People of the Mist (46 page)

 
          
“Busy?
With the negotiations with the Great Tayac? The business over Red Knot? White
Star was mentioning just the other day that she hadn’t seen you in ten days’
time. You might want to spend some time in her long house, Uncle. Mother always
says that first a woman complains, and then she acts.”

 
          
Nine
Killer gave her a suspicious squint. “When did you gain such insights about men
and women? You’re not even …” But then he noticed just how fully budded her
breasts were, and now that he thought about it, her hips had begun to round.
Within the year, she would be visiting the Women’s House for her first
menstruation.

 
          
“I’ve
survived fifteen winters, Uncle.” She arched a slim eyebrow. “Adults never want
to believe a child is as old as she is. Why is that? Why do you want us to stay
little for all of our lives?”

 
          
“And
why do you want to grow up so quickly?” he countered,.

 
          
She
shrugged. “Who wants to be treated like a child forever? I want to be a woman
and take on my responsibilities.” “I wouldn’t get in a big rush, White Otter.
You might think that you take responsibility. It’s more like it takes you. Once
you have it, you can’t get rid of it again.”

 
          
“Most
of my friends have grown into women.” She had always been a precocious girl,
and Rosebud had remarked more than once that her friends were all older.

 
          
“That’s
one of the things I came to talk about. That morning that Red Knot died. How
well do you remember it?”

 
          
“Very
well.” She gave him a sober gaze, unsettling him with her big brown eyes. “I
hadn’t slept well. I should have been dead tired, but my stomach bothered me. I
think I ate too much and then danced too hard.”

 
          
“When
did your mother send you out, just after dawn?” She hesitated and glanced down
at the soft threads in her delicate brown hands. “Yes, Uncle.”

 
          
Nine
Killer’s brow lifted. “What’s this? Come, girl, look at me.”

 
          
She
raised her pretty face, expression subdued.

 
          
“Don’t
be coy with me, White Otter. This is your uncle. Remember him? I always told
you to come to me if you had a problem.”

 
          
She
pursed her lips, saying nothing.

 
          
“Ah,
let me guess. You had just barely come in, hadn’t you? You were out with your
friends, perhaps? Maybe you went in, rolled out in your bed, and then sneaked
back out?”

 
          
He
could read the truth in her guilty eyes. “I see.”

 
          
“Uncle,
I didn’t… I mean …”

 
          
He
sighed, then chuckled. “I was young once, too. Besides, you are almost a
woman—but not quite!”

 
          
She’d
lowered her head again, so he raised her chin with his fingers to look into her
eyes.

 
          
“My
father said it was all right.” Her eyes pleaded.

 
          
“Your
father isn’t responsible for your behavior. As your mother’s brother, I am. Are
we understood?”

 
          
She
nodded.

 
          
“I
can tell White Star’s children anything I want, but their discipline is up to
Half Moon. He’s responsible for raising them, and I’m responsible for raising
you. That’s how we do it. We’re not like some of those people out west where
responsibility for the family lies with the father.” “Sometimes I think that
would make more sense.”

 
          
Nine
Killer quirked his lips. “They’re barbarians. Our ways were given to us by
First Woman, who bore the children. Responsibility lies with the clan. In your
case, that means your mother and me.” “I know, Uncle. But Red Knot was leaving,
and we just… Well, I wanted to be with my friends is all. My time is coming
soon. I just wanted to be out, hear what people were saying. I didn’t do
anything wrong, I just—”

 
          
“You
were supposed to be in bed.” He smiled then. “Let’s make a bargain, you and I
agree, you are almost a woman, but, until the day when you walk out of the
menstrual house, you still answer to me. Understood?”

 
          
“Yes.”
She squared her shoulders. “What bargain?”

 
          
“In
the future, if you want to spend time with your friends, you come to me. Unless
I have a very good reason, I’ll let you stay out.” He paused. “Provided you can
still attend to your responsibilities the next day.”

 
          
She
gave him the old familiar smile. “Thank you, Uncle.” “Now, let’s get back to
the problem. You were out, and then sneaked back in before everyone awakened.”

 
          
“That’s
right.” “What did you see?”

 
          
She
glanced around and leaned close. “It was just before dawn. Still dark, but the
bonfire hadn’t burned down. It cast enough light that I could see the plaza. I
was walking back to the long house when I saw the Great Tayac. He was talking
to someone by the palisade gate. I couldn’t see who it was, but I know it was a
young warrior.”

 
          
“One
of his?”

 
          
She
shook her head. “One of ours. I could tell by the way he dressed, and his hair.
The Great Tayac’s warriors have taken to wearing their hair like he wears his.
This man had his hair wrapped in a bun and pinned on the left side of his
head.”

 
          
Nine
Killer frowned. “One of ours? The Great Tayac’s men are staying in our village,
after all. We’d been dancing together all night long. It’s only natural that
we’d be talking to each other.”

 
          
“I
know.” White Otter’s brow lined. “It was the way they were talking, heads close
together. It was like, well, like they were being sneaky.”

 
          
“Go
on.”

 
          
“That’s
what made me suspicious. I ducked into the shadows and watched, and the warrior
slipped out of the palisade. Then Copper Thunder looked around as if to see if
he’d been observed. He walked over to the side of the Weroansqua’ sGreat House
and listened for a moment with his head against the wall. Then he looked around
again, and hurried for the gate. He took one last look, then trotted out
through the passageway.”

 
          
Nine
Killer sat back, puzzled. “Why would he be furtive? He’s a guest here.”

 
          
“Maybe
he didn’t want anyone to know he was talking to that warrior?”

 
          
But
what did it mean? Who had the warrior been?

 
          
“I
see. Anything else?”

 
          
“No.
Not then. I came home, and made sure that no one had missed me. Everyone was
asleep. I didn’t think anything of it, because no one else mentioned that
Copper Thunder was gone, or that anything was wrong. Not until Red Knot was
found missing. But then, I couldn’t tell because…”

 
          
“…
Your mother and I would have known you slipped out,” he finished for her.
“White Otter, there’s a lesson in this for you. When you do these things, it’s
like toying with a jellyfish. You’re not supposed to do it, and periodically
you’ll get stung when you do.”

 
          
“I’m
learning that, Uncle.” She ran the soft fibers through her fingers, combing
them out.

 
          
“All
right, what’s past is past.” He fingered his chin, thinking, seeing Copper
Thunder sneaking out in the predawn. “So, the Great Tayac slipped out of the
palisade on the morning when Red Knot was murdered? I wonder if she’d already
left
Flat
Pearl
Village
by then?” “No. She was behind the House of
the Dead talking to Quick Fawn just before that. I think they were having an
argument. I could tell that they wanted to talk alone, so I left them. That was
just before I saw Copper Thunder. Red Knot had to leave after Copper Thunder
did.” “But he was here the next morning. He ate—”

 
          
“But
I saw him come back! It was when Mother sent me for water. I had stepped out of
the long house with the water pot, and he came through the gate.”

 
          
“Did
he look suspicious?”

 
          
“Not
really. He just looked as if he’d stepped out and made water. But, well, I
don’t know for sure …”

 
          
“Go
on.”

 
          
“When
I saw him, I thought he had been out the entire time. He just, well, he didn’t
look …” She made a face.

 
          
“Look
like what?”

 
          
“It’s
nothing I can be certain of. I think what I want to say is that he didn’t look
as if he’d slept. He was, yes, too alert. You know, he didn’t have that sleepy
look a person has when they just get up.”

 
          
Nine
Killer tucked that thought away the way a squirrel did a plump nut. “What else
did you see?”

 
          
She
closed her eyes. “Let’s see. Old man Mockingbird was walking across the plaza.
And Hunting Hawk’s dog was sitting by the Weroansqua’s doorway. Then Shell Comb
came out of the House of the Dead and walked toward the Weroansqua’s Great
House. I passed her going across the plaza. Then, I walked down to the canoe
landing and dipped the pot full of water. After that, I carried it to Mother.
Just like every morning.”

 
          
Nine
Killer shrugged. “That sounds pretty normal.”

 
          
“What
about Shell Comb being out? She usually sleeps late. She was coughing, too, as
I recall. Old man Mockingbird told her to be careful of her health in the
cold.”

 
          
“Niece,
Shell Comb’s daughter was being married that day. Shell Comb had been
responsible for a great many things. With the visitors in the Great House, she
might have been in the House of the Dead for any number of reasons.”

 
          
“You’ve
always been too easy on her, Uncle. Mother says it’s because you wish she was
from another clan.”

 
          
Nine
Killer narrowed an eye and shook a warning finger. “Don’t even jest about such
a thing! She’s a friend, that’s all. And I’d never even think of her in any
other way. Shell Comb is my cousin! Even the thought would be the most horrible
calamity that could befall our clan.”

 
          
Nevertheless,
White Otter’s words unsettled him. Shell Comb had always had an effect on him,
and his interest ran so far beyond friendship that he made extra sure never to
be alone with her for more than a moment’s time. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust
himself… but, well, when it came to Shell Comb, he didn’t trust himself.

 
          
White
Otter’s lips might have been mute, but her eyes said, I’ve seen how you look at
her when you think no one is watching.

 
          
“You’re
changing the subject,” he growled. Then he paused, sudden inspiration coming to
him. “Wait! Who was guarding the gate?”

 
          
She
shook her head. “No one. I didn’t think it strange because of the dance the
night before. The whole village was up for most of the night.”

 
          
Nine
Killer frowned fitfully. “Stone Cob would have set the guard that night. Maybe,
with all the excitement, he forgot.”

 
          
Nine
Killer didn’t like things to be forgotten, not when it came to keeping the
Flat
Pearl
Village
safe.