TC28

Hearing this, Yuha let the full force of her grief wash over her, and all Wanica could do was hope she didn’t blame him personally for going through with the ritual. Yet there had been no choice, really. The Kuwapi were already the outcast dregs of the Oglala Sioux. If Takoda had denied the boy his test of manhood, he would be outcast even from the Kuwapi, forever a boy. And forgiveness would never be forthcoming.

When she recovered a bit Yuha said, “Shy Bear’s last memory of us was that even his mother had a stony heart.”

Takoda said, “A heart of stone is part of the ceremony. There must be a…cutting off. There is no way around it. This as been the way of our People from the time White Buffalo Calf Woman taught us the ceremony.”

He remembered Shy Bear always called the leader of the People “Bad Heart Bull” and how even he had to agree. Tatanka piled upon Takoda daily indignities, until even his great inborn patience had been tested nearly to the breaking point. This day was no exception. Chief Tatanka barged into the tipi unannounced and pointed a finger at Takoda. “You have brought no food into this camp for a moon, Hole in Cheek!””

“There is a fire,” Takoda said. “It still burns the grasslands to the south. The animals are on the other side of it.”

“Then take your hunters and go around the fire or you will be Hole in Neck.”

“It will take two days’ ride to find the animals,” Takoda replied. “Then a day to kill and field-dress them, then two days’ ride to bring the carcass back. The meat will go bad.”

“The nights are cold now. The meat will keep. I tire of eating jerky. Go!”

Before the Chief left the tipi he let his eyes wander over Yuha’s legs. She saw his gaze and tucked her legs under a bison-hair blanket.

When Tatanka departed, Takoda retrieved the Shahard Haruach from the place he had hidden it. He had shown no one the artifact he received directly from the hand of the strange faceless white figure, not even his wife Yuha. He knew that while he was hunting nothing might restrain Tatanka from pillaging his tipi.

Takoda and his hunters prepared their horses for the journey, and they packed their share of the People’s dwindling supply of dried meat. Takoda mounted his own horse, Kaleetan, and for the first time he pondered that his horse had a right name but his own son did not.

The fires were burning far away now, but Takoda led the hunting party toward the high ground near the source of the New River to better survey the devastation and see if the cairn was in need of repair.

His party crossed over an abrupt line to the grasslands that were burned black and ascended the slope. When they reached the summit Takoda saw that his son Shy Bear was restoring the loose stone in the cairn he had once removed to take shelter. He was still dressed in the ceremonial dress that Yuha had made for him, but it was altered in a curious way to fit better, and it had been covered in a riot of colored beads that was clearly no artifice of the Kuwapi, though it echoed the craftsmanship of the People.

Leliel stood next to him. Takoda and the other hunters found her to be striking. Although she appeared to be a young woman of the People she was a full head taller than the tallest of any of them, and plains Indians were already taller than white men, as a rule. Leliel was attired in something much like Jashen’s raiment, but a little more simple.