Comanche Dawn (6 page)

She slashed through the front of her old deerskin dress, drawing thin blood from her sagging breasts. She was on her knees, facing the crevice where Wounded Bear had been lowered. Her back was to the warriors who had lowered the old man, and she was trilling a song of death that had come from her old nation, the Wolf People, with whom she had lived before Wounded Bear captured her and made her good. Her song ended, her head bowed, and she tossed the knife aside for someone else to use. Her arms dangled motionless at her side.

From the canyon floor, Black Horn watched as two warriors drew their bows. They looked odd in the evening light, colored by strange powers. Their arrows struck so close together that their points must have met in the old woman's heart. She tumbled silently into the crevice with Wounded Bear, and the shadow of the faraway mountains chilled the canyon rim.

Shadow looked at his uncle.

“She goes with him,” the dying warrior said.

Shadow nodded. Never again would he speak his grandparents' names: Wounded Bear. Broken Bones. Even the thought of them upon his tongue filled him with a dread of unknown ghost things. There had once been a band of True Humans called the Snake Lodge People. They had changed this name to Crawling-on-the-Ground-Lodge People after one of their warriors, called Snake Man, had died. Shadow had been made to understand things like this, for to speak the names of the dead was to call upon terrible magic from other strange worlds.

“They were a burden to your father,” Black Horn added. He saw Looks Away coming with a buffalo bladder used to hold water. She also had a piece of fur and a feather. “Go now, Shadow. Go wait for your father to return. He will hear the songs of mourning from the camp, and he will want to know right away that you and your mother are well.” Black Horn managed to smile at his nephew before the boy turned away from him for the last time.

Looks Away knelt beside Black Horn and carefully poured the water into his mouth. He could not drink much.

“I brought this eagle feather to protect you from evil,” Looks Away said, weaving the feather into the thin braided scalp lock falling from the top of his head. “And the fur of a weasel, also.”

Black Horn sighed with relief, confident now that his step into the Shadow Land would take away the pain of the Fire Stick. He would hunt and eat in the Shadow Land. Hunt and eat.

“Looks Away, hear me. Is my brother near?”

“Shaggy Hump is coming. A runner has seen the dust from his horses in the sky.”

“Good.” Black Horn paused to find more breath. “You will go to my brother tonight.”

“I go with you, my husband. I go to the Shadow Land.” She pointed toward the bluff, now black in shadows, where Broken Bones had followed her old husband.

“No. Hear me. You will go to Shaggy Hump's lodge tonight, while River Woman mourns under the moon.”

Looks Away bowed her head. “When I went to Shaggy Hump's lodge before—the time River Woman was in the lodge for unclean women—she found out that you had sent me to your brother's lodge and was very angry at me, though I was only doing what you told me to do.”

Black Horn would have chuckled, except that he knew it would cause too much pain. “Were you not angry at River Woman when my brother sent her to sleep in my lodge while he was away hunting sheep? It is the way for brothers to share their wives. It is the way for wives to be angry about it at first. But it is a good way, for now you will go to live with a new husband who is no stranger to you. Shaggy Hump and River Woman will remember this day as the day many burdens were lifted from them. Now there are no old ones for them to feed, and so there will be more to eat for their children, Shadow and Mouse. In the days behind us, River Woman worked hard with all the many skins Shaggy Hump brought for her to make into robes. In the days ahead she will have the help of another wife. It will please her in time.”

Looks Away put her face to the ground, and held Black Horn's hand with both of her own. “I do not want to be Shaggy Hump's wife. I want to go with you to the Shadow Land.”

“The spirits do not care what you want. I have seen this day in dreams. This is the day you go to my brother's lodge. You will serve and please my brother, and you will take special care with Shadow, and teach him well the ways of the True Humans. He was born on the day the spirits sent First Horse. His medicine will be strong, but he must be taught to use it well. He must be shown how not to offend the spirits.”

Looks Away remained bowed before Black Horn, silent.

“Do you hear, woman?”

She raised her head and looked into his eyes. “Yes, my husband.”

“You will do one more thing. You will teach Shadow the language of the
Yutas.
The
Yutas
have many more horses than the True Humans. Shadow may trade with them in times of truce, or steal from them in time of war. A knowledge of their language will serve him well. Do you hear your husband, woman?”

“Yes, I hear. I will teach him.”

Black Horn's mouth smiled, but the smile turned to a grimace as a wave of pain twisted his insides. He waited for it to pass, then said, “You are a good wife, Looks Away.”

5

Shaggy Hump sat upon
his horse on the rim of Red Canyon. He had read the story of the battle in the stains of blood upon the ground. Now his brother, Black Horn, was wedged in a crevice near Wounded Bear and Broken Bones, sitting upright in his bound buffalo robe, waiting to see the sun rise in the Shadow Land. Shaggy Hump could still remember his brother's dying words:

“My brother, I have failed. I scouted ahead for the enemy, but I should have looked a second time, for the Northern Raiders crept to the canyon rim after I first scouted there. This pain of the Fire Stick is meant to punish me. Beware of the Fire Stick, my brother. It has bad medicine.”

He had slipped into the World of Dreams, then into the World of Spirits, the Land of Shadows.

Now the Burnt Meat People were moving south again, away from invasion by more Northern Raiders, who were sure to come. Shaggy Hump and his hunters had returned with two butchered buffalo cows to a camp in the grips of insensible sorrow. There were no reasons to stay here longer, and many reasons to leave.

Beside him, his son, Shadow, straddled the horse his grandfather had been shot from the day before. “Look long at this place, my son. This is the place of your birth.” Shaggy Hump pointed down to the canyon floor. “The birthing lodge was there when First Horse made a sacred circle around it, and then you were born. Remember this place well, because we will never return here. This place has gone bad for us, like many places we have left before. We must give this place to the ghosts, or they will follow and haunt us in terrible dreams when the moon rises.”

The Burnt Meat People were out of the canyon now and moving back across the high ground. It was the same ground they had crossed yesterday, but now they were weary and deep in sorrow. River Woman carried the cradle board on her back this morning, and the baby girl, Mouse, was crying. She could not reach far enough over her shoulder to put her hand over her daughter's mouth and quiet her crying. Though Shaggy Hump had taken River Woman as his wife largely because of her beauty, she appeared ugly this morning with all her hair cut off and her eyes swollen from mourning her dead parents.

Behind her walked Looks Away, who had come to Shaggy Hump last night as Black Horn lay dying. He would never have taken a second wife as long as River Woman's parents were alive, for it would only have meant another stomach to fill. Now everything had changed in the time it took the moon to cross the sky. In time, it would be well. Looks Away was quiet, and not as strong or as fiery as River Woman, but it was good to feel a different woman under him, and she would take some of the burdens of a wife's duties from River Woman. In time, River Woman would see that this way was good.

Looks Away had mourned quietly, but Shaggy Hump knew her sorrow was real. When Black Horn died, at dawn, she had cut her hair over his resting place and stared into the crevice with vacant eyes, tears streaming.

“He was your husband,” River Woman said, turning suddenly to face Looks Away. “You did not even cry out. You are no wife for a warrior! You did not even cut yourself! Coward! You should have gone with him!”

Shaggy Hump saw the angry eyes of River Woman glance his way, to make sure he had heard.

“Do not walk so close behind me!” River Woman struck Looks Away with a stick she used to guide the dogs. “You are so ugly that you make my baby cry!”

This was a bad day for both women, Shaggy Hump thought. It was well that he would not have to listen to River Woman torment Looks Away all day on the trail. He was going instead to avenge his brother and bring home his brother's horse.

“Father,” Shadow said. “Do the True Humans have many enemies?”

“Yes,” Shaggy Hump said. “Like the snowflakes of a long winter. They are bitter and cold against us. Where the sun rises live the Wolf People. Where it sets are the Crow and Flathead. To the north lie the camps of the White Knives and Northern Raiders, and in the south, the
Yutas.
The
Noomah
have no friends. We trade with the Raccoon-Eyed People and the Mandan, it is true, but these people will not fight our wars with us. Every way we turn, we must fight. If we do not fight, we shall die, and our families shall die before our eyes, as you have now seen, my son.”

“The Northern Raiders must be our fiercest enemies,” Shadow said.

Shaggy Hump thought some time before he answered, and he watched many people, dogs, and lodge poles pass. “No,” he said, finally. “There is one much worse, called
Na-vohnuh.
”

“Where do these enemies live, my father?”

“I do not know. I have never seen one.”

“Are they like the
Nenupee?
”

“No. The
Nenupee
are little people, standing only as tall as my knee. They come out only at night, and they shoot arrows that always kill. They are very evil, so beware of them in the night, and stay near your lodge.”

“The
Na-vohnuh
are large people?”

“They stand as tall as I stand, as tall as you one day shall stand, my son. They do not have the evil medicine of the
Nenupee,
but they are cruel. In days long behind us, days of our grandfathers' grandfathers, the
Noomah
and the
Na-vohnuh
were always at war. The
Na-vohnuh
killed whole villages of True Humans to feast upon their flesh. Others they tortured slowly, keeping them alive for days.”

“Where have they gone?”

“Somewhere in the south. That is all I know. The wars with the
Na-vohnuh
were long ago. No one remembers where the
Na-vohnuh
may now be found. But, there have been
puhakuts
among the True Humans,
puhakuts
with strong visions, who say we will meet the terrible
Na-vohnuh
again in war.”

“How will we know the
Na-vohnuh,
Father?”

“By the way they call our kind. They call us
Idahi.
Speak this, that you may remember, my son.”

“
Idahi,
” Shadow said.

“Our fathers have told us to remember this name. It means Snake People in the tongue of the
Na-vohnuh,
for they would step upon us like snakes. We will know them by this name they call us and by their customs.”

“What customs, Father?”

“Strange customs, my son. The warriors cut all the hair off above their ear on the bow side, and grow it very long on the arrow side. Remember this, so you will know them at a glance. They remove the eggs of lice from their clothing with their teeth, making the eggs pop between their teeth. And, so the old storytellers say, their penises are infested with maggots!”

Shadow gasped.

“When the True Humans find these
Na-vohnuh,
my son, we must drive them away from their hunting grounds. We must kill their warriors and destroy their villages. They are terrible people who cast evil spells on anyone who shows them mercy. I hope I am still alive when we find them, for I want to scalp plenty of them!”

Shadow seemed less troubled after hearing his father boast his love for battle, and the two of them watched as the last pole-drag passed, its tracks plain on the ground to either side of the paw prints of the dog that pulled it.

“You must go with your mother now, Shadow. And I must trail the Northern Raiders. When I see you again, we will have a scalp dance!”

Shadow rode away in a lope to catch up with his mother. Shaggy Hump smiled, proud of his son's riding ability. The boy moved with the loping pony like a bird clutching the branch of a tree that waved in the wind. He watched his son ride away, then turned northward to find a secluded place where he could pray to his guardian spirits to guide him into battle.

*   *   *

The moon was right when Shaggy Hump found the enemy warriors two sleeps north of the Canyon of Red Rock. It was the time of the Moon Wearing Away, when his enemies would sleep most soundly. The Raiders were packing buffalo meat back to their village on the horse they had stolen from Black Horn.

It had been easy to follow them, for their burden had made the tracks of the horse press hard against the ground. Still, Shaggy Hump had ridden carefully, dismounting before every rise to crawl ahead and look for the enemy warriors. In this way he had found the smoke of their fire just before sunset, climbing up from some timber along a stream, then turning to trail away on a high breeze, looking like a gray snake hanging over a ledge. He was among the foothills of the Mountains of Bighorn Sheep—a place Shaggy Hump had visited only once before, for it was well within the range of the Northern Raiders.

He left his horse many arrow shots away and crawled closer to get a look at the enemy, keeping his head below the tops of the sage bushes. The stream and the timber poured out of the mouth of a canyon here, making a good place to camp. He could see that the Raiders had wrapped the body of the warrior Black Horn had killed in a fresh buffalo hide. This told Shaggy Hump that the main enemy camp was near, for the warriors were taking the body home instead of burying it here. Beside the body lay the warrior Black Horn had cut across the belly with his white flint knife. The other three warriors were unhurt, and one kept the Fire Stick forever at his side.