But even then, will I ever be safe?
Would any of them?
She stared at the line of bodies in Lace’s sleeping quarters. White Squash, Fine Silt, Bread Woman, Blue Flower, and the rest were laid out like an offering, their blood pooled and drying into black on the intricately woven mat floor.
And then there was the gruesome display pinned to the wall above the bed. The way the torch flickered, a trick of the light seemed to make it move and wiggle like a thing alive.
That … That … Words failed her.
The urge to shiver, to break down and weep, weakened Blue Heron’s spine. Tried to turn her knees into water.
Can’t. Got to be strong.
Never had she resented and hated the fact that so many looked up to her than at that moment. The entire world expected her to be the central supporting pillar of Four Winds strength, and all she wanted to do was run screaming from the memories.
“Aunt, I just got your messa…” Night Shadow Star’s voice trailed off as she stepped into the room. Her gasp of disbelief was followed by a dry swallow.
“I was on the verge of retiring for the night.” Blue Heron’s voice came out strangled. “A terrified warrior came charging out of the night. Said he’d gone to deliver a message from the Tonka-tzi to the Lady Lace. The warriors were standing at each corner of the palace as prescribed, but the two who were supposed to be monitoring the door were missing.”
“Those are the two just inside the door with their throats cut,” Night Shadow Star observed unsteadily.
“It’s raining, black as charred pitch out there,” Blue Heron noted, her eyes still locked in horror at the thing hanging from the wall above the bed.
“Where is Lace?”
“I don’t know. But that thing above the bed? I’m pretty sure it’s Heavy Cane. It’s almost hard to tell, but he would be about that size. Even with what’s been … uh, sliced away, you can tell it was male.”
Night Shadow Star staggered sideways to prop herself against the door frame. The Red Wing had appeared out of nowhere, one hand bracing her. He was staring at the wreckage in the room with dark, narrowed eyes, a hardness in the set of his mouth.
“Niece? Are you going to be all right?”
Night Shadow Star barely managed a faint nod, and kept swallowing as if to forestall the urge to throw up.
Blue Heron didn’t blame her. The smell itself would have gagged even the bravest warrior.
“Has … Has Mother been told?” Night Shadow Star ran the back of her hand across her lips. “Or the Morning Star?”
“Not yet.” Blue Heron blinked against the misery. “I’ll attend to it as soon as we decide what to do here.” She hesitated; her soul-sick gaze fixed on Heavy Cane’s corpse with its oddly flayed skin and the weirdly severed muscles that hung from the bones like perverted, and too-fat, fringe. Pegs had been driven through the wrist bones to pin them to the wall like outspread wings. From a single remaining patch of scalp, the long, blood-soaked hair had been tied to yet another peg to keep the skinned head from lolling.
“This is evil, Aunt.”
“What does Piasa say? He’s still whispering to your souls, isn’t he?”
“Cold terror, Aunt. That’s all I feel.” She turned half-frantic eyes toward Blue Heron. “All the Powers in the Underworld are shaken.” Her delicate brow lined. “Do you understand what that means? Do you understand what kind of evil is loose among us when it’s scaring Piasa, Horned Serpent, and the Tie Snakes? Even the souls of the dead are shivering and cringing.” She fought tears. “Who can do that, Aunt? Who has that kind of Power?”
The Red Wing, his expression grim, said, “Someone possessed of a terrible hate.”
“You, Red Wing?” Blue Heron asked, a desperate hope welling in her breast.
He shook his head, a flicker of pity there as he studied what had been done to Heavy Cane. “My hatred for the Four Winds Clan was born fully formed and true. Whoever did this? His hatred was born malformed, demented, and twisted with soul disease. As much as he hates you, he hates himself, and all of existence even more.”
“I suppose you’d be an expert on that,” Blue Heron scoffed.
“Keeper, only someone who once loved with all his heart could come to hate you this poisonously.”
Blue Heron took a deep breath, unable to stop the shiver that ran through her. The Red Wing’s words might have cut her like a lash, but to Night Shadow Star they came as a physical blow. She would have collapsed had not the Red Wing caught her.
“Call for oil,” Night Shadow Star’s voice had changed, gone hollow and coarse, as it did when she was possessed by the Piasa. “Burn this place. Burn it now.”