People of the River(164)

"Flute, check the Sun Chamber first. If Nightshade isn't there, please escort Wanderer and Vole to her room."

As he started to duck under the hanging, he caught the utter terror on Flute's round face. Badgertail scowled. "She won't kill you for disturbing her, Flute. She asked me to bring Wanderer to her as soon as I found him."

"Oh." The youth's taut shoulder muscles relaxed some. "All right."

Badgertail stepped into the temple, leading the way past the magnificent wall paintings. Most of the firebowls along the floor remained unlit. Because of the shortage of hickory oil? In the dimness, the images of First Woman and Grandfather Brown Bear looked down at them through disdainful, brooding eyes.

They neared the corridor that ran in front of the Sun Chamber, and Badgertail made out the dusky figures of Hoofprint and Black Dog leaning against the wall, their aiTns folded. When they recognized Badgertail, they both turned sharply and ran toward him.

"Badgertail?"

"Black Dog. Hoofprint." Badgertail clasped their hands warmly. "How are things here?"

Hoofprint's ugly face pinched when he looked over Bad-gertail's shoulder at the two strangers. Badgertail turned and motioned to Flute. "Go on, Flute. Check the Sun Chamber, then take Wanderer and Vole to Nightshade's room."

"Yes, War Leader."

Hoofprint's tension abated only slightly when Wanderer and Vole passed beyond hearing range. He watched them while they peeked into the Sun Chamber, then turned down the left corridor.

Badgertail frowned. "What is it?"

Hoofprint glanced uneasily at Black Dog, then propped his fist atop the war club tied to his belt. "We don't know. The Sun Chief called us in to guard his chamber. He ordered us not to enter under threat of death. But strange things have been happening."

"What?"

Hoofprint shook his head. "Sounds. Choking sounds. Coming from the Sun Chief's room. For a while there were screams. He ordered us to bring a little girl to his room. Then his daughter, Orenda, came and sneaked in past us."

Badgertail studied Hoofprint's face, then Black Dog's. Scared to death. Both of them. "And Nightshade? Where has she been during all of this?"

"We haven't seen her."

Badgertail's thick brows drew together over his nose. Nightshade invisible at a time when Orenda might have needed her? It didn't make sense. Nightshade had begun treating Orenda like her own daughter. "Stay here where you can see the front entrance. Let me know if anyone else comes in. I have to speak to the Sun Chief."

As he walked away down the right corridor, Hoofprint called, "Badgertail? Is it true? Is Petaga going to attack Cahokia?"

Without slowing his stride, he answered, "Yes."

Anxious whispers broke out behind him, but he closed his ears to them, not wanting to think about the actual attack when he had so many preliminary details to work out. Which warriors should he condemn to the first line on the platforms? How would he defend against the flaming arrows that Petaga would certainly shoot into every house he could see? Fire would spread quickly in the dry grass. The sparks might even carry to the high roof of the temple, far out of arrow range. What sort of surrender terms should he beg for? Would Petaga even let him surrender? Would Tharon?

Though brilliant light blazed around Tharon's door-hanging, the hall had a deep chill. It nipped at Badgertail, pricking his tattoos like an icy quill.

He stopped before the hanging to listen. "Sun Chief? It's Badgertail. May I enter? I have many things to tell you."

A garbled sob came from inside that sent a prickle up Badgertail's spine. He stepped forward, calling, "My Chief?" and pulled back the hanging . . .

Gasping, he stumbled into the chamber. From the pit of his stomach an involuntary cry broke loose that echoed through the sacred bones of the temple. He shouted, "Orenda, no!"



Sister Datura's laughter penetrated the Dream.

Nightshade stirred. The firebowl on the floor flickered as though the flame had been brushed by the feet of racing children. She saw it dimly on the back of her closed eyelids—orange and black, orange and black—while her soul rose up through the layers of the Well of the Ancestors.

"Yes," Sister Datura mocked, "youve done your work. Now go and see what evil the Sun Chief has wrought in your absence."

Nightshade blinked her eyes open. The darkness of the room rippled around her like waves of black water. Her hearing seemed to have stopped working, and she could see nothing cleariy. The starmap wavered into reality as a tarnished smear of sparkling galena paint, and her bed was only the barest gray smudge. An odd hush had descended upon the world.

"Oh, my Sister ..." she whispered miserably as the nausea began with a vengeance. "Please, let me go."