Feather (12 page)

The nights were not so cold now.

It appeared that the Blens would spend the winter traveling, and Feather was glad they had entered an area where the climate was milder than that of her homeland.

Three weeks after Tag’s first raid, the band ambushed another village. They stayed there in the huts they captured, surviving on the winter stores of the people Mik and his men had killed. Cade became stronger, and Feather was relieved.

When the supplies began to dwindle again, Mik and his men went hunting. They returned that evening, and Mik stormed into the hut where Feather slept with Kama, Denna, and Riah.

Kama jumped to her feet when he entered, and Feather gasped.

Mik threw half a dozen arrows onto the rough table. “You make poor arrows, woman!”

Kama lowered her gaze. “It is true. Forgive me.”

“Fix them! I will need these and a dozen more before morning. These poor shafts snap for no reason.”

“It will be done.”

Feather sobbed without meaning to and immediately wished she hadn’t. The wild-eyed leader fixed his dark gaze on her.

“Are you afraid, Arrow Girl? That’s good. You should be. Your hands will work quicker if you fear me.”

Feather’s lips trembled, and she could not look at him.

“The wood is not good,” she whispered.

“What was that?” He loomed over her.

“The wood . . . the arrows break because we cannot get wood that is worthy for hunting shafts.”

He drew back his hand and slapped her. Feather gasped and collapsed on the bench. Denna and Riah drew back into the shadows, as far from her as possible.

“You make the arrows,” Mik said to Kama.

“Yes, yes. It will be done.”

He scowled at all of them, and Feather covered her eyes with her arm. A moment later she felt a hand that was almost gentle on her shoulder.

“Come. We must work.”

Feather opened her eyes. Kama was tugging at her tunic, urging her to come sit at the table.

Gingerly, Feather put her fingertips to her cheek. Her eye was watering, and a painful welt was forming over her cheek bone.

“It hurts,” she choked.

Kama nodded. “It will hurt worse if we do not do as Mik wishes.” She turned and glared at the other two girls. “You! The sun is not yet down! Go out and cut more tree shoots for us. Take this.” She handed Denna her large bonehandled knife. Denna and Riah scurried out the door.

“Sit,” Kama said to Feather. “I will bring you some tea. You will drink it, and then we will put the wet leaves on that bruise.” As she talked, she crumbled some dried leaves into a bowl, then poured hot water over them.

“We cannot make good arrows,” Feather said.

“We must.”

Feather sipped the hot drink. “What if our work does not please him? It’s not our fault the wood is poor and wet. It warps as it dries.”

Kama shook her head. “It is useless to talk.”

The next morning Kama took the arrows they had made and the ones she had repaired to Lex before dawn, so that he could take them to Mik. Feather was grateful, as it meant the leader would not invade their hut again. She hid until she heard the men leave the camp after breakfast.

This time their hunt was successful, and they came back carrying the carcasses of a wild boar and an antelope. Lex brought the fractured arrows that needed repair this time. He looked keenly at Feather’s face but said nothing as he handed the arrows to Kama.

The next day they left the village and moved on, roving ever southward.

Feather’s days were difficult. Now and then she walked with Tag, but Cade and the other young people did not seem to want her around.

“They’re jealous,” Tag told her when they were alone in the evening. He let Feather hold Patch, but the cat was growing larger and hardly fit in her lap now. “You have skills they do not have, and they fear you will receive better treatment than they do.”

“That’s crazy,” she said. “I’m cuffed about and made to work all the time.”

“Yes, but a lot of that is so you won’t start having ideas. Even Hana watches you with an anxious eye. Her husband values you. She might be just as happy if he traded you away.”

“Traded
me
?” Feather stared at him in horror.

“Lex usually does what Hana wants.”

“But he needs me to make arrows.”

“He got by without you before. If Hana persuades him to use you to enrich himself—and her, of course—he will do it.”

Feather gulped. “What should I do?”

“What you’ve been doing. Make yourself valuable to Lex, but prepare to escape. If he turns against you, then you must flee.”

“I don’t want to be sold to a master more cruel,” she said slowly.

Tag frowned. “It was not Lex who struck you.”

“No.”

Patch rolled on his back in the grass beside Feather, and she scratched his belly.

“Let’s not think about it,” Tag said softly. “You cannot leave until spring when we go north again. When we are near your people.”

She nodded. “Until then I will try to do what they want.”

“Good. When the time comes, we will make plans.” He smiled, and Feather wondered if he was possibly considering joining her flight. Before she could voice the thought, he asked, “Where is the secret I gave you?”

Feather looked around to be sure they were secure, then pulled the small book from her pouch. The sun was setting, but there was still enough light to see by. Only once before had they been able to look at it together, but Feather had examined it many times in solitude. It contained many pages of black runes, some in rows and some in columns. She could make no sense of it whatever. Tag had tried to read from it that other time, but had given up after a few minutes.

Now he took it in his hands and opened to the first leaf. “This is the name of the book,” he said with certainty. He stared at it, and his mouth skewed into a scowl. “It may be in another language. This word has no meaning for me.” He touched the black squiggles. “But this. This says
tables
. I’m sure. It couldn’t be anything else.”

Feather pondered that. “Why would anyone write a book about tables?”

“Maybe it tells how to make a table.”

“Maybe it is shaped like the word
tables,
but it means something else in another language.”

Tag sighed. “Perhaps.”

“I thought you could read.”

“So did I. After a sort. But it has been a long time since I practiced, and I was only beginning to learn when the Blens took me.” He paged through the small volume. “But some of these symbols are numbers. Many, many numbers.”

“What good is it?”

He shrugged and handed it back to her. “It must be some good, or they would not have made it into a book.”

“Who is
they
?”

Tag grimaced. “You ask too many questions. Maybe we should use it to start a fire.”

“No!” Feather put the little book back in her pouch. Patch was rubbing his head against her leg and purring. She reached down and petted him. “Good kitty.” That afternoon he had brought down a plump prairie bird and presented it to Tag, and Hana had cooked it for Tag and Patch’s supper.

“I should have taken a different book,” Tag said.

“There were others?”

He nodded. “They were big, though. That was the only one I could hide. A lot of good it did.”

Feather yawned. “You’d better go. If we don’t sleep soon, we’ll be tired in the morning. I expect we have a long day’s march ahead of us.”

Tag leaned toward her. “I heard something. When we were out hunting.”

Feather’s heart began pounding in fear. “What?”

“The men were talking of your people.”

“
My
people?” Feather squawked.

Tag nodded. “Lex was saying that your people have great knowledge of weapons. He wants to raid them next spring. He wants their weapons and tools, but he is afraid. If your people are many, or if their knowledge is more powerful than his . . .”

Feather pulled in a deep breath. Her people were few, and although some of the men were very strong, they would not be a match for the ruthless Blens.

“We must not let that happen.”

“Do not tell anyone about your village. Do not speak of your people or of the way they live. Don’t speak a word about them.” Tag’s gray eyes were as intense as his voice.

“I won’t.”

He nodded. “I learned something else.”

“What?”

“Patch is afraid of the fire.”

“Of course. All wild animals are. That’s why we build the fire high at night when we are camping in the country of wolves or cats.”

Tag lifted one hand impatiently. “It’s more than that. He won’t even go near the cook fire with me to get our food. He loathes the sight of it. The smell of it too, maybe.”

Feather nodded. “Where he was born, there was no fire. It is strange and terrible to him.” She stroked the cat’s head. “It’s all right, Patch. We’re all afraid of something.” A week later the band came upon an abandoned town. After searching it fruitlessly, they moved on. The people were getting hungry again, growing tired of the steady diet of game.

One night a quarrel broke out in the camp, and Feather burrowed under her blanket and jacket trying to block out the angry voices.

Suddenly a hand shook her shoulder roughly.

“Feather Girl! Get up!”

She sat up and blinked in the darkness. Hana was squatting beside her.

“Come! Gather your things! We move away from here!”

“What is it?” Feather asked, bundling up her blanket and reaching for the small pack she now carried.

“My husband and Mik part ways tonight.”

“That was Lex and Mik fighting? But they’re friends!”

“No more.”

Hana seized her wrist and pulled her along, and Feather stumbled after her. They hurried into the woods. Feather tripped over a tree root and sprawled on the ground.

“Over here,” said another woman’s voice.

“You stay with Sinda,” Hana whispered. “I go to see what is happening.”

Feather crawled toward the other woman. Sinda was the woman who carried the baby on all their travels. The little boy was beginning to toddle now, and Feather had often wondered how the mother could bear his weight, but he could not yet go fast enough on his own feet to keep up with the tribe.

“What happened?” Feather asked.

Sinda was sitting with her back to a large tree, cuddling the baby against her chest.

“Mik said we move too slow. He said we leave Tarni and Cade behind.”

Feather caught her breath. Cade was healing, and she had assumed he was safe now. Apparently Mik disagreed and wanted to be rid of the wounded boy and Tarni, the baby.

“How could he even think of that?”

“He says they slow us down.” The catch in Sinda’s voice revealed her fear to Feather.

“What about your husband?”

“He stood up to Mik. My man Dell said we would not leave Tarni, and Mik bared his knife.” Sinda was crying now. “They fight, and I do not know if Dell lives.”

Feather reached out and patted Sinda’s shoulder. “Of course Dell won’t leave your baby behind. Tarni is his son.”

“But the Blens . . . this is their way,” Sinda said with resignation. “They did not want me to bring Tarni along in the first place. Now we have to decide. If Mik does not kill my husband, we will leave the tribe.”

“Can you survive alone?” Feather asked.

“I hope we will not be alone.”

Feather tried to put the bits of information together. The noise of strife in the camp was loud as women screamed and metal clashed on metal.

“Hana said Lex and Mik were fighting,” Feather said.

“Yes. Lex took our part. I couldn’t believe it. He is a hard man, but he sided with my husband. Mik said Dell could not leave him. He is one of the best hunters and a strong warrior. Mik said Dell must go with him, even if he leaves me here with Tarni. But Lex said no. We all go on, or we become two bands.”

Feather drew in a shaky breath. “Hana came to get me and hide me.”

“She wants you in Lex’s band now. She did not want Mik to steal you from Lex.”

“I’m glad.” Feather bit her lip. She hoped Lex’s mercy would also extend to Cade in his weakened state.

“Lex wants the Panther Boy too,” Sinda said suddenly, and Feather stared at her.

“He’s taking Tag?”

“He wants the medicine of the cat.” Sinda shrugged and wrapped her shawl closer about Tarni. “We shall see if he takes anyone. Mik is a powerful man.”

“But he is older than Lex,” Feather said, thinking of Mik’s gray-streaked beard.

“Yes. Perhaps some of the other warriors will side with Lex and Dell. If they defeat Mik, we will have a new leader. That is all. It has happened before.”

Feather shivered.

It was a long time before Hana returned.

“Come, Sinda. Feather, come too. It is safe now.”

Feather stood and reached to help Sinda to her feet.

“What happened?” Sinda asked as they emerged from the trees.

“We have the camp,” Hana said.

Amazed, Feather followed her to the fire pit. Lex and several other men were drinking from the water skins. Feather looked about quickly. To her relief, she saw Tag sitting with Cade, offering him a drink, and Patch stalking back and forth near them.

It took her a moment to realize that anyone was missing, other than Mik. Denna was also there, and the two newest members of the tribe, the two men who had been captured the night of Tag’s first raid.

Lex held up one hand and roared for silence.

“We are the tribe,” he said. Feather supposed he thought that was a profound statement. He looked around at them, sizing up his followers. “I see that more than half of the band remains with me. That is good. I will take care of you.”

Feather edged toward Tag and Cade. She wondered if Mik and his men would come back to ambush them. Lex’s new band seemed to have all the weak ones. Besides Denna, there were two other girls, Riah and Mist. Dell was one of ten proven warriors, including Tag and Lex. There were also two boys who were not yet wearing the necklace.

“I make a new rule,” Lex said. “There will be no more talk of leaving the baby behind. Dell agrees that he will help carry his son.”