People of the Weeping Eye(136)
He turned his eyes on Two Petals. “And you are the Contrary?”
“Not me,” she muttered darkly. “It’s everyone else who is confused.” She stepped toward him. The young man must have trusted his medicine Power, for he did not back away. She looked into his eyes. “You have no idea what is happening, do you? You’re all staring backward. Everything is moving.” She pointed out at the dark river. “Can’t you see them Dancing out there?”
His expression didn’t change. “Beings with great Power have come to my land. My master, the Kala Hi’ki, and I would know why.”
“A drop of blood leaps to the sky,” she said. “I’m sure you would have no fear of that.”
The faintest flicker showed at the corner of his mouth. “We would return to our mother.”
“Your direction is forward. Mine is past. Front has become back, and your mother scrambles from the west. Even she seeks to return to the womb.” Two Petals smiled. “I died when I became Contrary. I grow younger by the moment.” She hesitated. “There, his gaze is sharpening. Even now I am the center of his vision.” She raised her voice and called out, “You cannot know me through your sight.”
“Who do you talk to?” the young man asked, refusing to stare around at the air like the nervous warriors were doing.
“I talk to the blind man with such sharp eyes.” She laughed. “Things are so much clearer in darkness.” Then her expression changed to wonder. “I think he is the most beautiful man I have ever seen.”
Old White and Trader cast nervous glances at each other.
The Priest nodded to himself. “Bring them. I will take them to the Kala Hi’ki.”
“Are you sure that’s wise?” The muscular war chief pointed at the canoes. “They have brought many things. Some of them might be dangerous, vehicles of sorcery and witchcraft.” He licked his lips. “And they have the Split Sky war medicine that vanished from our War House.”
The two Priests conferred in whispers. The speaker nodded before ordering, “Bring their packs. Everything. The Kala Hi’ki and I shall investigate each one.”
The warriors hesitated.
“Do it!” the Priest ordered. “If you are worried about being polluted by the strangers, it has already happened. The Kala Hi’ki and I can’t treat you until we know what medicine they have used and what cleansing is appropriate. Before you go home to your families, you will seclude yourselves in the War House. See no one, talk to no one, and wait for our word.”
Old White gestured to Trader and Two Petals; she seemed preoccupied, as though listening to the voices they could not hear. Taking a position behind the Priests, Old White followed as they wound up through the landing settlement. The houses here were a mixture of new and old. People had flocked out, standing back to watch the show. Some carried cane torches that lit the way.
The beaten trail wound past houses, through a low cut, and onto the flats. Old White was aware of fields to either side, farmsteads consisting of two or three houses clustered here and there. Trader had bent down to scoop Swimmer into his arms when the local dogs came too close.
Glancing over his shoulder, Old White could see the warriors struggling along behind them, heavy packs turning them into ungainly caricatures.
“What are we into now?” Trader wondered.
Old White shrugged. “We are going to meet a beautiful blind man who can see across great distances.”
“I just hope he can see even better up close.”
“Oh?”
“I want him to look inside me and see the purity of my souls.”
“Gods, you’re a brave man.”
“I’m not feeling so brave. Why would you say that?”
“Only a braver man than I would want a Powerful Hopaye looking so closely at his souls.”
Trader looked like he’d just swallowed mold.
Old White shot an evaluative look at Two Petals. She kept closing her eyes, and periodically, when passing knots of people, covered her ears.
“How are you doing?” he asked, leaning toward her.
“So noisy,” she whispered. “Everything is screaming.”
Old White cocked his head, hearing only the low mutterings of the warriors, the soft padding of feet on the trail, and the distant barking of dogs.
This could all go wrong. If the Yuchi Kala Hi’ki was the wrong kind of man, the sort who was preoccupied by his own petty concerns, it might give his reputation a huge boost to declare them enemies. Such an individual could gain prestige among his people, creating theater with the bloody, drawn-out executions of foreign witches.