“Did you miss me, Keeper?” Seven Skull Shield asked as Smooth Pebble inspected the darkening bruise on the meaty part of his forearm. Given how he could rotate his wrist and flex his fingers, neither of the bones had broken.
“Miss you?” Blue Heron snorted where she sat on the sleeping bench beside him. “Spit and piss, thief, we’ve had enough troubles while you’ve been off slipping into married women’s beds.”
“Is that where you think I’ve been?”
“What else would occupy you?”
“By Piasa’s swinging balls, Keeper, I’ve been saving Cahokia! I had to get the Red Wing to Crazy Frog, so he could figure out what was afoul in his chunkey game, so he could beat that Natchez filth. I got sold out by a woman. Betrayed. Grabbed by a bit of walking scum named Slick Rock and—”
“The man hanging from the eagle guardian post overlooking the Avenue of the Sun outside River Mounds City?”
“Well, what do you expect? I can’t have just any walking piece of vermin think he can whack me in the head and haul me off. I have a reputation to maintain. And there’s still two left that I have to deal with. Horn Lance was next on the list. I’d have seen to it sooner, but I got hung in a square overnight. That’s where all these scabs on my wrists came from.”
“Who hung you in a square, and why?”
“Um, it was payback for a good deed. And I had to be hanging there so Horn Lance could haul off and kick me smack in the old pride-and-joys, if you know what I mean. Otherwise, he’d have known it was a farce.”
“A farce? Hanging in a square is a farce?”
“Isn’t that how everyone gets paid back for doing a good deed?”
“But you got free?”
“That was the payback part.” He narrowed his eyes, adding, “Like I said, some things I just can’t let go. Like being kicked in the tenders, or allowing bits of slimy worm shit to poison my friends. I promised that before I dealt with that rascally woman I’d pound your husband into bloody mush.”
“Ex-husband.”
“Ex-husband. By the time I got here today, you all were up burning the War Serpent. There was no sign of Horn Lance. So I made myself look ordinary in the crowd, and started searching.” He pointed a finger. “Horn Lance, Keeper, is just not the kind to let a thing go. And he hates you. So I knew it was just a matter of time.”
He reached down, petting the dog’s ears. “So I’m searching for the weasel, and people in the crowd start talking and pointing. I look up and see the dog here, racing down the grand staircase.”
“So you went to meet it?”
“He found me. Sniffing through the crowd, you see. So I had to get thin for a while. Horn Lance would have known it was my dog. But your old husband, he was canny. When I heard the Itza had hung himself, I knew Horn Lance had nothing left. He’d be coming to settle with you, and he’d be seething.”
“So you snuck into my palace?”
Seven Skull Shield gasped as Smooth Pebble prodded his ribs. “Easy. Ah, pus in buckets that hurts! That’s where he hit me with the club.”
“It’s bruising,” the berdache told him. “That’s going to be a beautiful black and blue tomorrow, but I don’t think any ribs are broken.”
“Looks like you got the worst of it,” Blue Heron told him, a look of disappointment barely veiled. “Wish you could have kept him occupied until the guards could have grabbed him. They’re mad enough to spit flint because he tricked them. That was Brittle Feather’s cloak the dog ripped from his back. They found Brittle Feather’s body, strangled, out back.” She glanced away, shaking her head. “Another one we owe him for.”
“It was a pot I kicked,” Seven Skull Shield grumbled. “I was tired, Keeper. Been a couple of days without sleep. I was clumsy, and he heard me coming.”
She nodded, reaching out and laying a comforting hand on his shoulder. “It’s all right, thief. I’m just glad to have you back.”
“What if he gets away?” Seven Skull Shield asked. “He might, you know. Cahokia’s a big place.”
“Oh, it is. But don’t you worry. As big as Cahokia is, I have even bigger ears. And you never know. He might just fall into one of the traps I’ve set.”
She stood, a fondness and relief behind her normally crafty expression. “Now, it’s the middle of the night. Get some sleep, thief. Fire Cat’s mother and sisters will have a fine breakfast waiting for us.”
She took a step toward her personal quarters, only to turn and jab a finger. “But if that dog pisses on the floor again, he’s stew!”