People of the Morning Star(164)
“You’ll never catch her.”
“She’s a woman.”
“Despite those hips of hers, she’s as fleet as any man. Besides, she knows two things you don’t.”
“What would those be, Keeper?”
“She knows this road, and … where she’s going.”
He shrugged, not that she could see him in the darkness.
“I have a suspicion, Red Wing. I think she’s gone to Evening Star House. Several of my sources reported that Lady Sun Wing passed this way late yesterday. I think we’re going to discover that Walking Smoke has formed an alliance with Evening Star House. That he’s convinced High Dance and Columella that he can actually accomplish this resurrection—call the Water Panther into his body. And when he does, he can defeat the Morning Star.”
“You think Lace and Sun Wing are now hostages?”
“I do.” She grunted to herself. “And, may the Horned Serpent help us, it will be a miracle if he doesn’t take Night Shadow Star as well.”
“Then, you dare not cross the river, Keeper. He’ll have you as well.”
“Not if I cross with a couple of squadrons of warriors. He’s been ahead of me from the start, Red Wing. That stops now. I’ve already sent a runner on to War Duck asking that he have two squadrons meet me at the canoe landing, and that canoes be collected to ferry us across.”
“All the more reason for me to run ahead.”
“Stay, Red Wing.” Her voice tightened. “Please. I may have need of you. Especially if, as you say, you serve my niece.”
“What use would that be, Keeper?”
“As an intermediary to bargain for her life.”
“My oath is not to you.”
“No, it isn’t.” She bitterly added, “But if you do this, help keep my nieces alive, I’d be willing to offer your mother and sisters a deal: restricted freedom in my household. That may not be the best of worlds, but it certainly is not the worst. They would have some control of their lives and bodies. Your sisters could marry if they desired. They’d at least have a future beyond the Morning Star’s next whim. The uncertainty would be over.”
He frowned. “How about if—”
“No bargains!” she snapped. “Take it, or leave it.”
He chuckled hollowly. “I’ll take it.” A sense of relief blew through him. “Though I have to ask why you’d make the offer.”
She was silent for a time. “Your mother and I were young together once. A long, long time ago. It was a different world. Back before the fall of Petaga, before the resurrection.”
“You know we hate you.”
“Hate all you want, Red Wing. As long as oath and honor carry weight in your souls. I can already see that your hatred of my niece has caused you great discomfort. It’s kept you from a relaxing night’s sleep as you charge off through the darkness. Maybe I can make your mother suffer so in my service.”
And then she laughed hollowly.
“I still have to keep Night Shadow Star and the others alive once we get to Evening Star town.”
“Yes,” the Keeper agreed from the top of her swaying litter. “There’s always that. Let’s just hope things aren’t too messy when we get there.”
In the distant west lightning flickered, a sign that the Thunderbirds were again at war with the Underworld.
Oh, they’ll be messy, Keeper. As far ahead of us as he’s been all along, he’s anticipated anything you might try.
Fifty-nine
What have I done? The words seemed to echo hollowly between Sun Wing’s souls. Please, please, don’t let this happen to me.
Sun Wing had watched in disbelief as Walking Smoke dismembered their sister and the tiny infant. Her brother’s motions had been smooth, practiced, and he wielded the long, brown-chert blade with an uncommon dexterity.
Terrified to the point of trembling, she needed only to look down to see the paintings her brother had so carefully drawn on her shivering skin. Spirals on her breasts, tadpoles, mudpuppies, and caterpillars.
I am nothing more to him than an offering. Why?
She must have cried out when she wondered, What did I ever do to you? because he answered, “Nothing, little sister. You were too small, too helpless to do anything to me. Not at all like my brother, or your sister Night Shadow Star. They betrayed me, betrayed the whole world.”
“What…” She swallowed, trying to wet her mouth. “What are you doing with those body parts?”
Yes, keep him talking, distract him.
He glanced at her where he worked so carefully to reposition one of Lace’s severed legs. Even from where she sat, she could see that he was fashioning an arc out of the body parts. Laying them out on the floor in a pattern. Head at the top, torso, the arms and legs out to either side like drooping wings.