chapter 24

Little Pelican stood before the council doing his best to look patient as he waited for them to tell him what they had decided. He had gone to them two suns after the raiding party had left, to ask them to consider pressuring Black Wolf to marry his daughter, Brown Skunk.

He knew how much his daughter desired the young warrior who was also going to become the tribe’s chief once he came back from the raid. He had often talked with Chief Bright Wolf about a union between his daughter and Black Wolf. Although Bright Wolf had never come out and said yes or no, Little Pelican had still broached the subject with the old chief since his daughter kept insisting that she wanted to be hand-fasted to the boy.

Now that Bright Wolf was gone, Little Pelican knew the only way to get his daughter hand-fasted to Black Wolf was to go directly to the council to convince them that it would be in everyone’s best interests for the young chief to take Brown Skunk as his wife.

Of course, he mostly did this because his daughter wouldn’t let up on pestering him about sealing the deal, but he did have his own reasons too. While he wasn’t as adamant as his daughter was about this hand-fasting, he knew what a coup it would be to have his daughter married to the tribe’s chief.

He was a man who liked the prestige that would come with that, but he had also asked the council to consider putting him in the empty council seat that had once belonged to Eagle Feather, and that could also give him the prestige he liked. If the council granted him that seat, he could then use his vote to guarantee that his daughter would get Black Wolf as her husband just like she wanted.

Once the remaining seven council members were all seated, Wise Bear, the eldest of them, stood up to address Little Pelican.

“Little Pelican, we have deliberated your requests and come to an agreement on both of them.


On the first request, your voluntary offer to fill the vacant council seat left by Eagle Feather. We are aware that he has no son to pass the seat to, therefore leaving it open to someone else from the tribe. While we are grateful for your offer, we cannot give you our decision on this until we have discussed this with the chief of our tribe, no matter what the result of our vote is.


As for your second request, to have your daughter hand-fasted to Black Wolf, we have decided that we will allow this only if Black Wolf returns from the raid healthy and whole. However, he must give his consent to do so, for we cannot force him otherwise. We will do what we can to persuade him that the union will be a very beneficial one to the tribe as a whole.


Those are our decisions, we are sorry that we cannot give you a final word until Black Wolf returns, but we feel it is imperative that he know what our final decisions are before we make them public. You know it has always been that way.”

Little Pelican nodded. “Yes, I understand and I thank the council for at least hearing my requests. I will wait patiently, praying to the Great Spirit for the safe and speedy return of our future chief, Black Wolf.”

The rest of the council echoed their sentiments, then dismissed Little Pelican from the meeting. As he left the building, he thought about what the council told him. While he was a little upset about not immediately being granted the empty council seat, he still hoped Black Wolf would agree to give it to him. After all, there were not that many elders who were worthy of it.

As for the second request, he was glad that the council could see how good it would be for Black Wolf to be hand-fasted to Brown Skunk. He fervently hoped that they would be able to persuade Black Wolf to make the union official. His daughter should be pleased with this news. The council was behind them now, all they needed to do was wait for Black Wolf to return so that the ceremony could commence.

Little Pelican was already seeing visions of a grand ceremony in his head, but he was certain that his wife and daughter would make it even grander than he was imagining.

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“No! Please! I didn’t do anything!” cried the woman as she cringed on the ground with her arms covering her head for protection.

A Danasga warrior growled at her in his language. “You are still using that disgusting language when I told you to stop! Now stop sniveling and get on your feet!”

The woman sniffled as she looked up at him with teary eyes. “Please. Please don’t make me…”

“I said Silence!” roared the warrior before he grabbed a whip from his waist, preparing to use it on her.

Before he had the chance to strike, an arrow came whistling out of the trees, lodging itself into his arm. Seconds later he was lying on the ground with more arrows protruding from his body as he expelled a dying breath.

The woman opened her eyes when she realized no blow had been struck only to see the dead body of her attacker lying prone a few feet away. As the scream tore from her throat, the Quedeyona raiding party erupted from the surrounding trees, attacking the Danasga village.

With no other warning at all, the Quedeyona warriors flowed into the village, dispatching any enemy fighters they came upon. Mountain Lion Guides and Fighting Dog were part of the first group that had been told to make their way towards the council building in hopes that most of the important tribal members were there. Black Wolf and White Coyote were part of the group that was to secure the leader of the Danasga tribe as well as any of his family members.

So as the Quedeyona warriors moved into the village, Mountain Lion Guides’ group led the way with Black Wolf’s right behind them. The Danasga were overpowered at the beginning, but the further into the village they got, the better the resistance became. All too soon, the Quedeyona were being surrounded thus making them have to fight their way through anyone who came at them with a weapon.

It was during this fighting that Mountain Lion Guides began to notice something odd. As Black Wolf fought those in front of him, he had positioned himself so that White Coyote guarded his back. It was the way most of them fought as Fighting Dog and Mountain Lion Guides were fighting that way also.

However, White Coyote seemed to be distancing himself from Black Wolf, therefore leaving a considerable gap between himself and Black Wolf’s back. It was becoming such a huge gap that if anyone came at Black Wolf, White Coyote soon wasn’t going to be able to reach him in time to protect him.

Sure enough, Mountain Lion Guides saw the incoming warrior wielding an axe at Black Wolf’s back. White Coyote seemed to be too busy fighting another warrior to get to Black Wolf, so Mountain Lion Guides hoisted his tomahawk as he ran, then threw it in the direction of the warrior. It hit the warrior across the back of his thighs, enough to take him down to the ground, but not enough to incapacitate him.

However, Black Wolf had heard the warrior’s anguished scream, prompting him to whirl around to finish him off quickly with one of his knives before turning back to the oncoming warriors he was fighting. Mountain Lion Guides narrowed his eyes as he realized Black Wolf was too busy fighting to realize it wasn’t White Coyote who had first taken the warrior down. Without another thought, he shouted to Fighting Dog to get his attention as he moved closer to him before pointing to White Coyote.

“The pale-face isn’t protecting Black Wolf,” Mountain Lion Guides hissed in Quedeyona. “I have an idea why, but you go pair up with your brother and I’ll take the trickster as my partner.”

Fighting Dog scowled as he realized what Mountain Lion Guides meant. “You sure?”


“Yes.”

Fighting Dog nodded, quickly moving into position behind Black Wolf as Mountain Lion Guides grabbed White Coyote’s arm to pull him further away from Black Wolf. He could see Fighting Dog quickly letting Black Wolf know that he had his back now.

Before White Coyote could say anything, Mountain Lion Guides spoke to him in fluent English. “Come on, we need your help translating. You’re my partner now.”

The two of them rejoined the group heading towards the council building and continued fighting their way through. As they moved and fought, Mountain Lion Guides was always aware of where White Coyote was, knowing better than to solely rely on the sneaky pale-face to guard his back. At one point, he had glanced in White Coyote’s direction to see him looking at Black Wolf’s group with clear disappointment in his eyes.

That only served to make him realize he had been right. White Coyote wasn’t overly concerned if Black Wolf lived or died at all. That meant he must have heard Black Wolf’s earlier announcement about White Swan which didn’t make him happy at all, but Mountain Lion Guides wasn’t going to let White Coyote ruin a good thing if he could help it.

Luckily the fighting didn’t last that much longer since the Danasga had not been prepared to be involved in a fight to defend their village making it easy for them to be overtaken rather quickly. In no time at all, Mountain Lion Guides’ group had reached the council building where many of the elders had immediately surrendered, despite the fact that their chief was shouting at everyone to kill all the Quedeyona.

It became evident that the chief knew why the Quedeyona were raiding his village since he was trying to thwart their revenge to no avail. As soon as all of the men and warriors had been rounded up, the Quedeyona had confronted the chief as well as those responsible for the deaths of Bright Wolf and the others.

“We did nothing wrong! Your men came to our village and threatened us to do as they said or else! Of course we would retaliate!”


“They were sent here to negotiate with you about the welfare of your women and slaves! It was a peaceful group we sent, not a war party!” explained Black Wolf.

“It was no one’s business how our tribe conducts itself! As you can see, our women and slaves are plentiful!”


“Yes, but we clearly witnessed a warrior abusing a slave just as we began our raid,” Black Wolf pointed out as the slave in question was brought forward by White Coyote and Elk Brother, another Quedeyona warrior.

White Coyote nodded to the woman as he spoke to her in English. “Tell them what you told me, it’s okay.”

His smile helped her to be brave enough to tell them the truth. “I-I was trying to finish my chores when Prairie Dog accosted me. He wanted me to…to…” she stopped as her face turned red with embarrassment.

Then she looked down at the ground as she continued, “But I wouldn’t so he was going to whip me right before he was killed.”

Once her words had been translated, the chief glared at her in anger. “Liar! She’s just a slave! We do not believe their lies!”


“Really? Then do you believe the words from one of your own women?” asked Black Wolf as he indicated a small group of Danasga women standing nearby.

One of them stepped forward and said, “What the slave said is true of the treatment of all the slaves here. It is also true of many of the Danasga women too. Many of us are treated as nothing more than objects for the amusement of the men.”


“Silence woman!” roared the chief.

He was quickly subdued by several of the Quedeyona warriors around him.

“Tell me,” prompted Black Wolf of the woman, “do you know about the negotiation party we sent days ago?”

The woman nodded. “Yes, they came in peace they said. Some of us heard them trying to convince the council and our chief to change their treatment of the slaves and of us. The chief refused to listen and shouted at them instead. He ordered them to be disarmed and when they tried to leave peacefully, several of our warriors were ordered to attack them to make sure they couldn’t tell anyone anything.”

Fighting Dog, who stood besides Black Wolf, was now openly glaring in anger at the chief of the Danasga. However, the only indication of Black Wolf’s anger was in the curled fists at his sides. He kept his gaze level while his voice remained calm, as he continued to speak to the chief.

“Know this. Several of the men you ordered to be killed were well respected among our tribe. One in particular was not only respected, but like a father to many of us. He was not only a father to his sons, but also the father of his tribe. He was the Quedeyona Chief! He has been responsible for many a successful, peaceful negotiation with other tribes and with the pale faces. Not only have you left the Quedeyona bereft of his many gifts, but you have taken him from his family.”

Black Wolf indicated Fighting Dog, then himself. “Now I, the chosen son, must follow in his footsteps to continue down the path my father started. However, there is one thing my warrior side must do before I take up the mantle of tribal chief and prime negotiator.”

Black Wolf looked around at the rest of the people there before looking the chief in the eyes. “I, Black Wolf, son of Bright Wolf challenge you to a death duel.”

There were several gasps among the Danasga as the chief gritted his teeth in anger. “How dare you!”

“You cannot bellow your way out of this,” interrupted Mountain Lion Guides, stepping up to back up Black Wolf. “He has challenged you and the duel will take place right now!”

Another Danasga warrior stepped up besides the chief, glowering at Mountain Lion Guides. “If anyone should be punished for any wrongdoing then it should be I!”


“No!” hissed the chief, trying to place himself between the warrior and the Quedeyona.

The warrior ignored the chief as he continued to address Black Wolf. “Yes! It was I who followed my father’s order to kill Bright Wolf. I am the one who ended his life, so it shall be me to die.”

Black Wolf exchanged looks with Mountain Lion Guides and Fighting Dog before looking back at the young warrior. “I will duel the chief of the Danasga as I have said. You will face Bright Wolf’s youngest son, Fighting Dog, in a death duel too.”

Without another word, the Quedeyona cleared two spaces in which Fighting Dog waited in one and Black Wolf in the other. The chief and his son were dragged into the respective clearings by a few of the Quedeyona warriors.

All four combatants were given two knives each and nothing else. As soon as the word was given, the combatants began to circle the clearing.

At least that was the way of Fighting Dog and his opponent. Unlike the chief, the son knew there was no other way to survive what he had done. Rather than stand and yell about things as his father was still doing, he decided to fight for his life like a true warrior against Fighting Dog.

As the two of them began their nearly well-matched duel, Black Wolf had to listen to the chief trying to shout his tribe into rescuing him. But not even the council members could be swayed into helping him no matter how many threats and insults he hurled at them.

As Black Wolf inched closer to him, the chief knew he was going to have to fight but it soon became clear that he was no longer a warrior in his prime. He feinted a few times, trying to throw Black Wolf off balance, but Black Wolf was good at reading body language, so he knew that the chief was faking.

With a couple of quick moves, Black Wolf had disarmed the chief, placing him flat on his back with both knives at his throat. The chief’s eyes went wide with fear since he knew he had just been bested.

“I yield,” he gasped, over the knives at his throat.

Black Wolf glared down at him, not wanting to let the man who had ordered his father’s death live, but he knew the rules. After a few long, tense moments he backed away, sheathing his knives as he was declared the winner of the duel.

The sudden whispered curse and whoosh of a knife warned him in time.

Ducking as the knife flew over his head, he whirled around as he let both of his knives fly. Both of them imbedded themselves in the chief’s chest, making him stagger back in shock.

Black Wolf had never let his guard down because he knew what kind of snake the chief was. He had judged right. The chief had just tried to stab him in the back, but Black Wolf was quicker and smarter.

He watched the chief sink to his knees with blood spreading over his chest from the knife wounds. No one stopped him as he walked over to the chief, leaned in close to him, then yanked the knives out of his chest, making sure to inflict as much pain as possible.

The chief hissed from the pain before flopping onto his back, glaring up at Black Wolf in hatred.

Black Wolf knelt over him, growling. “You deserve more than this for what you did to my father!”

Then he silenced him for good with one final slice of the knife to his throat.

“It is done,” announced Mountain Lion Guides as Black Wolf stood up from the chief’s dead body.

In the other clearing, the son was beginning to tire. Fighting Dog was drenched in sweat, but he was still quick on his feet. Clearly in his element, he was able to move here and there much quicker than his opponent.

This had enabled him to get in some good blows so that his opponent now had many cuts and bruises all over his body. Blood ran down his arms and into his hands, making the knives almost too slick to hold on to. Blood and sweat dripped into his eyes, clouding his vision occasionally.

Despite having a few shallow wounds of his own, Fighting Dog was biding his time, waiting for the perfect opening to deliver his killing blow. It came a few moments later when his opponent lunged at him trying to throw him off balance.

Fighting Dog simply stepped out of the way, whirled around and plunged the knife down into his opponents back. The warrior grunted as he spun around, trying to reach the knife in his back with one of his hands while the other held a knife out towards Fighting Dog. However, his lack of concentration enabled Fighting Dog to push the knife out of the way so he could plunge his second knife at a downward angle into the warrior’s chest, stopping him cold.

The warrior sank down to the ground on his knees, feebly yanking the knife out of his chest before throwing it listlessly at Fighting Dog who simply batted it away. As the warrior sat there with his head hanging low, Fighting Dog walked up to him, then leaned over to grasp the knife still in the warrior’s back.

The warrior could only roll his head slightly as he growled at Fighting Dog. “Finish it.”

Fighting Dog yanked the knife from the warrior’s back, then swung it around to silence him permanently. The warrior fell to the ground as his blood poured from his slit throat to soak the earth.

“It is done,” came the second announcement.

Silence permeated the village for a few moments as everyone acknowledged the death of the wrongdoers. Then things began moving again as the Quedeyona began to finish up the rest of the punishment.

All valuables were taken completely from those directly involved with the murders of the Quedeyona negotiation party. Then from the rest of the tribe, all of the slaves were taken away. The Quedeyona made sure that the Danasga understood that they were to have no slaves or prisoners left behind, plus any of the Danasga women who wished to join the Quedeyona tribe would be welcomed and treated with respect as if they had been born Quedeyona instead of Danasga.

Those Danasga who remained behind were mostly men, most of whom all knew better than to try to start anything with the Quedeyona warriors. Hardly any of them complained when their women and slaves were escorted away. Those that did were quickly put in their place.

As the day began to wane, the Quedeyona raiding party began readying for their journey home. Transportation and other arrangements were quickly being made for those joining them on their trip home, as well as for any wounded Quedeyona warriors. Everyone was so busy preparing or making sure the remaining Danasga didn’t retaliate that no one noticed one lone slave girl slip through the edges of the crowd, slowly making her way towards the trees.

She waited until she was further away from most of the people to break into a frantic run towards the forest. However, being so petite, yet unaccustomed to stealth, the sound of her running reached the ears of one of the Quedeyona warriors who had been watching the remaining Danasga villagers. Quickly realizing no one had seen her yet, he turned his horse in her direction, catching up with her in a few gallops.

He leaned over to pull her up into his arms in one swift move before depositing her in front of him in the saddle. She immediately began struggling against him as her soft, whimpering cries reached his ears.

“Shh, little one. It is okay, I am not going to hurt you. You will be safer with my tribe than trying to run into the unknown wilderness alone.” He knew she wasn’t understanding his language, but hoped his calm voice and gentle demeanor would soothe her.

Within moments she seemed to realize that he wasn’t going to hurt her, yet she was firmly in his grasp so that she couldn’t escape. Accepting defeat, she went limp against him and became silent.

Still, he could feel the slight trembling of her body which told him that she wasn’t too far from being spooked again. So for the time being, he held her close, whispering soothing words to her as he and the rest of the Quedeyona raiding party began to leave the Danasga village.

Far on the other side of the group, Black Wolf and Fighting Dog rode side by side in silence. Both of them were lost in thoughts of their father and what had been done that day to avenge his death. They were glad that those who had participated in the senseless killing of their father had been dealt with, but wished it had never been necessary in the first place. War and death was never something to be happy about, no matter which side was the winner.

Riding behind the brothers were White Coyote and Mountain Lion Guides. The former never seemed to stop glaring at Black Wolf’s back while the latter never took his eyes off of White Coyote. White Coyote seemed intent on finding a way to harm Black Wolf, whether he did it himself or it happened by accident made no difference.

Despite White Coyote’s intentions throughout the entire ordeal, Mountain Lion Guides had made sure he never had the opportunity to bring harm to Black Wolf in any way. And when he couldn’t personally watch White Coyote, he made sure someone else did. Mountain Lion Guides knew that he was going to have to tell Black Wolf what was going on as soon as he was able to talk to him alone.

In fact, the more he thought about it, the more Mountain Lion Guides realized the two men had names that seemed to fit the situation. Among the people of his tribe, the coyote was known as an opportunistic trickster. A creature who used his wiles not only to evade those more powerful than it, but also to come up with more mischievous tricks to cover its tracks.

The wolf was almost the opposite of that. The Quedeyona revered the wolf as a great hunter and teacher, believing that it was in their best interests to emulate that creature in order to survive. They also believed that wolves were once men, which was the reason why the line of chiefs always had the creature’s name among the male descendents. The wolf was clearly a source of great spiritual powers, thus the name could only be given to those who were descendents of it.

Given those differences, it was also well known that coyotes and wolves were often natural enemies of each other. For while both kinds were known to kill the others pups, the wolves were often one of the most significant predators of the coyotes. That meant that coyotes generally did their best to avoid wolves when they could.

However, Mountain Lion Guides could see that White Coyote was not wise to the ways of coyotes and wolves. If he had been, he would know it wasn’t wise to pit himself against Black Wolf. If it came to that, then the legends said the wolf would win, but there could still be severe costs for both sides.

That was why Mountain Lion Guides believed that Black Wolf had to know that there was a deceiver in his midst before it was too late.