Silvertip extended his hand to touch the bundle, and Lookingbill ordered, “No, Grandson. We’ve discussed this. Leave it alone.”
The youth drew his hand back, but his breathing had gone shallow. He cocked his head as though listening to something no one else could hear. Ashes had fixed her eyes on the boy, wide, fascinated.
Skimmer said, “I have heard that Kakala took all of the Nine Pipes women because the Prophet wanted one.” She swallowed hard. “I think it was me. But somehow, Nashat didn’t understand.”
Lookingbill shook his head. “You were plotting his murder.”
Ashes twined her fingers in Skimmer’s sleeve and gazed at her in terror. “Mother? I don’t want you to go.”
“We’ll talk about it later,” she said, and smoothed Ashes’ hair.
Windwolf cracked his knuckles. “He won’t believe it if you just walk into his arms. He’ll know it’s a ruse. And even if he doesn’t, Nashat will. He sees plots everywhere.”
Skimmer bowed her head and seemed to be examining the fine black bear hides that glittered in the lamplight. “I just need to see Ti-Bish. I think I can convince him.”
Taken aback, Windwolf crossed his arms over his chest.
She craned her neck to meet his disapproving stare. “He will protect me. I can’t tell you how I know. It was something in his eyes that long-ago night.”
“Some … communication,” he said skeptically. “You’re speaking like a Soul Flyer, which means you’re making no sense at all.”
From the corner of his eye, he saw Silvertip wet his lips and look frantically at Lookingbill.
“Grandfather?” the boy said in a shaking voice. “I—”
“Not now, Silvertip.” Lookingbill’s gaze was fixed on Skimmer. “Let’s say you’re right. Ti-Bish lets you in and he protects you from the Nightland clan Elders. What then?”
Her expression went hard, unyielding. “When the time is right, I’ll kill him.”
“You?” Windwolf and Lookingbill asked at that same time.
Skimmer held up a hand and raised her voice. “I don’t know how yet, but I will.”
The burning wick sputtered, and gigantic shadows leaped over the boulders. The only one who seemed to notice was young Silvertip. He watched them with wide eyes, as though he expected them to soar down and grab him by the throat.
Windwolf said, “If you did kill him, it would throw the Nightland People into chaos. Once his warriors know he’s dead, they’ll fall apart like a lump of dirt in water.”
Lookingbill added, “A dead Prophet is a false Guide.”
“It may take me a few days,” Skimmer said. “I suspect I’ll have to convince him I mean him no harm before he’ll let me get close enough to kill him.”
Windwolf nodded. “I think we can give you perhaps a quarter moon.” He turned to Lookingbill. “We will have to keep Kakala’s forces busy here for that amount of time. Do your people have the heart for such a fight?”
“They’ll fight for as long as they are breathing.”
He turned attention to Skimmer. You are the weak link? What if your soul seizes at the last moment? What if you break?
Did he dare send a fragile woman like Skimmer into a position even more dangerous than the one Bramble had faced? Bramble had been an experienced, shrewd warrior. Skimmer had never had a man’s blood on her hands. She’d barely kept from collapsing into a quivering mass on the trail.
He said, “Forgive me, Lookingbill. But Skimmer is not the right person to perform this duty.”
“What?” she asked in surprise.
“I mean we can’t chance that you will lose your nerve at the last instant.”
With softness as excruciating as a mother’s last good-bye, she murmured, “I can do it.”
The lamp threw a pale glittering shawl over the stone walls, and turned people’s unblinking eyes into mirrors.
Windwolf clamped his jaw.
Lookingbill asked, “If not her, who?”
Dipper entered, a wooden plate in her hands. She stopped short at the tension in the very air and settled onto her knees, the food forgotten in her hands.
Windwolf kept his eyes on Skimmer when he said, “My life depends on my ability to judge people and their abilities. In the end, she won’t be able to kill Ti-Bish.”
What he would never admit was that the last time his instincts had screamed at him this way, a trusted friend had betrayed him.
Skimmer turned to Lookingbill, fire in her eyes as she said, “Chief, I am the only one who can do this. Who will take care of my daughter while I am gone?”
“I will,” Dipper said without hesitation. “I think Ashes and Silvertip will get along well.”