The Dawn Country(102)

In a shaking voice, Odion called, “Mother, she—she was trying to escape. We had to stop her!”

Koracoo dropped to her knees in the snow, laid CorpseEye on the ground, and—careful of his wounded shoulder—enfolded Odion in her arms. “Thank the gods you’re all right.”

“We couldn’t let her escape, Mother,” he repeated as though explaining. “She threatened to witch us. She was going to get away.”

“She would have just bought more children,” Baji said with unnerving calm, but as she lowered her hand, the bloody ax toppled into the snow, and tears slid down her cheeks. “We had to end it.”

“Mother, I think my shoulder’s broken.”

Koracoo gently probed the injury with her fingers. His collarbone had been snapped, but it hadn’t broken through the skin, which would protect him from the evil Spirits who fed on such wounds. “You’re going to be all right, Odion, though it’s going to be agony for a while. Is anyone else hurt?”

Baji and Zateri shook their heads; then they all turned and looked at the little girl curled in the snow. Her long black hair feathered across the snow. “When Odion hit the old woman in the spine and flattened her in the snow, something happened to Conkesema,” the older Dawnland girl said. “She collapsed like her feet had been knocked out from under her.”

“Is she your sister?”

“She’s my cousin. I’m Auma.”

Sindak and Towa halted a few paces away, and Towa said, “What happened?”

Sindak softly replied, “I can’t tell.”

Koracoo’s gaze moved to the body. Had it not been for the broken gorget around her neck, the mutilated corpse would have been unrecognizable. The children must have kept striking her long after she was dead.

Odion suddenly shoved away to stare Koracoo in the eyes. “Mother, we left Wrass. He’s hurt. We have to hurry. We have to go get him before the warriors find him!” He broke into a run, heading up the hill.

“Her warriors are dead, Odion,” she called after him. “They can’t hurt anyone now.”

“All of them? Some must have escaped.” He stopped long enough to hear her answer.

“A few escaped, but I think they’re long gone.”

Odion took a deep halting breath, then exhaled the words, “Maybe, but maybe not. They may still be out there. We have to find Wrass. I have to know he’s safe.” He charged up the hill again.

As Koracoo rose to her feet, Sindak walked to stand over Gannajero. For a time, he just frowned; then he bent and pulled the broken gorget over her head. “Where’s the other half?”

“I don’t know, but we’d better find it,” Towa said. “Chief Atotarho will want it.” Towa knelt on the opposite side of the body and began brushing at the snow, searching for it.

“Forget it,” Koracoo said. “There’s no time. Towa, I want you to get back to camp as soon as you can. Take Cord and Gonda and go find Wakdanek. Wait for us along the eastern shore. We’ll meet you.”

“But, Koracoo, that gorget belongs to the Wolf Clan. If I don’t return it, Atotarho—”

“Once I start asking questions the last thing your chief will be worried about is the gorget. Go on. Conkesema needs her father far more urgently than you need a broken piece of shell.”

Towa looked at Conkesema lying in the snow. Her sweet face looked oddly happy. “You’re right.” He sprinted away.

Sindak turned to Koracoo. “And what of me, War Chief?” Locks of his black hair had come loose from their tie and danced around his beaked face in the breeze. He kept glancing at Baji and Zateri, then at the old woman’s body, clearly shocked by what the children had done.

Koracoo used CorpseEye to gesture to Sindak’s wounded shoulder. “I need you to help me get the children back to camp. Can you carry CorpseEye?”

An expression of awe creased his face. “Yes.” He extended his hand, and she placed the club in it. Sindak drew it back as though he’d just grasped hold of a deadly serpent.

When Koracoo knelt at Conkesema’s side, the child didn’t even blink. She just sucked her finger and stared blankly at the night sky. “I’m slipping my arms under you,” Koracoo announced. As she lifted her, the girl let out a faint whimper. “Everything’s all right. I’m going to take you to your father.”

Koracoo turned. “All right, let’s all follow Odion.”





Forty-eight

The screams and shouts had stopped, but Odion still had not returned, and Wrass was shaking badly, more afraid than he’d ever been in his life.