Comanche Woman (25 page)

“You’ll be too tired to travel tomorrow if you don’t get some rest.”

“I’m scared.”

Long Quiet saw the plea in her eyes, saw how her body quivered with fear, and crossed to sit beside her. He pulled her between his thighs and wrapped his arms around her. His body was rigid with anger at whoever had been responsible for frightening her like this. “We’ll both be exhausted tomorrow,” he said.

Bay leaned back into his solid strength. “It’s hard to believe someone wants to kill me.”

“You’re safe now. Tomorrow we’ll be gone.”

Bay shivered again but said nothing.

It was a long night for both of them. Bay managed to drowse but was immediately caught up in a terrifying dream. She was being chased by a hulking figure, and no matter how fast she ran, she couldn’t escape. She could see Long Quiet in the distance, and somehow she knew if she could only reach him, she’d be safe. Just as she stretched out a hand to him, she tripped and fell. When something grabbed her ankle, she awoke with a scream, struggling violently against whatever held her prisoner.

Little Deer’s yelp brought Bay fully awake, and she realized that what she’d felt on her ankle was Little Deer’s waking hand and that it was Long Quiet who was trying to keep her hands from lashing out at the two of them.

“Shadow, stop. Wake up!”

Bay slumped in Long Quiet’s arms. He released her and she turned and burrowed into his embrace as tears of frustration and fatigue gathered in her eyes. “I was having an awful dream—”

“You’re safe now.”

“—I was being chased and I knew if I could only get to you—”

“It’s all right, Shadow.”

Bay felt a small hand patting her back and then heard Little Deer say, “Don’t worry,
Pia
. Long Quiet will keep you safe from
Piamempits
.”

Bay choked on a laugh. If only it were the fierce mythological creature that she feared! She straightened in Long Quiet’s arms, trying to come to grips with her fear. She wiped away the tears before Little Deer could see them, and then, when she realized this was her last morning with the little girl, her eyes blurred again.

“Come here, Little Deer,” Bay said. She took the child in her lap, and Long Quiet’s arms opened so he held both of them. “Today I will be going on a journey with Long Quiet.”

“Can I come too?” Little Deer asked.

“You wouldn’t want to leave your
kaku
all alone, would you? Cries at Night could not manage without your help. And your
ap
’ would have no pretty daughter to make him laugh. No. You must stay here.” Bay chucked Little Deer under the chin, and the girl made a dissatisfied face back at her.

“When will you be coming back?”

Bay’s lips trembled, and she opened her mouth to answer, but no words came out.

At last, Long Quiet answered for her, “She is going to come live with me in my village.”

Little Deer’s face contorted in a frown of disbelief. “
Pia?
”

Bay’s throat was swollen closed with the pain of leaving the little girl behind. “You will always be with me here,” she said, thumping her fist against her heart, “as I will always be with you inside, here.” She placed her open palm against Little Deer’s heart.

Bay saw Little Deer was not impressed with her reasoning. The child threw her arms around Bay’s neck, clutching her tight. “Do not go away,
Pia
. I promise to stay on my own pallet. I will be a good girl and not make you angry with me. I promise!”

Bay choked back the hysterical sob that threatened to erupt. “Oh, Little Deer, I’m not going away because I’m angry with you or because you didn’t sleep on your pallet.”

“Then why are you going away?”

“I have to go!”

“But why?”

How could she explain to Little Deer that the villagers believed she was a sorceress? The child would never understand. Bay turned frantic eyes to Long Quiet.

“Your
pia
is coming with me,” Long Quiet said, “to be my
paraibo
.”

“Oh.” Little Deer knew enough about a woman’s role to understand that this was a very important position. “Someday I will be
paraibo
to a great warrior,” she said.

“Yes,” Long Quiet replied solemnly. “You will make a good first wife.”

Once again the praise from Long Quiet mollified Little Deer, who now asked Bay, “Will you come to visit me sometime?”

Bay pulled the child into her arms again and hugged her tight. “Perhaps when you are older you can come visit me,” she suggested.

That idea obviously appealed to Little Deer, who took Bay’s face between her hands and said excitedly, “Could I,
Pia?
”

Long Quiet’s suggestion that Bay prepare something for them to eat provided a further distraction to Little Deer, so the painful confrontation between mother and child came to an end. After they had a quick breakfast of plums and mush, Cries at Night came to get Little Deer. By the time Bay had finished straightening the tipi and stepped outside, Little Deer had joined her friends in a game of grizzly bear, in which the children tried to steal sugar (sand) from a grizzly and, if caught, were eaten (tickled) by the bear.

Bay memorized that picture of the laughing child, preserving the vision for the days to come.

Long Quiet had stepped outside the tipi after her and could see in her eyes her love for the child and her pain at leaving. He wondered if things would have been any different if he’d never come here. He shrugged his shoulders. He had come. Things had happened as they had happened. There was no help for what must be done. He offered the only solace he could. “She has a grandmother and a father who both care for her. She’ll be fine.”

“But will I?” Bay snapped in reply.

“Come,” he said brusquely. “We must say our farewell to Many Horses. The sun is high.”

Bay’s mood had been so dark she hadn’t noticed, but now that Long Quiet had pointed it out, she saw the cloudless blue sky from which the sun glared high and hot.

She followed Long Quiet to Many Horses’ tipi, where they found not only She Touches First but He Decides It. Long Quiet greeted the
puhakut
and said, “My wife and I have come to say farewell to my brother, Many Horses.”

He Decides It gestured to the unconscious man. “Perhaps if you speak the words, his heart will hear what you have to say.”

“Will he live to hunt the buffalo again?” Long Quiet asked.

“He has lived longer than I thought he would. It may be that Shadow will take with her the cloud that hides his spirit and he will return to us.”

Bay blanched at the
puhakut
’s suggestion that she was responsible for Many Horses’ failure to recover. She had never loved Many Horses, but he’d been kind to her when she’d expected cruelty. He hadn’t objected when Cries at Night had offered her Little Deer to love. And for three long years he’d kept her safe from harm, even risking his life to divert the buffalo that had chased her during the hunt. For all those reasons and more, she was grateful to him.

“Please leave us for a while,” Long Quiet said to the
puhakut
.

He Decides It nodded to his sister, who rose from her place beside Many Horses. When it seemed She Touches First might speak, the
puhakut
shook his head. She lowered her chin to her chest and stepped outside after him.

Bay followed Long Quiet the few steps to the pallet where Many Horses lay. When Long Quiet sat cross-legged beside his friend, she sat also. Long Quiet took the unconscious man’s hand in his and held it as he spoke. “I am leaving now and taking Shadow with me. It is no longer safe for her here. Yet I have much to thank you for,
haints
. For three years I sought the woman you kept safe in this village. Now she is my wife. I am sorry you cannot look into my eyes to share my happiness.”

Long Quiet felt the hand he held squeeze his fingers. His eyes flashed from his lap to Many Horses’ face in time to see his friend’s eyelashes flicker.

Bay gasped as Many Horses’ eyes slowly opened and he stared at Long Quiet.

“Come closer,
haints
,” Many Horses rasped in a voice rough from disuse.

Long Quiet leaned closer.

Many Horses smiled. “So you have found a good wife, eh,
haints?
”

Long Quiet smiled back. “Yes, a very good wife.”

Bay blushed and bit her lower lip to keep silent.

“I think I shall take a wife also,” Many Horses said.

“Oh?”

“Yes. But I will have to wait awhile, until I have stolen enough ponies to offer to her brother.”

Long Quiet grinned and said, “That shouldn’t take a clever thief like you very long at all.”

“No,” Many Horses agreed. “It shouldn’t take long at all.”

“And I will make a gift of a chestnut stallion to begin your herd,” Long Quiet said.

Many Horses smiled. “I accept your generous gift. I wish you well,
haints
, and your wife also.”

“You may wish her well yourself,” Long Quiet said.

Bay lifted her eyes to Many Horses’ face: They were bright with excitement and filled with admiration. “I shall never forget you,” she said.

“Nor I you,” he replied. “I will always remember your eyes, the deep violet of a stormy night; your hair, the red of a young fox’s fur; your cheeks, pink as primroses blanketing the earth; your face—”

“—shining like the moon in the sky,” Bay finished. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes and fell unheeded down her cheeks.

Long Quiet returned the weakened grasp of Many Horses’ hand and said, “We will meet again,
haints
. Do not doubt it.”

“Until then,” Many Horses said, “may you count many coups, may you steal many fine ponies, and may the Great Spirit fill your wife’s belly with a son.”

The sound of a much-loved voice had brought She Touches First to the tipi opening. When she saw that Many Horses was awake, she slipped inside and sat at the edge of the tipi, her eyes filled with the sight of him. Long Quiet walked past her and out of the tipi, but as Bay started to follow, She Touches First reached out a hand to stop her.

“Wait.”

Bay stopped, startled.

“I am sorry for the way I treated you,” She Touches First murmured. “And I thank you for giving back the life of Many Horses.”

“I did not do anything.”

“Do not deny your power. It is not necessary. I will not seek to do you harm because of it. But you must leave this place. I have already warned Long Quiet of the danger if you stay longer. Now, go. Go!”

Bay was bewildered by the words of the
puhakut
’s sister. She’d already warned Long Quiet? Warned him of what? Why hadn’t he said anything to her? She left the tipi in a rush, anxious to question Long Quiet.

But Long Quiet was busy preparing the packs on their horses, and they’d left the village far behind before Bay had a chance to ask questions that by then hardly seemed important—since they’d left the supposed danger behind them.

“How does it feel?” Long Quiet asked when they could no longer see the vultures that circled the village searching for offal, or hear the sounds of the children at play.

“What?” Bay asked distractedly.

“To be leaving the place you’ve called home for the past three years,” he explained. “How does it feel?”

“Frightening. Exhilarating. Sad. Wonderful.”

“All that?”

“And more,” she said.

“I’ll try to make you happy,” he said.

She didn’t answer, simply turned to look back over her shoulder at what she’d left behind.

If she’d looked a little sooner, she might have seen a pair of dark eyes narrowed in spite, malevolent with hate, gleeful with satisfaction. After the thwarted attempt to take Shadow’s life last night, Red Wing had decided upon another plan. She had been afraid She Touches First would warn Shadow, but apparently she had not. Red Wing smiled a nearly toothless grin at her cleverness. She had sent the source of Shadow’s death with her on this journey, for there was an even greater evil packed within the evil one’s
parfleche
. It would not be long now before the deaths of her son and the son of Singing Woman, both of which she was certain had been caused by Shadow’s sorcery, were avenged.