Naka’yen’s sad eyes studied Case, looking him up and down suspiciously.
“You are an Apache, but you wear the clothes of the white man, and I have seen that you have power over the soldiers. Why should you want to be my friend?”
“Because I have come to help your son.”
Life sparked in the old man’s eyes for the first time, and he sat up a little straighter. “What do you know of my son?”
Case sat facing Naka’yen. “I know that he is in terrible trouble, but that what he did was done for a good reason.”
“He is in love with the girl,” Naka’yen told him. “It was done for her.”
Case wasn’t particularly surprised by the news. He had assumed there was a bond of some sort between Sun Hawk and Skylar. Otherwise the brave would never have taken such a desperate chance to free her. “Do you know where he has taken her?”
Naka’yen’s gaze became shuttered and unreadable. “He said nothing to me before he left. I do not know where he is.”
“Would you tell me if you knew?”
The old man regarded Case suspiciously. “Why should I trust you?”
“Because I have been sent here by the Gray Fox, who wants to help your son and the woman called Skylar. He knows that a great wrong has been done to her, and he wants to set it right. He wants to return the girl to the white family who raised her.”
“And what of my son?” Naka’yen asked. “He will be killed for what he did.”
“Not if the soldier lives,” Case assured him. “And I have already been told that the soldier will not die.”
A glimmer of hope sprang into the old man’s eyes. “My son will not be punished?”
“I cannot promise that,” Case answered. “But the Gray Fox has given his word that if Sun Hawk’s actions were justified, he will come to no harm. The Gray Fox has never broken his word to us.”
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Naka’yen took the promise seriously, but there was nothing he could say to help this stranger. “I do not know where my son has gone.”
Case believed him. “Would he join Geronimo?”
The old chief shook his head. “Only if he had no other choice. He does not believe that Geronimo’s ways are good for our people, but this long journey may have changed his mind. He counseled our people to peace and urged them to go with the soldiers. We both wanted to believe this would be good for our people, but I think we were wrong. Even before he left, my son had begun to doubt his wisdom.”
“If he counseled peace, he is infinitely wise, as are you, old grandfather,”
Case said respectfully. “The Gray Fox has made no promises about this, but he is already trying to send you back to your own reservation. He does not believe it was right to send you to Rio Alto. He is a powerful man, and many will listen to him. Speak of peace to your people, grandfather, and pray that you can go home soon.”
Naka’yen nodded, and Case began asking questions about Sun Hawk and about the hunting grounds they had visited before their confinement to the reservation. As he’d suspected, this band like many others had ranged from the plains to the north and east, south to the Mexican deserts, and west as far as the White Mountains. As a boy, Case could remember many encounters with Mescalero bands. Occasionally there had been disputes over their rights to hunt game in the territory claimed by Case’s people, but most of their relations had been friendly. He even knew of marriages that had taken place between the separate tribes.
If Sun Hawk was as skilled as his father boasted he was—and Case had no reason to doubt it, considering the efficiency with which he had engineered Skylar’s escape—he was going to be a formidable adversary. Quite simply, he could be anywhere.
“One final question, grandfather,” Case said. “Do you think your son would take Skylar back to her white family at the Rancho Verde?”
Naka’yen’s surprise suggested that he had not considered that possibility.
“Why would he? She killed the soldier who attacked her. My son would never believe that even the Gray Fox would care so much about a single Apache maiden that he would send someone to help her rather than punish her.”
Case stood. “You have been generous with me and I will remember it, old grandfather.”
He turned to leave, but Naka’yen stopped him. “If you seek to know more about the woman, you should talk to her people.”
“Her people?” Case asked.
“The Verdes. If you find their wagon, you will find her Apache father and mother.”
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Case nodded, feeling his spirits plummet as he turned away. Had Skylar somehow been reunited with her real parents? If so, it was not possible that she was his sister, Morning Star. He looked around and located the wagon Naka’yen had referred to. The old man who greeted him in English seemed to have been expecting him. He invited Case to sit and introduced his wife, Gatana, who had a deep gash on her forehead that had barely begun to heal.
Once again, Case explained the purpose of his visit and assured them that he was trying to help Skylar. Any information they could give him would be to her benefit.
“We know very little, Mr. Longstreet,” Consayka told him. “After Skylar killed Talbot, the officers took her to their camp and questioned her for many hours. They questioned others as well about how she had come by the knife, but Skylar told them nothing.” He shook his head sadly. “She paid for her silence dearly. We all heard about the bruises on her face and the blood that ran from her mouth.”
“Where did she get the knife?” Case asked, trying to shut out the image of his sister—if she was his sister—being so violently abused. In his mind, Morning Star was still five years old, and his instinct to protect her was still strong.
Consayka hesitated a moment, then shook his head, and Case realized that he was protecting someone, just as Skylar obviously had.
“Can you read?” Case asked, pulling a packet of papers out of the pouch that hung from his waist.
“Yes.”
“Then look at these papers and you will know that what I have told you is the truth.” He handed Consayka the passes Crook had written that authorized Case to take custody of Skylar and Sun Hawk and release them to no one except Crook himself. It also stated that Skylar was an Americanized citizen and was to be accorded the respect and rights due her.
Consayka inspected the papers carefully, and any doubts he might have had about Case disappeared. “Sun Hawk gave her the knife the night we left the reservation. Talbot had attacked Skylar as we came into the agency that morning, and he wanted her to be protected.”
Case felt a sudden surge of anger. “Did Captain Haggarty know about that attack?”
Consayka nodded. “There were many witnesses including the man, Norris, and Haggarty himself was there, though he refused to believe Skylar’s word over his soldier’s. But we were all a witness to what he did that day, and my wife was wounded when Talbot attacked Skylar at the river.”
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but two attacks and the captain still placed the blame for the entire incident on Skylar. But that was in the past, and Case had the future to deal with—and his dimming hope that she was his sister.
“I was told you are her parents,” Case said quietly.
“When we were taken from Rancho Verde, my wife and I assumed responsibility for Skylar so that she would have the protection of a family.