People of the Masks(127)
Wren stepped away from it.
He drew up his knees, leaned forward and braced his elbows on them. Long graying black hair fell over his shoulders. “Wren, I can’t watch you die. Imagine—”
“Imagine how it will make all of us feel,” a woman’s voice said from the shadows.
Blue Raven slowly spread his arms, and got to his feet. “Who—”
“Keep your hands away from your bow.”
His bow remained slung over his shoulder. “Elk Ivory.”
Wren watched the woman emerge from behind the trunk of a sycamore, her bow nocked and at the ready. Tall and muscular, she moved like mist, her steps silent as she descended the trail. The green birds painted on her buffalo coat shone black in the moonlight.
“I should have known you’d be the one to find me,” Blue Raven said.
Wren turned to run.
“Don’t!” Elk Ivory ordered. “I do not wish to kill a girl, but I will, Little Wren, if you do not sit down this moment.”
Blue Raven said, “Sit down, Wren. Do as she says. Elk Ivory is not here to hurt us.”
Wren dropped in the trail, her heart pounding sickeningly. She did not see any other warriors, but she knew they must be close.
Uncle Blue Raven walked toward Elk Ivory. “Where is my cousin? I expected—”
“That’s far enough, old friend,” Elk Ivory ordered. “Stop right there. Where is the False Face Child? And the other two people you’ve been traveling with?”
Blue Raven hesitated, then waved a hand, as if buying time. Finally, he answered, “I turned the boy over to them, and we parted ways.”
Wren looked at her uncle as if his souls had flown.
Elk Ivory squinted. “Don’t lie to me, Blue Raven. I just arrived, but I heard a little of your conversation. Wren is the one who cut the False Face Child loose. You said you’d just been following her, that she was ‘guilty of the crime.’”
Wren saw the muscles in her uncle’s back knot and bulge through his shirt.
“Elk Ivory, you know me better than almost anyone.” Her uncle’s voice had gone soft, intimate. “I ask that you hear my story, and repeat it exactly as I tell it.”
Elk Ivory’s bow lowered slightly. “You know I will.”
“Yes.” Blue Raven nodded. “I do.” He inhaled and let the breath out in a rush. “I tell you straightly that I cut the boy loose. Wren found the boy and me gone from Lost Hill and followed us. I did not even know she was behind me until yesterday.” He paused, then added, “I am the one to blame. The only one.”
“Uncle,” Wren said and rose. on trembling knees. “That’s not—”
“Hush, Wren! Do not say a word. Do you understand me?”
Wren glanced at Elk Ivory, then nodded.
Elk Ivory again asked, “And who were the two people you were traveling with?”
“Relatives of the boy’s.”
“They paid you?”
Blue Raven blinked, and both Wren and Elk Ivory could tell it was the first time he’d even thought of such a thing.
“Yes, they paid me.”
Elk Ivory’s mouth puckered. “You were right about one thing, Blue Raven: I know you. Well enough to know when you are lying.”
Blue Raven bowed his head and shook it. “I have told you the truth. I cut the boy loose. I sold the boy to his relatives. What more do you need to know?”
“I—”
“Nothing,” Jumping Badger said as he eased out of the forest, followed by ten warriors.
Elk Ivory gaped in surprise.
Jumping Badger had his bow aimed at her, and for a moment Wren thought he might shoot. Black greasy hair clung to his cheeks. The warriors behind him whispered, as if uncertain what they should do next.
Jumping Badger said, “I knew you would do something like this, old woman.”
Elk Ivory straightened, and glared. “Like what? Find the people we were hunting?”
“I saw you cutting across the meadow after you left Acorn, and I asked myself why you would disobey my orders. I came up with only one reason: to go locate your former lover, to warn him, so that he could—”
“You fool! If I had come to warn Blue Raven, would I have my bow leveled at his chest?”
The warriors behind Jumping Badger fanned out, surrounding them.
Jumping Badger took three steps closer, his bow aimed at Elk Ivory’s face. The fine fletching on his arrow caught the light and shimmered. “It would be much easier to believe you if you had killed Blue Raven the instant he confessed his guilt to you. That’s what he deserves. He betrayed all of us.”
“The matrons ordered us to bring—”
Jumping Badger shifted, turning just enough to target her uncle, and let fly.