The Five Dollar Mail Book 3: The Road Home

32: Hostage Negotiations

Cover painting by Angela Taratuta. Chapter artwork of Still Water Woman by Angela Taratuta. All graphics by me.

Book 1: The Green, Book 2: Lynch's Boys, Book 3: The Road Home, and the Riders & Kickers Anthology are available on Amazon under the name Regina Shelley. So if you hate waiting for chapter posts and/or want a more polished read, the finished product is available now.

Still Water Woman watched her sister as the child clung to Jesse's hand. The child stayed close to his long legs as he strode through the rustling grass. Runs Laughing wasn't leading him, wasn't pulling him along behind her as she urged him forward. No, she was holding tightly to him. walking beside him, letting him lead her back to the village. Letting him protect her from the threatening white men and their leering eyes and their threats.

Back on the riverbank, Jesse had turned around and walked away from his freedom. He could have easily enough gone with the strange white men. He could have returned to his family.

She glanced up at Two Elk in front of her, his long silver braids shining white in the sun. The old man was uncharacteristically quiet, limping along heavily on his walking stick.

"He could have left," she said. "Why did he not want to leave?"

Two Elk stopped and turned to look at her, he face serious. "He did." He held her gaze for a long moment, and then fell silent again, resuming his hitching gait.

She watched Jesse shoulder the heavy water skins as he and Runs Laughing walked ahead, and her heart ached for him. "Tell him to go back," she whispered, the thought of him leaving bringing with it a bitter emptiness.

Two Elk shook his head, saying nothing, his somber mood etched in deep lines across his weathered features.

The smoke from the village curled in her nostrils as they approached, wafting the scents of drying meat and tanning leather and horse dung across the greening prairie. They were close enough to hear voices in the breeze.

"Two Elk..." she pleaded, realizing it was about to be too late, that the door was closing. "Jesse...stop."

Jesse stopped, not turning to face her. Runs Laughing swiveled around to look, her eyes wide and inquisitive.

"Go back," Still Water Woman said in English, her heart pounding.

His shoulders sagged as he exhaled heavily. "I can't." Runs Laughing tightened her grip on his hand and pulled, and he turned away, resuming his resigned march back into the village. He mumbled something in English, his voice flat. She recognized the name of His Horses. 

She could hear excited voices, shouting at their approach. Eagle Bone, a warclub in his hand, stood among a milling knot of warriors at the village edge. When he saw them, he deflated with relief. "Two Elk!" he called, his voice tight with tension. "Is there trouble? Did you see anyone?"

"Your sisters are alright," Two Elk nodded soberly. "And yes. We did."

Eagle Bone had hurried over to his sisters, looking them over with a mixture of concern and anger on his face. "White men?"

He was afraid for us. Nothing makes him as angry as fear. She glanced over to Eagle Bone's fellow warrior, Stone Robe, so as to avoid directly addressing her brother. "Yes. Four of them."

Eagle Bone hissed through his teeth, his face a rigid grimace of frustration. He growled, snapping his club out and striking Jesse hard across the chest with the shaft.

Jesse cried out in surprise and pain, letting go of Run's Laughing's hand as he stumbled backwards and fell into the dust. She gasped, instinctively reaching for him. "No! Brother!" And then Jesse launched himself forward, coming off the ground like an arrow leaving a bowstring. Eagle Bone fell backwards, Jesse on top of him and the assembled crowd collectively gasping and shouting in shock and excitement.

Eagle Bone will kill him. She closed her eyes, raising her hand and jerking Runs Laughing against her side. He is that angry. "No!" she shouted, desperate and terrified.

"Why do we feed and clothe this weak, useless white captive?" Eagle Bone spat, breathing hard between his words. "I will not see my sisters keep a rattlesnake in their lodge, as one would a favorite puppy!" He wrestled Jesse to his back, pinning him with his knees as the crowd shouted encouragement and insults. He grabbed his warclub and raised it aloft just as Jesse shoved himself upward and slammed his head into Eagle Bone's face in an explosive flurry of yellow hair and spraying blood.

Was that sound Eagle Bone's nose breaking? Her heart was pounding in her chest, her eyes burning. She knew she would never interfere with a warrior fighting. She'd shouted at him without thinking, her heart in a blind panic. But if this sweet man has returned to us after what just happened, and is killed for it in front of me..I do not think I can live anymore.

She didn't know what Jesse was saying, but he was clearly as angry as Eagle Bone. He was chanting a stream of angry words as he threw Eagle Bone off and hastily wiped the blood from his eyes with the back of his arm. Blood poured down his face from a gash in his brow, and he rolled to a crouch, facing his reeling opponent. The warclub lay where Eagle Bone had dropped it. Jesse picked it up and muttered at Eagle Bone, and then looked around at the stunned crowd. His shoulders and chest heaved with exertion. "Not captive" he snapped in Lakota, raising his voice. "Do not say it"

Eagle Bone had rolled to his feet, blood running in unheeded streams down his face and chest, his hand going to the knife at his hip.

Two Elk clamped his hand on Eagle Bone's shoulder. "He is here because if he had left us, the white men would have your sisters."

The twisted anger drained out of Eagle Bone's face. He froze. Two Elk went on. "If he had told them that he was a captive, if he had let them take him back, they would have taken Still Water Woman and Runs Laughing. And I could not have stopped them. They had guns."

Still Water Woman shivered, the full impact of what the old winkte was saying settling into her mind. Jesse traded himself for us.

Two Elk met her gaze and nodded. "He left here as a captive," he said. "He did not return as one."

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