Talon chewed on that for a moment as he watched Evening Star carrying a little boy’s limp body. The child’s skull had been smashed, and some of his brains hung from the wound. “I’m surprised to see her here.”
“She warned us, Talon.” Rain Bear glanced around at the smoldering wreckage and then watched Evening Star gently place the little boy’s body in the growing line of corpses.
My fault. All my fault.
“In the past, I have acted as a peace chief should. I have sought accommodation and the ways to maintain the peace.” He glared into Talon’s eyes. “By taking Ecan’s word, I killed these people! I will not rest until I have destroyed the Council and trod upon Cimmis’s headless corpse.”
Talon gave him a bitter smile. “Then I am yours, Rain Bear. If Dogrib is your right arm, I am your left.”
Rain Bear nodded. “Thank you. I would like to speak with the two warriors you captured.”
“I’ll have them brought here immediately.” Talon looked around at the dead that scattered the slope. Scavenger birds fluttered over the corpses. “My people are outraged, Rain Bear. They want every person in Fire Village dead.”
Rain Bear clutched his cape closed beneath his chin and stared up at the twin pillars. Were the hero twins looking down upon the carnage and thinking the same? Or had they sided with the North Wind People?
“We are after the Council and Cimmis and those who work for them, Talon. Just remember that it’s not all the North Wind People who have done this.” He started down the slope toward where his daughter worked.
Talon trotted after him. “No one has said that, Rain Bear!”
“Not yet, but they will.”
Twenty
War Chief White Stone leaned toward the fire and rubbed his nervous hands together. He had lost six of his warriors. Four were reported dead; two were thought to have been captured. Three wounded men slept rolled in blankets beside a crackling fire. One, Cedar Bark, would probably be dead by morning. The moans that punctuated their disturbed sleep mixed hauntingly with Wind Woman’s shrill voice in the trees.
Ecan paced on the opposite side of the fire, hands clasped behind his back, tread slow and measured, as though time was his to command. His magnificent white cape and jewelry flashed with his slightest movement.
Ten paces away, Dzoo sat with her bound hands propped on her knees. The hood of her cape was thrown back. Long red hair fluttered around her beautiful face. With large black eyes that might have been openings to a nightmare, she followed Ecan’s every move.
White Stone glanced at the guards behind her and tried to swallow the nervous lump in his throat. Wind Scorpion had volunteered for the duty when the others held back. He was a cunning old dog whom nothing seemed to frighten. His fathomless eyes were fixed on Dzoo. Two more guards stood on the high points watching their back trail. Was that enough to protect them?
White Stone returned to the uncomfortable topic at hand. “Blessed Starwatcher, I assure you I did everything I could to protect your son!”
“Don’t you dare attempt to assure me of anything!” Ecan held up a stern hand to stop White Stone’s defense. In the fire light his pointed face and beadlike green eyes resembled a weasel’s. “You are the one who talked me into taking my son. You said Matron Weedis would let down her guard if she saw me enter her village holding my son’s hand.” The vein in Ecan’s neck throbbed. “You guaranteed my son’s safety.”
White Stone gaped, having said no such thing in this lifetime or any other. “But, Starwatcher—”
Sweat trickled from White Stone’s armpits down his sides. “I personally searched every possible hiding place. You saw me! I did everything I could to find the boy.”
Dzoo smiled—and White Stone’s flesh crawled. What was it about her eyes? Something dark and inhuman.
Ecan had his back to her. Lucky for him.
White Stone raised his hands, imploring. “I will find your son, Starwatcher. I give you my oath. I’ll return to search for him tomorrow.”
“Do you know what they will do to my boy if they capture him?” Ecan’s mouth quivered with lethal intent.
White Stone nodded. “Yes, I think so.”
“They will cut my little Tsauz apart and bring me a piece at a time. With each ear, or hand, they will send word that Tsauz lives. Only at the end will they include a demand, and by then I will do anything, give them anything, say anything.” He stared hard into White Stone’s eyes. “Do you understand me, War Chief?”
The words hung in the air.
Dzoo tilted her head, and her full lips parted, as if hungry for White Stone’s answer.