Wild Splendor by Cassie Edwards

stories. Leonida began telling the story of the frogs who ate too much bread and blew up like balloons and floated away, and the one about twin rabbits that had nothing better to do than to eat the flowers in the gardens in the cities; because of this habit they were turned into flowers themselves.
    Leonida continued telling her special stories until the children had all drifted off into a sound sleep. Left awake were the mothers, within whose eyes lay the haunting fear not only of what lay before them but also of what they had left behind them—their beloved husbands, left to settle the differences between the whites and the redskins.
    Leonida lifted Trevor over onto Carole’s lap, then leaned her face closer to the window, trying to inhale a breath of fresh air. Her mind was not on any soldier; instead it was on the handsome Navaho chief whose life was soon to be turned topsy-turvy.

Chapter 6
    But I, grown shrewder, scan the skies
With a suspicious air—
    â€”E MILY D ICKINSON
    Â 
    Â 
    Day lay golden along the top of the cliffs. Like a desert mirage, the canyon spread an emerald counterpane in the midst of an arid land. Irrigated by springs that swelled to a creek, the valley bloomed with willows and lofty cottonwoods. The canyon and the village of hogans nestled in the shadow of a colossal rampart of red rock wall.
    Sage took the saddle and bridle off his stallion and began tying a thong about his animal’s lower jaw, then stood with one hand on the horse’s withers as he turned to welcome two of his most trusted scouts, riding hard toward him.
    Something in Sage’s heart told him that the scouts were bringing more bad news. It was in their eyes and the set of their jaws and the way they made such haste into the village. Sage was not sure that he was ready to be told anything else. He and his people had just arrived back at the stronghold, the journey from Fort Defiance a quiet one.
    Although Sage and many other Navaho leaders had said they would not leave this land that had belonged to their ancestors, he knew that to stay meant death to many of his people. Kit Carson had become someone foreign to the Navaho. He had stopped being Sage’s friend when he aligned himself with the other white leaders whose lives were fueled by greed and cold hearts toward all Indians.
    As Sage’s scouts wheeled their horses to a thundering, dust-flying halt, his thoughts returned fleetingly to the moment when he had held the lovely white woman in his arms. In that instant of passion he had forgotten everything but the woman.
    But now, thinking back, she was to him like the peace that had once sealed hearts in friendship between himself and the white leaders.
    Forever gone.
    â€œWhat news have you brought me?” Sage asked, forcing his thoughts back to the present. “It is hogay-gahn, bad?”
    Spotted Feather stepped forward and placed a heavy hand on Sage’s shoulder. “Yes, it is hogay-gahn, ” he said. The silver buttons on his leggings flashed in the sun, his waist-length black hair fluttered in the breeze. “A lie was spread to those in charge at Ford Defiance, and to Kit Carson. It was said that you led a recent raid that killed many settlers. Because of this lie, and because the white leaders believed it to be true, the white pony soldiers have been ordered to round up our people, and to kill you if you resist.”
    Sage’s heart began pumping wildly within his chest. His eyes flared with rage. “And so they go this far, do they?” he said between clenched teeth. “It is not enough that they have given the order that our land will no longer be ours. But now they will take it by force. Even kill me, while doing it?”
    â€œOnly if you resist,” Spotted Feather said, lowering his hand from Sage’s shoulder. “Only . . . if . . . you resist.”
    Black Thunder stepped forward, his dark eyes narrowing. “Let us gather together many