A November Sky

Chapter Eight

The council called a senat the next day. I learned this from Toma, as we dug bulbs beside the creek, because Kocoum hadn't told me, hadn't mentioned anything about the newworlders in fact. When I arrived, Ahanu stood guard at the door of the longhouse, his bow loose at his side, a tomahawk strapped with rawhide to his waist. He straightened, just the slightest, and rested one hand on the doorframe.

"Step aside."

"Pocahontas," he said, inclining his head respectfully. "We are to discuss matters of security. The women are not welcome."

"Is this not my tribe? My land? I've seen the pale visitors. I know what we face. Let me pass."

Ahanu swept the reed door flap aside and leaned inside. Deep in the longhouse, seated on his raised platform, Kocoum nodded. Ahanu stepped back.

With no serving women lining the walls, I didn't bother to hang back but joined Kocoum at the front, sitting on the edge of the sapling platform with my legs stretched out before me. A few moments later, when the last councilor had arrived, Ahanu slipped inside, standing in the doorway with his back to the reed door flap.

Kocoum spoke. "I have visited the newworlders, and it seems they mean to stay. Even now, they build a settlement on the river, cutting and stripping our trees along the coast."

Ahanu murmured, "We should drive the Musqua back to the sea. Today. Before they build their defenses and infest our land." His view would be supported by many of the village women. It was well known that where the Musqua went, fire followed. But unlike Ahanu, I was not sure these new visitors were the Musqua who'd invaded tribe lands to the south some sixty summers ago.

Kocoum's eyes cut through the room. "I have already sent an offering of corn and venison. I will have peace near my villages."

Ahanu lumbered into the circle of councilors, where daylight splashed through the sky vent in the longhouse ceiling. "They are weak now where we are strong. Let me call upon the thirty clans. You know my father will support you." One day, Ahanu would lead a clan of his own, but Kocoum knew as well as I did that his father, the Appamattuck, had not deemed him ready. Ahanu had been sent to Werowocomoco to study under the Powhatan.

"I will hear no more of it," Kocoum growled, turning away from Ahanu entirely. "I'm not worried about the land. Let them live outside the forest and its protection, where they will slowly kill themselves. That is not my present concern. We must know if the Musqua have returned. What face leads these people?" Kocoum glanced around his councilors, whose faces had puckered like they'd eaten a huckleberry. "Ahanu, you will find out."

Ahanu nodded, short and quick. He stepped back and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Until then, the women are to stay in the village. No one ventures out without an escort." Kocoum placed his hand on my mine, stilling my tapping fingers. "Even you."

The senat wrapped up quickly. Most of the council members filed out instead of lingering to talk, most likely to go raid the last of the winter stores. The eldest elder remained, slowly fighting his way to his feet, his joints not as they once were. My father helped him to stand. Within moments, Kocoum and I were alone at the front of the longhouse.

"I want to go to the waterfall today." There's something you learn about freedom: you only feel it in absence, constricting you.

Kocoum stood, pacing the length of the longhouse to work out the kinks in his left leg. "I have the hunt this afternoon. I can take you after supper. Or perhaps you can talk Toma into packing us a basket." He rubbed a hand down his thigh and stepped close, the toe of his moccasins bumping mine. His fingers rolled a strand of hair that had escaped my braid. He tucked it behind my ear. "Wait for me."