Rain Bear said, “What became of the sick woman?”
Pitch wet his lips. “Coyote killed her—and he did terrible things, Rain Bear. Cut out her eyes … her breasts.”
Rain Bear glanced at the bag. “Antler Spoon is a fool. He should have gone to Dzoo the instant Coyote contacted him.”
Pitch’s thin face had gone pale. He peered at Roe with fever-bright eyes. “They’ll never do anything like this again. Dzoo … she has already seen to that.”
Evening Star’s full lips twitched. “In a way that was most convincing, I will wager.”
“She convinced me,” Pitch whispered. “Not that I’d have ever crossed her to start with.”
“Is there anything else we should know?” Rain Bear asked.
Pitch gestured weakly. “She said that in the end, she and Coyote will Dance together. Does that mean anything to you?”
Evening Star stiffened. “Then, she thinks she must face him?”
Pitch gave her a blank look. “That was my impression.”
Evening Star nodded as if to herself. “That, more than anything, leads me to believe that Coyote is real. Which sends shivers down my spine.”
“Well.” Rain Bear gently lifted Stonecrop from his lap and handed the boy to Roe. “We should be going. I’m sorry I had to disturb you tonight, Pitch. I know you’re weary and hurting.”
Pitch nodded, face going slack.
Rain Bear bent to kiss Roe’s cheek, then ducked out the entryway into the cold white light of the Star People. Wolf Spider and Hornet straightened. Evening Star remained inside, talking with Roe about the poultices.
Rain Bear motioned for the guards to walk a few paces away. In a low voice he asked, “Has anyone tried to get close to her?”
Wolf Spider nodded, and strands of shoulder-length black hair slipped over his round face and turned-up nose. He was the older of the two guards, two tens and two summers. “Yes, my Chief. One of her kinsmen came to see her this morning, just before Roe arrived. You said we should use our own judgment, so we asked Evening Star if she wished to see him. She did.”
“Who was he?”
Hornet stepped closer. At nine and ten summers, he had the look of a much older man. He wore his long hair in a bun at the base of his skull. “He’d just arrived from Tortoise Shell Village. He said he wished to offer his respects. He seemed harmless. Evening Star spoke with him briefly, and he left.”
“What did they discuss? Did you hear their conversation?”
“They spoke about Matron Naida. The man offered his condolences, and asked when Evening Star would assume her duties as the new clan matron.”
“What did she answer?”
“She told him that with the current Council, and Chief Cimmis’s opposition, she did not know if that was possible, but that she would consider it.”
Evening Star ducked out of the lodge. As she walked forward, her long braid swayed and glinted like polished red obsidian.
Rain Bear whispered, “As more refugees flood in, more people will wish to see her. Be cautious. The best assassins are the ones who look harmless.”
Wolf Spider and Hornet nodded simultaneously, and Wolf Spider said, “Upon my life’s debt to you, he’ll have to kill us first.”
Rain Bear matched Evening Star’s step as she approached, and led the way toward their lodges.
Wolf Spider and Hornet flanked them.
Evening Star didn’t say a word until they’d made five tens of paces. “You think Coyote is one of the North Wind People, don’t you?”
“I think Coyote is Ecan.”
“It’s possible, but I don’t think so.”
Firelit lodges crowded the meadow, and the soft sounds of voices drifted on the wind. He noted the positions of the guards where they stood in the trees or crouched behind boulders, almost unseen.
“Who else would be bold enough to try to buy Dzoo’s life? And who else could afford such a wealth of obsidian fetishes?”
She gazed up at him with those stunning blue eyes. “Someone who wants to devour her soul, to dominate her and turn her to his evil purposes.”
He almost missed a step. “Or someone who fears her?”
She tugged her cape closed at the throat and hesitated before she answered, “Fears her because she might be the only Healer Powerful enough to destroy him? Perhaps. But I think his desire is more, that it is a thing driven by lust and obsession.” She smiled bitterly. “It is only recently that I have come to understand how that can motivate a man.”
“Is it possible that Ecan just recently discovered the witch and his fetishes? Perhaps from the rumors you heard? Maybe even through Kenada?”