"I'm sorry to hear that. Perhaps if you would go rest, soothe yourself with—"
"Oh, Badgertail," Tharon whispered miserably, "I need to talk to someone. Would you come up to the Star Chamber?"
"Yes, of course, my Chief," he answered too quickly, then flinched when Tharon's eyes slitted. No one sane wanted to be caught alone with Tharon. Anything, the slightest tone of voice or tilt of the head, could throw him into a calamitous fury. "I mean, I'd be happy to. What . . . what will we be discussing?"
"I'm confused about Nightshade. I tried to surprise her this morning, and she . . . well, she wasn't surprised. She was very mean to me."
"She's undoubtedly unused to being back in Cahokia. And then, too, she lost her lover recently. I'm sure she's still hurting. She probably didn't intend to be unkind." He wondered idly how Nightshade had the bravery to commit such a slight.
He shifted both poles and the stone to his right hand and followed Tharon across the plaza, where he handed the chunkey equipment to Locust. She glanced at Tharon's back and mouthed the words, "Be careful!" Badgertail nodded and started up the steps of the Temple Mound behind Tharon, trying to figure a way out of this madness—^knowing that he couldn't.
Their feet tapped out a dissonant rhythm against the cedar logs. Over the top of the palisades, Badgertail could see the Commonbom going about their early duties. Women already worked the fields, plucking every weed, thinning the sprouting com with chert hoes. Men lined the riverbanks, their fishing poles bobbing here and there, while others used nets to reap the catfish and carp that liked the mud on the stream bottom. No one was catching much. In the dirt paths, children played under the watchful eyes of the elderly. Their laughter rose with bell-like beauty. A perfect day.
But Tharon didn't seem to notice, and his expression had hardened again. They reached the top step, and Badgertail saw Jenos' head sitting on a tall pole that rose from the palisade. The ravens had been at it. They had eaten the eyes first, leaving hollow, black pits that stared through a dry web of gray hair. Strips of flesh hung in tatters down Jenos' cheeks. Badgertail could feel the ghostly condemnation coming from that head.
Tharon laughed. "I put it there myself. I had that ugly Kettle bring me the pole."
Badgertail nodded, unable to fmd words. They stepped into the compound.
"Don't you like it?" Tharon demanded.
"Yes, my Chief. Well done."
They curved around the temple and headed down the worn path in the grass that led to the Star Chamber. Badgertail could see the chamber ahead at the northern edge of the mound; it was nothing more than a clay-plastered ring of upright posts laid out in a perfect circle, the roof open to the broad expanse of sky. Old Marmot used to sit up all night diagraming the positions of the Star Ogres—and other things that Badgertail didn't grasp.
Abruptly, Tharon stopped ten paces from the chamber. "I . . . I've changed my mind. I don't want to go in there. Let's just sit down out here and talk."
"That's a good idea. From this vantage, we can see halfway across the chiefdom."
Tharon slumped down against the wall of the temple. Glumly, he brought up his knees and propped his pointed chin on them. Badgertail sank beside him. The shaded wall felt cool against his sweaty back. Plucking a blade of grass, he chewed it as he gazed westward. Heat waves blurred the horizon, changing the bluffs above the Father Water into pale, floating ghosts.
"What's it like out there, Badgertail?" Desperate longing invaded Tharon's voice. His eyes drifted over the rolling green hills.
"Oh, it's not as pleasant as it appears from here. You're not missing much."
"Don't tell me that. I know I am. I wish I could go outside. But I— I'm afraid to. Do you remember twenty cycles ago, just after Nightshade arrived, when I ran away and those warriors from Dark Water Mounds wounded me before you came and killed them?" He jerked up his sleeve to reveal a long scar.
Badgertail surveyed it. Little more than a scratch, it was the most traumatic thing that had ever happened to Tharon— including the death of his wife, Badgertail suspected. When Badgertail had attacked the hidden camp of the Dark Water warriors, he had found Tharon tied to a tree, weeping. All the way back to Cahokia, Tharon had clung frantically to Badgertail's warshirt, refusing to let go. "Yes. I remember. You had everyone terrified for three days."
"It was Nightshade's fault. She was always tormenting me!" Tharon's chin quivered. "Why do I have so many enemies? Why does everyone want to kill me?"
Badgertail cautiously responded, "Enemies come with power. It's just the way things are."