People of the Silence (65 page)

“Very well.”

A pause, then Webworm murmured, “I am having a problem with Snake Head. He is so childish and headstrong! He cannot see reason!”

“What’s he done now?” Ironwood asked through a tired exhalation.

“Day after tomorrow we leave with the burial procession for the sacred Humpback Butte, and we should take at least thirty warriors to guard the Blessed Elders who will be making the journey. You always took thirty. But Snake Head has ordered me to take no more than five.”

“
Five?
”

“Yes. Even a pitiful war party could kill everyone in the procession, and I wouldn’t be able to do a thing to stop them.” The roof groaned as one of the men shifted. “I do not wish to disobey his order, Ironwood, but I cannot, in good conscience, follow it.”

Ironwood didn’t say anything for a time. Finally, he murmured. “No, you cannot. But you must appear to.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Well, if I were you, I would take five warriors with the procession, just as the Blessed Sun ordered. But I would also send out scouts to provide an advance warning. And another party of twenty-five or thirty warriors following close behind who could rush up at a moment’s notice. Your instincts are right, Webworm. It is your duty as War Chief to assure the safety of the elders. Just tell your warriors to stay out of sight, but within range. That way, you will be following orders,
and
carrying out your responsibilities to the people of Talon Town.”

Webworm sighed. “Thank the Spirits, I feel so much better. I’ve needed to speak with you since yesterday, but only mustered the courage tonight. I—”

“Courage? To speak with me?”

“Yes, I—I know it was silly, but I feared that after Snake Head dismissed you so dishonorably you might think I had something to do with it.”

Ironwood said kindly, “My fault. I should have spoken with you right after it happened. Webworm, if it had been my choice, I would have selected you to replace me. You were the finest of my warriors. I wish you nothing but success. If you ever need my advice, or my fighting, you have only to ask.”

The roof creaked again. Softly, Webworm said, “You are my friend, Ironwood.”

“Yes, now get some rest. You will need it for the journey south.”

“Yes, I’m sure I will. Good night, Ironwood.”

“Goodnight.”

Ironwood crossed the roof again and started down the ladder into the chamber.

Night Sun watched him descend. His knee-length buckskin shirt accented the breadth of his shoulders and narrowness of his waist. The fringes on the sleeves and hem swayed in the starlight. He wore his gray hair in a bun at the back of his head.

When he stepped to the floor, Night Sun whispered, “Don’t die of fright. It’s just me.”

Ironwood spun and stared at her wide-eyed. Then he glanced at the roof entry, to make certain no one could hear. “Night Sun?
What
are you doing here?”

“It seems everyone needs your advice tonight.”

A frown lined his forehead. He walked across the room and knelt in front of her. Starlight sheathed his handsome oval face and reflected in his brown eyes. “Are you all right?”

“No. I’m not certain either of us is.”

“Why not?”

Night Sun clasped her hands and held them together over her mouth for several moments, before answering, “I went to Crow Beard’s chamber before dawn this morning, just to—to see it, and Snake Head found me there. He told me things that terrified me.”

Her hands started to tremble, and Ironwood reached out and closed his fingers around them. “What things?”

“Snake Head knows about us.”

Ironwood squeezed her hands. “I feared as much.”

“You…” She lifted her head and stared at him. “You
knew?
”

“The night you were imprisoned, I went to see him, to try to convince him that holding you was foolish, that it would split the people apart. He told me that he’d never trusted me or my judgment. When I mentioned that his father had trusted me, Snake Head said, ‘But he never knew about my mother’s fondness for you.’ It was the way he said ‘fondness,’ that convinced me.” Ironwood placed a warm hand beneath her chin and his gaze went over her taut face. “Did he say how he knew?”

She nodded. “He used to follow us. Every time we—we were together, he…” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “And he relayed enough of the details of those precious times, Ironwood, that I have no doubt he did see us.”

Ironwood did not move, but the crow’s feet around his eyes deepened. “And what did you say?”

“I acted stupidly. I threatened him, told him if he told anyone that I’d make sure he suffered as much as I.”

Ironwood released her and sank to the floor, sitting cross-legged. The fringes on his shirt brushed the hard-packed dirt. “Snake Head will have taken that threat seriously, Night Sun, and already be preparing to counter any charges you make against him.”

“Yes, well, I’ll be making plans, too. Ironwood I … I can’t go away with you. I
must
marry again. You understand, don’t you? This is the only way.”

Ironwood tipped his face up, and seemed to be glaring at the Bear Thlatsina. He spoke very tenderly. “You can’t win, Night Sun. Don’t you see that? Yes, if you remarry you’ll depose Snake Head, but he’ll make certain you fall with him. He’ll drag in every witness he can find or bribe. No matter what you say, the suspicion will be enough to doom you.”

She searched his eyes. He was right. She knew he was right. But before she had time to think about it, her mouth said, “No. No, the elders would not condemn me based upon suspicions. They’ll demand proof, and … and there isn’t any. I’ll be all right. I just have to marry quickly.”

Ironwood took her hands and stared into her eyes. “Who will you marry?”

“I don’t know. I was thinking about Blue Racer from Starburst Town. He…”

Ironwood bowed his head and clutched her hands so tightly they hurt. His arms shook. It took several moments before Night Sun realized he was suppressing tears, not rage.

She whispered, “I never meant to hurt you, Ironwood.”

Thirty-Nine

Sister Moon rose over the hill behind Jay Bird’s camp, a shining pearl in a star-spotted indigo sea, and a pale luminescent gleam flooded the rocky hillside. Every grass stem cast a shadow. The line of enormous standing stones on the hill at Jay Bird’s back seemed to tilt, leaning over the camp with breathless anticipation. The assembled warriors shifted and whispered. Their moccasins kicked up a glittering haze of firelit dust.

Cone crouched on his haunches, his forearms on his knees. Thistle sat beside him. The guards had told them to remain outside the protective ring of twenty warriors surrounding Jay Bird, but through the tangle of bodies, Cone could see Jay Bird’s face as Howler explained what Thistle wished to discuss. Jay Bird clearly didn’t believe a word of it. The tall man had an air of utter self-assurance, a fierce dignity, that unnerved even the most valiant of men. As Jay Bird’s thin face hardened, Howler started making more and more elaborate gestures.

Thistle sat with her knees drawn up, looking determined. By any man’s standards, she was a beautiful woman. Tiny and delicate, she had a smooth, tanned face and long silky hair. She’d unbraided it for this meeting, and it hung down her back in blue-black waves. Her dark eyes slitted as she studied the warriors.

As if to lessen her own anxiety, she asked, “How come it was you who ended up here, Cone? I understand what you’re doing, but not the why of it. You were one of Talon Town’s most renowned warriors.”

Cone plucked a blade of grass from the ground and awkwardly turned it in his hands. “It’s a long story, Thistle. It began about a moon ago. Had I known then—”

“Before you came to Lanceleaf?”

“Just before, yes.” He gestured with the green blade, feeling like a fool. How could he explain the complicated web of deceit? “Before I left Talon Town to come to Lanceleaf Village, Snake Head paid me to meet with one of Jay Bird’s messengers.”

“Near Lanceleaf?”

“No, on the way back, near Talon Town. Snake Head had been secretly speaking with this messenger for moons, and had set up a meeting just north of Center Place.”

“Snake Head asked you, because he was too much of a coward to meet with the man himself?”

Cone nodded. “I see that you remember him well.”

“Only as a wicked child. I haven’t seen him in sixteen summers. Go on.”

Cone ran the blade of grass over his fingertips. “Snake Head offered me so much wealth, Thistle, I just stood there with my mouth open. I thought, what’s one meeting? Besides, he was to be the next Blessed Sun.”

She turned to face him, and he saw kindness in her eyes.

It soothed Cone’s lacerated soul.

“Wealth?” she asked. “But Shake Head couldn’t have possessed many things.”

“No, he rapidly ran out of his own goods. That’s another story.” He frowned at the ground, wishing he were anywhere but here. Beargrass had been his friend, and a loyal warrior to the Blessed Sun. Sitting here with Beargrass’ wife made him acutely aware of his own perfidy.

Yes, perfidy, but one necessary to root out a terrible evil.

“Go on,” Thistle said. “You were saying…”

Cone nodded. “I was supposed to meet the messenger, Howler, at midnight, the day before we arrived back at Talon Town. When Spider Woman climbed to the right place, I slipped from my blankets to go to the meeting place. Thistle, I swear, I didn’t know that Wraps-His-Tail was following me. You must believe me, he was my friend. I would never have…” His voice faltered. He crimped the grass stem with his thumbnail. A sweet fragrance rose from it. “Howler saw me being followed. There was nothing I could do. It happened so quickly. Howler leaped on Wraps-His-Tail from behind.”

Thistle lowered her gaze. “I’m sorry. He was a good man.”

“Yes. He was. He—he died in my arms. I kept telling him how sorry I was, that I never meant to hurt him.” Cone’s chest went tight. Wraps-His-Tail had stared up at Cone with forgiveness in his eyes.

Thistle pressed, “What happened next?”

Cone gestured with his grass blade. “We—Howler and I—carried Wraps-His-Tail’s body to Talon Town and left it near the entry. I sneaked in and told Snake Head what had happened. I’m not sure what he did, but I heard that Snake Head went down and made the murder look like witchcraft. You know how Talon Town is. You mention the word witchcraft and everyone points at Sternlight. Any charge of witchery distracts people long enough that a real murderer can cover his tracks.”

Thistle laced her fingers around her right knee. “But what was Snake Head trying to do, Cone? What messages were you carrying?”

Cone’s mouth pursed with distaste. “It’s almost too foolish to speak of. Snake Head wished to establish an alliance. Jay Bird laughed at it, and I told Snake Head so. But that didn’t stop Snake Head. He wished to gain Jay Bird’s trust, allay his fears so he’d drop his guard and Snake Head could slaughter the Mogollon. In that way Snake Head would make a name for himself among the Straight Path people as the greatest Chief ever.”

“That’s ridiculous! A man like Jay Bird
never
drops his guard. We’ve been enemies for too long!”

“Oh, I know it, and you know it, and most everyone else knows it, but it’s a sign of just how poorly Snake Head is suited to the rank of Blessed Sun that he doesn’t know it. The deeper I became involved in this, the more determined I became to destroy Snake Head.”

“Couldn’t you tell someone?”

“No. By then Crow Beard was dead, Ironwood replaced, and Night Sun locked away in the Cage. Snake Head was in charge, and he kept badgering me to ask Jay Bird again, to try a new tack. It was very dangerous work, so I demanded more and more for my services.”

“And he paid you?”

Cone tore the stem in half and glared at the pieces. “Oh, yes.”

“But where did he get the goods?”

Cone squeezed his eyes closed. “From his dying father, Thistle. He was stealing Crow Beard’s possessions while the old man’s soul was floating about in the room.”

“Blessed Spirits.” Thistle’s fists knotted in her dirty yellow skirt. “It must have been terrible for you when you found out.”

Cone let the grass blade flutter to the ground and kicked dirt over it in frustration. “I didn’t know until the very end. Right after Crow Beard died, Snake Head brought me a big pack of Crow Beard’s most precious things. Exquisite Green Mesa pots. Turquoise nodules the size of two fists put together. Snake Head
boasted
to me of how he’d stolen them.” Cone lifted his hands and opened them to the heavens. “Thistle, I—I just … snapped.”

“That’s when you switched sides?”

“No, no, not exactly. I’m still a Straight Path warrior. It’s just that now I fight in a different way.” He lowered his hands to his knees. “I hate Snake Head. I want to see him dead. And, as it happens, Jay Bird wishes the same thing.”

Thistle bit her lip, as if fighting with something that she dared not say. “After the slaughter at Lanceleaf Village, Cone, I understand and share your hatred.” She brushed at a patch of dirt on her yellow skirt, and her voice took on a deeper, graver note. “Snake Head’s death will be the best thing for all of our people.”

“I am convinced of it.”

She looked up, and her cheek muscle jumped. “So you set up this plan to lure Snake Head here? To his death?”

“I did.”

“And how did you manage to convince Jay Bird to come? Surely he could have sent his warriors to kill Snake Head. He didn’t have to come himself.”

“No, he didn’t. But Snake Head demanded to meet with Jay Bird and offered Jay Bird a reward he couldn’t turn down.” Just thinking about it sickened Cone. He swallowed the sourness in his throat and squinted at the sparkling fires in the valley below.

“What reward?”

“Snake Head promised that if Jay Bird came in person, he could have Crow Beard’s corpse as a trophy to take home to the Mogollon. Can you imagine the prestige that will be Jay Bird’s? He can say he
personally
captured the corpse and can parade Crow Beard’s putrefying body from village to village, so that every Fire Dog for a moon’s walk can spit upon our dead Chief. How could Jay Bird resist? Though it would have been better if Crow Beard’s soul had still been in his body. Then Jay Bird could have made certain Crow Beard never reached the afterlife, but wandered the earth forever as a homeless ghost.”