Smoke Shield bent, got a grip on the dead Albaamo, and hoisted the limp body over his shoulders.
“What are you doing?” Fast Legs demanded.
“Go! Canoe landing. Kill the woman. I’ll be along.”
Fast Legs left at a pounding run.
Smoke Shield hurried along, aware of blood and fluids leaking down his back and legs. The bear hide would be ruined, but he could always replace a bear hide. The one thing he could not afford was the discovery of a dead Albaamo mikko. He topped the crest above the landing and tossed the corpse to slide down the greasy wet clay. Fast Legs stood there, dark worry on his face.
“Gods!” Smoke Shield cried, seeing only their two canoes resting on the beach. Deep tracks showed where the woman had struggled to push her heavy dugout into the water. He slipped and slid down before grasping the corpse and dragging it to the canoes.
Smoke Shield walked out into the current to see past the thick stand of rushes and cattails on either side of the landing. He stared up and down the river. Nothing broke the smooth surface of the water, either upstream or down. “Her first impulse would be to head downriver,” Smoke Shield said. “She would believe herself moving faster, gaining distance.”
“That same current will carry you, War Chief. Hurry. Let me push you off.”
“What about the body?” Smoke Shield asked.
“I’ll attend to the body. You go!” Fast Legs was pushing the canoe as Smoke Shield climbed in. “Here, War Chief! Take my bow.” He tossed his bow and quiver into the hull.
“What about you?”
“I’ll manage! I’m a warrior.” Fast Legs waved as Smoke Shield lifted his paddle and steered into the current.
Foolish woman. He’d be on top of her before she could make any kind of safety.
And when I do, Lotus Root, you are going to wish you were lying back there with your dead husband!
Thirty
After Fast Legs tumbled Red Awl’s body into his canoe, he pushed off, reaching for his paddle and driving the craft upriver, close to the bank. As the first fingers of sunlight topped the horizon and cast light on the wavelets breaking on the shore, the rushes just north of the landing parted, and Lotus Root stepped out. She glanced back where her canoe floated, hidden in a marshy stand of cattails.
“You were right, my husband. These are not smart Chikosi.” She sniffed against the tears that began to trickle down her cheeks. “They shall hear of this day’s work. Upon your dead souls, my husband, I swear it.”
She wiped at the tears, stepping out to stare upriver. Fast Legs’ canoe was a dark speck at the bend of the river. She had hoped they would be too anxious to take Red Awl’s body, that they would rush headlong into their canoes and paddle off, giving her time to retrieve the final conclusive evidence of what they’d done.
Instead, she had only her word, and the Chikosi war chief’s bow and arrows. It, along with her status as Red Awl’s wife and leader of the Dog Bane Clan, would be enough.
“You have unleashed the winds, War Chief. Now, let us see if you and the Chikosi can ride them!”
Sunlight streamed down between puffy white clouds in the aftermath of the storm that had drifted far beyond the southern horizon. Snow melted into puddles of water on the packed earth of Rainbow City’s plaza. People hurried along, bent on various tasks. They were bundled against the chill that blew down from the north. As they passed, they cast curious gazes at Old White, Swimmer, and Trader as they skirted the edge of the great plaza. To their right, the flat expanse was broken by the great Sacred Cedar of the Tsoyaha. In this case, the Sacred Cedar pole was a tall straight specimen, its sides carved to show the long-ago quest of one of their warriors in search of the terrible wizard who was frightening the sun. Old White wasn’t certain he’d ever seen such a large cedar log. That the Yuchi had managed to cut it, drag it here, and plant it awed him. It must have been a gargantuan effort.
The plaza they skirted consisted of the gaming ground, oriented north to south so the teams could play before the Sacred Cedar. Meanwhile oriented east to west on either side of the pole were the chunkey grounds, one for each moiety.
The Yuchi were unique among peoples. A child was born into his mother’s clan as among other folk, but he was a member of his father’s moiety. The Chief Moiety had its Council House on the square mound overlooking the plaza, while the Warrior Moiety lay to the south. Unlike among the Sky Hand and other peoples, the clans acted autonomously, owing nothing to the moieties. Of these, the Bear, Wolf, Deer, and Panther clans were the most prominent and influential. Yuchi houses all bore an emblem of the sun high up on the ridgepole, but each clan totem was displayed just over the door.