“You even lie to yourself, Ecan. You will do whatever you must to save yourself.”
“That, too.”
He pulled the curtain back, but just stood in the entry. Around his tall body, she saw the rain-soaked plaza and part of the large Council Lodge. Smoke curled from the roof.
Dzoo leaned back, waiting.
Ecan stared coldly at Dzoo as the rain began to slow.
She looked at him with those stunning midnight eyes, and he wondered if she was drinking his soul. Long red hair streamed over the front of her cape. Every move she made, every word she spoke, had a dangerous, sensual quality. She was at once frightening and frail, a combination that drew him like a wolf to a rabbit burrow. She had begun their game of dog and rabbit.
But he would finish it.
He stepped outside, where Wind Scorpion waited beside Horned Serpent. “Guard?” He motioned to Horned Serpent.
Horned Serpent trotted over and bowed. He had his brown hair tucked up beneath his rain hat. “Yes, Starwatcher?”
“Keep a close watch. Let no one pass. She is very Powerful, and she—”
“Oh, I know, Starwatcher. I have heard stories about her strange gods.” The youth wiped rain from his broad cheeks.
“Stories? What stories?”
“Well …” He glanced at Ecan, then at the door hanging. “It is said that while she was a girl, the Striped Dart People taught her how to fly, and at night her soul takes the form of a bird and soars into the Underwater House to sit on the branches of a great tree hidden deep inside the Cave of First Woman. While there, she speaks with strange half-human half-buffalo men and drinks the blood of dead children.”
“For the sake of … ,” Ecan said in exasperation. “Just let no one pass, Horned Serpent. We can’t stop her from visiting the Underwater House if she wishes, but we can stop someone from trying to rescue her.”
The warrior nodded vigorously. “Yes, Starwatcher. As you order. I promise to guard her with my life.”
Wind Scorpion stepped forward, an eyebrow lifted. “Starwatcher, if you would prefer, I would be more than happy to stay here. The witch’s wiles don’t scare me.”
Ecan saw the faintest flicker in the grizzled warrior’s eyes, and shook his head. “No, I want you with me. I trust you like no one else.”
Wind Scorpion nodded, the slightest quiver at the corners of his mouth.
Ecan stalked away from the captive’s quarters. Nothing was working out as he had anticipated. By Gutginsa, why? What had he done to affect his fate this way?
The slaves still out working—pounding octopus meat on stone slabs, smoking fish on racks over the plaza fire—watched him pass in silence. Rain glistened on their hats and capes. None would dare speak to him unless spoken to first. Instead they covered their faces when he neared—especially the young women—and nodded respectfully. Only other North Wind People met his eyes, but even they did so with trepidation.
Ecan walked up the slope to his lodge, which stood just inside the palisade at the base of the lava cliff. He threw aside the leather door hanging and ducked inside. Wind Scorpion took up his position outside the door.
Home. He experienced a sudden sense of relief. Three body lengths across, the vaulted ceiling rose two body lengths over his head. Baskets filled with fragrant Healing herbs lined the walls. Skulls hung on the roof poles, four tens and four of them. They watched him from empty sockets, hollow with the memory of their death and his victory over them.
When no one could see, he leaned heavily against the wall and glared down at the flickering fire a slave had kindled in the hearth. Panic threatened to engulf him.
He clenched his fists and looked up at the skulls. Soot blackened the curved surfaces of the braincases, brow ridges, sockets, and jaws. As the warmth of the fire rose, heat wavered around them, and their fixed grins began to deepen, as though trying to tell him something.
In the wake of the panic, a slow-burning anger stirred deep in his veins.
“Yes, my precious gods, give me rage,” he whispered. “It will wipe away everything else.”
The need to kill was almost overpowering. He turned, calling, “Wind Scorpion! Go and find me a girl. Someone young, untouched by another man. Someone that no one will miss. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Starwatcher.”
Ecan listened as the man’s steps faded, and then he turned his attention to the things he suddenly wished he could avoid.
His bedding hides lay rolled on the far right, next to his son’s. Baskets stuffed with toys sat atop Tsauz’s hides, and his tiny spear leaned beside Ecan’s near the door.
Ecan reached for it and smoothed his fingers down the wood. He could feel Tsauz in every nick and scrape. His son’s smile lived in these walls, these toys.