Five
Late the next evening, after a long day of travel, Tess and Raven walked into the Lenape village. Despite her fear of Raven, she remained close to him, even more afraid of the others. In one hand, she gripped her cousin's worn shoes.
The village filled a small clearing a few hundred yards from a creek bank. The clearing was dotted with rounded hut-like structures built of saplings with woven corn husk or sheets of bark for walls. Fires flickered throughout the camp and the smell of roasted venison still hung in the air. Tess could hear the sounds of men and women talking. Shaggy ponies neighed from where they were hobbled in a grove of mountain laurel, and a hound barked from somewhere in the distance. Tess thought she heard a baby cry, but then it was silenced, by a mother's breast perhaps.
Raven spoke to the outpost guard who had escorted them into the village. As the two men walked side by side, Tess ran to keep up, wishing her hands weren't tied behind her back like she was some common criminal.
A man approached them, calling to Raven, his voice light and cheerful. Raven said something in their native tongue. Tess was certain she heard Takooko's name. The man answered, staring angrily at Tess. Though she felt like hanging her head, she glared back at him. She knew none of these Indians were going to believe Takooko's death wasn't her fault, but she refused to act guilty. She'd done nothing wrong.
Raven took Tess by the arm as they walked to one of the larger huts. He pointed to the hard-packed dirt ground near the doorway. "Sit." It was the first English words he'd spoken to her in hours. His voice was cold and void of any compassion. He took her shoes from her hand and grabbed the leather lead line and tied her to a pole in front of the dome house. A bear face was carved into the pole with feathers and animal tails attached to the top. He dropped her slippers into her lap. "Do not move. If you move this man will punish you."
Tess drew her knees up under her torn shift. The air was warm tonight, yet still she shivered. What was Raven going to do with her? He'd never answered her last night when she'd asked him if he was going to ransom her. If he was going to kill her, surely he'd have done it by now. Maybe he was going to turn her over to his people and let them kill her. What else could he do with her?
Raven pointed his finger at the ground as he told the white woman to stay there. Then he took a deep breath and walked into his mother's wigwam. His best friend, Taande, followed him inside.
"Raven, Hokkuaa." Dream Woman looked up at her eldest child, smiling.
"N'gaxais."
The smile fell from her face as the light from her firepit flashed across Raven's face. "What is it, my son?" she asked in Lenape. "What sorry news do you bring me?"
"It is my brother."
Dream Woman's eyes clouded with tears. "No."
"He has gone on to the next world, Mother. He is dead."
Dream Woman crossed herself and then kissed the silver crucifix that hung between her full breasts. Hokkuaa was one of the many Lenape who had converted to Catholicism. Father Michael had been the priest who had brought Christianity to the village and taught Raven and his brother the English language as children.
"I am sorry, Mother," Raven said. He went down on one knee to take her hand and kiss it. It was as smooth as any maiden's.
"The English manake? " she asked softly, her lips drawn in distress. "I did not know. The flames of the fire did not tell me."
Raven nodded. "The English men, yes. But I must tell you that this is my fault, Mother. My brother and I found a woman in the forest as we crossed the great Susquehanna River north of the Chesapeake. Mohawk had taken her, but she had managed to escape. Takooko wanted to leave her; he said she was not our concern. But I said we had to take her home to her people. If I had not insisted we take her to her home, we would not have come upon her white men. My brother—"
Dream Woman held up her hand to silence Raven. Taande had come around the firepit to kneel beside her. "My son died helping a white woman find her home?"
Raven forced himself to look into his mother's eyes. "Yes. I insisted."
She shook her head, speaking softly. "The Mohawk had taken her. It was your duty, son, to help her find her way to her people. Would you not wish an English manake to do the same for your sister, were she to be taken by Mohawk?"
Raven released his mother's hand and Taande took it. Raven couldn't believe the words his mother had spoken. "But he's dead, Mother. My brother, your son, is dead because of a white woman."
"Did you bind my other son and force him to walk beside you?"
Raven frowned. "No."
"Did you put your white man's firestick to his head and tell him he must follow you and the white woman?"
"Of course not!"
"Then the man we loved went of his own free will, did he not?"
Raven answered slowly, confused by his mother's reaction. Takooko had been her youngest child, her baby. Raven knew that she had always held a special place in her heart for him. How could she behave so calmly knowing he had just been murdered? "Yes, yes of his own free will, but N'gaxais—"
She reached out and squeezed her son's hand. "Your brother made a choice. He made the right choice just as you did. That he died is sad. My heart will ache for him always, but I am comforted to know that he did the right thing. He tried to help the woman in need."
Raven stood. His mother might have it in her heart to forgive so easily, but he didn't. He was angry with the white woman called Tess, but he was more angry with himself. He had led Takooko to his death out of a silly sense of responsibility to a woman who meant nothing to him. Nothing.
Taande took Dream Woman's hand smoothing it in his. "Go to your wigwam and get some sleep, Raven," he told his friend. "You have been through much. Sleep will clear your head."
"No. I will stay here with my mother."
Dream Woman looked up from where she sat near her firepit. "Taande is right. You must get some sleep, my son. I will be all right. Taande can stay with me."
Raven looked at Taande. He had risen and was making a clay pot of herbal tea. Dream Woman had learned this tradition of tea drinking from the English priests who had passed through their village in more peaceful times. Taande knew how much she liked her tea. It was good of him to make it for her. Taande was a good friend.
Raven rubbed his eyes. He was tired, so tired that he was thinking with his emotions rather than his head. "I want to try to go back for his body, N'gaxais. My brother deserves a decent burial. He deserves to be buried among loved ones."
She nodded. "Tomorrow will be time enough. It is not my son, your brother, who lays in the forest now. It is only a shell of a body. My son's soul has gone on to a better place. You must remember that it is we who still remain on Mother Earth that must suffer."
Raven wasn't interested in hearing his mother's philosophical thoughts right now. He was angry, and he wanted her to be angry, too. Takooko was dead. Takooko was dead and the white men who had killed him still lived. He looked at his mother. "I want to take a war party out. I want to kill the men who killed my brother."
Dream Woman looked up from the handleless tea cup she held between her palms. Her dark eyes flashed angrily. "No!"
"Mother—"
"Think, Raven, think with your mind and not your injured heart. My dead son is but one man." She swept one delicate hand. "But this village is a hundred. These men, women, and children need you. War parties achieve nothing. War parties perpetuate the anger, the fear, the resentment," she went on in Lenape. "You want to be War Chief of this village? Then you must think of this village and not your own selfish needs."
Raven set his jaw. She was right of course. He couldn't waste the time or the braves to lead a war party. Too much was at stake here. Too many decisions had to be made in the village for him to be dwelling on revenge. Revenge was worthless.
"Tell me you will lead no war party," Dream Woman said, coming to her feet. "Tell me you will not kill in your brother's name."
Raven's dark-eyed gaze met hers. She was a fierce woman, his mother, a woman he could be proud of. "I will lead no war party. You are right." He lowered his gaze. "I loved him. He didn't always do what I thought he should do. He was lazy sometimes and self-centered. He never took life seriously, but I loved him."
Dream Woman went to her son and took his hand, resting her cheek on his muscular forearm. "I know you loved him," she said quietly. "And he knows as well." She lifted her head and rubbed his arm. "Go and sleep. Tomorrow the world will not look so dark, my Raven."
Raven glanced at Taande.
Taande nodded to say he would stay here with Dream Woman.
Raven ducked through the door of his mother's wigwam and stepped out into the night.
Tess looked up anxiously at Raven from where she sat tied to the post. The moon was beginning to rise in the sky to cast a white light in the darkness. Raven's jaw was set as he stared out over the village, his eyes unseeing.
Tess had heard the voices through the wall of the dome house. She had heard Raven's voice and the other man's, but she had also heard a softer voice, a woman. Though she hadn't been able to understand their language, she had guessed that Raven had come to tell someone of Takooko's death. Raven had shouted, but the woman, whoever she was, had been calm. Now Tess could hear the woman crying very softly. The Indian brave still inside soothed her.
Tess watched Raven. She wanted to demand he tell her what he intended to do with her, but she kept silent, feeling some strange sense of compassion for him. She could tell by the taut pull of his face that he was hurting inside. Tess imagined what it would be like for her if she had seen her sister Abby killed as Raven had seen Takooko die. If something were to happen to Abby, Tess didn't know if she could go on living. Was that how Raven felt right now?
She watched him walk away. He never said a word to her. He just left her tied there and disappeared into the darkness.
Tess leaned back against the cornhusk wall trying to make herself as comfortable as possible. If this was where he was going to leave her to spend the night, she'd just have to make the best of it. She'd sleep tonight, and in the morning she'd figure out a way to get Raven to release her. Perhaps now that he was back among his own people he'd be able to let go of the thought that she was responsible for Takooko's death. And if he wouldn't let her go, she'd just have to escape.
Tess closed her eyes. She could hear the Indian and the woman inside the hut talking softly now. The woman was no longer crying. It was odd, but as Tess drifted off to sleep she found the voices comforting.
Sometime later Tess woke. The Indian brave who had gone into the house with Raven was standing in the doorway, talking to the woman inside. He was leaving. He said something in farewell and left the Indian house, ignoring Tess as he passed.
Just as Tess let her eyes drift shut again she heard someone else step out of the wigwam. She opened her eyes.
It was the woman Tess had heard crying. She was beautiful, with long thick black hair and a voluptuous figure beneath a short deerskin skirt and open vest. Around her neck, falling between her nearly bare breasts, she wore what appeared to be a crucifix.
The woman stared at Tess, seemingly surprised by her presence. "Auween khackvev?"
"I . . . I'm sorry, I only speak English." Tess tried to smile a little. "English."
The Indian woman was frowning. "You? You are a white woman?" Her pronunciation wasn't as good as Raven's, but Tess could understand her.
"Yes." Tess could sense no hostility in the woman's voice. She sounded kind, in fact.
"How did you come to here? What man does tie you to my family's lodge pole?"
Tess lowered her gaze. "The man, Raven, he . . . he brought me here."
The Indian woman pulled a knife from the wide-beaded belt she wore and squatted beside Tess. "My son? My son Raven did this to you?"
Tess stared at the woman as she cut her away from the hut. "You are his mother?" Tess scooped up Jocelyn's shoes out of the dirt. The woman didn't look old enough to be the mother of a man Raven's age.
"I am the Raven's mother." Having cut the ties, she pulled Tess to her feet. "And for this, I have much sorry," she said with distaste, throwing the strips of leather and cloth to the ground.
Tess rubbed her raw wrists, not knowing what to say. Was this woman apologizing for Raven tying her up?
The Indian woman touched her left breast. "This woman is called Hokkuaa." She seemed to search her mind for the right words. "I am sorry. I do not have the chance to speak the English much. I am called Dream Woman."
Tess smiled. "Dream Woman." Then her smile disappeared. "You're the mother of Ta—" She cut herself off, remembering what Raven had said about the custom of not speaking the name of the dead. She looked at Dream Woman. "I'm sorry about your son. I'm sorry he's dead."
Dream Woman smiled sadly. "Thank you. To share the pain with another woman, even strange woman is good." She touched Tess's arm lightly. "Come—come to this woman's home and take tea."
Tess stared at Dream Woman thinking she must have heard her wrong. Dream Woman couldn't have been inviting her into her home for tea. Tea?
When Tess made no move, Dream Woman took her hand and led her through the cut doorway. Tess had to duck to keep from hitting her head, but inside there was plenty of room to stand up. The hut seemed so much bigger from the inside.
At least ten foot from wall to wall, the hut was furnished with a platform bed against the wall and a stool. A firepit dominated the center of the room with animal hide mats spread in a circle around it. From the rafters hung baskets, dried herbs, and leather bags. Several pieces of pewter and tinware were stacked neatly near the bed. Dried flowers hung in several places from the ceiling and wall posts giving the hut a strangely feminine touch.
"In, in," Dream Woman said. "You are hungry. Tired." She led Tess to the firepit where red coals smoldered. A clay teapot sat on a flat rock near the coals.
"Tea?" Tess said, smiling at Dream Woman. She really had meant tea!
"Kehella." Dream Woman nodded. "You like tea?"
Tess sank into the soft hides on the floor. "Yes, oh, yes, thank you."
Dream Woman pushed a delicate teacup into Tess's hands and knelt beside her to lift the teapot.
Tess watched the warm tea pour into her cup, savoring the aroma. She looked at the Indian woman. Was it this woman's kindness that she had seen in Raven's eyes that first day. "My name is Tess."
"Tess? "
"Tess."
Dream Woman poured herself a cup of tea. "Tess." She nodded, sitting cross-legged across from her. "I am sorry my son has done this, Tess."
"I . . . I don't know what happened. I don't know why they shot at him, Dream Woman."
Her hostess waved a hand. "What has done, has done. You did not pull the trigger of the firestick, no?"
Tess shook her head sadly, feeling a lump rise in her throat. "No, I didn't. I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen. They'd have probably shot me by accident if it hadn't been for Raven." At the mention of Raven, she dropped her gaze to the pungent brown tea she drank.
"My son, he took you then?"
Tess nodded. "Mohawk took me first. Days ago. It was me and my cousin." She took a sip of the tea, giving herself a little time before she spoke of Jocelyn. "They killed my cousin, but I got away." She exhaled. "Raven, he and . . . and his brother, they helped me get away. They hid me from the Mohawk when they chased me."
Dream Woman smiled proudly. "My sons are good men." She took a sip of her tea, gesturing. "This, I do not know why he would take you. It is not like my son. Not my Raven."
"He . . . he said he was taking me because they took his brother. He said an eye for an eye like it says in the Bible."
Dream Woman shook her head. "The Lenape, we do not take captives. No longer."
"He tied me up." She looked over the rim of the teacup. "He said he would hurt me . . . kill me if I didn't do as he said."
Dream Woman frowned. "My son spoke of a white woman, but he did not say he had claimed you."
Claimed you. . . . The words rang in Tess's head. She wondered what Dream Woman meant, but she didn't ask. Maybe she was afraid to. "I don't know what he's going to do with me," Tess went on softly. "Maybe kill me," she dared.
"No. My son would not. His words are sometimes—" she clicked her fingers, looking for the right word "— harsh, but his heart is good." She threw out her shoulders mimicking a masculine gesture. "He is brave warrior," she relaxed, "but good man. He would not kill you. He would only say the words to scare you."
Tess gave a little laugh. "Well he's done a good job of that."
Dream Woman rose and busied herself near the bed, searching through bags and baskets. "This woman will make you corn cake and honey and then you will sleep on my mat. Tomorrow I will speak to my son. I will not have this, a woman tied to my lodge. He knows I do not approve of treating onna this way, any females. I will not."
Tess hugged her knees. Dream Woman would help her! She would make Raven let her go. Tess warmed her hands on the china teacup, smiling. In few days time she'd be home!