“So we are restricted to striking overland.” Flying Hawk pointed with his stone mace. “Your only chance is to take the first town by surprise and raid its food supplies. In early spring, there will be little extra available in the countryside. Even the isolated farmsteads will have emptied their granaries.”
“Hunting during travel is out.” Smoke Shield stated the obvious. “It’s much too time-consuming, and with that many men combing the landscape, someone will see them. The alarm will be raised.”
“So you are back to striking fast and quickly to take a town. But realistically, you can only do that once. Someone will escape and raise the alarm.”
Smoke Shield twirled his stick in his fingers. “What if the Chahta were already weakened and looking the other way?”
“Meaning?”
“We let the Yuchi strike first.”
“I see,” Flying Hawk added dryly. “Of course. You’ll send a runner to Born-of-Sun asking him to kindly raid the Chahta in order to further your war plans?”
“Don’t be flippant, Uncle.” Smoke Shield grinned. “You know how cunning Great Cougar is. He’s just killed a bunch of Albaamaha and escaped our pursuit. What would happen if he attacked a Yuchi town? How would Born-of-Sun react to an unprovoked Chahta raid? Especially if a couple of captives managed to overhear Great Cougar planning to make even more attacks, then ‘escaped’ to bear the news to Born-of-Sun?”
“He’d immediately mass his warriors and attack Feathered Serpent Town.” Flying Hawk felt a cold rush along his spine. “But it wouldn’t be the Chahta. It would be your picked warriors, the ones who faked the Chahta raid on the Albaamaha.”
“You begin to understand.” Smoke Shield gave him an oily smile. “Great Cougar, knowing nothing of the raid, would still have the majority of his scouts watching us. His north will be relatively unprotected. He won’t be expecting a blow to come from the Yuchi. There is a good chance that Born-of-Sun will achieve success and break Great Cougar’s back. The Yuchi will go home feeling vindicated, having restored the balance of Power. The Chahta will feel obliged to strike back as soon as possible to avenge their dead, their honor, and to restore the balance of Power. If they do, that many more warriors will be sent north.”
“And what does this gain us?”
“The Chahta will be reeling.” Smoke Shield smiled. “What if I sent a warrior to Great Cougar, someone—perhaps Blood Skull—with a white arrow. It could be a secret mission to tell the Chahta that we will not attack. That we have only recently learned the Albaamaha raid was done by the Yuchi. The Chahta will believe that, knowing full well that they didn’t raid us; and they will have just been struck by the Yuchi. Reassured, Great Cougar will recall all but a handful of his scouts on our border. A few of those remaining can be eliminated, just enough to make a hole. Then a thousand of our warriors pour through and descend on Feathered Serpent Town.”
“Using a white arrow to mislead an enemy—”
“Forget the white Power, Uncle. I serve the red.”
Uneasy with that, Flying Hawk fingered his chin. “How do you feed these thousand warriors? Any grain stores the Yuchi don’t burn will be stripped to feed the Chahta warriors heading north in a counterstrike. You can only carry enough food to reach Feathered Serpent Town. Your warriors will be running on empty bellies.”
“Not if we pre-position food,” Smoke Shield replied. He pointed to a place on his map. “This is three days’ travel northwest. There’s a large meadow where a fire cleared a ridgetop. A good spring lies just below. I’ve hunted there; the place draws buffalo as well as elk and deer. Two hundred Albaamaha could leave Bowl Town, travel three days to the meadow, drop their packs to be left under guard, and hurry back to Bowl Town. We can tell them that we’re building a town up there, or some such lie. Clear Water Creek Crossing lies just below the ridge, and the channel down to the Horned Serpent is almost passable by a small dugout canoe. The Albaamaha might even believe it.” He shrugged. “If their bellies are empty by the time they make it back to Bowl Town, what do we care?”
Flying Hawk nodded. The plan was brilliant. Why hadn’t he thought of it years ago? Because he would never have thought of dressing Sky Hand warriors up as Chahta. Even now the notion bothered him. It reeked of abusing Power and angering the Ancestors.
Flying Hawk asked, “So, you arrive on Great Cougar’s doorstep and take the town. What next?”
“We clean out the local Chahta, kill everyone we find, and burn every farmstead in the area. We are there to destroy, Uncle. To weaken their eastern settlements. The planting season is coming; we want to disrupt it as much as we can.”