Savage Spirit (17 page)

"I must now ride to my stronghold," Thunder Roars said, groaning as he ran a hand over his swollen arm.

"I wish my herbal medications could have done more for you," Cloud Eagle said regretfully. "My shaman should have been called."

Thunder Roars smiled at Cloud Eagle. "I will always remember what you have done for me, Cloud Eagle," he said, nodding a thank-you to a brave as his horse was brought to him. He   had stashed his deer meat high in a tree before gathering the honeycomb from the same tree. If the night creatures had not found it, he would have more than a bee-stung warrior to take back to his people.

"Return often," Cloud Eagle said, helping Thunder Roars onto his horse. "Share a smoke and plenty of talk."

"That I will do," Thunder Roars said. He shifted his eyes to Alicia. "You are a pleasant, beautiful, and gentle woman. You are good for Cloud Eagle." He shifted his gaze to Red Crow. "You are a dedicated warrior, my friend. You do your duties well for your chief."

Then he slowly encompassed them all, his eyes warm as they lingered on them one at a time, his lips curved into a smile. "One and all, come to my stronghold," he said. "My chieftain father will open his arms to everyone. We will entertain with a great feast and much dancing."

"The invitation will be remembered," Cloud Eagle said. He patted Thunder Roars' horse on the rump. "Ride well, my friend."

Cloud Eagle paused, then said, "Keep watch for renegades and outlaws. They spring up out of the depths of the sand, it seems, to attack passersby, be they red or white-skinned."

Thunder Roars nodded, then rode away, trying to straighten his shoulders, but obviously unable to because of the burning welts on his chest and back.

"There goes a fine man," Cloud Eagle said, feeling warm inside to have found a solid friendship with Thunder Roars. "If only Ten Bears could have been as fine."

"Do not labor over Ten Bears," Red Crow said,   stepping up to Cloud Eagle's side. "He is gone from sight. Allow him to be gone from your memory as well."

"I may regret not having killed him," Cloud Eagle said.

"He will wander far, Cloud Eagle, to get away from the shame of banishment," Red Crow said. He patted Cloud Eagle on the back and laughed beneath his breath. "My wives await my arrival in my lodge. It has been a long night and morning. They will have our bed prepared. There we will linger for the rest of the day. Tomorrow comes too soon with chores neglected today."

Cloud Eagle waved a farewell to Red Crow, then turned to Alicia. "It has been a long night and morning," he said, his eyes dancing into hers. "But somehow I cannot concentrate on sleeping. Is there not something left unfinished between us?"

"I think so," Alicia said. She swung to his side and locked her arm through his.

"Shall we, darling?" she said, giving him a sideways, smiling glance.

The crowd had dispersed back to the stronghold and their lodges. Even the children and the village dogs were quiet. "It seems everyone is ready to sleep," Alicia said. She circled around the tepees at the edge of the clearing with Cloud Eagle. His lodge was in sight only a few feet away.

"Not everyone," Cloud Eagle said, turning to her. He suddenly swept her up into his arms and nestled her close to his chest. "My woman, today I taught you how I fight to retain my right to have you. Now let me teach you more about how this Apache makes enduring love."   Snuggled in his embrace, Alicia felt her entire body grow limp with passion, all her senses yearning for the promise that he was offering her. Each step he took promised more, assured fulfillment. She clung around his neck as he carried her into his lodge. Their lips met in a frenzied kiss as they flung themselves down on the pallet of furs beside the glowing embers of the fire.

Their hands became just as frenzied as they hurriedly undressed each other.

Alicia sighed with pleasure as he moved over her, nudging her thighs apart with his knee.

There were no preliminaries. There was only the urgent need to become as one.

He entered her in one deep thrust, then began his rhythmic movements within her as she met him with lifted hips, her legs wrapped around his hips.

Cloud Eagle placed his hands beneath her and lifted her even closer. His mouth slid from her lips and covered one of her breasts, his tongue flicking around her nipple.

Alicia tossed her head back and forth, her eyes closed as she felt the rapture spreading within her. She felt as though she were glowing, so alive and filled with fire. Tremors cascaded down her back as Cloud Eagle withdrew his manhood and leaned away from her, to make a path down her body with his tongue.

She inhaled a shaky breath of ecstasy and found herself becoming weak all over with pleasure as his tongue sought and found the pulsing bud of her womanhood.

Surges of warmth flooded through Alicia's body. She had never felt anything as wonderfully delicious as his tongue moved over her,   his fingers parting her fronds of hair to make her more accessible for this forbidden way of making love.

The more he caressed her, the more she became mindless with bliss. She caught her breath, not daring to breathe, for she was too close to the ultimate of pleasure.

She wanted it to last longerperhaps until the stars filled the heavens with their miniature twinkling lamps.

Then once again he shifted his weight and moved inside her, his manhood magnificently filling her. She twined her arms around his neck and drew his mouth to her lips. They kissed sweetly and passionately. Their bodies strained together.

Cloud Eagle was hardly able to hold the energy back much longer, when the ultimate of pleasure would explode through every cell in his body. He held onto the moment, savoring the way their naked flesh was fused, their bodies sucking at each other, flesh against flesh in gentle pressure.

He trembled and felt the passion growing, growing almost to the bursting point when she thrust her tongue into his mouth and flickered it in and out, then moved it along his lips.

"Now," he whispered against her lips. "I feel it coming now. Share with me, my love, the wonders of paradise."

There was a great shudder in his loins. He gripped Alicia hard within his arms. His lips covered hers in a maddening kiss as the flood of rapture swept raggedly through him and she strained her hips up at him, crying out at her own fulfillment.   They clung for a while longer, then Cloud Eagle rolled away from Alicia and lay on his back. His eyes closed, he panted hard.

"While I am with you, it is such paradise, darling," Alicia murmured. She turned on her side and caressed his muscled, hairless chest. "I never knew that loving a man could be so sweet. I am filled with a quiet bliss, with a splendid joy. How do you feel at this moment, Cloud Eagle?"

He turned to her and engulfed her within his powerful arms and drew her against him. He lay his cheek against hers, now breathing easily. "I want you to be my wife," he said huskily. "You have said that you want to stay with me forever. Say that you will stay as my wife."

"I want nothing more than that," she murmured. She leaned away from him and traced the hard line of his jaw with her fingertip. "Yes, Cloud Eagle. I want to be your wife. Whenever, wherever you wish. I love you more than I ever imagined I would love anyone. You are the world to me."

Yet, in the back of Alicia's mind, there was a fleeting moment of doubt about becoming his wife. She knew that difficulties might arise by her living the life of a white Apache, as she might be called if she married an Apache chief.

And there was her brother, Charlie. If he came looking for her and found her, he would try and convince her that this was not the life that she should lead; he would demand that she leave Cloud Eagle.

But no brother and no prejudices would keep her from loving and staying with Cloud Eagle.

"My
Ish-kay-nay
, the marriage will happen soon," Cloud Eagle said, his face a mask of   desire as he gazed intensely into her eyes. "First there are preliminaries. You have much to learn in order to adapt to the life of the Apache."

"My father always said that I was an astute student," Alicia said, crawling atop him. She straddled him, sucking in a wild breath of pleasure when she felt him hot and ready to enter her again. "I will learn quickly so that our marriage will not have to be delayed for long."

Desire shot through her and she held her head back so that her hair hung down to Cloud Eagle's thighs when he thrust himself up and into her.

She closed her eyes and rode him, bounce by bounce, floating, drifting, thrilling.

High in the mountains, Ten Bears began eagerly building a protective lodge for Lost Wind as she stood by, quietly watching. He made the dwelling from materials that were available to him. It was called a
wickiup
, a cone-shaped dwelling on a framework of slim, sturdy tree limbs covered with the leaves of the yucca plant.

"You will stay here until I return," Ten Bears ordered.

Unable to stay quiet any longer, Lost Wind stepped up to Ten Bears. "You will abandon me here?" she said, her voice breaking. "Why did you fight for my honor, then abandon me? Or was the duel with Cloud Eagle for more than your sister?"

Ten Bears turned to Lost Wind. He took her by the wrists and yanked her close. "Do not question your brother about anything that he does," he shouted. "Just obey."

She winced and jerked herself free. "You are not my keeper," she said in a hiss.   Ten Bears shrugged. ''Then walk away," he said. "See how long you can exist without your brother."

"If you are gone, I will be forced to see to my needs anyhow," Lost Wind shouted back. "You are a thoughtless brother. I hate you."

Ten Bears ignored her. He finished the wickiup, went inside, and shaped rocks in the center for a fire pit.

Since he had been forced to leave the stronghold without any of his weapons, he only had the knife that Lost Wind had brought with her in her belongings.

He fashioned a spear out of a long, thin stick and tied the knife at the end.

With this weapon he left and was gone long enough to kill a deer so that Lost Wind would have meat for several days in his absence.

He dropped the deer just outside the wickiup door.

Lost Wind came out and stared at it.

"I leave now," Ten Bears said. He removed the knife from the stick and shoved it toward Lost Wind. "You have chores to do. Dress the deer. It is yours for the length of my absence."

Lost Wind cast him an angry frown, then dropped to her knees and began taking the pelt from the deer. She gave her brother a worried glance as he turned and began walking away.

"You will not get far without a horse," she shouted after him.

"I will steal the first one I see," he shouted back, over his shoulder.

"Why are you doing this?" she cried, tears splashing from her eyes.

"Vengeance," he snarled back.   A tremor of fear soared across Lost Wind's flesh. She knew whom her brother would be targeting with thoughts of vengeance. Cloud Eagle.

She set her jaw and flung her long hair back across her shoulders. "Cloud Eagle deserves what he will get from my brother," she hissed out.

She smiled wickedly as she continued preparing the deer for the many lonely days ahead.  

When Alicia brought the breakfast dishes from the river, she found Cloud Eagle outside his lodge with an elderly man whose body was bent and twisted, but whose face was radiant with kindness as he smiled at Alicia's approach.

She returned the smile and stepped to Cloud Eagle's side. Her gaze looked past the elderly man's disability at the way he was dressed and his features. His hair was gray; long and thin, it lay over his bent, frail shoulders. His eyes were no longer a brilliant dark brown, as she assumed they had been in his youth; they had faded with time to a dusty, indistinct color.

He wore a full-length, fringed buckskin robe that turned and twisted with the curvature of his body. It was decorated with beads of brilliant colors which depicted desert flowers.

"
Ish-kay-nay
, He Who Knows Much has come at my request to be your teacher," Cloud Eagle   said. He took the dishes from Alicia's arms. "You will learn the Apache language and all the Apache customs under the tutelage of He Who Knows Much."

"I am glad to make your acquaintance, He Who Knows Much," she said, extending a hand of friendship to the lame Apache. "And I am eager to learn all of the ways of your people."

"He Who Knows Much takes pride in teaching my chief's woman," he returned.

"He Who Knows Much's life was altered by a fall from a horse when he was a mere boy," Cloud Eagle said softly. "He is a lame Apache whose prowess is in the mind."

"I'm sorry about the accident," Alicia said, yet knew that he would not appreciate pity. He seemed well adjusted to his lot in life. Happiness radiated from him, like warm rays from the sun.

And as Cloud Eagle talked about and looked down at He Who Knows Much, he seemed not to see the twisted body. Instead he saw an Apache who had earned the title of warrior in other ways besides proving himself on the battlefield or in youthful games when skills were tested before a brave became a warrior.

"The accident was long ago," He Who Knows Much said, patting Alicia's arm. "Now let us proceed with your schooling. Let us go inside and sit by the fire. I shall teach you a little each day until your knowledge of all that is required of you is complete and you can live among the Apache as one heart and soul with them."

Alicia cast Cloud Eagle a smile across her shoulder as He Who Knows Much took her by the arm and led her into Cloud Eagle's tepee.   Once inside, she looked around, expecting to find some sort of books or writing tools.

But she soon discovered that the teachings were going to come directly from He Who Knows Much's storehouse of memories. Intrigued, she eagerly sat down beside him. She crossed her legs beneath the buckskin skirt and gazed at him. His eyes grew more alive as he began his teachings.

Cloud Eagle came into the lodge and set the dishes down, then left again.

Alicia had been hardly aware of his presence. She was listening intently to He Who Knows Much, whose voice had an almost mystical quality about it. She leaned closer, taking in his every word. She filed everything in her memory and would use this knowledge when it became necessary to prove that she did deserve to be the wife of a powerful Apache chief.