She struggled to get out of Kowi’s arms. If she were guilty, she was doing a good job of hiding it.

“Whatever. It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Actually, it just underlines the fact that this thing, this conflict you have with the Creek, is dangerous. You can’t trust each other. You’re all working against your common interests.” I took a deep breath and continued. “Let me go talk to them. Maybe I can help negotiate some kind of truce.” I stared at Coli. “I’ll bring her with me. She can prove to everyone she’s not a spy.”

She jerked her arms out of Kowi’s grasp and practically spat at me. “I don’t have to prove to you or anyone else that I’m not a spy.”

“Yes, you do,” said Paci. He stepped forward from the group. “You were gone and no one could find you. You disappear like that all the time. And someone had to tell them about those grenades. I think it was you.”

I saw the murderous look on Kowi’s face and knew these words were not being spoken or taken lightly. Coli looked stricken.

“Okay, so whatever,” I said hurriedly, not wanting to lose the momentum we had. “I’ll take Bodo and Coli and we’ll go talk to the Creek. If we can get them to agree to a truce, then will you guys be in favor? Will you honor it?”

“I’m going too,” said Paci. “You can trust me to bring back accurate information, brother.” He was addressing Kowi, and now I could see a strong resemblance between the two. I don’t think he meant just tribe brothers in this case - they had the same parents for sure.

Kowi nodded. “Fine. You go represent our tribe with the negotiators.” He looked at his girlfriend. “Coli, you go too. Talk to your family and help them to see the sense in this.”

“But you’re my family now, Kowi.” Her eyes were pleading with him along with her voice. It was kind of sad, really. I was starting to get the feeling that their relationship was somewhat one-sided.

“We’ll see,” was all he said.

Her face dropped and she looked down at the ground. I know there had to be tears in her eyes; even someone made of stone would have cried at a rejection that cold and that public.

“Come on,” I said. “We’re burning daylight. How far away are they?”

“Twenty minutes, if we move fast. Come on,” said Paci, separating himself from the group and heading for the trees.

I looked at Coli. “Coming?”

She just stared at me for a second and then moved away to follow Paci, saying nothing.

I rolled my eyes. I thought teen drama had been left behind in the old world. Today, the Miccosukee has taught me otherwise. Bodo came up to walk beside me.

“Dat was some smooth talking back dare.”

I smiled. “You think so?”

“Yes. Remindt me never to argue with you about anything. I guess it wouldt be a waste of time for me.”

“I’m glad you’ve figured that out so early in our relationship, Bodo.” The import of my words didn’t really hit me until he responded.

“Dat’s what we have, issn’t it? A relationship.”

“I guess,” I said, noncommittally.

“Maybe some day you’ll let me call you my girlfriendt.”

I laughed. “Yeah. Some day when we’re not running away from cannibals and indian warriors.”

“Okay. I’m gonna hold you to dat.”

I smiled but said nothing. The idea of a world without fear and Bodo calling me his girlfriend didn’t sound half bad.

CHAPTER TEN

WE CLIMBED INTO A CANOE that was docked near our hut, leaving Buster behind with one of the Miccosukee girls who promised to take good care of him and feed him. Buster seemed perfectly happy with the arrangement, especially when she pulled a nugget of something edible out of her pocket and gave it to him. I sighed, watching him scamper away, jumping up so much on her that he looked like he wanted to climb right up her leg. Loyalty - taken by a simple scrap of food.

Paci rode in the back and Coli in front, both of them doing all the paddling while Bodo and I just rode. It was pretty nice, actually, if I didn’t think about the purpose for the trip. No one said anything, so the only sounds to be heard were those of the wildlife around us. There were squawks, croaks, and ribbets and an errant caw now and again, floating out above the sounds of rustling bushes and leaves. The banks of the river seemed like they were full of animals, rushing to hide whenever we came by.

Eventually we stopped and Coli got out, pulling out the line they kept attached to the front of the canoe and wrapping it around a nearby tree. We disembarked when she was done, following her into the trees. A light was visible up ahead, and as we approached, I could see that it was a circle of torches stuck in the ground, all centered around a fire.

Coli stopped well outside the circle of lights and made a sound like a birdcall. Less than a minute later, we were joined by three indians in more tribal-looking dress than I saw the Miccosukee wearing, making them look more intimidating.

“Coli,” said one of them. “Tired of those Meeks? Ready to come back home?”

“Shut up, Jeremy. I need to see Trip.”

“Trip’s busy. Who are these people?”

Coli sighed. “You’re not high enough on the food chain to know that information. Just go get him.”

“You know, Coli, one of these days that mouth of yours is going to get you into trouble.”

“Yeah, well, maybe you’ll be lucky enough to be around to see it.”

“Maybe I will,” he said, before storming off.

“Nice guy,” I said, when he was gone.

“He’s my brother.”

I had nothing to say to that. The guy was obviously a jerk but I couldn’t very well say that to his sister.

A couple minutes later another guy appeared. “Trip says you can come in the circle.”

“Wow. How big of him,” said Coli sarcastically.

I grabbed her arm to hold her back, letting Paci take the lead.

“Do you think maybe you could just try to get along here?”

She jerked herself free. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, actually, I do. I’m talking about getting my friend Peter back without anyone getting hurt; and I’m talking about possibly saving your whole damn tribe. I’d think that would be a little more important to you than whatever little personal issues you have going on.”

She walked away from me without saying a word.

“Don’t bother,” said Bodo softly. “She’s a lost person. She can’t hear anything you’re saying.”

“That’s too bad,” I said.

“Yeah.”

We were soon at the edge of the lighted circle, looking at a group of faces, all of them painted red and black. Even Peter’s. He was sitting off to the side, his shirt off, looking very dejected. He was the sorriest excuse for an indian warrior I’d ever seen in my life.

“Wow. Look at Peter,” said Bodo. “He’s got paint on his face.”

“And his chest.”

“Dat’s his chest? Wow. He’s so white he almost glows in da dark. I thought it wass a t-shirt.”

A big guy separated himself from the group in the circle of fire and came over to greet us. He had long black hair, hanging loose around his shoulders. It had some beads and pieces of string wrapped around chunks of it. He’d painted his face and his chest with lines, dots, and primitive-looking birds. I was pretty sure they were the washable kind of tattoos, but regardless, they looked freaky. I almost felt afraid.

“Coli,” he said, briefly looking at her and then swiveling his head slowly to stare at me.

“Why are you on my land, Paci? You know you aren’t welcome here.” He didn’t even bother to look at the guy when he was speaking to him; I was no expert on indian customs, but it sure felt like an insult to me.

Paci apparently didn’t care. “Yo, Trip, what’s up, man? How’s it hangin’?”

“Coli, why did you bring this mongrel to our place? You know better than that.”

“He’s here to represent his brother. You know … the chief? My boyfriend?”

Trip leaned over and spit on the ground.

“Who’s this?” he said, gesturing at me with his chin, still not breaking eye contact with me.

I kept my gaze steady. I’d seen guys like him before. He was a class-A egomaniac, totally convinced of his own superiority. Every one of those guys had a serious weakness and it started with that ego giving them false bravado and an over-inflated sense of their own fighting skill-level.

“That … is a white girl.”

“I can see that. What’s her name and why is she here?”

I sighed. “Okay, guys, really … I appreciate the whole ceremonial stuff and everything, but we don’t have a lot of time. It’s getting late, I haven’t eaten all day, and my friend Peter over there is not looking well. I’d like to get this wrapped up so we can head out of here in the next half hour, tops.”

“So you think you’re going to just walk on my land and claim your Peter and walk away?”

I tried not to laugh at his choice of words but it was impossible. I put my hand over my mouth to try to hide it, but then gave up and said, “Did you just say I came to claim my peter?”

I heard Coli snicker next to me, and then Paci joined in. Finally, Bodo got in on the game.

“Oh, dat’s funny. I just got dat.” Bodo leaned over and asked me in a loud whisper, “Do you think he knows what dat word means?”

“Yes, I know what that word means,” said an angry Trip. “Stop laughing, you idiots. It wasn’t that funny.”

“Yeah. It kinda was,” admitted Coli. “You were totally pulling off that badass indian chief thing and then you started talking about peters.”

Peter’s head came up. “Bryn? Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me. I’ll be right there.” I turned my attention to Trip. “Sorry for laughing. I’m really tired and hungry, like I said. I’m here to talk to you about a cease fire or a truce or whatever.”

“A truce over what?”

“Between you and the Miccosukee.”

He laughed. “What? You speak for the high and mighty Kowi now?”

“Don’t talk about him like that, Trip,” warned Coli.

“Whatever. I just think it’s pretty funny that he’s got some white girl coming over here for him to try and tell me what to do.”

“She ain’t just a regular white girl, Trip. Trust me,” said Paci.

“Trust you? Yeah, right.”

“Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you later if you decide to tangle with her.”

Trip raised an eyebrow at me. “So what does this white girl who’s got all the Meeks all scared got to say to me?”

“What I have to say is, first of all, you’re not getting any of the grenades I brought with me, and also that I’m taking Peter with me tonight back to my hut where he lives. And finally, maybe most importantly, you and the Meeks, as you call them, need to kiss and make up, before it’s too late.”

He laughed overly loud and took his time about it. Then he stopped all of a sudden and got instantly serious, giving the distinct impression that he was a little mentally off balance.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said, all traces of laughter gone.

“No. I’m not. Let’s go sit down and talk.”

He nodded his head slowly. “Talk. Okay, we can do that. Just you, though. The rest of them can stay here.” He gestured to his group behind him and said, “Watch them. No one leaves.” He took me by the arm and led me past the fire pit, towards a chickee hut that had the walls up.