Hunting Hawk narrowed her eyes. “It would have cost me plenty, making restitution to Copper Thunder, paying for the affront of Red Knot’s running away like that. That girl should have cut off her right arm rather than disgrace her clan that way.” “So, once the act was committed, assuming that she was running off with High Fox, perhaps it was better that she come back dead than in disgrace?”
“By Okeus’ wooden balls, you’re a crafty one.” And it came to her. Perhaps too crafty. A story like that could ruin her, filter off all the respect she’d worked so hard to earn over the years. Rot and death! The old fool had just speculated himself into an. early grave. Besides, The Panther was believed to be a witch. While Nine Killer might not have the stomach to brain him, she’d seen Flying Weir’s reaction. At a word from her, that hardy warrior … “Don’t even think it,” Panther said gently. “It will make matters worse for you.”
“Think what? Make what worse?” The screaming spirits take him, did he truly see into a woman’s soul? Another cold shiver crept down her aching back.
Panther gave her a chiding look. “Don’t you think that the Mamanatowick and that fat old Stone Frog will have already thought of that story? They aren’t fools, either one of them. If I can think it up, so can they. And, yes,
your situation will be worse with me d ad. Every chief with holdings along the Salt Water Bay will be saying,
“When The Panther got close to the truth, Hunting Hawk had him killed—just like she did her granddaughter!” “
Angrily, she drilled her sassafras stick into the frozen mud. “And use it against me, they will!”
“Only if I find out that you ordered her death,” the Panther reminded. “If you have me killed, you will have proven it in my place. And defeated your own purpose, since Copper Thunder will hear of it, and you’ll have all three alliances against you, for I doubt the Great Tayac, Grass Mat, will forgive you for what you’ve done to him. At least, the man I once knew wouldn’t.”
“Then I’d better keep you alive,” she muttered dryly.
He shrugged. “I’m an old man. Death is a longtime companion of mine. We know each other well. Besides, in the end, what are another couple of winters, more or less?” “Go on, get out of my sight! And you keep that silly story all to yourself! You hear me?” She poked at him with her walking stick, a new rage born inside her.
The Panther grabbed the end of her stick with a quick hand, meeting her stare. “So, tell me, Weroansqua, did you have Red Knot killed?”
“No! No! And, NO!”
“Then, you shouldn’t be so worried about what I’ll find, should you?” And with that, he released her stick, turned on his heel, and set off across the plaza, the nervous-looking Sun Conch following. “Oh’V he called over his shoulder, “don’t forget to send someone for that willow bark!”
“I won’t!” she snapped, then, under her breath, muttered, “Lick dog spittle, you old crank!” And imagined all the ways she could get Flying Weir to snuff the pesky life from that bony old body.
Should you have goaded her so?” Sun Conch peered over her shoulder at the angry Weroansqua. “You didn’t really mean that she could have killed Red Knot… did you?”
“Why not?” Panther studied her. “She had every reason to act just the way I said. Put yourself in her position. What if you had made the marriage proposal, and then found out just how dangerous Copper Thunder really is? Like a boulder rolled off a ridge, this marriage alliance had picked up speed and was rolling toward the bottom. How could she stop it without ending up in a war with the upriver villages?”
“But her granddaughter?” Sun. Conch shook her head in bewilderment. “She couldn’t just tell someone to beat the brains out of a member of her own family! Red Knot was born of Shell Comb’s womb. By all that’s holy, Elder!”
“Well, if you’re still thinking of Okeus as holy, he’d like the idea. Really appreciate it, in fact. It’s just the sort of thing he’d do.”
“But, Elder—”
Panther raised his hand, stopping short to stare into Sun Conch’s disbelieving eyes. “Why do you still surprise me, girl? I thought you’d seen and heard enough in the last few days to begin to understand just how people think and act. Would Hunting Hawk kill the girl to save the Independent villages? Yes, in a heartbeat.”
“How do you know?”
Panther rubbed his brow, sensing a brewing headache. “Because I’ve seen it often enough. Seen it. Lived it.