Dream Drive Ch. 09

He expected a blow to the face, a hard landing on stone – but it never happened. He opened his eyes, then blinked several times. He couldn't see anything. He tried moving his arms and legs, and was greeted again by the odd sensation of floating. His stomach flopped uncomfortably; he swallowed back the sensation in the bottom of his throat.

I'm getting sick of the teleporting.

They'd been lucky – Rachel's horse had knocked over three tents, but the biggest casualty was a deep scratch on Kannu's arm. Chaki used a bit of essence to heal her. Normally, she wouldn't waste it on such a small injury, but, thanks to the bond with Jackson, she could afford to be more generous.

Palla had an aching back from where one of the tent stakes had struck him, but it wasn't anything a few minutes of stretching wouldn't fix. Their neighbors helped Chaki and Landri fix their tipi back to the ground, and soon enough, he was back inside and sleeping soundly. Landri joined him to take her own rest.

Chaki knew she should try to get some sleep, but with Jackson and Shaka inside the mountain, sleep had never been more distant. She remained outside, meditating near the fire.

She watched the flames, held her essence, and breathed. The smoke smelled good. Out on the plains, they had to burn whatever they could find, but the Three Hills tribe had brought entire sledges filled with sweet-burning red pine.

Her essence bar filled at an incredible rate. She could feel the change as well, that familiar sensation of returning potential, energy condensed and swirling inside of her. What used to take her days now only required a few minutes of focus.

With her magic restored, Chaki climbed to her feet and turned away from the fire, looking down the path toward the center of camp. The elders were probably already meeting about Rachel's sudden and chaotic arrival. And now, Boonta was alone with her in a tent.

Chaki didn't like it. She needed an excuse to visit.

She grabbed a bison-heart pouch from where it hung on the side of their tent and made for the river. She filled the pouch with water, then walked back through the camp with a quick stride. Making sure Rachel wouldn't be dehydrated in her unconscious state seemed like a pretty good reason to intrude.

The tent erected near the elder's large tipi was small, something a newly married couple would use having just left their respective families. At the moment, Yukatan was using it to store his spare wealth; what he didn't hold in horses within the herd was kept in the form of bison skins and wolf pelts.

Chaki called out and pushed the entrance flap aside at the same time. "Boonta, I'm bringing water for Rach –"

She stopped, the pouch held in both hands in front of her. Her eyes widened.

Rachel was lying face up on a blanket, still in her enchanted slumber. Boonta was kneeling next to her, one arm tucked behind his back. Sweat rolled off his face. Chaki could see rips and tears in Rachel's black leather, exposing the pale skin beneath.

Boonta's lips moved up and down. He swallowed, looked at Rachel, then up at Chaki. "What is it? What are you doing here? She hasn't moved."

"Boonta," Chaki said, "what are you holding?"

"I'm not holding anything," he said. "Why do you say that?" he brought his hand forward and turned both his palms up.

Chaki threw the pouch at him. Boonta flinched, then grabbed for the container before it hit his face. Chaki darted around the side of the tent.

There was a knife lying on the ground behind him.

Chaki's mouth dropped open. "By the One-Above. You were trying to kill her."

"That's not –" The pouch dropped through Boonta's fingers and rolled across the ground. "I can explain this. It's not what you –"

"Then you were trying to have your way with her?!" Chaki shouted. "A defenseless girl?!"

"It wasn't – I –" Boonta's eyes were wild. His tongue stuttered over itself.

Chaki marched forward. "I knew it. You rat. You disgusting snake!"

Boonta grabbed the knife and lunged for Chaki, tackling her at the waist. Chaki tried to scream, but the air was knocked from her lungs; it turned into a high-pitched grunt. Boonta raised the dagger and jammed it down into her chest.

"I tried to stop her," he shouted. He ripped the knife free, then stabbed Chaki again, and again. He mashed his other hand over Chaki's mouth, stopping her from calling for help. "The collared woman woke up and attacked you. Killed you! I told them, I told them not to trust her, I knew she –"

Boonta's hand froze in the air. He looked at where he'd punctured Chaki's hide dress with his knife. "You're like him." He grabbed her wrist, and twisted it, bending her hand to look at Shakhan's symbol. "You're like them. You're one of them."

Boonta dropped the knife and put his hands around Chaki's throat. He was crying, now, sniveling.

Chaki grabbed his wrists, pulling at his hands, but he was far stronger. She had only been dazed from his tackle, but the choking was far worse, worse even than the sensation of a knife sinking into her stomach. Her health, having gone down in heavy chunks, now began to tick downward.

Chaki tried to call out, to say anything, but it came out as choked gasps, and then she was out of air. It felt like her throat was being crushed.

She flung her hands up into his face. She dug a nail into his nose and pulled it up. Boonta made a pained noise and twisted his head away, shaking her where she lay on the ground.

"I loved you," he said. "I love you. Why did you pick him?! You bitch." He slammed her head into the dirt. "You fucking bitch! I should have had you. You – you could have had me!" He slammed her again. "I hate that I still love you. I hate it. I hate you!"

Chaki shifted her hips, trying to throw him off, but he was a lead weight made out of muscle. She kicked and scrabbled her feet on the dirt, but she couldn't get purchase.

"This is all his fault," Boonta said. He kept his head back, out of her reach. "Jackson Vedalt. I'll kill him. When he comes back, I'll kill him! Jackson Vedalt!!"

There was a scream - a hard, throat-ripping scream that tore into the air. Chaki thought it was her own voice for a moment, but she could still feel the pressure stopping her from taking a breath. Boonta looked back over his shoulder, his hands around Chaki's neck loosening.

Rachel was awake. She was rolling on the ground, clawing at her neck. She screamed as if her entire body was on fire, over and over without pause.

"Shut up!" Boonta shouted. "Shut up you fucking –"

Boonta's words cut off in a mangled cry as Chaki leaned up and dug her fingers into his face as hard as she could, digging into whatever she found with her nails. She found something soft, and Boonta shoved her away. She rolled across the ground, coughing and desperately filling her lungs with air.

Boonta stood back up, a hand on his face. He hesitated for a moment, then went for the tipi's flap. Chaki grabbed him by the ankle, and he tripped forward, hitting the dirt on his stomach. She climbed over him, then slammed the heel of her palm into his head, pushing his jaw into the dirt. She got to a knee on his back, lifted it, and slammed it down. Rachel's screams peeled over them.

Boonta grunted, and then he rolled, pushing her off. They both got back up and rushed for the entrance. Whoever made it out first would tell the story.

Hanta shoved in under the flap. "What in the name of the sun-burned demons is –"

Boonta and Chaki slammed into him at the same time. Their collision took the entrance flap off its pinnings; they fell into a kicking pile of limbs and cloth.

Chaki used her elbows to pry herself free, getting her head out of the mess. "Hanta, Boonta –"

Boonta's hand caught Chaki in the side of the face. She nearly bit her tongue off.

"Hanta," Boonta said, "the girl woke up and started to attack us! She tried to choke Chaki!"

"What is going on here?!"

Chaki felt herself being lifted up. Hanta brushed off her shoulders. Yukatan was standing next to him, still without his headdress, his eyes reddened and tired by a long night. "Chaki, is that screaming the girl? What is this?"

Boonta shouldered his way in front of her. "Father. The girl almost killed Chaki. She got my knife away from me when I wasn't looking. Things were almost –"

"That's not true!" Chaki said. "Boonta tried to kill her, and me!"

"What?" Boonta asked, aghast. "What are you talking about? I just saved your life!"

When she saw Boonta's face, his expression, and heard those words, the bold-faced lies of a man that tried to force his way with her, something inside Chaki snapped.

She rushed at Boonta, leading with her fist. She caught him off-guard and socked him straight in the eye.

Boonta reeled backward. Chaki fell on top of him. "You damn, disgraceful, Shakhan-cursed liar! You tried to kill me!" Boonta covered his face with his hands as she rained down her blows. "You piece of shit, you slime off a worm's ass, you angel-damned horse-fucking little shit-headed bastard!"

Chaki was pulled backward. She fought against the arms that were on her, kicking, scraping to get back and beat Boonta into the dirt until his mouth was so disfigured he couldn't speak ever again.

"Chaki, calm down!" Vuntha's voice, shouting in her ear. "Calm yourself! Chaki!"

Chaki realized she was digging her nails into Vuntha's arms. She released him. Vuntha steered her back a few steps, then gingerly let her be. Her breathing came ragged though her throat, part from the lingering soreness, part from the sheer rage that was keeping every part of her as tense as a bowstring.

"What has gotten into you two?" Yukatan shouted. His gaze swiveled between where Boonta was picking himself up, wiping the blood from his nose, and where Chaki stood. "I can't turn my back without the two of you arguing and fighting. Yes, your relationship ended poorly. It ends poorly for many in the tribe! Act your age!"

"Elder Yukatan." A new voice, deep and ponderous, joined what was quickly becoming a large gathering. It was Kunaya – the elder of the Three Hills. His hard face observed the scene from within the recesses of his headdress. Despite the hour, he'd apparently taken the time to strap the hundred feathers around his head for the meeting. "What is the meaning of this? What is that screaming?"

As he said the words, Rachel's screams cut off. Everyone exchanged glances. Hanta ducked into the tent. "It's fine," he said. "She's asleep again." He reemerged. "Chaki, what happened in there?"

"I would rather," Kunaya said, "hear an opinion from someone who is of calm mind and sound judgement."

"He lied to his father's face!" Chaki shouted. "My elder's face!"

"I didn't lie," Boonta said. "I can't believe you're doing this. Even when I take blows for you, you do everything you can to destroy my honor. I don't give a damn if Jackson isn't who you'd thought he'd be. You can't have me back!"

Chaki growled and took a step forward. Vuntha grabbed her shoulder. "Chaki, get a grip!"

Chaki pushed Vuntha's arm away, but she stayed where she was. She met Boonta's stare. "I'm not going to stand here and let you feed them horse shit!"

"To reiterate," Kunaya said, "I'd rather hear an opinion from someone who isn't acting like a crazed wildcat."

The insult made it through Chaki's anger. She glanced about. Everyone was staring at her.

As she took in the gazes, she realized what it must have looked like. Her barreling out of the tent, then attacking Boonta, who didn't fight back, and then her screaming her head off at him. She bit down on her words and took a step back, deferring to Kunaya without a response. She couldn't talk back to the most powerful man under the mountain and expect to have her words heard.

"Boonta," Kunaya said. "I know you as impulsive, and proud. But in your impulsiveness, you are honest." Chaki clenched her hands so hard her knuckles turned white. "What happened?"

Everyone turned to look at him. Boonta cleared his throat. "I was sitting in the tent, watching the girl. Chaki came with a pouch of water, saying we couldn't have her dying of thirst before the elders returned." Boonta gave a grudging shrug. "I thought that was a good idea – I didn't know how long the girl had gone without water."

"And then?" Kunaya prompted.

"We got into an argument," Boonta said. "She claimed she wished to dissolve her promise of marriage with Tatanka Ska, and take up with me again. Apparently he wasn't up to her expectations."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Vuntha said. "Chaki would throw herself off the mountain first."

"Is this how the Windseekers work out their problems?" Kunaya said. "Interruptions, flinging vile words at one another like mud? Honestly, Yukatan, get these children either under control or out of my presence. I was not in the mood to be roused to talk about some vagabond girl tied to a horse, and I'm not in the mood for this petulance."

"And neither am I," Yukatan said. His gaze fixed on Vuntha, and then on Chaki. "You will have a chance to speak after. Be. Silent."

Vuntha swallowed and looked at his feet. Chaki just kept staring at Boonta.

"Get to the point," Kunaya said.

"In short, I didn't agree to take up with her again," Boonta said. "I tried to warn her about him from the start, but she made her choice, and a relationship isn't something to be turned on and off at her whim. Things became heated. I think the girl woke up and slipped my knife from my belt while we spoke, and stabbed Chaki. I managed to get her off and take the knife back, and then something happened with her collar. The girl started screaming, rolling on the floor, and she dropped the knife." Boonta gingerly touched his broken nose. "Chaki wasn't finished with me, even after I stopped her throat from being cut."

"Chaki was stabbed," Yukatan said. "Why is she standing?"

"She's like Tatanka Ska," Boonta said. "The knife didn't harm her. But she was still lucky. A warrior marked by Shakhan probably knows ways around their magic."

"Alright," Kunaya said. He glanced at Chaki. His eyes were not pitying. "And your story?"

"I came in with water," Chaki said. "And I found him, kneeling over her, stabbing the girl with his knife!"

Boonta raised his palms. His voice was incredulous. "Why would I kill the girl I just said we shouldn't kill? That we should wait for Shaka, that I'd help guard her? That doesn't make any sense!"

"Does she have injuries?" Kunaya asked.

"She's also like Jackson," Chaki said. "A warrior of Shakhan."

Kunaya nodded. "Then there's no evidence of a stabbing?"

"No," Chaki said. "There are tears in her clothing, where the knife was used to cut."

"There are tears," Boonta said quickly, "but they were already there, from her being tied to a saddle. Her clothing was ripped before she got here. They were probably made worse when I fought her off."

"Is that true?" Kunaya asked Yukatan.

The elder frowned. "I took her from the horse. But...I don't remember either way. It was dark, and I wasn't looking for it."

"I helped you untie her, remember?" Boonta asked. "I saw it clearly enough. And I was sitting in the tent for twenty minutes before now."

"That's rather convenient for you, isn't it?" Chaki said.

"Chaki," Yukatan said. "Do not."

"I was there, too," Vuntha said. "There weren't any rips in her clothing. Boonta made that up!"

"Jackson Vedalt's best friend in the tribes," Kunaya said, "defending his woman while he is away. Is there anyone in this story that is unbiased? Anyone at all?"

"Look at this," Chaki said. She drew her dress out slightly. "Look at the slashes! Boonta stabbed me! I would have died, if not for this." Chaki raised her hand, showing Shakhan's star-mark.

"This is ridiculous," Boonta said. "That's from where she stabbed you!"

"It's from where you stabbed me, before you gave up on that and tried to choke me to death!" Chaki shouted. "And her clothes didn't rip in the saddle. There will be cuts, like that from a knife, not frayed rips!"

"I was fighting her off!" Boonta shouted back. "Of course I cut at her when I got my knife back!"

"You tried to murder her!"

"Why in the name of all the angels and the One-Above," Boonta said, "would I try to kill the girl I volunteered to guard? I don't give a damn about her! I'd just as soon she never came here!"

"You hate Jackson Vedalt," Chaki said. "You hated him as soon as you saw him, because you think he took me from you. And you thought that if you could kill her, you could kill him."

"Unbelievable," Boonta said. "Your lies twist faster than a wind spirit's cyclone."

Chaki was about to shoot right back, but Kunaya cut her off. "It seems," the elder said, "that given our...alternative testimonies, this becomes a case of competing motivations. On one hand, we have Boonta, who – as I have so recently heard from his father – showed restraint in requesting that we wait for the spirit guides before passing judgement, even though the girl is a stranger in sight of the mountain." He looked at Chaki. "On the other hand, a young woman who is clearly in the thick of her emotions."

"Elder Kunaya," Chaki said, trying to control the tone of her voice "I have only respect for you, and so I will not lie. My emotions are not fully under control. But if you think Boonta is some great paragon of wisdom and self-restraint, then you should better exercise recent memory!"

A very uncomfortable silence fell over the crowd. Everyone remembered Boonta's tantrum after his fight with Vuntha, and how he'd shoved Shaka away, but no one had spoken of it.

Chaki felt as though ropes of social decorum were stretching her limbs in different directions. She'd insulted the elder's son in front of the elder - in public. Worse still, she'd done it in front of another tribe's elder – and not just any elder, but the leader of the largest tribe of the Three Hills, and by extension, the entirety of the plains. And she'd laid down a not-so-subtle criticism of the very same's observation skills.

To her own amazement, she found that she didn't care. She felt an exhilarating rush at telling this man, with his overstuffed headdress, pretentiously butting into their tribe's personal matters, exactly what she was thinking. I wonder if this is how Jackson feels all the time.

Kunaya stared at her, sizing her up. Chaki stood without shame and stared back, waiting for his words.

"Elder," Kunaya said, "it is your tribe, not mine. What is your judgement?"

Yukatan put a hand on the bridge of his nose and sighed. He rubbed his palm over his face. "Why do you two do this to me?"

"Perhaps I might make a suggestion, so that we can all get back to sleep," Kunaya said.

"Please do."

"Separate them until their heads have cooled," Kunaya said. "When all has had time to settle, perhaps we can be honest with one another, and agree to put this behind us. Riotous emotions can make bad ideas seem like good ones."

Chaki felt everyone give her a glance after his last sentence. Kunaya was building the situation against her, labeling her as the unstable girl that would act out if she didn't get her way.

"You said we needed a scouting party," Kunaya added. "Let Boonta take this new task. Let his thoughts air themselves outside of camp for a time. That aside, it's important that we deal with this issue quickly, but we shouldn't overreact. Even their largest trading caravans rarely have more than a few dozen people. They're likely stopped for the night. Boonta's party should be small, so that they may move without detection. We ascertain their location and their numbers for now, and we may better decide how to move upon them in the morning.

"We're all tired, now," Kunaya said. "Use the night to gather information, and when the sun's light shines, I think we'll all see a little bit clearer. If you have some of yours scout to the east, I'll have mine go south and west. The Dust-Gatherers can take the north side of the mountain."