“The cold didn’t seem to bother you before I showed up.” Anhinga accented her order by whistling the ax head past Night Rain’s ear. “Move!”
Night Rain scuttled on her hands and knees, gaping as she passed Saw Back. Blood washed his sliced side in a crimson sheet. He was dazed, eyes half-lidded at the pain in his head. Was it imagination, or were his pupils two different sizes now?
“Pick it up!” Anhinga ordered, pointing at the stack of wood with her ax.
Night Rain broke into sobs, her limbs shaking as she fumbled for the cord. “Why are you doing this? What do I mean to you?”
You’re my excuse, you silly, stupid bitch. Anhinga fingered the sharp edge of her ax. It was greenstone—a fine piece traded down from somewhere far upriver. “By rutting around with scum like him, you disgrace yourself, your sister, your husband, and me.”
Night Rain wailed, “Saw Back? Help!” But her lover had just bent double to throw up on his thighs.
“By the Panther’s blood,” Anhinga whispered, “if you don’t pick that up, I’m going to kill you both!” She took one more menacing step toward Night Rain, her face contorting.
Night Rain nearly toppled as she swung the load up, clawing to set the tumpline on her forehead. The rabbithide cushion had slipped so that the cord ate into the young woman’s forehead.
“It hurts!” Night Rain pleaded.
Anhinga slapped the ax handle across Night Rain’s buttocks, leaving a red welt. Night Rain screamed.
“To hear you, I’d think someone was burning a bobcat to death.”
Night Rain tottered forward, shoulders jerking with each of her sobs. “You just wait! Wait until you get hurt sometime! I’ll laugh while you scream.”
Anhinga fingered the scars on her shoulders, remembering, hating. “You are worthless, Night Rain. A whimpering little child. By Panther’s bones, why did he ever marry a wretch like you.”
She turned, reaching down. Her fingers knotted around the necklace at Saw Back’s throat. She threw her weight against it and jerked. Saw Back flopped backward and clawed at his throat. The cord parted with a snap. Stepping away from him, she inspected the two halves of human jawbone that had been polished, drilled, and strung with beads.
It is only a small justice, my friend. I cannot kill him now. Not yet.
She glanced over her shoulder. Saw Back just sat there, naked and cold in the leaves, looking bloody and sick.
Forty
The following morning, Pine Drop waved off the calls as she hurried across the southern half of the plaza. By the Sky Beings, it was the talk of every tongue!
“Pine Drop?” Eats Wood called. “Have you heard?” Her cousin came trotting toward her, breaking away from a group of his friends.
“Yes, yes.” Of all the people to have to talk to, Eats Wood wasn’t her favorite. Something had always been wrong with him, and she suspected that someday, as he grew older and bolder, he would finally submit to his desire for a young girl. It would fall upon her uncle to slip up behind him and cleave his head in two. The clans dealt out justice like that, taking responsibility for their own.
“What is going to happen?” Eats Wood demanded. “Elder Sweet Root has called the Council into session. She is going to demand that Swamp Panther woman pay for the insult she has paid us!”
“We don’t know the details yet.”
“What details! Yesterday that camp bitch drove your sister naked through camp! Made her work like a stinking slave! And Deep Hunter is as mad as a teased cottonmouth about Saw Back! His head is broken and swollen! You should see him. He can’t stand up without weaving and falling. He may die.”
“That is Alligator Clan’s concern.” Pine Drop frowned. “What no one has asked is what Night Rain was doing out there with him. Why were they both naked, Cousin?”
Eats Wood grinned in a manner that roiled Pine Drop’s stomach. “Why do you think? I would have enjoyed seeing what happened out there.” He turned away. “But for now, I have to find my weapons. If this turns as ugly as I hope it will, we might have to back Uncle with darts as well as words.”
With that he was running, headed for his mother’s house on the fourth ridge.
Weapons? She hurried forward, joining the stream of people headed toward the Council House. Tiny flakes of snow whirled past as Pine Drop pulled her blue jay-feather cloak tight about her. Snakes! This couldn’t come to fighting, could it? Generations had passed since the last time blood had been spilled between the clans. Of all the People’s nightmares, that was the worst. If clans began fighting with each other, they would rend the world in two.