People of the Raven (North America's Forgotten Past) (40 page)

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Authors: W. Michael Gear,Kathleen O'Neal Gear

BOOK: People of the Raven (North America's Forgotten Past)
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Ecan’s heart leapt, but he said, “Before you go, you should know that your friend Mica is dying.”
“Mica?” Red Dog grimaced. “What happened? He was fine when I left.”
Ecan shrugged. “I wish I knew. White Stone came to me yesterday to tell me they’d found Mica lying on his floor shaking. Every muscle in his body is twitching. I suspect he’ll be dead by morning.”
Red Dog’s brows knit. “Isn’t Mica the one who opened the witch’s pack right after the battle—”
“Yes.”
“But you said the bags were filled with harmless things: bat droppings and dirt!”
Down in the plaza, Dzoo stood in the same place, watching them, her full lips slightly parted as if in anticipation. He said, “Lion Girl and Dance Fly are also ill with the shaking disease.”
Red Dog glanced at Dzoo and whispered, “The slaves who were tending Dzoo?”
“Yes.”
“Hallowed Ancestors! And the great chief? How is he taking this?”
Ecan smiled grimly. “Cimmis wants to make her happy here. He seems to think she could be a rallying point for the Raven People if she’s harmed. He’s had her old lodge prepared and ordered his slaves to bring her new clothing and moccasins. He even ordered his personal jewelers to make her pendants and bracelets from the finest polished stones and shells in Fire Village. Oh, and she’s free to wander about as she pleases.”
Red Dog raised a pensive eyebrow. “
Free!
But that’s insane! Doesn’t he understand who she is?
What
she is?”
Ecan rubbed his jaw. “Yes, well, apparently we can’t keep her locked up anyway. She might as well be free.”
Red Dog stared at him. “Excuse me?”
“Depending on which story you believe, she walked through the wall of the captives’ lodge one night. Deer Killer was standing guard. He thinks she changed herself into a bird and flew out the smoke hole. White Stone is convinced that she used the ‘missing ropes’ to climb out.”
Red Dog’s gaze fixed on Dzoo. “But if she climbed out, why didn’t Deer Killer see her? He didn’t fall asleep on duty, did he?”
“White Stone believes he did. That’s why Deer Killer is standing double shifts.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t have Deer Killer skinned alive.”
“Apparently Cimmis forgot to give the order. There were four other guards posted around Fire Village that night. No one saw Deer Killer fall asleep. No one saw Dzoo escape.”
Red Dog tapped his chin. “Why is she still here? If she could get out of the punishment lodge, the village palisade would be like a net bag is to a bowl of water.”
Ecan gave him a thoughtful look. “That, my friend is a good question.”
“Anything else odd happen while I was gone?”
“Oh, one man said he saw ball lightning around midnight one night.” Ecan lifted a hand to demonstrate. “He said it plummeted out of a starry sky, bounced around the roof of Dzoo’s lodge, and vanished.”
Red Dog instinctively gripped the stiletto on his belt. “Who said that?”
“Deer Killer.”
Red Dog relaxed. “Why, imagine that! Deer Killer again. He probably dreamed it when he was asleep on duty.”
“I think his fear has gotten in the way of his senses. He also told me he …”
Cimmis ducked out of his lodge and walked out into the plaza. He wore a plain knee-length blue war shirt belted at the waist with a braided sea-grass cord. Rather than the ruler of the North Wind People, he appeared to be nothing more than an aging warrior. Astcat was sick again, which meant Cimmis rarely left his lodge.
Ecan said, “Come along. He’ll wish to see you right away.”
When they started down the rocks toward the palisade, Cimmis saw them and stalked for the gate.
They met him at the entry, and Ecan lifted a hand, calling, “Red Dog has returned, my Chief.”
Warily, Cimmis asked, “Red Dog, when did you arrive?”
“Just now, my Chief. I was on my way to see you.”
“But you stopped to report to Ecan first. Why?” Cimmis wore his gray hair in a single braid. His thin beard flipped in the wind.
Red Dog gave Ecan an uncomfortable look.
Ecan spread his arms in appeasement. “Forgive me, my Chief. I called to Red Dog and distracted him from his duties.” He smiled. “If you will excuse me, you have things to discuss.” He stepped through the gate, not bothering to look back.
Across the plaza, Dzoo’s maroon dress waffled in the wind as she walked toward the four guards who stood near the central fire. They went rigid before shoving each other to see who could get away the quickest. Deer Killer tripped over his own feet and almost fell into the coals before he righted himself. The other guards laughed and scrambled around him.
Ecan called,
“Deer Killer?”
The young warrior nearly twisted his neck off spinning around to look toward the palisade gate.
Ecan strode purposefully toward him. “When is your guard duty over?”
“At dusk, Starwatcher!”
“Not tonight,” Ecan shouted. “I think you should be standing your post until dawn. From the clouds out to the west, we should have rain again. I wouldn’t want you to miss it.”
“Yes, Starwatcher.” At Deer Killer’s miserable look, the other guards chuckled.
Dzoo walked straight up to Deer Killer.
The young warrior bravely pulled his shoulders back and faced her, but his knees trembled.
She said something to him.
Deer Killer looked mesmerized, like a rabbit who’s just realized he stepped into a snare.
Dzoo leaned closer and spoke again; then she smiled and walked past him. The watching guards scattered, and Deer Killer’s hand twined in the fabric over his heart. He looked like he might faint.
Angry, Ecan closed the last of the distance, eyes blazing.
When he got to within ten paces, a powerful gust of wind blasted the mountain, and a tiny tornado of dirt and gravel spun into existence over Fire Village.
The whirlwind descended, gathering speed as it plunged out of the sky. It touched down, whirling coals from the fire, sucking up baskets and mats.
“Run!” someone shouted.
Ecan bellowed, “Halt! Man your posts!”
Deer Killer flinched when the first stone smacked his shoulder. Another banged across a lodge roof and sailed over the edge. Someone down below yipped.
Deer Killer spun around to greet Ecan, but before he could speak, a basket bounced off his arm with a painful crack, and Deer Killer yelled, “What the … !”
A split-cedar mat hit him in the back, then a rash of gravel and hot ash almost knocked him senseless.
Deer Killer, an arm up to fend off the wind, shrieked,
“It’s her! It’s her!”
Ecan shouted, “Warrior! I order you to halt!”
Deer Killer bellowed,
“Make her stop! She’s trying to kill me!”
The whirlwind flipped back and forth over the plaza, dust and debris in its wake. Then it careened away down the mountain slope, kicking up dust and detritus as it went.
Dzoo seemed untouched where she stood by one of the lodges, watching with large dark eyes. Not even her dress was rippling as the blow passed.
A breathless silence settled over the village.
Ecan focused on the guards who’d fled the wind’s wrath. Falling Cedar pawed at a hot coal that burned in a fold of his war shirt. The others cowered, staring wide-eyed up at the sky, and then back at Dzoo.
“If you are not back to your posts by the time I’ve finished calling
out your names, I will assign you as the witch’s personal guards, never to leave her side! … Black Cod!” Men lunged to obey. “Thunder Boy!”
The warriors assembled in front of him, forming a line with their chests thrown out, their gazes focused anywhere but on Ecan. The wind had left them with eyes slitted, hair whipped around their faces. Falling Cedar’s shirt still smoldered.
“I have never witnessed a more cowardly display in my life!” Ecan marched back and forth in front of them. “Deer Killer!”
The young warrior might have been on the point of tears. “Yes, Starwatcher?”
A nasty lump had already risen where the stone had bashed his temple. He seemed a little unsteady on his feet.
“What did the witch tell you before the whirlwind formed?”
Deer Killer squinted in disbelief. “She—she asked me if she knew me!”
“Knew you? Does she?”
“I’ve been her guard. She should know me.”
Ecan’s eyes narrowed. “Then she spoke to you again, didn’t she?”
“Yes, but she just asked me the same question.” Deer Killer’s arms flapped helplessly against his sides.
Soft laughter drifted from somewhere high above him.
Ecan turned in time to see Dzoo make a sweeping gesture with her arm, a graceful winglike motion.
The remaining wind stopped. Just stopped. The air might have gone suddenly dead.
Deer Killer gasped, expression ashen. Nor was he alone. The other guards were bug-eyed, jaws locked, throats working as they swallowed dryly.
Ecan slapped Deer Killer with all the force he could manage. The young warrior staggered, stunned, and wiped at his mouth. Blood leaked onto his lips.
For a split instant, Ecan saw anger glitter in the youth’s eyes. As quickly, it vanished.
“Forgive me, Starwatcher,” Deer Killer whispered.
Ecan turned, glaring at Dzoo. Their eyes met across the distance. “What is she
doing
to us?”
She couldn’t have heard, not from that far away; but she threw back her head, and her eerie laughter mocked them all.
A
s the whirlwind spun through the village and blasted away down the mountainside, Cimmis braced a hand against the wall. In the roar of wind he couldn’t hear his own thoughts, but he watched the twister as it played havoc with his village before rattling the palisade, whipping up red cinder, and heading down to lash the trees.
Red Dog brushed gray-streaked black hair from his dark eyes and squinted at Cimmis. “What’s going on down there?”
“It has something to do with Dzoo.”
Cimmis watched the ensuing drama as Ecan berated his warriors at the central fire.
“Do you think she caused the whirlwind?” Red Dog asked in a hoarse whisper.
“She’ll be blamed for every unusual thing that happens in Fire Village.”
People were stepping out, staring around uncertainly. Some went looking for items blown away. Here and there the village dogs came slinking back from their hiding places.
“Come,” Cimmis said. “Let’s talk in my lodge where we won’t be overheard.” He led the way to his dwelling, pulled his leather door curtain aside, and gestured for Red Dog to enter.
“Yes, my Chief.” Red Dog ducked inside.
The fire in the center of the floor cast a ruddy glow over Astcat’s slack face where she lay in the rear. Her soul had been gone since
dawn. Cimmis had been dribbling water into her mouth to keep her body from drying up.
“You must be tired and thirsty after your run.” He went to the fire and dipped a cup of gooseberry flower tea from the bag hanging on the tripod.
Red Dog eagerly took the cup and sniffed the aroma appreciatively. As he crouched opposite Cimmis, he said, “Thirsty but alive. There were moments when I doubted I’d ever see Fire Village again.”
“Rain Bear treated you poorly?” Cimmis seated himself on a folded buffalo robe.
“When he realized I was your emissary he gave me food and drink, and provided a warm fire. I was surrounded by two tens of warriors, but comfortable.”
As Wind Woman toyed with his door curtain, it swung, and allowed the rays of sunrise to flash across his painted shields. Killer Whale and Eagle seemed to move. Red Dog turned slightly as though he saw it, too.
“All right, tell me everything.” Cimmis laced his fingers over one knee. He hadn’t slept well since Red Dog left. His visits to the Above Worlds had been tortured. All of his ancestors kept shouting at him, telling him he was being a fool.
“I repeated your words exactly, my Chief. I told Rain Bear that if he did not leave the Raven People and flee, your assassins would quietly kill him and his entire family.” Red Dog took a long drink of tea, almost emptied his cup, and looked across at Cimmis. “He did not accept your offer.”
“I see.”
He’d expected as much. Now everything hinged on the second phase of his plan. His craftiest Wolf Tail would have arrived yesterday. Evening Star and Ecan’s boy would be headed his way, or their bodies were being prepared for burial. The advantage fell to Cimmis with either result. If Coyote had managed to extricate them, Cimmis could quietly kill Evening Star and hand the boy to Ecan, obligating the Starwatcher forever. If it went the other way, Ecan would be rabid over the death of his son and willing to do anything to avenge himself on Rain Bear. The final advantage Cimmis accrued was the effect the murders would have on Rain Bear. His followers would know he was powerless to protect them. Perhaps, just perhaps, to save his precious family, he would choose to fade away like the morning mist. If he did, any chance for an alliance among the Raven People would go with him.
Red Dog was watching him as he thought. The old warrior wet his lips and said, “Rain Bear had an offer of his own to make. He said that in memory of Tlikit, if you would secretly send Astcat to him, he would do his best to protect her from the Raven People’s wrath.”
Cimmis felt a shiver run through him.
Red Dog frowned down into his cup. “He also said he regretted he could no longer do anything to protect you.”
“Yes, I’m sure he regrets that very much,” he said tartly. Rain Bear had shamed him before the entire village six and ten cycles ago. He could still hear Old Woman East’s shouting,
You are the great chief! Your daughter has run off with a slave warrior? How could this have been going on beneath your very eyes?
Of all the things Rain Bear could have offered, this was like a slap to the face.
No, don’t think about it. Not yet.
“What was your opinion of the sentiment among the Raven People? How did the attack on War Gods Village affect them?”
Red Dog chuckled. “I would say they’re on the verge of scattering like a flock of quail under a hawk’s shadow. Like always, each chief is ready to turn on his fellows, each carried away by his petty jealousies.” He paused in consideration. “More than that, I’d say that you had them right where you wanted them.”
Then perhaps Coyote has already broken their will.
He would know soon enough.
Red Dog finished his tea and set the cup on the hard-packed floor.
With a flip of his hand, Cimmis dismissed him. “Go and rest. Food will be provided. I’ll send for you when I require your services again.”
Red Dog stood. “I’ll be waiting, my Chief.”
The warrior threw back the curtain to leave, then disappeared with a swishing of the hanging.
Cimmis dropped his head into his hands. His belly ached. For over a sun cycle, he’d been killing his relatives and bullying the Raven People at the Council’s behest. He was too worried and tired to do otherwise. Astcat might have been the matron, but Old Woman North wielded the true authority. And he acted in an attempt to forget his own bitterness over Astcat’s illness.
He whispered,
“Blessed gods, show me a way out.”

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