Tworivers
Copyright© 2025 by Harry Carton
Chapter 6: Winona
Thomas studied the Spanish rapier gleaming on the council hide – a captured Toledo blade laid beside a corroded pistol that Dawson had taken from the Crow child. Nantan traced the sword’s fuller with a calloused finger. “This steel bites deeper than any we can make.”
Outside, the rhythmic clank-clank of Winona’s hammer echoed – she’d commandeered every scrap of Spanish metal salvaged from the massacre. Tall Pine’s war paint glistened under the hidden shelter’s dim light. “The Spanish dogs hunt children. Their fort lies five suns west. Scouts whisper its walls stand tall as pine trees.”
“Santa Fe,” Dawson answered in faltering Apache. “There is a large garrison there, no doubt.”
“We will fight them,” Thomas/Wind Rider said, “But there is a greater danger than Spanish soldiers. It is the disease that they bring. We must find the plants that can cure those.”
Tall Pine and Nantan looked at each other. “We will fight Spanish guns. Many will die. But we cannot fight diseases. How?”
Wind Rider said, “I have a book in my goods recovered from the spirit-canoe that brought me here. It has the answers. Do not be worried, it is not magic. It is science -- a way of looking at the world around us that was common in the other time before I was sent here. But ... it will take the guidance of the Apache leaders to convince the common people of the Nation to take this medicine.”
“You must talk with Gouyen and Elk Hunter about this ... science,” Natan stumbled over the last word. “But we will talk to the Apache. They will follow our commands. We do not convince them; they do as we say.” Tall Pine grunted his agreement.
“We will meet with the Spanish at Santa Fe. We will trade with them. They have a kind of steel we need ... Toledo steel,” Wind Rider grinned at Nantan. “Them we must convince.”
The council dispersed, leaving Wind Rider alone with the rapier’s cold weight. Outside, Winona’s forge roared – a dragon’s breath in the twilight. He found her hammering Spanish breastplate fragments into thin, curved plates. Baya and several women and warriors gathered around learning how the kiln worked beside her, quenching the heated steel in water that hissed like angry snakes. “For horse armor,” Winona explained without looking up, her face streaked with soot. “The Spanish lancers pierced Crow ponies like hide tents. Our mounts need skin of iron.”
“I have the approval of Nantan to trade with the Spanish. We must have their Toledo steel.” Wind Rider said to the two women.
“Toe-LEE-do” Winona tasted the new word carefully. “Why do we need this?”
“You see how their breastplate is stronger than ours. That is Toledo steel. But if you quench it in oil,” he motioned to the pot of oil where Baya was working, “then your steel is better, stronger.”
Winona grinned fiercely, “Good.” She gave the helmet to one of her new interns and motioned for him to feed it into her kiln.
The Wind Rider left the smiths to their forge and walked into his tipi. Winona’s tipi, as she reminded him. There he gathered the laptop from his duffle, and set up the solar trickle charger outside the entrance. He sat on the dust and placed his laptop in his lap.
Winona came up to him, ever curious about the wonders he had brought with him. Her shadow crossed the charger.
“Stand over here. Your shadow stops the sun from hitting this.” Wind Rider said, tapping the trickle charger.
She looked at the wire leading to the laptop. “And you gather Father Sun into this ... thing?” She nudged the laptop.
Wind Rider sighed. Nothing will do but to explain it to her. “This is called a computer. And before you ask, I do not know how it works. It gets energy from the sun, and it stores many, many books of knowledge. Two that we need. One is about a rifle that you will make -- not now, but soon I hope. And one that we need right now – it tells how to make medicine that we will use to fight the Spanish diseases.”
She accepted all that he said. She already knew about taking the energy from Father Sun, plants did that naturally, so why not the computer thing from another time? As to the RI-ful she would make, she knew she would get that information from Wind Rider. Was he not a male? And was she not his chosen? He had not said so -- yet. But she knew.
“Show about the medicine. Should we not have Gouyen here?” she asked.
“I need to do some research, first.”
Re-search? To search again? She was confused, but Wind Rider looked at his device with concentration. She didn’t want to draw his attention away now. It might anger him, and she didn’t want EVER to make him look at her with anger. “I shall leave you. I have work to do of my own.”
After a while, Wind Rider looked up and noticed that Winona had left. He had pictures of the plants he would need to find. Where the hell did she go? I need to find Gouyen. He heard the clang-ckang of the forge that told him she’d gone back to work. He motioned to one of the children playing nearby. “Can you find Gouyen, please? Ask her to come if she is not busy.”
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