Copper Falcon by W. Michael Gear Read Free Book Online

growled. “But what about you?”
    “I’m staying here for a while.” And I heard the lie when he added, “It’s taking longer than I thought to get a squadron together.”
    The way he was looking at me, the desperation he struggled to hide, all sent a shiver of fear through me.
    What’s going on?
    In a voice dripping with resignation, he said, “You have your orders, my son. Go. Give my regards to the people. Be the man I know you can be.”
    For a long moment the silence stretched, my heart torn. Nothing about this was right. The tension in the room hummed like a tight gut string. I wanted to scream, to strike out. But I had an order from my chief. And no choice but to obey it, or disgrace my father, my honor, and my family.
    Trembling with rage and fear, I jabbed my fingers at my forehead in a gesture of respect, shot a seething glare at the grinning Bear Heart, and another promising mayhem at the Keeper, who, now fully dressed and ornamented, watched us like some all-knowing buzzard.
    I stiffened, turned on my heel, and had barely taken a step when an older woman burst in the door. She ran to a spot before the fire, dropped to one knee, and bowed before she cried, “Keeper! I am sent by Field Green. Bad news! The Red Wing heretics in the north have destroyed the Morning Star’s army. The great War Chief Makes Three is dead, his body hung in a square for the heretics to defile. But there’s worse….”
    The people reacted with stunned silence. Even given my previous confusion and turmoil, I had trouble believing what I was hearing:
The Morning Star’s army destroyed?
    The Keeper hurried forward to stare down at the kneeling woman. “What is worse?”
    “It’s Lady Night Shadow Star, Keeper. When she heard, she broke down into the most hideous screams and wailing. Field Green barely managed to rip an arrow out of Night Shadow Star’s hands before the lady could plunge it into her own breast. She vows she will not live without her husband, Keeper! You must come! Now!”
    The Keeper didn’t hesitate, barking, “Smooth Pebble! I need my litter. Now!” She pointed at my escort of warriors. “You! Outside. Bear my litter.”
    The warriors bolted like passenger pigeons from a sharp-shinned hawk. I watched the entire household crowd out the door in the Keeper’s wake, the flurry of shouts and confusion building as the servants and staff hovered outside on the veranda.
    “You’d better be going, too,” Bear Heart told me, his expression grim. He, too, seemed torn by the desire to follow the Keeper. “Before you do, however, I want Lady Night Shadow Star’s chunkey stone.”
    “She gifted it to me.”
    “It’s not hers to gift. It belongs to the Morning Star House. Such a piece deserves better than to go south with some renegade traitor’s son.”
    Instinct is a curious thing. His insolent tone, the fact that he’d duped me in the clan house, that Father was lying to me—something triggered my response. I pivoted, put all my weight behind it, and slammed the stone into the side of his head.
    Bear Heart dropped like a fallen oak.
    Even as he sprawled, I ripped the keen chipped-stone blade from his waist and bent to saw at Father’s ropes. As I did, I asked, “What’s this all about?”
    “Cahokian politics. Green Chunkey is getting a little too independent for the Keeper’s comfort. She and the Tonka’tzi are looking for a means of reining him in and bringing him back in line. The deal was that I would claim to be Green Chunkey’s agent, come to make mischief. They would use that admission as a means of pressuring Horned Serpent House into submission. In return, you and our warriors would be allowed to leave in peace, and when Makes Three’s victorious army returned to Cahokia, a squadron would be dispatched to Copper Falcon Town to deal with the T’so.”
    The ropes parted. I helped Father to his feet. “Makes Three isn’t bringing any army home.”
    “And you may have killed one of the