She looked around. This wasn’t her long house but she knew every person who lived here. Most were missing, spending the night with kin, as far from the witch as they could get. Twenty hands away, old man Lametoe had braved spending the night in his long house He snored like an enraged bear, as he did every night, and Little Toad, his six-Comings-of-the-Leaves-old granddaughter, fidgeted in her sleep. She lay to the left of the old man, one arm curved over her head, her fingers opening and closing as though reaching out for someone. Sun Conch longed to hold her. The child’s mother had been killed six moons ago, and Little Toad had yet to recover. She had been whimpering earlier, the sound barely audible, but it had shredded Sun Conch’s soul.
Moccasins whispered on the matting. Soft. Indistinct. The guard turned to look toward the far end of the long house.
Sun Conch silently reached for her war club, then slipped it from beneath her deer hides Hickory smoke spiraled up from the smoldering fire pits, crawled across the ceiling, and glimmered in the starlight shining through the smoke holes before being sucked out into the night. She rearranged the blankets so they wouldn’t impair her movement if she had to rise and strike quickly with the war club. The wooden handle felt icy in her hand.
It’s probably nothing.
Smoky air stung Sun Conch’s lungs as she inhaled.
A shadow moved through the center of the long house tall and graceful. As he neared, she could smell the scents of sacred tobacco and wood smoke.
“Big Noise,” High Fox whispered. “It’s me. I must speak with Sun Conch.”
Big Noise replied, “Your father said—”
“He said you were to watch the witch, not me. I don’t need your permission, Big Noise. I just thought I would inform you since you are standing guard.”
High Fox silently passed Big-Noise and knelt beside Sun Conch’s bed.
She sat up, careful not to awaken The Panther, and laid her war club aside. The dim light revealed the bruise on the side of his face. “What happened?” she whispered, and reached to touch it.
High Fox caught her hand and held it in both of his. “My father, he—he was upset with me.” His thumbs moved gently over her fingers. “I told him I thought it would be best for everyone if I just went away.”
Sun Conch couldn’t speak. One part of her wailed that after all that had happened, all she had gone through to help him, he wanted to just flee? The other part of her desperately whispered, Run away… with me ?
She steeled herself, and said, “We discussed this, High Fox, that night on the shore of the inlet. You said we had to—”
“I know I did. But I’ve changed my mind.” His grip on her hand turned hurtful. “Sun Conch, everybody thinks I’m guilty! I’ll be killed!”
“Stop this,” she ordered, and tugged her hand back. The expression on his handsome face went from terror to shock in less than a heartbeat. He sat in front of her with his fingers still clutching the air where her hand had been. Sun Conch whispered, “You are braver than this. What’s gotten into you?”
“Sun Conch, I … I think my father may be turning against me.” His mouth hung open, the lower jaw trembling.
“What! Why?”
“I heard him talking. He said that Red Knot was a stupid fool, that she should have known better than to show interest in a man like me.” A swallow went down his throat. “It was the way he said it. The tone in his voice.”
“That proves nothing, High Fox. He’s worried about you, you know that. His son is in trouble. People say odd things when they’re worried, looking for a way out.”
He fumbled with the laces on his moccasins. “Yes, I I know, but…” He paused for a long time. “Everyone thinks I did it, Sun Conch. Even The Panther! You heard him this afternoon! Please. There’s something I need you to do for me. Something I can’t do myself. I lost something when I was in Flat Pearl Village, up on the ridge overlooking the canoe landing. When you are in Flat Pearl, could you …” His eyes shifted to look behind Sun Conch, and he hastily rose to his feet.
“No, she can’t.”
Sun Conch swung around.
The Panther sat up, drew a blanket over his bony shoulders, and said, “What are you doing here?”
“I came to speak with Sun Conch, Elder.”
Little Toad roused and woke Lametoe. Big Noise stepped forward with his war club in hand to see what was happening.
Panther extended a hand in a calming gesture. Softly, so as not to wake anyone else, he said, “The stories of my sorcery are greatly exaggerated, Big Noise. I assure you, I am not so Powerful as my enemies would have you believe. Please. Go back to your guard position. This does not concern you.”