Forever Ecstasy (22 page)

Morning Star wondered if Buckskin Girl wanted to win to keep her and Joe apart. Did Buckskin Girl sense her feelings and dangerous weakness for “Tanner” and was trying to protect her from herself and shame? Or protect her from the journey’s perils? If such was true, why not reveal it? No, the maiden deduced, that was not her friend’s motive.

“Accept what happens as Grandfather’s will,” Singing Wind urged.

The troubled girl nodded a promise, then changed that subject. “Eat, for we must do our chores before it is time for the race.”

Singing Wind reached for her bowl. It was gone. “Did you take the food from here?” she asked, pointing to a sitting mat.

“Yes. Was it not for me?”

The older woman smiled and answered, “It was mine, but it does not matter. I will take the bowl I prepared for you and left by the fire.”

“I go to see if Hanmani is fine this sun. I will return soon for chores.”

Spotted Tail and his party arrived in Sun Cloud’s camp. The Red Heart chief greeted them and talked for a while. He invited the Brule chief to his tepee for refreshment, as was their way. The other warriors made camp at the edge of the village, then spread out to visit with friends.

Morning Star saw the visitors arrive and enter her home. She went to the lake to tell her mother of their guests. Singing Wind’s water bags were there, but she was not. The maiden looked around, but did not sight her. She filled the bags and joined her father and Spotted Tail. After welcoming the young chief to their camp, she served the men water and fruit pones. “While you speak, I will fetch Mother. She does chores now.”

Morning Star searched for her mother, to learn Fast Hands saw her enter the trees earlier. The maiden followed the woman’s directions. She called out,
“Ina!”
and her ears captured a faint response. When she located Singing Wind, the older woman was doubled over and violently ill.
“Ina?”

She looked up at her daughter and said, “Help me to my mat.”

Morning Star realized that her mother was attacked by the same strange illness she had had. Recalling how many times she had dashed to the woods for her body to empty itself, she knew her mother would not want to display such private and uncontrollable behavior before a visitor. “We have a guest. Chief Spotted Tail visits with a small band. I served pones and water, then
came to seek you. I will take you to Payaba. He will make you well, as he did Morning Star. Do not worry; I will tend our guest.”

As the ailing woman lay in misery on a mat in the old shaman’s tepee, Winter Woman and Payaba tended her. She drank the healing tea that the old man prepared from special herbs.

“Did you eat any of the pones Knife-Slayer brought to you?” Morning Star asked in a near whisper.

“No,” the woman replied, but she grasped her daughter’s meaning.

“Were our bowls waiting while he was there?” Morning Star asked.

“Yes, but he was not alone with them. I looked away but a moment.”

“Evil can work swiftly, Mother. Did he know which was mine?”

Singing Wind thought a moment, then admitted, “Yes. I was holding mine when he entered. He saw me place it on the mat. You ate it.”

“And you ate mine, after he left. Have you forgotten I ate from another waiting bowl before I became ill? Knife-Slayer heard you tell me it was ready. He heard me say I had a task to finish before I returned.”

“Do you say he put something in both to make you ill?”

“He wants for me to lose, Mother. He was with the horses before the race to fetch his for Buckskin Girl. Perhaps he gave something to Hanmani.”

“That is wicked, Daughter, your thoughts and words,” she chided.

“No, Mother, what he has done is wicked.”

“There can be truth in her claims, Singing Wind,” Payaba related. “There are plants which bring on such sickness. Hawk Eyes knows them. In my vision long ago, Grandfather warned that some would try to stop it. I have not forgotten how Hawk Eyes convinced all I was dying and took my place. He is the reason I am called Pushed Aside, not Standing Tree.”

Morning Star saw how this conversation was distressing her mother. “We will speak of this later when you are well,” she said.

“Until he is caught doing evil, do not accuse him, Daughter.
Your father has many worries on his mind. Without proof, do not add another. After your challenge of Hawk Eyes, it will make bad trouble.”

Morning Star stroked the woman’s moist brow. “We will say nothing, Mother, but we will be alert to more mischief.”

Payaba nodded agreement to the necessary silence. He, too, had been suspicious, but hadn’t mentioned it to anyone. He was glad Morning Star had the intelligence to notice the same clues he himself had. “I will heal her. She will remain here with us. Go, tend your guest. Win the race.”

“It is to be, Wise One; I feel it in my heart.”

The white-haired man smiled and nodded agreement once more.

“Mother is ill, Father. Payaba tends her in his tepee. Do not worry. He says she will be fine by the new sun. When the race is over, I will prepare food for Spotted Tail, our honored guest.” “Your father told me of the vision and contest, Morning Star. If the storm had not forced us to camp all day, we would have witnessed it. I wish victory this day for the daughter of a great chief. On the trail I met the white man called Tanner Gaston, family of Sun Cloud. His task is large.”

“Obtaining peace is never an easy one, our friend. Will you vote for treaty when the time comes?” she couldn’t help but ask.

“Peace with honor is a greater task. If the whites offer it, I will accept. When you ride with Sky Warrior, seek rest and safety in my camp.”

Morning Star smiled and thanked him. News of Joe warmed her heart and sent surges of energy through her body. She felt wonderful today, her old self again. She could tell that Joe had impressed the Brule chief, and that pleased her. She wondered if he had been delayed by the storm, too.

The ceremonial drum began its summons for the race. Morning Star left the tepee and headed for the clearing ahead of her father and guest. Her brother halted her before she reached the appointed spot.

“I have seen Mother in Payaba’s tepee. She is very ill. You brought the white man’s disease to our father’s tepee and our camp. It attacked you and Hanmani, then our mother. Pray
your evil does not slay her and others.”

Morning Star resented his remarks. She was not to blame. “That is cruel, Brother. And how did you know Hanmani was sick?” she asked, wondering if she had judged the wrong man guilty of wickedness.

As he stroked the lance scar on the side of his face, inflicted by a Crow weapon, he answered, “I heard you tell Payaba to check him. Why do you do this evil thing, Sister? Your words shamed you and your family on the past sun.”

She stared at him and wondered how he could be so different from their father. “If a man is wrong, does Night Stalker not challenge him?”

“I am a man. As a woman, you gave great insult to our shaman.”

“Should I yield and lose so great a victory when he was mistaken?”

“Was he, Sister?” her brother scoffed.

“Yes, Night Stalker,” she responded. She was tempted to reveal her suspicions, but kept her promise to keep silent about them. Besides, her brother was close friends with Knife-Slayer, and he was in favor of war. When the truth was placed in her hands, she would pass it to his!

Morning Star left Night Stalker standing there, staring at her retreating back. She encountered Buckskin Girl on her way to the clearing to compete with her. “Why do you challenge me, my friend?” she asked her friend.

“When the time comes, you will learn all things,” the daughter of Flaming Star replied. “I must do this, Morning Star. I do not challenge to hurt you. When the truth is revealed, you will understand and accept why I seek to win. I cannot speak such words today, but I am happy we race when you are stronger. It is fair. Know you are my friend and I love you.”

As the female walked away, Morning Star prayed, Wakantanka,
omakiyi:
Great Spirit, help me. This was it, her final chance for victory.

The two competitors lined up at the starting point. After her earlier words, Morning Star glanced at Buckskin Girl and smiled. No matter if she was wrong, Buckskin Girl was her friend and felt she must do this deed. Surely Grandfather had a
good reason for it, one He would reveal soon.

Wolf Eyes gave the signal, and the two females raced toward a marked point. They remained even at the turning spot and down the return stretch. At the last minute, Morning Star thought of Joe and surged forward to be the first to cross the line drawn on Mother Earth. The ceremonial chief handed her the thirteenth stone and announced her as the winner.

Morning Star grinned at her father as she recovered her breath. Buckskin Girl congratulated her with a sad smile and walked away in an aura of depression, to be halted by Hawk Eyes wanting to console and woo her. Morning Star wondered why her friend was so upset, but knew she would learn the reason one day. She read pride and concern in her father’s gaze. When she joined him, he spoke to her.

“This sacred event must be painted upon the tribal and our family’s buffalo records. I am proud, my daughter,” he said before the others, but his heart drummed in trepidation of what the victory could cost him.

Spotted Tail smiled and remarked, “It is good to know Morning Star will become the legend She-Who-Rode-With-The-Sky-Warrior.”

“Pilamaya, Sinte Geleska.”

As Morning Star envisioned her coup upon the pictorial records, her heart raced with excitement and pride. She had known Joseph Lawrence for the passings of only seven moons, and already he had changed her life. She could not imagine exactly how traveling and working with him for many full moons would alter her and her existence. Yet she knew and accepted that he was a vital part of her destiny.

At dusk, Joseph Lawrence reached Fort Tabor. Sunday’s storm had passed his location quickly, then settled over the Black Hills without delaying him. After concealing his Lakota armband, he entered the military site, a small one built in ’49. He located Captain James Thomas and introduced himself. As he sat across the desk from the officer in charge, he looked into the brown eyes of the sandy-haired man with tall and lanky body and pleasant expression who immediately said to call him Jim.

Joe revealed that Tom Fitzpatrick had said James was the man to see in this area. “He has great faith in you, Jim.”

“That’s good to hear, but why did Tom send you to me?”

“You know about the big treaty he’s working on…” Joe began and the officer nodded. “He thinks somebody is trying to prevent it, to stir up trouble between the Dakotas and Crow. If those two nations go on the warpath, whites will be trapped in the middle of a bloody and violent confrontation. Every wagon train passing through this area will be in danger, and so will every soldier and settler in these parts. The trappers and traders won’t be any safer, either, despite how long they’ve been here.”

Joe explained who Stede Gaston was and why he had come to this territory. The captain recognized the names Sun Cloud and Gray Eagle, and he displayed instant interest. Joe disclosed his mission with Tanner, and Tanner’s subsequent murder. He told Jim about his run-in with Zeke and his boys and about his rescue of Sun Cloud’s daughter and the visit to the Oglala camp, and described his meeting on the trail with the Brule chief. “From what I’ve seen and heard, Jim, I think somebody is trying to frame the Dakotas, make whites terrified of them so the Army will wipe them out for him. I believe the villain is Snake-Man.” Joe passed along the scanty description that Morning Star had given him from Knife-Slayer’s spying.

Captain James Thomas propped his arms on his desk and leaned forward. “I’ve heard rumors about such a man, but I haven’t talked to anyone who’s willing to say he’s met him. The Crow say he’s a good spirit, not a real man. They claim he doesn’t give or sell them weapons and whiskey. They claim the Dakotas lie to provoke soldiers into attacking Crow camps to recover arms and firewater that do not exist.”

“They’re wrong, or lying to cover their guilt and connection. He’s real, and he’s fooling them with Oriental magic,” Joe insisted, then explained his suspicions. “I know Zeke and his boys were hauling guns and whiskey, probably to the Crow; that’s where their trail headed.”

“I’ve seen Zeke, Clem, and Farley around here and at trading posts. From what I know, Zeke works for himself. He hires out to any trader to haul goods. But I didn’t realize he was carrying illegal supplies to the Indians. I’ll question him later.”

“Zeke might claim he works for himself, but he doesn’t. He’s hired by somebody he calls ‘Boss.’ I heard his boys slip up and so did Morning Star.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, and I won’t drop any clues to him. If he knows you’re on to him, he’ll be more careful.”

“After what happened between us on the trail, I can’t get near him. What I’m certain of is that the Dakotas, most of them, want peace, and they’re not making those attacks I’ve heard about. They’re still in winter camps. Spotted Tail was traveling only to speak to Sun Cloud about the new trouble and accusations. I was impressed by both chiefs.”

Jim sipped his cool coffee. “I’ve been here almost a year and I haven’t met either one. I’m surprised you got in and out of that Oglala camp alive with your light hair. You’re lucky they befriended you.”

“They had good reason; I claimed to be Tanner Gaston so they’d accept me and help me. Once the treaty is signed, I’ll tell Sun Cloud the truth. For now, as long as he thinks I’m his kin, I’m safe. You’ll need to keep my work for Fitzpatrick and that lie to Sun Cloud secret.”

Jim leaned back in his wooden chair and relaxed. “You have my word. I want peace, too, so I hope you succeed. I’ll give any help I can.”

“Tell me, what would Snake-Man have to gain with new trouble?”

Jim leaned forward again, his expression serious. “If he gets the Dakotas pushed out by Crow or whites, and he has enough men and money to take control of large tracks of land, he’ll be rich and powerful. There are valuable furs and hides for the taking or buying. Most of the timber, certainly the best, is along the rivers and in those Black Hills. Endless miles of grasslands make for good ranching. The soil is fertile for farms, and not much clearing is necessary. There are plenty of rivers for water and for easy travel. In he gets into trading posts, supplies for settlers and wagon trains could bring in a fortune. Not to mention if he brings in women and whiskey for soldiers. Some old-timers speak of gold, but even the Crow won’t tell where it is or use it for trade. That’s one secret all Indians realize is dangerous. All he has to do is stop the treaty and keep gaining strongholds. To
do that, he has to stir up big trouble. I hope you’re wrong, but I’m afraid you aren’t. How you planning to work this mission?”