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  I said, “Kitsizil Lichoo’ and Beela-chezzi speak wise words. I also think we must do this. When I can ride, we’ll go to the camp of Elias. Juanita tells me that after we left, Juh left the stronghold and followed Geronimo to sit with the Blue Coats in the dust at San Carlos. Will you follow your father there?”

  Kitsizil Lichoo’ made a face and shook his head. “If I go to San Carlos, the Indah will see my hair, know I have Indah blood, and insist that I leave the People. This I will not do. I’ll start my own camp in the Blue Mountains north of the Elias camp. I know a good place, hard to find, well hidden. Some of Elias’s warriors want to leave his camp, and others, even Nakai-yes and Indahs, seek the safety of a well-hidden camp. I’ll have enough warriors to stay out of San Carlos, take cattle herds from the hacendados (wealthy land owners), and help Juh when he returns.”

  “You have a good plan. You think the Indah will let Juh leave San Carlos?”

  “They won’t let him, but Juh will return to his stronghold. He doesn’t have much patience with Indah fools.”

  Beela-chezzi and I grinned, and as if with one voice, we said, “Enjuh!”

  CHAPTER 9

  KAH CHOOSES DEER WOMAN

  The hole in my side healed, my strength slowly returning. I wanted to leave to return quickly to get the Comanches in Elias’s camp, but Juanita and Kah said I was too weak for a long ride and might not make it. I looked at Juanita’s swelling belly and decided to wait. Victorio’s war against the Indah and Nakai-yes burned on both sides of the border, and he killed many. Our little camp, we the only ones left in Juh’s stronghold, happy to see Kah, wanted him to stay. He had told us he could not linger and needed to return soon to the great river where Victorio planned to cross and raid into the land of the Tejanos. But for Kah, “soon” became ten days and then a moon.

  He came one day to sit with me by the fire in front of Juanita’s tipi and said nothing as he rolled tobacco in an oak leaf. After we smoked to the four directions, his solemn face told me he came to speak of important things. He said, “Juanita’s belly fills with your child. She is well?”

  “She feels good. Maria, her mother, thinks she will have an easy time and shows signs of making a strong baby.”

  “Enjuh. Have you decided when you’ll return to the reservation?”

  “She’ll have the baby here. Victorio stirs the Blue Coats and Mexicans like an arrow in a nest of hornets. The Blue Coats will stay on the reservation until Victorio makes war no more. The llano in Chihuahua now is no place for a woman filled with a baby. We’ll wait in the stronghold through the Ghost Face Season until the Season of Many Leaves. Maybe then, I can go to the reservation and talk with my friend Blazer. He knows In-dah hearts and can tell me when it will be safe to come back. When will you return to Victorio?”

  Kah crossed his arms and slowly shook his head. “I want to stay with the People. They need me more than Victorio does. The Blue Coats come like floods in arroyos and sweep us away. We kill ten; a hundred, a thousand, more appear. The Mescaleros who left the reservation with Victorio, me among them, soon learned this. Some told Victorio they planned to leave and return to the reservation, that nothing could be done against so many, except shed the blood of a few Indah, and, for that, too many Mescaleros would die. Victorio killed them and asked the rest of us if we wanted to leave, too. We said no, but we lied. Will the people here take me back?”

  I had to smile. “They’re glad you came back. Stay. Help us hunt through the Ghost Face Season. Maybe we can go back to the reservation in the Season of Many Leaves.”

  Kah made a smile on one side of his face. “I’ll stay. Deer Woman? You think she’ll wait for Delgadito? He won’t leave Victorio. He may not come back.”

  I thought a long time before I answered. I decided Kah deserved the truth and my honest opinion. “You know what she did with Delgadito. Whenever he bush crawled, she was there. She even tried to lay with me, and I refused her. I wanted Juanita, and she knew it. Still, she offered to lay with me. Now she has no man and her mother is poor. She is like a widow with little or nothing. Perhaps, if he returns, Delgadito will want her, but only as a second wife, not a first one. She knows this and is like an angry dog because of it. She’ll take your offer. Be generous, and perhaps she’ll stay loyal to you if Delgadito returns. She’s a risk. You decide if you want to take it. If she’s a good wife, you’ll have gained much and have saved her from a long, hard life. She’s a strong woman and can give you comfort and children. If she plays you the fool, cut off the end of her nose and be done with her.”

  Kah listened with a bowed head and nodded when I finished.

  “Will you represent me? Are four ponies enough?”

  When I told Juanita of my talk with Kah and asked if Deer Woman would accept his proposal, she raised a brow and looked away. She turned back smiling and said, “Kah is a lucky man. Deer Woman will make a good wife for him.”

  Since Delgadito had ridden off with Victorio and his warriors, Deer Woman was dour and withdrawn, rarely saying much to anyone. I was sitting by my tipi as the sun fell into the far Blue Mountains. I saw the boy, Ish-kay-neh, lead Kah’s pony, all washed and combed, to the front of the tipi of Deer Woman’s mother, tie it there, and slip away. It was nearly dark when the tipi’s door flap opened and Deer Woman stepped out with her water bucket. When she saw the pony, her free hand covered her mouth in surprise. She stood staring at it a little while before she recognized it, and then looked around to see if anyone was watching. Of course, we all were, but she saw no one, and taking her bucket, wandered off down the path to the little stream.

  Kah’s pony stood tied in front of the tipi of Deer Woman’s mother all the next day. Sometimes in the sun, sometimes in the shade, swishing its tail against infuriating flies, it looked at each passerby, expecting to be watered, but no one gave it water. Sunset came and still the pony stood, its head hanging down in thirst and hunger.

  I watched from my place in the moon’s shadows, listening to the insects and tree peepers as the moon rode across the sky to the top of its arc and began to fall. The blanket covering the door to the tipi of Deer Woman’s mother seemed to float up into the cool, night air, and from under it appeared Deer Woman. She walked to the pony. It lifted its head and ears expectantly as she approached, breathed her breath into its nostrils, scratched behind its ears, and taking the reins led it down the path to the creek.

  When Deer Woman and the pony returned, she had a tied bundle of grama grass under her arm. She led the pony to the wickiup the women had made for Kah and, making no sound, spread the grass on the ground in front of it. It snorted with pleasure and began to eat while she rubbed it down with a few handfuls of grass before disappearing back to her mother’s tipi.

  Wearing the same shirt and vest in which I married, I went to negotiate the bride price with Deer Woman’s mother. At the death of Sons-nah, her husband, during the witch’s raid, Deer Woman’s mother had seen any fortune she might have expected from the bride price of one of her daughters disappear. The esteem of Deer Woman by members of our band was low. It was known that she liked to lay with men, and Delgadito in particular. Her mother had learned this through overheard whispers and stories her “friends” told her. She knew the best Deer Woman could probably do now was to be chosen as second wife for Delgadito, which might be worth a few blankets, or at best a pony.

  When I told her Kah asked for her daughter, she laughed when she realized that Delgadito was not asking for a second wife. I suppose she thought she might even double her best bride price for a young fool wanting a used woman. She said, “Deer Woman is worth two ponies. I won’t take less.”

  I remembered He Watches telling me how happy it made Maria when he offered her five ponies for Juanita. She would have settled for three. I smiled and said, “Kah won’t offer two ponies.” Her face fell, and her sparkling eyes dimmed, and she said, “All right. One then.”

  But I shook my head, and she appeared on the edge of despair, ready to hear my
counter offer or acceptance. I said, “Kah offers four ponies for Deer Woman. If they are accepted, he’ll also provide cloth for a new tipi. What’s your answer, Mother of Deer Woman?”

  Tears flowed and her hands flew to her cheeks. She had to swallow several times before she could speak. “Kah has ransomed Deer Woman from disgrace and me from poverty and starvation. Yes, I’ll accept his offer. They can marry in four suns after the women prepare a wedding feast and instruct my daughter in how best to care for her man.”

  So Kah took a wife. He told me he’d wanted her for a long time but never had the courage to ask for her. He didn’t know how Delgadito would accept the marriage, and he didn’t care. If Delgadito didn’t like the union, then he and Kah could settle it with knives, and Kah was very fast, very good with a knife. The once-dour Deer Woman filled with life and gained a happy face almost overnight, and the couple seemed to leave their tipi in the early morning hours with glad hearts.

  CHAPTER 10

  PLANS

  A moon had passed since Kah had taken Deer Woman as his wife. The Season of Large Fruit (late summer, early fall) had come, and the women and the few children among us were out before the sun and working into the firelit darkness, saving all the nuts, berries, fruits, roots, and wild potatoes they could harvest. The men hunted often for the women to save enough meat for us to live through the Ghost Face Season.

  My bullet wound had healed but my side was still sore. Juanita rubbed it every night with a salve she made from willow bark, yucca, and other plants. I remember how good it felt to feel her hands on my belly and to see the smile on her face. I was fast getting my strength back, and I went hunting and target practicing every day to keep my shooting eye clear and my rifle steady.

  Juanita’s belly grew larger. Maria, her mother, told her it would probably be three more moons before our child came. My mother, Sons-ee-ah-ray, came with her adopted girl child, Lucky Star, the one I had won from Juh and given as a slave to Juanita, every day to help Juanita and ask how my wound healed. My mother had helped my father, Caballo Negro, many times with wounds he suffered as a natural part of being a warrior. She offered good advice about bad and good healing signs, and we were grateful.

  Since Kitsizil Lichoo’s people had left, and he had no woman, he hunted with us and ate with me at Juanita’s fire. Often at sundown, we sat and smoked and talked about places of wisdom and other tribes and strongholds in the Blue Mountains. One evening as we smoked and watched the sun turn the horizon clouds into brilliant orange and purple fire, I glanced at Juanita and saw her straighten up and brace her back with her hand. She was getting so big her back ached from her loaded front. I suddenly realized the shorter her time grew, the closer I needed to stay. We ought to find the Comanche who managed to escape Kitsizil Lichoo’ and Beela-chezzi and lay plans for attacking the witch when he returned.

  I asked Lucky Star, who was with Sons-ee-ah-ray helping Juanita sort and prepare the day’s gathering of acorns and mesquite pods and piñon nuts, to run to the tipis of Kah and Beela-chezzi and ask them to join us. They soon came and, after we smoked to the four directions, sat cross-legged, waiting for me to speak.

  I said, “Tonight I see my woman big with our first child, and I understand things we must do soon.”

  Beela-chezzi said, “What things are these, Yellow Boy? I also have worries.”

  “Take the last Comanche waiting for Sangre del Diablo and prepare for the witch coming with new warriors before snow fills the mountain passes. He might try to attack us now in the Season of Large Fruit, but I think he won’t this season. He also heals from a wound, one that I gave him. This witch and his Comanches and Nakai-yes must be sent to the land of the grandfathers before he does to us what he did to our fathers. We must be on watch.”

  Heads nodded in agreement, faces hard and attentive. We all shivered in the cold breeze that swept up from the valley far below us, anticipating the excitement of facing the witch.

  “I’ll leave for the camp of Elias when the next sun comes. From Kitsizil Lichoo’, I know the trail to his camp. None of you needs to come with me, but I’d be glad for your company and weapons skill against our enemies. The witch may have already come, or Elias might not be happy to see us and try to drive us away. It’s a dangerous thing to do. I ask you, will you come on this raid?”

  I looked around the fire at the eyes glittering in the firelight, and every head nodded yes.

  “It’s as I thought. I’m proud to call you my brothers. I have a special request for Kah.”

  He raised his brows and said, “Speak. I will listen.”

  “The witch knows the place of this stronghold, and I worry that he and his Comanches will come while we’re not here to protect the camp. I ask that you stay to protect the women and little ones. I’ll ask the boy, Ish-kay-neh, who’ll soon be old enough to raid as a novice, to scout and help you. Will you do this, Aashcho?”

  Kah squinted at me across the fire, made a smile on one side of his face, and slowly nodded.

  “I know Yellow Boy thinks of me and Deer Woman, only married a moon and trying to make a child. I want to ride with my brothers, but what you say is true. We must be careful. Sangre del Diablo and all his Comanches must die, but we must not lose our families while we fight and kill him. Don’t worry about the women and children. I’ll guard them all as my own. Go, and I will stay.”

  Beela-chezzi, Kitsizil Lichoo’, and I shook our right fists and said, “Enjuh.”

  Riding the high, rough trail to the camp of Elias from Juh’s stronghold a second time left us at the end of the first day resting in the same tree cover on the same ridge as where we’d rested when we first rode to the camp of Elias. The night air was colder, and we heard more wolves as we sat back to back and ate our trail food before pulling pine straw over us for warmth in sleeping.

  Juanita had asked me many questions about Kitsizil Lichoo’ and his status with women I could not answer. Now they drifted through my mind and stirred my curiosity. I said, “Kitsizil Lichoo’, here under the same trees where you told Beela-chezzi and me how an Apache with red hair came to be, I would ask another question, not my place to ask, but I ask it as a friend.”

  “Hmmph, Yellow Boy has the curiosity of Badger. Speak, and I’ll answer.”

  “You have a woman, but she left with Juh before you returned?”

  “Yes, I have a woman. She left with her family to follow Juh to San Carlos. She knows I wait here for her, and she will come when Juh leaves that shameful place.”

  “The woman in the camp of Elias, the widow you visited, you still plan to make her your second wife?”

  “Hmmph. I have thought much on this. She is a good woman, works hard, smells good, and knows how to please a man under the blankets. But she has no child. I don’t know if she can make one. She’s a risk. My first wife says she doesn’t care if I take her, but I haven’t made up my mind. I’ll know before we leave the camp of Elias. I think now maybe I’ll take her and start my own camp north of Elias.”

  Beela-chezzi and I both turned to stare at him in the dim moonlight falling through the tall pine branches. A wolf howled nearby, and we felt for the triggers of our rifles.

  Beela-chezzi said, “How will you do that? Your wife will want to stay with her mother. Why start your own camp?”

  “My mother-in-law can come if she wants. My wife can leave me if she wants. I tell you, Geronimo won’t stay at San Carlos. Juh won’t stay at San Carlos. They’ll leave. The Blue Coats will chase them as they run from the land of the Indah to the land of the Nakai-yes. I won’t attack my mother’s people or risk the Blue Coats capturing and taking me away from the People. I’ll make my own camp in the Blue Mountains. My first wife doesn’t want to come?” He shrugged his shoulders and said, “She can leave me and stay with her mother. I’ll find another woman . . . or two.”

  We laughed, and I asked, “Where will you make your camp?”

  “There’s a place I’ve found less than a day’s ride across the B
lue Mountains to the Indah border. There are warriors in the camp of Elias who would leave if there were a better place to go because Elias does not plan his raids well and warriors die. If they don’t want to raid with Elias, they can come with me.”

  “When will you do this?”

  “When the snows leave the passes in the next Season of Many Leaves. There’s no need for you to return to the reservation. Come, stay in my camp.”

  I nodded and said, “This we will think on. I’ll do what my People want.”

  Kitsizil Lichoo’ smiled. “Enjuh.”

  CHAPTER 11

  BEELA-CHEZZI’S DUEL

  Hiding in the trees on the trail high above the camp of Elias, I used the Shináá Cho to study people in the camp. Many more warriors were there than during our first visit. The women and children and a few old men were busy storing nuts, drying fruits and roots, and jerking meat to prepare for the Ghost Face Season. After several looks across the rancheria wickiups, I finally found Elias and several of the old men and warriors smoking and lounging in the shade by the stream at the camp edge. The stream’s flow had slowed much. We couldn’t hear it as we had on the first visit. I studied each of the old ones and warriors and remembered them from our first visit.

  As I watched, a figure with long braids, holding a big bore Winchester in the crook of his arm, his waist wrapped in a fancy trade blanket, entered the up-close, circle view of the Shináá Cho and sat down by Elias. I had seen him before at the hacienda of Sangre del Diablo. Instinctively, I sensed the wind and estimated the range, but he was a target too far and a guest in the camp. Even if I could have shot him from where we sat, I wouldn’t have done it. He was a guest in the camp and under the protection of Elias. To kill him like that would make sour feelings against us and make us targets of revenge attacks by Elias for many moons.

  I handed the Shináá Cho to Beela-chezzi and Kitsizil Lichoo’ and pointed where to look. They both grinned. Beela-chezzi said, “So we find you again, Comanche. Soon you die.”