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duction, his head cocked in curiosity as he looked from Skylar to the bucket
and back again.
Though Skylar had discovered many gaps in her knowledge of the Apache
language, it was easy for her to slip into speaking it because her friends rarely
spoke English any longer. She also knew from long experience that the
Apache rarely wasted time with pleasantries. They spoke their minds and
expected others to do the same. Skylar was finding that more difficult to
adapt to than the constant use of their language, and locating her voice and
her wits with Sun Hawk towering over her made it even harder. I was speak-
ing to my sister, she replied after a moment.
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Sun Hawk s dark brows went up in surprise. All of his people claimed kin-
ship with various animals, but he had never known anyone related to water
before. The water is your sister? he asked, crouching beside her.
No, she answered, wondering how she could explain her way out of this
when her mind had turned to muddled mush. When I looked in the water, I
thought of my sister, and the words in my heart were spoken aloud.
Sun Hawk nodded thoughtfully. Why do you not say the words to her
yourself rather than asking the water to do it for you?
Because she is far away.
She is free? Living in the mountains? he asked with a kind of envy that
Skylar might not have understood a fortnight ago.
She is free, but she lives on a ranch far above this place.
Why was she not brought here with you and your father?
Skylar was finding it increasingly difficult to remain still with Sun Hawk
so close. His deep voice aroused feelings inside her that she didn t want to be
having. He was dealing with her matter-of-factly, and she wanted to be able
to respond with the same detachment. Because my Apache father is not hers.
My sister is not of the People.
Sun Hawk frowned. He had heard this woman call Consayka my Apache
father once before, and this puzzled him. And now he learned that she had a
sister who was not a sister. Odd. There was so much about the Verdes that he
did not understand, and this woman was the greatest mystery of all. Since the
night he had first seen her in the glow of the fire, her eyes as wide as those of
a startled doe, Sun Hawk had watched her. She was as beautiful as a sunrise,
and her people treated her with great deference, yet it did not seem to Sun
Hawk that she belonged here. He had learned that she was called Skylar, but
the name was even more incomprehensible than she was.
That was why he had approached her when he saw her kneeling by the
stream. He did not like mysteries. He wanted to understand her and the other
Verdes so that he would know how to react if trouble sprang up between this
woman s people and his. Gradually he was learning about the others through
his conversations with Consayka, but the old man had never volunteered any
information about his daughter, and Sun Hawk could not ask for fear that his
curiosity would be misinterpreted.
The best course, it had seemed to him, was to talk to the woman called
Skylar directly.
Why do you refer to your father so strangely? he asked.
Skylar wasn t sure how to answer him. I have had three fathers, she
finally told him, unable to hide her sadness. The first was a White Mountain
Apache, but I do not remember him very well. I was taken from my village
and sold as a slave to a white man named Templeton who took me home and
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loved me as much as he did the daughter of his blood. Now I have been taken
from that family, and my good friend Consayka has given me his protection
by calling me his daughter. It is an honor I carry proudly.
Now Sun Hawk understood why she seemed so different. You lived
among the white men willingly?
I was only five years old, and these people were kind to me. What choice
did I have?
Sun Hawk nodded, but he did not think the white man Templeton had
done this woman a real kindness. Is it hard for you to be an Apache again?
You have seen that it is. She lowered her eyes. I want very much to
go home.
Sun Hawk looked down at her, studying the way her dark lashes brushed
against her cheeks. She was beautiful and sad, but there was nothing he could
do to help her. It surprised him to realize how deeply he regretted that, and
how profoundly she touched him.
Perhaps I have been in mourning too long, he thought. The thought star-
tled him so much that he stood up abruptly, drawing Skylar s questioning gaze
up with him. Her eyes were soft, but Sun Hawk had been immune to soft eyes
for nearly two years.
If it was indeed time for him to lay his beloved wife to rest, it could not be
for this woman whose heart yearned to be far away.
Without another word he turned on his heel and departed, leaving Skylar
wondering what had happened and why he had looked at her so strangely.
If I didn t know better, I d think you were nervous, Meade said, looking
down at Rayna s hands. They were clasped together, resting demurely in her
lap, but her knuckles were white and there was nothing serene about her pos-
ture. Her whole body fairly radiated tension.
I am nervous, Major, and this isn t a good time to tease me about it, she
said matter-of-factly as she looked across the room to General Whitlock s
office door.
I m sorry. I didn t mean to make light of your dilemma, he said, then fell
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