Spirit of the Sky

by Paty Jager

  The terrified screams of his horse filled the area and bounced off the cliff, doubling the horror. Wade’s heart raced at his helplessness to save the animal and reminded him once again of the countless times he’d failed his soldiers, and then his family. He watched unable to approach the crazed gelding and reluctant to try to shoot the cougar. The horse reared back, snapping the rope. In one leap, it set off through the trees with the large cat on its back.

  “Hell!” The horse would be dead shortly if it didn’t dislodge the cat, and he’d be without a mount, again. Repercussions of the one shot he’d fired pushed him into action. If a warrior heard, he could be found at any moment. He had to move. Get away from here and not leave a trail. The mist changed to a good downpour. That would help hide his tracks but make traveling even slower without a mount. Wade slung his saddlebags over one shoulder, his saddle over the other, and clutched his rifle in his free hand. He tilted his hat back to allow the rain to run off the back brim and started jogging the direction his horse ran. Nearly toppling nose first in to the wet slippery yellow clay, he slowed to a frustrating walk. Thirty minutes later, he heard scuffling noises to his right.

  He parted the bushes with the barrel of his rifle and stared into the growing darkness. The dark outlines of his horse on the ground being fought over by a cougar and coyotes filled the small clearing. Snarls and growls accosted his ears, metallic smell of blood and stench of gut twitched his nose. Nature once again completing a cycle.

  Wade ducked his head and backed away, sloshing rainwater down the front of his jacket from his hat. He’d heard and smelled worse on battlefields. The visual mimicked the fear he had for the Nez Perce. Troops converging on the camp, tearing families apart, and killing the chiefs. The vision spun in his head like a bad dream.

  He had to keep moving. Warn them. Thankful for his long legs and Angel’s healing, he set off in a southerly route. He had food for three days, if his luck held and his legs didn’t give out before he found the Nez Perce. From all accounts of the Crow scouts the Nez Perce traveled only a day ahead of Sturgis’s group. He should catch up to them by morning if a Nez Perce scout didn’t kill him first.

  ****

  Sa-qan heard a horse scream and a rifle shot. The sounds came somewhere midway between the Nimiipuu and the soldiers’ camp where she’d been searching for Wade. Had Wade set out to find her or had a scout found trouble? She soared through the dark night, her keen sight scanning the earth’s floor. She found a cougar and coyotes eating a horse. That could account for the scream.

  She continued to scan the area and spotted a man on foot. Catching a lower wind current, she drifted closer. Wade. Her heart fluttered. He looks for me. He carried his saddle as he slogged through the slick ground and pouring rain. The horse being eaten must have been his. Was he hurt? Fear he was injured, jarred her landing.

  Her feathers barely settled before she shifted into her woman form and struck out through the valley to catch up to Wade. She pushed through two bushes and came nose to barrel with his rifle. He squinted in the dark.

  “Who are you?” His voice held menace.

  “Sa-qan,” she replied, holding out a hand. She had to remember mortals could not see as well in the dark.

  “Angel! I thought you were…Never mind.” He dropped everything and gathered her into his arms, kissing the top of her head.

  She wrapped her arms around his familiar body, breathing in the earthy scent of horse, wet wool, and his own tantalizing musk. “Your horse…”

  “A cougar jumped him when I stopped for the night.” His arms tightened around her, and his heart quickened beneath her ear.

  “Why are you heading to the Nimiipuu?”

  His body stiffened, and he kissed her head before leaning back.

  “I can’t persuade the officer in charge of this group of soldiers to visit with the chiefs.” He swallowed and his eyes glistened. “Angel, he received an order from the highest commanding officer to kill as many Nez Perce as he can before even trying to negotiate. They want to set an example with your people.”

  “Kill our people?” Her stomach squeezed, nearly doubling her over. She backed away from Wade. No. If her people were gone…She clutched her middle and stared at the man in front of her. “Why? We did not kill the so·yá·po unless they killed first.”

  “The warriors have left a trail of bodies. All those ranchers and miners haven’t tried to kill them.” He reached out to her, but she backed away, shaking her head.

  “My people cannot be taken from this earth. I will have failed.” She would be no better than her father. Had her encounters with Wade been a test of the Creator to see if she were like her father? Would the Creator allow the Nimiipuu to perish if she sided with this so·yá·po? Her head hurt from all the thoughts colliding inside. Did consorting with this so·yá·po soldier sway her purpose to her people?

  “Angel, I came to warn you so you can tell the others. I don’t know how to stop them. But I’ll keep trying. I promise.”

  She glared into his eyes. “Do not call me Angel. My name is Sa-qan, Bald Eagle. I am Nimiipuu, not so·yá·po. I will not allow you to keep me from helping my people.” She could not let her starved emotions sway her from her duty. “I will not be disloyal and greedy like my father. My people will prosper, and I will see it happens.”

  “An—Sa-qan.” His hands moved soothingly up and down her arms. “I would never come between you and your people. I want to help.”

  The concern in his voice and warm, gentle touch tugged at her heart inducing a war within her mind and her body. “Do not touch me. I cannot think.” She stepped back, forcing space between them. How could the comfort and warmth he instilled in her be so wrong? She rubbed at the pain in the middle of her forehead.

  Wade stooped, picking up his things. “I’ll head back to the troop and see if I can do anything from there.”

  The sadness in his voice and his dark gaze probing her face pricked her heart with sadness. She wanted his arms back around her. She had told Wewukiye this man would help her save the Nimiipuu. Did she now believe otherwise? Her heart said he would help her but her head…Her pride wanted to conquer this battle against her people alone. She believed she had to finish this alone, yet she had Wewukiye and Dove. They could not help her with the soldiers. They needed Wade inside the enemy lines.

  “I…do not go.” She stepped forward, taking the bag from his shoulder. “I need to know everything the soldiers have planned to prepare my people.”

  He peered at her in the darkness. “You’re sure?”

  She managed a smile, enjoying his insecurity and obvious desire to stay. “Yes. I am sorry I said mean things.”

  “The news I gave you wasn’t very friendly.” He glanced around. “We need to find a place to talk that isn’t here getting soaked.”

  She grasped his hand. “Come, I know a place.” She led him to an indention in the white stone forming a nearby cliff. It offered just enough room for them to sit and stay dry.

  Wade stepped out of the rain and dropped his saddle, leaning his rifle against the stone. He took off his wet coat and opened his arms. “Come here.”

  She captured one of his hands in hers and sat, drawing him down beside her. “I wish to think clearly. I cannot do that in your arms.”

  A glint of satisfaction sparkled in his eyes before his face grew somber. “Are your people very far from here? The soldiers are only a day away. I’m surprised a scout didn’t arrive to see about the shot I fired trying to scare the cougar.”

  “They have been checking the back trail. I find it curious as well.” She sent out a mental call to Wewukiye, hoping he roamed the area within her power. Where are the scouts?

  Your soldier is safe. I followed him and have kept the scouts away. Wewukiye’s strong thoughts meant he was near. Sa-qan held her position even though her first inclination nudged her to peer through the night and find her brother. This new information meant she must remain aloof to Wade’s attentions this nig
ht. She did not want her brother seeing her lose control.

  “We must talk fast and send you back before the scouts do find us.” She gazed deep into Wade’s eyes and saw his weariness. “You are not sleeping.” Her hand reached out to him, but she pulled back remembering Wewukiye watched.

  “I’m used to not sleeping much. Started with the war and then the campaigns.” Wade pulled a blanket out of his bag and placed it around her shoulders. “How are you? For all the walking you must do, you always look rested.”

  His concern filled her chest with warm moist air like stepping into a sweat lodge. “I am used to traveling great distances. Tell me more about the soldiers.” She needed to keep the conversation on a subject that did not conjure up pleasurable thoughts.

  “They should approach from there.” He pointed the direction she had flown and pulled a stick from his leather pouch. “This is called a spyglass. It will help you see them before they are close.” He scooted next to her and pulled on the ends of the stick. It grew longer. He held the smaller end of the stick to his eye and looked through it in the direction the soldiers traveled.

  His closeness warmed her skin and tickled her insides. She wanted to lean over and kiss him. Instead, she shook her head. “I do not need such a thing.”

  A smile much like she remembered her mother bestowing upon her when she tried to best her older brothers flickered under Wade’s mustache.

  “This spyglass allows you to see the soldiers from a great distance.” He held the stick in front of her face.

  She leaned forward.

  “Keep your eye open and look through the glass.” His warm breath fluttered across her cheek. His nearness started her heart racing and her tongue dried as if coated with moss.

  Sa-qan peered down the length of the stick and saw the world cut into pieces. She leaned back. “I see only a jumble of things.”

  His arm reached around her. His fingers stroked her left cheek. “Close this eye and leave the one looking through the glass open.” A soft warm kiss on her temple stirred heat in her center.

  She breathed in deep, held her breath, and peered through the object. “Oh, your finger is large!” The stick held magic. Sa-qan took the object from Wade and inspected it. First she pushed the ends together making the stick shorter, then pulled it out again. She held the stick to her eye, again, and then the other. Spinning the stick around, she peered through the larger end and discovered everything had grown smaller.

  “What magic is this?”

  Wade’s grin spread across his face. His eyes twinkled. “It isn’t magic. It’s called science.”

  “Science?” The word hissed from her tongue like a snake. “This is so·yá·po magic?”

  “Some people might call science magic. It’s a way to discover how things in this world work, and then use what is learned to make more things using what nature has already created.”

  His arm drew her closer to his body as he talked. The rumbling of his words in his chest comforted like thunder on a summer day.

  “Men discovered refraction from glass by seeing how sunlight is changed when it goes through glass or water. They used this knowledge and made this spy glass. The glass on either end is a different thickness and cut to make it bring the object you look at closer which makes it appear larger.”

  He held the magic stick up in front of her. “I want you to use this to keep an eye on the soldiers and warn your people.”

  “You will need it.” To tell him she could see great distances while in eagle form and flew above the soldiers would only confuse him.

  “No. I can always get another one. I’d rather know you were safe by keeping your distance from the soldiers.” He set the stick in her lap and drew her face toward his. “I want to be sure you’re around when this is all over.”

  The fear in his eyes snared her heart. “I will be where the Nimiipuu are. It is my duty to never leave them.”

  “Duty? I don’t want you to come to harm. I couldn’t…” He swallowed, his gaze dipping to her mouth. “Hell, An—Sa-qan, I can’t sleep thinking you’ll get killed. It’s been so long since I had a real reason to live… If something happened—”

  She cradled his head in her hands and poured her own pent-up emotions into a long, heated kiss. He drew back first.

  “I need you in my life. You don’t know how empty I’ve been until you came along.” He clasped her head, kissing her, again.

  Sa-qan eased back. “You have brought new hope to my loneliness.”

  Wade leaned his forehead against hers and chuckled. “We make quite a pair. Two lonely people who picked a hell of a time to find one another.”

  She could not deny his words. Had their loneliness brought them together or was it the will of the Creator? Whatever the reason, she could no longer see her future without Wade in it. Following the soldiers to help him remain safe and keeping the Nimiipuu ahead of the soldiers would be the hardest task she had encountered as a spirit.

  Pú-timt wax mita-t

  (13)

  Wade wished he’d allowed Ang—Sa-qan, the name was pretty but he couldn’t think of her as a bald eagle, only as his angel—to keep him company on his walk back to the camp. They’d kissed and talked in the little concave in the sandstone cliff until the rain let up and the sun rising turned the world the light gray before dawn.

  He checked his compass and veered more to his left. Chasing his horse last night had put him off his course traveling back to the troops. He thought about just sitting down and waiting for the advancing troops—if they rode this direction, for all he knew they could have changed course after receiving new information. He had no doubt a scout would come along eventually, but he didn’t trust the Bannock scouts or his chances if a Nez Perce scout found him. Plus, he wanted to be with the officers when they planned their attack.

  Though the problem between the army and the Nez Perce could make even a stalwart officer cringe, having voiced his loneliness and finding Sa-qan accepting of their friendship, a weight had lifted. They had a hard task ahead to get the two factions to come together and talk, but he believed it could be done. Especially having someone inside the Nez Perce camp.

  His feet stalled. What had Sa-qan said? She couldn’t show herself to the tribe. That didn’t make sense. Her adamant desire to help the Nez Perce had intensified, yet she said she couldn’t go among them. How could she bring the chiefs together and tell them about the troops advancing if she didn’t go to the camp and talk to them?

  This circled his thoughts to the fact she always found him when he looked for her, and she never ate or showed tiredness. How could that be? And getting him up on that ledge? Did her brother help? Who was he and why hadn’t he joined the fleeing Nez Perce? His head ached from all his unanswered questions.

  The sun shimmered off the yellow leaved birch trees on the hills to his right when he spotted black smoke rising to the east. The volume of the black cloud could only mean one thing: Nez Perce scouts had once again torched a homestead. Anger boiled in his chest. If they continued to kill civilians the army would soon have every citizen behind them to destroy the Indians.

  The plume of smoke would draw the troops. He set off in a straight line, a knot forming in his gut at what he might find.

  An hour later, he dropped his saddle and took a sip of water from his canteen, staring at the black timbers smoldering on the pile of charcoals where a cabin had once stood. Two bodies sprawled on the ground a distance from the ashes. This kind of action by the Nez Perce would not be tolerated. His head hurt adding this to the list of bodies the fleeing Indians had left in their wake.

  The next time he saw Sa-qan, she would have to listen to him and tell her people to stop this senseless killing. It damaged their plight.

  He walked to the closest body. A middle-aged man stared up at him, a large seeping wound in his midsection. The image brought back scene after scene of the war. Bile rose in his throat at the memories. Wade swallowed the burning sensation and walked to the other
body. He fought more bile and hurried back to his belongings.

  Once Sturgis saw this, he feared there would be more bloodshed on both sides. He hated battles, but he couldn’t walk away. He’d contemplated leaving the cavalry at the start of this campaign, then his orders came and he couldn’t shirk his duty. The urge to leave the army grew each day along with his desire to save the Nez Perce.

  He stared at the dead bodies and smoldering building. Why he desired to help the Indians when he witnessed this kind of disregard for life troubled him. Yet, he knew before this forced campaign the Nez Perce lived as peaceful people. The loss of their home had pushed them to drastic measures. He understood this. Hadn’t he joined the cavalry after losing his home? He shook his head at some of the unsavory things he’d done in the name of the U.S. Army. This campaign was one of them.

  The only way to help the Nez Perce and right the wrong the government enforced on them was to stay informed of the troops and slip away to relay what he knew to Sa-qan. They wouldn’t be able to save all the Indians, but hopefully they could spare most of them.

  Two lone riders, Crow army scouts, rode up on him. Their rifle barrels pointed at his chest as their horses stopped a good six feet back. The fact they treated him like a hostile stirred his anger. They worked for the army. For him.

  “Where is Sturgis?” he asked, ignoring the round end of the weapon leveled on him.

  “Why are you a horse soldier without horse?” The one who spoke grinned at the other one.

  “A cougar jumped my mount, and they took off. I’ve been walking all night to get back to camp.” He didn’t need to justify anything to the scouts, but knew saying nothing would only aggravate.

  “Did you see the cowardly Nez Perce who did this?”

  “No. You’re the ones following them, why didn’t you?” Wade meant to upset the men but wasn’t ready for the ferocity of their contempt.

  The other scout kneed his horse forward, nearly running Wade over. The one holding the rifle glared down at him. “We find the cowardly Nez Perce and you soldiers fight like children.” He pressed the barrel of the rifle into Wade’s chest. The scout’s eyes narrowed, watching, waiting.