CHAPTER EIGHT
"My friend comes."
"What friend?" asked Czanna.
"Istisitsa Ohkitópii,First Rider," Stands Strong responded. "We have been scouting together for our chiefs. He went to discover what had happened to your man. He brings the man with him."
"The man?"
"This man who was with you and your family, but who left you to seek revenge. He is greatly injured. My friend has made a travois for him."
"A travois? What is a travois?"
Stands Strong nodded, but his attention was not upon her and he didn't answer her questions. Instead, he was gazing forward, though occasionally he glanced both right and left.
The crisp scent of dawn had, at last, arrived, although only blue and pink shadows from the sun fell upon the land. And, at the present moment, Czanna was at the helm of the prairie schooner, while Liliann walked beside the wagon on her right, Liliann carrying Briella on her hip. Stands Strong, who was on Czanna's left, was keeping his pony down to a walk, his pony matching the steps of the other horses.
"How badly injured is Mr. Henrik?" asked Czanna.
"I do not know," answered Stands Strong. "My friend only tells me they are coming."
"Tells you?"
He nodded.
"Are he and Mr. Henrik here, then?"
"Not yet," said Stands Strong. "They will, however, be here soon."
"But, how can he find you?" asked Czanna. "And, how do you know he comes with Mr. Henrik?"
"Scout talk," he answered.
"I beg your pardon?" she asked. "What is scout talk?"
"Silent talk. Mind-to-mind speak."
"Mind-to-mind speak?" Czanna gulped. Was this man's mind perhaps touched by the sun? Or could he really speak to people in perhaps a similar way she could talk to animals? "What is this you are telling me? I have never heard of this mind-to-mind talk."
"I have not the time to explain," he answered. "Know only they will be here soon. My friend did not tell me the condition of your Mr. Henrik."
"He is not my Mr. Henrik," Czanna said. "He was…is my father's manservant. Oh dear, if Mr. Henrik is badly injured, will he be able to recover?"
"I do not know. We will have to discover this once they join us. I must go now."
"But—"
She stopped speaking since she was now talking to the wind. Stands Strong was already galloping away.
What, in the name of the Good Lord, was "scout talk"? And, what was a "travois"? Czanna closed her eyes for a moment. What else was she going to discover in this strange and foreign land? In truth, the concept of two people "speaking" to one another over a great distance…this "scout talk"—whatever it was—only served to strengthen the conclusion she had already made: she did not belong here.
However, she reminded herself of her own similar experience with silently speaking to horses. Didn't she talk to them, and they back to her?
But, similar though the concept might be, it was still different. She had talked to horses that had been standing next to her; she had never "talked" mind to mind with another human being, and especially not one who was at some distant point away from her.
Yet, if Stands Strong's news were true and Mr. Henrik were coming back to them, wasn't the news hopeful? If Mr. Henrik were injured but still alive, could it not follow that, once recovered, he could take back the reins of leading her family to their cousin?
And, if he were to recover, there might not be a need to urge Stands Strong into having a clandestine affair with her. Or would there be?
