Wild Splendor

Sage got to his feet when he thought Kit had had time enough to quench his thirst. Surprising him, Sage suddenly grabbed his w

rists and tied them together behind his back.

“You will live to regret this,” Kit said, then gasped again and stiffened when Sage determinedly tied a bright red handkerchief around Kit’s eyes.

“It is time to go now,” Sage said, gripping one of Kit’s elbows. He urged Kit up from the ground, turned, and led him to the horse. Sage fitted Kit’s foot in the stirrup. “Your foot is in the stirrup. Push yourself up into the saddle as I help you.”

“I feel like a damn idiot,” Kit swore, his face red from his building rage. “Are you enjoying humiliating me?”

“Are you enjoying humiliating the Navaho by ordering them to live on a reservation?” Sage said, swinging himself onto his horse behind Kit. “The man you once were would never humiliate my people. The man you now are is someone I do not recognize.”

Kit Carson had no rebuttal to snap back at Sage.

Sage laughed softly, seeing that Kit was finding it hard to stay in the saddle without the use of his hands. He slipped to one side, then righted himself, then began slipping to the other.

“Traveling with my hands tied like this, I’m going to break my neck before you get me to your camp,” Kit said sourly. “Why must my wrists be tied?”

“It would be too tempting to you to remove the blindfold if your hands were free,” Sage said. “I want silence now between us. When we reach my camp, then we can go into council. There is much to be said, but only that which benefits the Navaho, not Kit Carson.”

“Like I said before, you won’t get away with this,” Kit said. Then he clamped his lips together tightly and concentrated on staying in the saddle. He couldn’t wait until his soldiers were on Sage’s trail.

* * *

Sage was drained of energy and his eyes were stinging with the need of sleep when he spied his camp through a break in the trees a short distance away. He had ridden relentlessly onward through the pulsating heat of the day, and it was now dusk, the shadows lengthening all around him. He welcomed the evening with its cooler temperatures. He could feel the perspiration finally drying on his face. He inhaled the sweetness of the fresh, cool air.

But most of all, he was anticipating seeing Leonida.

As he rode into his camp, Sage was greeted differently than usual. Everyone stood quietly by, staring at Kit Carson, the man they all now despised. They had always thought that he was invincible, incapable of ever being conquered by anyone.

Their gazes shifted, looking in admiration at their chief. Sage had proven to them again that he was perhaps the wisest and bravest of them all. He had done what no other man had ever done. He had taken Kit Carson prisoner. Pride shone in everyone’s eyes as one by one the men began to shout Sage’s praises, while the women broke into merry songs.

Sage drew his steed to a halt. As he dismounted, his eyes scanned the crowd for Leonida, yet still he did not see her. This gave him a strange sense of foreboding. Something must be seriously wrong for her not to have been among those greeting his return.

“Help me off this damn horse,” Kit Carson growled, drawing Sage’s attention back to him. “Take the damn blindfold off, Sage. Or do you plan to keep it on me the whole time I’m here?”

Sage turned to Kit. The man was so small that Sage was able to lift him bodily from the saddle and put his feet on the ground. He was ready to remove the blindfold, but he stopped when Leonida came to him, tears sparkling in her eyes. Fear grabbed at Sage’s heart.

“What has delayed you in greeting your husband?” Sage asked, clasping his fingers on her shoulders. He studied her expression and the tears forming in her eyes.

Then he looked past her and saw that Runner sat beside Pure Blossom, staring gloomily down at her. Pure Blossom was not stirring, and Sage knew that if she had been aware of his return, she would have at least turned her eyes to him and greeted him with a smile.

“It is my sister?” Sage asked, easing his hands from Leonida’s shoulders. “She has weakened?”

Leonida nodded, sniffling. “Very much so,” she murmured, then gave Kit Carson a quick glance when he began shouting to Sage about still being blindfolded and tied.

“Damn it, Sage, what are you doing?” he said angrily. “You promised to remove the blindfold and untie me. Don’t tell me that you’ve changed your mind.”

Sage moved away from Leonida and quickly tended to Kit Carson, then walked away from him in long strides, his thoughts now only on his sister. When he reached Pure Blossom and knelt beside her, his heart cried out his anguish to every nerve ending in his body. She had lapsed into a coma.

Fighting back tears, knowing that it was womanly to show such emotions, Sage lifted Pure Blossom into his arms and began rocking her back and forth, his eyes filled with grief.

Kit Carson stepped to Sage’s side. “I see that your sister is quite ill,” he said, his voice drawn. He looked at her more closely and placed a hand on her brow. The heat of her flesh was like hot coals scorching him. He looked up at Sage with worried eyes. “It is my belief that your sister has come down with the prairie fever that is now sweeping the Indian tribes. Sage, because she has never been strong in the first place, she hasn’t got a chance in hell in recovering.”

Leonida stifled a sob behind her hand and held Runner close as he snuggled against her leg, clinging to her.

“Had I not been forced to come after you, I would have been here for my sister,” Sage grumbled, fire in his eyes as he stared down at Kit Carson.

“You weren’t forced to do anything,” Kit defended himself. “Abducting me will gain you nothing except perhaps being hung because of it.”