'I suggest that you do so more feverntly,' said Hci.
Iwoso complied, pressing her lips more desperately, more helplessly, more fervently, to thos of Hci.
'Declare your love,' said Hci, sneeringly.
'I love you,' said Iwoso, frightened, not even seeming to understand the words she spoke.
'Again,' said Hci.
'I love you,' said Iwoso, numbly. 'I love you.'
'Speak the workd with more meaning,' commanded Hci.
'I love you,' said Iwoso, desperately. Then she looked deeply into Hci's eyes. Then, frightened, she looked away. Then, half choking and shuddering, she burst into tears.
'Well?' said Hci.
Iwoso looked again at Hci. Tears were running down her cheeks. It seemed she was terribly frightened. Then it seemed that something within her broke or gave way. 'I love you!' she wept suddenly. 'I love you!'
'Better,' said Hci.
'No,' she wept, plaintively, 'I do love you!'
'Of course you do!' laughed Hci.
'I love you!' she said.
'Yellow-Knife slut!' cried Hci.
'I do love you!' she cried. 'I do love you, truly!'
He then, with the flat of his hand, struck her a savage blow across the face, turning her head in the neck bonds, bringing blood to her lips and mouth.
'Lying slut!' he cried.
Iwoso, shuddering turned her head away, weeping.
'Cuwignaka!' he cried.
Cuwignaka came over to the post.
'Kiss him,' ordered Hci, 'fully upon the lips, as a slave, and declare your love for him.'
Iwoso kissed Cuwignaka. 'I love you,' she said.
'Now kiss him,' said Hci, indicating me, 'similarly, and declare your love for him.'
'I am a free woman!' she cried. 'He is a slave!'
'Do so!' said Hci.
Iwoso pressed her lips to mine. 'I love you,' she said.
'More feverntly,' said Hci, angrily, 'with more meaning!'
'No!' said Iwoso.
Hci's knife whipped from its sheath. I feared he was going to disembowel her at the post. There was a spot of blood on her lower abdomen. Indeed, I think he might have done so had her compliance not been instantaneous and perfect.
'I obey!' she cried.
She pressed her lips deeply, desperately, frightened, to mine. 'I love you!' she said, frightened. 'I love you1'
'Behold the fickle slut,' sneered Hci, 'kissing and declaring her love upon command, like a slave!'
I regarded Iwoso. As she was a free woman it would not be necessary to whip her for having hesitated in obeying a command.
'I hate you!' said Iwoso, weeping to Hci. 'I hate you!'
Hci sheathed his knife. 'Excellent,' he said.
'Sleen! Beast!' she cried to him.
'Now we see Iwoso as she truly is,' said Hci, 'the sly, vicious Yellow-Knife slut.'
'Sleen!' she cried, weeping.
'You look well, Yellow-Knife slut,' said he, 'roped naked to a Kaiila post.'
'Sleen!' she screamed.
'Yellow Knives!' we heard men cry about us. 'Yellow Knives!' Men were rushing about. Each knew his position and his business. Over the past few days we had rehearsed this many times.
We looked down to the prairie, to the west. Now a pasang away, across the prairie, all attempt at concealment discarded, waves of Yellow Knives, feathers flying, dust billowing behind them, charged toward Council Rock.
'You are surprised!' cried Iwoso, wildly. 'Now you will all die! Now you are lost! There is no escape for you! You will all be trapped on Council Rock!'
'It goes as we have planned,' said Hci to Cuwignaka.
'Yes,' said Cuwignaka.
'You cannot escape!' cried Iwoso, elatedly. 'Now you are done, Kaiila sleen!'
At this point I could see only Yellow Knives but I did not doubt but what Alfred, the mercenary captain from Port Olni, with the remnants of his command, probably some three hundred cavalrymen, or so, following the engagement at the summer camp, was not far behind. Certainly, according to our scouts, he had been with the Yellow Knives at the time of the crossing of the Northern Kaiila. He would wish the Yellow Knives to make the first strike, doubtless, absorbing and presumably subduing the brunt of the resistance, thu sparing his own men. Similarly, in this fashion, if such matters entered his mind, there would presumably be fewer, if any, prisones to be concerned about. I did not think that the Yellow Knives would have disputed this plan. They would have been eager to be the first upon the Kaiila.
'They will soo be at the foot of the trail!' cried Iwoso. 'Your escape is cut off!'
We saw Mahpiyasapa, civil chief of the Isbu, hurrying past. But a step behind him was the redoubtable Kahintokapa, of the Casmu, of the Yellow-Kaiila Riders.
'Do you not know how it is tht they found you?' cried Iwoso, weeping. 'It is my doing! I told them! In my lodge I overheard this foolish slave mention the place and time of the council! I tricked him into loosening my gag! I managed later, before being dragged from the Yellow-Knife camp, to rid myself of it! I then, in Yellow Knife, informed my people of your future whereabouts!'
'It was by intent and calculation that Tatankasa spoke of the council in your lodge,' said Hci.
'Too,' said Cuwignaka, 'it was in accord with our plans that your gag be loosened.'
'Do you truly think, woman,' asked Hci, 'that you would have been permitted a gag the perfection of which you could in the least diminish had it not pleased your captors to have it so?'
'I cried to my people,' said Iwoso. 'I told them about the council!'
'That, my pretty, naked, roped Yellow-Knife slut,' said Hci, 'was in accord with our plans.'
'But even now I tricked you,' she said, 'by distracting you from seeing the approaching dust, by pretending to sexual need!'
'The dust,' I said, 'was visible long before you noticed it, before you initiated your clever, diversionary strategem.'
'Knowing that,' she said, 'you let me behave as I did!'
'Yes,' I said.
'It was pleasant seeing you pretend to sexual need, pretty Iwoso,' said Hci.
She looked at him, aghast.
He took her chin and held her head. 'You pretend well to sexual need, Iwoso,' he said. I saw that she shuddered, Hci's hand controlling her. Then, angrily, he thrust her head, in its neck bonds, to the side.
'The Yellow Knives approach incautiously, anxiously,' said Cuwignaka. 'Doubtless they fear some might escape.
'Yes,' I said.
'Things go well,' said Cuwignaka.
'Yes,' I said.
'They are at the foot of the trail!' sobbed Iwoso, looking down, 'You cannot escape! You are lost!'
The Yellow Knives now, to be sure, swirled about the foot of the trail, that leading to the summit of Council Rock. This trial ranges generally from about five feet to ten feet in width. Some were even now urging their kaiila upward, doubtless desiring to be the first to count coup. Others, jostling and milling about, in dust and feathers, pressing and gesticulating, fought for a position on the narrow upgrade.
