Wild Splendor

And then she was outside. She strained her neck to look around to see if anyone else was being taken hostage. Seeing no one, she knew that Chief Four Fingers had dared to enter Sage’s village only for her. She had to wonder why the sentries had not stopped the silent midnight invasion. Sage had placed several in strategic places. It seemed impossible that the Kiowa warriors could have gotten past them.

As she was carried hurriedly into the shadows of the hogans, she peered anxiously toward Pure Blossom’s hogan, knowing that Sage must still be there. Tears of frustration stung her eyes as she was then carried on away from the village. Soon she saw the outlines of horses and other warriors just ahead of her.

Then spirals of despair swam through her when beneath the light of the moon she could see more than one Navaho sentry lying dead, arrows piercing their backs. Now she understood how the Kiowa could have gotten away with the abduction. They had killed everyone who had gotten in the way.

As she was laid over the back of a horse and secured there with a rope, Leonida realized that Chief Four Fingers did not want an alliance with Sage and his people any longer, or he would not risk losing it over the abduction of a woman.

Now tied onto the horse, hanging over its back, Leonida found her head spinning, the blood flowing quickly to it. When the horse began traveling down the steep incline, a keen dizziness overcame Leonida.

She soon drifted off into a black void of nothingness.

* * *

Sage felt hopeful for his sister again when her breathing became easier and more even. Finally she lay on her platform, sleeping soundly. He stayed on his knees a moment longer and watched Pure Blossom sleeping, remembering her when she was a small child, even then battling all sorts of ailments. His mother had told him that it did not appear that Pure Blossom’s health would ever be strong and had warned him even then that she might not live past three years.

“My sweet sister, you fooled them all,” he whispered, stroking her cool brow with his fingers. “Even now you tease death and are victorious. Perhaps you will live to see my children? Little one, that would make your brother happy.”

When she emitted a shaky sigh and turned to lie on her side in a fetal position, Sage made sure the blankets were still fully covering her, drawing them up over her, smoothing them out just beneath her chin.

“I think I can leave you now,” he whispered as he rose to his full height next to the sleeping platform. “My wife has been without her husband long enough. When the sun replaces the moon in the sky I shall return and check on you again.”

Anxious to be with Leonida, always desiring her as though it were their first moments together, Sage left Pure Blossom’s hogan and hastened his steps until he entered his own dwelling. A soft fire was burning in the fire pit as he walked past it. He stopped and looked into Runner’s room, smiling when he found that the child was fast asleep.

Stopping just outside his bedroom door, he stepped out of his breechclout and moccasins. He smiled down at himself, seeing how aroused he had become at only thinking of her. Perhaps he would awaken her and let her see how he hungered for her even at this midnight hour. Surely she would want him as much.

His loins on fire with desire, Sage walked on into his bedroom, having decided that he must awaken her. He could not wait until morning to quench his passions.

When Sage looked over at the empty sleeping platform, he stopped short. Where was she?

Not believing she could be gone, Sage rushed to the sleeping platform and gazed down at it with wide, worried eyes. Then he spun around and raced back to the outer room, looking frantically around him.

He slopped when he discovered the squash blossom necklace on the mats beside the fire. His pulse racing, he swept the necklace up from the floor and spread it out between his fingers, inspecting it. His eyes locked on the break, and he realized that only a struggle would have caused such a break. Leonida had not just wandered away from the hogan.

She had been abducted!

He dropped the necklace to the floor and began pacing in agitation. “Who would do this?” he growled, his fists tight at his sides.

He recalled the time when Harold had grabbed the necklace from Leonida and had forbidden her to wear it. Seeing the broken necklace reminded him that the white man just might do anything to get Leonida back, perhaps even risk entering the village alone to achieve his foolish goal.

“But he knows not where the village is,” he said, kneading his brow feverishly.

He stopped and his jaw tightened. “Chief Four Fingers,” he said, his teeth clenched. “He desired her. Has he risked everything to have her?”

A rush of feet in the hogan made Sage spin around to see who had entered, hoping it was Leonida. Instead he saw two breathless Navaho warriors standing there, their eyes filled with anguish.

“What brings you to my hogan this late?” Sage asked, fearing the answer.

“All of our sentries have been slain,” Spotted Feather said in a rush of words. “It was time for change in sentries. All those who went to relieve the others found death on the mountain. They are all dead, Sage. All of them had Kiowa arrows in their backs.”

Sage was taken aback by this news. Despair and anger fused within him. He shook his head back and forth, not wanting to envision his friends all dead, or wanting to think that his beloved was now in the hands of those who betrayed him.

“My wife has been abducted,” he said, turning to grab his clothes. He hurried into his breechclout and moccasins, then yanked his rifle from where he had leaned it against the wall. “Gather together many warriors. We must go after Four Fingers. He is responsible for this.”

“It is such an unwise thing to do,” Black Thunder said, walking from the hogan with Sage and Spotted Feather. “And all for a woman? I see her as special also, Sage, but to destroy peace over her? It is not something I will ever understand.”

Sage turned to his warriors. He clasped his hands on Black Thunder’s shoulders. “It is not hard to see why he chanced all for my woman,” he said, his voice drawn. “First, I denied her to him. Second, he realizes that Kit Carson and the white pony soldiers are near, and perhaps he thinks our time of camaraderie has been outlived. He has taken my woman and will ride even farther than the mountains. He is fleeing life as he has always known it, believing it is gone anyhow. He no longer sees a need for an alliance with the Navaho. Taking my woman was a way to throw sand in my face to say that he is no longer my friend and ally, but as before, my archenemy.”

“He is foolish,” Spotted Feather mumbled, and Black Thunder nodded in agreement. “Never can he outrun the Navaho.”