a conquering hero, with everyone cheering and singing “For she’s a jolly good fellow!” until they ran out of breath. And only then did they carry her to the Army Camp and let her down in front of one of the fires, where Captain Cody was waiting with a glass and a particular bottle she recognized.
That was when she came very close to fleeing. Because that bottle . . . that bottle held the Captain’s cherished whiskey from America, and it was something she had no desire to experience after sniffing its potent fumes. Beer was one thing, even schnapps, but this? She was absolutely certain that it would remove the skin from her tongue, throat and probably stomach.
But the gleam in Cody’s eye, and the grins on the faces of everyone else, convinced her there was no escaping this particular “honor.” I’d better face it and get it over with, she thought with mingled dread and resignation. So when Cody poured a glug of the gold-colored stuff into one glass and handed it to her, and did the same for himself, she accepted it.
Cody held the glass over his head, signaling he wanted silence, and got it. “Today,” he proclaimed. “Our very own Ellie showed herself the equal, maybe even the better, of Miss Annie Oakley. There ain’t nothin’ Miss Annie kin do that Miss Ellie cain’t. So! I call fer a toast! I give you the deadliest shot on this here continent! To Miss Ellie!”
“To Miss Ellie!” came back the reply as a roar of approval, as she solemnly clinked glasses with the Captain. And steeling herself, she threw down the entire shot in one gulp.
It didn’t quite remove the skin from her tongue and throat, but it certainly felt as if she had gulped down a mouthful of fire, not liquid. Somehow she managed not to choke or gasp, although tears started up in her eyes as some of the cowboys pounded her back in congratulations. Fortunately, a moment later, Rosa thrust a stein of beer into her hands, and with gratitude she quelled the fires in her mouth and throat with its familiar bitterness.
It seemed that the rest of them felt that a celebration was in order. More glasses and steins appeared, and a tapped keg. A couple of the band members fetched their instruments and began some impromptu dance music. Dancing around the fire began, not at all hindered by the fact that there were very few females to partner with; it seemed that cowboys in a dancing mood would dance with each other, or with a broom or a coat, or with nothing at all. The beer flowed generously, the rejoicing became more general, and it wasn’t long before Giselle was able to slip away from her well-wishers and go sit in the shadows outside her vardo to look up at the stars, and breathe, and think.
“That was the Hu-Huk,” said Fox, strolling around the side of her vardo. “White men call him the Thunderbird. I never dreamed that he would come to me here, in this strange land.”
She didn’t need to ask him what he meant; he had probably been thinking about that giant birdlike Elemental all afternoon and evening, and just as probably had been waiting with customary patience for her to be free to talk about it. “The One with the Thunder in his wings and the lightning in his claws,” she replied, with a nod, and then steadied herself as a wave of giddiness hit her. “He was . . . like nothing I have ever seen before, except . . . except maybe once, when I might have seen a storm dragon.” She blinked a little. “I think I am a little drunk.”
Fox sat on his heels next to her, and peered into her eyes without touching her. “Only a little, but I think it was wise of you to leave the celebration before that changed to ‘falling down.’ Wait a moment.” He got up, went off, and came back with a bucket of drinking water and a dipper, set the former down next to her and handed her the latter. “Water will help. It was a very good day.”
“It was a very, very good day,” she agreed, following his advice and drinking three dippers-full of water, slowly. “I was always a little afraid to call the great ones, before. Mother warned me of the consequences if something went wrong.”
“Hmm. The storms that angry great ones can bring are