Savage Spirit (40 page)

Cloud Eagle held the pipe with one hand on the stem, the other on the bowl. He sucked in a breath of smoke, then slowly exhaled it into the wind.

He blew smoke to the east, the west, the north, and the south, to the four corners of the earth.

Then he gave the pipe to Thunder Roars, and thereafter the pipe was passed around until a cloud had been blown between them all and everyone had shared in the smoke.

The pipe was handed back to a young brave, who took it away to Cloud Eagle's lodge.

Alicia sat stiffly beside Cloud Eagle. She had noticed from the first moment of General Powell's arrival that there was something different about him.   His smiles seemed forced. His jaw was tight. His eyes seemed wary as he gazed at Cloud Eagle.

A warning shot through Alicia at the memory of Sandy Whiskers lying spread-eagled on the sand.

If the general had found Sandy Whiskers . . .

"Cloud Eagle, my search for Sandy Whiskers took my regiment from the mountains when we did not find him," General Powell began. "We then rode in the opposite direction."

Alicia blanched. She twined her fingers tightly together and nervously placed them on her lap, her legs crossed beneath her fringed buckskin dress.

Her heart pounded as her fears built within her. If the general had found Sandy Whiskers, and blame was cast Cloud Eagle's way, how might the general react?

Breathlessly she listened.

"We searched the mountain passes for Sandy Whiskers, and when we did not come up with even a hint of his whereabouts, it came to me suddenly that perhaps he went south instead of north," General Powell said, his eyes locked on Cloud Eagle, watching the play of his expression. "I'm sure he was headed for Mexico. But he didn't quite make it, did he, Cloud Eagle?"

There it was, Alicia thought to herself, stiffening. The general did not come right out and accuse Cloud Eagle, but instead toyed with him.

She looked quickly over at Cloud Eagle, awaiting his reply.

"You found him?" Cloud Eagle said, showing no emotion in his voice or on his face.

"I sure as hell did," General Powell said. He stretched his legs out before him and crossed   them at his ankles. He drummed the fingers of one hand on one knee. "And the way we found him? I'd say the way he died had the earmarkings of an Apache kill."

"He was swollen much from the sting of the rattlers and the heat of the sun?" Cloud Eagle asked nonchalantly.

"Very," General Powell said, shifting his glance to Alicia. Then he stared at Cloud Eagle again. "You took the law into your own hands, Cloud Eagle, instead of giving me a chance to see that justice was done in the appropriate manner."

"How many days did you search in the mountain passes for Sandy Whiskers?" Cloud Eagle said blandly, his face still void of emotion.

"One full day and most of the night," General Powell replied.

"That was too much time," Cloud Eagle said. "He was headed south for Mexico the very first day of your search. Had I not stopped him, you never would have found him."

"And that gave you the right to condemn him to death before he had a trial?"

"There would have been no trial. He would have been under the protective custody of the Mexicans."

"Still, I . . ." General Powell began.

Cloud Eagle interrupted him. "That man was responsible for many deaths along the California Road, and now he is dead," he said flatly. "It should not matter how, or by whose hand. He will no longer kill and maim innocent people. The greed that grew on him like a cancer was removed the moment that first rattler inflicted that first wound on his flesh. Now I wish to say nothing more about it. You have come to have a   big talk. Let us have council. Let us speak of peace and eternal friendship. The time for counseling is good. It is the waxing of the moon."

General Powell squirmed uneasily on his pallet of buckskin. He looked nervously from side to side, at his soldiers, then slowly around the circle of Apache. Since Thunder Roars had brought many of his warriors to take part in the peace talks, joining with those of Cloud Eagle's Coyotero Apache, the soldiers were outnumbered two to one.

General Powell had no choice but to resume the peace talks. To talk of arresting Cloud Eagle might be the same as condemning his soldiers to death.

Sandy Whiskers was not worth it.

"I am as much in favor of peace as anybody," General Powell said, clearing his throat nervously. "I came today with hopes of making total peace between you and the citizens of the United States, and of thus saving lives and property."

"White-eyed brother speaks well, and it is good to hear you make such an offer," Cloud Eagle said. "The Apache were once a numerous tribe, living well and at peace. White men came to this land like locusts in summer. Many of my ancestors were taken by treachery and murdered. Are you saying now that Cloud Eagle can trust that this will never happen again?"

"I vow to you, Cloud Eagle, that you have nothing to fear from my soldiers ever again," General Powell said sternly. "And there will be no more men like Milton Powers who come and entice my soldiers into fighting and killing your people. I am sorry for the grief the raid brought your people. Never shall it happen again."   "Lessons learned together are not quickly forgotten," Cloud Eagle said, his eyes locked with the general's.

"Lessons learned together are well learned and long remembered," General Powell offered in return.

Alicia stifled a sob of happiness behind her hand. Tears stung the corners of her eyes. She crept a hand over and clutched onto one of Cloud Eagle's, his fingers willingly intertwining with hers.

Cloud Eagle gave a nod, and soon the air was filled with the rhythmic beating of the rawhide drums and the resonant throbbing of the pebbled-gourd rattles.

Alicia joined the women who began serving the food on wooden platters to the soldiers, then to the visiting Apache, and then to their own people.

With a platter for herself, Alicia sat back down beside Cloud Eagle. She ate ravenously, her eyes watching something that seemed to be brewing between Thunder Roars and Red Crow's two widows.

Alicia quickly noticed that even Lost Wind had managed to go and sit among them, using her dark, alluring eyes on Thunder Roars as he silently admired her, her pregnancy hidden beneath a full, fringed smock.

Alicia nudged Cloud Eagle. When he looked at her, she nodded over at Thunder Roars who had set his food aside and was talking earnestly to the three women, his two wives sitting idly by, seemingly trusting him.

"He has eyes for more wives, it seems," Cloud Eagle said, chuckling. His gaze stopped at Lost   Wind. His smile faded and his eyes narrowed. "He knows Lost Wind. He knows I sent her away with her brother. Yet he speaks with her in an interested way. Could he possibly be considering taking her for another wife? I can see and understand why he would take Red Crow's widows. They are worthy of being his wives. They were married to a noble warrior. But Lost Wind? Her brother disgraced our people. So did she, by deceiving her very own chief!"

"Perhaps he thinks he will be helping you by taking her off your hands?" Alicia whispered back.

"Only because he does not yet know that she is pregnant with my child," Cloud Eagle said, his eyes burning with a building rage. "It is time someone told him."

When he started to get up, Alicia stopped him by grabbing his arm. "Wait, Cloud Eagle," she softly encouraged him. "Perhaps he is only being polite. If he does prove that he wants to take her with him, and he still wants her when he hears that she is with child, why not allow him to take her?"

"Because she
is
with child," Cloud Eagle said, his eyes narrowing into hers as he gazed down at her. "And not just any child.
Mine.
I will let her leave our stronghold only after the child is born. Not before."

Alicia stared at him, wanting to understand his reasoning, but feeling jealous because he wanted to keep a hold on Lost Wind.

Oh, Lord, Alicia despaired. If
she
had a say in the matter, she would be rid of Lost Wind in a minute. She was growing to despise her more each day.   And she trusted her even less!

She did not feel safe with Lost Wind near. If not for Cloud Eagle holding her close in his arms every night, she would be afraid to go to sleep. She was afraid that Lost Wind might come in the middle of the night and thrust a knife into her heart!

"Cloud Eagle, is the child she carries more important to you than I am?" Alicia blurted out, feeling the color draining from her face when she realized what she had said.

Everything happened quickly then. Cloud Eagle took her by the hand and led her away from the celebration, where dancers had just begun to perform and where the soldiers and the Apache warriors were laughing and carrying on together. He led her inside his dwelling, then gently took her by the wrists and pulled her against his chest.

"My
Ish-kay-nay
," he said, his voice soft with understanding. "No child, not even the one that you carry within your belly, is as important to me as you are. Do you not know by now the extent of my love for you?"

"I believe I know, yet when it comes to Lost Wind, I cannot help but be filled with doubts," Alicia said, hating this jealousy that was tearing her apart inside. Yet she could not shove the feelings aside as though Lost Wind and the child she was carrying were not there.

"What would it take to make you accept this life that I offer you?" Cloud Eagle said, brushing her hair back from her face. He framed her face between his hands and lifted her lips to his.

"Do you wish that I send her away?" he asked huskily. "If so, I will ask this of my friend Thunder   Roars. It was in his eyes that he was taken by her loveliness. I am certain that he will look past her pregnancy and see her as she will be once the child is born. She will again have a wasp-like waist. She will be as beautiful as before.''

Alicia emitted a soft cry against his lips as he kissed her heatedly. She did not protest the way he kissed her, but his declaration about how lovely Lost Wind was.

But the longer he kissed her, his hands kneading her breasts through the buckskin fabric of her dress, the more she found it hard to concentrate on her worries. She twined her arms around his neck as he pressed her down onto the pallet of furs beside the lodge fire. She sighed with pleasure as he lifted the skirt of her dress and began caressing her woman's center, where she throbbed with need of him.

She kissed him long and hard, and when she felt his manhood slip inside her, she shuddered with ecstasy and wrapped her legs around him.

Thrust for thrust, she met him with lifted hips.

She flicked her tongue across his lips, then closed her eyes with rapture when he lifted her dress past her waist and his lips closed over a breast, his tongue moving urgently around the nipple, his teeth nipping.

Her senses reeled in drunken pleasure as his tongue left a warm, wet trail downward, his lips greedily absorbing the sweet taste of her flesh.

And then he kissed her lips again as he swept his arms around her and enfolded her within his solid strength. His mouth forced her lips apart. His tongue swept inside her eager mouth and surged between her teeth.   She moaned and met his tongue with her own, then seductively sucked his until he pulled away and once again drew a taut nipple between his teeth and softly tugged on it.

Outside the excitement was building, seemingly matching the excitement that was growing at a rapid pace in the privacy of Cloud Eagle's lodge.

The drums were beating with a more rapid rhythm.

The sound of the rattles reverberated around Alicia and Cloud Eagle.

The laughter and the singing and the thump-thump of the moccasined feet dancing around the great outdoor fire became more profound.

Alicia's breathing came in sharp gasps. Her passion was like a hot fire, scorching her insides. Her body tightened and hardened, absorbing Cloud Eagle's bold thrusts.

Cloud Eagle's sensations were searing as great surges of passion swam through him. His tongue brushed her lips lightly. His breath teased her ear. He reverently breathed her name.

The fires of passion leapt higher between them. Then they took flight together. Their bodies quivered. They clung. They rocked. Their bodies pulsed as though they were one heartbeat. Cloud Eagle thrust deeply within her and moaned when his seed shot into her.

Soon they pulled apart. Alicia was aghast when she looked down at her attire. It was terribly wrinkled. She gazed at Cloud Eagle as he attempted to pull his breechclout back in place.

There would be no disguising from anyone what had transpired in Cloud Eagle's tepee. The celebration there had been far different from the   one in which everyone else was participating outside.

Cloud Eagle finally got himself presentable.

He eyed Alicia with amusement, then went to the trunk where his mother's clothes were stored and withdrew a beaded shawl from it. He took it to Alicia and placed it around her shoulders, then wove his fingers through her hair, to make it smooth and lovely again.

"What will everyone think?" Alicia said, blushing as she peered into Cloud Eagle's eyes. "You know that they have to realize why we stayed away from the celebration for so long."

"They will think this Apache chief very lucky," Cloud Eagle said, his eyes twinkling, "to have such a woman as you. All men will be jealous."

"What kind of a woman
am
I?" Alicia asked, moving into his gentle embrace.

"Such a woman as will make this Apache chief never look past her at other women," he said. He placed his hands on her cheeks and guided her eyes to his. "Now let us talk no more about Lost Wind or her child. If you wish, I will relinquish all claim to the child. Our child will be the beginning of our family. I will not consider Lost Wind's child mine in any way."

"Even if it is a son and I do not give you a son?" Alicia asked, unable to cast all of her worrying aside.

"Do you wish that I relinquish claims on this child that Lost Wind carries?" he persisted, ignoring her question about a son.

In his heart, this child that Alicia was carrying was that son, the one who would one day lead his people.