“Well?” he asked.
“Our …” Arla checked herself. “Your daughter came to me in tears saying her brother has disappeared. What is going on, Nail in the Beam?”
Nail sloshed through the reeds and green-scummed water until he reached the shore. “The whereabouts of my family is not your concern,” he muttered, wringing out the hem of his tunic.
“But it should be yours,” Arla folded her arms. “Or your wife’s. Where is the righteous Branch in the River, Nail?” She spoke with more bitterness than she intended, but the woman’s insults still rang in her ears.
“Arla,” Eric came close enough behind her that Arla could feel his breath against her neck. “You don’t need …”
“Come out! Come out!” Iron Shaper’s voice called out in time with the clanging of a stick on a gong. “Come out! Come out!”
“Nameless Powers preserve me,” Arla whispered. Nail in the Beam was already headed toward the noise at a run, trailing his sons in his shadow.
“What is it?” demanded Eric.
“The emergency call.” Arla snatched up Little Eye in her arms and ran after Nail.
“Come out! Come out!” Iron Shaper beat the gong furiously.
Most of the clan was already in the center of the huts by the time Arla got there. Eyes Above, leaning on Iron Keeper’s arm, pushed her way toward Shaper. Arla set Little Eye beside her brothers and forced her way through the crowd. The ones who knew her gave way, clearing enough of a path for her to see Iron Shaper clearly.
The smith wasn’t alone. Storm Water sat on the ground beside him, holding his arm tenderly. His head was bare and Arla saw a clumsy black bandage under his fingers. A fresh stream of scarlet trickled down his arm.
“What happened to you?” Arla crouched beside Storm Water. She removed his hand from the bandage. He let it drop into his lap and winced as she unwrapped the bandage and revealed a long, ugly gouge in his skin.
“Someone get me some hot water!” she shouted. The wound was caked with old blood, and it looked deep. Storm Water was pale under his eyes and around his mouth.
“Branch in the River left the clan yesterday.” Storm Water’s voice was low and hoarse, as though he hadn’t had enough to drink for a while. “Storm Water followed her. She went to a troop of soldiers from Narroways. She’s bringing them here. Storm Water thinks there’s a Skyman with them.” He paused and swallowed hard. “A soldier did this to Storm Water as he ran back here.”
“Nameless Powers preserve me,” said someone.
The crowd was stirring. Some of them were retreating, but Arla barely noticed. She was trying to think of where to get a clean bandage and a needle and thread and …
Eric knelt beside her. “Let me,” he said quietly, and he took Storm Water’s arm out of her hands. “How far away are they?” he asked as he gently probed the edges of the wound with the fingers of his free hand.
“Two hours, maybe less.” Eric touched a scab and Storm Water grunted.
“All right, Storm Water. You’ve done well. Hold still now.”
He laid his hand over the wound and Arla realized what he was going to do under the eyes of the whole clan.
Storm Water gasped and stiffened. Arla grabbed his shoulders and held him still. Eric’s breathing grew hard and ragged. He lifted his hand away and there was nothing on Storm Water’s arm except some dried blood and a thin white line marking where the wound had been.
Eric slumped backward.
“You’re a TEACHER?” cried Iron Shaper incredulously.
Arla let go of Storm Water’s shoulders and stood up in front of the smith. “I vouchsafed him Iron Shaper dena Voice of the Wind, and I will not hear one word said against him.” She raised her voice so the entire clan could hear. “Not one word.”
“And there is no time for it,” said Nail in the Beam flatly. “We must get ready to move. We have two hours at best.”
Arla looked up at him, intending to say something scathing, but the look on his face made her stop. He was already punishing himself for again finding a wife who would betray the clan for her own purposes.
His words worked like magic. The crowd of men and children and the handful of women streamed toward the houses.
“Wait, wait.” Eric climbed to his feet, but Teacher or not, no one paused to listen to him. “We don’t even know what they’re doing,” he said somewhat helplessly to Arla and Iron Shaper. “Did you hear?” he asked Storm Water.
Storm Water nodded. “They are looking for the family of Stone in the Wall,” he said, knotting his bloodstained head-cloth between his hands.