Eighty-five

Fire Cat led the way into Joara as the first light of dawn spread across the eastern sky and left the tops of the trees a black silhouette against the sky.

He, Winder, and Blood Talon looked like they’d spent the night falling down the side of a mountain. Off and on during the dark hours, they had. Somehow, feeling their way, they’d managed to retrace the tortuous path back to the main trail, stumbled onto the occasional farmstead where they evaded dogs, pounded on doors to get people out of bed, and got directions to Joara. Several of the worried locals had repeatedly told them to go elsewhere, anywhere, away from the witch.

“Hope it doesn’t come down to a fight,” Blood Talon said through a yawn. “I can barely walk.”

Fire Cat saw the leaves and twigs in Blood Talon’s hair, the smudges on his face.

Not that he or Winder looked any better. The big Trader’s head was matted with dried blood, a streak of it now visible in the growing light.

“Not sure I like that smell of smoke,” the Trader said as they walked through abandoned houses, the doorways dark, the ramadas curiously empty.

The palace was plain to see, a high peak-roofed building atop a low mound. “On your toes, my friends. That should be where Fire Light and his warriors are.”

“Circle around,” Blood Talon said. “Come in from the side so we can see what’s what before we blunder into something.”

“Having already been tricked like fools, I can agree to that, Squadron First. Let’s hide Night Shadow Star’s box. There, in that field shed.”

Fire Cat let Blood Talon take the lead as he snaked his way through the houses lining the square, though this one was more elongated than the usual talwa style. And, as they finally got a look at it from between dwellings, it had a World Tree pole in its center. Definitely felt more Cahokian.

“That would have been the Clan House.” Blood Talon pointed to the smoking ruin on the opposite side of the plaza.

“That’s Walking Smoke’s, all right,” Fire Cat agreed, his heart beginning to hammer in his chest. “That’s a skinned human hanging out front.”

Grinding his teeth, fighting sudden tears, he started forward.

“Get back here!” Blood Talon gritted through his teeth. “They’ll shoot you dead!”

Heedless, Fire Cat broke into a run, pulled up, stared at the smoking wreckage. Not only the roof, but the walls had burned through, the clay daub on the outside apparently not thick enough to stop the flames. The fallen roof poles were still burning. What was left of the thatch was now just hot powdery ash. Some sort of altar could be made out in the back.

As the first rays of sunlight cleared the forest to the east, a golden light spread across the plaza. Turned the rising smoke a curious orange and pink. The smell was of incinerated wood.

Fire Cat closed his eyes, inhaled, moderately relieved to realize that he wasn’t catching a scent of cooked human.

Winder had appeared at his side, staring at the wreckage.

“I don’t see a body. There’s bones, but they’re burned white and cracked in those checked patterns the way old dry bone burns.”

“She could still be under one of the thicker piles of ash.”

But he didn’t think so.

Blood Talon approached at a trot, his war club held ready. “Palace is empty. Packed up. You ask me? They’re gone.”

“When?” Fire Cat asked, his souls reeling and tumbling.

“Not long. Last night. Fires are down to coals, but they’re still hot enough to cook on.”

Fire Cat turned, saw the gleam of copper. Stooped and picked Night Shadow Star’s war club from the beaten grass.

That welling sense of emptiness and impotence rose in his gut like vomit, sucking away any thought, any strength.

Something terrible has happened to her.

“War Leader?” Blood Talon said cautiously. “Look.”

Fire Cat turned, saw an old woman appear from the west end of the plaza, plodding out into the open past the temple.

Back bent, she hobbled along, each step supported by a cane.

Fire Cat turned, ran, willing … anything into his tortured souls.

“Hello! Do you speak Cahokian?”

The old woman waved a weary hand, stopped short. She cocked her head at him, dark eyes like pits sunk into the wrinkly folds of her face. Her nose stuck out, a fleshy hook. The lips were sucked in around toothless gums.

“Who’re you?”

“Friends. Looking for a woman. Young. Would have carried this war club.” Fire Cat lifted it.

The old woman stared at it, nodded.

“The witch got her.”

Fire Cat swallowed hard. Ground his teeth to keep his jaw from trembling.

“Oh, she gave him a good whack with it first. Would have killed the witch if that chief hadn’t sent his warriors in to grab her.”

“Where is she?”

“Gone.” The old woman waved in a circle. “All of them. Wish I was, too. This place is ruined now. Would have been gone, but I got no family. Can barely make it to the creek for water. How can I get all the way to Cofitachequi?”

“When did they leave?” Winder asked kindly.

“Middle of the night. That nasty kid warrior came stumbling in just after all the excitement. Said a Cahokian army was coming. That they killed four of Chief Fire Light’s warriors. Were coming for the witch.”

“Which way did they go?” Blood Talon asked.

The old woman gave the ghost of a shrug. “Away. Cofitachequi … maybe. That’s the closest big town. That’s where the mikko went. Don’t know. There was something about the witch getting a pardon for that snotty chief. A pardon in Cahokia. He hated it here. Heard his sister was some important person now.”

“Middle of the night?” Fire Cat wondered. “Surely we’d have passed them on the trail.”

“If they went that way,” Winder reminded. “There’s a reason Joara is where it is. It’s a crossroads. Trails run east, north, west, and south.”

Blood Talon laid a hand on Fire Cat’s arm. “We’ll get her back. We know she’s alive. First we have to eat something. Rest. And then we’ll go get her.”

Fire Cat blinked, wanting to drop to his knees and cry.

Yes, we’ll get her back.

In his head, stuffed full of fatigued fog as it was, he could hear Night Shadow Star’s words: “But you know there will be a price.”

Of course. Nothing he wouldn’t pay.

As soon as they’d eaten, caught a little sleep.

Just a matter of time.