Fierce Eden (The Louisiana History Collection Book 1) by Blake Jennifer

Author:Blake, Jennifer [Blake, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Steel Magnolia Press
Published: 2012-08-03T16:00:00+00:00

12

THE VILLAGE WAS awake and stirring early. The buzz of voices, mingling with the barking of dogs, the dry rattling of shaken gourds, and the tooting of cane whistles, echoed around the hut where Elise lay staring with wide and burning eyes into the smoke-darkened dome of the ceiling. She had slept little.

After a time, she got up. Wrapping her cloak around her, she kindled a fire, then stood shivering beside it for some time before she got dressed. She wondered what Reynaud was doing, how he was feeling. Did he dread the coming ordeal as much as she did? Or was he resigned to it, even, perhaps, looking forward to the test of his powers, uplifted by his fast and temple vigil?

She would not watch; she could not bear to watch. There was no reason why she should. She was not a savage, used to such sights; why shouldn’t she be upset at the thought of seeing a man whipped? She would stay quietly in the hut until it was over. Perhaps she should spend the time preparing to care for the injuries Reynaud would receive; it was possible that she owed him that service for her part in this terrible ordeal. She had learned a great deal about the Indian ways with herbs from Little Quail in the time the woman had spent with her and there were many of the necessary herbs close to hand, hanging from the ceiling beams.

It was easy enough to make a resolution; the trick was in keeping it. When the rise of the voices from the direction of the plaza indicated that the gauntlet was ready and that Reynaud had appeared outside the temple, she could not remain inside the hut. It seemed cowardly to stay there in hiding.

The sun was brilliant as she stepped out of the artificial darkness of the hut. It shone with feeble warmth on the crowd gathered around the plaza, catching the sheen of a patch of beading on leather here, the gleam of the sharp edge of a hatchet or knife there. Children darted, dogs leaped and barked, women sat talking, men stood about with their capes flapping as they made quick gestures in conversation. They paid scant attention to the men drawn up in a double line in the center of the plaza, each with a stripped cane pole some four feet long in his hand. Warriors all, these men who stood waiting; they were the stoutest and strongest of the tribe.

Turning away quickly, Elise saw that most of the Suns had chosen to watch the impending event from the slopes of the mound of the Great Sun. The height gave them a much better view than being at ground level. There were even a few elderly people who had been carried from the huts to a place on the mound to watch. Carefully tended, these respected ones sat waiting for the excitement to begin. Elise moved around to the front side of the mound and climbed a few feet up the slope to be able to see above the crowd.

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