Apache-Colton Series

by Janis Reams Hudson

  By this time another group had also reached the clearing. Among them were Chee and Shanta. They passed a knowing look between themselves. This fight had been coming for years, they knew.

  Shanta and Chee had been present that day over ten years ago when Woman of Magic had nearly been killed by Loco, Tahnito’s father. Travis Colton had barely arrived in time to save his wife’s life. Loco and Travis had fought, and Loco had died. Now, the two men’s sons would fight each other. It could not be stopped, and Shanta and Chee did not even try to interfere.

  “That bear was far from defenseless, as you well know,” Matt said as he and Tahnito began circling each other, each looking for an opening, a weakness in the other. There was none.

  “How would I know such a thing?”

  “I wonder.” Matt grunted and dodged when Tahnito lunged.

  “I wonder, too, why you have kept silent all these years,” Tahnito questioned.

  “I’ve been waiting for you to tell the story, friend.” Matt stayed just out of reach of the other’s knife. He wasn’t ready to fight in earnest yet. He wanted to see Tahnito squirm first. “After all, you’re the only one who really knows exactly how my foot got trapped under that rock, and where the bear came from, and how I ended up in that place alone.”

  Tahnito screamed in rage and ran at Matt, but Matt sidestepped at the last second and received only a small nick on his side instead of the full blade in his ribs.

  “Which bothers you more, I wonder,” Matt said, grinning. “That I didn’t die, or that I never told what happened?”

  “You were supposed to die!” Tahnito raged. He knew others were watching and listening, but he no longer cared. “This time you will die. This time I leave nothing to chance.”

  Somewhere in the background a woman cried out. It was Klea, but neither man paid any attention; they concentrated on each other. They came together with a grunt and a clapping of bare chests. Sweat glistened and rolled down their backs. When they pulled apart, breathing heavily, they were both covered with trickles of blood.

  Alope watched with excitement while the two men fought. It had started because of her, but they’d both forgotten her almost instantly. She, too, knew this fight had been coming for years. Her brother had always hated Bear Killer because that one’s father had killed their father. Now, as she saw her brother tiring rapidly, she was torn between him and the man she loved and wanted.

  Remembering what she’d just done, and what Bear Killer had said about it, she realized that no matter what happened, he would not want her. For that, she could hate him. He had spurned her! Called her a liar!

  In the end, blood and hate proved stronger than her desire for Bear Killer. She saw her brother stumble, saw Bear Killer move in for the final blow. Alope pulled her knife from her belt and joined the fight. With a sob of rage and frustration, she threw herself at Bear Killer’s back. Her knife glanced off his shoulder blade and cut a long gash down his back, across the scars left by that long ago bear.

  Klea went wild with grief that her children could shame her so. She rushed in, grabbed her daughter by the hair and tried to rest the knife from her.

  Matt felt the slicing pain in his back. He staggered under the impact of the two women who knocked into him from behind. He fell toward Tahnito, and both men crashed to the ground. It was sheer luck that Matt’s knife struck and pinned Tahnito to the ground by the skin of his upper arm, but Matt wasn’t in any shape to quibble with luck. He could feel himself getting weaker from loss of blood. He would rest a minute before he loosed his foe.

  Angela couldn’t believe this was happening! Why didn’t someone try to stop it? So many emotions hit her at once that she could only stand and stare at the blood pouring down Matt’sback.

  First, there was a real and tangible fear for Matt’s life. He was on top right now, but she could see him growing weaker every second. The light of madness in Tahnito’s eyes said no simple thing like exhaustion or loss of blood would keep him from killing Matt. Angela had never seen such hate on a person’s face in her life.

  Second only to her fear for Matt’s life was the devastating sense of loss she felt, mixed with shame. Matt and Tahnito were fighting over Alope. The humiliation and heartbreak were almost more than she could bear.

  The clearing was full of people now, all shouting encouragement at the two combatants. Since she hadn’t learned their language, she had no way of knowing what was said, but wouldn’t most of them favor Tahnito, one of their own blood, rather than a white man?

  And if Matt lost—God forbid!—what would happen to her if he died? She’d be left here, alone, among strangers. Would Tahnito claim her then? Dear God, no!

  Behind Matt, Klea and Alope fought over the knife for only a moment. Alope had no desire to fight her mother; she had more urgent things to tend to. She released her grip on the knife and shoved Klea away. But now she had no weapon! She saw Bear Killer reach to pull his knife from her brother’s arm.Now he’s going to kill him! But not if I can help it! she vowed.

  She bent down and grabbed a three–foot length of broken tree limb. Before anyone could stop her, she swung with all her might. Rage at being rejected and fear for her brother’s life lent her abnormal strength. The blow struck Matt in the left temple and knocked him cold.

  Tahnito roared with rage. He jerked the knife free that had him pinned to the ground and leaped for Alope. That she should dare interfere! He could not think of a bad enough name to call her. His hand closed around her slender throat and he lifted her off the ground.

  “Get you from my sight!” With that, he flung her away from him.

  What happened next would be talked about in hushed tones around winter campfires for years to come. It was such an unlikely thing and so horrible that some unearthly, unholy force must have had a hand in it.

  Klea was just struggling to rise when Tahnito threw Alope toward her like a rag doll. Alope tripped over her mother and fell hard, striking her head on a stone at the base of a tree. A sickening thud echoed through the sudden silence. Her neck was broken. Klea stumbled and fell to the ground again, face down. The knife she still held in her hand, her daughter’s knife, plunged into her chest.

  Alope and Klea, mother and daughter, lay together with arms and legs entangled.

  The only two people in the world Tahnito had ever cared about were dead. A savage howl erupted from deep within him and broke the sudden stillness of the clearing. He turned in a circle with a dazed look. His knife was still in his hand, and he kept turning, staring at the stunned faces around him. Then his eyes lit on the source of all his troubles—Bear Killer.

  “Shishxéná!” Tahnito screamed. I shall kill him!

  It was not honorable to kill a man who could not defend himself, but Tahnito knew, as did those around him, that he had no honor. All he wanted to do now was kill his enemy—kill Bear Killer!

  But Chee and Shanta were there, bending over their white friend, lifting him, carrying him away. With a final scream of pain and rage, Tahnito turned and ran the opposite direction, deeper into the woods.

  Cochise witnessed the scene from the shadows of the woods, saddened but resigned that it had come to this. He had known it would. He made no attempt to interfere.

  All life is a circle. Sons grow as their fathers, and the past lives again in each of us.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Angela stretched her shoulders and arched her back to relieve her cramped muscles. Matt’s several nicks and scratches, and the long gash down his back, had been cleaned and bandaged, as had the cut on his head. But that had been several hours ago, and he still hadn’t regained consciousness. It did not lend anything to Angela’s peace of mind that Huera, Hal-Say, and Dee-O-Det shared her vigil. Worry was etched on each dark face.

  Dee-O-Det had sent Hal-Say back to the clearing for a piece of bark from the limb Alope had struck Matt with. Several times since then, the old shaman had left the wickiup for a while. Each time he came back, he sang a song over Matt and
sprinkled some kind of dust around him. Then he sent Hal-Say back for the entire branch, instructing that it be cut up in small enough pieces to fit in the fire.

  When that was done, Dee-O-Det cleaned the firepit of all ashes, then set fire to the pieces Hal-Say brought him. The new fire burned slow and long. It was nearly sunup and the coals were still glowing. And Matt was still unconscious.

  The sky turned light just before Chee came. He spoke briefly to Dee-O-Det, listened to the old man’s answers, then turned to Angela.

  “What does he say, Chee? Matt should have been awake by now.”

  “Do not worry, Eyes Like Summer Leaves, your man will live.” Chee bit back a smile at her fiery blush. “When the coals from the offending branch die out, Bear Killer will awaken.”

  “What do coals have to do with anything? He’s been out far too long. He needs a doctor, Chee.”

  “You are the wife of my friend, but you do not understand our ways. I will assume your ignorance is not meant as an insult to our shaman. You must trust him. He knows what he does. If the bear could not kill your man all those years ago, then Yúúsń will not allow the one who sent the bear to be the cause of his death now.”

  “What are you talking about? This has nothing to do with a bear!”

  “It has everything to do with the bear whose fur he now rests upon.”

  “That was years ago. You’re not making any sense.”

  “That’s because you didn’t let me finish. Yesterday’s fight has been brewing for years. We all knew Tahnito and Bear Killer, who was then Little Bear, had gone out together that day, and only Tahnito came back. Little Bear wasn’t missed until after dark. None of us knew, until yesterday, exactly what had happened, except that Little Bear had been trapped in a rock slide, then attacked by a bear.”

  Chee’s eyes roamed over his unconscious friend. Why had Bear Killer never told what had happened? Or at the very least, why had he never confronted Tahnito?

  “But yesterday you found out?”

  “Yes. Apparently Tahnito and Little Bear had been together during the rock slide. Little Bear was knocked out and his foot was trapped beneath a boulder. Then the bear came, and Tahnito ran. When he got back to camp he said nothing about it to anyone.”

  They were interrupted then by Shanta. Angela tuned out the words she didn’t understand and watched Matt’s chest rise and fall, assuring her he still breathed.

  The next time she looked up, Chee and Shanta were gone.

  It was the first time she’d been alone with Matt since the morning before, when he’d left for the hunt. Her control slipped a notch. She felt the tears gather and sting. So much had changed in the past twenty-four hours. Matt lay there, for all she knew at death’s door, and she could do nothing to help him beyond tending his wounds, most of which were not serious. The gash on his back was the worst of the cuts, and it wasn’t very deep. It was the blow to his head that kept him so still.

  She prayed fervently his wounds would heal, even as she prayed for her own wounds to heal. His were of the body; hers were of the heart. How could she have been so foolish as to think he really cared for her? Her own feelings must have blinded her, leading her to believe what she wanted to believe.

  What had she done, she wondered, that was so terrible that she should lose not only her mother and father, but now she’d lost Matt? Whether he lived or died, she’d already lost him. Even if he lived, and as far as she could tell, it was doubtful that he would, she could never spend her life with a man who couldn’t remain faithful for more than the few days they’d been together. And if he…well, if he didn’t live, her last vivid memory of him would be with his arms around another woman.

  She’d heard stories, of course. Some men just couldn’t confine themselves to one woman. But Angela knew she’d rather never see him again than stay with him knowing he was betraying her. She wasn’t strong enough to live with that kind of torture day after day.

  Angela stared dully at the dead fire for a long time before she realized the coals were black and cold. She looked again at Matt, and her heart began to pound as his eyelids fluttered, then opened fully.

  “Angel.” Her name on his lips sounded like a sigh of relief.

  Angela couldn’t speak. Her emotions were at war with each other. Relief that he was finally awake; awe and a little fear that the old shaman had predicted the timing of it so well; anger that Matt should call her Angel after being with another woman; and a choking pain in her chest at the reminder that once she left him, she’d never hear him call her that again. But she bit back her cry of anguish and blinked away her tears. Now was no time to talk about any of that.

  It was two days before Matt was well enough to sit up. His injuries hadn’t seemed that bad at first, but a slight infection settled in the gash on his back, and with it, a fever.

  But he was sitting up now, awake and alert, much more alert than Angela wished.

  “What’s that for?” Matt nodded to the separate bed she’d made herself across the fire from him.

  “You were sick and hurt. I didn’t want to disturb you, so I slept there.”

  “Well, I’m not sick now, so you can move your blanket back where it belongs.” His back hurt, his head hurt, his ribs hurt. He was miserable, and he wanted her next to him.

  “I think it’s better that I stay over there.” She suited her actions to her words and went and sat on the far blanket.

  “Angela.”

  “It’s no use, Matt. We made a m-mistake. I’ve admitted it, now you have to admit it too.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about us. It won’t work. I think an annulment will be the best thing all around.”

  “No!” Matt winced. He never realized a man used his back muscles when he shouted. “I’ve told you before, Angela—there’ll be no annulment. I thought you loved me. Was I wrong?”

  “I never said it, did I?” Angela cried. “And what about you? You kiss me good-bye to go hunting, and the next time I see you, you’re wrapped up with that…that…What were you trying to do, swallow each other’s tongue?”

  Matt laughed outright at her description of a simple kiss, then wished he hadn’t, both for the pain it caused him physically and for the look of outrage his laughter brought to Angela’s face. “I’m sorry,” he gasped.

  “I’m glad you’re so amused.”

  “I said I was sorry. Angela, that whole incident in the woods with Alope meant nothing.”

  “Kissing other women means nothing to you?”

  “That’s not what I meant. What I meant—”

  “I don’t care what you meant! My father didn’t go around kissing other women, and my mother never kissed other men. My parents are the only example I have to go by as far as what a marriage should be. That’s the only kind of marriage I want, and apparently you can’t give it to me.”

  “Angela, you’re—”

  “No!” She held up a hand to stop him. “Just let me say what I have to say. You’re right about the annulment. We don’t need one. No one outside this camp knows anything about this supposed marriage of ours. There’s not even a marriage certificate. For all I know, we’re not even really married. When we leave here, we’ll just go our separate ways and that’ll be the end of it.”

  Matt stared at her in stunned silence for a long moment. She wasn’t even asking him for an explanation. She’d already tried him and found him guilty, and now she was ready to hang him, without hearing his side of the story.

  “You’ve thought it all out, have you?”

  She lowered her eyes to stare at her hands. “It’s not my intention to make you look foolish in front of your friends here. They don’t have to know about any of this. We can take care of it after we leave here, when you’re well.”

  “Don’t you think we ought to talk about this first?”

  “No. My mind’s made up, Matt.”

  “Your mind’s made up. Great. I thought we had something pret
ty special going for us. I thought you were special.” He curled his lip in disgust. “You were good, Angel, I’ll give you that. All those sweet kisses and soft sighs…the way you’d cling to me when we…It was all a lie, wasn’t it? A goddamned lie. You lied with your words, with your lips, with your body. And I fell for it like a green school boy.”

  He didn’t wait for an answer. Hurt, angry, he lay down on his bearskin and threw an arm over his face, pretending to sleep. He never saw the effect of his words.

  Angela bit her lip to keep from crying out. How could he think she never meant it? It was him! He’s the one who lied! He’s the one who ran to another woman the minute her back was turned! He’s the one who couldn’t be trusted, who couldn’t be faithful for even a week!

  She wished with all her might that his words were true, that she didn’t love him. But she knew better.

  Bitter tears gathered in her throat. He hadn’t even bothered to deny her accusations. She’d been prepared to hear all sorts of flimsy excuses, but he’d offered none.

  The silence within the wickiup lengthened.

  Matt was forced to lower his arm from his face by the protesting muscles in his back, but he kept his eyes closed. If he opened them he was afraid he’d look at Angela, and he couldn’t trust himself to do that just yet.

  When she’d first mentioned an annulment again, he honestly hadn’t had any idea why she was upset. In fact, she hadn’t seemed upset, only…convinced. Even when she mentioned his kissing another woman it had taken a moment for him to remember.

  Alope.

  His first thought then had been that Angela was merely jealous. That hope had died when she went on calmly discussing her plans to leave him. If she were jealous, she wouldn’t have been so calm, would she?

  Damn. How could he have been such a fool as to fall into this trap. He’d let himself be taken in by her soft, helpless looks and sweet words. He would have sworn she cared for him, was even starting to love him. Obviously he’d been wrong.