Free Lakota Dawn by Janelle Taylor Page B

Remain here until I am gone.”
    “After I am accepted as a band member, can we talk again?”
    She nodded. “But we must not do so until that sun rises.”
    “I understand. Go before we are seen together. Until another sun?”
    Macha smiled and whispered, “Until another sun, Cloud Chaser.”
    Chase watched her hastily disappear, then took a deep breath. Her radiant smile could vanquish the blackness of a moonless night and warm the flesh on a freezing day! Her gentle nature and musical voice could calm the most troubled soul! She was good, kind, and generous—as his mother and adoptive mother had been. She was so beautiful it was easy to understand why he desired her so, but his feelings for her went beyond anything he’d ever felt for any other female.
    Chase returned to his assigned location to find Two Feathers inspecting it. He would have preferred to turn in for the night with pleasant thoughts and feelings flowing through him, but he suppressed a frown and harsh tone to prevent provoking the man into another quarrel. “What do you want here, my cousin?” As Two Feathers turned to face him, Chase read sheer hatred and contempt in the man’s expression, and sensed rage boiling within him. Why, he wondered again, did his cousin so detest him?
    “Your camp was empty. Rising Bear said not to leave it.”
    “I am allowed to go empty my body in the forest as needed. Were you sent to find and guard me or to fetch me for my father?”
    “You cannot be trusted, half-breed.” Two Feathers almost snarled the words.
    “To insult me insults my father, for I carry the blood of Rising Bear.”
    “Your White blood is strongest within you and it paints your looks.”
    “Do you say your chief and uncle has weak blood and seeds? Do you say they are so weak they cannot overcome those of a lowly white woman?”
    Wind Dancer had approached as the two men challenged each other with words and glares. “Why are you here, mycousin?” he asked Two Feathers. “You were told to stay away from Cloud Chaser’s camp. Why do you disobey?”
    “He was gone. I came to find him. He—”
    Chase interrupted and explained his absence, withholding only the part about visiting with Macha for a short time. “My cousin hopes I will flee or disobey so badly that he spies on me and insults me and Father.”
    Wind Dancer glanced at his cousin and asked, “Is this true?”
    When Two Feathers did not respond fast enough and glowered at Chase as if to dare him to repeat what he had said, Chase related their exchange of words, some of which his brother must have overheard.
    Wind Dancer lifted his hand to indicate silence as he thought about the offensive matter for a while, trying to decide how best to handle it. He did not want to speak of his father’s past weakness with either man or to reveal their words to others, which could cause trouble in camp. “Go, my cousin, and do not return to Cloud Chaser’s camp without Father’s permission,” Wind Dancer ordered. “If you disobey, I will reveal your bad words to him.”
    After Two Feathers left in a sullen mood, Chase asked Wind Dancer the question that had been tormenting him: “My cousin hated me as a child and he hates me as a man, my brother. Why?”
    “He fears you will betray and shame his beloved chief and uncle and you will bring pain to his heart,” Wind Dancer speculated.
    Chase guessed that was just a partly accurate supposition, but he was grateful to be answered. Although he sensed tension and wariness in Wind Dancer, at least and at last they were talking. “Is that also what you think, my brother?”
    Wind Dancer locked his gaze with Cloud Chaser’s and felt compelled to admit, “I do not know my true thoughts and feelings, but they will be clear to me soon.” He wanted to say more, but this was not the best time. He had loved his brother and grieved over his loss, and he did not want anything bad to happen to force him to experience those feelings again. He wished