Chapter 19
Chapter
Nineteen
The celebration party was still in full swing in the wee hours of the morning.
Suzette had already sung three songs with one more planned, and at present she was slowly drifting outside in order to escape the stuffy atmosphere.
She had barely arrived outside when Black Lion discovered her and announced himself to be unable to find Irena.
“Once you leave the party,” he said, “we will talk some more of this.”
“Later? No, please, tell me now. What have you found out?”
“Hiya! I think it best for me to not speak of it yet.”
“Why?”
“Because what I have to say will be upsetting to you, I believe, and you still have duties before you this night.”
Suzette frowned. “Is it so very bad, then?”
He didn’t answer.
She looked at him sullenly. He had changed his clothes.
Though still wearing buckskin, his leggings, his shirt and his moccasins were a light tan color, scarcely decorated and appeared to be purely functional.
His hair was parted in the middle and tied in back, as though he couldn’t bother having it in his way.
Over one shoulder was a blanket, and strapped around the other shoulder was a rawhide bag which looked to be holding many things.
Indeed, he appeared as though he might have stepped straight out of the past.
However, she kept the observation to herself, and continued speaking. “If it is bad news you have, you really must tell me.”
Again, he didn’t comment. Rather, he crossed his arms over his chest, and so serious, so staunch an expression did he present her, he reminded her of an unmovable boulder.
Her frown deepened. “How can you do this? How can you seek me out and tell me something has happened to her, and then not disclose what it is?”
Her question, however, was answered only by his silence.
“Is she all right?”
“I believe she is well. I can say no more now. I will wait for you here until you can leave the party. Only then will we talk.” His look at her was firm, strict, and unfortunately for her, it was becoming evident he was quite prepared to hold his ground.
Frustrated, she spun away from him. “Please stay here, for I will return shortly.” She stepped back into the crowded room.
Winding a path through several groups of people, she at last approached the musicians, where she sought out the lead flautist, Marcelle. “Monsieur, pray, is it too early for me to leave? I fear that Irena will not be in attendance at all tonight, and I am afraid I am not used to these late hours.”
Jacques Marcelle smiled at her kindly. “You should do as you think best, mademoiselle. No one can accuse you of not having done your duty for your grandmother. You have already sung three songs for us tonight. And in truth, we ourselves will not be here much longer.”
“Thank you very much,” Suzette said. “It has been a pleasure singing with you this evening.”
“It has been our pleasure.”
Suzette thanked the man and hurriedly stepped away from him. Picking up the front of her dress, she turned to thread her way once more through the crowd. She found Black Lion where she had left him.
“Mr. Lion,” she spoke up at once, “I am now free to leave. I would ask you to accompany me to Irena’s tent before we proceed to your lodge. It is late, and I would like to change my clothes.”
Black Lion nodded. “As you will.” Stepping away from the party, he proceeded to lead the way toward Irena’s tent.
“Where is Irena?” Suzette asked, as she followed him, holding up her dress so she could hurry to keep up with him.
“I cannot say yet, but as soon as you are able to sit, I will tell you all I have discovered this night.”
“Is it bad, then?”
“Not bad,” he answered at last, “but I think you will be upset.”
She sighed. “Then let us hurry.”
Suzette threw back the canvas flap of Irena’s tent and turned toward Black Lion. “Come,” she said, inviting him to enter. “This is a good place for us to talk, and I fear I am too anxious to wait until we go to your lodge.”
“Very well,” he agreed, and he ducked inside. He waited until she had lit one of the gaslights and was seated, although he remained standing. “Irena has left with the medicine man who accompanied me here tonight.”
“The medicine man?”
“Hau.”
“When will she be back?”
He shrugged. “I do not think she intends to come back.”
Suzette drew her brows together. “How can this be? She has an obligation here—I believe she signed a contract. This is not a matter she would ignore.”
“Yet she is gone with him, and my friend cannot remain long in this country. He was here for a night only, and it was his intention to rejoin our people, to return to the place of my birth.”
“The place of your birth? The Sioux reservation?”
“The reservation is not where I was born,” he said simply. “As you might recall, I am not Lakota by birth. The territory of my people is farther to the north.”
“Yes. A question, please.”
He nodded.
“By your people, do you mean your original tribe?”
“I do. We are called the Lost Clan, and we are part of the Blackfoot Confederation.”
Her frown grew more pronounced. “I do not understand. I thought your tribe did not exist in the real world, that—”
“They are real. They are simply entrapped in a place which is part of this world yet not of this time.”
She shook her head. “I truly do not understand. If we go to this place, will we find your tribe?”
“We will not,” he affirmed.
“Then how can your friend, this medicine man, take my grandmother there?”
“I do not know, but he is a man of some spiritual power. If anyone could take her to our time, it would be he.”
Suzette clenched her jaw. “But Irena is real, flesh and blood.”
“This is so, as are my people. They are merely caught in a trap. That it is of their own making does not mean it is less of a trap.”
“But if she goes there,” said Suzette, a cloud of apprehension marring her brow, “then she, too, would be enslaved there?”
“I do not know.”
“She would not be able to return here?”
“Again, I do not know.”
Truly alarmed now, a chill took hold of her. “I have a terrible thought, and I almost hate to ask, but… Since Irena is real, is of this world, and your people, at present, are not—at least not in this time we exist in—would it kill her to go there?”
Again he shook his head. “You ask me questions I cannot answer.”
“Well, someone—and it should be you—should take the pains to answer them. We are discussing my grandmother!”
He nodded. “So we are. I am sorry, but I do not have the answers you seek.”
“I am looking for a particular person—someone I met when I was in America many years ago. I have never forgotten him.”
“And do you love this man?”
“I do.”
In the stroke of an instant, Suzette understood what had happened. This man tonight was he—the man whom Irena had fallen in love with. It all fit.
“Do not be upset with me,” Irena had said. Only now could Suzette grasp the significance of those words. It was Irena’s way of saying goodbye.
Goodbye? Did Irena know his man was not a man, that he was… But if not a man, then what was he? A ghost?
Shivers racked Suzette’s body. If a ghost took a person to an unearthly place, would this other person become a ghost as well?
No, no, it could not be. This man Irena loved…he had to be a real man. What Black Lion was intimating couldn’t be true.
But what if it were true? Were there not phenomena that we, as yet, did not understand?
This was it, then. Without another thought, Suzette knew what she had to do.
Lifting her gaze to meet the dark eyes of Black Lion’s, she asked, “When do we leave?”
He nodded at her, as though he had expected her to say nothing else. “I am ready to depart at once. But first I ask you to consider this: White Claw is a medicine man, and if he loves your grandmother, as I expect he does, he will not bring her to the Clan if it will harm her.”
Suzette hesitated. “Can you swear to this? That no harm will come to Irena?”
“No man could make such a promise about another—”
“Then it’s not good enough for me. This is my grandmother we are speaking of.”
He nodded. “I understand. We can leave with speed—as soon as you are ready—if it be in your mind to go after her.”
“It is. Please wait here. It will take me little time to pack some clothes, some food and other items I must take with me.”
“You cannot take any of these with you.”
“What?”
“Do you not recall that not only is Irena obligated to stay here with the show, so, too, am I. Plus there are some people in this country who say all Indians caught off the reservation should be exterminated.”
Suzette gasped. “Surely not. You must be exaggerating.”
“I do not lie or stretch the truth. No, if we are to go, we will travel through a kind of country where there is no path, for we must go in such a way as to ensure we cannot be found. Not only by any white people who might see us, but by scouts the Long-haired Show Man might send against us.”
She frowned. “Do you really think this is possible?”
“Hau, it is. We must, however, travel as scouts, and this requires you to take nothing with you.”
“Nothing?” She arched a brow. “But what about a change of clothes? Or feminine articles I need?”
“We will find these needs you require from the earth. But you cannot go about the countryside in this dress you wear now. Have you another which does not tear easily and is comfortable? Also, we will travel on foot, so your shoes should be well-made.”
“On foot?”
“There is no other way to scout. To go by horseback announces our presence.”
“But we’ll never catch them in time to save Irena.”
“We have a chance to find them, for they will have to travel in the same way we do.”
“Irena…walking hundreds of miles? And at her age?” Suzette turned a wide-eyed stare at him. “We really must find her soon. I will go change…quickly.”
“Waste, it is good. But change only your clothes, not yourself.” Though he said it seriously, and his expression was sober, there was still a light in his eye.
Suzette nodded, but she didn’t smile. It would take much more than a pun to make her laugh again.