Thirty

If Seven Skull Shield had a weakness, it was Farts. Cahokia was lousy with dogs. Big dogs, little dogs, pack dogs, hairy dogs, dogs of all colors, they were everywhere. Some, like the big pack dogs, were prized bearers of burdens. Others, like the little dogs, were kept by families for their company. Some were bred specifically for the stewpot, and others were handy to have around as trash disposal to keep the garbage, old bones, and discarded food from piling up and drawing flies.

Had anyone asked Seven Skull Shield to explain his relationship with Farts, he’d have been hard-pressed. He told people, truthfully, that Farts was a Spirit Dog. A gift from Power. And in the past, Farts had kept him company during some of his most memorable adventures.

But above and beyond that, Farts had saved Seven Skull Shield’s life. On numerous occasions. A man didn’t forget a thing like that. Well, some men did, men not being the brightest of creatures, after all. But not Seven Skull Shield.

All of which made Farts something of a problem for the moment. For most of his life, Seven Skull Shield had made a habit of not being noticed. That was one of the prerequisites of being a thief. Thieves who got noticed got killed. A really simple relationship when one got right down to it.

In the matter of a moon’s time, Seven Skull Shield had become what he always loathed: noticed. It hadn’t been so bad when he was skulking along in the Keeper’s shadow. After all, he could always just slip away, vanish into Cahokia’s hidden nooks and crannies. Live off what he could stick in his belt pouch when no one was looking, perhaps beguile a warm bed from some young woman whose husband was off hunting or Trading. Then he’d move on. Catch a ride across the river to Evening Star Town, or perhaps down to Horned Serpent Town where he could renew old acquaintances, Trade for a warm spot by the fire in one workshop or another.

All that had been before Night Shadow Star had sent him up to deliver her message to the Morning Star. Before he’d made a mockery of Spotted Wrist, and more or less thrown it all in Rising Flame’s face in front of half the nobles in Cahokia.

The only reason he was still alive was that he’d been painted up, dressed like a lord, and looked nothing like he usually looked. For that reason, like today, he could pack a bundle of sticks over his shoulder and pass for a dirt farmer carrying a load of firewood. Like this, he could march right past Spotted Wrist’s warriors, as he’d just done, without a sideways glance.

Robin Feather, however, posed another problem. He was looking for that same old Seven Skull Shield everyone knew. The one dressed in a hemp-fiber hunting shirt who wandered around among the common folk with a big, thick-boned brindle dog. Worse, a special dog with floppy ears, a bearlike snout, and odd brown and blue eyes.

A dog that looked just like the one pacing at Seven Skull Shield’s side, its tongue lolling out, nose working as it sniffed at every cook fire in every farmstead they passed.

“So, what do I do with you?” Seven Skull Shield asked. “That wooden-brained Robin Feather has now raised his offer to two coils of basswood rope. He has half of River Mounds looking for us.”

Seven Skull Shield averted his face as a group of Panther Clan warriors with the traditional four-pointed star emblem of North Star House came clattering past, their shields over their shoulders. They barely spared him a look, their attention on the story the one who waved his arms about was telling.

“And that’s another problem. You heard what that thatch Trader said at the plaza? Slender Fox has been in a rage. See, that’s the thing. Now, you and me? We get caught in compromising positions all the time. Granted, not while we’re sticking the old plug in our sisters, but you get my point here. We’ve got the ability to laugh it off. That woman I saw huddled down under the blanket with her brother? She’s not the kind to just let it go. These Four Winds nobles are a bit finicky about things like that.”

Farts glanced up, his tail slashing back and forth in time to his pace.

“I heard that first thing, when the household staff arrived the following morning, they found all the cooking pots smashed on the ground in front of the palace. Had to go find replacements. Which made breakfast late. Word is that enraged the matron even more. And when Wolverine heard about the food being shipped to Evening Star Town, he left the tonka’tzi’s at a run. That when he got to Serpent Woman Town, he and Slender Fox got into a downright brawl over it.”

Seven Skull Shield turned off the Avenue of the Sun, fixed the widest and stupidest smile on his face that he could, and slightly crossed his eyes as he bobbed a nod in the direction of Spotted Wrist’s supposedly unobtrusive warriors. The two men were still standing at the corner of the Morning Star’s mound where they could keep an eye on Night Shadow Star’s palace on the off chance that the notorious Seven Skull Shield might appear on the steps and announce himself.

They ignored him.

Seven Skull Shield sighed, plodded on down to where one of the warriors Fire Claw had assigned to guard Blue Heron’s mound now stood. Seven Skull Shield wasn’t familiar with this one. A completely new face.

“Got firewood for the Keeper. Um, ex-Keeper. Uh, you know, the Lady Blue Heron.”

“Go. But not past the veranda. And show a little respect. You dirt farmers need to mind your place. And keep that dog away from the guardian posts. He pees on them, it’ll be the last thing he does.”

Of course, Farts had peed on them so many times already that Blue Heron had thrown her hands up in despair, calling on Sky Eagle and Falcon to wreak their revenge on the beast as they would.

To Seven Skull Shield’s amusement, the Sky gods must not have cared. Farts remained hale, hearty, and unconcerned that he might be struck down at any moment by an enraged Sky Spirit. A fact that continued to irritate Blue Heron to no end. Where were the Spirits when you really needed them?

Seven Skull Shield looked back as they topped the stairs. The guard had turned his attention to the avenue; he completely missed seeing Farts pee on the base of Sky Eagle’s post.

At the veranda, Seven Skull Shield dropped his load of sticks and sauntered into the palace great room. Smooth Pebble fussed over a pot of hominy that steamed by the fire. She glanced up, eyes narrowing. “If that foul creature takes so much as a sniff of this, I’m beating him with a cudgel!”

“Farts, maybe you better sit and stay.” Seven Skull Shield pointed to a blanket beside the door. Then, as a way of making amends, he reached out a crusted half loaf of goosefoot bread and tossed it to the dog. Farts caught it in midair, the mighty jaws shearing the dried bread into gulpable hunks.

“Keeper?” Smooth Pebble called. “The thief’s here. Miracle of miracles, he came in the front door in the middle of the day for once.”

Blue Heron appeared in the doorway to her personal quarters. Her eyes had a puffy look, her hair mussed on one side. She wore a simple white skirt embroidered with the Four Winds spirals. A cape made of twisted strips of rabbit hide hung from her shoulders.

“What news, thief?” she asked as she stepped to her litter where it rested atop the dais behind the fire.

Seven Skull Shield snagged a cup, barely missed his stride as he scooped it full of hominy from Smooth Pebble’s pot, and seated himself at the foot of Blue Heron’s dais. “Just got back from the canoe landing. There’s a whole string of hulls being paddled down from the north. Slender Fox didn’t cancel the order. She’s delivering. As to how much or for how long? That remains to be seen.”

Blue Heron, looking tired, took a deep breath. “Well, at least there’s that. How did you know? About Slender Fox and Sliding Ice, I mean?”

“I think her name was See-Through-Leaf. She was a Snapping Turtle Clan woman. Married to that Go Throw. She was—”

“Down in Horned Serpent Town. Go Throw. I remember him. He’s a cousin to Green Chunkey. Banished him for making trouble about six, seven years back. But what does See-Through-Leaf have to do with … Oh, don’t tell me. You didn’t. Not a woman married to a Four Winds Clansman.”

“She was lonely. Go Throw was carried away with some sort of nonsense involving a couple of the Earth Clans chiefs who served his House. Figured they were going to get rid of Green Chunkey. Man really shouldn’t leave a ripe young woman like that alone for such a long—”

“Would you get to the point?”

“One of the slaves started to get suspicious, went to Go Throw, so, of course, I got as far away as I could.”

“Which meant Serpent Woman Town.”

“My real interest was the Men’s House. They had this wooden box they were keeping scalps in. Would have been worth a fortune at the canoe landing. A Pacaha Trader would have—”

“The point?”

“It was the middle of the night. I’m keeping watch, waiting for the right opportunity, and I see this girl come sneaking out of the palace. You know, Many Bows was still high chief up there then. And it’s not but a hundred heartbeats later, this boy comes sneaking out with a blanket. They slip over to the shadows behind Old-Woman-Who-Never-Dies’ temple, shuck off their clothes, and he’s between her legs faster than spit.

“I sneak close and listen in, hearing, ‘Try this. No, move like this.’ And, ‘That’s really good, brother.’

“This goes on for maybe a hand of time, and he says, ‘We’ve got to get back. If Father finds our beds empty, we’re dead.’ And they dress, and one by one, sneak back to the palace.”

“And you’ve been sitting on this for all these years?”

“Me? Sitting? It’s common knowledge among the house slaves and the, um, lower sorts that frequent Serpent Woman Town.”

He made a tsking sound with his lips. “And you, with all your fancy spies, have to learn this from me?”

“Guess I don’t know everything.”

“Not nearly as much as the people who empty the chamber pots, that’s for sure. But, getting back to it, I heard that Wolverine was bringing the entire household to Cahokia. Thought we might get lucky. We did.”

“Let’s hope they don’t figure out who it was caught them in the act. They do? It’ll mean blood. Me, I’ve got to be up at the Council House. The last bird to fall is Horned Serpent Town. Robin Wing is supposed to be there. If I can shame her into it, belittle her in front of the others, I think she’ll cave and make the order.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

“Columella could still lose everything.”