Night Thunder's Bride: Blackfoot Warriors, Book 3

by Karen Kay

  It had been a warm day so far. She sat outside in her new Indian garb, which had been given to her by Blue Raven Woman. Except for the color of her hair and the gold of her eyes, Rebecca thought she might have appeared Indian.

  Insst. Rebecca smiled when she thought now of the other woman. It hadn’t taken her long to learn that Blue Raven Woman had bestowed upon her the honor of being her sister—her, a strange, white woman. Rebecca had to admit that she felt touched by the gesture. Though still, she would never be able to think of Blue Raven Woman as a sister.

  As a friend? Yes. The young woman was fast becoming a friend. But as a sister? Never. Not when Blue Raven Woman was still betrothed to Night Thunder.

  Rebecca sighed.

  This day she had set up a tripod made of sticks, as she had seen and been instructed to do by the other women. She had several times attempted to light the fire underneath it, too, but couldn’t seem to manage it. She was struggling over the chore when Blue Raven Woman approached her.

  Blue Raven Woman immediately sat down beside her and within seconds had lit the fire and positioned a few slabs of meat to be held suspended from the sticks.

  Rebecca smiled her thanks at the other woman, saying, “Nitsiniiyi’taki, I am grateful.”

  “Soka’piiwa, it is good, you are welcome.”

  “Iik-iksistoyi-wa, it is very hot.”

  Blue Raven Woman nodded.

  They fell into silence, then, both of them watching the fire. In due time, however, Rebecca asked, as though she couldn’t help herself, “Aahsa komoht-o’too-hpa, why do you come here? Why do you keep helping me even when I have been so rude to you?”

  Blue Raven Woman shrugged and responded, “Maano’too-wa, you were new and did not know our ways. It has been my duty to make you feel welcome and to become your friend.” She gave Rebecca a shy smile. “Now we are sisters.”

  Rebecca didn’t dispute the other woman, although again she knew she could never experience that close a relationship to the Indian girl. She took a deep breath and attempted a smile. But it was difficult.

  She persisted, “Mao’k, why would you want to help me? Wasn’t I discourteous to you at first? Haven’t I taken your place as a sits-beside-him wife to Night Thunder? Why do you not feel anger at me?”

  Blue Raven Woman looked sad, all at once, but the look was so quickly gone from the young Indian’s face that Rebecca couldn’t be sure she had seen it. Blue Raven Woman said, “It was not your fault. Did you know that Night Thunder was to be my husband when you married him?”

  Rebecca shook her head.

  “Did you know our ways when you came into camp?”

  Another shake.

  “Then there was no reason for me to feel anger. Isn’t it true that it is only angry men and women who make our lives a misery? And isn’t it often just as true that the anger that they feel is not justified?”

  Wasn’t it?

  Rebecca could only stare at this young woman, who not only appeared to be constantly cheerful, but suddenly seemed very wise, too.

  “Besides,” said Blue Raven Woman, “a second wife’s life is always easier. Plus, your eyes were kind. Even when you were scolding me, I could see the thoughtfulness behind your words. Come,” the Indian girl took Rebecca’s hand, “let us go to my lodge, where we can talk more on this and speak freely.”

  “Saa, no, I couldn’t. I…”

  “Your husband’s stepmother and his sisters are close by to you. Do you know that they hear every word you say?”

  Were they? Did they?

  “Come with me and enjoy the lodge of our mother, where you can be yourself and not have to worry constantly over what you do or say.” Blue Raven Woman sent Rebecca a cheeky grin all of a sudden and went on to enlighten her, “Come, and I will tell you about Night Thunder and his strange powers.”

  Rebecca gasped and sent a disbelieving look toward Blue Raven Woman. She said, after a moment, “I do not know what you mean.”

  Blue Raven Woman did not look impressed, however, and went on to say, “Have you not noticed that he has some strange abilities? That the spirits talk freely to him? That—”

  Rebecca had held up her hand, silencing the girl. Then, glancing around as though she were about to reveal a secret, Rebecca said, “Then you know about that side of him.”

  Blue Raven Woman nodded. “Since he was little,” she said, “he has always had the power to call upon the spirits, to talk to them and to the animals. It is why he is to be our next medicine man.”

  “He is?”

  “Aa, yes. Come now with me?”

  Rebecca hesitated a moment more. Though she hated the thought of leaving her new, safe “home,” though she dreaded having to walk through the Indian camp where other eyes would follow her, after sweeping a quick glance around her, she did exactly as Blue Raven Woman asked. She went.

  “Oomi, your husband is a very important man in our tribe,” Blue Raven Woman said, as they sat within the lodge of Morning Child Woman, the mother of Blue Raven Woman. “Did Night Thunder not tell you this?”

  Rebecca shook her head.

  “He would not,” she said, “because a man of any worth is reluctant to boast of his deeds, and yet though he is young, Night Thunder has many.”

  Rebecca sent a startled glance up at Blue Raven Woman. What was it Night Thunder had once said, that “medicine” ran in his family? Did that make him important? But Blue Raven woman was right, Night Thunder was still so young. How could he…?

  Blue Raven Woman continued, “Night Thunder is saaam.”

  “Tsa—? What?”

  “Night Thunder has much saaam, much medicine. Many are the important men in our tribe, but there is only one medicine man, and that one single man is sometimes more powerful than any other person in a tribe. It is he who decides on matters of importance, it is he who can talk to Sun, and it is he who can settle a dispute.”

  “Nitsiitsistapi’taki, I understand, I think. Do you tell me that Night Thunder is your saaam, then, your medicine man?”

  Blue Raven Woman swept her hand to the right and front in a curve, at the same time saying, “Saa, no, but he has long been training to take the place of our medicine man, should something bad happen to that one.”

  “Ah, I think I’m beginning to understand. Night Thunder would be succeeding your own doctor, then?”

  Blue Raven Woman nodded.

  Another thought occurred to Rebecca, who was curious. Almost as an afterthought, she asked, “What training?”

  “Aa, yes,” Blue Raven Woman answered, “you would want to know of his training. Let me tell you.” A calm seemed to settle over Blue Raven Woman as she continued, “From about the time he was fourteen winters, Night Thunder has been making trips with our medicine man in order that he come to know and become one with his power. A medicine man always chooses the boy who will succeed him, and so it is one of the highest honors a boy can receive, to be picked to follow the medicine ways.”

  “Nitsiitsistapi’taki, I see,” Rebecca said, though she was uncertain that she truly did.

  But Blue Raven Woman continued, “After the medicine man has chosen a boy to follow him, he will take that boy away for about six moons.” She glanced up quickly. “Do you not have such people among your tribe?”

  Rebecca could only shake her head and sweep her hand to the right as she had seen other Indians do when muttering something in the negative.

  Blue Raven Woman shook her head, and asked, “How do your people stay well, then, and how do they banish an evil spell?”

  “There are no evil spells among my people,” said Rebecca in the Blackfoot language, using many gestures to help communicate. “And we have doctors of medicine, though that medicine is different than yours, I think.”

  “Humph,” said Blue Raven Woman, before falling silent.

  Rebecca prompted, “What happens when the medicine man takes the boy away?”

  “Aa, yes,” the Indian girl said, “they remain away for about
six moons or months and the medicine man teaches the young boy to be master over his body. His spiritual side must become stronger than his body.”

  “Oh,” said Rebecca, “and how is this done?”

  “I do not know it all, but some of it is that the youth must go without food for many days at a time and must inflict upon himself some torture, and he must do this all voluntarily. He is never the same when he returns from this first trip with the medicine man. Always, the boy looks as though he has learned some deep secret.”

  Rebecca pondered these words for a moment before she uttered, “And perhaps he has.”

  Blue Raven Woman nodded.

  “Is that all that there is to it, then?”

  “Saa, no. After this the boy must learn that he cannot be strong in spirit and in heart if he is not also strong in body, and just as he has trained himself to know his own mind, so too must he condition his body. This lasts about three suns, and after this, his body is as strong as his heart, and his willpower is such that he can withstand even the greatest torture without what seems to be the least suffering. It is as though his body is no longer a thing to be considered and he ignores it. Making the body secondary to oneself is the first thing he must accomplish. Without this, he cannot influence others with his mind.”

  What strange ideas. Could a medicine man really do all these things? Rebecca asked, “But I thought you said a medicine man was a doctor. Aren’t doctors supposed to cure disease and illness, not try to control men?”

  “Kyai-yo, you do not understand, I think. A medicine man should not try to control others and force them, against their will, to do as another thinks right. This would not be good, since all men are free to follow the paths they have chosen. But a medicine man must be able to influence another with words and with the powers of his mind alone. And he must be able to drive the evil spirits from the body, too, when a person is ill. This requires a strong mind.”

  Rebecca contemplated this for a moment before she asked, “And is this how a medicine man cures the sick? By his mind alone?”

  “Saa, no,” said Blue Raven Woman, “there are herbs and plants that he uses, too. A medicine man, and some of the women in our village, also, know the right plants and roots that will heal, and this is also part of a medicine man’s training.”

  Rebecca remembered Night Thunder’s saying he had “rattlesnake medicine.” Was there really such a thing? It seemed incredible.

  Blue Raven Woman continued, “A medicine man also must be able to call upon the generosity of Sun to aid another in recovery. And this he must be able to do with his mind. So it is during this training that the boy will learn to talk to the spirits, if he cannot do that already, and from those spirits, he will discover what the future holds. This is so that our men will not go on raids where they might be killed. The medicine man does this for the good of the tribe.”

  Rebecca didn’t even want to think about her own experiences with Night Thunder—how the spirits of the dead had talked to them both, how they had performed a particular ceremony. Really, there wasn’t such a thing. Was there? Still…

  “There is a tent for each part that the boy must learn,” Blue Raven Woman was saying. “These tents represent one great sun, or one year. And there are seven tents in all, the last two tents being the ones where he learns ‘bad medicine.’ Here, he must learn to throw spells on other people, but he also learns that one must never use the dark side of medicine unless the need is great, for it will always diminish one’s power.”

  Rebecca sat stunned. “And Night Thunder has done all this?”

  Blue Raven Woman nodded.

  Rebecca could barely comprehend it. She said, “But it’s all so silly.”

  “And yet I have seen many strange things.”

  “I don’t believe it.” But even as she said it, Rebecca knew it wasn’t true. Not completely. Try as she might to convince herself, she could never deny what she had seen, nor what she had experienced. It would always remain with her, if only as a mystery unsolved.

  She shook her head, as though that action would clear her mind, and changed the subject by asking, “I have been wondering about something. It might seem unimportant to you, but I have been wondering. I hope you will not object if I put this on you.”

  “Kyai-yo, are we not sisters? You may ask me anything.”

  Rebecca took a deep breath. “Do you mind becoming a second wife?”

  Blue Raven Woman cast her gaze downward quickly. Had Rebecca seen a fleeting look of hurt, there in her eyes? Had it been only her imagination?

  But Blue Raven Woman was proceeding to speak and Rebecca listened heartily as the other woman said, “I do not mind so much being a second wife. More things will be expected of you than of me, and my life will be a little easier because of that.”

  “Will it?”

  “Aa, yes.”

  “Soka’pii-wa, that is good.”

  The two girls became silent, until at last Rebecca felt compelled to say, “It was the spirits of the dead that joined Night Thunder and myself in marriage.”

  Blue Raven Woman’s eyes grew wide and her hand flew up to clasp over her mouth. Said she, “The spirits of the dead visited you?”

  Rebecca nodded.

  “And they married you?”

  Another nod.

  “Then your marriage to Night Thunder must be as Sun wills it. You have been honored. And you, my sister, must have great medicine, too, for it is only a few people who can witness the talk of the dead and walk away from it.” She grinned. “I am pleased that we are sisters.”

  Rebecca shifted uncomfortably. She wanted to tell this woman that she didn’t believe in that “marriage.” She wanted to tell her, too, that they were not really sisters, not in truth. And she wanted to let the Indian girl know that she would never allow her “husband”—if she stayed here—to marry another.

  Yet she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Not when Blue Raven Woman had been so kind to her. Not when Rebecca was starting to like and admire the other woman. So she asked instead, “You must love him greatly?” She had to know.

  And Blue Raven Woman gasped.

  Rebecca glanced quickly at the other woman, but could detect nothing. Had she only imagined that startled cry? She wondered at it, but when Blue Raven Woman recovered herself so quickly and said so earnestly, “Aa, yes, I do love him,” Rebecca was left with no doubt of the truth of Blue Raven Woman’s words.

  Rebecca sighed.

  What a mess. The both loved Night Thunder; they both wanted him as a husband. Rebecca frowned since, much to her chagrin, she discovered that she could not hate the other woman, not anymore. Nor did she want to be the cause of pain to the Indian girl.

  Yet if she were to remain here with Night Thunder, as his wife, would she not be the cause of unmerited and unwanted heartache?

  It all seemed so complex.

  Inhaling deeply and sending the other woman a sad, yet quick smile, Rebecca rose to her feet. She had to get away, if only for a little while. Padding swiftly to the tepee’s entrance, Rebecca pulled back the flap and, stooping over, took her leave.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Drums beat out a steady rhythm. Bodies swayed to the pulse and throb of the tom-toms, while singers chanted the verse of a song hundreds of years old. Some of the dancers squatted down low, as though following on the trail of an animal; some jumped up madly, imitating their experiences on the warpath; others, older and wiser, merely kept step to the rhythm of the intoxicating beat.

  The warriors had dressed in their Sun Dance best. And anyone, newcomer or old, would have stood impressed. Here were hues of white, red, and black; blue and yellow; white and blue, on this one’s regalia, on that one’s. Brightly painted beads and shells flashed under the sun, while jingles and bells, tied around feet and arms or dangling from the waist, clattered and jangled in time to the beat. Feet pounded upon the solid earth. Owl and eagle feathers fell from hair, from spears, from clothing, and from bows and arrows. An
d in the center of it all burned a fire, shooting out a shower of sparks into the audience, filling the lungs of spectators and dancers alike with its smoky, sooty fragrance.

  Even Sun appeared to have paused in his endless arc across the sky, in honor of the celebration.

  Around and around the circle the dancers sprang and leaped, their antics creating a haze of color for those who stood off to the side, watching the festivities on this hot and lazy autumn day.

  Night Thunder relaxed on the sidelines, observing, without really seeing the celebration of the Dog Society dancers. He was distracted, watching Blue Raven Woman and Rebecca…

  Haiya, his Rebecca. This was the first dance his wife had attended. He knew. If only because he watched for her.

  He would not go to her, however. It was not his place to do so, even though she bore the distinction of being his wife. Here, in camp, when under the eyes of the villagers, men kept with the men; women with the women. But it didn’t prevent heated looks from passing from one group to the other.

  Night Thunder felt his heart swell as he caught sight of Rebecca looking at him. Did she desire him as he did her?

  He nodded to her in acknowledgement, and saw her quickly look away.

  Still his heart surged. Under Blue Raven Woman’s guidance, no doubt, Rebecca had dressed in the style of his people. Her golden hair had been parted and carefully braided at each side of her face, held there with beaded shell hair bows, while smooth pink shells dangled in a buckskin “chain” around her neck. Her dress, and even her moccasins, had been dyed blue all over and were patterned with porcupine quills and trade beads of white, blue, and red, their design resembling the first budding of the wild rose.

  She looked beautiful and…content?

  Was it possible? Was his Rebecca at last beginning to feel at home in his village? Did he stand a chance of influencing her to stay?

  He grimaced.

  What good would it do him if he could, and she did? It would change nothing. He would still be obligated to marry Blue Raven Woman, and when he did, Rebecca would leave him, no matter where they lived, no matter how comfortable she became here. He knew it. He must try to accept it.