People of the Mist(146)
Nine Killer lit his pipe with a twig and puffed to set the fire. “We don’t know who the man and woman are, but he tries to grab her arm. She jerks it away. They have heated words. She kicks at the blankets still on the ground, gets dressed, and storms off. We don’t know what happens to him.”
“Meanwhile,” Panther said, “Flat Willow is not at the gate. He isn’t seen again until midmorning when High Fox comes charging down the trail. Flat Willow then goes on to ‘discover’ Red Knot’s body. Meanwhile, White Otter sees Copper Thunder reenter the palisade in the early morning. Where has he been all that time?
Rosebud added, “And the Weroansqua wasn’t present that morning for breakfast. Where was she?”
Panther lifted a shaggy eyebrow. “Where indeed?”
“I just don’t see why she would have killed her granddaughter.” “Maybe her mother wanted her dead?” “Shell Comb?” Nine Killer’s face tightened with distaste. “No, I can’t believe that. Why would she kill her own daughter? Or, better asked, how could she kill her own daughter? Surely not just to marry Copper Thunder.” “You tell me, War Chief. Had Shell Comb wanted to marry him in the beginning, could she? Is she that driven by a hunger for authority?”
“No, Elder. I mean, she may indeed be a driven woman when it comes to her passions—Okeus knows-but it doesn’t make sense. If she wanted him, she could have stepped in at any time and married him. Red Knot would have shouted with relief. I have already thought this through, and there is simply no reason why Shell Comb would kill—or have the girl killed. In the beginning, we might have suspected that she would want to stop the alliance with the upriver villages, but now she’s practically offering herself to save it.”
“Shame?” Panther asked. “She couldn’t stomach the thought of her daughter running out on her people?”
Nine Killer arched an eyebrow. “Believe me, Shell Comb isn’t one to make a great deal about a little sexual indiscretion now and then. If anything, she’d be secretly gleeful that her daughter had the nerve to try it.”
“So I gather,” Panther said dryly. “She’s quite the adventuress, isn’t she?”
Nine Killer dropped his gaze, aware that Rosebud was giving him a hard eye. “For a mother to kill her daughter takes a great deal of desperation and resolve. No matter what her indiscretions, she had too many ways to either avoid or have Copper Thunder. In the end, she doesn’t have a reason. That pot doesn’t hold water.”
“And the Weroansqua?” Panther asked mildly. “Was she so desperate that she could see no way out?”
“Not that I can determine. Elder, we can’t forget Winged Blackbird and his warriors,” Nine Killer pointed out. “Did he just happen to show up at that moment?”
Panther shrugged. “It’s too early to tell. Collusion with Copper Thunder? Is that what you’re thinking?”
Nine Killer watched blue smoke rise before his nose. “Am I? Is it a possibility? He said Corn Hunter had sent him with a message to express his displeasure about Red Knot marrying the Great Tayac. Was that a ruse?”
Panther scratched his ear. “I don’t know for sure, but I think not. My guess is that Copper Thunder is desperate for this alliance with the Independent villages. When Red Knot turned up dead, he stayed on, waiting to see what happened, ready to step in and exploit any opportunity that developed. He’s clever, but not deep. Rather than manipulate others, he pounces on chance events and turns them to his favor on the spot.” “Then why allow the Weroansqua to send me off on that raid? It almost ended in disaster.” Nine Killer stared at the red embers in his pipe.
“Suppose you’d succeeded?” Panther countered. “You didn’t expect Stone Cob to betray your plans. Without that, you might very well have succeeded in snatching the boy. Now, as I know your Copper Thunder, I’m willing to bet he’d have pleaded for the boy’s life. What better way to cement himself with the Independent villages than as a peacemaker? He cared not a whit for Red Knot once she was dead, but as an aggrieved party, he could demand a settlement, smooth over the friction between Flat Pearl Village and Three Myrtle. Once that was done, and Hunting Hawk was eternally grateful, together they would search the clan for a marriageable woman.”
“So he gets Shell Comb instead,” Nine Killer groused. “And, thereby, he’s a generation closer to control of Flat Pearl Village.” “Oh, to be sure, he’s not only allied by marriage, but his status among the villages would almost be equal to the Weroansqua’s. After all, he solved a problem that would have meant disaster.” Panther chuckled. “I think by now, War Chief, Copper Thunder knows the situation within Flat Pearl Village better than you do. You have a cunning spider in your midst, and he’s privy to your innermost secrets.”