Sixty-three

The fact that it took three days spoke volumes about Spotted Wrist’s abilities as Clan Keeper. But come he did, marching down the avenue that separated Blue Heron’s palace mound from the base of Morning Star’s great mound.

He strode purposefully forward, dressed in a gaudy eagle headdress, a flowing white cloak of finest dogbane fabric trailing in the breeze. A white, scalp lock–style apron hung to a point between his knees, a Spirit Bundle tied to its front.

At Night Shadow Star’s he pointed, sending a detail of the troops who followed him up the stairs to hurry past Piasa and Horned Serpent and into the palace.

Sitting on her veranda, watching, Blue Heron could well imagine the tumult they were about to turn loose on her niece’s palace. Green Stick wasn’t the kind who took easily to strangers ransacking his lady’s home.

As I am going to have to take to the ransacking of mine, she realized as Spotted Wrist continued on, his face grim. Behind him came a troop of ten remaining warriors. At the foot of her mound, five split off, trotting to encircle her mound, thereby cutting off any escape.

Blue Heron sat on a low bench, her back to the palace wall, shaded by the eave of her thatch roof. In her hands she held a ceramic cup filled with mint tea. Freshly brewed from leaves Smooth Pebble had Traded for that morning down in the Great Plaza.

“Trouble coming,” she called through the door. “We’re about to be searched. Cause the Keeper no grief.”

Dancing Moon appeared in the doorway, saying, “Him? You’re going to let that butcher into this house?”

“I know what he did to you and your family. You have to promise me. You’ll leave dealing with him to me. And if anyone has to go to war with him, Fire Cat has first call. You hear me on this? And you’ll keep your daughters out of it.”

Dancing Moon chewed on her lips. Hard enough that it had to draw blood.

“I mean it,” Blue Heron insisted. “He’ll be dealt with. But this is not the time, nor the place.”

“Yes, Lady,” Dancing Moon said with reluctance. “Daughters. Come. I need you out here on the porch where the lady can remind us not to spit on the Cahokian trash about to defile our home.”

“Our home?” Blue Heron wondered as the Red Wing women filed out and took their places along the wall beside her.

Smooth Pebble stood in the door, asking, “Lady?”

“You either. Don’t cause me trouble.”

The berdache lifted her hands in surrender. “Me? Wouldn’t think of it.”

Spotted Wrist appeared, having sprinted up the stairs. He bowed low as he passed the Eagle guardians at the head of the stairs and led his remaining warriors down the short walk. Drawing to a stop just shy of the veranda, he demanded, “Where is he?”

“Haven’t a clue.”

A keen delight mixed with the anger in Spotted Wrist’s eyes. “Funny that you don’t have to ask who. The fact that you know to whom I refer condemns you.”

“Just because you are an idiot, you don’t have to act like one. Given my networks, I was informed before first light the day he was rescued. You didn’t find out until midafternoon. And even then, it was through one of your warriors. One who hadn’t even been in your palace that night. The others were still stumbling around the plaza figuring they could find the thief and have him locked up again before you learned he was gone.”

With a gesture, Spotted Wrist ordered, “Squadron Second, search this place.”

“You’ll rotted well stay out of my palace,” Blue Heron protested. “I give you my word, as a noble and lady of the Morning Star House, of Black Tail’s lineage, that the thief known as Seven Skull Shield is not in my palace. I give you my further word that I did not carry him out of your palace. And, beyond that, if he was rescued, it was by friends of his. The thief has associates in River Mounds City, Evening Star Town, Horned Serpent Town, Serpent Woman Town, as well as in communities up on the bluff. While he could be anywhere, I’d suggest that you start at the canoe landing and work your way out from there.”

“Your word?”

She nodded, looking back at his suddenly uneasy warriors. “You men, you heard me. I gave my word as a lady of my lineage, that the thief isn’t here. If the war leader disregards my honor, it will be—”

“Search this palace,” Spotted Wrist snapped. “Tear it apart if you have to.”

“—an affront to the Morning Star House and my lineage,” she finished. The words struck home—she could see it in the warriors’ eyes as they hesitated.

“Well, go on!” Spotted Wrist snapped.

“War Leader, er, Keeper?” the squadron second began.

“Do it!”

Blue Heron narrowed her eyes to slits as the uneasy warriors pushed past Smooth Pebble, who remained defiantly in the doorway.

“You had better find him in there,” Blue Heron said as the sound of a breaking pot could be heard from inside. “If you don’t, it will be all over Morning Star House that you essentially called me a liar, and that you insulted my honor.”

“Your honor? You were supposed to help me. Remember? Your deal with Rising Flame? That you would advise me on the duties of Clan Keeper in compensation for the right to stay in your palace here.”

“You will recall that I tried. Did my best for a whole moon long after you made it clear that my advice not only wasn’t wanted, but would be entirely ignored. You, after all, were the Hero of the North, and what need had a man of your military ability to listen to some old woman?”

Spotted Wrist glanced dismissively at Dancing Moon and her daughters. “If you ask me, you’ve been corrupted, tainted by heretics. You and that insolent niece of yours, your whole House. You forgot why we fought in the north. What it took to subdue those pus-licking Red Wings.”

Blue Heron held up a restraining hand, adding, “Don’t!” as Dancing Moon started forward with murder in her eyes.

“Well, I see you’ve got the pond scum trained to heel at least. Almost as good as you could do with a dog.”

From inside, something else fell with a crash. She could hear the squadron second order, “Easy! You want to wind up in a square if this goes wrong?”

Blue Heron slitted her eyes. “You know, this means war between us.”

“You declared that the day you stole the thief.”

“And I give you my word that I didn’t turn him loose. That I never laid eyes on that cage I heard you had him in. For that matter, I’ve never so much as set foot inside that palace of yours.”

All of which was true. She’d just shouted through the door.

Spotted Wrist, of course, wasn’t buying it.

Something else crashed inside, made Blue Heron grind her few teeth.

The squadron second appeared in the doorway. “Uh, Keeper, there’s no one here. We’ve looked everywhere. Checked the floor for hidden chambers, searched all around the foundation and under all the beds. Even looked in all the storage boxes large enough to hold a man. He’s not here.”

“Search it again.”

The squadron second shot Blue Heron an apologetic glance. As if he were in physical pain, the man turned and reentered the palace.

“You really don’t know when to stop, do you?”

“Keeper, you said it yourself. There’s no going back for either of us now.”

“May Hunga Ahuito have mercy on your soul.”

“I was thinking the same thing for you, Blue Heron. You and your heretic-loving kind have had it your own way for far too long.”

“Find the Koroa copper yet?” she asked mildly.

And with that, Spotted Wrist followed his squadron second into the palace great room, where the sounds of smashing pottery and the crashing of chests grew louder.