“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 wil
l 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.
Chapter 13
BAY AND LONG QUIET RODE UNTIL DUSK AND CAMPED NOT far from a small water hole. Bay was exhausted and sore. Her shoulders ached, her thighs were scraped raw, and her buttocks were tender. Her legs could hardly support her when she slid off her pony. She hid her weakness from Long Quiet, not wishing to prove herself a disappointment to him so soon after becoming a Comanche wife.
“I’ll get some firewood,” she offered.
Long Quiet saw her hobbling away and realized she’d be hard pressed to do the bending and stooping such a chore would require. “I’ll do it while you unpack the ponies,” he said.
Bay’s eyes widened when he reversed their jobs. But he was gone before she could thank him. She loosened the packs on the ponies and put them on the ground. Long Quiet had shot and gutted two rabbits for dinner, but she had to skin them. She wrinkled her nose. She knew how to skin a rabbit, but that didn’t mean she liked doing it.
She didn’t bother to empty the contents of her parfleche, simply reached inside for her knife. The skinning went quickly, and Bay had time to dig a pit and arrange a circle of stones before Long Quiet returned with enough mesquite to last all evening. While the rabbit roasted on a stick over the fire, Bay arranged a pallet for them to sleep on. She eyed the parfleche she’d set near the fire, knowing it contained the winter leggings she was making for Long Quiet. She’d thought when she packed them that she’d sew on them in the evenings during the trip. She smiled ruefully. She was too tired to do anything more tonight than stretch out on the pallet and sleep.
When the rabbit was ready, they divided it between them. When they’d finished, they settled down on the pallet, close but not touching.
“How long before we get where we’re going?” Bay asked.
“Tired of traveling so soon?”
Bay cautiously turned over, groaning when her muscles protested. “Just wondering,” she gritted out.
Long Quiet reached out a hand to massage her shoulder. “I pushed a little harder today, knowing you’d be sore tomorrow. It’s not much farther.”
Bay had tensed at Long Quiet’s first touch, but the strength of his fingers did too good a job soothing her aching muscles for her to think about objecting. She edged a little closer to Long Quiet to make his job easier, and when he nudged her with his palm, she readily flattened onto her stomach. He sat up beside her so he could use both hands to ease the soreness from her shoulders.
“You never told me why you’re going to Mexico,” Bay said.
Long Quiet’s hands paused for a moment, then resumed as he explained, “Last year about this time, the Mexicans finally did what they’ve been threatening to do since Texas declared her independence seven years ago. They invaded Texas and captured San Antonio with an army of several thousand men.”
Bay froze. “Why didn’t you say something about this before?”
“Because General Woll and his army only stayed in San Antonio nine days. It was apparently just an expedition to see if Mexico could successfully invade Texas.”
“And it succeeded!” The force of Long Quiet’s hands on her back kept Bay from rising to confront him. “Texans all over the Republic must have been terrified.”
“More angry than afraid, it seems. They put together an army of their own to retaliate against the Mexicans. The Texas army had orders from President Houston to invade Mexico and confront General Woll’s army—if it looked like they could win.
“General Somervell led the Texas army south down the Laredo road, right through a post-oak bog. Between the animals sinking in quicksand up to their bellies and the men being drenched through with mud, they were in a pretty mean mood by the time they reached the Mexican border.
“Unfortunately, Woll’s Mexican army was long gone and the Texans captured Laredo without getting a chance to fight off some of their aggravation.”
Long Quiet’s hands had moved down from Bay’s shoulders to the middle of her back, and as he talked, his fingertips just skimmed the edges of her breasts. His touch seemed accidental, but Bay still felt a sense of languorous delight. “What happened then?” she murmured.
Long Quiet’s hands tightened for a moment on Bay’s back before he said, “That’s when things started going wrong. Half the army decided they’d had enough revenge and headed home. The rest, led by a fellow named William Fisher, set out toward the Mexican town of Mier. Unfortunately for them, another Mexican army, this one led by General Ampudia, heard what was happening and surrounded the town.
“On Christmas Day, the Texans fought the Battle of Mier. Before they finally ran out of ammunition and surrendered, twelve Texans had been killed and twenty-three wounded. But they’d killed six hundred Mexicans and wounded two hundred more. As you can imagine, the Mexicans weren’t feeling particularly benevolent toward their captives.”
Bay felt tense but wasn’t sure whether it was from the serious turn of Long Quiet’s story or because his hands had moved down to massage her buttocks. Every once in a while his thumb would land in the crease between her thighs. She quivered with the thought of what would happen if she just turned over.
“You’re shivering,” Long Quiet said, his voice husky. “Are you cold?”
“No, I’m fine. I just—what happened to the Texans who were captured at Mier?” she said in an attempt to ignore t
he rapidly increasing sexual tension between them.
“Ah. They escaped, of course.”
Bay smiled. “No, really. What happened?”
“They escaped,” he said with a smile. His smile was short-lived as he continued. “But they’d been marched deep into Mexico before they fought free. The land around them was nothing but desert and barren mountains. They lacked food, water, and shelter. Almost all of them were recaptured. The Mexicans were furious, humiliated. General Santa Anna ordered that every tenth man who’d participated in the escape be executed.”
“Oh, no!” Bay said.
“The Mexicans claimed they were being merciful.” Long Quiet’s hands, which had been moving steadily, stopped. “They used a lottery to decide who was to die. Seventeen black beans were put into a clay jar with 159 white beans. They forced each prisoner to draw out a bean. The seventeen doomed men were offered a meal and an opportunity to speak with a priest before they were lined up along an adobe wall and shot. Those who survived the lottery were taken deep into Mexico, where they’ve been ever since.”
Bay sat up and faced Long Quiet. His somber expression gave little consolation for her fears. “So why are you going to Mexico?”
“Some of the Mier prisoners are attempting an escape. I’m going to meet them with horses and supplies and lead them back to Texas.”
“Why do you have to go?” She hid her fear behind the sharp demand.
He shrugged. “Creed asked me to go. It looked like if I didn’t go, he’d leave Cricket and go himself.”
Bay could understand why Long Quiet had agreed to help Creed, but it still meant he would be putting himself in danger. Right now she didn’t want to think about how much that mattered to her. No longer the least bit sleepy, she got up from the pallet and walked over to where she’d left her parfleche. She opened it and reached inside, yanking out the buckskin leggings she’d been making for Long Quiet and leaving the rest of the contents to spill out as they would. She marched back to the fire and sat cross-legged with the leggings in her lap, just staring at them.
Comanche Woman Page 17
