Jubal Sackett (1985) (29 page)

What do the women of his people do when they are in love? How does a woman join a man in his land? Do they use the oak and the laurel as well? I do not think so.

Keokotah does not know. His Englishman never talked of that. I do not think men talk of brides and weddings and things that mean much to women. I do not think they speak of these things among themselves. I think they only speak of weapons, of hunting and war. Perhaps some talk of women, too.

He wears the claws of the cougar he killed, since Keokotah has given them to him. Only a great warrior could do what he has done, but he does not speak of it. At night beside the fire when the wind blows cold, our people tell stories of warpaths and fighting, and he listens but does not speak of what he has done.

When the Spanishman was here, the one called Gomez, he seemed suddenly jealous. I was pleased, perhaps foolishly.

Perhaps he does not know his own mind. Perhaps he does not wish to know.

I must make him see me.

Today the cold is not as great. No snow falls. The peaks are icy against the pale blue sky. He has gone to look over the other valley, but I do not think our enemies will come from there but from the valley that runs off to the south, where we killed the buffalo. That was where we were seen.

One of my warriors would have killed a young buffalo bull today, but Jubal would not allow it. He stopped the warrior, which made him angry, but then he walked out to the buffalo and went right up to it. He stood beside it and rubbed its head with his hand!

When he returned to us he said, "Never touch that one. It is a medicine bull."

The angry warrior was frightened when he knew what he might have done. The buffalo followed Jubal almost to our lodge, and then went away when he told it to. Jubal spent much time rubbing its back, talking to it.

The buffalo did not go away. I saw him again when the sun was low, standing in the snow, looking toward our lodge.

It is a good place. From a hundred feet away I could not see our lodge, and we have been careful not to make a path leading to it. We come out walking on stones and from the end of the small forest where it is. I believe we will stay here until the spring comes.

When darkness fell we were alone on the snow. I thought he might see me, but he only looked at the sky and the mountains.

"Tomorrow will be fair," he said. "We must be on watch. I think they will come."

He stood back and looked at our lodge and where it stood. "It is well hidden," he said.

Our eyes met and he looked quickly away. "You are a Sun," he said suddenly.

"I am a woman," I said.

He looked at me again and said, "Yes, you certainly are."

A little snow blew from a spruce, drifting down over us. "I must not keep you standing in the cold," he said. "Yours is a warmer country than this."

The buffalo bull stood watching us. "We killed its mother," he said. "It has no one else. Its mother disappeared and I was there."

"You are strange man," I said. I could believe he was a Ni'kwana among his own people, for he had power over animals. It truly was a medicine bull, for no buffalo ever, ever followed a man or let a man approach it.

We started back to the lodge, and then I slipped on the ice. I fell, and he caught me. For a moment he held me, his arm around my waist, and then he helped me get my feet on the snow, let go of me, and stepped back. His face was flushed. "Are you all right?" he asked.

"Oh, yes! It was the ice," I said.

I was all right. I was more all right than ever. I thanked in my thoughts the Indian girl I saw do that back on the Great River. It was a silly thing for a woman to do, especially when there was no ice.

Chapter
Twenty-Seven.

Alone I sought a place among the silent peaks, following a frozen stream where snow on either side banked the trees to their icy necks. My snowshoes whispered on the snow, and blown flakes touched my cheeks with cold fingers. This was no place for men, but a place for gods to linger, a place to wait in silence for the world to end.

Pausing, I shivered, looking along the vast hollow between the peaks and across the valley beyond to even mightier mountains. It was a place of majesty and rare beauty, but there was no game here, no tracks of either animals or birds. The wind hung a veil of snow across the scene and then dropped it casually aside, as though it had not been.

My family could thrive in Grassy Cove. For myself, if someday I built a home, this valley would be the place for it. The thought came unbidden and unexpected, and I tried to keep it from my mind, but the valley lay there, a vast expanse of snow broken by trees, and a fringe of trees clung like eyelashes to the calm, still face of the mountains. To go further now would be foolish and no doubt time wasted, yet I did push on, to get a better glimpse of the valley.

Then for a long time I stood looking and thinking what it must be like with the snow gone and the valley all green with summer. It was a thing to think about. Then I turned, starting back.

What was I looking for? Another place like Shooting Creek? This was infinitely more vast, far more lonely, but a man could find a place here. I'd have to come back when the grass was green.

The way back was downhill most of the distance I'd come, and once far off I saw a deer floundering in the snow. The meat would be poor at this time of year and after a hard winter, but I would be glad of anything. It was growing late and I had miles to go.

In the late afternoon, the trees were black against the snow, the sky a dull gray, flat and cold to the horizon. If I had broken my leg in such a place as this I'd never have survived. So I moved with care, avoiding things that seemed to lie under the snow, whether fallen trees or rocks, one did not know.

Glancing up at the high shoulders of the mountain, its head sunk between them for protection, I knew no matter how quiet and serene it looked that there was endless war up there, a war of the winds from whatever direction, and they would be no gentle winds. As if to answer my thought, a veil of snow lifted from the mountain and blew itself away down the country. I shivered again and was glad when I came to the shelter of trees.

I did not like coming home without meat, for there would be hungry eyes looking for me and expecting more than I could give, but there was nothing. I had seen that one deer, far off, and nothing else. It was cold, too cold to be out, too cold for animals to be moving.

I took off my snowshoes and stood them near the opening and stamped the snow from my feet before I went in. There had been only a trail of smoke above the lodge, but inside it was warm and quiet.

Keokotah looked up when I entered and shrugged. He had been out, I knew, and had found nothing. Nor had the others.

No matter when spring came, it would not be soon enough.

Yet I thought of the valley. When the weather broke I would go over there. It was far away, not as close as it had seemed in all that endless white. I would find a trail where bears went, or deer. There might even be buffalo over there, although they did not favor the mountain valleys.

Itchakomi looked at me and there was something in her expression, something I could not place, but it left me uneasy. I went to my place and sat down, not asking for food. There would be little enough of that.

There was no talking in the lodge that day, and less moving about. From time to time one of us ventured into the cold to look for enemies, but they, too, must have been remaining inside.

When I ventured out just after daybreak a few stars still lingered. But the sky was clear, and when the sun arose, it was warm. By midmorning there were edges of melt around some of the rocks and on the south sides of the trees. By midday it was warm and quite pleasant. Two of the Natchee left at once to hunt down the valley, and two more went back to our former home.

It was a risk, but there might be game there, and none of us wished to starve.

Keokotah came to join me where I repaired my snow-shoes. "Now they come. The young men will be eager for war. They will wish to take scalps, to count coup, to win honors. You see it."

"We must be ready."

"You go among the mountains then?"

For a moment I stopped working and looked through the trees at the far-off mountainside. Would I go? I shied from the question.

"There is a valley over there," I gestured. "I want to see it."

"Only a valley?" There was amusement in his eyes. "Or a place to build a lodge?"

I flushed. "Well, it would be a good place. I just thought I'd have a look. After all, it's a place I haven't seen."

The days grew warmer, and the snow melted. There were slides in the higher mountains, and suddenly there were buds on the trees and a showing of green on the distant hills.

Spring was born with a trickling of water from melting snow and a dancing in the air. At home in Shooting Creek they would be opening all the doors and windows to rid themselves of bad air captured during the winter months, and hanging out the bedding, too. There were always times when doors and windows could be opened, but the circulation of air in the cabins was never good enough. We had no problem with that here, for soon the men were sleeping under the trees.

Keokotah was hunting in and around the scraggy peaks, and two of the Natchee had gone to the valley again.

One Natchee indicated my buffalo, feeding on the slope not far off. "Eat?"

"No," I said. "He's a friend, a pet."

"We hungry."

"There will be meat."

"No meat, we eat him."

For a moment I stared at him. "He has followed me because he trusts me. He eats from my hand. I will not have him killed."

Fortunately, Keokotah came back with a young bear. It was not enough for so many, but it took the edge from our hunger. The Ponca woman caught fish in the stream, now free of ice, and then Unstwita came back with meat from a big buck.

It was a clear, cloudless day, and we had eaten well. It was a good time to lie in the sun and soak up some of the heat we had missed in the winter.

Itchakomi had walked out from the lodge, going toward the river that went from us down to the lower valley where our first home had been. She was still not far and I was watching her. Suddenly she turned and started back, and then she started to run.

"Keokotah!"I was on my feet, reaching for an arrow.

A warrior ran at Itchakomi. Then another sprang from the brush near her. My arrow took the first one, but then they were coming from everywhere. Dropping my bow, I drew my Italian pistols. Lifting the first gun, I took careful aim and fired.

The Indian at whom I shot was nearest to me. Another had already grabbed Itchakomi, but at the thundering report of my gun, all heads turned, our own people as well as theirs. In that instant when he was off guard, Itchakomi jerked free and stabbed the man who had seized her.

The man at whom I shot dropped in his tracks. Lowering the pistol for the load to drop in place, I lifted it and fired again.

My targets were standing, stricken with astonishment. Some of them had no doubt heard the Spanish guns but had not expected anything of the kind here. One by one I fired the guns, and three men were down before they took cover, the echoes of the first shot still racketing against the hills.

Itchakomi came to me, running.

In just that first moment of attack the effect had been catastrophic for them. Four men were down, two wounded, two dead. Itchakomi's attacker, badly hurt, was crawling away. Then struggling to his feet he disappeared into the brush.

My guns had been a total surprise, but this attack was not over. They had retreated merely to take stock of the situation. I said as much to Itchakomi. "It is only the beginning. They will not be surprised next time."

Back inside the lodge I reloaded my pistols. My powder horn was still more than half full, but I'd have to find a place to make powder.

How many were out there? I glanced around at Itchakomi. "How many?"

"Many! Too many!"

An Indian that I had wounded was starting to crawl away, but I let him go. I could not make out where my bullet had struck him. I had aimed simply for his body but thought I had shot low and right. That last had been a hurried shot, and I should not permit myself such waste. Each shot must score a kill.

All was still. The sun was warm, the snow melting. Soon it would be gone. I replaced my pistols in their scabbards and took up the bow.

Keokotah came to me as I emerged from the lodge. "They wait." He paused, his black eyes sweeping the terrain before him. "I think they come soon."

We waited, our men formed around in a circle, well into the woods near the lodge, waiting for an attack that was long in coming.

"I think they come closer," Keokotah said. "This time no time. They come quick."

I agreed, and waited, and waited.

My stomach felt hollow and my mouth dry. If they were many and they attacked from close in we might all be killed. I felt for my knife, for it would come to that. They would not attack from a distance this time, but would be upon us at once. My guns, if I used them, would get off no more than one hasty shot each. I dared not take a chance on having one wrested from me.