Nakoa's Woman Read Online Free PDF

them and finally went away. Still, the Indian held her in the vise of his strength.
    When he finally released her, she was too numb to sit up. He picked her up and put her roughly upon the bay, mounting behind her. Without a sound, he guided the bay through the thickest recesses of the forest; like fellow phantoms his and the Snakes’ horses followed, and Maria felt that she was living through a nightmare of silence.
    The Indian held her closely. The bloody scalps at his belt dampened her dress, and she strained as far away from him as she could. But he would give her no leeway. The pain in her head worsened, and each step that the bay took grew to be agony.
    After more than an hour’s riding, they reached the forest’s edge. The Indian stopped the horses. He dismounted, looking up at her and studying her in the starlight. He then seized her and stood her before him, as if he were measuring her height and the contours of her body. The terrible paint upon his face drove her from looking at him, and she turned away. He touched the side of her head, either seeking the seriousness of her wound or trying to see her face again, and all Maria knew was the smell of fresh blood upon his scalps.
    Suddenly dim shadows of mounted men appeared at the forest’s edge. They stopped, looking at Maria and the Indian. “ OK-ye ,” someone called softly.
    “ Ok-ye ,” the Indian replied, and four men rode toward them. They were staring at Maria in amazement. “Pyeeteokweeweewa waapeakesiwa!” one said in disbelief.
    They, too, were painted. They all looked terrifying, and Maria uttered a low cry of fear in spite of herself. Her captor immediately gagged her, doing it so roughly that she became dizzy with pain. He bound her hands behind her back and placed her upon the bay. Once more, he mounted behind her and led the others out upon the prairie. The grasses were wild and thick and from a distance looked like a carpet of silver. But when the horses began to travel at a steady gallop, the grasses became cruel, whipping at her through her thin skirts and hiding deep and treacherous ravines that the bay took unknown, stumbled upon, and started fresh blood running down her neck.
    Maria spun in and out of fainting spells. The fire of the wagon train had not burned itself out upon the prairie; it was searing yet in her brain, and there would never be enough blood in her body to quench it.
    On and on they rode, their pace quickening, the flying hoofs of the horses following the path of the prairie wind. They rent soft land, leaped ravines and plunged unheeding through the deepest of rivers. Cold water made her skirts cling to her shivering legs; hot blood coursed eternally down her neck and congealed thickly between her breasts. She slumped against the savage behind her, but in no way did he know her pain, her weakness, her womanhood.
    At daylight they changed course and sought the shelter of the hills. The Indians talked in low voices and then Maria was lifted from the bay. From out of old mists the painted face came before her again, this mask of this most hideous of men, and not ungently she was laid upon the ground. As she was covered with a buffalo robe the bloody scalps brushed against her and in them she saw the scalp of Ana. Strangling, she fled to a sanctuary deep inside of herself where this most agonizing of all days had never dawned.

Maria

Chapter Three
     
    Maria awakened, and pain was still violently upon her. She opened her eyes and looked up into the clear blue sky and prayed for help. She was still bound and gagged. She tried to move and nausea came, and she began to strangle on vomit. Quickly her gag was removed, and when she had vomited, she lay weakly back and felt someone untie her arms. She was nothing now, for where were all those who had loved and cherished her? With nothing to love and cherish in turn she was not even a seed upon empty winds. She moaned in agony, and someone touched her and raised her to a sitting