Panther waved at the night around them. “Because” in her infinite wisdom, First Woman understood that if the world was all good, it would wither and die. Just as Ohona hasn’t abandoned us—no matter how we neglect him for his rascally brother. He still brings the sun after the storm. The same with Okeus. No matter how he makes us suffer, we’re better off for a little suffering. It makes us stronger, makes the world work. For that, I honor him, no matter how much I dislike him.”
Sun Conch’s eyes tightened and she tipped her face to watch the bare tree branches swaying above them. “I don’t always understand what you’re telling me, Elder, but I will think on this.”
“Yes, I know you will. You’re a thinker, Sun Conch. Unlike your friend, High Fox, you …”
A shadowed form moved near the palisade. Sun Conch shifted on cat feet, her war club raised, and stepped in front of Panther.
“No!” came a gasped cry. “I surrender! Please, I’m no danger.”
At the sound of the scratchy voice, Panther placed a hand on Sun Conch’s shoulder. “I think it’s all right. Who comes here?”
He could see an old woman detach herself from the darkness. “Elder?” her scratchy voice called out. “A word with you?”
“Do I know you?”
“Ah, once, yes, but that was two lifetimes ago. Two lifetimes, yes. Not now. Now your eyes barely see me.”
“And who were you, those many lifetimes ago?”
“You knew me as … No, it matters not. That woman is dead. Her flower has passed from memory. There’s no time, no time for remembering. Those thoughts are of pain. All that pain from long ago.” “You make no sense.”
“Oh, no, great Elder, my words make a great deal of sense, but I didn’t come to talk of the past. I came to talk of this life, and the trouble it brings. Let them suffer, that’s what I said. What misery Okeus pours down on their heads is only what they deserve. Dogs that they are.” “Who are dogs?” Panther stepped closer, edging past Sun Conch and the war club clutched in her hard fist.
“These people,” the old woman whispered, crabbing back into the shadows. “May their ghosts howl in the night, lonely and forgotten. May their spirits bathe in their own cooking blood as my man did. Let them burn, burn forever.”
“I know you, don’t I?” Panther said. “Please. Step out where I can see you.”
“No. No. Great one, now I-am a thing of shadows. He would kill me if he knew I was here, telling you about that woman. Bad blood! Forbidden blood! That’s what this is all about. I am out of time. Must go. Get back before I am missed. I…”
Yellow light flickered as Big Noise stepped out from the palisade, a pitch-pine torch held high.
“Go now! Away from me! Away from Moth.” The old woman scurried back, ducking down. “Don’t let them find me.”
“Wait!” Panther stepped forward. “You’re in no—”
“She came!” she hissed. “In the night! The fire started at the bottom, rose around him like petals of a flower. His flesh bubbled and charred as he screamed.”
The old hag scurried away, merging with the shadows as Big Noise approached in the company of four warriors. In the torchlight, Panther caught the faintest glimpse of the woman’s face. The light shone on a patch of slick scar tissue.
“Say nothing of this,” Panther said to Sun Conch, and turned toward the warriors. He strode forward, arms clasped behind his back. “Can I help you, War Chief?”
Big Noise stopped short, squinting in the torch light. “We missed you, Elder.”
“Suspicious of a witch loose in the night? Fearful that I might be cavorting with the night spirits? Turning myself into an owl, perhaps?” Panther chuckled. “Oh, I’m out here listening to voices, all right.” Big Noise gave him a perplexed look, the warriors behind him fidgeting. Panther waved it away. “Fear not, War Chief. Far from brewing evil, I just took the chance to walk out for air, to marvel at the stillness of the night, and think.”
“I see,” Big Noise said, though his voice indicated that he did not.
“Well, come then. If my presence is so reassuring, you may escort me back within the palisade.”
The whisper of moccasins brought Sun Conch fully awake. She shifted in her warm deer hides and lifted her head. Long black hair fell down her back. Panther slept nestled behind her, his back against the rear wall of the long house She could feel the warmth of his body, the movements of his breathing.
Big Noise, the guard that Black Spike had posted to watch them, stood ten paces in front of her, his face gleaming in the starlight that poured through the smoke hole in the roof. Had he made the noise?