He had always tried to find ways to make his sister’s life more pleasant, more sweet. Now he wished to do the same for Kaylene.
“The panther can stay as long as it poses no threat to anyone,” he said to Kaylene. Then he turned to Little Sparrow and told her the same in sign language.
His heart warmed when Little Sparrow flung herself into his arms and hugged him as Kaylene looked up at him, tears shining in her eyes.
“Thank you,” Kaylene murmured. “And you will see what little bother Midnight is. He is as gentle as a baby bird, unless given cause to be otherwise.”
Little Sparrow went to the panther and hugged him. Fire Thunder lifted Kaylene into his arms again and carried her to his bed and covered her to her chin with a soft blanket.
Little Sparrow and Midnight came into the room. Midnight leaped on the bed and snuggled next to Kaylene. Little Sparrow crawled onto the bed and snuggled next to the panther.
Fire Thunder listened to the panther purr contentedly as though it were no more than a mere house cat. He saw the love the panther had for Kaylene, and understood why. When Fire Thunder wasn’t fighting his decision to keep Kaylene there with him against her will, she was everything sweet in this world. She had stolen his heart.
And Fire Thunder could tell by the way he found Kaylene looking at him even now, just how she felt about him.
He did not think there was one ounce of her heart now that loathed him!
Chapter 12
My steps are nightly driven,
By the fever in my breast,
To hear from thy lattice breathed
The word that shall give me rest.
—BAYARD TAYLOR
Kaylene sat around the hearth of the fireplace on a blanket with Fire Thunder and Little Sparrow, eating a hearty breakfast of eggs and coffee, accompanied by tortillas.
But she was unnerved by what was going to happen today. She was going to be participating in the curing ceremony called the Buffalo Dance.
“Please, tell me what will happen today during the ceremony?” Kaylene asked as she gazed over at Fire Thunder, who seemed unusually withdrawn this morning.
She had to believe that his mood was more because of the burial rites for Good Bear than it had to do with her.
She placed her empty coffee mug on the floor beside her. “What will I be required to do?” she dared to ask.
Kaylene’s panther was stretched out beside her, his head resting on her lap, asleep. “What of my panther while I am participating in the ceremony?” she asked. “I fear the reaction of your people when they see Midnight.”
“I would suggest tying Midnight on a leash and leaving him here,” Fire Thunder said, holding his cup out so that Little Sparrow could pour him some more coffee. “It will take time for my people to get used to the panther. I suggest you do it in small doses.”
He nodded a thank-you to Little Sparrow, took a sip of his coffee, then set it down beside him. “As for what you will do today during the ceremony?” he said. “The ceremony will be held in the council house. Just sit there and let it happen all around you. When you are required to participate, you will be told.”
“Then I will have to do something in the ceremony.” Kaylene sighed. “And I may as well not ask you any more about it. It is obvious that you do not wish to tell me.”
Kaylene stroked Midnight’s head. “My sweet pet,” she murmured, gazing down at the cat. “You cannot come with me today. I hope you will not get too restless.”
Fire Thunder’s eyebrows lifted at this comment, wondering what to expect of the panther if it did become restless?
But he trusted Kaylene’s intuition about the panther. She knew that the animal could be trusted, or else she would not put him in danger by having him here. She knew that if the panther did anything that threatened his people, he would die.
A knock on the door drew Fire Thunder to his feet. When he opened the door, he found Running Fawn standing there, a towel and clothes draped over an arm.
“As you requested, I have come to take Kaylene to the river for a bath,” Running Fawn said, looking past Fire Thunder at Kaylene.
Then she gazed up at Fire Thunder. “Is she truly able to walk to the river?” she asked. “Perhaps I should help her with her bath here in your lodge.”
“She is strong enough to walk to the river,” Fire Thunder said, knowing that Kaylene had to start moving around more in order to gain back her full strength. “But be careful not to get the bandage on her shoulder wet. She should walk only to her knees into the river. You enter with her and bathe her.”
Kaylene could scarcely hear what was being said, except that she had heard the words “river” and “bath.”
Surely they weren’t discussing her. Her knees were still weak. How could she be expected to make it to the river? And there would be no privacy.
No, surely they weren’t discussing her.
Fire Thunder turned to Kaylene. “Come,” he said, gesturing to her. “You will go to the river with Running Fawn.”
He looked toward his sister. In sign language he told her to get her clean clothes, towel, and soap, and to go to the river with Running Fawn and Kaylene.
Kaylene stared up in disbelief at him. They had been discussing her. She would have to go to the river.
And as she watched Little Sparrow scurrying around, gathering fresh clothes from a trunk that sat along the far wall, and then a towel and soap, she realized that Little Sparrow was also going to be a part of this excursion.
“Kaylene, it is best that you secure Midnight on a leash now, for you will go after your bath then to the council house for the curing ceremony,” Fire Thunder explained. “I leave you now to go and say a final good-bye to Good Bear. While you bathe, he will be taken to the burial grounds. All of my people, except for my sister and Running Fawn, will be there. You will have total privacy while at the river.”
As though in a daze, knowing it was useless to argue with Fire Thunder, Kaylene took a rope that Fire Thunder handed to her and tied it gently around Midnight’s neck. She secured him to the iron bedpost of the bed, hugged him, then left the lodge with Running Fawn and Little Sparrow.
As she walked through the dim twilight of morning, she winced when she heard coming from the very council house where she would endure the curing ceremony, chants being said over Good Bear’s body. She sucked in a wild breath when a woman’s voice rose over the rest, shouting Good Bear’s name, then hysterically crying.
“That is Good Bear’s mother,” Running Fawn said, shivering as the mourning cries rose into the air like white silver flashes. “If not for your bath, I would be there, a part of the mourning.”
“Go on if you feel you must,” Kaylene said, her knees trembling as she moved slowly toward the river. Her shoulder seemed heavier with each step she took, although thankfully it was not paining her.
“My duty is to you this morning,” Running Fawn said, proudly lifting her chin. “It is something I wish to do, though, because you are my friend.”
Little Sparrow took Kaylene by the hand as they came to the bank of the river. Little Sparrow smiled up at her, then unbashfully let go of Kaylene’s hand and undressed.
Folding her arms over her tiny breasts, she ran into the river.
Kaylene watched as Little Sparrow began to swim. She was so expert a swimmer, it was as though she had been born with the fins of a fish.
“Let me help you get your clothes off,” Running Fawn said, laying the fresh, clean clothes for both her and Kaylene on the ground. She left the towels closer to the river, so that they could cover themselves when they left the water.
“I just don’t know,” Kaylene said, taking a slow step away from Running Fawn.
“You are not used to bathing with others?” Running Fawn asked.
“No, never,” Kaylene said, taking a quick glance over at the council house, now silent.
Then she caught sight of a slow procession of people moving away from the village, toward
a wooded area. She could see several men holding the body of Good Bear up in the air on a platform. She trembled when she recognized Fire Thunder at the head of the procession.
When she turned around, Running Fawn was undressed.
“We must move quickly now,” Running Fawn said as she reached for the bottom of Kaylene’s blouse, and slowly began pulling it over her head. “Once the burial is done, we are expected in the council house.”
Casting aside her bashfulness, Kaylene sighed and helped Running Fawn take off the rest of her clothes.
Running Fawn held on to Kaylene around the waist as Kaylene walked gingerly into the water, expecting it to be cold. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise when she found the water pleasantly warm; in fact, warmer than the air around her.
“It is like bathwater,” Kaylene said, glancing at Running Fawn as she helped her move more deeply into the current.
“The water is warmed from hot springs that shoot up from the ground beneath the river,” Running Fawn said. She handed Kaylene a bar of soap. “You bathe what you can. I then will bathe the rest for you.”
Glad to at least have some control over her bath, Kaylene gladly took the tiny bar of soap. She sudsed herself, bent low and dipped her hair into the water and sudsed it. After the soap was rinsed from her hair, she stood still as Running Fawn bathed her wounded shoulder, and her back.
When they were through bathing and fully clothed, they walked solemnly back to the village, where they could see people sullenly entering the council house.
One ritual had been completed this morning. Another was yet to be performed.
“Your people do not like me, so why do they agree to join Fire Thunder and Bull Shield in my curing ceremony?” Kaylene asked, her heart pounding more erratically the closer she got to the council house.
“Fire Thunder is our chief,” Running Fawn answered. “They would never disappoint him.”
Little Sparrow took Kaylene’s hand and gave it a soft yank.
Kaylene looked down, melting inside from the smile of assurance the small child gave her.
Then she swallowed hard as they walked into the council house, where in the center, on a flooring of packed earth, roared a great fire. Its smoke lifted in slow spirals to the smoke hole. Its flames cast eerie shadows on those who sat around it, their eyes now on Kaylene as she slowly approached.
Fire Thunder went to Kaylene.
Running Fawn and Little Sparrow stepped aside as Fire Thunder placed a gentle arm around Kaylene’s waist and led her toward the fire, where he nodded at her and urged her to sit down on a thick pallet of furs.
Gulping hard, her heart racing fearfully, Kaylene smiled awkwardly up at Fire Thunder. Then she followed him onto the pallet of furs as he pulled her down beside him.
Running Fawn and Little Sparrow sat down behind them, Black Hair waiting there for his daughter.
Suddenly Bull Shield, in a long and flowing robe, entered the room, his hands clasped together before him. His gray hair was loose and rippling down his back.
He wore a necklace of animal teeth.
His almost sightless eyes stared straight ahead as he walked among the people, everyone’s gaze on him. There was a silence as he came and sat between Kaylene and Fire Thunder.
Music of a ceremonial nature began, the musicians somewhere in the darker part of the council lodge, away from the light of the fire.
Kaylene’s back stiffened when she heard the rhythmic thumping of a drum, with gourd rattles accompanying the drum beats. She could hear brass bells and tinkling cones. The distinct sound of a flute rose above the music of the other instruments.
Fire Thunder listened intently to the music, always moved by its mystery. He closed his eyes and envisioned the drums, the most important instruments of all those being played. They were made from three-legged iron kettles, with buckskin stretched over the top of each and fastened with rope.
The flute alerted the manitous that a ceremony was about to take place.
The music continued for a while longer, then everything became quiet when Bull Shield rose to his feet and went to stand over the fire.
A young brave went to him and placed a bundle of tobacco in his right hand.
Fire Thunder knew that tobacco was powerful medicine; it could ease both pain and hatred, and his people often used it in healing ceremonies.
The young brave stepped aside as another brave came to Bull Shield’s side, carrying four white eagle feathers.
The brave with the eagle feathers stood back somewhat from Bull Shield while the shaman opened the bundle of tobacco and sprinkled some in his left hand.
Bull Shield nodded to the young brave, who took the bundle. Then the other one, who held the eagle feathers, stepped next to Bull Shield.
One by one, Bull Shield took the eagle feathers. He knelt down beside the fire and placed the feathers on the ground, one in each direction.
He then took the bundle from the other young brave and placed it on the ground beside the feathers.
Raising his eyes heavenward, he chanted for a while, then sprinkled tobacco into the fire, as an offering to the manitou of the fire.
Scarcely breathing, Kaylene watched this religious ritual. She listened to Bull Shield as he spoke in a drone over the fire. He actually seemed to be addressing the fire, asking its spirit or manitou to carry his words to the manitous of the sky and winds.
A few moments passed as Bull Shield said and did nothing as he waited to be sure that rapport had been established with the manitous.
Then he spoke again, so that everyone could hear. He asked for blessings, health, and a long life for his people, and that Chief Fire Thunder be protected, that their enemies be destroyed, and that the Kickapoo live as mortals again in the hereafter.
He asked for Kaylene’s recovery, and that the manitous look to her as though her skin was copper, not white, and as though her heart was Indian, not white.
The drums beat four times.
The flute blew four times, once in each direction.
Bull Shield chanted a song four times.
A woman brought a boiling kettle of food into the council house and set it down beside Bull Shield. Several women and men came and stood around the pot, chanting.
To Kaylene’s surprise and horror, the chanters then dipped their hands and arms into the boiling kettle of food and extracted portions which they, one by one, offered to Kaylene.
Kaylene sat with eyes wide and mouth agape, aghast at how the men and women had plunged their hands in the boiling pot of food without any signs of having been burned.
She stared at the food that lay in their hands, horrorstricken to know that she must eat it.
Understanding her dismay and fears, Fire Thunder leaned close to Kaylene and whispered to her. “To avoid burning their hands and arms, the chanters prepared themselves by rubbing on a mixture of ground prickly pear and a plant called Hercules crab. They offer the food to you as a part of the healing process. Take it. Eat it. If you do not, you will humiliate not only my people, but also the manitous.”
Kaylene sighed heavily, gave Fire Thunder a nervous smile, then took the food and ate it. She recognized pieces of carrots, potatoes, and some sort of meat. It had a pleasant taste which made it easier to swallow under the circumstances she had just witnessed.
After the chanters left, and the pot of food had been carried away, Bull Shield came to Kaylene and knelt before her. In his hand he held out to her some sort of plant. She gave Fire Thunder a questioning stare.
He nodded toward her. “You must also eat that,” he whispered. “It is the root of the Solomon’s seal plant combined with the rhizome of the wild purple iris. Swallowing small bits of this curing component will ensure your good health.”
Kaylene looked guardedly at Bull Shield, gazed into his blind eyes, then allowed him to place the healing plants in the palm of her hand.
Her fingers trembled as she slipped bits of the plants between her lips, relieved that even this was
not bad tasting, except for a slight bitterness.
Bull Shield smiled at Kaylene, placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, and then sat down between her and Fire Thunder as dancers sheathed in buffalo robes appeared.
Both men and women danced to the rhythm of the music. It went on for some time and Kaylene found it harder and harder to sit there. The walk to the river had tired her, oh, so sorely tired her. The tension that had built up inside her as she had waited for the curing ceremony had taken its toll. And the heat of the council house was stifling as wood kept being fed into the already great, roaring fire.
As a lightheadedness seized her, Kaylene tried to clear her head by slightly shaking it.
But nothing could stop the spinning.
Not wanting to embarrass herself or Fire Thunder, she fought off the urge to faint.
But she could not help the way the music seemed to be swallowing her whole, nor the way the heat from the fire made her feel as though she were melting.
Nor could she stop herself from swaying slowly back and forth and crying out Fire Thunder’s name before blacking out.
The crowd gasped. The music ceased.
Fire Thunder bent over Kaylene. His heart ached when he saw her helplessly sprawled on the platform of soft pelts.
He had to push Little Sparrow and Running Fawn aside as they rushed to Kaylene, crying her name.
He lifted Kaylene into his arms and pushed his way through the crowd as everyone stood and pressed forward to stare at her.
When he was finally outside, Fire Thunder broke into a run. He gazed down at Kaylene’s flushed face. He saw her dry lips. He saw the rapid beat of her pulse at the base of her throat and knew that although the ceremony had been a success, she had not been strong enough to endure it any longer.
“I ask too much of you always,” Fire Thunder whispered, his eyes taking in Kaylene’s gentle loveliness, her innocence.
When Fire Thunder got Kaylene inside his lodge and into his bedroom, he ignored how seeing Kaylene lying so limply in his arms affected her panther. Midnight growled and strained at his leash as he stared with his luminous green eyes at Kaylene.
Wild Whispers Page 13
