“You will hear them again.”
“Nothing I can’t handle, I assure you. But I thank you for your warning.” He paused. “I assume he has an agent here, someone working on his behalf?”
“He does. Your uncle.”
“Flying Hawk?”
“No.” She kept her eyes on the river.
“He’s my uncle, Prophet.”
“Yes, he is.”
“Sometimes the things you say are so confusing.”
She lifted her arms helplessly. “It is so hard to speak this way, especially when the one I speak to will not listen.”
“So, Flying Hawk is working with Green Snake. He should have known better. This time, he’s gone too far.” She heard the decision in his voice.
“You have bound yourself to the future, Smoke Shield.”
“Just how does Green Snake think he can bend the Council to his wishes?”
“Through truth . . . and copper.”
He lifted a mocking eyebrow. “Wasn’t it you who told me last night that truth is an ever-flitting bird, flying here and there?”
“Its wings catch the light. Only the feathers, lost one by one, fall to the ground.”
Smoke Shield squinted out at the river. “Why does he think a gift of copper will sway the Council?”
“Wait until you see it.”
“Very well. You say it will be mine anyway.”
She asked, “How much is your future worth?”
“I don’t understand.”
“You seek Power.”
He clasped a fist before her face, the muscles in his arm swelling and corded. “I have Power.”
“Does that mean that you have no desire to bind yourself to Power forever? In a way that can never be taken from you?”
His eyes narrowed. “You could do this?”
She shook her head. “No, but you could . . . if you will make the offering.”
“What do I offer?”
“The copper is the only gift Power will accept. If you carry it out there”—she pointed at the swirling water—“Power will swell around you, and the people will stand in awe. At that moment, all of your Dreams of greatness will be fulfilled. You will become what no high minko ever has before. You shall experience what even the lords of Cahokia could not. That is the offering you must make. Otherwise, you shall wander homeless, and in shame.”
“What you say, this is all true?”
“For the first time, High Minko, you have a choice.” She smiled. “It is your future.”
He chuckled. “Then I shall have to have this copper. And I shall do what even the lords of Cahokia did not.”
“It doesn’t come freely. It will cost you the copper.”
“Nothing comes free. As to the copper, I can always take more.”
“Mother? Are you all right?” Stone asked, looking up from the matting where he played with his little clay dog.
Heron Wing stopped short, staring down at the open box with its neatly folded dresses. Through the door she could see the long shadow of her house cast by the morning sun. The pointed tip almost touched the base of the Great Mound. “I’m all right.”
“You don’t sound all right. Are you sad about Morning Dew running away?”
“Yes, I am.”
“I miss her.”
“Me, too.”
“She should have stayed.”
“I know.” She turned. “You must understand: People want to go where they think they’re safe. For her, that was among her own Chahta.”
“I know.” He looked up. “But I’ve been practicing with my racquets. She’d want to see how good I am now.”
“I’m sure she would.”
She turned back to the dresses, sorting through them until she found a bright red one with round oyster shell beads sewn on the front. This she removed and shook out. Seeing no holes or stains, she removed her brown work dress and pulled the red one over her head. Then she closed the box and shoved it back under the sleeping bench. She combed her hair, wishing that her hands wouldn’t tremble so.
Nothing would be the same after today. The gods alone knew what the future would bring. And somewhere out to the west, Great Cougar was approaching at the head of his warriors.
“Stone?”
“Yes?”
“I want you to listen very carefully. Sometime soon there may be fighting.”
“Fighting?” He looked up wide-eyed.
“The Chahta might attack. No one knows when. If they do, and I’m not here, I want you to run and hide. You run straight east to the ravine, do you understand?”
He nodded, suddenly worried.
“When you reach the ravine, take the steep trail down and hide under the brush at the bottom. You be very quiet. When it is all over, I will come for you. If for some reason I do not, you wait for two days. Then you come out after dark and peek over the top. If there are no warriors, you go and find your kin among the Panther Clan.”