Savage Illusions

by Cassie Edwards

  After Jole­na was dres­sed and her ha­ir was bra­ided, she ga­zed down at her­self, aga­in fin­ding it stran­ge how she felt as tho­ugh she had li­ved this all be­fo­re!

  One by one, the Blac­k­fo­ot wo­men fi­led out of the te­pee. Brown Elk so­on en­te­red. When he ga­zed over at Jole­na, te­ars flo­oded his eyes, for he felt sud­denly that he was on­ce aga­in the yo­ung man who had ta­ken Swe­et Do­ve as his bri­de.

  ''Father?" Jole­na whis­pe­red, fe­eling no aw­k­war­d­ness in cal­ling him that. It se­emed so very na­tu­ral and most de­fi­ni­tely right! "Do you ap­pro­ve? Do I now lo­ok Blac­k­fo­ot?"

  "You cal­led me Fat­her," Brown Elk sa­id, his vo­ice fil­led with emo­ti­on. "It has be­en many ye­ars of wa­iting to he­ar such words from my da­ug­h­ter."

  Then he nod­ded as his ga­ze swept over her. "Do­es this fat­her ap­pro­ve of how you lo­ok?" he sa­id, his vo­ice bre­aking. "He ap­pro­ves. And do you lo­ok Blac­k­fo­ot? Very!"

  A sob lod­ged in Jole­na's thro­at as she went to her Blac­k­fo­ot fat­her and flung her­self in­to his arms. "Oh, Fat­her, I lo­ve you so na­tu­ral­ly, as tho­ugh we ha­ve ne­ver be­en apart," she cri­ed.

  Brown Elk held her ne­ar and de­ar to his he­art. "We are to­get­her now, but one day you will le­ave my dwel­ling aga­in," he sa­id re­mor­se­ful­ly.

  Jolena eased back from him and ga­zed in­to his eyes. "Ne­ver shall I," she sa­id, her vo­ice de­ter­mi­ned.

  "You are a be­a­uti­ful wo­man who will bring many men to my do­or to co­urt you," Brown Elk sa­id, smi­ling gently down at her. "You will ma­ke a cho­ice and then sha­re a te­pee with yo­ur hus­band, not yo­ur fat­her."

  Jolena's he­art se­emed to drop to her fe­et at the men­ti­on of her mar­rying so­me­one. All her dre­ams and plans for mar­ri­age had di­ed the day Spot­ted Eag­le had be­en ta­ken from her! She did not even li­ke to think abo­ut it, much less talk abo­ut it!

  Deep down in­si­de her­self, whe­re her de­si­res we­re for­med, she knew that no man wo­uld ever ta­ke Spot­ted Eag­le's pla­ce in her li­fe.

  She eased in­to her fat­her's arms aga­in. She clo­sed her eyes, si­lently pra­ying to her Lord that Two Rid­ges had be­en lying and that Spot­ted Eag­le was still ali­ve.

  Soon. So­on she wo­uld know…

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  The sun was lo­we­ring be­hind the mo­un­ta­ins in the dis­tan­ce. Pur­p­le sha­dows fil­led the empty spa­ces of the fo­rest as Spot­ted Eag­le ro­de re­len­t­les­sly on­ward. He had not re­tur­ned to the vil­la­ge right away. He had ne­eded ti­me alo­ne, to com­mu­ne with the Sun and Old Man, for only they knew his fe­elings abo­ut lo­sing the only wo­man he wo­uld ever lo­ve.

  Spotted Eag­le was now on his way ho­me, to find so­la­ce in the qu­i­et co­co­on of his dwel­ling.

  Life had struck him so many hard blows! All of his re­la­ti­ves, ex­cept his be­lo­ved chi­ef­ta­in fat­her, had go­ne to the Sand Hills, the sha­dow land and pla­ce of ghosts, the Blac­k­fo­ot's fu­tu­re world.

  And now al­so his wo­man. His pe­ri­od of mo­ur­ning for Jole­na wo­uld be long and pa­in­ful!

  He was not even su­re if he co­uld ever not mo­urn the de­ath of his be­lo­ved Jole­na!

  He did know for cer­ta­in that he wo­uld ne­ver al­low any ot­her wo­man to warm his blan­kets at night.

  He even ac­cep­ted the fact that he wo­uld not ha­ve a son to fol­low in his fo­ot­s­teps in­to chi­ef­ta­in­s­hip. This ho­nor wo­uld ha­ve to be pas­sed on to so­me­one el­se's son.

  Perhaps Two Rid­ges'.

  Spotted Eag­le frow­ned when he tho­ught of how Two Rid­ges lo­ved wo­men all wo­men. It wo­uld be hard for his vi­ri­le fri­end to cho­ose among tho­se many to whom he had shown spe­ci­al at­ten­ti­on.

  "He is yet yo­ung," Spot­ted Eag­le whis­pe­red to him­self. "And best that he has not yet ma­de a cho­ice. I ma­de mi­ne, and I ha­ve now lost her!"

  Then he frow­ned, won­de­ring how he co­uld ever aga­in ha­ve a ple­asant tho­ught abo­ut Two Rid­ges, who had de­ser­ted Spot­ted Eag­le! It wo­uld be hard for Spot­ted Eag­le ever to un­der­s­tand why!

  His he­ad bent, his sho­ul­ders slo­uc­hed, Spot­ted Eag­le ro­de on­ward, now un­t­hin­king, for to think was to hurt. No mat­ter how hard he tri­ed, he co­uld not stop thin­king abo­ut Jole­na for long.

  Everything led back to her.

  The rus­t­ling of dri­ed and rot­ted le­aves be­ne­ath the um­b­rel­la of tre­es at Spot­ted Eag­le's right drew his he­ad up with alarm. His hand went auto­ma­ti­cal­ly to the rif­le­bo­ot at the si­de of his hor­se. His fin­gers did not even ha­ve a chan­ce to ma­ke con­tact with the rif­le be­fo­re he saw his ar­c­he­nemy, the Cree war­ri­or Long No­se, not­c­hing an ar­row on­to his bow and ta­king a ste­ady aim at Spot­ted Eag­le.

  Another so­und aler­ted Spot­ted Eag­le to yet anot­her pre­sen­ce in the fo­rest. Gas­ping, Spot­ted Eag­le wat­c­hed Two Rid­ges ri­de to­ward him, in his hand an up­ra­ised kni­fe. Two Rid­ges gla­red at Spot­ted Eag­le, his jaw clen­c­hed tight with hat­red. It daw­ned on Spot­ted Eag­le that his best fri­end was at­tac­king him!

  Stunned by Two Rid­ges' be­ha­vi­or, he for­got all abo­ut Long No­se. Two Rid­ges was clo­ser. His kni­fe wo­uld find Spot­ted Eag­le's he­art be­fo­re the Cree's ar­row did.

  Spotted Eag­le glan­ced from the Cree to Two Rid­ges as Two Rid­ges ca­me clo­ser. Then Spot­ted Eag­le gas­ped and cri­ed out when un­k­no­wingly Two Rid­ges bloc­ked Long No­se's way, spo­iling the re­ne­ga­de Cree's shot.

  Just as Two Rid­ges ro­de up next to Spot­ted Eag­le, his arm po­ised for the de­ath blow, Spot­ted Eag­le he­ard the sharp twang of a bow as Long No­se let lo­ose his ar­row. Spot­ted Eag­le's body lur­c­hed, res­pon­ding as tho­ugh the ar­row we­re pi­er­cing his own body as he wat­c­hed it en­ter Two Rid­ges' back.

  The kni­fe fell from Two Rid­ges' hand as Two Rid­ges swa­yed, then top­pled off his hor­se on­to the gro­und, scar­cely bre­at­hing.

  Stunned, Spot­ted Eag­le sta­red down at Two Rid­ges, unab­le to mo­ve. His tho­ughts cen­te­red only on his for­mer fri­end, who lay dying, and on Two Rid­ges' ob­vi­o­us in­ten­ti­on to kill him. Spot­ted Eag­le for­got to worry abo­ut the Cree who had shot one Blac­k­fo­ot whi­le plan­ning to kill the ot­her!

  Two Rid­ges' li­fe's blo­od po­ured from his wo­und, sta­ining the le­aves on which he lay a scar­let red.

  A lo­ne gun blast fil­led the air, dra­wing Spot­ted Eag­le out of his stun­ned re­ve­rie to re­mem­ber the Cree and the Cree's re­ason for be­ing the­re­to kill Spot­ted Eag­le, his enemy!

  Spotted Eag­le wat­c­hed Long No­se crum­p­le to the gro­und, wildly clut­c­hing at a blo­ody wo­und on his ba­re chest, then ga­ped openly at se­ve­ral Blac­k­fo­ot war­ri­ors from his vil­la­ge as they ca­me ri­ding up, one of the­ir rif­les smo­king from the shot that had kil­led the re­ne­ga­de Cree.

  "Spotted Eag­le!" Do­ub­le Run­ner sa­id, qu­ickly dis­mo­un­ting, whi­le the ot­hers went to Two Rid­ges' aid, kne­eling down aro­und him. "We ha­ve be­en se­ar­c­hing for you. We fe­ared you we­re de­ad."

  Double Run­ner glan­ced down at Two Rid­ges, then up at Spot­ted Eag­le aga­in. "The Cree shot ar­row off at Two Rid­ges be­fo­re we co­uld stop him," he sa­id. "We did not ar­ri­ve so­on eno­ugh."

  Knowing that his war­ri­ors had not ar­ri­ved so­on eno­ugh to see that Two Rid­ges had plan­ned to kill him, Spot­ted Eag­le fo­und it hard to res­pond to Do­ub­le Run­ner.

  Instead, his he­ad swim­ming with so many qu­es­ti­ons, es­pe­ci­al­ly abo­ut Two Rid­ges, and se­e­ing that Two Rid­ges wo­uld not last much lon­ger, Spot­ted Eag­le qu­ickly dis�
�mo­un­ted and fell to his kne­es be­si­de Two Rid­ges. He lo­oked at his war­ri­ors, one by one. "Le­ave me to spe­ak alo­ne with Two Rid­ges," he sa­id thickly.

  The war­ri­ors nod­ded and went back to the­ir hor­ses, wal­king them away from Spot­ted Eag­le and Two Rid­ges.

  Spotted Eag­le's first tho­ughts we­re to ma­ke Two Rid­ges mo­re com­for­tab­le. He stu­di­ed the ar­row, then ste­adi­ed his hands and pla­ced them to it and snap­ped it in two. It was lan­ce-sha­ped in­s­te­ad of bar­bed, so he ma­na­ged to draw it out com­p­le­tely in­s­te­ad of ha­ving to le­ave a por­ti­on of it im­bed­ded in Two Rid­ges' back.

  When Two Rid­ges emit­ted a gut­tu­ral gro­an of pa­in, Spot­ted Eag­le frow­ned down at him, still won­de­ring what co­uld ha­ve ca­used his fri­end to be­co­me his enemy!

  "Your kni­fe did not ha­ve a mind of its own," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, tos­sing the bro­ken ar­row asi­de. He lif­ted Two Rid­ges' he­ad from the gro­und so that the­ir eyes co­uld me­et and hold. "You we­re in full com­mand. Why did you cho­ose to use it on yo­ur best fri­end?"

  "Before I die, for­gi­ve me," Two Rid­ges sa­id, re­ac­hing to clutch des­pe­ra­tely on­to Spot­ted Eag­le's arm. His vo­ice was so we­ak that only Spot­ted Eag­le was ab­le to he­ar him. "Be­ca­use of a wo­man I did this! Only be­ca­use of a wo­man wo­uld I go aga­inst my best fri­end! Ne­ver ha­ve I fo­und a wo­man who was spe­ci­al eno­ugh to risk a fri­en­d­s­hip over. Not un­til… Jole­na." "Jole­na?" Spot­ted Eag­le gas­ped. "You did this be­ca­use of Jole­na? You… fell in lo­ve with my wo­man?"

  "As you did, I co­uld not help but fall un­der her spell," Two Rid­ges sa­id, cho­king as blo­od be­gan se­eping from the cor­ners of his mo­uth. "I was cur­sed, it se­ems, the mo­ment I cho­se to win her lo­ve, no mat­ter what I had to do, even if it me­ant lo­sing a fri­end."

  "You lo­ved her eno­ugh to want to see Spot­ted Eag­le de­ad?" Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, his he­art ac­hing to know the­se truths, yet now reg­ret­ting ha­ving kept a cer­ta­in truth from Two Rid­ges! If Spot­ted Eag­le had not sel­fishly kept the sec­ret of Jole­na's pa­ren­ta­ge from Two Rid­ges, her very own brot­her, then no­ne of this wo­uld ha­ve hap­pe­ned!

  But ne­ver wo­uld Spot­ted Eag­le ha­ve gu­es­sed that Two Rid­ges was ca­pab­le of such a fi­en­dish act as this, no mat­ter what truths that had be­en kept from him. Spot­ted Eag­le had al­ways tho­ught that Two Rid­ges was a man of strict ho­nor, ca­pab­le only of un­do­ub­ted trut­h­ful­ness and un­bo­un­ded ge­ne­ro­sity. The lo­ve for a wo­man had chan­ged him over­night, it se­emed!

  "Forgive… me…" Two Rid­ges beg­ged, his eyes slowly clo­sing.

  Spotted Eag­le had no chan­ce to res­pond. Two Rid­ges to­ok a wild gasp for air, then di­ed.

  Filled with many tu­mul­tu­o­us emo­ti­ons, Spot­ted Eag­le sta­red down at Two Rid­ges, fin­ding all of this hard to com­p­re­hend. This yo­ung man who­se fu­tu­re was so bright was now de­ad, ever­y­t­hing go­ne so qu­ickly from his grasp! Spot­ted Eag­le had of­ten te­ased his fri­end that his pas­si­on for wo­men wo­uld be the de­ath of him.

  But ne­ver had he ac­tu­al­ly me­ant it! It had be­en a way of te­asing Two Rid­ges over his wan­de­ring eye and he­art!

  Spotted Eag­le had ac­tu­al­ly en­vi­ed Two Rid­ges' lig­h­t­he­ar­ted mo­od to­wards wo­men and his skill at te­asing and lo­ving so many!

  Now the­re was not­hing to envy.

  A sud­den tho­ught ca­me to him­how wo­uld Two Rid­ges' fat­her fe­el if he knew the full truth of what had hap­pe­ned he­re to­day? It wo­uld de­vas­ta­te a man such as Brown Elk to know that his son had bro­ught such dis­ho­nor to him­self!

  It had to be kept from him, so that Brown Elk co­uld mo­urn his son wit­ho­ut sha­me clo­uding his me­mo­ri­es of a son he had ido­li­zed.

  "I will rig­h­t­ful­ly ke­ep this sec­ret," Spot­ted Eag­le whis­pe­red, slowly la­ying Two Rid­ges' he­ad back on the gro­und. "I was wrong to ke­ep the sec­ret to myself that Jole­na was yo­ur sis­ter. But I must ke­ep sec­rets aga­in! Ne­ver will I al­low yo­ur fat­her to know the tre­ac­he­ro­us son that you we­re. You do not de­ser­ve such lo­yalty from Spot­ted Eag­le, but yo­ur kind and ge­ne­ro­us fat­her do­es!"

  Rising slowly to his full he­ight, Spot­ted Eag­le ga­zed down at Two Rid­ges a mo­ment lon­ger, then wal­ked away to­ward his wa­iting war­ri­ors. When he re­ac­hed them, he lo­oked so­lemnly from one to the ot­her.

  "He is go­ne from us," he sa­id, al­most cho­king on the words and the ac­tu­ality of what Two Rid­ges had plan­ned to do. And why wo­uld Two Rid­ges want to do such a thing?

  He su­rely had to know that Jole­na was de­ad!

  That had to me­an that his hat­red for Spot­ted Eag­le ran even mo­re de­eply than je­alo­usy for a wo­man, and that was so­met­hing that Spot­ted Eag­le co­uld hardly ac­cept.

  Only yes­ter­day he and Two Rid­ges we­re ri­ding si­de by si­de, tal­king and la­ug­hing as fri­ends do.

  There had be­en no sign then of Two Rid­ges ha­ving ha­ted him.

  "The news we ta­ke to Brown Elk will ta­ke away the joy of his ha­ving just dis­co­ve­red that he has a da­ug­h­ter, and that she is ali­ve and well," Do­ub­le Run­ner sa­id glo­omily. "Sad it is, that he ga­ins a da­ug­h­ter, then lo­ses a son."

  Spotted Eag­le's he­art did a stran­ge le­ap at Do­ub­le Run­ner's men­ti­on of Brown Elk's da­ug­h­ter.

  There was only one da­ug­h­ter!

  Jolena!

  And Do­ub­le Run­ner was tal­king abo­ut her as tho­ugh she we­re ali­ve, as tho­ugh he had met her!

  This had to me­an only one thin­g­t­hat Jole­na was in his Blac­k­fo­ot vil­la­ge!

  "What are you sa­ying abo­ut a da­ug­h­ter?" Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, clas­ping his fin­gers to Do­ub­le Run­ner's sho­ul­ders. "Abo­ut Brown Elk's da­ug­h­ter?"

  "While you we­re away, she ca­me in­to our vil­la­ge," Do­ub­le Run­ner sa­id softly. "She was the one who told us that you might be de­ad. Yo­ur fat­her sent a se­arch party out lo­oking for you, in ho­pes that you wo­uld still be ali­ve. It was with happy he­arts that we fo­und that you we­re.''

  Double Run­ner glan­ced over his sho­ul­der at Two Rid­ges. "Had we ar­ri­ved so­oner, we wo­uld ma­ke two fat­hers happy upon our re­turn to our vil­la­ge," he sa­id sadly.

  Spotted Eag­le was only half-he­aring what Do­ub­le Run­ner was sa­ying. His he­art was thum­ping wildly with joy over kno­wing that his wo­man was ali­ve af­ter all.

  And she had even fo­und her way to her pe­op­le's vil­la­ge!

  Everything wo­uld now be per­fect if not for…

  He tur­ned and sta­red down at Two Rid­ges, still fin­ding it hard to be­li­eve that Two Rid­ges wo­uld go so far as to kill his best fri­end.

  Yes, he nod­ded to him­sel­f­t­he­re had to be mo­re to it than that.

  But he do­ub­ted he wo­uld ever find the an­s­wers now that Two Rid­ges was no lon­ger ab­le to gi­ve them to him.

  Anxious to go to Jole­na, to ta­ke her in­to his arms and hug her to him, fe­eling the warm, swe­et press of her body next to his as full pro­of that she was, in­de­ed, ali­ve, Spot­ted Eag­le wal­ked briskly to his hor­se and swung him­self in­to his sad­dle.

  "Double Run­ner, se­cu­re Two Rid­ges on yo­ur hor­se," he sa­id, his vo­ice so­lemn. He ga­zed at one of his ot­her war­ri­ors. "Wolf Ta­il, go and find his hor­se. Ta­ke it and the Cree's with you to the vil­la­ge." Not wa­iting for Two Rid­ges to be se­cu­red on the hor­se, his every he­ar­t­be­at co­un­ting the mi­nu­tes un­til he saw Jole­na aga­in, Spot­ted Eag­le swung his hor­se aro­und and be­gan thun­de­ring thro­ugh the fo­rest. He was glad when he re­ac­hed the open spa­
ces of a me­adow, gi­ving him mo­re fre­edom to send his hor­se in­to a hard gal­lop.

  As the sun was rep­la­ced in the sky by a ro­und glo­be of mo­on, Spot­ted Eag­le ca­ught the ref­lec­ti­on of a fi­re in the black vel­vet sky just up ahe­ad and knew that he wo­uld so­on be in his vil­la­ge. His pul­se ra­ced and his eyes grew an­xi­o­us as he sent his hor­se in­to an even har­der gal­lop, bre­at­h­less now as he en­te­red the outer frin­ges of the vil­la­ge.

  He eased his mo­unt in­to a soft trot and mo­ved past the out­do­or com­mu­nal fi­re that bla­zed all night in the cen­ter of his vil­la­ge to help dis­co­ura­ge the wild ani­mals from co­ming ne­ar the Blac­k­fo­ot pe­op­le as they slept.

  When Jole­na's fat­her's te­pee ca­me in­to sight, Spot­ted Eag­le's he­art se­emed to skip a be­at, for stan­ding just out­si­de the te­pee, stud­ying the he­avens, was his wo­man!