Read Online Sundancer (Cheyenne Series) by Shirl Henke - Free Book Online

gently smiling face and chuckled softly. But her good humor quickly died. “Yes, it was a great bad dream, Sees Much.”
           “Tell me.”
           “I was standing on a low rise watching a small herd of buffalo...like the one we saw last week. Suddenly, on a rise directly across from me...but far off, I think, I saw a speck...or something like that.” Roxanna paused to gather her thoughts. “Anyway, the speck began moving toward me... It got bigger and bigger until I could see that it was another buffalo. The herd was between me and it, but the herd just parted and my buffalo—”
           Sees Much interrupted, “Your buffalo?”
           Roxanna nodded and then quickly shook her head. “Yes...well, I don't really mean mine.
           The old man again patted her shoulder. “Forgive me, Her Back Is Straight. It is wrong to halt the telling of a dream. Go on.”
           “The herd parted and the buffalo came toward me. He came right up and stood in front of me. He was beautiful...so very beautiful. I wanted to touch him. To run my hand through his great shaggy black mane. I looked into his eyes and I knew that he wanted me to touch him.”
           The girl paused again before continuing. “I forgot to tell you that in the dream it was dark. Suddenly the sun shone and I could see there was something wrong. Blood was dripping down along the great shiny horns of the beautiful buffalo and I became afraid... He seemed to be angry...maybe hurt. He backed away and began to paw the ground and shake and toss those great bloody horns...and you woke me.”
           For a long time both the old man and the young woman were silent. Then Sees Much began to talk, almost in a whisper.
           “You have dreamed of the Lone Bull. Sometimes he has been driven from the herd by the others. Sometimes his spirit tells him to go his own way. Yet his path will always cross and cross again the path of the herd. He is of the same kind as the herd, yet he is not of the herd.”
           The old man was silent. Roxanna waited for him to continue and when he did not she asked, “It must be important that his horns were bloody. Why were his horns dripping with blood?”
           The old man looked at her with an odd expression on his face. “I am not certain, daughter.”
           For the first time since she had known him, Roxanna was sure that Sees Much was not telling her the truth.
     
     

 
     
    Chapter Four
     
     
           The next day Roxanna learned that Cain had secured her release from Leather Shirt in return for the rifles, but they would not leave the safety of the Cheyenne camp until the Pawnee moved on.
           “I understood from reading newspapers—our talking leaves—that the Pawnee were friendly to whites, that the Union Pacific hires them to protect railroad workers,” she said to Willow Tree as they gathered wood for the morning cookfires.
           “Pawnee old enemy of People. They watch here,” she said, pointing to the distant rock escarpment from which a rider could easily look down on the camp by the river. “You go from here, they think you belong to People. Kill.”
           The way Willow Tree eyed Roxanna's long silvery braid did not reassure the white woman. Shuddering, she applied herself to her task. After all she had survived, a few more days with the Cheyenne would not be so bad, especially when she considered how much she dreaded the journey ahead with Cain.
           Troubling thoughts about last night's dream returned. How vivid it had been—and how strangely Sees Much had responded when she described it to him. Secretive...and almost pleased! She resolved to confront him again as soon as an opportunity presented itself when they were alone. Just then Lark Song came dashing up, her dusky cheeks flushed with excitement. “Weasel Bear back!”
           Weasel Bear was a leader of the Dog Soldier