Apache Protectors: Running Wolf Part 26

Raven knew the voice. It was her father and his men obeyed instantly.

"Separate them."

Raven was dragged kicking and screaming from Running Wolf, who made no sound as they marched him away. Would they kill him the moment he was taken from her sight?

Raven spent the day in her grandmother's tent, under guard, eating little and waiting to be summoned.

Her grandmother tried to rea.s.sure her. "If they were torturing him, you would hear the drums and his death song."

Raven shuddered. "Why does my father hate them so much?"

"He lost a brother."

"And you lost a son, yet you do not seek revenge."

Her grandmother smiled. "I am not a man. Men are different. They have trouble moving past death. Women bring life, so for us it is part of the wheel. Life, death, rebirth-a baby is born, an old woman dies."

That made Raven hug her grandmother, who looked well enough but was already past her sixtieth winter, ancient by any standard. Still, she had most of her teeth and could manage her lodge with little help with the lodge poles. After what Snow Raven had been through, it seemed a great accomplishment to have lived so long and seen so much.

"What will I do when they ask me to say what has happened?" asked Raven.

"You were ready to protect this man with your life and follow him into death. You must protect him with your words. Show our leaders that there is a way to let you live with him in peace."

"But he is Sioux. That cannot be changed."

Her grandmother did not respond to that, but she rose slowly to her feet. "I must go see our medicine man."

"Is one of the women sick?"

"I will return and go with you to speak to my son. He may not like what I have to say, but he will still hear his mother."

Raven waited with the other former captives, as impatient and twitchy as a rabbit in an open meadow, until her grandmother returned. They were kind and tried to distract her with stories, but the stories turned to hope for their homecomings and this made Raven more anxious.

Finally, as the sun began its descent, her grandmother returned, walking beside their medicine man, Thunder Buffalo.

"These women must come to the river and bathe away the taint of the enemy," he said to Raven. "You must go with them. After, I will bring you to the council."

"Is Running Wolf alive?" asked Raven.

Thunder Buffalo did not answer. He often ignored questions, especially from her. But her grandmother nodded her answer.

"Have they tortured him?"

"He is captive. Nothing else is decided," said Truthful Woman. Her grandmother stroked her cheek. "I went to look at him." She gave Thunder Buffalo a smile and then returned her gaze to Raven. "While I was there I gave him my special berry juice. At first he did not want it, afraid of poison, perhaps. But I told him who I was and we talked. He is very handsome, your young man. I also brought him some elk stew."

Thunder Buffalo made a growling sound in his throat.

Raven hugged her grandmother. "Thank you."

She patted Raven's arm. "It is nothing. Come, now. We must all bathe."

All the women of the tribe were there to accompany them. They were thoroughly washed. Thunder Buffalo instructed from the bank that the women all be submerged three times and, when they surfaced, he proclaimed them clean. All taint of Sioux was gone and the baby, Stork, was now free of any Sioux blood and was Crow again.

This last proclamation made Snake cry tears of joy. Thunder Buffalo then left the women to dress. Raven dried with a soft bit of deer hide and then pulled on her rabbit dress.

Women from her tribe came forward and gave each new arrival a fine two-skin dress. The dresses had each been dyed a bright color. Truthful Woman stepped forward with a new dress for her granddaughter.

"I made this while you were away. I knew you would return because you came to me in a dream and asked me how to make a dress." She laughed and pointed to the rabbit skins that Raven had made into some semblance of a garment. "Now I see why. Not bad for a first try, and with such small pelts, that would challenge anyone."

Her grandmother extended the bundle to her. Sitting on the folded dress were two leather moccasins, the tops of which were completely covered with beautiful quillwork of a black medicine wheel divided into the four directions, each with its a.s.sociated color-white for the north, blue for the west, yellow for the east and red for the south.

"Oh, they are too beautiful to wear," gasped Raven, already reaching for the fine-looking footwear.

"You must look your best tomorrow," she said.

Some of the happiness went from Raven as she realized she would be wearing them when she spoke before the council and possibly the entire tribe.

"And this," said her grandmother, gripping the dress by each shoulder and letting the folds open until she held the dress out for Raven to behold. It was the finest garment Raven had ever seen.

Her grandmother had rubbed berry juice into the tanned leather until the entire garment was the deep red color of a ripe cherry. The dark color served to make the even rows of elk teeth across the upper chest stand out in sharp contrast.

Raven fingered one rounded white tooth. "You must have been saving for years."

Her grandmother nodded. "And I gave you a long fringe."

She met her grandmother's eye. Most dresses had a short fringe, so the long strands of leather did not catch when carrying firewood or dangle in the fire when cooking. War shirts, or dresses made for special occasions, had a longer fringe.

Raven hugged her grandmother, the dress now pressed between them. When they separated, Raven held the dress.

"You must teach me to sew like this. And quillwork, too."

Her grandmother laughed. "Oh, ho! Who are you and what have you done with my little warrior?"

Raven laughed, forgetting her worries as she slipped into the new garment.

She did not say she preferred her leggings and long shirt, because she found that she wished to look like a woman when she returned to the tribe tonight and tomorrow when she faced the council.

Their hair created a problem, but there was enough to gather at each side of their heads, and the stubby ends were covered with additions to resemble hair. Wren's hair now included thick ropes of mink tails and Snake's braids were made of horsehair woven and tied with tufts of the soft feathers of a hawk's belly.

Raven's hair received a sheath of deer hide that was tanned on only one side, so that the strips resembled hair left free. She thought Little Deer looked lovely with the sh.e.l.ls tied to her hair and the strips of green leather woven at each side of her head in twin braids.

Once adorned, the women were escorted to the gathering place by the Low River women, who sang a welcome along the slow procession. Raven wished she could enjoy the ceremony, but instead she looked at each lodge, searching for the guards that would be posted to watch the captive.

As twilight stole the color from the day, the drums began to sound and the entire tribe gathered about the large central fire. After the women sang, the young men took over. They were followed by the older married men on one side of the fire and the older women on the other. They danced in separate lines.

When the young women danced, the returned captives danced, too. Raven was asked several times to join, but her heart was as heavy as her feet and she waved off all attempts to include her. Snow Raven knew that the celebration would continue for days, and she hoped that the high spirits of her tribe would reveal itself in mercy toward Running Wolf.

In the past, captives were killed, enslaved or adopted. One of the warriors, Soaring Hawk, had even taken a white boy into his family when he found his parents dead in their wagon. She had heard that he and his wife, Silver Cloud, loved the boy, who was thought to be fourteen winters when he arrived. He replaced the son they had lost to sickness and the boy was fond of them, but when he became a man and a warrior, he asked to return east and so Soaring Hawk had brought him to the wagon trail, where he had joined a group of blue coats traveling toward the sun.

Snow Raven's family had lost many loved ones. Her mother and her parents to illness; her father's brother to war.

Her brother approached and she wondered if, had she not returned, he would ever have taken a captive to replace her as sister.

"Tomorrow, the council will see you," said Bright Arrow.

"Where is he?" she asked.

"I cannot say." Bright Arrow motioned with his head and they walked away from the dancers, stopping outside the circle of light. He waited until Raven was away from the gathering before he stopped walking.

"Have you lost your mind?" he asked.

"No."

"Then, why choose him?"

"He makes my heart sing."

Bright Arrow groaned and looked to the heavens.

"Why couldn't you choose warriors from the Black Lodges when we camped beside them last winter or one from the Shallow Water people? The warriors of the Wind Basin tribe are brave. They would protect you with their lives."

"Perhaps they would, but Running Wolf has already protected me. It is only because of him that I live."

"But he is snake!"

Raven tossed her hands in frustration. "Do you think I do not know? Do you think I am doing this thing to be difficult?"

Bright Arrow's shoulders sagged. "I do not understand."

"Because you have never loved."

Bright Arrow looked insulted. "I have been with a woman."

"That is not love." Raven lifted her gaze to the sky, now awash with lavender and orange. "I tried to resist, because I knew this path would be difficult. But I have chosen this road and will walk beside him in this world or the next."

Bright Arrow shook his head like a dog who sits too close to the fire. At last he motioned her on.

"Come. We have to return."

"I want to see him."

"That is not wise."

"Where is he?"

Bright Arrow placed a hand on her shoulder and pressed down so she felt the weight of his grip. "You cannot escape with him."

She knew that.

"I will see him. You can take me or I will find him myself."

"You may find him, but you will not see him."

She gave him a belligerent look.

"If you try, the guards have orders to tie you like a captive."

Raven considered that as an option.

"In a separate lodge," Bright Arrow added, as if reading her thoughts.

Her brother was war chief. But he still followed the order of the chief, their father. If she wanted to see Running Wolf, she must convince him. And she would need influence.

"Where is Grandmother?" she asked.

The dancing went on into the night. Raven found her grandmother, who agreed to go speak to her son the following day. So Raven searched the camp and found the lodge where Running Wolf was detained. She was not allowed to enter but was somewhat relieved to know that he was safe for the moment. She called to him and received no reply, so she called encouragement and promises, which she had no idea how to keep.

She spent a restless night in her grandmother's lodge, waiting for her father to return. According to Truthful Woman, Bright Arrow now kept his own tepee and was courting a woman from the Black Lodges tribe.

It was customary for a man, once married, to live with his wife's tribe. Truthful Woman was Wind Basin and her husband, Night Storm, was born to the Black Lodges. Their sons-her father, Six Elks, and his brother, Iron Heart-were both Wind Basin. It was only after her father married Beautiful Song, Raven's mother, that he became one of the Low River tribe. When her husband died, Truthful Woman had come to live with her son.

Raven and Bright Arrow were both Low River, but if Bright Arrow married this Black Lodges woman, he would become Black Lodges, as well. It would not matter. Bright Arrow was brave and capable. She believed he would earn his place as war chief very quickly, just as her father had risen quickly to chief of the Low River people. And if she could convince her father to allow her to wed Running Wolf, he would become Low River.

Raven tried to think of ways to get her father to accept Running Wolf, but when the birdsong reached Raven's ears, she had no answer. She could see her breath in the cold air, and though the lodge was full of light, she heard none of the usual sounds of prayer songs being sung outside the lodges by the men. Everyone was still wrapped in their sleeping skin against the cold and the late night of dancing.

Raven snuggled down in her bedding, exhausted from worrying half the night. Was Running Wolf warm enough?

That thought brought her upright. She stirred the coals to life and rekindled the fire. She was up and out and drawing water before her grandmother had even stirred.

When she returned from bathing by the river, carrying the water, she found her grandmother inside the lodge, grinding dried tubers into flour. The husks of the dried turnips had been woven into a long rope for easy transport and her grandmother's rope was so long it stretched around her working area and back to the peg where it was stored.

"Bring some buffalo berries," said Truthful Woman, speaking as if all were normal and Snow Raven had not been away.

It was comforting and disconcerting all at once.

Raven retrieved the requested item from her grandmother's food stores and handed it to her. Then she wound the rope of tubers as she would a lead line and hung it back on its peg. Her grandmother stirred water into the mixture to bring the berries back from their dried state to something plump and juicy.

"Will Father join us?"

"Hmm. I don't think so. Some of the Black Lodges are staying here and my son is spending some time with his uncle."

"I did not know Brings Horses was here."

"You have been busy."

Truthful Woman served the meal in a turtle-sh.e.l.l bowl, and Raven lifted the spoon carved from buffalo horn and ate hungrily.