Comanche Dawn (75 page)

“What then is my work?” Horseback asked.

“Think of questions the spirits would ask you. Think of Sound-the-Sun-Makes. Think of the Land of the River of Arrowheads where the grass grows and buffalo number like stars. Think of the Land of Hills and Timber, where the lesser deer lives and honey flows from hollow trees. Think of the life you will leave for your grandchildren's grandchildren. Farewell, my friend. I will keep your pony ready for you.”

Raccoon-Eyes had turned and walked into a mist that shrouded the pass to the Shadow Land, and Horseback's dream for the rest of the long night was a dream of this mist.

Now he sat on this bluff and looked over the good Land of the River of Arrowheads. He smoked the last of his tobacco and rose to swing up on his pony, a son of Medicine-Coat. Riding down the gently sloping back side of the bluff, he circled to his camp and staked his pony downwind to keep dust out of the cook fires and lodges. He walked into camp and found his wives tending to a buffalo hide.

They were working the heavy robe through a small wooden circle made of a branch bent and tied into a hoop. The hoop was lashed vertically to a scaffold with rawhide, and the women would pull the hide one way, then the other, through the loop, using all their strength to force it through, for the loop was small and the hide fit tightly through it. This would make the robe soft.

Horseback smiled. They worked well together—Teal, Dipper, and Sunshade—often laughing and calling one another sister. Yet, each had her own special talents that she worked at improving. One wife alone would not have had the time to develop such special talents, but one wife among three did.

Teal had learned better than anyone how to train dogs to pull the pole-drags for babies' cradle boards. Mothers from all over the camp wanted dogs trained by Teal, and she traded these dogs for many good things. She also owned her own ponies that she trained to pull the sturdy pony-drags she built.

Dipper liked to sit quietly and work on things like moccasins and shirts, making exquisite quill work, and a new kind of work with beads obtained from the Metal Men.

Sunshade liked to cook, and made almost all the meals enjoyed by Horseback, his wives, their children, and Horseback's Mother, Looks Away, who always ate with Horseback's family.

In addition to these, each wife possessed her own special talents when wrapped in a robe with her husband at night, but Horseback did not mention these, for fear of making his wives jealous of one another.

He stalked within hearing distance of his wives and said, “Teal. I wish to speak with my sits-beside wife.”

Teal left the other two women to work with the hide and followed Horseback to his lodge. He sat inside, and she sat beside him.

“I will call the warriors together in a council lodge. I have had a dream vision. I want you and your sister wives to listen outside the lodge when I speak.”

“Will you go to make war?” she asked.

“Listen, woman, and you will know. Now, go.”

*   *   *

The seasoned men of the Horseback People gathered in the council lodge and smoked. They all looked at Horseback as he rose. He stood there a long time before he spoke. When he began, he looked northward, as if he could see a long way, though the fine cow hides of the council lodge closed all around him.

“When I was a little boy, in the old country of long winters, I saw the best warriors of the Burnt Meat People die defending their women, their children, and their lodges. These men were brave, but our enemies numbered like flocks of geese, and they carried away our women and babies and burned our lodges. The Northern Raiders, the Crow, the Flathead, the Wolf People, and even the
Yutas,
who are now our allies. When I was a boy, the enemies of my people were powerful.

“Now, the True Humans who have come to this new place are powerful. We use the strength of our ponies. It is good here. We eat until our bellies are full. We carry battle to our enemies. We do not move our camp to get away from them.”

He paused to look at the prideful visages of his friends. “Yet, I am weary of war with the
Na-vohnuh.
I see young warriors go to count coups and take scalps, yet come back tied to the backs of their ponies. No man wants to die old. But, no boy should die so young.

“I have had a dream vision. A friend has come to visit me from the Shadow Land. I have thought about this dream. I know what it means. I have avenged my grandfathers' grandfathers. No longer must I carry on the ancient war with the
Na-vohnuh.
The battles I fight with them in days to come will be for reasons of now, not reasons of long-ago. Yes, I will raid their camps and take their ponies. I will strike and kill any who challenge me. I will take swift vengeance on any who violate my peace. But, no longer will I kill
Na-vohnuh
warriors to avenge my ancestors. The spirits tell me that I have killed enough. The ancient war is over.”

Horseback paused to give his words the weight of stone. He lifted his arms, and shook the long fringes of buckskin on the beautiful antelope-skin shirt Dipper had made for him. “I have found a good new land—the Land of Hills and Timber—far to the south and east. Our enemies hold this land, but my people will take it. The spirits have told me how. We will camp here in the valley of the River of Arrowheads when the hunting for buffalo is good. We will camp in the Land of Hills and Timber when the winters are cold. We will make a trail between these places, and camp wherever we wish to camp along this trail. If our enemies attack us in our camps, we will rub them out.

“This trail between the River of Arrowheads and the Land of Hills and Timber will divide the
Na-vohnuh
nation. It will drive them apart. Some east, some west. They will fear crossing this trail. These
Na-vohnuh
are weak and foolish. They fight among themselves. They do not know how to rise together, though they number far greater than the True Humans who have come to this country.

“There is only one chief among the
Na-vohnuh
who has the power to harm our people. He has gathered many warriors of many
Na-vohnuh
bands. He is sly and cruel. He skulks like a coyote, yet he is as dangerous as a great bear. He keeps many warriors around him to protect him, for he does not have the courage to act alone.

“I have the courage.”

Horseback took the time to look at each man's face. The elders sat with mist in their eyes, remembering their own days of strength and bravery. The veteran warriors appeared rigid and ready to fight, their eyes bright and jaws taut Among them were Trotter and Bear Heart, who had seen much danger and warfare with Horseback. The younger warriors leaned forward with their heads turned, like eager birds listening for the next sound. Among the youngest was Horseback's son, Sandhill, who had made his first hunt, and was eager for his first fight.

“When I was a boy,” Horseback said, “The Northern Raiders killed a great warrior of the Burnt Meat People. This warrior's brother went to avenge the killing. The avenger's spirit-guides told him he must take just one scalp as revenge for his brother's death, and though he wanted to kill the whole Northern Raider nation, he honored his spirits. His shadow made more noise than he did as he crept into the camp of those who had killed his brother. He took one scalp, and left his arrow between the heads of two others who did not wake. This warrior was a great man. Greater than great.

“I am going to kill Battle Scar. I go alone. When Battle Scar is dead, the
Na-vohnuh
will be weaker than weak, and never again will the True Humans think of losing this good country. The old war of our ancestors will be a memory. The new war of now will begin. I am Horseback. I have spoken.”

68

He rode the son
of Medicine-Coat through the pass in the Rat Mountains, taking care to watch for trails of the sacred deer. The pony traveled at a good smooth walk that matched the trot of lesser mounts. Through the broad valley of antelopes he rode to Five Sleeps Mountain, Seven Sleeps Mountain, and Rabbit Ears Mountain, stopping often to smoke and pray.

At the valley of Red Water, he saw a distant camp and recognized the lodges of Whip's people. He saw some warriors riding toward him so he built a fire and piled on green cedar branches to make smoke. Using his saddle blanket, he collected the smoke and sent the signals into the air.
Noomah. Horseback. I go alone.
The warriors from Whip's camp turned back to their lodges. Horseback felt sad, remembering how he had once smoked out rabbits with Whip, long before Whip's heart went bad.

He turned down the river and rode two sleeps and three smokes, until he knew he was near Battle Scar's village. Then he dismounted and hobbled his horse. “Listen, pony. Stay in the timber where your coat matches the shadows. I leave the power of the Shadow-Dog behind. This night, I will use the courage and stealth of my father. When I return, I will bring you a plump mare to breed, and a fresh scalp to sniff, so you will smell the evil blood of my enemies, and learn to hate them as I do.”

He painted his body black and waited for Father Sun to plunge his fiery head beyond the west. Then he felt for the medicine bundle in his loin skins, and walked down the river valley. He went cautiously, staying just under the rim of the river breaks where he could sneak through bushes and timber and stay in the darkest shadows. When the last wisps of twilight had melted from the sky, he had to stop and wait for the moon, for the earth had grown black.

He prayed as he waited, and asked Sound-the-Sun-Makes for courage and
puha.
Horseback knew what happened to men killed at night. The same thing that happened to those who died of drowning or choking. Their souls became trapped in their rotting bodies, never to know the Shadow Land. If he failed tonight, his loneliness and shame would last forever.

When the moon rose, half-full, Horseback continued toward the village of Battle Scar. He crept like a lion, for he knew Battle Scar posted scouts. Soon, he breathed his first whiff of the village. It smelled bad, for the
Na-vohnuh
had to stay in the same place from planting time to harvest time, and the stench of their dogs and horses and their own defecations mounted until it rivaled the smell of a putrid, stinking carcass. He was wrinkling his nose at this smell when he saw the scout.

He might have stumbled upon the young warrior, had the enemy not crouched under a dirt bank to strike a Spanish
chispa.
The sparks flew from it in a flash, and the guard was seen making a small fire which he left burning only long enough to light a short deer antler pipe—but long enough to reveal the musket the warrior cradled.

Horseback smiled. The spirits were with him. Now this foolish young scout had fire ghosts in his eyes and would not see. He was hiding under the dirt bank to conceal his fire and his pipe embers from his own people, so that he would not be punished, never thinking that an enemy warrior might see what he hid from his own village.

Horseback crept down the riverbank, keeping out of sight, making no noise at all except for the passing of his own breath and the slight grind of soil under his moccasins. He came to the edge of the river, and slipped in, causing less sound than the river itself. He crouched in the shallow water until his eyes came just above the surface, and let the current carry him downstream. The stream was cool, but Horseback had learned to swim in icy waters when he was a boy. As he drifted with the current, staying in the shadows of the timber, he could see the orange embers of the young scout's pipe on the riverbank above.

He drifted past the corn fields, to the edge of the village, and crawled gradually out of the river, moving so slowly that his face had dried by the time his feet left the water. Now he studied the lodges. He saw a dog sleeping. He heard a pony stamp a foot, for the
Na-vohnuh
warriors kept a few of their best mounts tied in their village. Looking across the tops of the lodges, Horseback saw one in the middle that stood higher than the others, and knew this was Battle Scar's, for the chief liked to surround himself with warriors, and let no one raise a lodge taller than his own.

A child cried in one of the lodges, and Horseback rose to his feet. He passed a stand of three lances holding shields and quivers, and fought off the urge to urinate on the enemy weapons. He walked on silently, stopping often to crouch in the shadows of a lodge or a lone
sohoobi
sapling or a brush sunshade the
Na-vohnuh
had erected.

He saw someone pass among the lodges ahead, whether man or woman, he could not say. He was only three lodges away from Battle Scar's when a snarl ripped through the silence and a whirlwind of fur rushed upon him with teeth popping. The dog sprang, taking Horseback's forearm in its jaws, but his knife was already in his hand, and he slashed upward, cutting deep through the throat. The dog yelped briefly, and Horseback lifted it, clamping his grip hard around its mouth and nostrils. He held the kicking legs above the ground as the hot blood of the dog bathed him.

A man in the nearest lodge scolded the dog in strange
Na-vohnuh
words, but did not come outside. In the same lodge, a woman mimicked the yelp of the dog and giggled. Horseback held the dog until his muscles burned, for the animal was heavy, and he wanted to make sure it would not move when he put it down. His heart pounded furiously, as the couple in the lodge carried on, murmurring and laughing, and he had to call upon his spirit-protector to keep his legs from trembling.

Finally, the blood ceased to run from the carcass of the dog, and Horseback let it slowly settle to the dirt. He rested in the shadow of a tree and watched Battle Scar's lodge. He moved closer, walking to the next shadow as if he belonged in this village. He heard noises coming from Battle Scar's lodge and knew the old chief was coupling with a woman. He waited, wondering what to do next. The spirits gave no answers, so he waited longer. He took up a position where he could watch the entry to Battle Scar's lodge, yet could duck behind a deer hide lashed to a scaffold should anyone come out of the lodge. I will avenge you, sacred deer. There was also a small wood pile to crouch behind. He would wait here, and watch, and seek his chance.