“Chimera!” Sterling shouted, fear gripping his insides as he saw her continue toward the bear. “Dammit, Chimera, come here!”
She heard his order, but ignored it. If the Apache would do nothing about the beast in their village, she would. She was afraid, but the Indians had shown her, Sterling, and the children many kindnesses, and getting rid of the bear was the only way she could think of to repay them. Closing her eyes to her surroundings and her fear, she invented an incantation and began her spell. “Leave us in peace, bear called Barry, please be on your way. Do as I say, you big black beast, or you’ll soon lie in the cemetery!”
The beast growled and took a swipe at her, causing her to jump backward. “My, you’re a mean one. My, you’re ferocious! But the worst thing about you is you smell atrocious!”
Sterling groaned. The beast still stalked her. She backed away, but never stopped her ridiculous chants. The bear roared, she yelled. The bear swung its massive arms, Chimera wiggled her fingers. “Chimera!” he tried once more.
She stopped and stared directly into the bear’s black eyes. She stared as hard as she could, hoping she was putting it into a trance. “Go away, Barry,” she whispered furiously.
Sterling’s mouth fell open at what he saw. The bear dropped its thick arms and for a few moments stood before Chimera on all fours. Its bone-chilling roar faded to a soft whine. Dios mio, it almost sounded like an apology! He could not believe what he saw next. The bear was leaving the village as if borne on wings, and he was soon completely out of sight! Sterling was paralyzed with total astonishment until he felt the warriors release him. He bolted toward Chimera. “I—I did it!” she squealed when he reached her.
“If you ever do anything as foolish as that again, I’ll—”
“I can hardly believe I really did it!”
“—turn you over my knee, and—”
“I chanted the spell, and off he went!”
“—beat you so you can’t sit down for a week!” Sterling finally finished. “Do you realize how dangerous that little stunt of yours—”
“Sterling, haven’t you heard a word I said?” she demanded. “I made the bear leave! My spell worked! What other reason did he have for running away the way he did?”
Sterling could think of no answer. The bear could have easily killed her, and yet it hadn’t. There was plenty of easily gotten food in the camp, and yet the bear had left it all. Why? He looked at her intently. “Barry. You named the bear Barry? Is that some sort of magical name?”
“No, but it’s the only thing I could think of that rhymed with cemetery, and I really wanted to use the word cemetery. It has such a...a final and threatening ring to it, don’t you think? Besides, I didn’t have much time to invent the incantation, Sterling. And you have no reason to make fun of it. It worked.”
“But—” He refrained from finishing as the entire tribe gathered around him and Chimera. “Antonio,” he said anxiously when he saw his friend, “has she broken some rule they want to kill her for?”
Before Antonio could answer, Cochise stepped forward. “The bear was the great evil, Ojos de Plata, we have awaited with dread. Your woman banished the evil and has shown us she uses her powers for good. From this day, and for as long as Usen wills me to breathe air of this world, the Chiricahua Apache will honor her. She may live among us in peace if this is what she desires, or she may go. But she will remain a treasured friend to my people.
“You, too, Ojos de Plata, are a friend to my people,” he continued. “You have proven your bravery and your desire to follow Apache law. You know the way to my stronghold, but I do not fear that you will betray us. You, too, have our trust and a place among us.”
Sterling realized the chief was waiting for his response. “Thank you—I mean...I trust the Chiricahua too. I’m honored to be a friend to you and your people, and offer my friendship also.”
“What will you do?” Cochise asked. “Will you, your wife, and children stay among us, or do you return to your home below?”
“W-wife?” Sterling stammered. “You misunderstand, Cochise. Chimera and I are not married.”
The chief scowled. “But you have spent a night together in a wickiup that holds all your personal belongings. I have consented to give you a place among us and have praised your efforts to follow Apache law. You are married.” His proclamation delivered, he turned and walked away. His people followed suit and returned to the day’s tasks.
Only Antonio and Chimera remained. “So how does it feel to be married, my brother?” Antonio teased, and winked at Chimera, smiling when she grinned up at him.
Sterling stiffened at Antonio’s question. And at Chimera’s delighted smile...
You are married. Cochise’s fierce frown and firm declaration echoed in his mind, searing him like a lance on fire. You are married. He looked at Chimera’s grin again. You are married. Anger exploded within him, filling him so absolutely, he could barely control his need to vent it in the most violent way he could think of. He glared at Antonio and Chimera. “The wickiup,” he said quietly. “The two of you built it together. You knew exactly what it would mean.”
Chimera had never seen such fury on anyone’s face, but it was a moment before the reason for it became clear to her. She began to shake uncontrollably. Sterling believed she’d tricked him into marriage! Sweet heaven, he was accusing her of all the things he hated so desperately! “Sterling, no! I didn’t—”
“Why are you so angry, my brother?” Antonio interjected. “I did not mean—”
“You’re like all the others, Chimera,” Sterling accused, ignoring Antonio. “No, you’re worse! I always managed to catch them at their vicious scheming, but not you! You with your innocence, your masquerade of guileless curiosity!”
“Sterling, please don’t think—”
“But your role of Little Miss Sweetness failed when we were still at the cabin, didn’t it, Chimera? I was still leaving, and you knew it! How delighted you must have been when we got here and you discovered another, more concrete way to trap me! Were you so desperate for any means to tie me to you that even an Indian wedding sounded good to you? You couldn’t get me to a church, so a night in an Apache wickiup was the next best thing, wasn’t it? But did you actually believe I would acknowledge the Apache wedding laws? Did you really believe I would consider myself married to you? Dios mio, what a fool I was to trust you!”
“No!” she screamed hysterically. “Sterling, I—”
“Save all your lies! I do not recognize the marriage, Chimera. I am no more tied to you now than I was yesterday. And I’ll show you just how free I am!” He stormed away, but after only a few steps, he stopped. He couldn’t help himself; he turned.
Pain ravaged him at the sight of her beautiful face. How many hours had he spent gazing at that sweet face, into those innocent eyes? And all along, deceit lay just beneath the surface. Anguish filled him. To have been betrayed by the one woman he’d tried so hard to trust...it hurt so badly, he could barely control his need to cry out with it. A bitter tear welled, and he let it fall to be swallowed by the parched earth, as irretrievable as his hopes.
Chimera watched him turn and stalk toward their wickiup. “Sterling, no!” She rushed forward.
Antonio caught her hand. “No, Chimera. Do not go to him. He is too angry to listen to anything either you or I say to him. His suspicions boil, and we must wait until—”
“But he’s leaving!” She choked on a long, horrible sob when she saw Sterling emerge from the wickiup, his saddlebag in hand. “Antonio, don’t you understand? He’s going to Tucson!”
“You cannot stop him from going, Chimera. His decision has been made. And it is more firm now that it was before.”
Chimera felt Antonio’s strong arms go around her. She ceased her struggles and watched Sterling mount Gus and gallop into the forest. “Did...did you see it?” she whispered, unable to project her voice past the lump in her throat.
“See what?”
“Hi
s tear,” she replied, her own tears still spilling. “He had a tear in his eye when he turned back to look at me. Oh, Antonio, I’ve hurt him so badly that Brianna must seem like the only light in a pitch-black world now. The only hope he has left.”
“It is sad that we could not make him understand that what he sees as the flame might very well burn him.”
She nodded and squeezed her eyes shut, painful thoughts tormenting her until a new one, a stronger one, made her open her eyes again. She stared at her bare feet, realization clearing her tortured mind.
“No,” she said, and inhaled a long, slow breath. She raised her head. “No...no, it’s not sad! Sweet heaven, what a fool I’ve been, Antonio! I did everything I knew how to do to keep him from leaving me and going to Brianna! I should have urged him to go to her months ago! Antonio, don’t you see? There’s no other way. His dream must die, and only Brianna can bring about its death! Sweet heaven, I’ve got to get ready. I’ve got to pack my things!” She started for her wickiup.
“Chimera, wait!” Antonio caught her arm, forcing her to stand still. “I do not understand this.”
“I just can’t believe I didn’t see,” she murmured, and gazed toward where Sterling had left. “But I was just so sure I could turn his thinking around. Now I know only Sterling can do that. Antonio, if he doesn’t go to Tucson and meet Brianna, he will never, ever stop wondering what might have happened had he gone. A dream as strong as his must be fulfilled, no matter the outcome. His hope is like a bottle of poison. It eats away at him, and it always will. By seeing it shattered, he’ll be free of it and will be able to get on with his life.”
“You plan to follow him,” Antonio guessed when he saw the wild flames in her eyes. “You plan to be there for him when the pain comes. But Chimera, how can you follow a man who feels such anger at you?”
With a toss of her head, she threw her hair off her shoulders. “He said I was like all the others. By braving his fury, I’ll prove I’m not! Only a woman in love would risk his rage, Antonio. A woman who wanted him for any reason other than love would shrink from it. I’m not going to back away one inch.”
“But Chimera, what will happen if he is so hurt by what his mother might do that he has no will to...”
“I, too, once thought her rejection might destroy him. But we’re wrong, Antonio. Seneca says we’re wrong.”
“Seneca? Who is this person?”
“Why, he’s the one who wrote: ‘Fire is the test of gold; adversity of strong men.’”
“But—”
“Are you telling me that Sterling isn’t strong? Do you think he’ll come out of the fire completely ruined? Antonio, are you saying Sterling isn’t gold?”
“I...no. I do not think that is what I am saying.”
“Then sweet heaven, what are you saying?”
“I do not know!”
His shout made her realize the full depth of his concern for his friend. She laid her hand on his dark chest. “Antonio, I don’t know what will happen either,” she confessed softly. “All I’m sure about is that we must have faith in him. We have to trust that no matter what he does or says, no matter where he goes, he’ll come to understand all the things we want him to. Beyond that, the only thing we can do is keep hoping and keep remembering that Sterling is gold.”
Chapter Nineteen
“Do you see his fire, Chimera?” Antonio asked and then dismounted, the chilled night breeze ruffling his long black hair. He pointed down at the reddish-gold glow at the bottom of the hill. “He has camped for the night. I will leave you here, but I will not stop watching you until I see that you are safely with him. Go now, Chimera. Tucson is not far. You will arrive there with Sterling tomorrow.”
Chimera watched the fire Antonio said was Sterling’s. She had only Antonio’s word that it was, indeed, Sterling’s camp, just as she’d had only Antonio’s word that they’d been successfully following Sterling’s trail for the past few days. She herself had seen no evidence of Sterling or his trail. But she’d placed all her trust in the strong, shrewd Apache warrior, and she’d come to no harm.
If he said Sterling was at the bottom of the slope, Sterling was down there. She tapped Pegasus’s shoulder with a twig and dismounted when he crouched to the ground. “Antonio, for one moment please don’t be an Apache, and let me say thank you.”
“I could not let you follow your lion alone. You have found him now. I pray that when he roars at the sight of you, he will not also use his claws.”
“‘The lion is not so fierce as they paint him.’ George Herbert.”
“But did this George Herbert know our silver-eyed lion?”
“No, he lived in the seventeenth century. But surely lions were the same then as they are now.” She smiled up at him and took his hand. “Thank you, Antonio.”
“You do not have to speak your gratitude. I see it in your eyes.”
“Then hear it, too. Thank you for all the assistance you’ve given me. I never could have found Sterling without you.”
Antonio looked up at the moon for a long moment. “I, too, owe you gratitude,” he finally said. “For this moment, let it be as you said. We are not white, Mexican, or Apache. We are only two people speaking what is in their hearts. I thank you, Chimera, for bringing my daughter to me. You have given me much joy, and I do not know how I will ever be able to repay your kindness.”
“Well,” she started, and wet her lips, “you could forget about the revenge you seek on her mother’s murderer. Sterling told me about it, and I’m afraid for you. What if this man Willard kills you? What if—”
“To tell you my gratitude, I forgot I am Apache,” he broke her off sternly. “But in the matter of the woman whom I loved, I am Cicatrizado, Apache warrior. And Usen , Supreme Being of the Apache, preaches vengeance. I will seek and kill this man called Willard. Only when he is dead can the woman whom I loved find peace. I loved her, Chimera, and can do no less for her.”
“But—”
“You follow Sterling to Tucson because your desire to help him is strong. You want peace for his heart, his soul. It is the same with the woman whom I loved. But I will not begin my journey for revenge until you return to the Apaches. Cochise, I think, will need all the help he can get with the three with the same face.”
She laughed, and impulsively threw her arms around him.
He returned her hug, then gently pulled away. Removing a heavy pouch from the waist of his breeches, he pressed it into her hands. “I do not believe Sterling has any money, so you will give him this. You will need a place to stay in Tucson. Without the white man’s money, how will you pay for your lodging?”
She looked down at the sack. “Where did you—”
“It does not matter. It is mine, and now yours.”
She guessed he’d stolen it. How else could an Apache warrior have come by such a large sum? She wondered if he had killed its previous owner. She looked up at him, hoping to see the answer in his eyes, but she saw nothing except tender concern. She could not find it in her heart to condemn him: her experiences with Everett had taught her that killing was sometimes a necessary evil.
She clutched the money closely to her breast and smiled at Antonio. “Again I have reason to thank you.”
“You must go now, Chimera. Let your heart be your bow, and love be your arrows. I pray your aim is swift and true, for Sterling may be a difficult target. I will pray that when you return to the Apaches, your lion of gold will be with you.”
Smiling, Chimera touched Antonio’s cheek. After depositing the money sack into her bag of clothing, she took hold of Pegasus’s bridle and began her descent down the rocky slope. It wasn’t steep, and she made her way easily until she reached the spot where a thick grove of mesquite shrouded her path. Without the moonlight to guide her steps, she could rely only on Sterling’s distant fire to show her the way.
Almost immediately, she turned her foot on a large rock. She fell to her knees, losing Pegasus’s reins, and before she could
regain her balance, she pitched and rolled forward. Stones and brittle sticks bruised and scratched her as she bumped and yelled her way down the slope.
And then, suddenly, her descent was halted when she hit something hard and immobile. It stung her bottom viciously. She moaned and tried to rise, but strong hands grabbed her shoulders.
Her groan of pain became a silent scream. The thick darkness and the man’s powerful grip on her prevented her from seeing him. Having no idea in which direction she’d fallen down the slope, she felt choked with fear at the possibility that the man gripping her so tightly was not Sterling. Sweet heaven, who had her?
She fought him wildly. “Sterling! Sterling, where are you! Sterling, someone’s got me, and he’s—”
“I’ve got you!” he yelled from behind her, and spun her around so she faced him. “Dammit, what are you—”
“Sterling!”
“I almost shot you, Chimera!”
“You scared me!”
“Well, your sudden and unconventional arrival didn’t do much to calm me either! What the hell are you doing out here?”
“I’m hurting. I ran into something that—”
“You followed me!”
“Oh, really? I thought I was still back at the Apache camp.” Grimacing, she rubbed her backside. “I hurt my bottom on something that stung me.”
Roughly, he turned her face toward the thing she’d ran into. “Saguaro, It’s a cactus, Chimera. This is the desert. Not the best place in the world to go rolling around in the middle of the night! Why the hell did you follow me? I’ve got a good mind to beat you!”
“Go ahead. It couldn’t hurt any worse than what I’ve been through already.” She left him and hobbled toward the dim fire in the distance, thinking about all the things she and Antonio had discussed while they’d trailed Sterling: that a frown was fought with a smile; shouting with laughter; distrust with trust; and the bitterness of hatred with the sweetness of love.
Moonlight and Magic Page 35