The Broken Land(32)

Each venom-laced word had a clear ring of finality, as though the discussion were over.

Sky Messenger straightened to his full height, and his eyes focused on the longhouse wall, but he looked like an inferno was raging inside him.

Taya held her breath and strained to hear. Rain had started to patter on the roof and splat on her head. The noise made it even harder to hear.

“I will not fight again,” Sky Messenger said defiantly.

Astonished, Grandmother said, “The Standing Stone People have been struck a devastating blow by the warfare and the fever. We are more vulnerable now than we have ever been. Are you saying openly that you refuse to protect your relatives?”

“I must protect them in a different way. My Dreams warn—”

“Bah!” Grandmother spat the word, and Taya saw her wave a slender heavily ringed hand through the firelight. Her numerous shell bracelets rattled. “A man who will not fight for his people should be condemned and chased from the village. Though I doubt your relatives have the stomach to do it.”

Taya saw Speaker Koracoo’s face go rigid. “Your ears seem to be filled with pine resin, Kittle.” She stood up. “When you are ready to listen to Sky Messenger’s visions, we will return. Until then, please think about this: in exchange for your approval of the marriage, the Bear Clan is willing to offer half its walnut harvest.”

“Half?” Grandmother scoffed. “I want it all! And your hickory nut and plum harvests, as well!”

Grandmother had just subtly told Koracoo that if the Bear Clan offered enough, the marriage would happen. Taya felt like she’d been struck in the head with a rock. As a child, she had worshipped Sky Messenger. Back then, it had never seemed possible that she, the fifth granddaughter of the high matron, forever doomed to live in the shadows cast by her older sisters, would ever have a chance to marry the greatly esteemed grandson of the matron of the Bear Clan.

But she didn’t want to marry him now! Horned Serpent’s teeth! No matter what he did in the future, his disgrace would forever condemn their children to ignominy. Disgust churned her belly.

Koracoo replied, “Our Women’s Council will consider your offer.”

Grandmother must have been taken aback. She laughed out loud. “Yellowtail Village must truly be desperate for this alliance.”

“I only said that I would present it. Nothing more.”

Grandmother gave her a knowing smile. It was dangerous to show any weakness before Grandmother. She would use it like a fine chert knife to cut your heart out. “For the moment, I will rescind the death sentence on his head. But do not come back to me until you’re prepared to pay the full price of Sky Messenger’s actions. I will only meet with you one more time.”

“That is acceptable.”

Taya eased to the end of the wall to peer around the corner.

Koracoo and Sky Messenger ducked beneath the door curtain and stepped outside, followed by the old gray wolf that never left Sky Messenger’s side. They stood beneath the porch for a time, murmuring to each other, apparently examining the makeshift refugee houses that leaned precariously along the palisade walls. In the past moon, Grandmother had welcomed almost five hundred refugees, far more than they had the food to feed. But what else could she do?

“She asks too much, Mother,” Sky Messenger said. When he finally turned to face Koracoo, Taya saw his angry expression. “I know marriage is my penance, but this is preposterous. Choose another clan.”

“We must be patient.” Koracoo gazed out at the village plaza, mostly empty due to the rain, and her eyes seemed to linger on each of the longhouses, as though contemplating her chances for an alliance with the Wolf or Turtle clans.

Sky Messenger had turned away. Taya couldn’t see his face, but he had his fists clenched tightly. “Maybe I should just leave.”

“And abandon your vision?” Koracoo had seen thirty-nine summers pass. She was still a handsome woman. Though she kept her gray-streaked black hair cut short in mourning, it framed her small narrow nose and full lips.

Sky Messenger exhaled hard. “My vision is all I have. I’ll never abandon it. But this alliance …” Frustrated, he slapped his arms against his sides. “Tell me what to do?”

He didn’t look like he’d been sleeping. Dark puffy half-moons swelled beneath his brown eyes, and tiny lines etched the corners of his wide mouth. Despite that, his tanned round face was striking with its high cheekbones and slender nose. At twelve hands, he was taller than most men in the village, and the muscles of his shoulders, accustomed to wielding a war club, bulged through the leather of his belted knee-length shirt.