Firelight shadowed the deep wrinkles that made up his triple chin. “What happened then?”
You could have heard a straw hit the floor. Wide eyes filled the house and crowded the doorway.
“Jumping Badger went mad. He screamed and threatened the dead war leader. He—”
“But … what threat could matter to a dead man?”
Cornhusk took another sip of his slime drink, and propped the cup on his knee. “Jumping Badger said ‘Don’t forget, Lamedeer, I hold your soul in my hands. If you do not do as I say, I’ll never let you rest.”’
Gasps of fear eddied through the house. Outside, feet scuffed the ground. Cornhusk smiled to himself. No greater threat could be uttered. If a Turtle Nation warrior’s body was not properly cared for, washed and massaged with oil, then buried in its lone grave, the soul would wander the earth forever, angry and alone. It would wreak vengeance on its clanspeople, bringing them diseases, accidents, and famines.
Spotted Frog’s elderly wife, Pup Woman, knelt by his side. Plump, with short gray hair, she had bulging black eyes that seemed to stick out as far as her buck teeth. Pup Woman cupped a hand to Spotted Frog’s ear. As she whispered, Cornhusk lowered his eyes. Not so much out of deference as fear. Pup Woman had been known to call upon sorcerers to poison her husband’s enemies, or to enter their dreams and carry off their souls. Smart men did not tempt such a woman.
Cornhusk swirled the liquid in his cup. Strange. The more of this slime a man drank, the better it tasted. And the better he felt. An almost giddy sensation possessed him. He would have to watch what he said. He wouldn’t want to get the heroes and villains of his story mixed up. Accidentally saying, as he had at the Bear Nation village last night, “The Blessed Jumping Badger led his courageous warriors in a desperate search for the traitors, and the evil False Face Child,” could get him flayed and roasted.
He swallowed more slime.
Pup Woman stood, and Spotted Frog lifted his hands to gain the attention of the people.
He called, “Pup Woman has given me wise counsel. She asks how we can sit here, warm and comfortable, when there are two heroic children, and a desperate man, out alone in the forest, fleeing hundreds of vicious warriors. We must help them!”
A clamor rose as people began talking at once.
“Our ancestors would expect no less!” Pup Woman shouted.
Over a dozen heads nodded that Cornhusk could see. This wasn’t going at all as he’d planned.
“But, wait!” Cornhusk said. “How can your tiny village hope to stand against Jumping Badger and his war party? How many warriors does the Silent Crow Clan boast? Fifteen?”