People of the Mist(86)

“And in my house!” Rosebud cried. “Think of it. I would have had to move. Who could live here after a witch was killed in the house?” Panther responded, “Trust me. After that wondrous meal you fed me, my soul would never harass you, dear woman.”

“He took me by surprise,” Sun Conch said glumly. “He lunged for you so quickly, Elder, I couldn’t do anything.” “I was in no danger. Sun Conch, if you learn nothing else from me remember this: Appearances can deceive. Never ever underestimate an opponent. Only a fool acts against another man without thinking through the ramifications. Copper Thunder, for all of his bluster and cunning, is still a fool. That part of his soul hasn’t changed.”

“The best challenge is the one never issued,” Nine Killer added thoughtfully.

Panther smiled and bent forward to light his pipe. His wrinkled cheeks worked in and out as he puffed a billowing cloud of blue smoke. “Such sense is generally wasted on War Chiefs.”

“Not if they want to win.”

Panther sighed as the tobacco worked its magic on his tired body. The excitement of battle was thinning from his blood. Grass Mat! After all these years!

Blue smoke rose from his pipe. It was said that Okeus gave the world tobacco as a reward for good behavior. For the life of him, Panther couldn’t figure out the catch. Such a thing just wasn’t normally in Okeus’ nature.

Rosebud cast suspicious glances at Panther as she collected the shiny pots. The dogs had finished and now wandered off to rest their noses on their paws.

“I have missed this,” Panther said. “A man forgets what it’s like to live in a snug house and share a fire of an evening.”

“Then why did you run off to that island?” Rosebud asked, beating Nine Killer to the question.

Panther again watched the smoke curl from his pipe. An image of Grass Mat’s mother lingered, her shining black hair spread over the robes as he looked down into her dark brown eyes. Not once in all the long nights when she warmed his robes had she ever uttered a sound. No emotion had crossed her face as he spent himself inside her. For all the warmth her naked flesh imparted to his, her soul had been forever cold and alien to him.

Grass Mat, here!

Panther sighed wearily. “I went for many reasons. I wanted time to study the world, to know why it was made the way it was. I needed time to find myself, to reflect on who I was and how I came to be that way. Mostly I just needed to think.” And to deal with the ghosts.

“And what did you find?” Nine Killer asked as he pulled his own stone pipe from a leather pouch at the foot of his bed. He resettled himself and studied Panther with thoughtful brown eyes.

“I found that truth can be as slippery as an eel in greasy hands. That humans are as treacherous as sea nettles in summer waters, looking so delicate and fragile but delivering a very painful sting. I learned the easiest person of all to fool. Do you know?”

“No.” Nine Killer frowned.

“Yourself.” Panther pulled on his pipe and glanced at Sun Conch to see if she’d understood. To his chagrin, she still seemed to be fretting about Copper Thunder’s attack. “To answer your question, Rosebud, that’s why I went. To figure out what had happened to me—what I had done to myself. And, I hoped, maybe in the process I would learn something about why the world is the way the world is.”

“Elder, the world is the way it was made to be, isn’t it?” Sun Conch asked. “How could it be any different?”

Panther gave her a sly look. “Sometimes I think your optimistic innocence is my greatest weakness. I wish .. v”

A stick tapped outside and the flap to the doorway lifted. Hunting Hawk peered inside. “I thought I’d find him here.”

Rosebud instinctively lowered her eyes. “Enter, Weroansqua.”

Hunting Hawk ducked through, wobbled, and caught herself with her walking stick. She crossed the mat covered floor and lowered herself amid grunts. One by one, she studied them. To Panther’s eyes, Nine Killer clearly looked the most uncomfortable, as if caught in a breach of etiquette.

“I just had a visitor,” she said, gazing levelly at Panther. “The Great Tayac objects to your presence in my village. Ordered me to make you leave.”

“Brash of him.” Panther puffed on his pipe and sent another cloud of blue toward the roof.

“I thought so, too.” Hunting Hawk’s gaze narrowed. “But he told me fascinating things about you. Said you betrayed villages to their enemies. Poisoned people. Said you did a lot of terrible things.”

Panther gave her a dry smile. “No doubt he did. There is no love lost between us.”