Forever Ecstasy

by Janelle Taylor

  Hawk Eyes disagreed, as did his son, but they were out-voted. The shaman wanted the race run immediately and for Buckskin Girl to triumph so everyone would be convinced he had not cheated to prevent Morning Star’s victory. He was annoyed that Flaming Star had exposed the error, and furious that she had challenged him. He had promised his son to help defeat the chief’s daughter, whom Knife-Slayer was determined to take as wife because of her beauty and rank. His son would do anything to keep Morning Star from riding away and spending time alone with a white man. If the contest had taken place yesterday while she was sick, she would have lost quickly and easily. After everyone left the clearing and there would be no tie-breaking draw, he tossed away a stone from each hand…

  Upon rising, Morning Star pulled on her soft buckskin garment, braided her hair, and left to be excused in the nearby forest.

  Knife-Slayer entered the chief’s tepee when the maiden was out of sight. He greeted Singing Wind and handed her berry-and-nut speckled pones. He smiled and said, “Mother says they will help Morning Star regain her strength. She does not want Singing Wind and her daughter to believe Father thinks badly of Morning Star for her challenge.”

  As he talked, Knife-Slayer noticed the empty bowl that indicated Sun Cloud had eaten his early meal and left. He saw two others prepared for the women. Upon his entrance, Singing Wind had set one down from which she was about to eat. That told him the other bowl was Morning Star’s. When the woman turned to put aside the gift he had brought, he dropped herbs into the bowl.

  Singing Wind faced him and said, “Thank Waterlily for her kindness. Tell Hawk Eyes we have no bad feelings for the mistake on the past sun.”

  Knife-Slayer did not debate her choice of words. He smiled, nodded, and left. He went to prepare himself to witness Morning Star’s defeat and to give her comfort in his arms.

  Morning Star returned to her tepee, lifted a bowl, and ate…

  Chapter Seven

  Morning Star glanced up as her mother returned to their tepee. “Where did you go?” she asked. “Your food grows cold.”

  Singing Wind related the visit by Knife-Slayer, then said, “We have plenty, so I took the fruit pones to Winter Woman and Payaba.”

  “Knife-Slayer and Hawk Eyes waste words on apologies that do not come from their hearts,” Morning Star contended. “Both desired me to lose.” She revealed her suspicions to the shocked woman.

  “You should not say or think such wicked things, Daughter.”

  “Should I hold silent to my mother about what is in my heart?”

  “No, Morning Star. I am happy you share all things with me. I worry that the contest is too important to you and blinds you.”

  “Have you known me to do my skills so badly?”

  “You have been ill, Daughter,” Singing Wing reminded.

  “What of Hanmani’s strange behavior? What of losing all ties? What of letting others always choose first in the draws? What of Hawk Eyes’ mistake? What of his protests and the bad feelings he showed?”

  “Payaba said your horse is fine. Perhaps Hawk Eyes did not realize he made you choose last each time or did not want to show favor for his chief’s daughter. You challenged him, Morning Star, and he feared trouble and dishonor. He only wished the contest to be fair for all who entered it.”

  “That is why he insisted upon a foot race when he knew I was too weak to win it?” she asserted skeptically.

  “All agreed it was the best choice to settle the dispute.”

  “All did not demand it be run in darkness.”

  “Do you have ways to prove your claims against him?”

  “No, Mother, and I will say nothing to him or to others.”

  “That is best. In this time of trouble and danger, we do not need more. You are well this sun. The race will be fair.”

  “I would be winner without trouble if Buckskin Girl had not entered the test. She is my friend. I do not understand why she challenges me.”

  Singing Wind saw how hurt and confused her daughter was. “It is a great honor to become the vision woman,” she pointed out. “Buckskin Girl has many skills. Must friendship make her deny them and not chase after her desires?”

  “But she knows how much I want this task.”

  “And you must see how much she wants it. What did she tell you?”

  “She asked, ‘What if it is another’s destiny? What if he is not Sky Warrior?’ How can she doubt the truth? He matches the vision.”

  “Are there clues in her words?” the mother inquired.

  The younger female mused a minute, then suggested, “Perhaps she thinks it is her destiny. She told me she could not help what Grandfather places in her heart. She did not warn me she believed His message was for her to enter the contest! There is a strangeness in her gaze and spirit she will not explain. I do not know why she makes me wait for the truth. We have not kept secrets from each other before this time.”

  A brief moment of guilt chewed on Morning Star as she remembered she did withhold a large secret from her best friend. Her tone altered from dismay to anger as she revealed, “She does not trust Hawk Eyes, but she did not speak for fairness or defend me on the past sun. I do not wish this to come between us, but she hungers too greatly to win.”

  “And Morning Star does not hunger just as greatly to win?”

  “I have good reasons,” the girl avowed.

  “How do you know she does not, if she holds silent?”

  Morning Star wondered if Buckskin Girl wanted to win to keep her and Joe apart. Did Buckskin Girl sense her feelings and dangerous weakness for “Tanner” and was trying to protect her from herself and shame? Or protect her from the journey’s perils? If such was true, why not reveal it? No, the maiden deduced, that was not her friend’s motive.

  “Accept what happens as Grandfather’s will,” Singing Wind urged.

  The troubled girl nodded a promise, then changed that subject. “Eat, for we must do our chores before it is time for the race.”

  Singing Wind reached for her bowl. It was gone. “Did you take the food from here?” she asked, pointing to a sitting mat.

  “Yes. Was it not for me?”

  The older woman smiled and answered, “It was mine, but it does not matter. I will take the bowl I prepared for you and left by the fire.”

  “I go to see if Hanmani is fine this sun. I will return soon for chores.”

  Spotted Tail and his party arrived in Sun Cloud’s camp. The Red Heart chief greeted them and talked for a while. He invited the Brule chief to his tepee for refreshment, as was their way. The other warriors made camp at the edge of the village, then spread out to visit with friends.

  Morning Star saw the visitors arrive and enter her home. She went to the lake to tell her mother of their guests. Singing Wind’s water bags were there, but she was not. The maiden looked around, but did not sight her. She filled the bags and joined her father and Spotted Tail. After welcoming the young chief to their camp, she served the men water and fruit pones. “While you speak, I will fetch Mother. She does chores now.”

  Morning Star searched for her mother, to learn Fast Hands saw her enter the trees earlier. The maiden followed the woman’s directions. She called out, “Ina!” and her ears captured a faint response. When she located Singing Wind, the older woman was doubled over and violently ill. “Ina?”

  She looked up at her daughter and said, “Help me to my mat.”

  Morning Star realized that her mother was attacked by the same strange illness she had had. Recalling how many times she had dashed to the woods for her body to empty itself, she knew her mother would not want to display such private and uncontrollable behavior before a visitor. “We have a guest. Chief Spotted Tail visits with a small band. I served pones and water, then came to seek you. I will take you to Payaba. He will make you well, as he did Morning Star. Do not worry; I will tend our guest.”

  As the ailing woman lay in misery on a mat in the old shaman’s tepee, Winter Woman and Payaba tended her.
She drank the healing tea that the old man prepared from special herbs.

  “Did you eat any of the pones Knife-Slayer brought to you?” Morning Star asked in a near whisper.

  “No,” the woman replied, but she grasped her daughter’s meaning.

  “Were our bowls waiting while he was there?” Morning Star asked.

  “Yes, but he was not alone with them. I looked away but a moment.”

  “Evil can work swiftly, Mother. Did he know which was mine?”

  Singing Wind thought a moment, then admitted, “Yes. I was holding mine when he entered. He saw me place it on the mat. You ate it.”

  “And you ate mine, after he left. Have you forgotten I ate from another waiting bowl before I became ill? Knife-Slayer heard you tell me it was ready. He heard me say I had a task to finish before I returned.”

  “Do you say he put something in both to make you ill?”

  “He wants for me to lose, Mother. He was with the horses before the race to fetch his for Buckskin Girl. Perhaps he gave something to Hanmani.”

  “That is wicked, Daughter, your thoughts and words,” she chided.

  “No, Mother, what he has done is wicked.”

  “There can be truth in her claims, Singing Wind,” Payaba related. “There are plants which bring on such sickness. Hawk Eyes knows them. In my vision long ago, Grandfather warned that some would try to stop it. I have not forgotten how Hawk Eyes convinced all I was dying and took my place. He is the reason I am called Pushed Aside, not Standing Tree.”

  Morning Star saw how this conversation was distressing her mother. “We will speak of this later when you are well,” she said.

  “Until he is caught doing evil, do not accuse him, Daughter. Your father has many worries on his mind. Without proof, do not add another. After your challenge of Hawk Eyes, it will make bad trouble.”

  Morning Star stroked the woman’s moist brow. “We will say nothing, Mother, but we will be alert to more mischief.”

  Payaba nodded agreement to the necessary silence. He, too, had been suspicious, but hadn’t mentioned it to anyone. He was glad Morning Star had the intelligence to notice the same clues he himself had. “I will heal her. She will remain here with us. Go, tend your guest. Win the race.”

  “It is to be, Wise One; I feel it in my heart.”

  The white-haired man smiled and nodded agreement once more.

  “Mother is ill, Father. Payaba tends her in his tepee. Do not worry. He says she will be fine by the new sun. When the race is over, I will prepare food for Spotted Tail, our honored guest.” “Your father told me of the vision and contest, Morning Star. If the storm had not forced us to camp all day, we would have witnessed it. I wish victory this day for the daughter of a great chief. On the trail I met the white man called Tanner Gaston, family of Sun Cloud. His task is large.”

  “Obtaining peace is never an easy one, our friend. Will you vote for treaty when the time comes?” she couldn’t help but ask.

  “Peace with honor is a greater task. If the whites offer it, I will accept. When you ride with Sky Warrior, seek rest and safety in my camp.”

  Morning Star smiled and thanked him. News of Joe warmed her heart and sent surges of energy through her body. She felt wonderful today, her old self again. She could tell that Joe had impressed the Brule chief, and that pleased her. She wondered if he had been delayed by the storm, too.

  The ceremonial drum began its summons for the race. Morning Star left the tepee and headed for the clearing ahead of her father and guest. Her brother halted her before she reached the appointed spot.

  “I have seen Mother in Payaba’s tepee. She is very ill. You brought the white man’s disease to our father’s tepee and our camp. It attacked you and Hanmani, then our mother. Pray your evil does not slay her and others.”

  Morning Star resented his remarks. She was not to blame. “That is cruel, Brother. And how did you know Hanmani was sick?” she asked, wondering if she had judged the wrong man guilty of wickedness.

  As he stroked the lance scar on the side of his face, inflicted by a Crow weapon, he answered, “I heard you tell Payaba to check him. Why do you do this evil thing, Sister? Your words shamed you and your family on the past sun.”

  She stared at him and wondered how he could be so different from their father. “If a man is wrong, does Night Stalker not challenge him?”

  “I am a man. As a woman, you gave great insult to our shaman.”

  “Should I yield and lose so great a victory when he was mistaken?”

  “Was he, Sister?” her brother scoffed.

  “Yes, Night Stalker,” she responded. She was tempted to reveal her suspicions, but kept her promise to keep silent about them. Besides, her brother was close friends with Knife-Slayer, and he was in favor of war. When the truth was placed in her hands, she would pass it to his!

  Morning Star left Night Stalker standing there, staring at her retreating back. She encountered Buckskin Girl on her way to the clearing to compete with her. “Why do you challenge me, my friend?” she asked her friend.

  “When the time comes, you will learn all things,” the daughter of Flaming Star replied. “I must do this, Morning Star. I do not challenge to hurt you. When the truth is revealed, you will understand and accept why I seek to win. I cannot speak such words today, but I am happy we race when you are stronger. It is fair. Know you are my friend and I love you.”

  As the female walked away, Morning Star prayed, Wakantanka, omakiyi: Great Spirit, help me. This was it, her final chance for victory.

  The two competitors lined up at the starting point. After her earlier words, Morning Star glanced at Buckskin Girl and smiled. No matter if she was wrong, Buckskin Girl was her friend and felt she must do this deed. Surely Grandfather had a good reason for it, one He would reveal soon.

  Wolf Eyes gave the signal, and the two females raced toward a marked point. They remained even at the turning spot and down the return stretch. At the last minute, Morning Star thought of Joe and surged forward to be the first to cross the line drawn on Mother Earth. The ceremonial chief handed her the thirteenth stone and announced her as the winner.

  Morning Star grinned at her father as she recovered her breath. Buckskin Girl congratulated her with a sad smile and walked away in an aura of depression, to be halted by Hawk Eyes wanting to console and woo her. Morning Star wondered why her friend was so upset, but knew she would learn the reason one day. She read pride and concern in her father’s gaze. When she joined him, he spoke to her.

  “This sacred event must be painted upon the tribal and our family’s buffalo records. I am proud, my daughter,” he said before the others, but his heart drummed in trepidation of what the victory could cost him.

  Spotted Tail smiled and remarked, “It is good to know Morning Star will become the legend She-Who-Rode-With-The-Sky-Warrior.”

  “Pilamaya, Sinte Geleska.”

  As Morning Star envisioned her coup upon the pictorial records, her heart raced with excitement and pride. She had known Joseph Lawrence for the passings of only seven moons, and already he had changed her life. She could not imagine exactly how traveling and working with him for many full moons would alter her and her existence. Yet she knew and accepted that he was a vital part of her destiny.

  At dusk, Joseph Lawrence reached Fort Tabor. Sunday’s storm had passed his location quickly, then settled over the Black Hills without delaying him. After concealing his Lakota armband, he entered the military site, a small one built in ’49. He located Captain James Thomas and introduced himself. As he sat across the desk from the officer in charge, he looked into the brown eyes of the sandy-haired man with tall and lanky body and pleasant expression who immediately said to call him Jim.

  Joe revealed that Tom Fitzpatrick had said James was the man to see in this area. “He has great faith in you, Jim.”

  “That’s good to hear, but why did Tom send you to me?”

  “You know about the big treaty he’s working on…�
� Joe began and the officer nodded. “He thinks somebody is trying to prevent it, to stir up trouble between the Dakotas and Crow. If those two nations go on the warpath, whites will be trapped in the middle of a bloody and violent confrontation. Every wagon train passing through this area will be in danger, and so will every soldier and settler in these parts. The trappers and traders won’t be any safer, either, despite how long they’ve been here.”

  Joe explained who Stede Gaston was and why he had come to this territory. The captain recognized the names Sun Cloud and Gray Eagle, and he displayed instant interest. Joe disclosed his mission with Tanner, and Tanner’s subsequent murder. He told Jim about his run-in with Zeke and his boys and about his rescue of Sun Cloud’s daughter and the visit to the Oglala camp, and described his meeting on the trail with the Brule chief. “From what I’ve seen and heard, Jim, I think somebody is trying to frame the Dakotas, make whites terrified of them so the Army will wipe them out for him. I believe the villain is Snake-Man.” Joe passed along the scanty description that Morning Star had given him from Knife-Slayer’s spying.

  Captain James Thomas propped his arms on his desk and leaned forward. “I’ve heard rumors about such a man, but I haven’t talked to anyone who’s willing to say he’s met him. The Crow say he’s a good spirit, not a real man. They claim he doesn’t give or sell them weapons and whiskey. They claim the Dakotas lie to provoke soldiers into attacking Crow camps to recover arms and firewater that do not exist.”

  “They’re wrong, or lying to cover their guilt and connection. He’s real, and he’s fooling them with Oriental magic,” Joe insisted, then explained his suspicions. “I know Zeke and his boys were hauling guns and whiskey, probably to the Crow; that’s where their trail headed.”

  “I’ve seen Zeke, Clem, and Farley around here and at trading posts. From what I know, Zeke works for himself. He hires out to any trader to haul goods. But I didn’t realize he was carrying illegal supplies to the Indians. I’ll question him later.”