Free Bill Dugan_War Chiefs 04 by Quanah Parker Page B

children were terrified, and he didn’t blame them. But, he thought, better to be frightened and alive than dead like Little Calf, just a memory now, a little boy who had never hurt anyone fallen victim, like so many other children, to the brutal reality of Comanche life.
    As the first of the tipis came into sight, Nocona moved alongside Black Snake, who was grinning from ear to ear, delighted with the captives. Nocona wanted to ask him what he planned to do with the boy, but now was not the time. That would have to wait until they were alone, maybe on a hunt. They could go off together, just the two of them, as they had done so many times before. Then, alone in the center of the universe, the campfire swallowed by the dark night around them, he could ask, and BlackSnake would answer, because they were the best of friends, and had no secrets from each other.
    Shaking his head, he urged his pony forward, slowly gaining on the leaders of the band, soon passing them and, as the village took shape before his tired eyes, mustering the energy to lead the triumphal procession into the village. All around him, the warriors were yipping and howling, waving feathered lances and racing their ponies pell mell, cutting in front of one another and showing off, especially the young warriors, who were more interested in catching the eye of some young woman they fancied than the number of admiring glances from the old squaws or the subtle nods of approval that seemed to be the best the old men could manage.
    As the people closed around the returning warriors, Nocona stayed close to Black Snake. For some reason he didn’t understand, he felt protective of the young captives. He had watched the girl, particularly, and admired the way she had kept control of her emotions. She had seemed to realize what she could do and what she couldn’t do. Once she had regained her composure after the initial terror, she had kept still, and he thought he could see her watching, learning, even as they rode.
    And he admired the way she had tried to protect the boy, whom Nocona took to be her brother. That took courage out of the ordinary. This was a brave little girl, of that much he felt certain. With the celebration swirling like floodwater around him, he dismounted in front of his lodge, propped his shield on the stand, then his lance, and gave the horse to one of the boys to feed and water.
    Immediately, he moved toward Black Snake’s lodge, and got there just as Black Snake was cutting the rawhide binding from the little girl’s hands. Black Snake hefted the little boy and as he set him on the ground, Nocona moved past and helped the girl down. She looked up at him uncertainly, her eyes wide, her hands, face, and legs ragged with scratches and laced with dried blood, the whole covered with a thick paste of trail dust mixed with sweat and blood.
    Holding the little girl’s hand, he turned to his friend. “What will you do now? With the children?”
    Black Snake shrugged. “What we always do, I think. “
    “They need a woman to watch over them, to teach them how things are here.”
    “And …?”
    “And I was thinking that maybe Black Feather would be the right woman for the boy.”
    “Why Black Feather?”
    “Why not? She will understand what he is thinking and feeling. She might even remember some of the Anglo language, which will make it easier for both of them.”
    “But she doesn’t have a husband. It is enough that the rest of us have to hunt for her. How will she feed the child?”
    “It is time she had a husband.”
    “But there is no one who …” Black Snake stopped in midsentence and backed away a step. “You’re not suggesting that I …”
    Nocona shook his head. “Yes, I am suggesting that.”
    “But who will speak for her? She has no family here, now that Blue Buffalo is gone. He took her in, he raised her, he … there is no one to speak for her.”
    “I will speak for her. As the chief, it is my right, even my duty. I