Forty-three

There was nothing like being face-to-face with one’s enemy to spur an increase in pace. At Night Shadow Star’s first telling of the encounter, the Traders had been incredulous. Needless to say, all it took to convince them was a casual head nod toward the two Cahokian warriors who guarded the big war canoe. It remained beached just down from Red Reed on Rainbow Town’s busy landing.

White Mat and the rest wasted no time, tossing their belongings, a couple of packs of food, and some gear into the Red Reed’s waiting hull.

As Old Scar and Whistle Hand watched suspiciously from the war canoe, Red Reed had been shoved into the backwater, turned, and vigorously paddled around the confluence. Night Shadow Star had tossed one last look over her shoulder an instant before the steep bluff hid them from view.

“You went over and talked to them?” Shedding Bird asked incredulously. “What if they’d recognized you?”

“Then it would have been all over,” Night Shadow Star told him. “But they didn’t. They thought I was a Trader, and if I can fool them, I can fool anyone.”

“What did they try and Trade?” Made Man called from where he paddled behind Fire Cat.

“Me. For a half hand of time in the bushes. I told them they had a deal, but it would cost them that war canoe. I think Nutcracker might have considered it.”

“I’d have Traded,” Fire Cat told her in Cahokian. “But after last night, I know what you’re worth.”

She shot him a flirtatious smile.

“Uh-huh,” Half Root muttered under her breath. “I thought something was different between you two.”

“Blame it on the moon.” Made Man wore a lascivious grin.

“About time,” Mixed Shell offered from his seat. “The rest of us weren’t going to say anything. Wasn’t our place. But watching you two up until today? There’s times we just wanted to say, ‘Just go do it! Stop the pain.’”

“The pain’s definitely stopped,” Fire Cat said. “Now we just have to figure out what it means in the grand scheme of things.”

Piasa hissed his rage from just behind her head.

Night Shadow Star bit her lip, concentrating on her paddle as they passed beneath the sheer bluff, dominated by Rainbow Town where it perched on the heights above.

With nothing to do but paddle and listen to the voices in her head, she finally had time to face the fact that her future had changed. Her relationship with Fire Cat had been forever altered. Somehow, being in love with the man who had killed Makes Three had been one thing. Platonic love didn’t reek of betrayal. Having taken Fire Cat into her bed, however, left her uneasy. She had loved her first husband, had centered her life around him, especially after having been taken by Morning Star after his reincarnation and then her subsequent rape by Walking Smoke.

Both events had traumatized her. That Morning Star had taken her to his bed the morning after his reincarnation was unsettling enough; she’d ultimately been able to convince herself that it wasn’t her brother who drove himself into her. That she was the first woman the living god had wanted upon his rebirth in Chunkey Boy’s body, uncomfortable as that had been.

But Walking Smoke? That he had beaten her, choked her, and savagely raped her had been so repellent she’d blocked the memory. Locked it away in some dark place between her souls. A place so deep it had taken Piasa and Horned Serpent to dig it out while she lay dying in the Underworld.

Looking back, perhaps that was why she’d placed so much dependency on Makes Three. He had been a kind, compassionate, and loving man. The kind of decent human being she’d clung to desperately as a reminder that not all men were sordid, vile, and heartless.

“Thinking something?” Fire Cat asked, his paddle stroking rhythmically in time with the others as they paralleled the bank.

“About my first husband. About you. About what it all means.”

“We can always go back to the way—”

“No. Not only is it impossible, but I don’t want to. Do you?”

“Not a chance. I just thought—”

“It’s appreciated, but stop it. I loved Makes Three. We were young. Our lives were built on passion. You know first love? That initial hot burn in a person’s life? A consuming ache for each other? That was what I felt. And I needed him. Clung to him. Made him the center of my life because I had no center of my own. Which was why, when he died, I sent my souls to the Underworld to find him. I wanted to die there so I never had to come back and face the world without him.”

“If I could go back…”

“Don’t be silly. When Piasa ordered me to cut you down from the square that night, I loathed you with all my soul, hoped you would spit out some vile curse in defiance. Free me to cut you apart piece by piece.”

“I would have, if I’d known who you were.”

They paddled for a time, her thoughts going back to that night, wondering how, in his pain and delirium, he could have mistaken her for First Woman.

Because he did, he bound himself to me. Was there to save my life, to save my city from the Itza, to rescue Morning Star, and ultimately to accompany me here.

“Now you begin to understand what you are throwing away,” Piasa’s voice sounded off to the side where water roiled and swirled.

“Lord, maybe you are more than just a vicious beast,” she replied. Piasa’s essence slipped along just beneath the river’s surface. She could feel the Spirit creature, smoldering, uneasy, and not a little curious.

“The mysterious ways of Power, Lady,” Fire Cat whispered. “It played us both. Not sure what it means now that we’ve shared the robes.”

“Me, either. Nor is Piasa. Not that his demands ever made sense. I can understand throwing us together. We defeated Walking Smoke, defeated the Itza, saved the balance of Power, and retrieved Morning Star from the Underworld. But surely, by sending us on this journey, Piasa had to know that once we were out of Cahokia, it was only a matter of time. The beast lives within me, it knows the ache I have for you. Place a smoldering coal in a pile of leaves, Red Wing, and it’s only a matter of time before it burns free.”

He pursed his lips, frowned, the muscles in his arms tensing and flowing as he helped drive Red Reed across the green-tinted water.

Finally, he said, “I think you’re right. Piasa knew it would happen. Knows what we mean to each other. As dedicated as I was to you before, my life and yours are now inseparable. Consuming. What does that gain the beast in our current endeavor?”

Piasa laughed inside her head.

“Clever man. He is indeed worthy.”

“Oh, go drown a crawfish,” she told it.

“What’s the creature say?”

“Nothing reassuring.”

Which turned her stomach. She glanced sidelong at Fire Cat; her heart and chest burned with her love for him. How many ways could Power use that? Manipulate her? Drive her to act, even against her own interests?

Too many.