“Cut him down.”
The three words barely penetrated the haze of pain and misery in Seven Skull Shield’s muzzy head. From some angry knot tied deep between his souls, he pulled up the energy to blink his eyelids open and lift his head.
He couldn’t feel his arms or legs. Nothing but the pain that screamed through his shoulders, ribs, hips, and neck. He swallowed hard, thankful that they’d at least given him all the water he could drink. That had been after Horn Lance left.
As he fought to focus, he realized that a woman stood beside the diminutive Flat Stone Pipe. Behind her were the Fish Clan warriors who’d taken him from Slick Rock. Nothing else about the warehouse had changed except that bright sunlight filtered through the gap under the eaves. Looked like late morning if he was any judge.
Flies were buzzing around his blood-caked face.
Which was another peculiarity. The Fish Clan warriors had painted it on, then pressed strips of cloth into his mouth and told him to stuff them into his cheeks. If that was their version of torture, he could live with it. Just hanging in the square overnight had been bad enough.
The woman stepped forward, a pinched expression on her face. “Be very careful as you take him down. He’s going to be as limp as river moss.”
“Yes, Matron,” the Fish Clan warrior replied as he and his men started working on the ropes binding Seven Skull Shield’s wrists and ankles.
“Matron Columella,” Seven Skull Shield said with a grin. “I’m more than a little disappointed in you. But if the Keeper’s been poisoned, there’s not many who can stand in your way now.”
“She’s alive.” Columella’s smile thinned. “Notched Cane, however, wasn’t so lucky. I don’t have many of the details yet. Blue Heron’s never really confided in me. It will take Flat Stone Pipe’s spies a day or so to ferret out the whole story.”
“Then she’s going to be most interested when she figures out that you’ve made a deal with the Itza.”
Seven Skull Shield gasped as the last of the bindings was sawed in two and his weight sagged into the arms of the warriors. True to the Evening Star matron’s orders, they were unusually solicitous as they lowered him to a soft buffalo-wool blanket.
From the back of the room a Healer stepped forward and bent down, running his hands over Seven Skull Shield’s body and then massaging his right arm.
“This is going to hurt,” Columella told him as she pulled up a wooden storage box and seated herself. “For that you have my apology. There just wasn’t any other way.”
“Other way than what?” Seven Skull Shield asked as the first tingling began in his clay-like limbs.
“Hanging you in a square,” Flat Stone Pipe told him as he squatted down with a wet rag and began washing the dried blood from Seven Skull Shield’s face. When the little man grinned, it almost split his face. “The rumor was that you were headed for a square sooner or later. I made the bet it would be sooner. Oh, and you can spit out those cloth strips. We had to make you look rather the worse for wear.”
Seven Skull Shield groaned as the prickling turned into an angry stabbing in both arms.
“It was the only way we could be sure,” Columella added, a hard set to her lips. “Horn Lance had to know you were no longer a concern. So I ordered you to be hung in the square and made up to look like you’d taken a real beating. It was my decision not to tell you. I couldn’t take the chance that Horn Lance might suspect you were playacting. Nor could we take you down after he left until we were certain he wouldn’t come back. That’s the good news.”
“And the bad?”
“Unfortunately, with the exception of Slick Rock, half of Cahokia is still combing the city looking for you. Either Horn Lance has forgotten that he’s put a price on your head, or he doesn’t care if people occupy themselves so. But it’s more likely that it is meant to keep his enemies confused about your fate.”
“I don’t understand,” Seven Skull Shield asked through a wince as his body ached and throbbed. “Matron, why snatch me from Slick Rock in the first place? What’s your game with Horn Lance?”
Columella’s grim smile tightened. “I don’t forget my debts, let alone what Evening Star House owes you. As far as my game with Horn Lance, that remains to be played out. It’s no secret that I have no love for the Morning Star, but I don’t trust Horn Lance or his magical Itza, either. Too many grand promises.”
She slapped her thighs in emphasis. “So, what’s a matron to do but play a little bit of everyone’s game, hoping she’s quick enough on her feet so that whichever side wins, she and her House can profit?”
“And I’m part of the game,” he told her as the pieces fell into place. “What if Horn Lance wins? Seems to me it would embarrass you if I suddenly turned up. He might think you couldn’t be trusted.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You begin to see my problem. How do I balance my sense of honor against the pragmatic needs of my clan and House?”
Flat Stone Pipe noted, “You could simply take the next Trade canoe headed for the lower river or the Tenasee. Along with your word that you’d never come back as long as Horn Lance was alive.”
“That’s a problem,” Seven Skull Shield told him. “I was sold out by someone I trusted. I can’t just let that go.”
“I really wish you’d chosen the Tenasee,” Columella told him coldly. “No matter what I owe you, my House comes first.”
In the background, the Fish Clan warriors had straightened, their war clubs appearing like magic in their hands.