Nine Killer staggered back, and saw Shell Comb, on her hands and knees, crawling toward the inferno. Horror in her wide eyes, she extended one hand, reaching toward the blackened figure.
Nine Killer ducked down under the heat, pulling her back from the fire’s draft. She fought for a moment, then went limp in his grip as he pulled her to safety. Streamers of greasy smoke mixed with the wavering yellow light. Nine Killer hugged Shell Comb to his chest. She sobbed like an infant.
As he patted her tenderly, he looked across at The Panther, and asked wearily, “Yes, Elder? What is it?”
Panther’s sad face worked, as if he were trying to speak. In the gaudy yellow light, he studied the blackened body that slid down into the coals, then he looked at Nine Killer, and the grieving Shell Comb in his arms.
Shaking his head, he turned, and walked slowly away, his old shoulders bent, the crowd parting to let him pass.
Thirty-one
As the first light of dawn filtered through the gaps in the thatch, Panther sat by the fire in Rosebud’s long house arms locked around his knees. Memories of the terrible night kept spinning in his head. Sun Conch lay sleeping on the bench behind him, her breathing labored. Nine Killer sat across from him, head bowed, a great and terrible sadness in his eyes.
White Otter puttered around the fire, attending to the cooking—as if anyone had any appetite.
Panther watched the long house fire pop and spark. What he’d uncovered had wounded his soul. “Has anyone seen High Fox this morning?”
Nine Killer rubbed his face wearily. “No. In the excitement last night, he slipped away. Maybe, if we’re lucky, he went out and drowned himself. It beats being a pariah.”
“He hasn’t the courage, War Chief. For the moment, he has to blame everyone but himself.” Panther paused. “Why didn’t Shell Comb simply marry Black Spike? Why carry on like this and ruin people’s lives?”
Nine Killer plucked at frayed bits of matting, some of it still stained by Sun Conch’s blood. “The Weroansqua refused her permission. Her marriage to Monster Bone strengthened the alliance. He’d given her a son, White Bone. The boy drowned later. Another son, Grebe, was killed by a lightning strike.”
“What sort of man was Monster Bone?”
“Just the opposite of Black Spike. Blustery. Tough. He and Shell Comb fought like cougars. In the end, I can’t say that I’d have blamed her for turning to Black Spike. I think Hunting Hawk always expected too much from Shell Comb. Shell Comb wanted excitement, ceremony, and adventure. Much like Thin Bird, her father. I’ve heard that Thin Bird was the muscle, and Hunting Hawk was the brain that carried Greenstone Clan to prominence among the Independent villages.”
“Shell Comb never remarried?”
“Oh, she did. For a year here, half a year there, but she always came home divorced. Now, I know why. She wanted to be close to Black Spike. Had she married Copper Thunder, it would have been the same.”
Panther blinked to clear Black Spike’s burned body from his mind. His soul felt like old fabric, wrung out and empty of any joy it once might have held.
As if reading his expression, Nine Killer said, “How will High Fox manage? His only mistake was falling in love with the wrong young woman. As it is, he’s ruined forever. What woman would marry him? What village will take him? He lay with his sister. He’s forever tainted by it.”
“That’s why Green Serpent heard Red Knot’s ghost sobbing.” Panther rubbed his face. “Only in death did she find out what they’d done to her.”
“Why did Black Spike throw himself on the fire like that? How could he do that?” White Otter shook her head in amazement.
Panther whispered, “He was afraid his nerve might fail him at the last.”
“What nerve? He had only to endure.” Nine Killer plucked a piece of matting loose, studying it absently.
Panther closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “War Chief, this isn’t over. Black Spike anticipated me. He acted before I could finish. You see …”
Voices shouted outside, cries of, “Run!” and “It’s an attack!”
Nine Killer jumped to his feet, grabbed his weapons, and dove for the doorway.
Panther grunted as he climbed to his feet and hurried after, cursing his old bones all the way. Outside, dawn had whitened the mist, leaving the long houses in ghostly relief. Men and women seemed to appear and disappear as they sprinted past.
“Where?” a man called. “Where are they?”
“Beyond the main gate! A big body of warriors!”
Panther kept to the side lest he be bowled over, and hurried into the plaza. An arrow stuck out of the ground, the feathered shaft slanting back to mark the direction from which it had come. Shouts erupted from all sides.