Savage Spirit (18 page)

"
Tloh-ka-dih-nadidah-hae
means 'rise from the grass', another word for Apache," He Who Knows Much said, careful to pronounce the Apache phrase so that Alicia could remember it without asking him to repeat it. "Among the Apache,
tloh-ka-dih-nadidah-hae
is the art of surprising another within three or four feet, a form of play from babyhood. The one surprised or taken off his guard is in disgrace."

He paused and nodded at Alicia, gesturing with a twisted hand for her to repeat the word and the teachings. "
Tloh-ka-dih-nadidah-hae
," Alicia said slowly, then repeated its meaning.

He Who Knows Much's eyes and smile showed his approval of her swiftness to learn and her willingness to participate. "The young men, one at a time, are taken out on moonless nights and released to find their way back to the camp," he   said. In his eyes there was a sudden haunted look, as though he was reliving the time he had experienced what he was telling. "In coming to a strange ridge, the boy is told to stop and study it from a distance, then from halfway, finally from close up. That way it is imprinted in his mind. He finds his way back to camp that way."

He paused and reached over to pat her knee through her skirt. "I tell you this so that when you have a son, you will understand why he is taken far away and left to find his way home," he said, again smiling. His gaze raked slowly over her, then he looked into her eyes. "You will not disappoint my chief as did his first two wives. You will give my chief many sons, and perhaps a dainty, pretty daughter in your image."

She smiled back and wondered how he would feel about her if he knew that her skills were more manly than feminine. Would he then call her dainty?

She gave him a smile and moved closer as he talked again about the Apache's customs. She was glad when he took the teachings away from the discussion of children. It gave her a fretful ache around her heart when she allowed herself to think of what might happen if she did not bear this chief a child.

It was obvious that everyone dwelled on the subject!

"Quail is the master," He Who Knows Much said, causing Alicia's eyebrows to rise. "To the Apache, the quail is one of the highest forms of bird life."

He patted her knee once again, then drew his limp hand back to rest it on his lap. "
Na-tse-kes
means to think, to turn something over and   over again in the mindto meditate," he said, nodding. "It is an Apache's mental process."

He leaned toward the fire and shoved a piece of wood into the flames, then folded his arms across his chest. "Cloud Eagle is a beloved chief. A chief among men is one who does the thinking for other men," he said, his eyes always twinkling when he mentioned Cloud Eagle. "His brain is like an invisible magnet sweeping over iron filings."

He continued talking. Alicia took everything in.

"It is not enough to have thoughts," He Who Knows Much said. "Thoughts must be carried into action."

He paused, rubbing his fingers as though they were paining him, then continued. "It is not only a matter of sitting still, but of thinking still, of emptying the mind," he said. "If you do not wish your adversary to know your plan, you must not even think it when he is near until the instant of
coup
. This is a far deeper fold of the game than a mere motionless huddling against a rock. It has to do with the science of invisibility mentioned in high medicine lore. To die on the warpath is a calamity."

He Who Knows Much burst into sudden laughter. His eyes danced as he looked over at Alicia. "So often I forget that the one I am teaching is a woman, not a brave who hungers to become a warrior," he said, again patting her knee. Then he pushed himself slowly up from the floor of the tepee. "I will teach you more later on the language and customs of our people. This old, twisted man is bone-weary. He must go and rest before attempting further teachings."

Alicia scrambled to her feet, relieved that her   leg no longer pained her and that she was free to move about without limping. She placed a hand on He Who Knows Much's elbow and helped him to his feet, then slipped an arm around his frail waist and walked him outside, into the blazing sun of morning.

"Thank you for the lessons you taught me today," Alicia said as he limped away from her.

Cloud Eagle and Red Crow sat just outside the lodge, carving new bows. Alicia sat down beside Cloud Eagle and watched his skill in carving designs on his new bow.

"Did you learn much today,
Ish-kay-nay?
" Cloud Eagle said, giving Alicia a glance. "He was not with you for long."

"He seemed in pain," Alicia said, turning her eyes just in time to see He Who Knows Much enter his lodge in a bent-over fashion.

Then she looked at Cloud Eagle, her eyes wide. "But I did learn enough, I think."

She wet her lips with her tongue, sat up straight, and repeated the two words that she had been taught today. "
Na-tse-kes
, to think, to turn something over and over again in the mind," she said. "And
tloh-ka-dih-nadidah-hae
, to rise from the grass."

She waited anxiously for Cloud Eagle's reaction.

He laughed and laid his bow aside. He took her hands. "If you can remember the Apache phrase for 'to rise from the grass' so easily, you will not have any problem with the rest of He Who Knows Much's teachings. That is a phrase that is hard to grasp."

Red Crow rose to his feet. "I must leave you   now," he said, slinging his bow over his shoulder. "A hunting party is planned. I am a part of it. Do you wish to join us, Cloud Eagle?"

"No," Cloud Eagle said, rising to his feet. He offered Alicia his hand, which she took. She rose and stood at his side. "There are other important issues on your chief's mind today."

Red Crow frowned at Alicia, then turned and sauntered away.

"He may never truly like me," Alicia said sadly. "Although he has invited me to his tepee to visit his wives, I know the invitation was not given to me from his heart."

"In his eyes you may forever be white," Cloud Eagle said, shrugging. "It matters not. In mine, you are everything."

He raised the entrance flap, and Alicia went inside. He followed.

When the flap was lowered, Cloud Eagle went to Alicia and placed his hands at her waist and lowered her to the pallet of furs. "What else did He Who Knows Much teach you today?" he whispered, brushing kisses across her ear.

Alicia shivered with desire and opened her legs to him as one of his hands snaked up inside her skirt, leaving a heated trail in its wake as he moved toward her throbbing center.

"He taught me ways of boys and men," she whispered, shimmering with ecstasy when his hand found her open and ready for his fingers. She became mindless beneath his caresses.

She twined her fingers through his long, thick hair and drew his lips to hers. "Do I still behave like a boy, my darling?" she whispered.

"Did you ever?" he said, chuckling as he drew a gasp from her when he thrust a finger deeply   within per moist woman's place.

"I think not," she said, sighing.

Their kiss was filled with fire. His hands were quick to lift the skirt of her dress and to lower his fringed breeches. He was inside her more quickly than lightning could flash across the sky.

She moaned with pleasure and again blessed the heavens for having sent him to her.

Ten Bears crouched behind Red Crow's tepee. He had watched the two wives wander to the river with their children.

He had seen Red Crow enter his lodge, then leave.

He had even witnessed Red Crow leave the village with several warriors on horseback.

This gave Ten Bears the opportunity to use Red Crow's lodge for a distraction so that Ten Bears could steal a horse without getting caught.

But first, he would steal himself a weapon.

An Apache without a weapon was empty of soul!

Looking from side to side, making sure that no one saw him, Ten Bears crept around the tepee toward the front. When he saw that the way was clear, he ran inside Red Crow's lodge.

He stood just inside. His eyes took in everything as he looked for Red Crow's supply of weapons. His gaze stopped at the painting of a woman, wondering why it was there.

And the woman's likeness that was painted on the canvas was Cloud Eagle's white woman!

He shrugged.

He had more urgent things on his mind than a painting.

He smiled when he found the store of weapons   at the back of the tepee, partially covered with blankets.

Moving stealthily, he went to the weapons and chose a rifle and a knife.

He turned and stared at the fire, smiling. That was the way he was going to find an easy escape. He would set fire to the lodge. While everyone was rushing about trying to put it out, he would very easily get a horse without anyone noticing him.

All eyes would be on the fire. All hands would be busy throwing water on it.

He knocked everything aside and pushed his way to the very back of the tepee. Chuckling beneath his breath, he cut a hole large enough for him to crawl through.

Then he turned and crawled to the fire pit. He placed a blanket over the fire and watched the flames take hold.

When it was fully engulfed, he laid the blanket on a pile of clothes and brushed the dried grass that was spread across the floor into the flames. Then he lunged outside and ran toward the trees where he would hide until he found it safe enough to steal a horse.

''Fort Thomas," he whispered as he found a large tree and hunkered down behind it. "This Apache is riding to Fort Thomas. The white pony soldiers will be told a few things that will work against Cloud Eagle . . . and his white woman."

He sneered when someone shouted "Fire!" and the whole community ran to save Red Crow's lodge.

Ten Bears moved quickly. He went to the corral and sorted through the horses until he found his own mighty steed. In one leap he was on its back.   Riding bareback, he led his horse to the fence, where it jumped it as though it were as limber as a deer.

Lying low over the horse's mane, Ten Bears rode hard across the land. He looked over his shoulder. When he saw that no one was following, he laughed into the wind. It gave him a feeling of power to know that he had tricked Cloud Eagle and had gotten away with it.

Now to continue with his plan of revenge!  

The cry of "Fire!" wrenched Cloud Eagle and Alicia apart. They scurried into their clothes and rushed outside. When Cloud Eagle saw that it was Red Crow's lodge that was burning, a cold fear spread through him. Red Crow was gone. But were his wives and children in the lodge?

Blinded with anxious concern, he shoved his way through the crowd of people who were already carrying water to the fire and rushed into Red Crow's lodge.

He was instantly assaulted by intense heat and smoke. Coughing, he covered his mouth with his hand. His eyes burned as he searched for Sweet Rose and Laughing Eyes and the children.

People shouted at Cloud Eagle from outside, urging him to leave. The buckskin covering was now totally engulfed in flames. The poles holding it up were smoldering. There was a threat that everything would soon come tumbling   down, and no one wanted their chief to die an unglorious death.

Hands grabbing at his arms caused Cloud Eagle to look quickly around. The pit of his stomach tightened when he discovered Alicia there in the tepee with him, tears streaming from her eyes from the smoke burning them.

"You must leave this place, Cloud Eagle," Alicia screamed at him. She tugged frantically on his arm. "Come on. It's unsafe. Red Crow's family are safe. They were at the river when the fire broke out."

Choking on the smoke and afraid for Alicia, Cloud Eagle turned to leave, but stopped when Alicia suddenly made a mad rush through the smoke, more deeply into the tepee.

"Ish-kay-nay!"
he cried.

Stumbling over burning debris, he went after her, puzzled as to why she had gone ahead into the threat of the fire instead of retreating outside with him. She had come for him. She had begged him to leave. Why then would she stay herself?

"Stop!" he shouted. "Come with me outside!"

Although her throat burned from the smoke and her eyes felt as though they were aflame, Alicia stopped and knelt down before a painting that she had seen through the veil of smoke.

Her heart skipped a beat and her insides went weak when she grabbed the painting and held it up before her eyes. She was oblivious to the smoking frame that was near to exploding into flames. She was aware only of the gnawing ache circling her heart.

This was the painting of herself that had hung above the fireplace mantel in her family home in Saint Louis. Her brother Charlie had painted it.   She gulped back a sob that lodged in her throat, a sob not brought on by the stiflingly hot smoke. It was because she knew that her brother would never willingly part with this painting. He had always boasted that this was the best that he had ever done and had enjoyed capturing his sister in oils when she had looked her loveliest.

Seconds turned into minutes as she stared at the painting. The fire popped, crackled, and hissed on all sides of her now. The heat was intense. The smoke was blinding. But none of this matched the rage that now filled her.

Her jaw tight, clutching the painting, she turned her eyes up to Cloud Eagle. "How?" she cried, thrusting the painting out for him to see. "How would Red Crow have this? How, Cloud Eagle, except that it must surely have been taken when my brother's wagon train was ambushed! Cloud Eagle, he was on his way out here to see to my welfare. When did you ambush him? When?"

Cloud Eagle stared disbelievingly at the painting. He had no idea how Red Crow had it in his possession. He had no answers for Alicia!

A lodge pole fell away from the buckskin covering and crashed in flames close beside Cloud Eagle and Alicia. Cloud Eagle flinched and forgot everything but getting Alicia to safety. He swept her into his arms while she still clung to the painting and carried her outside.

Cloud Eagle ran past those who continued to throw water on Red Crow's tepee and carried Alicia toward those who were only watching.