“And how would he know that?”
“From Flat Willow. Copper Thunder can smell out the weakest wall in the pot, and that’s where he’s going to start chiseling away. Flat Willow is not only disaffected, but disgruntled on top of it all.”
“But wait,” Sun Conch interrupted. “Flat Willow wanted Red Knot. He loved her—and hated High Fox for mating with her. Why should he help Copper Thunder with anything? The man was promised the very woman Flat Willow loved!”
“I wouldn’t put it past Copper Thunder to have told Flat Willow that he could eventually have her.” Panther smiled warily. “Remember, he’s been telling the young people that there will be new territory after he drives the Mamanatowick back. If—and I admit it’s a big if-Copper Thunder wanted to gain Flat Willow’s support, he could have suggested that our young hunter might become a Weroance under the Great Tayac. A High Chief often marries a wife off to a Weroance as a measure of his faith, and to cement an alliance. Sun Conch, you know Flat Willow best, what would he have said to being a Weroance, and having Red Knot? Two birds in one bag?”
Sun Conch grimaced. “He’d have jumped at it! But, would Copper Thunder really have done that? Given him those things? What about the alliance to Greenstone Clan?”
“Oh, not right away.” Panther stared dismally at his pipe. The embers had gone cold. “After all, Copper Thunder would want several children out of her first. By then, he would have added at least a second Greenstone wife, and probably one apiece from Star Crab and Bloodroot clans to solidify his hold on the Independent villages.”
“If he kept Flat Willow around for that long.” Nine Killer shook his head in disgust. “That would depend on how useful he was over the long term, wouldn’t it?”
“Indeed it would.”
Nine Killer took a deep breath. “Well, that kills my idea that Flat Willow might have been the man who overheard Red Knot and Quick Fawn that night.”
Panther used a twig to dig the ash out of his pipe. “But it does explain what Flat Willow and Copper Thunder were doing after White Otter saw them slip out at night and before their return in the morning. In all the days of feasting and dancing, Copper Thunder would have been watching for a loner, someone who seemed unhappy with his lot in life. Your Great Tayac doesn’t miss much. He is an excellent judge of people. My guess is that he would have measured Flat Willow down to the moccasin bottoms —even the desire in his eyes when the hunter was watching Red Knot at the dance.”
“What made you suspect Flat Willow?” Sun Conch asked suddenly.
Panther lifted a shoulder. “His attitude when I first talked to him. That, and the fact that he has cut his hair to resemble Copper Thunder’s. He’s so blinded by the Great Tayac that he can’t see himself.” Panther hesitated. “And, he knows something, or at least suspects something, very disturbing about Greenstone Clan.” Panther lifted an eyebrow. “Anything you’d like to tell me before I discover it on my own?”
Nine Killer frowned, a mystified look in his eyes. “Nothing beyond the usual family scandals. We’re nothing special. Every now and then we have a man beating his wife for a sexual indiscretion. There was one petty thief that the Weroansqua had me execute a while back. We broke his legs and threw him on the bonfire. Last year, old Green Stick started nosing around his oldest daughter and we had to take him out in the forest for a little discussion. Since then, he’s behaved himself. We keep a close eye on him to make sure. The only thing that could destroy Greenstone Clan would be a charge of incest.” Nine Killer glanced toward the back of the long house and the reed game. “I have a niece who slips out every so often, but I think I’ve taken care of that.”
Rosebud had bent her head so that her hair spilled around her face, all of her concentration on the length of sinew she used to bind the scapula to the hoe handle.
Sun Conch sat with her eyes downcast, her fingers moving anxiously in her lap.
Despite the honesty reflected in Nine Killer’s eyes, Panther sensed the unease among the others. Was there something, or wasn’t there? If so, Nine Killer genuinely didn’t seem to know.
Or is he finally lying to you? And, if so, why?
Panther sighed. Well, all in good time. “That still leaves us with a dead Red Knot. Struck down on the ridge trail to Oyster Shell Landing with a double-headed war club.”
“So who does that leave?” Sun Conch asked, as if relieved by the change of topic. “We’ve just scratched Flat Willow from the possibles. Assuming, that is, that you’re right about his deal with Copper Thunder. He wouldn’t kill the girl, not after Copper Thunder’s offer.”