Chapter 35

When I thought I'd done enough faking I left Cowta in his clinic chamber and headed out, for coffee in fact. Shanay, Biltee, and most of my women were in the kitchen when I got there and apparently there had been a waiting vigil in progress. They were surprised when I walked in but not surprised enough to keep them from asking questions and keeping at it without giving me time to even start answering.

"Wait a second! Hold it! QUIET! There is nothing to tell; except Cowta is doing fine and he will stay where he is for four days. He is resting quietly and no one can go and see him since he is asleep. Now, somebody get me some coffee please."

They settled down after that and soon enough drifted on about their business. Taachachi brought me the coffee, and even a little pre-lunch snack.

"It will be wonderful if you have fixed Cowta's leg," she said.

"I have fixed it and it will be better than wonderful. He has already been my biggest helper behind you, and I'm sure he will be even better when he can walk normally," I said, hoping to at least settle her nerves, but I miscalculated.

"I am your best helper?" she asked, zeroing right in on that part.

"Of course you are. You take care of almost everything. Others may tell me this or that, but I can depend on you giving me the best advice of all."

"Maybe you should have a little more than one sandwich before lunch," she said, smiling and pouring my coffee cup full before starting on the next part of my snack.

"Will Cowta be able to go with us when we go to the attacker's camp?" she asked, as she came with the next snack, some kind of meat pie.

"No, his leg will not be ready for that kind of travel so soon. It doesn't matter though, since I know you want to go and I must have someone I can trust to stay here while we are gone. Even though no one from the outside can come in and do harm, we still need someone with authority to stay and keep the ones left behind calm," I told her, and it widened her smile.

"That is good, because I do want to go. Sometimes you are too easy on those we must battle. You kill them before they have time to suffer enough," she said, proving once again that a pissed off woman was much more deadly than a man.

"It's because I do not care if they suffer. Their suffering does not help us, or not very much anyway. I'd rather just be rid of the problem, and when they are dead we are rid of them and they can't bother us anymore."

"That is true. When will we leave?"

"It will be a few days yet. I want all our people to be good with their weapons before we go. They are fewer than we, but I don't want a battle we barely win. I want one that kills them all before they hurt any of us. It might be impossible, but I want to come as close as we can."

"We will practice hard then, as hard as we can," she said, and we did.

For the rest of the day and all of the next two we kept at it hard. We took the next day off for rest and to let some of the stuff sink in mentally, but planned to get right back at it the morning after the resting day. George woke me an hour early though.

"I believe we have a problem coming," he said.

"What kind of problem?"

"Jardart, the young aggressive leader of the Gronta is angry and concerned that no one has returned from the raid here. He is sending out a party of ten men to see if they can discover what has gone wrong. No women were allowed to go and he has instructed them to travel as quickly as they can. They still cannot make it here before late tomorrow afternoon."

"Since there are no women with them, they will not make it at all. We'll set up a little ambush."

For once I was out of bed and done with my shower before the women got up. Taachicha was chagrined and actually blushed when I grinned at her. I told her not to hurry because I remembered how to make coffee, but she was in the kitchen before it had even finished brewing so I know she must have showered and dressed as fast as she could.

"What got you up so early?" she asked.

"The spirit of the mountain told me that the Gronta are heading this way again. Jardart, their leader, is worried that no one has returned from the raid he sent here. I suppose he will be even more worried when the ten men he sent to see why don't return either. I believe I'll organize a little welcome for them."

"Oh. Why not just let them come and tend to them here like you did the others?" she asked.

"I don't want to keep doing the same thing all the time. If I do, sooner or later someone will catch on and think of a way to counteract our plans. Besides, I need to give the fighters more experience. It will be good for them. I'll take thirty with me and we should have no trouble dealing with a group of ten."

"That's why you are our headman, so you can make the plans. Will you take men and women along?"

"I think it should be half men and half women. On second thought, we should take twenty women and fifteen men. We will likely need to stay out at least one night and someone will have to cook. I don't want to make the women too tired from overwork," I said.

"Don't worry. Women are accustomed to being overworked, but more will be better."

She started proving her point by pouring me a cup of coffee and getting breakfast started. Teechi and Teecha were in only a couple of minutes later and they headed through the kitchen and out toward the larger communal kitchen/dining-room.

After eating I went to the clinic to fetch Cowta. George let him become conscious when I entered. He looked disoriented at first and then grinned at me.

"I dreamed I was young again and that my leg was perfect," he said.

"Take a look at your leg, it looks fine to me. Maybe I should leave you in here longer and see if it will make you young again too. You don't look any younger to me."

He didn't even respond to the slight barb since he was feeling around on his formerly misaligned leg. He was stupefied to see it looked perfectly normal now. I had to stop him since I saw he was about to jump right up.

"Wait. Stay there. I came to see if you were awake yet and I didn't bring anyone to help you. You will need someone to lean on when you first try to walk again and I know Shanay and Biltee will be cross if you start without them. Stay here, I will go and get them."

It only took a few minutes. They were through eating already and they hopped up, nearly running to me when I told them Cowta needed them.

It was mostly a non-event from there. Biltee and Shanay both helped Cowta out of bed and then wouldn't leave him alone as he tried to walk. He actually had an easier time of it than I'd expected and he finally had to tell them to give him some room. He walked back to the residence cave on his own but they stayed as close as he'd let them.

I made my way back to the dining room, catching most people still gossiping, and made the happy announcement about more raiders heading our way. With George's help I had picked out thirty-five to go along and I gave them the news then. They all seemed happy to be chosen and most of the others were a little let down.

The ambush party was moved to the head of the line for practice sessions for the day to let them get in a last quick session this morning. I stayed right with them and was happy with their bow and arrow skills. I guess that was to be expected because George basically knew all and he'd picked the best archers for the trip.

After a light lunch we gathered our equipment and saddled our horses. We weren't taking any travois but we did put packsaddles on six horses to carry the overload of sleeping furs, food, and other things. We left around two PM and headed back the way the last group had come during their attack.

We traveled until nearly an hour before sunset and then made a camp back in the trees away from the river. George said there was no chance they'd be able to see a fire so we didn't need to cold camp. We did keep the fires small though, just in case.