Copper Falcon by W. Michael Gear Read Free Book Online Page B

for us by the time we reach the canoe landing and find Sixkills and Cut Hand. We have two legs of the triangle to run. They have one.” He paused. “No, we have to play coyote to their wolf and accomplish our escape through cleverness.”
    At that moment the doorway darkened, and a voice called, “Ah, here you are?”
    Father had already whipped the cloth over his precious copper falcon. I’d almost jumped out of my skin, but had the sense to stuff Night Shadow Star’s chunkey stone into my pack.
    “Seven Skull Shield?” I cried as his muscular form slipped inside and dropped to a crouch.
    “At your service, good Four Winds.” The rascal shrugged his muscular shoulders in a dismissive manner. “Such a day, wouldn’t you say? Chunkey games, news of disaster in the north, Lady Night Shadow Star wailing and keening in grief … and a shocking escape by one of the Keeper’s captives? The whole city is in chaos.”
    “What do you want?” Father demanded, and I could feel him crouch, ready to pounce.
    I held a hand out to stay Father. “How did you find us?”
    “Followed you,” Seven Skull Shield replied as casually as if discussing the weather. “And along the way asked a couple of friends to accompany me. Just in case, you know. I wouldn’t want to underestimate anyone who could blindside Bear Heart. At my last glance, he could barely stand, let alone get a sentence out without throwing up. Quite a knock you gave him.”
    So, there were others outside?
    I waved Father down before he could make matters worse, saying, “How do you see this working out?”
    “One of two ways, good Four Winds lord.” A sly smile bent the rogue’s lips. “A man would probably receive a couple pieces of carved shell, perhaps a bolt of fine fabric or some other value, as a measure of the Keeper’s goodwill for information that led to the recapture of one of her ex-husbands.”
    I reached into my pack and held up a chunkey stone. “Do you recognize this?”
    He raised an eyebrow. “Is that the stone you used to brain Bear Heart? The one Lady Night Shadow Star so thoughtlessly tossed you? That story is all over Cahokia by now.”
    I smiled grimly. “It would be worth more than a man’s life were it Traded on the Tenasee.”
    Seven Skull Shield’s smile matched mine. “I think, that in Trade for that stone, I can manage to get your warriors out of Horned Serpent Town and to a canoe on the river.”
    “But not the two of us?” Father asked.
    “That, great High Chief, will be a bit more difficult.” Seven Skull Shield paused, eyes thoughtful. “Perhaps you might have some additional item to trade? Something worth the lives of a Four Winds high chief and his noble son?” With a slight inclination of his head, he indicated the cloth-bound copper falcon on Father’s lap.
    “I don’t know what you mean,” Father said shortly, and I could see his rising anger. This could all go terribly wrong if Seven Skull Shield really did have men outside.
    Images of the wretches dying in Morning Star House’s squares filled my souls as I interjected, “I think we can be accommodating.” I shot a hand out to forestall Father’s outburst, adding, “Assuming, Seven Skull Shield, that you can guarantee our safe passage to the canoe and our escape. By trusting you, you will also have to trust us.” I pointedly added, “The copper falcon will be yours at the moment we push off. Should anything happen to deprive us of it before that … like, say, we’re captured? Or the falcon stolen? We would just have to tell the Keeper who had taken the piece, and where to find him.”
    Seven Skull Shield’s grin split his face. “By the Piasa’s swinging balls, Four Winds, I
like
you! A man after my own souls. We have a deal!”
    *****
    Three days earlier, when we had arrived at Cahokia, the suggestion that I dress as an immigrant laborer and cover my tattoos with filth would have incited me to fight to the death. Today, wearing nothing more