People of the Mist(188)

“Even then, you’d never have married him.”

“What do you know?”

“Enough.” Panther pulled at his chin, sensing that Okeus was grinning evilly at him. “You were never a one-man woman. Black Spike knew that, but as long as you came to him every so often, he could overlook your many faults. Love blinds a man.”

“Love can blind a woman, too.”

Panther looked up at Red Knot’s body. “Indeed it can.” He considered his next words. “When Hunting Hawk dies, you will step aside and name Nine Killer Weroance.”

She started, then stared at him incredulously. “You’re crazy, if you think I’m going—”

“You’will,” Panther insisted. “If you don’t, I’ll ruin you, Shell Comb. I can do it, and. you know that I will. I know everything, right down to the reason you were coughing when you stepped out of the House of the Dead that morning. Your throat hurt from running, didn’t it?”

She stared at him with that same glassy look of disbelief.

“Shell Comb, I don’t mind if Black Spike offered his life in place of yours—I honor him for it—but I will never forgive you for hurting Sun Conch.”

“Sun Conch!”

“You weren’t in the Women’s House the night before last, were you? Rosebud saw you slip out early, just after sunset. You thought she was asleep. In less than fifteen paces you reached Flat Willow’s weapons just inside the door of. his cousin’s house. You knew he was considered a possible killer, and you just assumed he’d catch all of the blame for my death.”

“You’re insane!”

“Maybe, but you’ll never be Weroansqua.”

“It will be your word against mine.”

“You will promise me, Shell Comb. Right here. If you assume the mantle, I will hound you to ruin.”

She frowned, as if baffled by his words. “I paid for my mistakes.”

“No, Red Knot and Black Spike paid. High Fox will continue to pay with what little life remains for him. You got away with it, again.” He shook his head. “You disgust me.” She seemed to come back to herself. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Mother will die soon. She can’t hold out much longer. When she’s up there”—she pointed to the bodies—“I’ll be Weroansqua. And then, I’ll do as I please. Maybe even have you burned, witch!”

Panther shook his head. “Look at me. In the eyes. You will name Nine Killer as Weroance. Yellow Net will fight it, but you have the right. You will use that right to name Nine Killer.”

She met his determined gaze. The crazed look lingered there, on the rim of her soul, held back by the barest of restraint. Even as he watched, her “Soul began to cave in. The reality of what she’d done ate through, and her resolve wilted into nothingness. Her shoulders slumped and she began to cry.

He’d won. But what sort of victory?

Through sobs, she asked, “What are you going to do?”

“Nothing. Unless I have to.” Panther stood up, his soul numb and empty. “What will you do? Your lover is dead. So is your daughter. You don’t know it, but your future is just as much a corpse as Red Knot up there.”

“Black Spike did that! He said so!”

“He did, didn’t he? I came here to punish you for hurting Sun Conch.” He stepped back to the passageway. “But I think your punishment is just beginning. The moment you crushed your daughter’s skull with that war club, you killed yourself.”

“Even I draw the line at incest! I paid for Monster Bone, for Black Spike’s wife! I paid for my mistakes!” She looked down at her right hand, opening and closing the fingers, as if gripping a war club.

“No, as I said, Red Knot, High Fox, and Black Spike paid. You knew that Hunting Hawk couldn’t allow them to run off. She’d drag them back, and it would all come out. The murders, the incest between High Fox and Red Knot. You’d be destroyed—and Greenstone Clan with you.”

“I protected the clan!” Her voice had turned brittle.

“Green Serpent said he saw Red Knot’s ghost that morning, but in the dim light he mistook you for her when you were replacing the war club.”

“I set aside my feelings! I did it! I hardened my heart like Mother always said.” She was shaking now. “For good of the clan, I am worthy!” “Okeus help you now, Shell Comb, you’re the one who has to live with it. At night, when the dreams come, and you see your lover and your daughter staring at you, how will you explain it to them? When you hear of High Fox, living in the forest like a hunted animal, what will your soul feel? Each passing moment, you will know that your boy is a loathsome pariah, despised and wretched because of you. And, when he finally kills himself, or is killed by some uneasy warrior, his ghost, too, will come and stare from the shadows of your soul.”