“We purposefully kept the information quiet, hoping that the silence would lure anyone involved to betray themselves.”
“Sorry to disappoint you,” Columella growled. “Ah, now I see yet another reason why you are here. And, no! Don’t even ask. Cut String never confided his plans to either me or the High Chief. Had he, we would have dealt with it quietly. As your presence here indicates, we don’t need that kind of trouble.”
Columella let herself fume appropriately, then added, “It makes a certain kind of sense that it would be Cut String. The man’s uncle … let’s say he’s vulnerable to ‘persuasion’ since he has an unhealthy attraction.” She waved it away. “If Cut String shows up we’ll—”
“He’s been taken care of.”
Columella nodded. “Then we’ll immediately have the unlamented Cut String’s uncle, Pond Water, rounded up and dealt with. We’ve let him go for too long as it is.”
Blue Heron’s gaze hardened. “No. We want the uncle delivered to us. Alive. We’d like to hear the story from his own lips.”
“You’ll have him as soon as my people can run him down.” Columella slowly shook her head. “The Morning Star? You and the tonka’tzi? Whoever is doing this is playing with fire, Clan Keeper.”
Blue Heron nodded soberly. “They’re so anxious to burn the Morning Star’s temple down, that it looks to me like they’re willing to burn it from the outside in. Even if it means they’ll be trapped and consumed in the process.”
Columella frowned. I’m missing too many of the pieces. Who else is moving against Morning Star’s House? Aloud she said, “If they succeed?”
“Cahokia will tear itself apart. Riots, chaos, old clan feuds burning out of control, the immigrants turning on their neighbors.”
Columella nodded sagaciously. “In these dangerous times, Clan Keeper, I will be more than willing to send you any information that comes to my ears.”
Blue Heron watched her through predatory eyes. “I would expect no less of you, Matron. Please give my regards to the High Chief. Let him know how sorry I was to miss him. You don’t happen to know his whereabouts, do you?”
Columella shrugged her ignorance, saying, “Had we been notified in advance of your arrival, we both could have welcomed you appropriately, and you could have had our combined counsel.”
“I suppose.” Blue Heron cocked her head, one eye glinting. “But we wouldn’t have had such a spontaneous conversation had we been burdened by all that formality.” A pause. “Now, if you will excuse me, I must be getting back.”
Only after the Clan Keeper had been ceremoniously carried from the room did Columella once again wave her attendants out, demanding they leave her in peace.
She waited until the last of them had filed out the main door and pulled it closed.
In the silence, she asked, “Well?”
She felt as well as heard the wooden door being opened in the dais beneath her seat. The dwarf, Flat Stone Pipe, crawled out from the hollow, made a face, and stretched his small body. His skin had taken on the impression of the matting upon which he’d been lying. His hair had been mussed by the cramped ceiling of the small hole.
He rubbed his back in irritation as he said, “I am taken as much by surprise as you are, Matron. Two assassins striking the tonka’tzi’s House at the same time? And we haven’t heard of them? Both following so closely on the botched attempt on the Morning Star?”
“But who?” she wondered. “We’ve ears in High Chief War Duck’s palace, in Green Chunkey’s House down in Horned Serpent Town, as well as every other House. Something would have warned us.” She paused. “What about Cut String’s uncle?”
“Old Pond Water is ignorant. A simple tool that we knew would fall into Blue Heron’s hands. I’ll send Red Thigh to help Blue Heron’s people with the interrogation. Since Red Thigh knows nothing about the plot, he’ll be as horrified as anyone, and just as eager to expose the plotters. Blue Heron’s people will be satisfied with his zeal on the way to ultimately discovering a dead end.”
“But who organized the assassination of the tonka’tzi?”
Flat Stone Pipe gave a shrug of his small shoulders. “Since we don’t know, Matron, perhaps we should pay attention to Blue Heron’s warning: you and the High Chief could be next.”
“Don’t be silly.”
“Matron, anyone capable of murdering the tonka’tzi and nicking the Clan Keeper’s throat without tipping his hand to either her or me is someone we most assuredly do not want to underestimate.”