People of the Mist (58 page)

 
          
Nine
Killer raised his head. “Copper Thunder threatened to kill you?”

 
          
“As
I have said before: It is an old thing between us.”

 
          
Rosebud
severed the last of the bindings, freeing the clamshell from its handle. “Tell
me, you three, what have you accomplished? Hmm? Are you any closer to finding
Red Knot’s murderer? The entire village is abuzz with this rumor and that. It’s
become bothersome for me to walk across the plaza with all the pestering
questions.”

 
          
“And
what do you tell them, sister?” Nine Killer asked. “That they’ll hear anything
from the Weroansqua, if it’s to be heard.” Rosebud placed the joint end of the
scapula against the handle bottom, trying to find the best fit.

 
          
“So,
what do we know?” Nine Killer tapped the dottle out of his pipe and pinched
freshly chopped leaves from the little bowl beside him. “High Fox asked Red
Knot to leave. They’d been lovers for at least six moons. Red

 
          
Knot
said she’d meet him at Oyster Shell Landing. She couldn’t just pack up and run
off; she had to tell Quick Fawn. At the same time, White Otter sees Copper
Thunder and Flat Willow in a furtive conversation; then they both step out
beyond the palisade. Quick pawn pleads for Red Knot to stay, but is turned
down. The argument is strained enough that White Otter won’t even join the
conversation, but retreats. Quick Fawn starts home but has second thoughts and
tries to head off Red Knot, only to discover a man and woman in the shadows.
They’ve had their lovemaking interrupted by the girls, and they’ve overheard
everything.”

 
          
Nine
Killer lit his pipe with a twig and puffed to set the fire. “We don’t know who
the man and woman are, but he tries to grab her arm. She jerks it away. They
have heated words. She kicks at the blankets still on the ground, gets dressed,
and storms off. We don’t know what happens to him.”

 
          
“Meanwhile,”
Panther said, “Flat Willow is not at the gate. He isn’t seen again until
midmorning when High Fox comes charging down the trail. Flat
Willow
then goes on to ‘discover’ Red Knot’s body.
Meanwhile, White Otter sees Copper Thunder reenter the palisade in the early
morning. Where has he been all that time?

 
          
Rosebud
added, “And the Weroansqua wasn’t present that morning for breakfast. Where was
she?”

 
          
Panther
lifted a shaggy eyebrow. “Where indeed?”

 
          
“I
just don’t see why she would have killed her granddaughter.” “Maybe her mother
wanted her dead?” “Shell Comb?” Nine Killer’s face tightened with distaste.
“No, I can’t believe that. Why would she kill her own daughter? Or, better
asked, how could she kill her own daughter? Surely not just to marry Copper
Thunder.” “You tell me, War Chief. Had Shell Comb wanted to marry him in the
beginning, could she? Is she that driven by a hunger for authority?”

 
          
“No,
Elder. I mean, she may indeed be a driven woman when it comes to her
passions—Okeus knows-but it doesn’t make sense. If she wanted him, she could
have stepped in at any time and married him. Red Knot would have shouted with
relief. I have already thought this through, and there is simply no reason why
Shell Comb would kill—or have the girl killed. In the beginning, we might have
suspected that she would want to stop the alliance with the upriver villages,
but now she’s practically offering herself to save it.”

 
          
“Shame?”
Panther asked. “She couldn’t stomach the thought of her daughter running out on
her people?”

 
          
Nine
Killer arched an eyebrow. “Believe me, Shell Comb isn’t one to make a great
deal about a little sexual indiscretion now and then. If anything, she’d be
secretly gleeful that her daughter had the nerve to try it.”

 
          
“So
I gather,” Panther said dryly. “She’s quite the adventuress, isn’t she?”

 
          
Nine
Killer dropped his gaze, aware that Rosebud was giving him a hard eye. “For a
mother to kill her daughter takes a great deal of desperation and resolve. No
matter what her indiscretions, she had too many ways to either avoid or have
Copper Thunder. In the end, she doesn’t have a reason. That pot doesn’t hold
water.”

 
          
“And
the Weroansqua?” Panther asked mildly. “Was she so desperate that she could see
no way out?”

 
          
“Not
that I can determine. Elder, we can’t forget Winged Blackbird and his
warriors,” Nine Killer pointed out. “Did he just happen to show up at that
moment?”

 
          
Panther
shrugged. “It’s too early to tell. Collusion with Copper Thunder? Is that what
you’re thinking?”

 
          
Nine
Killer watched blue smoke rise before his nose. “Am I? Is it a possibility? He
said Corn Hunter had sent him with a message to express his displeasure about
Red Knot marrying the Great Tayac. Was that a ruse?”

 
          
Panther
scratched his ear. “I don’t know for sure, but I think not. My guess is that
Copper Thunder is desperate for this alliance with the Independent villages.
When Red Knot turned up dead, he stayed on, waiting to see what happened, ready
to step in and exploit any opportunity that developed. He’s clever, but not
deep. Rather than manipulate others, he pounces on chance events and turns them
to his favor on the spot.” “Then why allow the Weroansqua to send me off on
that raid? It almost ended in disaster.” Nine Killer stared at the red embers
in his pipe.

 
          
“Suppose
you’d succeeded?” Panther countered. “You didn’t expect Stone Cob to betray
your plans. Without that, you might very well have succeeded in snatching the
boy. Now, as I know your Copper Thunder, I’m willing to bet he’d have pleaded
for the boy’s life. What better way to cement himself with the Independent
villages than as a peacemaker? He cared not a whit for Red Knot once she was
dead, but as an aggrieved party, he could demand a settlement, smooth over the
friction between
Flat
Pearl
Village
and Three Myrtle. Once that was done, and
Hunting Hawk was eternally grateful, together they would search the clan for a
marriageable woman.”

 
          
“So
he gets Shell Comb instead,” Nine Killer groused. “And, thereby, he’s a
generation closer to control of
Flat
Pearl
Village
.” “Oh, to be sure, he’s not only allied by
marriage, but his status among the villages would almost be equal to the
Weroansqua’s. After all, he solved a problem that would have meant disaster.”
Panther chuckled. “I think by now, War Chief, Copper Thunder knows the
situation within
Flat
Pearl
Village
better than you do. You have a cunning
spider in your midst, and he’s privy to your innermost secrets.”

 
          
“And
how would he know that?”

 
          
“From
Flat
Willow
. Copper Thunder can smell out the weakest
wall in the pot, and that’s where he’s going to start chiseling away. Flat
Willow
is not only disaffected, but disgruntled on
top of it all.”

 
          
“But
wait,” Sun Conch interrupted. “Flat
Willow
wanted Red Knot. He loved her—and hated
High Fox for mating with her. Why should he help Copper Thunder with anything?
The man was promised the very woman Flat Willow loved!”

 
          
“I
wouldn’t put it past Copper Thunder to have told Flat Willow that he could eventually
have her.” Panther smiled warily. “Remember, he’s been telling the young people
that there will be new territory after he drives the Mamanatowick back. If—and
I admit it’s a big if-Copper Thunder wanted to gain Flat Willow’s support, he
could have suggested that our young hunter might become a Weroance under the
Great Tayac. A High Chief often marries a wife off to a Weroance as a measure
of his faith, and to cement an alliance. Sun Conch, you know Flat Willow best,
what would he have said to being a Weroance, and having Red Knot? Two birds in
one bag?”

 
          
Sun
Conch grimaced. “He’d have jumped at it! But, would Copper Thunder really have
done that? Given him those things? What about the alliance to Greenstone Clan?”

 
          
“Oh,
not right away.” Panther stared dismally at his pipe. The embers had gone cold.
“After all, Copper Thunder would want several children out of her first. By
then, he would have added at least a second Greenstone wife, and probably one
apiece from Star Crab and Bloodroot clans to solidify his hold on the
Independent villages.”

 
          
“If
he kept Flat Willow around for that long.” Nine Killer shook his head in
disgust. “That would depend on how useful he was over the long term, wouldn’t
it?”

 
          
“Indeed
it would.”

 
          
Nine
Killer took a deep breath. “Well, that kills my idea that Flat Willow might
have been the man who overheard Red Knot and Quick Fawn that night.”

 
          
Panther
used a twig to dig the ash out of his pipe. “But it does explain what Flat
Willow and Copper Thunder were doing after White Otter saw them slip out at
night and before their return in the morning. In all the days of feasting and
dancing, Copper Thunder would have been watching for a loner, someone who
seemed unhappy with his lot in life. Your Great Tayac doesn’t miss much. He is
an excellent judge of people. My guess is that he would have measured Flat
Willow down to the moccasin bottoms —even the desire in his eyes when the
hunter was watching Red Knot at the dance.”

 
          
“What
made you suspect Flat Willow?” Sun Conch asked suddenly.

 
          
Panther
lifted a shoulder. “His attitude when I first talked to him. That, and the fact
that he has cut his hair to resemble Copper Thunder’s. He’s so blinded by the
Great Tayac that he can’t see himself.” Panther hesitated. “And, he knows
something, or at least suspects something, very disturbing about Greenstone
Clan.” Panther lifted an eyebrow. “Anything you’d like to tell me before I
discover it on my own?”

 
          
Nine
Killer frowned, a mystified look in his eyes. “Nothing beyond the usual family
scandals. We’re nothing special. Every now and then we have a man beating his
wife for a sexual indiscretion. There was one petty thief that the Weroansqua
had me execute a while back. We broke his legs and threw him on the bonfire.
Last year, old Green Stick started nosing around his oldest daughter and we had
to take him out in the forest for a little discussion. Since then, he’s behaved
himself. We keep a close eye on him to make sure. The only thing that could
destroy Greenstone Clan would be a charge of incest.” Nine Killer glanced
toward the back of the long house and the reed game. “I have a niece who slips
out every so often, but I think I’ve taken care of that.”

 
          
Rosebud
had bent her head so that her hair spilled around her face, all of her concentration
on the length of sinew she used to bind the scapula to the hoe handle.

 
          
Sun
Conch sat with her eyes downcast, her fingers moving anxiously in her lap.

 
          
Despite
the honesty reflected in Nine Killer’s eyes, Panther sensed the unease among
the others. Was there something, or wasn’t there? If so, Nine Killer genuinely
didn’t seem to know.

 
          
Or
is he finally lying to you? And, if so, why?

 
          
Panther
sighed. Well, all in good time. “That still leaves us with a dead Red Knot.
Struck down on the ridge trail to Oyster Shell Landing with a double-headed war
club.”

 
          
“So
who does that leave?” Sun Conch asked, as if relieved by the change of topic.
“We’ve just scratched Flat Willow from the possibles. Assuming, that is, that
you’re right about his deal with Copper Thunder. He wouldn’t kill the girl, not
after Copper Thunder’s offer.”