Read It Dreams in Me for Free Online Page B

body. Her guards took up positions a short distance away.

    “High Matron Wink has been on a tirade,” she said, wasting no time. “I’ve had to do some fancy talking to convince the Council of Elders not to outcast Water Hickory Clan from the nation. Thank the gods that Matron Wigeon is a scared rabbit, or no one would have been on my side. As it was, we were lucky. Chief Long Fin abstained from the vote, leaving the council divided: Wigeon and I against, Black Birch and Wink for.”
    Red Raven made the appropriate tsk tsk sound. “It sounds terrible, Matron. I can see you’re in a difficult position, but what does that have to do with me?”
    Her old eyes blazed. “Matron Wink knows more than she’s saying. I want to know where she heard it from.”
    Red Raven straightened in surprise. “What do you mean?”
    “I mean”—Sea Grass gave him the evil eye—“that two nights ago, one of my spies saw Feather Dancer drag you out of your blankets and escort you to Matron Wink’s house. What did you tell her?”
    Red Raven wet his dry lips. His nose had begun to twitch, as it always did when he was nervous. “Nothing, Matron. She questioned me, of course, but I swear I told her nothing. At least, nothing important.”
    She pointed a crooked finger at him. “If you lie to me once more, I’ll have your heart cut out and left bleeding on the floor. What did she ask you?”
    He glanced at the guards. He had to tell Sea Grass enough information to satisfy her, but not so much that she’d carry out her threat. “She told me that she’d heard I was the one who found Chief Short Tail. I don’t know how she knew it, but she did, and she—”
    “You’re such a braggart, by the time you left my chamber, everyone for three days’ walk knew it. What else did she say?
And for the sake of the gods, stop twitching your nose! It’s infernally annoying.”
    He swallowed hard. “She wanted to know about the woman I’d seen in the forest before I discovered the body.”
    “And?”
    “I told her almost nothing! She wanted to know what the woman looked like, and I said it was dark, I couldn’t really tell, except that she was tall and had long black hair.”
    Sea Grass’ wrinkles rearranged into worried lines. “Did you tell her why you’d gone to Eagle Flute Village?”
    “Of course not! What do think I am, a traitor?”
    She stared at him as though trying to decide if she should just kill him now and get it over with, or question him further. “Did Wink ask any questions about Short Tail?”
    “No.”
    “None? She didn’t even slyly mention the fact that he’d openly opposed me over the Eagle Flute Village attack?”
    Red Raven cocked his head. “I don’t think she knows about it, Matron. I didn’t even know about it.”
    Sea Grass folded her clawlike hands in her lap and seemed to be thinking about that. “All she did was ask about the woman?”
    “Yes, Matron. She asked me if I’d recognized her. I told her no, it was too dark. Next she asked me about the woman’s voice. Had I ever heard it before. I told her it did sound familiar, but that I hadn’t actually recognized it.”
    Sea Grass rubbed her jaw. “I wonder …”
    “Wonder what, Matron?”
    She gave him a look that would have silenced the gods. “Never interrupt me.”
    Red Raven clamped his jaw.
    “Wink has been desperate to find Chieftess Sora. She’s sent
out so many search parties I’ve lost count. They’ve found nothing, of course.”
    The way she said “of course” made Red Raven think she had known they wouldn’t. Perhaps because the high chieftess was dead. That’s what everyone thought. Speculation ran rampant that she’d been burned alive in one of the lodges at Eagle Flute Village, or shot down during the battle and eaten by wolves—as was her just due. After all, the chieftess had murdered Matron Sea Grass’ son, War Chief Skinner.
    It was an embarrassing event. Matron Wink’s nephew, Far Eye, had found War Chief