“This doesn’t sound like you. What are you doing? It involves that witch, doesn’t it?”
“No.” He hoped she didn’t hear the lie. “It’s safe, I promise. And don’t even ask if it’s another woman. You know better than that.”
She pursed her lips in that familiar way, then said, “I never did believe you were here just because. You arrived just after the witch. In fact, I’d swear I saw you walk in with her the day before. I see most everybody who comes through the gate.”
“Will you promise to wait for me at your house?”
“Why should I?”
“Because I want you to.” He sighed. “That’s the problem. I want you to be away from this. Safe.”
“Safe? You’re not going to kill anyone, are you?”
“No!”
“Are you going to steal something?”
Only the Blessed Sun’s souls! “No one’s property is in danger. I just have to give something to someone and then see that she’s safely out of Flowing Waters Town. That’s all. After that, I’ll do whatever you want me to. Perhaps go off to Trade with the Hohokam. I don’t care.”
“I want to help you.”
“I’ll Trade you. A week’s worth of firewood. Whatever you want, for as long as you want it. Just promise me you’ll stay home tonight.”
“This thing must be very important to you.”
“It is.” Besides, if doing this got him killed, it wouldn’t matter what he’d promised. Choices.
She was silent until they dropped down the hill to the earthen berm behind Dusk House. He could see the high balcony that ran the length of the third floor. This day no people lounged there. The doorways were blocked off. Only a few water jars stood on the clay-packed surface.
“I’ll be there for you,” Cactus Flower said. “But you worry me. What if someone finds out what you’re doing?”
He made a face. “I might have to leave for a while. Go home. I wouldn’t want you to get blamed.”
She’d pinched her lower lip, eyes wary. “You’re not going to bring the Red Shirts down on top of you?”
“No, nothing like that.” He hoped.
“Gods, Spots! What kind of trouble are you in?”
“Helping an old friend, nothing more. It’s not like I’m declaring war on the First People.” Or was it? “I just have to attend to a duty, that’s all.”
She gave a toss of her head that he’d come to know as irritation. “Sure. Well, pay no attention to me. It’s none of my business.”
“That’s right,” he added somewhat coldly, hoping she’d be so angered she’d ignore him for the rest of the day.
“Rat dung!” she spat. “You’re as cold as this wind. You’d think it was winter instead of equinox.”
He sniffed, smelling the wind-blown smoke that streamed down from the north. What was happening up there?
They waved to the guard as they entered the southeastern gate. On this day, Spots wouldn’t have much trouble selling firewood.
Mid-Sun Town had been precisely located atop Juniper Ridge. It lay in direct line between the watchtower, the sipapu, and the spot where Father Sun rose on the equinox horizon. The town should have been a hive of ceremonial activity. On this day, with the clan elders imprisoned atop First Moon Mountain, with blowing smoke and rapidly falling temperatures, it was a gloomy and depressed place.
Normally people gathered on the rim, watching for the equinox sunrise as it gleamed over the distant watchtower and then onto Mid-Sun Town’s mud-plastered buildings.
Few had ventured out into the choking smoke to leave pahos on the high rimrock.
Then the meeting with Ironwood had been called in the Soft Earth kiva. Those people who could had congregated there. From where he sat Wrapped Wrist could cock his head and hear the shouting and argument inside the kiva. He longed to be there, to hear what the clans were deciding.
Instead he stood just outside the Black Shale kiva, keeping an eye on the door as Ironwood met with Yucca Sock and Crow Woman. The big kiva had been the only place large enough for Ironwood to assemble his warriors. Now Wrapped Wrist and Bad Cast strolled casually around the perimeter, ensuring that no one intruded.
“You saw Ripple this morning?”
“I did.” Bad Cast gestured off toward the rimrock. “He was out there at dawn. “Wrapped Wrist, I’m worried. He wasn’t himself.”
He snorted irritably. “Are any of us? Look what’s happened to us, where we’ve been.”
“No, perhaps not.” Bad Cast shook his head. “And where has Spots disappeared to? For all we know, the Mountain Witch has stolen his souls, left his dead corpse by the side of the trail.”