For the first time, Water Petal’s expression softened. “That makes me feel just a little better, Cousin. It gladdens my souls to hear that you are carving at least a little revenge off her slim body. Would you mind telling me how you’re accomplishing this feat?”
“It is not revenge, Cousin. And, no, I will not tell you how I deal with her infidelity.” He noticed a young man hurrying along the embankment toward their ridge. A slim fellow, Salamander couldn’t place him in the gloom. Then he recognized that loose run: Little Needle. “Cousin, you must trust me about this.”
“Thank the Sky Beings, I hope this is something that you’re learning from the Serpent? People talk about that, too, you know. Many wonder what to think of you. It’s not like you will step into his shoes when he dies. He has made it clear that Bobcat will. As to why you help him with the death rituals, well, it seems depressing to me.”
“He needs me.”
“So do other people, Salamander! Your mother, the Clan Elder, could use a little help on the house she’s building. But for Yellow Spider, it’s a wonder we’ve even raised the walls!”
He stood, stepping out from the ramada as Little Needle came jogging up, his breath rising and falling.
“Salamander?” the boy called.
“Greetings, Little Needle. What brings you at a run? Not more gossip about my wives, I hope.” He glanced back, unable to read Water Petal’s expression.
“No.” Little Needle managed between puffing breaths. “But I’m glad you have heard these things about them. Especially Pine Drop. Did you know that she’s been—”
“Yes, yes, go on.” He clamped a hand on the boy’s greased arm and dragged him into the shadows of the ramada. “What brings you here?”
“Jaguar Hide!” the boy cried. “You wouldn’t believe it! I talked to my cousin, Bluefin, who was fishing in the south. He has a set of gill nets placed where the channels are draining out of the swamp. He went to check them, and who should be waiting but Jaguar Hide! Bluefin thought he was dead! But then Jaguar Hide asked him his clan. And when he told him Owl Clan, Jaguar Hide asked him to carry a message to Elder Wing Heart.”
“What message?” Water Petal stood and stepped forward. Salamander didn’t need to see her quick glance at Wing Heart.
“Cousin,” Wing Heart interrupted, surprising them all, “Speaker Cloud Heron and I will hear what Jaguar Hide says.” She turned her head in the darkness, though how she could still work the loom baffled Salamander. “Tell me, Little Needle.”
“Jaguar Hide wants to come here!” Little Needle had stopped bouncing from foot to foot, puzzled at the mention of the dead Speaker. “He wants to meet with you, declare a truce between our peoples. He wishes to know if you will speak in the Council and grant him safe passage to come and see you?”
Wing Heart had stopped weaving, her form a dark shadow in the gathering night. For a long moment she remained frozen, then said in her old familiar voice, “Yes, Little Needle. I will speak for him. Send word: Owl Clan guarantees his safety. Let him come and tell the Speaker and me what is on his mind.”
“Don’t do this, Elder.” Water Petal turned to stare at Wing Heart’s dark shape. “Whatever he is after, it is no good. And we have never been weaker.”
“We are Owl Clan!” Wing Heart snapped. “No one challenges our authority. Let him come!”
Water Petal’s sagging posture betrayed her defeat. No matter what, Wing Heart remained the Elder. Her word was final.
Salamander turned back to his friend. “Go. Tell Bluefin that the Elder will see Jaguar Hide. I take it that he has a way of getting the message to the Swamp Panthers without ending up skewered on a pole in their village?”
“He does. Jaguar Hide gave him instructions on how it was to be done.”
“Then you had best get a good night’s sleep,” Salamander told him. “It will be a long trip through the channels tomorrow.”
“Yes, Speaker.” Little Needle turned, trotting away into the darkness to find his mother’s house on the third ridge.
“What does Jaguar Hide want?” Water Petal repeated to herself.
“He will bring trouble,” Wing Heart said from her loom. “I have no doubt of that. Don’t worry, Cousin, it is nothing that the Cloud Heron and I can’t handle.”
Salamander could feel Water Petal’s unease as she studied the Elder. White Bird, Cloud Heron, they cropped up in Wing Heart’s conversation as if they had never died. Maybe this was just what his mother needed to bring back her old confident self. Was she still canny enough to deal with the terrible Swamp Panther warrior?