She pushed back to look up at him. His perfect oval face, with its pointed nose, bore streaks of dirt. Confused, she stammered, “Wh-what are you doing here? I thought—”
“I know, but…” His voice went tight. “She’s dead.”
Sun Conch stared openmouthed. “Who? Who is?”
He dropped to his knees, grabbed Sun Conch around the waist, and buried his face in her feathered cape. The desperate choking sound he made terrified her. “Blessed Okeus,” he said, “my pretty girl. My Red Knot. She’s dead! Murdered.” For a long moment Sun Conch couldn’t speak. Elation mixed obscenely with sadness—sadness that the young, beautiful Red Knot had been killed, and elation that High Fox had come running home to her. The emotions fused so completely they seemed one. Then High Fox looked up and she saw tears glimmering on his cheeks. She swiftly knelt in front of him. “What happened?”
“It—it started at the dance. Copper Thunder, he—he watched Red Knot like a wolf on a blood trail. I couldn’t stand it, Sun Conch. I waited until I could get Red Knot alone, then I—I…” He fell into broken sobs, and clutched at Sun Conch’s cape as though it were a rope thrown to a drowning man.
“I’m here, High Fox,” she soothed. “I’m right here. Now, tell me. All of it. What did you do?”
“I convinced her to run away with me!” he cried, his eyes swimming. Words poured out, rapid, often broken. “But someone must have overheard. We… I—I don’t know who. I saw no one, but he must have decided to stop her, and he—oh, gods.” High Fox leaned forward and braced his forehead against hers. “It’s my fault. I killed her, Sun Conch! I did it.”
Sun Conch went white and her eyes widened in horror. “You … you killed her? You—”
“No!” He stared down at her and a driving fear invaded his voice. “Don’t you accuse me! I didn’t do it! I—1 tell you, I didn’t. She was dead when I found her. Just sprawled there. Blood… her blood was everywhere.” He looked down at his right hand, and shivered.
His fingers dug into Sun Conch’s shoulders like eagle’s talons, and Sun Conch had to grit her teeth to keep from crying out. She said, “Of course you didn’t kill her. You could never do such a thing to … to someone you loved, High Fox. I know that. Now, let me go. You’re hurting me.”
As if realizing his strength for the first time, he released her and took a step back, his dark eyes huge. “Oh, Sun Conch, forgive me. I didn’t mean to harm you. Never you. You are the only one I trust.” He shook his clenched fists. “Help me, Sun Conch. You must help me. Please. I beg you!”
She forced a calm into her voice that she did not feel.
“I will do anything you ask me to. You know I will. But you must explain to me exactly what happened. I don’t understand any of this.”
He threw up his hands. “I don’t either, I …” He blinked and abruptly frowned at her mouth. “You-you’re bleeding. Your mouth. What—”
“It’s nothing,” she answered. “Forget about it.”
“What happened? It looks like—”
“I fell, High Fox. I was running through the forest to get here. It was dark. It was a stupid thing.”
His brows lowered as if he knew she was lying. “Did someone strike you?” Anger tinged his voice. “Who? Why? Is this part of your punishment for daring to say you loved me, for—”
“Let it go!” she ordered. “Please, High Fox. We have more important things to discuss. Do you think Greenstone Clan killed her for trying to run away with you? For ruining their alliance with the great Copper Thunder?”
“I do not know. Truly. They might have, but I told no one except Red Knot what I had planned. I–”
“You told me.”
“Of course,” he whispered, and a small smile turned his lips. “You are my best friend.”
All the misery she’d been holding inside for two days suddenly flooded to the surface. “And you are mine, High Fox. I missed you so much, I thought I would die.”
He took her hands in a crushing grip. “It’s all right. Everything is going to be fine. You just need to help me think this through. I’m lost, Sun Conch. They—” His voice dropped to a whisper. “Sun Conch, they will think I did it.”
“How could they, High Fox? Everyone knows you loved her.”
He shook his head. “No, Sun Conch. They don’t know that I loved her the way I really did. People … they thought we were friends. They don’t know that I… we Someone saw me. Running away from her dead body. It was Flat Willow.”