A well of cold grew in Sun Conch’s belly. Flat Willow had the soul of a stalking cat. If he’d seen High Fox running away, he would surely tell it. She pushed back from him. “Then you must go to your clan elders. Explain. Tell them you didn’t do it. You are the Weroance’s son. They will believe you.”
He smoothed his fingers over her hand. “My poor innocent girl. What our people think does not matter. Flat Pearl will hunt me down. They—”
“But you didn’t kill her!”
“No, but everyone saw my face that night. I looked like a rabid dog. Blessed gods, I could not watch her leave with that filthy old man. The thought of them together was like a swarm of biting flies in my belly. I had to do something! But no one will understand my actions. Don’t you see? They will think I convinced her to run away with me so that I could kill her. That if I could not have her, I would allow no other man to.”
“Even if the people at Flat Pearl believe you guilty, your Sun Shell Clan will not. They will protect you.”
He laughed, but the mirth quickly turned to choking whimpers. “Old Hunting Hawk has always hated me. She will demand that I be turned over.”
“Your clan … and your father … will refuse.”
“Yes,” he said. “I know. Black Spike will refuse and so will the Sun Shell Clan elders—it will shatter the alliance. Don’t you see, Sun Conch? This murder means war. And I—I don’t know what to do. I can’t think straight.”
Moonlight streamed down, silvering his exposed skin, and Sun Conch saw what looked like speckles of blood on his fingers. Without realizing it, she recoiled, her heart thundering.
High Fox seemed to know what she was thinking. He pulled his hands away. “What is it?”
“Nothing, I just… I—I don’t feel very well. I haven’t eaten in days.”
His fists flexed open and closed. “I should not have come home. There is nothing for me here. I’ve no right to ask you for anything. Especially not after what happened two days ago. I should have stood up to my father that day in the plaza. I—”
“No, you shouldn’t have!” Cheeks blazing, she said, “I do love you, High Fox, but I was wrong to say it before the people. It shamed your father to have a potter’s daughter from Star Crab Clan make such a declaration about his son. You are the son of a great Weroance, whereas I—I am nothing. If you’d defended me, it would have only made things worse.”
High Fox lifted his hand, and gently touched her cheek. “You may be the daughter of a potter, but you are the only true friend I’ve ever had. And I do love you, Sun Conch. Until I met Red Knot, I—I always thought we …” He took his hand away and clenched it into a hard fist. “That’s what I should have told my father. That you were not to blame. I was.”
Hope leapt in her veins. She laid a hand, feverish and urgent, on his arm. “We could run away, High Fox. You and I. This instant! I would go with you to the Serpent Chiefs. Please. Take me away with you!”
Tears glistened in his eyes. “My poor sweet girl. Do you think I can forget how young you are? Your clansmen would kill me, Sun Conch, and have every right to.”
“Not if we leave! I—I can be your wife, High Fox. Truly, I can. If you will only let me, I promise I—”
“Please!” He squeezed his eyes closed as if in pain, and stepped backward, away from her. In the moonlight he resembled a tortured warrior. “I can’t make another mistake on top of the one I’ve just made. Somehow, I’ve got to prove that I didn’t do this thing.”
A gust of cold wind swept across the water and fluttered long strands of her black hair before Sun Conch’s eyes. She did not have the strength to brush them away. As long as she remained a child, he would not touch her. The cold truth left her feeling sick and empty.
To hide the tremor in her hands, she tucked them beneath her arms. “You are right, of—of course. You can’t have our village against you at the same time that Flat Pearl is accusing you of murder. One enemy is enough.” She managed to draw a breath into her lungs, and held it for a time. As she slowly let it out, she asked, “But how can we prove that you didn’t murder her?”
“We can’t. Why would anyone listen to us? My father is the most powerful man in his country. He will not care what we say. Even if I were guilty, I don’t think he would turn me over to Rat Pearl. It would make him appear weak in front of Hunting Hawk, and that old woman would certainly use it against him. Think, Sun Conch. I am barely a man, and one soon to be accused of murder, and you are but a child. Who would listen to us?”