Savage Illusions

"Yes," Do­ub­le Run­ner sa­id so­lemnly. "It is yo­ur now. The Cree lo­ses not only his li­fe, but his me­ans of tra­vel to the Sand Hills." Brown Elk nod­ded his ap­pro­val, then tur­ned and went in­si­de his te­pee.

Quiet, the­ir he­ads bo­wed, the pe­op­le tur­ned and went to the­ir own dwel­lings.

Gray Be­ar ga­ve Spot­ted Eag­le a fat­her's hug, sta­red down at Jole­na qu­es­ti­oningly for a mo­ment, then wan­de­red away to­ward his own dwel­ling.

Spotted Eag­le pla­ced an arm aro­und Jole­na's wa­ist and us­he­red her to his te­pee at the far ed­ge of the vil­la­ge, whe­re a me­an­de­ring stre­am pas­sed be­hind it, sil­ver in the mo­on­light.

As Spot­ted Eag­le held the buc­k­s­kin en­t­ran­ce flap asi­de, Jole­na pa­used and grew even mo­re som­ber and qu­i­et when she he­ard the sud­den sor­row­ful wa­ils of her fat­her. She crin­ged and tri­ed to clo­se her ears to the so­und, but not­hing stop­ped the mo­ur­ning cri­es from re­ac­hing her.

'' Oh, ah! No-ko-I! Ah, Ah! No-ko-I! My son! My son!" cri­ed Brown Elk, over and over aga­in, fil­ling the still night air with the so­und, as tho­ugh tho­usands of ar­rows we­re pi­er­cing it.

Spotted Eag­le pla­ced a firm arm aro­und Jole­na's wa­ist and whis­ked her in­si­de his te­pee.

Wiping te­ars from her eyes, Jole­na fo­und two In­di­an wo­men the­re. One was re­ad­ying the fi­re, whi­le the ot­her held a lar­ge black ket­tle with ple­asant aro­mas waf­ting from it.

Spotted Eag­le ges­tu­red to­ward a co­uch cus­hi­oned with pelts be­si­de a fi­re that was now ta­king hold, sen­ding its fla­mes aro­und the logs, as tho­ugh in a sen­su­o­us ca­ress.

Jolena sat down. Re­cog­ni­zing one of the two wo­men as Mo­on Flo­wer, she fo­und it easy to smi­le as the wo­men cast her hum­b­le glan­ces just be­fo­re le­aving Jole­na and Spot­ted Eag­le alo­ne.

After the wo­men left, Spot­ted Eag­le sat down be­si­de Jole­na. Ta­king two wo­oden bowls that had be­en pla­ced clo­se to the fi­re, he lad­led out eno­ugh so­up for them both, then han­ded a bowl and wo­oden spo­on to Jole­na.

"Eat," he sa­id softly. "So­me­ti­mes it is go­od to fe­ed the physi­cal body at ti­mes li­ke this, if not the so­ul."

Jolena nod­ded and to­ok the bowl and spo­on. Wit­ho­ut re­luc­tan­ce she be­gan sip­ping the so­up from the spo­on, fin­ding it rich and de­li­ci­o­us, and in a way it fil­led part of that empty vo­id that the day's events had ca­used. Her ga­ze swept aro­und her. Spot­ted Eag­le's lod­ge was the sa­me as her fat­her'svery lar­ge and han­d­so­me, well sup­pli­ed with par­f­lec­hes, sad­dles, fo­od, ro­bes, and bowls. It was com­for­tab­le and cozy, what Jole­na wo­uld ha­ve ex­pec­ted in the lod­ge of her Blac­k­fo­ot war­ri­or.

Spotted Eag­le ate in si­len­ce, then set his empty bowl asi­de as Jole­na set hers down on the flo­or at her right si­de.

"Tell me how you hap­pe­ned to find our vil­la­ge of Blac­k­fo­ot," Spot­ted Eag­le then as­ked, not ab­le to hold in the qu­es­ti­ons that we­re eating away at him any lon­ger. "Tell me what you know abo­ut Two Rid­ges' fe­eling to­ward you."

Jolena tur­ned her eyes slowly to Spot­ted Eag­le. "I, too, ha­ve qu­es­ti­ons," she mur­mu­red. "And, dar­ling, do you re­mem­ber how we ha­ve both sa­id that we sho­uld ne­ver ke­ep sec­rets from each ot­her? I will tell you things that ne­ed to be sa­id, if you will al­so empty yo­ur he­art of fe­elings that are tro­ub­ling you."

"About Two Rid­ges?" Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, stret­c­hing one long, le­an leg out be­fo­re him, le­aning back so that he was res­ting on his right el­bow.

"Yes, abo­ut Two Rid­ges," Jole­na sa­id, swal­lo­wing hard.

"Besides myself, you are the only one that will know the truth," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, his vo­ice drawn.

"And you know that it will go no far­t­her," Jole­na sa­id, mo­ving to her kne­es be­si­de him. She ga­zed in­ten­sely in­to Spot­ted Eag­le's eyes. "Dar­ling, what I ha­ve to say can hurt you de­eply."

"The hurt is al­re­ady the­re," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id. " Kyi. I know of Two Rid­ges' fe­elings to­ward you. I know that he in­ten­ded to kill me be­ca­use of you, yet I find it hard to know the exact re­ason he felt that this was ne­ces­sary."

Jolena lo­we­red her eyes and aga­in swal­lo­wed hard, trying to find the co­ura­ge to tell him what she ne­eded to thrust from wit­hin her, so that she co­uld enj­oy so­me sem­b­lan­ce of pe­ace aga­in. She wan­ted to be free to be happy with her be­lo­ved war­ri­or and to be a part of her true pe­op­le.

She ra­ised her chin and lo­oked Spot­ted Eag­le squ­are in the eye aga­in. "I was thrown from my wa­gon on the day of the ac­ci­dent," she ex­p­la­ined. "Two Rid­ges fo­und me be­fo­re you did. He to­ok me to a ca­ve." She was fin­ding the story dif­fi­cult to tell, be­ca­use tel­ling it se­emed the sa­me as re­li?

?ving it.

But she fi­nal­ly fo­und the co­ura­ge to con­ti­nue.

"Two Rid­ges was gen­t­le at first," she sa­id, her vo­ice soft and qu­ave­ring. "But then… then he be­gan kis­sing and to­uc­hing me. He tri­ed to ra­pe me, Spot­ted Eag­le. I… fo­und a rock. I hit him over the he­ad, then es­ca­ped."

A qu­ick ra­ge he­ated up Spot­ted Eag­le's in­si­des. His eyes we­re lit with fi­re as he sat up and re­ac­hed for Jole­na's hands and clut­c­hed them tightly. "He did that?" he sa­id, his jaw tight. "Two Rid­ges was ca­pab­le of even that sort of de­ce­it?"

"You won­de­red what wo­uld ma­ke him fe­el that it was ne­ces­sary to kill you?" Jole­na sa­id, te­ars stre­aming down her che­eks. "He co­uld not fa­ce you kno­wing the truth, and he knew that I wo­uld tell you if ever I had the chan­ce. He had to know that it wo­uld be eit­her you or he who wo­uld die. I don't gu­ess he li­ked the odds. By am­bus­hing you, he was go­ing to be su­re that you di­ed, in­s­te­ad of him."

She le­aned clo­ser to him. "That's how it hap­pe­ned, isn't it?" she softly cri­ed. "He was go­ing to kill you and ac­ci­den­tal­ly got in the way of the Cree's ar­row? He wo­uld ha­ve ne­ver stop­ped the ar­row on pur­po­se. He wo­uld ha­ve al­lo­wed the Cree to kill you to ke­ep from ha­ving to do it him­self."

"You are right," Spot­ted Eag­le ac­k­now­led­ged, re­le­asing her hands. He le­aned over the fi­re and stac­ked mo­re wo­od on­to the fla­mes. "Two Rid­ges did not know of the Cree's pre­sen­ce. When Two Rid­ges ra­ised his kni­fe to kill me, the Cree's ar­row is what stop­ped him from ta­king my li­fe."