Copper Falcon (6 page)

Father sat cross-legged, the beautiful copper falcon propped on his knees as he ran the tip of his finger over the metal. I’d never seen such a reverent look in his eyes, and to my astonishment, I caught the gleam of a tear as it streaked down his cheek.

“Are you all right?”

His smile hinted of barely repressed joy. “Great-grandfather traveled north in his youth. Up in the copper lands, on the shores of the great lakes, he dug this metal, cracked the stone away, and bore it here. High Chief Gizi’s best coppersmith did the work, pounded the copper flat, pressed the metal into the shape it now has.”

Father paused wistfully, then added, “It was my father’s most valued possession, and upon his death, it became mine. When I was taken and exiled, it was still my property. That she had it ripped from my hands? For that I will never forgive her.”

I reached out, tracing the smooth metal with a caressing finger. I felt the Power, crackling like rubbed fox fur. I could sense the souls of my grandfathers, who had cared for this piece with such reverence.

“I am holding the only heritage our family has left. Living all those years without it, it was as if part of my souls were missing. I have longed for this, wished to touch it, to feel the presence of my father, and his father before him. More than anything I want that for you, for your sons.”

He gave me a weary smile. “This is the reason our town is called Copper Falcon.”

“We should be moving, Father. Stopping here was a bad idea.”

“Even if we beat them south to Horned Serpent Town and collect our people, they’ll still have warriors waiting for us by the time we reach the canoe landing and find Sixkills and Cut Hand. We have two legs of the triangle to run. They have one.” He paused. “No, we have to play coyote to their wolf and accomplish our escape through cleverness.”

At that moment the doorway darkened, and a voice called, “Ah, here you are?”

Father had already whipped the cloth over his precious copper falcon. I’d almost jumped out of my skin, but had the sense to stuff Night Shadow Star’s chunkey stone into my pack.

“Seven Skull Shield?” I cried as his muscular form slipped inside and dropped to a crouch.

“At your service, good Four Winds.” The rascal shrugged his muscular shoulders in a dismissive manner. “Such a day, wouldn’t you say? Chunkey games, news of disaster in the north, Lady Night Shadow Star wailing and keening in grief … and a shocking escape by one of the Keeper’s captives? The whole city is in chaos.”

“What do you want?” Father demanded, and I could feel him crouch, ready to pounce.

I held a hand out to stay Father. “How did you find us?”

“Followed you,” Seven Skull Shield replied as casually as if discussing the weather. “And along the way asked a couple of friends to accompany me. Just in case, you know. I wouldn’t want to underestimate anyone who could blindside Bear Heart. At my last glance, he could barely stand, let alone get a sentence out without throwing up. Quite a knock you gave him.”

So, there were others outside?

I waved Father down before he could make matters worse, saying, “How do you see this working out?”

“One of two ways, good Four Winds lord.” A sly smile bent the rogue’s lips. “A man would probably receive a couple pieces of carved shell, perhaps a bolt of fine fabric or some other value, as a measure of the Keeper’s goodwill for information that led to the recapture of one of her ex-husbands.”

I reached into my pack and held up a chunkey stone. “Do you recognize this?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Is that the stone you used to brain Bear Heart? The one Lady Night Shadow Star so thoughtlessly tossed you? That story is all over Cahokia by now.”

I smiled grimly. “It would be worth more than a man’s life were it Traded on the Tenasee.”

Seven Skull Shield’s smile matched mine. “I think, that in Trade for that stone, I can manage to get your warriors out of Horned Serpent Town and to a canoe on the river.”

“But not the two of us?” Father asked.

“That, great High Chief, will be a bit more difficult.” Seven Skull Shield paused, eyes thoughtful. “Perhaps you might have some additional item to trade? Something worth the lives of a Four Winds high chief and his noble son?” With a slight inclination of his head, he indicated the cloth-bound copper falcon on Father’s lap.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Father said shortly, and I could see his rising anger. This could all go terribly wrong if Seven Skull Shield really did have men outside.

Images of the wretches dying in Morning Star House’s squares filled my souls as I interjected, “I think we can be accommodating.” I shot a hand out to forestall Father’s outburst, adding, “Assuming, Seven Skull Shield, that you can guarantee our safe passage to the canoe and our escape. By trusting you, you will also have to trust us.” I pointedly added, “The copper falcon will be yours at the moment we push off. Should anything happen to deprive us of it before that … like, say, we’re captured? Or the falcon stolen? We would just have to tell the Keeper who had taken the piece, and where to find him.”

Seven Skull Shield’s grin split his face. “By the Piasa’s swinging balls, Four Winds, I
like
you! A man after my own souls. We have a deal!”

*****

Three days earlier, when we had arrived at Cahokia, the suggestion that I dress as an immigrant laborer and cover my tattoos with filth would have incited me to fight to the death. Today, wearing nothing more than a breechcloth, sweat streaking my mud-caked skin, I panted under a load and was grateful with each step.

Father and I bore a two-man litter west along the fabled Avenue of the Sun. Hidden under the high pile of firewood were our packs and the precious copper falcon that would buy our lives. Behind me, Father’s shoulders knotted, his expression bitter. Rage and desperation radiated from him like heat from a white-hot rock. The litter poles were gripped tightly in his blocky fists.

As much as the load strained my shoulders, arms, and back, for Father, fit though he was for his age, it had to be brutal.

Ahead of us, Seven Skull Shield strolled insolently along, some unrecognizable staff held before him as he parted throngs of people in an attempt to aid our passage.

“You have
bound
us,” Father repeated yet again through gritted jaws. “You gave your word to a scoundrel, a mere thief!”

“It’s our
lives
, Father. And perhaps more to the point, the lives of our warriors. If the Keeper catches us, do you think she’ll just let Five Wings, Fast Call, and the rest of our people go? We’ve acted against the Morning Star House, hurt one of their agents, and embarrassed the Keeper, perhaps even the Morning Star himself. And we did it at the very instant they have been completely humiliated by the Red Wing!”

“That copper falcon means more to me than my life.”

“If it was so important, why did I have to come to Cahokia to learn about it? About any of this?”

“I didn’t want the past to suck you down like a whirlpool.” He paused. “I made my deal with Power. I would forgo any desire for revenge, would allow the past to fade without any action on my part. That, in return for a squadron and the chance to save our people.”

He uttered a disgusted hiss. “See how
that
worked out! And once she’d taken me? Tied me to her bench where all I could do was stare at my copper falcon? She shamed me before my son and my warriors. I
couldn’t
let it go.”

“And now I’ve promised it to Seven Skull Shield,” I interjected before he could hurl his outrage at my stiff back.

Between labored breaths, he muttered some imprecation before finally saying, “It was as if fate dragged me face-to-face with my falcon, saying, ‘Here is the Power and honor of your lineage. Will you stand idly by and watch it pass into the hands of strangers?’ Power
wants
the falcon returned to our family. I can feel it. All of this? It’s punishment for surrendering it so easily all those years ago. I let our family down then, and now you’re doing the same.”

“Is our word and honor worth more than the symbol and spirit Power represented by the falcon?”

“That is the question I’m asking myself.”

“Something’s wrong up ahead.” I turned my attention to Seven Skull Shield, who had slowed, stopped by two Hawk Clan warriors bearing bows. Another dozen lounged in the shade of an oversized ramada to the side. The road was narrow here, a choke point created by Reed Lake to the north and a marsh to the south.

“How may I be of service?” Seven Skull Shield asked with an overly dramatic “respectful” touch of his chin.

“We’re looking for two men. Four Winds from Horned Serpent House. One is older, the other young. You seen them?”

The second of the warriors walked close, looking Father and me over with a suspicious eye. “They’d be about the ages of these two,” he said.

My heart froze, an image of the Morning Star’s terrible squares looming in my imagination.

In T’so I told Father, “And now we’ll discover if a thief has more honor than we do. And if he gets us through this, I’d say he’s earned that falcon, and our loyalty.”

*****

I jerked awake in terror. The night was pitch-black under thick cloud cover and drizzling rain. Inside the thatch-roofed warehouse where we hid, I could barely make out my hand when I held it before my eyes.

For long moments I lay gasping, my heart hammering; fear-sweat trickled down my cheeks. The dream had been so clear; the warriors blocking the road had pointed at Father, crying, “It’s him!” The bolt of terror as he did had jolted me awake.

I rubbed a trembling hand over my face.

In fact, Seven Skull Shield had laughed off the notion. “You think my slaves, men who actually
work
for a living, might be Four Winds lords?” He’d winked at the Hawk Clan man. “Sweating in the sun? Bearing loads? Would an ass-packed-tight Four Winds noble ever stoop to such?”

That had elicited belly laughs as we were waved past. We might have still been free, but it had stung nevertheless.

I shifted on the uncomfortable matting where I lay between two large ceramic pots. I was just drifting off when I heard whispered words. I couldn’t catch the meaning, just the tone of urgency.

Then I heard Seven Skull Shield say, “My deal is with your son. What you’re suggesting is a betrayal of trust.”

“I’m offering value for value.”

Father’s voice!

I sat up, tilting my head to listen.

“Value for value?” Seven Skull Shield asked skeptically.

Father told him a reasonable voice, “You have my word. Whatever it takes. Whatever it costs me. The value of the copper falcon—”

“Better be worth more than your life.”

I listened through a long pause, hearing a mouse rustling somewhere in the corner. The darkness seemed like a weight.

Pus and blood, tell me that Father isn’t going to break our bond!

Finally Seven Skull Shield said, “For your son’s sake, I’ll pretend this conversation never happened.”

I listened for more, only to hear the silence stretch, and to brood over the tone of Seven Skull Shield’s voice: it had been laced with a curious sadness, as if he were somehow deeply disappointed.

*****

“You’re not planning on double-crossing Seven Skull Shield, are you?” I hissed into Father’s ear as we took a beaten trail down to the riverbank. The place Seven Skull Shield had led us to was some distance south of the canoe landing. Through a screen of weeds I could see the broad river, its surface pale where it reflected the cloud-covered sky.

The day was gloomy, threatening rain and chill.

Father shot a glance at the rogue’s broad back, a quiver of smile playing at his lips. “And if I were?”

“I’ll not have it. I gave my word.”

“He’s a thief and a commoner. The kind of flotsam that pollutes any body of still water.”

“We’re Four Winds Clan, of Copper Falcon Town. We swore an oath. It doesn’t matter to whom.”

The look he gave me was unsettling, as if I’d touched something deep down inside him. I thought for an instant that tears would well in his eyes; then I watched him rein in his emotions until they were choked down tight.

“You know what the copper falcon means to me? To our family? It’s a symbol of who we are as men, and who we came from.”

“Seven Skull Shield has fulfilled his bargain, ruffian that he might be. Father, sometimes honor and family means sacrifice, giving up the most important things in the world.”

My words struck him like a physical blow, and I watched him steady himself. He swallowed hard, nodded, and I could see new resolve stiffening inside him.

“Then you will understand the lengths I’m willing to go to.” He took a breath. “What giving up the falcon means to me.”

“We will keep the deal, Father.”

He said sadly, “If I’m lucky, one day you will understand.”

“You will keep the deal with Seven Skull Shield?”

“On my honor.” He uttered the words with such sad sincerity it almost broke my heart.

Reassured, I could see five of Seven Skull Shield’s men where they stood on the bank. They looked like inconsequential sorts. Dressed in brown hemp hunting shirts, they might have been local fishermen. They greeted Seven Skull Shield with cries and slaps on the back. The thief returned the gesture, whispering something into their ears as he embraced each man. The way they nodded and looked at us as we walked out onto the beach sent a ripple of unease down my back.

No, if they were going to betray us, it would have been in the city, not on this lonesome stretch of beach
.

“My friends”—Seven Skull Shield grinned as he turned to us—”I’ve just heard. Your warriors are on the way from Horned Serpent Town. They should be here any time now.”

From where they sat on the sand, Sixkills and Cut Hand stood, smiles dropping as they read the rage in my eyes.

Before I could launch into them, Father led them to the side, talking earnestly in low tones. Good. He could inform them of the folly of their ways and whatever terrible retribution awaited them.

I walked over to the beached canoe. With our own under scrutiny at the main landing, I could only wonder where Seven Skull Shield’s people had stolen this one. It was a finely crafted vessel with Duck Clan markings on the bow, large, and hewn from red cedar. Twenty paddles lay within.