Tumbleweed Fever, Part 3 by LJ Maas 1 страница

Sarah couldn't remember what pulled her awake first, the freezing cold, the rain pouring down in buckets on top of her, or the agonizing screams of the large, black stallion that still lay on top of her right leg. The light was gone as darkness enveloped them, the only source of illumination, the brilliant streaks of lightning across the sky. With every flash of light, the horse jerked himself upward, screaming in pain, not only pulling painfully on Sarah's leg, but also causing them to slide further downhill.

Another flash of light and Sarah nearly screamed herself at the cause of the horse's agony. His front legs were broken badly, the limbs bent at odd angles. The hoof on one foot had been torn away completely. The unfortunate animal jerked and twitched in pain as Sarah sobbed useless words of comfort to her longtime companion.

Blowing on her frozen fingers to bend them, she slid her Winchester from its long leather holster. With a pain in her heart that she'd never had to bear before, she leveled the barrel of the gun at the horse's head.

The wind and the rain beat against the rider, straining her eyes in the darkness. She had unrolled her long duster she kept behind her saddle as soon as the rain began to come down, but even the leather jacket she wore underneath couldn't quite keep out the sting of cold that seeped through.

A shattering sound like thunder caught the rider's attention. It sounded more like the crack of a rifle, than the clap of thunder. She spurred Alto toward the distant sound.

Reaching a fallen tree that had evidently been struck by lightning, the rider knew Sarah could not have passed by the huge timber, which thoroughly blocked the path. She stopped and retraced her trail half a dozen times, but kept returning to the fallen tree. Dismounting, she walked along the edge of the path, searching for any signs of the young woman. She stopped at a spot on the edge of the rocky path that looked like gravel had been thrown about.

Grabbing the lantern from her saddle, she pushed her body back into a niche in the rock to light the kerosene lantern. Peering over the edge of the hill of crushed rock, Dev couldn't be sure, but she thought she could make out a dark shadow.

"Sarah!" The rider screamed out.

"Dev?" She heard the weak reply.

Tossing her rope over an outcropping of rock, she looped it around her own waist and made her way down the unstable hill of gravel. The rider started out about six feet to one side of where she thought Sarah was, so she wouldn't be pelting the woman with loose gravel on her way down.

"Sarah," Dev's voice cracked with emotion, but she didn't even care.

She scrambled beside the fallen woman, but not before her weight shifted into the horse, causing the young woman to slide down the hill a few more feet.

"D--Dev," Sarah started in a hoarse voice, "D--Don't hang on to me! I--I had to shoot T--Telem--achus. M--My foot is c--caught in the stirrup. He'll d--drag you d--down."

Sarah was freezing and couldn't stop shivering enough to keep her teeth from chattering together.

Devlin pulled the Winchester free of its holster and placed it gently on the rock next to Sarah. Next, she pulled the large bladed knife free from her boot. She slowly began to ease her hand between the dead horse and Sarah's leg, stopping whenever she felt a shift in the horse's weight. After long moments, she could feel Sarah's booted foot, the stirrup snugly pressed up against her heel. The rain stung as it blew into her eyes, while she carefully sliced through the leather that held the young woman's leg prisoner.

"It's going to hurt when I pull, Sarah." She warned the woman.

"I--It's okay…I--I'm too c--cold t--to feel it." Sarah replied shakily.

Dev held on to Sarah with one arm around her waist and another around her shoulder. The rider placed one boot on the stallion's rump and gently pushed. It didn't take much as the sliding rock carried the horse down the hill and off of Sarah's leg.

Dev didn't wait another minute. She wrapped her arms around the small woman and held her body tightly to her own.

"Dammit, Sarah, you scared the hell out of me…couldn't you have listened to me…just once!" The frightened rider cursed.

"Hey, I--I'm h--having a b--bad day h--here t--too…poor T--Telem--machus." Sarah looked down the hill into the darkness, then finally gave into the tears.

"I know…I know, I'm sorry." The rider said sadly into her ear, holding her tighter. "Sarah, you're freezing to death. Come on, hold onto me, we've got to get you somewhere so I can light a fire."

Devlin held onto the small woman with strong arms, pulling the two of them up the wall of rock. The rain still fell, but the wind had eased up a bit and the rider was able to examine the young woman's leg under the light of the lantern. It was a good thing she had on leather riding boots; they bore the brunt of the damage. Above the boot, however, at mid calf, Sarah's pants had been torn away by the gravel. The tattered flesh was raw and bleeding up the rest of her leg, bits of dirt and gravel embedded deep in the cuts. The only reason she wasn't in complete agony was because she was freezing cold and couldn't feel anything yet.

Sarah could hardly move a muscle. She was sore, scared and frozen. Dev easily lifted the young woman into her arms and mounted Alto. She couldn't get past the fallen tree without going the long way around and Sarah was hardly up to that. The young woman was tucked in the saddle in front of Devlin, the rider's long duster wrapped around the two of them, but it was hours back to the cabin. She headed up away from the path and pulled Alto to a stop in front of a dense patch of cedar trees. The tops of the trees intertwined perfectly so that the ground underneath was soft and dry.

Once the rider dismounted, she sat Sarah on the ground, her back against the tree. The rider stripped Alto of saddlebags and saddle and tied the large mare under a stand of trees where she too could stay somewhat dry. Dev couldn't get the tinder to catch the wet wood, so she poured some of the kerosene on the logs and they had a roaring blaze in no time. The kerosene made the fire smoke a bit more, but Dev didn't think there would be anyone to trouble them on a night like this. Now she had to decide whether to work on Sarah's leg first or get the woman out of her soaking clothes. She quickly opted for the young woman's injured leg, knowing the extreme pain involved in cleaning a wound like this, and she wanted to get it over with before feeling began to seep into the injured woman's limbs.

"Sarah…I need to clean your leg up. It's going to hurt like nothing you've ever felt before, but it has to be done."

Sarah's eyes look like a frightened rabbit's, but she nodded to the rider.

Dev laid her bedroll on the ground close to the fire. It was slightly damp, but she saved the dry inner blanket to wrap around Sarah once she removed her wet clothes. She turned Sarah's ankle and poked and prodded until she was satisfied that the ankle wasn't broken, then she removed the woman's boots. Next came what was left of the young woman's torn and shredded pants. Dev helped Sarah remove her soaked jacket and quickly wrapped the rider's dry one around the small woman. Dev removed her own shirt and just as quickly removed the white cotton shirt she wore underneath. Sarah remembered thinking that if she hadn't been in so much pain she would have been thoroughly enjoying the site of the naked rider.

Looking up at Sarah, Dev caught the woman staring at her body, and she nervously put her shirt back on.

"See, isn't it a good thing you make me wear a clean shirt everyday?" The rider asked the woman as she began tearing the white cotton undergarment into thin strips. Poised over Sarah's right leg, the young woman leaning on her left side, Dev lifted up a canteen of water.

"Ready?" She asked.

Sarah nodded and prepared for the worst. It didn't seem too bad at first until the combination of the fire and the water brought back a little sensation to her previously unfeeling skin. The bad part started when the rider began to gently scrub the dirt and embedded gravel from the wounds. Sarah cried out, then started crying in earnest. About halfway through, the rider paused to let the young woman catch her breath.

Tears filled Dev's own eyes at Sarah's pain. She offered her a drink of water and stroked her wet hair, brushing it from her face. They stayed this way until the rider judged that the young woman's breathing wasn't too ragged anymore.

"Just a little bit more, honey," Dev whispered against Sarah's skin and the young woman nodded, the term of endearment that the rider let slip lost on her.

Once again Devlin began the laborious task of tending the wound. The dark-haired woman closed her ears to Sarah's cries of pain, knowing that if she stopped now, she wouldn't have the heart to begin again. By the time Dev had finished and was wrapping the makeshift strips of bandage around Sarah's leg, the young woman's tears had turned to the hiccup stage. The rider was proud of her, not knowing if she would have held up any better.

The rider didn't even ask first, she quickly began removing the rest of the smaller woman's clothing and draping them over some low hanging branches by the fire. If the circumstances hadn't been so extreme and Dev hadn't been terrified over what would happen to Sarah, she might have had time to enjoy the exquisite body, she carefully wrapped in a dry blanket. As it was, she could only think of the task at hand. Throwing a couple additional limbs on the already blazing fire, she lay down beside the shivering woman, rubbing her skin through the blanket to try and generate a little heat into the freezing woman's frame.

Sarah's teeth were chattering so loudly, Dev didn't think the young woman would ever be able to relax. She got up and kicked a few stones from the fire where she had initially set them. Moving them with the toe of her boot, she placed the warm rocks under the edge of the bedroll that Sarah was laying on, then proceeded to lie down again on the other side of the shaking woman.

Dev reached under the blanket and rubbed her warm hands along the young woman's arms and back.

"How c--can you b--be so warm?" Sarah asked, amazed at the rider's fortitude.

"I'm just that way," she smiled. "Does this bother you Sarah…being so, uhm, close?"

"I-I don't w-want you t-to take this the wrong w--way, D-Dev, but right now I-I'd lay d-down with John M-Montgomery to g-get warm!"

Dev laughed and pulled the young woman so she was laying more on the rider's body, than the blanket. At least she's still got her sense of humor…and that fight in her…I have a feeling she's gonna need them both.

If Dev would have had a choice, what she was about to do wouldn't have happened, but something about desperate times rang through her head. She unbuttoned her own shirt, pulling it from her shoulders, and pressed Sarah's chilled skin against her own warm flesh, which was growing more heated by the minute. The feel of Sarah's breasts pressing into her own were doing dangerous things to Dev's brain, but she could feel Sarah's skin respond and begin to warm. Her hands continued to caress the young woman's skin until Dev finally heard the chattering of Sarah's teeth subside. It must have been her imagination, but she thought she felt the young woman's breath quicken at her delicate touch. Finally she felt Sarah snuggle against her neck, the woman's deep, even breathing tickling her throat.

Dev woke up in the middle of the night to a parched throat and sweat rolling off her body. She was burning up, but suddenly realized that it wasn't her body that burned. She rolled Sarah off of her and onto the young woman's own back.

"Sarah," Dev watched as the young woman struggled to open her eyes, but it seemed as if she was unable to focus. Her eyes closed again and she mumbled a few words, Devlin was incapable of grasping what she said.

"Sarah, wake up…come on," She stroked the unresponsive woman's cheek, that burned with it's own fire.

Even though Sarah's body burned with fever, she shivered uncontrollably. Dev jumped up and began to pull her own clothes on, then replaced Sarah's now dry clothes. This isn't good, Sarah…this isn't good at all.

Packing their blankets, she saddled Alto and started up further into the mountains, Sarah tucked safely in front of her. The rider feared for the unconscious woman, knowing her own healing skills wouldn't be enough this time. It was too far for the young woman to travel back to town and a doctor, and there was only one place and one group of people Devlin trusted enough to care for this woman lying in her arms. She urged Alto on, into the hills of the Thunderbird Clan.

Dev knew they watched her as she navigated Alto through the hazardous rock formations that overlooked the Prairie. The mare wasn't used to the extra burden, but she bore the additional weight, picking her way among the large boulders. The eyes that watched them were curious, but silent, following the two women all the way into the camp. Others would have been forced to stop before they were allowed to reach the encampment of the Thunderbird Clan, but the night watch knew Redhawk. The woman, who was as fierce a warrior as any brave among them, was the granddaughter of their chief, and earned the respect they showed her.

The sun was a short way from rising over the eastern hills as Devlin entered the silent camp. The rain and the wind had long since ceased, but the cold rush of air told her winter would soon be here. She dismounted, taking care not to jostle the woman in her arms. The tall rider bent to one knee, rubbing a handful of the red earth on the top of each of Sarah's hands, then doing the same to her own hands. This was a sign of respect when entering the camp, to thank the Spirits for providing the earth beneath their feet.

Dev knew where she would go. Keeho was an excellent healer, but his visions had a tendency to frighten the rider. She had seen too many of them become truth to feel comfortable around the old man. If she needed a dream interpreted, she would seek out Keeho. What she needed now was someone who knew the ways of herbs and the human body, someone who could dream something pleasant. She headed straight for Tima's teepee. It didn't matter that she had painted new totems on it, Dev knew that Tima was a widow now and without a brave to provide for her, she would have to go back to her father's fire. Being the widow of two brothers earned Tima the right to her own lodging, but it would always be set to the right of her father, Chief Kontonalah.

Dev knelt on the ground at the entrance to the tent.

"Tima, tiana ko…Tima…" The owners of a lodging had no obligation to answer anyone outside their tent in the middle of the night, but Dev hoped the term of endearment she used to call her Clan mother, tiana (smiling one), would prompt the woman to answer.

The woman that came to the entrance and pulled the deer hide flap aside was perhaps fifteen years older than the rider. Lines began to etch her brown skin around her mouth and at the corners of her eyes, but they were a testament to the fact that she smiled every chance she could. Her long black hair was swept through with gray, a blanket held closely around her shoulders. She smiled when she saw the tall woman's face, but it quickly turned into a frown when she realized what her daughter held in her arms. Motioning the rider into her home, Dev quickly carried Sarah in and laid her out on the soft buffalo robe her mother gestured to.

The story spilled out of her mouth, half in English, half in the language of the Clan. Her eyes filled with tears as she told of the young woman's injury. She sat back as her mother cupped a loving hand under her cheek and whispered soft words of comfort. It was so easy for Dev to be open around Tima, in that respect the older woman was exactly like Sarah. The two most important women in Dev's life had the same honest and loving natures.

Tima knew, before her daughter even stepped foot into the camp, that she would be here soon. The older woman had a dream, and her dreams always came to pass. She pulled the blanket away and all the young woman's clothing, pushing them in a pile. Her hands could feel the death that hung over the white woman. This will have to be where we start. She felt it on her daughter too, didn't she? It was when she first touched her.

"Come here and kneel," Tima commanded.

Dev quickly complied, trying to stare anywhere but at Sarah's naked body, lying before her.

Tima ran her hands through the rider's hair and across her arms.

"Have you killed recently?" There was no time for subtleties.

"It's been a long while." Dev answered. This seemed to surprise the older woman.

"You both have the feel of it on you," Tima replied.

Dev's mind raced back through her time with Sarah, and then it struck her.

"Telemachus…Sarah had to put her horse down, his legs were broke," she explained.

Tima resumed her gentle caresses of the girl's body. "Yes," she muttered. "Burn this…all of it," she pushed the pile of Sarah's clothes and blanket toward her daughter. "Your clothes too…boots, all of it. We must remove this shima before he pulls your little Salmon away, too.

Devlin would have told most people they were insane and she wasn't about to burn a twenty-dollar pair of boots, but this was Tima. All living creatures had a shima, and her mother felt the black stallion's shima trying to take Sarah's life to wherever Telemachus had passed over. Tima had the gift and when she displayed concern in her voice, then there was definitely something to worry about. Dev quickly stripped off every stitch of clothing she wore, including her hat and boots. Damn good thing I put my guns in my saddlebags.

Tima went into a dark recess in the teepee and brought out a large basket. Pulling the lid off, she reached in and unfolded a deerskin blanket, symbols of power and strength painted along the outside edges. She put this aside; she would need to cleanse the young woman first. She dug deeper and handed the buckskin outfit to her daughter.

Dev looked at the clothes she was being given and immediately recognized them, right down to the knee-high moccasin boots. Her adopted father, Tekola was a tall man; his clothes would fit the rider easily.

Tima gave careful instructions on how Devlin was to cleanse her body, first burning the clothes by the lake. Dev turned to go, not caring she was leaving the confines of the lodging completely naked. Most of these people had seen her naked at one time or another. Now, she looked back at Sarah, pain in her blue eyes, until Tima had to nearly push her from the tent.

"You must live, little Salmon…I would very much like to hear your tale of Redhawk," Tima asked the unresponsive woman as she mixed herbs into a large bowl, "how does a little fish, catch such a fierce bird of prey, hmmm?"

Dev burned everything that Sarah came in contact with. Including the rider's custom saddle. She wouldn't take any chances with the young woman's well being. Using the herbs Tima gave her, she washed her hair and body in the freezing lake water, and then proceeded to dress in the leathers her mother had given her. Aw, shit! I can't believe I forgot about this.

The soft leather outfit was typical male dress. The pants Dev slipped her legs into were more like leggings that tied at the hips…nothing to cover the crotch, or backside. A beaded loincloth covered those parts and a decorative leather shirt pulled over her head. The shirt only covered her hips, the cold, early morning air hitting parts of her body that were used to being covered. The look didn't bother her at all. She would simply look like every other Clan warrior over the age of maturity.

Dev paused at the entrance of the lodging.

"Tiana?" She asked permission of her mother to enter.

"Come," the older woman commanded.

Tima sat next to Sarah, trying to coax the woman to drink one of her teas, but having little success. She looked up at her daughter and smiled broadly at the familiar sight of her beloved mate's leathers.

"She will take it from you," Tima said, holding out the wooden bowl.

"How do you know?" Dev asked, slipping an arm around Sarah's shoulder to raise her head.

"A mother always knows her daughter's heart…I know." Tima replied cryptically.

Sarah opened her eyes and was sure she was dreaming. Devlin knelt by her side, dressed like an Indian brave. She wanted to reach out and touch the rider's face, but Sarah couldn't make the muscles in her hands and arms work. It almost felt like she was floating.

"You are so beautiful," Sarah whispered instead.

Dev's eyes sparkled and she could feel a hot flush rise to her face.

"Thank you," she grinned.

"Dev, I'm so hot," she complained trying to push the leather covering off of her fevered body.

The rider held the young woman's hands to stop her.

"Sarah, I need you to drink some of this. It will help you get well." Dev said, raising the bowl to the sick woman's lips.

Sarah took a small sip and swallowed the sweet liquid.

"Where are we," Sarah asked weakly.

"We're in the village of the Thunderbird Clan, you kept asking me to bring you here, remember?" Dev replied as she encouraged the young woman to drink again.

Sarah turned her head toward the older woman. Tima offered her a smile that was filled with the light of the sun. Sarah's questioning face turned again to the rider, the younger woman's eyes appearing heavy as she struggled to keep them open.

"That's Tima," Dev introduced her mother.

"I like her smile," Sarah whispered after taking another sip of the tea.

Dev pulled the young woman closer to her and gently kissed her forehead.

"If you call her tiana, she'll smile even more for you."

Dev realized Sarah had fallen asleep again. She tried to wake her, but Tima stilled her hand.

"She needs to rest before the next step." Tima said.

Dev had no idea what the next step was to be, but she swore to herself, she would do anything to have her Sarah back.

As morning approached, Sarah's fever burned hotter and she developed a cough that wracked her whole body. None of Tima's medicines were able to stop the fever and chills that plagued the young woman, and when the terrible coughing began, Sarah's weak body began to run out of strength quickly. The muscles in her torso ached from the constant hacking, until she could scarcely expand her chest to take a breath. Dev held the small woman in her arms, helping her to sit up when she would wake and the coughing fits would overtake her, but soon Sarah fell deeper into the fever and became completely unresponsive. Before long, her respirations came only in small gasps, as her lungs struggled to take in air.

All the rider could do was hold Sarah in her arms helplessly. A woman of action, Devlin felt more impotent with each passing moment. She could only watch as Sarah's life slipped slowly away.

"Do you see her shima?" Dev asked her mother. The older woman sat close by, mixing together a new combination of herbs to try.

Tima looked up from her work and stared at the small woman wrapped in her daughter's arms.

"Yes. It is thin, but her will is strong…but, sometimes one's will alone cannot hold on to shima. " Tima replied, watching her daughter caress the young woman's face and gently run her fingers through hair the color of sunlight.

"Does she know?" Tima asked.

Dev raised a confused face to her mother.

"That you love her," the older woman continued.

"No." The rider whispered, returning to gaze down at the flushed face of the woman who held her heart.

"Will you tell her?" Tima questioned further.

Dev ran her fingertips against the warm, smooth edge of Sarah's cheek before answering.

"No…I--I can't lose this…what we already have…I--I can't take that chance," she replied, forcing the sobs that threatened to break loose, back into her throat.

"That doesn't sound like you Rhana …unwilling to take risk?" Tima said softly.

Dev smiled sadly at her mother, enjoying the way Tima's pet name for her rolled off the older woman's tongue.

"It's different outside the Clan…Sarah is different…the white man doesn't…they don't accept it, women together." Dev said brokenly, all the love in her heart making itself visible within her facial features. "I'll just have to be happy with the way things are," the rider murmured quietly.

"It's been two days," Dev nearly hissed as Tima placed a poultice on Sarah's chest, then covered it with a rabbit skin.

The older woman worked slowly and methodically, not giving in to the same panic Devlin seemed to have developed, but she finally lost her patience with her daughter.

"Go…go outside," Tima said sharply, pushing the rider from the tent. "Your worry will kill the girl!"

Tima turned her back on her daughter, but not before she caught the wounded look in Devlin's eyes. She had not meant for her words to be so harsh, but her dreams last night made her irritable. More than irritable, she was frightened for her little Salmon. Last night as she slept, she watched as the young woman's shima finally gave up and left her body. All the while, Devlin stood with her back to Sarah, ignoring her pleas. Tima knew the dream would become truth unless her daughter would listen to her own heart.

The rider slipped back into the lodging and watched as her mother sang and rocked Sarah in her arms. Now she felt as if her heart were breaking.

"Ko wantay ah noa, Tiana," Devlin's contrite head bowed to her mother, asking for forgiveness.

Tima lay the small woman's body back onto the blankets, then turned and opened her arms for her daughter. She accepted Devlin's apology and held the larger woman as Dev's heartbreak turned into tears for her beloved Sarah. For a long time Dev lay cradled in the arms of her mother, until Tima finally broke the silence.

"She needs more help than I can give," Tima started to say. "I have spoken with your grandfather…it is time to send up smoke.

Dev pulled away to look into her mother's face.

"It is all we have left." Tima finished.

Dev's jaw tightened, the corded tendons in her neck twitching slightly. To send up smoke meant only one thing. The elders and healers would gather around the ailing individual's family as they sent up the sacred smoke, along with their prayers. The smoke would alert the Great Spirit that they needed the Spirit's help. The only problem was that Sarah had no family here…the closest thing she had to family was Devlin.

Tima watched her daughter war with herself as she realized what her mother was telling her. She understood what she was asking of Devlin, but it would be a test of her daughter's commitment to Sarah, to see it the rider would acquiesce. Tima's own heart remembered the pain the last time she made such a request of her daughter. Her mate, Tekola lay on his deathbed. Tima had begged Devlin to walk around the medicine wheel and send up the smoke with her, but the proud young woman refused, seemingly unable to kneel to man or Spirits, even in exchange for her father's life.

Devlin stood and ran both hands through her raven hair. Her eyes darted nervously back and forth and she searched her brain for another way.

Tima had not meant to tell her daughter of her vision, but she saw Devlin teetering on the brink of indecision. The older woman would have to make her daughter look into her heart if Salmon's shima were to be kept with them in the land of the living.

"I had a dream last night…about your little Salmon," Tima finally admitted.

Devlin sat down again, next to her mother. "Why didn't you tell me."

"I'm telling you now," Tima replied matter of factly. The older woman paused for a moment, Devlin's blue eyes burning with questions. Tima told her daughter all she had dreamed, then sat back and watched as dark clouds of pain passed across Devlin's face.

All Dev could do was look at Sarah, lying helpless on the ground. The rider understood the meaning of her mother's dream easily enough. Dev was the only one who could offer up smoke on the young woman's behalf, and it was the one thing the dark-haired woman couldn't do.

Silent minutes passed until the rider stood and left the tent. "I can't," she whispered to her mother.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-30