Cate of the Lost Colony - Lisa Klein [65]
Wanchese greeted me coldly and regarded my robe with contempt. I said the English wanted to know why he had killed a man who had done them no harm.
“In war one must slay or be slain,” he said.
“We were not at war with you.”
“We? You are one of them now, are you, Manteo?”
“No. I am a Croatoan,” I said. Even being a lord would not change that.
“Have the Croatoan forgotten the white men killed Wingina?”
“This leader is not the one who killed Wingina. But his men are preparing to take revenge for the death of George-howe. And for the soldiers killed at their fort before John-white arrived.” I wanted to make Wanchese afraid so he would offer payment and terms of peace. I wanted to go back to John-white and say I had prevented a war.
But Wanchese looked angry, not fearful. He said the soldiers had come to his village and forced women to lie with them. The women died, and others whom the soldiers had not touched. I saw the scars from his own disease still on Wanchese’s face. If hatred and ill will had caused Wanchese’s sickness, what explained the deaths of people who had never seen a white man to hate? People who were innocent of evil?
Wanchese said his warriors and the Secotan had killed the soldiers and burned their bodies to destroy the disease. “Now all the weroances are grateful to me.”
This was startling news, that the soldiers had violated the Roanoke women. John-white would have put the men to death for it. I could not blame Wanchese.
“Did they stay away from the council that John-white called because they feared a sickness?” I asked.
Wanchese said with a sly smile, “The peoples of Ossomocomuck do not heed John-white or Lord Manteo.”
Then I understood that Wanchese had prevented the weroances from meeting with John-white. Did he threaten the ones who wanted to make peace? Why? Because he wanted power only for himself? I think he was envious of me because the English preferred me from the beginning.
Now Wanchese was speaking to me as if I were a mere boy.
“Manteo, you do not understand the doings of men. The English are buying your faith with empty honors. They try to buy us with beads and copper, but I am not deceived. I know they plan to betray us.”
Wanchese’s words were like seeds on damp earth. I felt doubts growing within me. Some of the colonists hated all natives. John-white said he wanted peace, but why had he brought so many soldiers, if not to make war on us?
“I have been across the water like you and know the English are many,” said Wanchese. “We must make them fear to come here. We will unite and show the white men our strength. Kill them before they kill us.” He gripped my arm. “And if you do not join my alliance, you and your people will suffer.”
My anger rose. I would not be threatened by Wanchese. I was a weroance by the power of the English kwin, whom I had vowed to serve. I could not betray that vow and keep my honor. Nor would I let my people submit to Wanchese.
“What are you asking me to do?”
Wanchese replied, “Deliver the English to us.”
My heart drummed inside me. I thought of John-white’s kindness to me. His daughter and the child. The brave maid with the dark hair who had found George-howe’s body, yet welcomed the Croatoan to her house. How could I deliver them to Wanchese? To their deaths?
“Would you destroy the women and children too?” I asked.
Wanchese only shrugged. “Show me where they are weak, that I may know when to strike.”
I, too, could be a deceiver. “Give me time to consider how this can be done,” I said.
I went back to Roanoke filled with uncertainty. When I arrived, John-white was gone and I was greeted with cold, mistrustful stares.
Chapter 26
The First Winter
Edmund Vickers was lucky to be little and have no worries. He dashed through the fields shouting and waving his arms. It was his job to keep the crows and