Traveler trilogy Book 2.
Five years after killing Levi Cornwall, Arthur Morgan is happy. He has a wife who loves him, an honest job he enjoys, and two beautiful children named Sadie and Hiram. All of it is turned on its head, however, when Francis S...
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The first place Jenny rode after Arthur and Rains Fall were both gone was back to the reservation. Eagle Flies would find out about the burning of the sacred place and the theft of the chanupa at some point, and she wanted to be the one to tell him. If he found out from his father or from someone else, it would incite him into a violent rage. But if Jenny could gather Paytah and tell them together, Paytah might be able to help her keep Eagle Flies from acting on his rage for a moment.
She found him sitting outside his tipi, sewing a piece of rawhide onto the body of a drum. Paytah stood nearby, cutting up a deer carcass he had hanging from a frame.
"Hello, Hummingbird," Paytah said with a warm grin as she approached. "How are you?"
Jenny shook her head. "Not well, I'm afraid. I have news, and I wanted you to hear it from me."
Eagle Flies' head snapped up, and his eyes narrowed suspiciously at her. He looked angry, but his anger didn't seem connected to Jenny, more because he suspected the news she carried wasn't good. "What's happened?" he asked, his hard voice nevertheless trembling a bit with fear.
"Your sacred place in the mountains?" Jenny questioned. "The sweat lodge where you kept the chanupa? Well, the... the army burned it today."
"Argh!" Eagle Flies exclaimed, letting loose an enraged, guttural sound of agony from deep within his throat. He picked up a rock that was sitting next to him and threw it as hard as he could, breathing so heavily his whole torso heaved and roiled with the effort.
"The chanupa?" Paytah asked her, his voice trembling as he took a step towards her.
"Safe," Jenny informed him sadly, tucking a loose strand of hair that had fallen from her braid behind her ear. "I was with Arthur Morgan and Eagle Flies' father when we found the burned lodge. Arthur went and stole the chanupa back from... from..."
"Who?" Eagle Flies asked, looking up with narrowed, angry eyes. "Who did this?"
Jenny hesitated. She knew he wouldn't like the answer. "The army," she said at last in a gentle voice. "They burned the sweat lodge, but thankfully they only stole the sacred relics instead of burning them, too."
"Colonel Favours' men?" Eagle Flies growled.
"Looks like it," was her response. "I'm so sorry, Eagle Flies."
He shook his head at her and stood up, crossing his arms. He was so close that he towered over her, and for a moment, she felt a bit afraid. He looked mad enough to kill, and while his anger wasn't directed at her, it still frightened her nonetheless.
"Brother," Paytah said gently, putting his hand on Eagle Flies' shoulder. "Calm down. We will punish them."
"She doesn't understand," Eagle Flies moaned, burying his face in his hands. "Do you know why a sweat lodge is sacred, Hummingbird?"
