Savage Abandon (17 page)

Mia stood as though in shock as she looked past the village tepees and into the forest just beyond. She saw several fallen trees and even some cracks in the land.

This latest quake, which had occurred only moments ago, had frightened her so much she couldn’t move or even cry out.

Miracle of miracles, nothing in the village had been damaged. She saw some women clinging to their children’s hands while others ran to their warrior husbands. It was obvious that they were no less afraid than she.

She looked up at Wolf Hawk. “Wolf Hawk, I don’t understand,” Mia managed to say, her voice quavering. “There was an earthquake beyond the village, but not here. How can that happen?”

She looked toward the river. She had seen the water splashing violently. She had even seen
chunks of earth breaking away from the shoreline and falling into it.

Now she looked into the middle of the river and saw Shadow Island clearly for the first time. The usual mist that hung over it had lifted.

She looked quickly up at Wolf Hawk again and saw that his own eyes were on the island.

“Do you think your grandfather was harmed?” Mia asked, remembering her time with Talking Bird.

Such a kind man.

Oh, but surely his Earthmaker wouldn’t have allowed anything to happen to him. He was on this earth for a purpose…a good one.

Wolf Hawk knew for certain that his elderly grandfather had not been harmed, for it surely had been Talking Bird who had willed the earthquake to happen.

But Wolf Hawk could not imagine why he had done so. His grandfather rarely used his magic in such a forceful way, unless…

He took Mia’s hands. “I must go and see how he is,” he said thickly.

“Can I go with you?” Mia asked, searching his eyes.

“No, you stay,” Wolf Hawk said. He reached a gentle hand to her cheek. “I shall not be long.”

She nodded, yet leaned into his hand the brief moment it was there.

“All is well, my people,” he said, looking from one to the other. “Again, as before when the earth
has shaken and the river has foamed up from the turmoil of a quake, we have been spared. Go on about your work. I am going to check on my grandfather.” He nodded at one warrior and then another. “Go into the forest and gather wood from those trees that were felled by nature’s wrath,” he said. “Fill the gaps in the ground with some of the fallen debris. We do not want such things left unattended.” He looked from child to child. “You stay with your mothers,” he said lovingly. “Do not stray beyond our village, for danger lies there until your fathers correct it.”

The children seemed to nod in unison, their eyes wide as they gazed back at their chief, who was even more respected than even their fathers or mothers. Chief Wolf Hawk was everything to this Winnebago clan.

“I will leave now,” Wolf Hawk said. “Go. You all have your own duties to tend to.”

At that, the people disbanded.

Wolf Hawk watched several warriors leave the village, then he turned to Mia again. “I will not be long,” he said. “Go inside my lodge. The fear you felt will soon dissipate, like the earthquake, itself.”

“I will,” Mia murmured. “I hope you find your grandfather well.”

“He is a strong man who has overcome many obstacles that stood in his way during his lifetime,” Wolf Hawk said. “So shall he survive this.”

He ached to draw Mia into his arms and hold
her, but knew that until he announced their upcoming marriage, he must practice restraint in front of his people.

But soon?

Ho
, soon they would be able to reveal their love for each other to all.

He knew that some would doubt his sanity for having chosen a white woman over one of his own skin color. But he believed that, in time, even those people would see the goodness in Mia, just as Wolf Hawk had seen it.

“I truly must go now,” he said, then turned and ran toward the river.

Mia watched him for a while longer, then went inside his tepee. She sat down beside the slow burning embers of the fire and became lost in thought.

She hoped that Wolf Hawk would return soon with good news about Talking Bird.

Because of the way he had helped her, she had developed a strange sort of attachment to the old shaman. She had told Wolf Hawk as much.

He had smiled and said that was the way of Talking Bird; everyone trusted and loved him.

Her eyebrows rose as her thoughts returned to Wolf Hawk. As she had watched him run toward the river, he had disappeared from view when he’d reached a small stand of trees.

From thereon she hadn’t seen him, not even when she would have thought that he would be in the river in a canoe, headed for the island. He just seemed suddenly gone!

She felt a slight shiver ride her spine at that thought.

She recalled again how he had seemed to have materialized out of nowhere, appearing from a patch of fog.

She could not help believing that there were many things about Wolf Hawk that she might never know, or understand.

But she did know that she could not live without him. He was now everything to her. And soon she would be his wife!

She frowned a little. Not because she had agreed to be his wife, but because she feared his people’s reactions to the news.

If they didn’t approve of her, what then? Would Wolf Hawk feel that he must turn his back on her because his first duty was to his people?

She shook her head to clear it. She would not let anything spoil the joy of those precious moments before the earth had begun to shake beneath them.

She smiled. For a moment she had thought that their lovemaking had had a strange effect on her, making her feel as though the earth itself was shaking.

“I must get hold of myself,” she said out loud, then glanced at the birdcage where Georgina was sitting silently on her perch. Surely the canary had been frightened by the earthquake.

She went to the cage and smiled at Georgina. “Do not be afraid,” she murmured. “All is well, sweet thing. You can sing now. I wish that you would. It would lighten my mood.”

As though the bird understood her, Georgina began her beautiful warbling as she slowly strutted along the perch.

“Thank you, sweet bird,” Mia murmured, going back and sitting down by the fire.

She looked slowly around Wolf Hawk’s tepee.

She could still feel him there, even while he was gone. She felt so blessed to have been brought into his life. She could not believe that she was going to become his wife.

She thought about how so much had changed in her life in such a short time. She had always wondered about her future, whether or not she would find a man to love, and who would love her in return.

And she had! She was going to be living a life that she would have never imagined possible, for she would be living it in an Indian village with an Indian husband…Wolf Hawk!

Oh, but she did so badly want to become Wolf Hawk’s woman and have a home of her own.

And now she would have it all.

Her life wouldn’t be anything like she had imagined it would be previously. She was not going to live in a house or in a town.

She was going to be living in a tepee in an Indian village.

“With Wolf Hawk!” she said aloud, smiling at how lucky she was to have been rescued by him, even though at first she had been brought to his village as Wolf Hawk’s captive!

“I am still a captive,” she whispered, smiling at
Georgina as she continued to sing. “A captive to the love of a wonderful man!”

She could not believe this was happening to her. It was like stories she had read about knights and beautiful ladies finding one another.

“I have found my true knight,” she whispered, giggling at the comparison of Wolf Hawk to a knight.

The thought of marrying Wolf Hawk was much more romantic and exciting than marrying a knight could ever be. Was not Wolf Hawk a great, powerful chief, the king of the forest?

“Listen to me,” Mia said to Georgina. “I have suddenly gone daft!”

She smiled and again gazed into the flames of the fire.

Something deep inside told her that Talking Bird was alright, which gave her the right to think about frivolous things such as knights.

She just hoped that Wolf Hawk would return soon.

If there were another earthquake, this time it might consume the entire Indian village. As quickly as that her dreams…her hopes…her desires…would be dashed.

Her future with Wolf Hawk would only be an impossible dream.

Desperately clutching their rifles, Jeb and Clint walked cautiously through the forest on the mysterious island. They both hoped they would be safe there, at least for awhile until the danger of another earthquake was past.

“How can this island be untouched by the earthquake?” Clint mumbled as he looked cautiously around him, through a hazy sort of mist, then straight ahead again. “I’m afraid it’s some sort of witchcraft voodoo something or other that’s happening here.”

He looked over at Jeb. “Don’tcha feel it, Jeb?” he asked. He hunched his shoulders with fear now as the mist seemed to be slowly enveloping them.

“Stop thinkin’ up trouble,” Jeb grumbled. “Let’s jist find us a place to rest awhile until we’re sure there won’t be another quake. Then we’ll go and get those pelts and hightail it outta here.”

“Everything is calm now, so why not try leaving again?” Clint whined. “Like I said, this here island is spooky as hell. And you know it lays just
across the river from that Injun village. That alone makes me shake in my boots. What if one of those Injuns seen us beach the boat on the island? Don’tcha think they might put two and two together and figure out that we’re the ones responsible for the two braves’ deaths?”

“I’m sure they’re as spooked about the quake as we are, so they won’t be comin’ to see what’s happening on this island,” Jeb said. “And let’s not borrow trouble by thinkin’ on Injuns at a time when we need to just be thinkin’ on gettin’ outta here as soon as we feel it’s safe.”

Jeb flinched when he heard a loud whirring above him. He looked quickly up. “Clint!” he cried, stiffening. “Look above you. In the break of the trees where we can see the sky. Didja see that large hawk? Lordie be, it’s the same bird I saw before. Did you hear the noise those wings made?”

Clint looked up at the sky and saw nothing, then gave Jeb a sour glance. “You’re lettin’ your imagination run wild,” he snapped. “Stop borrowing trouble, do you hear?”

“But I seen it, Clint,” Jeb snapped angrily. “And I heard it. How could you not have seen and heard the same thing? You’re right beside me.”

“If you saw such a big bird, where is it now?” Clint demanded. “Look up there. The sky is clear not only of birds, but clouds. I’d say our worries are almost over. Soon we’ll be in the boat on our way back to St. Louie, where we’ll be rich men once we sell those pelts. Lordie be, Jeb. Those are some of the richest, finest pelts we’ve gathered up
in years. The fox is prime fur. Them alone will make us set for life.”

Jeb scarcely heard what Clint was saying. He was still confused by how the huge hawk could be there one minute and gone the next. It was as though someone or something had plucked it from the sky.

Then he jumped in alarm when he saw something else up ahead. It was a wolf bounding through the trees away from them.

What frightened him the most was the thought that where there was one wolf, there was usually a pack.

He looked on both sides of him, and then over his shoulder, but when he saw no signs of any other wolves, he again focused straight ahead on the one he did see. It still ran onward, apparently having not realized that Clint and Jeb were so close.

And then Jeb stopped dead in his tracks. Were his eyes playing tricks on him? He thought he saw the wolf suddenly change into a muscled, scarcely clothed Indian!

Jeb reached out for Clint. He had stopped behind him, his eyes wide with fear.

In desperation, Jeb grabbed hold of one of Clint’s arms. “Clint, you can’t tell me that you didn’t see what I just saw,” he said. He gulped hard. “How can it be? How…can…a wolf…change into a man? And…and…I’d bet my last dollar that the hawk I saw…changed into that wolf!”

“This has to be a haunted island or something,”
Clint said, coming out of his own fearful amazement. He slapped Jeb’s hand from his arm. “And that Injun up there surely lives on this island.”

He blinked his eyes and then rubbed them, but when he looked ahead again, he still saw the Indian. The warrior was running somewhere mighty fast, thankfully away from him and Jeb.

“I don’t know what’s goin’ on here but I do know one thing,” Jeb said, already turning and running toward the river. “I’m gettin’ off this island as fast as my legs will carry me to the boat. Come on, Clint. Let’s get away from this place before someone turns us into toads.”

As Clint ran beside Jeb, he wanted to laugh at Jeb’s joke about toads, but he was too terrified. He had always heard that Indians practiced witchcraft, but this took the cake! He just had to forget about having seen it or else he might lose his mind. What they had witnessed just didn’t happen.

Yes, it had to have been a figment of both his and Jeb’s imagination!

Clint’s knees were weak with fear. Suddenly they buckled beneath him and he fell into a thick clump of bushes, crying out when thorns pierced his breeches and stabbed him in his legs.

“Good Lord, Clint,” Jeb said, stopping and reaching down to help his partner up. “Now’s not the time to be a big baby. Come on. We’ve got to get to that boat.”

Wolf Hawk stopped dead in his tracks when Clint’s yelp of pain carried to him on the wind.

He turned and saw two men, one on the ground, the other reaching a helping hand to him.

Wolf Hawk had been too focused on getting to his grandfather to have heard the intruders on Shadow Island. He supposed they had sought shelter on the island from the earthquake.

That had been their first mistake.

The second was allowing Wolf Hawk to know they were there.

No white man was welcome on his grandfather’s island, now…or ever.

Before Jeb could cock his rifle, Wolf Hawk was there, taking the weapon away from him.

Clint struggled to his feet, his eyes wide with fear. He would never forget the terrifying sight of the wolf changing into this Indian.

He knew that it hadn’t been his imagination, yet how could it have been real? All he knew was that Indians were capable of mysterious things, and that was frightening.

Wolf Hawk wasn’t certain if these men had seen his transformations. If they had, he could not allow them to spread the news to others. Yet he was not a man of violence. He did not wish to kill them.

Suddenly he recognized the amulet necklace that hung around the one man’s neck, and Wolf Hawk knew to whom it had belonged.

These were the very men who were responsible for the deaths of the two braves.

He could only conclude they had brazenly returned to Winnebago land to get the pelts they had left behind.

But Wolf Hawk didn’t immediately accuse them of the deaths. He would think through just how they should pay for their crime.

He realized now that Talking Bird must have known the two trappers had returned to this area. He had purposely caused the earthquakes to force them to seek safety on the island.

Talking Bird most certainly had the power to do this. He could do all sorts of magical things that no one would ever believe.

But Wolf Hawk knew. And he understood, for Wolf Hawk was a part of the old Shaman’s magic.

Wolf Hawk decided to play a mind game with these two men before taking his final vengeance against them.

He acted as though he had no idea who they were.

“Why are you on this island?” Wolf Hawk asked, his eyes moving from one to the other.

It gave him much plea sure to see their fear. He wanted to laugh out loud at them, but if he did, they would know that they were definitely in the presence of their enemy.

Clint stood beside Jeb now. They exchanged nervous, troubled glances.

“We were on our way to St. Louis,” Clint said, his voice thin with fear, for something told him that this Indian was toying with him and Jeb. But he continued with his lie, fabricating it as he went along. He just hoped that he sounded convincing.

“Our…wives…went ahead of us,” he said. “They are waiting even now for us.”

Astute as he was, Wolf Hawk could always tell when someone was lying. As the man talked, his eyes had not rested, jerking from side to side. And both men were shifting uneasily from one foot to the other.

Ho
, the man was lying and Wolf Hawk now knew for certain that these men had returned for the pelts that had been left hidden at the fort.

To pull these men more deeply into the game that Wolf Hawk was playing with them, he suddenly handed the rifle back to the man he had taken it from. It was safe to do this, for he knew that he was no longer alone with the men.

He felt the presence of Talking Bird behind him, hidden from the view of the two men. Talking Bird would not allow them to get the better of Wolf Hawk.

He saw the amazement in the man’s eyes as he took the rifle back from Wolf Hawk. Clint’s hand trembled as he took possession of the rifle, for he felt that something was very wrong. No Indian would trust a white man enough to hand him back the means to kill him.

Unless…

“The earthquake is over,” Wolf Hawk said, looking slowly from one man to the other. “The waters are calm. Go now. Go in peace.”

Clint and Jeb exchanged wary glances, not knowing what to believe.

“Are you serious?” Jeb asked, while Clint gave him a burning glance for asking such a foolish question.

“You can go,” Wolf Hawk repeated.

Clint gripped his rifle hard. “Thank you,” he said thickly.

He turned quickly, and with Jeb running beside him, they hurried to the boat. In a matter of minutes they had it out in the water and were quickly paddling back toward the fort.

Wolf Hawk smiled cunningly and allowed them time enough to get to the fort. Then he would prove to them how wrong they were to put trust in someone who despised the very ground they walked on.

He remembered the amulet hanging around the one man’s neck. He did not want to even think about the moment the man had taken it from Little Bull. It had been a sacrilegious thing to do, and that man would be the first to pay for his crime.

“White men, enjoy your last moments of life,” Wolf Hawk whispered to himself.