People of the Thunder (North America's Forgotten Past) (10 page)

“Out back.” He nodded approval. “Oh, and while you’re out there, you might just take one last look around.”

Bull Fish hesitated, momentarily confused, then caught his meaning. “Of course.”

Amber Bead waited, collecting his thoughts. Something about the young man’s manner spoke of great excitement. As if he’d been bursting with news. Ah, well, all in good time.

When Bull Fish reentered, he propped his bare feet before the fire, and sighed. “The food will make me sleepy. I ran all night.”

“To tell me what?”

“You have heard the allegations about Red Awl’s capture and murder by Smoke Shield?”

“I have.” Amber Bead leaned forward. “You must understand, while I do not put such a thing beyond Smoke Shield’s capacity for stupidity, it will take more than just producing his weapons and Red Awl’s widow standing up to make accusations. We need the body. Some sort of actual proof of the deed.”

Bull Fish smiled. “You have heard that Fast Legs was the second warrior?”

“I have, but the mysterious Fast Legs is missing.”

“Not anymore.” Bull Fish lowered his voice. “
We have him!”

Amber Bead’s heart skipped. “You killed Fast Legs? Gods, if this doesn’t play out right that could turn on you like grabbing a cottonmouth’s tail! Who knows of this thing?”

The young man raised a cunning brow. “Elder, please, we are smarter than that. He’s alive. Oh, granted, his leg is badly broken, but his black heart is still beating in his chest.”

Amber Bead sank to a seat, stunned at the implications. “How did you do this thing?”

“First we set a trap, and then we lured him into it.
Lotus Root was incredibly brave. We let the fool believe he was undiscovered. He even took the food we set aside for him in our granary. The plan was, if nothing else, we’d poison it.”

“Where is he now?”

“In a hunter’s shack a couple of hands’ travel west of Bowl Town. We are taking special precautions, keeping an eye on the Chikosi. If any of them take off to hunt, we’ll have plenty of warning. We’ve made sure that Chief Sun Falcon doesn’t suspect a thing.”

“Fast Legs didn’t consult with him?”

“No.” Bull Fish frowned. “That was odd, too. You’d think that he would have gone there, demanded Lotus Root, and had Sun Falcon do his dirty work for him. Sun Falcon is Chief Clan, after all, a cousin to High Minko Flying Hawk. Instead Fast Legs lurked out in the forest like the animal he is.”

“There is a reason Sun Falcon wasn’t alerted. He knows nothing of this. No one does. Smoke Shield did this against the orders of the Council. Don’t you people hear anything up there?”

“Our representative to the Chikosi Council is
dead,
Mikko!”

“Keep your voice down. You are welcome to your passions. I have my own. But that doesn’t mean shouting them at the top of your lungs is either smart, or necessary.”

The young man looked chastened.

Amber Bead considered. “So, we have War Chief Smoke Shield’s bow and arrows, Lotus Root’s accusation, and Fast Legs. Better yet, no one knows. The question now is how do we use it all?”

“We sneak our mikkos from up and down the river to see this man, hear the accusation, and inspect the war chief’s arrows, that’s what. Then, when the time is right, our people storm the Chikosi, and they serve us for a while.”

Amber Bead felt the corner of his lip quivering. “Is that how you people see this playing out?”

“Mikko,” Bull Fish pleaded, “it is our time! This is a sign, sent by Abba Mikko above, for the Albaamaha to reclaim our land.”

“I see. Tell me, has Sun Falcon acted in some atrocious manner in the last couple of moons? Anything I wouldn’t have heard about?”

“He’s still the same arrogant Chikosi he ever was.”

“But he hasn’t beaten any of our people? Raped our women after dragging them from their husbands’ beds? Hasn’t defiled any of our temples?”

“No. He’s just arrogant. Thinks we’re beneath him. He even has Albaamaha who grovel and go whimpering at his feet. Those people, we tell nothing.”

“How many Albaamaha do you know who go groveling?”

“Too many!”

Amber Bead nodded. “Yes, my young friend, and that is exactly the problem. Unlike some Chikosi, Sun Falcon is a just man.”

Bull Fish glared up. “We thought you were on our side! Red Awl was the one who constantly called for patience, who wanted to compromise. Look where that got him! We heard you were the one who chafed under the Chikosi burden basket.”

Amber Bead fingered his chin, nodding. “Chafe? Oh, yes, I do. Am I willing to undermine the Chikosi at any opportunity? Definitely. Here’s the thing you must know: If we strike at the Chikosi, we will be crushed. This is exactly the sort of thing Smoke Shield is hoping for. An Albaamaha revolt would shoot him onto the high minko’s stool up there in that palace yonder. It would solidify the Council’s support.”

“We outnumber them!”

“But they are better warriors.”

“We trapped Fast Legs! The fool ran right into it.”

“You manipulated one tired man in the forest.” Amber Bead raised his hands, stalling any outburst. “I am not your enemy. Do not mistake me. I do not like the Chikosi. I want to see them gone from our country, but that time hasn’t arrived. They must be weakened, made vulnerable. We just avoided one calamity; I would not instigate another.”

“They are vulnerable. You proved that when you murdered their captives.”

“
I
murdered their captives? Is that the story told upriver?”

“Who else? It is thought that you had Paunch do it. He’s missing, isn’t he? What better person to sneak in through the fog and drive a knife into the captives’ hearts?”

A cold chill ran down Amber Bead’s back. “First, let me make this painfully clear: I had
nothing
to do with the captives’ deaths! You must go back and tell everyone who will listen. No Albaamaha had a hand in that action. And it certainly wasn’t Paunch! He’s out hiding in the forest somewhere because the Chikosi think he had something to do with Crabapple’s attempt to warn White Arrow Town of Smoke Shield’s raid. Do you understand?”

“Then who did?” Bull Fish seemed perplexed.

Amber Bead sighed, fully aware of the danger he was in. “To the best of my knowledge, the Chahta did it. And, in the end, I fervently hope it was them. Let the Chikosi distract themselves raiding Chahta towns. I need you to make sure that everyone upriver knows it wasn’t us. And, in Abba Mikko’s sacred name, do not attach my name—or Paunch’s—to it in any way.”

“Why? It strengthens your position among our people.”

“And will get me hung from one of their squares if the Chikosi hear of it.” He shook his head. “No, even if I could have done it, I wouldn’t. Listen.
Understand.
The Chikosi consider me to be an old, amenable fool. I make sure they think of me that way. No one suspects the old dog that sleeps by their door to be a wolf. If they blame me for the death of the prisoners, you will get some lackey appointed in my place that will lick their hands, and wag his tail at any Chikosi order that comes along.”

“Then why do you resist using Fast Legs against them?”

“I don’t. I just can’t figure a way to do it right now without getting our people killed.” He looked at the perplexed young man. “Don’t you see? We need them weakened before we strike.”

“Our Albaamaha could take Bowl Town in a single night. We outnumber them. All we have to do is sneak in, unlatch the gate, and kill them in their houses.”

“You have planned this?”

Bull Fish nodded. “All we need is approval from the mikkos. And when enough people have heard Lotus Root’s story about how Red Awl was killed, we will have it.”

By the Ancestors’ bones, the man was right. They probably could take Bowl Town. Red Awl had been a respected man there. But what about Wind Town? Chief Buffalo Killer and his Albaamaha depended on each other. How many would side with the rebels? Yes, the Albaamaha could take towns up and down the river, but how could they crack Split Sky City’s hard shell? The fact was, they couldn’t.

How do I buy time?
“Your people are committed to this?”

“We are.”

Amber Bead broke out in bitter laughter.

“What do you think is so funny?”

“I have waited all of my life to see our people united against the Chikosi. And now, when the gods have finally
granted me my wish, it is at the worst time possible. The joke is a cruel one.”

“I see no joke here. We have the means to destroy the Chikosi.”

Time. He needed time. That and a convenient miracle. “I need you to take this message back to your leaders: I sit in the Chikosi Council. I hear things, know things, that they do not. I am in the unique position to know when the Chikosi are the weakest. Will they be willing to wait for word from me before they strike Bowl Town? If they will, I will do what I can to throw the support of the southern Albaamaha to their side. But here is my condition: If you act before the time is right, I will urge the southern mikkos to side with the Chikosi. I will do this not because I do not share your goals, but to save the lives of my people from senseless slaughter.”

“You would act against your own people?” Bull Fish cried incredulously.

“I would act
to save my people,
you fool!” Then he lowered his voice. “You have my message.”

Bull Fish glared at him through hostile eyes. “I will take that message to my leaders. They will send you an answer by the full moon.”

Amber Bead nodded. At least he had some time, but how on earth could he forestall a conflagration and still be rid of the hated Chikosi?

W
hat did I ever do to offend Power so?
The question rolled around in Paunch’s head as he huddled in his damp shirt and nursed the small, smoky fire he had built in a hollow behind an old log. The smoke rose, blue and lazy, to trail off through the trees. Around him the forest dripped and waited, silence only broken by the occasional birdcall and the chatter of an irritated squirrel.

He and his granddaughter, Whippoorwill, had made camp on a ridgetop a day’s walk east of the Horned Serpent River. They had chosen this place, a gloomy flat dominated by huge black oak. Around them the great trees rose toward the sky, their high branches interlacing into a weave that allowed but faint light to penetrate to the forest floor. The trunks were huge, many having the diameter of his long-gone house back in Split Sky City. Walking among them left him with the same feelings his Albaamaha Ancestors must have felt when they first emerged from the Below World into this one. For the first time, Paunch could understand their awe and wonder.

He glanced uneasily at the rising smoke, worried that its odor might attract a wandering scout.

“We are far from any of the trails,” Whippoorwill told him. “There is no point of vantage here; the forest is old. Power almost sleeps here.”

“I wish I could be as sure as you are. How many times
have we escaped by a hair’s breadth? This country is crawling with scouts. Half of them are Smoke Shield’s, looking for any sign of retaliation from the Chahta for the White Arrow Town raid. The other half are Chahta, watching the Chikosi watching them!”

Whippoorwill gave him that eerie, liquid-eyed look that sent his souls scurrying. “You knew the risks when you sent Crabapple off in that foolish attempt to warn the White Arrow. I told you about Dancing close to Death. Are you enjoying the feeling?”

“No.” He sighed, rubbing his smudged face with callused hands. “It seemed like such a good idea at the time. If the White Arrow were warned, they would be ready for Smoke Shield and his warriors. They could have crushed him, taken the Chikosi war medicine, and dealt the Sky Hand a blow from which they would never recover. Weakened, we could have won our freedom.”

The faintest of smiles bent her full lips. “You knew nothing of freedom. But I think you have found the faintest hint of understanding.” She spread her arms in a movement so delicate it reminded him of swans’ necks. “Here it is, Grandfather. Freedom. No man stands over you with a war club telling you what to do. I see no Chikosi here to bully you or seize your food.”

“There’s no food to seize.”

“Ah, freedom has already lost its luster. And you are but so recently free.”

He rubbed his face harder. She’d always been such an odd child. “Why aren’t you home, married, with a child on your hip?”

“I am betrothed.”

He stared at her through slits in his fingers. “Curious. I don’t remember that. Every time we’ve approached a solid young man’s family, either he, or you, has said no. Usually, he says it so quickly you don’t have a chance.” She was such an attractive young woman, tall, with long
black hair that fell to her waist. When she passed, young men cast envious glances at her full bust, long legs, and round hips. Her face was nicely formed, with high cheeks and a tall forehead. She had a perfectly lush mouth and delicate nose. But all it took was a single glance into her large dark eyes and any man worth spit would turn around and run. Whippoorwill’s eyes always reflected midnight, as from seeing into worlds that no human wished to view.

“My husband will come.”