Four Winds warriors, resplendent in waxed wooden armor, their shields at rest before them and war clubs at hand, lined the walls. The usual messengers and recorders were missing.
Tension, like a gut-string pulled too tight, vibrated in the room.
“Thief?” Blue Heron called as she looked up and recognized him. “Come forward.”
He glanced sidelong at the warriors who were staring at him with hard eyes. Approaching the dais, he dropped to his knees and bowed his head just short of the matting. He did, after all, have a bruise to coddle. “You’ve really got to find a better way to address me at these things.”
“And I suppose you’d have me call a fish a bird?” she asked caustically. “You are what you are.”
He supposed it could be worse. She could have called him “tow rope,” which he’d be hearing for the rest of his life.
She asked, “Why didn’t you fetch Lady Night Shadow Star as I requested?”
Seven Skull Shield lifted his head, staring up at first the Keeper and then the Tonka’tzi. In a voice barely above a whisper, he said, “I was able, at least, to get in to see her. The Red Wing guards her well; he kept an arrow nocked the entire time I was there. Also present is the Earth Clans healer, Rides-the-Lightning.” He could see them both pale as he added, “She’s Spirit flying, sent her souls into the Underworld, according to the Red Wing.”
Tonka’tzi Wind closed her eyes, looking both anxious and defeated at the same time.
“She doesn’t know about her sister, then?” Blue Heron asked.
“Not from any source in this world. Though I did, however, shoo away the slaves and staff and inform the Red Wing.”
“What possessed you to disclose information like that to a slave?” the Tonka’tzi asked.
He met her now glowering eyes. “With all respect, Tonka’tzi, half the city is abuzz. Armed squadrons now guard all the Four Winds palaces around the Grand Plaza. Lace’s palace is the second Four Winds palace to burn in days. And warriors are searching the surroundings like ants through a garden. No one gets up or down the steps on the Morning Star’s mound. Nor has the Morning Star been playing chunkey for the last few days … and the excuse that he’s ‘praying for the people’ is about as thin as last week’s rabbit stew. Maybe the Tula was right and this Two-Footed Smoke sorcerer can walk through walls, but the Red Wing, no matter what his other faults, has kept your daughter alive so far. And, it appears, he’s rotted well determined to do it again. Maybe Piasa really did tell her to keep him close. Maybe it was one of her voices speaking from some bent need down in her souls. The girl’s not quite right, we’ve all figured that out, yes? But the Red Wing’s not going to let harm come to your niece.”
“Watch your mouth, thief,” the Tonka’tzi said coldly.
“It’s all right,” Blue Heron murmured. “To my discomfort and dismay I’ve actually come to appreciate someone who tells it straight.”
Sun Wing whispered hotly, “And how will the Red Wing tell her about Lace when she finally comes back to her body? This is her sister, after all. Done incorrectly, it might shock her into some unwise action.”
“No trace of where she vanished to, huh?” Seven Skull Shield asked.
“Not through the usual sources.” Blue Heron narrowed an eye at him. “What did you hear from that weasel, Black Swallow?”
“That he received the shell carving you sent. I can repeat the fawning drivel he spewed to express his appreciation if you really want to hear it. But he’s got the word out. And with the right parties.”
“You’ve entrusted this to thieves and human garbage?” the Tonka’tzi gritted through her teeth, dismayed eyes on her sister.
Again Blue Heron lifted her hand, stilling the outburst.
Seven Skull Shield interjected, “If she’s in the city, great Tonka’tzi, my ‘thieves and human garbage’ will find her within the next two days.” He lightly touched his forehead, bowed his bruised forehead to the cane matting, and then backed away.
He could see the simmering anger in Sun Wing’s eyes, and wondered what had kept her from using the opportunity to let her mouth overload any balance of spoiled sense she might have. The look she was giving him would have melted a siltstone ax head.
Squadron second War Claw picked that moment to march through the door, and behind him—followed by another six warriors—came two prisoners. From their clothing, they both appeared to be Deer Clan, and high ranking.
Right Hand and his sister Corn Seed.
“Oh, my,” Seven Skull Shield murmured to himself. “We got two more before Two-Whatever-Smoke could silence them. The question, however, is if the scorpion is slipping? Are we finally ahead of him? Or were we supposed to capture these two and hear their confessions? Has he played them as well as he’s played everything else to this point?”