Seventy-five

Cane Town stood on the Wide Fast’s south bank, a collection of bent-pole dwellings around a square with its Tchkofa. Behind the town, the forest rose like a majestic wall to roll up the sides of the hills like a lumpy green blanket. From the open ground in town, Fire Cat could see west toward the bulk of the mountains, great heaves of rock and soil that rose in successive waves, each bluer and fainter as they receded into the distance.

He had ceased to be amazed that the surface of the world could be mounded so high, or that there seemingly was no end to it.

“Thoughts?” Blood Talon asked, stepping up beside him.

Fire Cat smiled wearily. “Just thinking about what a fool I’ve been.”

“How’s that, War Leader?”

“War leader?”

“I think it’s time I address you as such. Especially since I haven’t seen you act like much of a fool since you pulled me off that scaffold back downriver. So, what exactly do you refer to?”

Fire Cat gestured toward the distant mountains, and then at the world around them. “As a young man I considered Red Wing Town the center of the world. Then the world expanded to Cahokia, which humbled me. Surely that was all the people in the world. And now I have traveled this far, past the Blue Mountains, and still the world continues. I was arrogant in my knowledge of my place and my city’s place at the center of things. Now, considering the vastness, I understand just how insignificant I really am.”

Blood Talon squinted up at the high peaks, nodded. “I think we both have learned. I have Traded for dried corn, pawpaws, and mulberries. I also found a fisherman down at the canoe landing who will carry us across the river to the Herosihachi trail that will take us to the divide.”

“Even better than that,” Fire Cat told him, “I talked with a family of farmers who just arrived from Joara. My lady and Winder are just over a day ahead of us. Now, let’s go find your fisherman. It might be a hard run, and we might have to eat those supplies of yours cold, but I think we can catch them before they reach the divide.”

Blood Talon tapped his chin in salute. “Then let’s be about it. It will be my chance to show you just how far and fast a Snapping Turtle Clan squadron first can run.”

Fire Cat grinned. Gave him a slap on the back. “Faster and farther than a fat, lazy Red Wing, no doubt. But, Blood Talon. Once we catch up with Night Shadow Star and discover where Walking Smoke is, I don’t want you involved. You’ve heard the stories about the Lightning Shell witch? It’s him. I know it.”

“I owe you my life.” Blood Talon looked down at his tanned, callused hands. “Even more so since I destroyed so much of yours. What do I care about some witch?”

“Look at me. Yes, right in the eyes. You still don’t understand about the Power—that this is Piasa against the Thunderers. Sky Power opposed to Underworld Power. Something terrible is going to happen when Night Shadow Star faces Walking Smoke. Last time she almost died.”

“Doesn’t matter, I’ll be at your side and—”

“Whoever goes into that final confrontation, they’re not coming out of it alive.”

Blood Talon shifted, stubbornly scuffed his foot on the hard-packed soil. “The way you put it? Sounds like the kind of fight a true warrior was born for. Maintaining the balance of Power? Me, I’m born of Snapping Turtle Clan, we’re earth people. This Lightning Shell witch we’ve been hearing about? A warrior could find no better death than helping to end such a thing.”

Blood Talon extended his arm in the direction of the canoe landing. “Lead forth. Let’s go catch the lady and kill the witch.”

“You do my lady and me honor.”

“Funny you’d say that. Most everything I’ve learned of honor, it seems, I’ve learned from you.”

Fire Cat kept his expression blank, turned on his heel, and led the way to the canoe landing.

In his head he kept seeing the inside of Columella’s palace that day Night Shadow Star had interrupted Walking Smoke’s abominable ceremony. The severed body parts, arms, legs, torsos, arranged in such a precise pattern on the blood-soaked matting.

My friend, you don’t know the depths of his depravity. Or how cunning and clever he is.