by Cathy Keeton
Lone Raven jerked the child from Abby’s arms and smacked him hard across the face, as she put him roughly back on the blankets. Abby launched herself at Lone Raven with every bit as much fury as a mother bear protecting her young. Lone Raven dropped the knife she had been holding since she had forced Abby to go with her, and fell to the ground with Abby landing on top of her pounding her with both fists. Abby was intent on beating the hateful woman into the ground when she was violently pulled to her feet. Black Heart looked at her, then back to Lone Raven who was trying to get to her feet, her lip was bleeding, and her nose looked like it might be broken. Abby stood a little taller knowing that she had gotten the better of the woman. When Black Heart spoke Lone Raven cringed, and Abby could see that she was just as afraid of him as she herself was.
“How could you let this puny white woman do this to you? You are of no use to me if you cannot control my hostage any better than this.”
“I was taken by surprise. She jumped me when I was taking care of the boy.”
“You were hitting the child!” Abby screamed.
Black Heart grasped Lone Raven by the arm pulling it behind her back until she cried out in pain. “Have I not told you that the boy is worth more to me if he not marred. The people waiting for the hostages I can gather want them unharmed,” he looked over at Abby. “They only want children; I have other plans for you.” He leered at her with lust in his eyes.
Abby decided then that she would kill herself before she would let him touch her. He had not tried to rape her the last time that he had her captured, with any luck and the grace of God, Shadow Spirit would find her before that happened.
While Black Heart and Lone Raven were going through the saddlebags that he had probably killed some poor unfortunate man for, Abby went to the little boy and sat beside him gently taking his hand. He looked up at her and gave her a feeble smile; her heart broke at the thought of how scared he must be.
The next morning Black Heart was gone when Abby woke. She had been tied to a tree the night before, after she had been given a small bowl of food. The little boy had eaten his share so fast that Abby feared he would choke. She would have gladly given him her share if it had not been for the baby growing inside of her and she needed to keep up her strength so that they could escape if the chance came. He had gone to sleep, curled in a ball at Abby’s side with his hand in hers. She assumed that Black Heart thought his captives would be less trouble if they were kept together, for he had left the boy with her during the night. Abby had slept in spite of trying to stay awake to watch for signs of someone coming to the rescue.
While Lone Raven went to a small stream to get some water Abby worked at the ties that bound her hands, but to no avail, Lone Raven wasn’t taking any chances of Abby getting loose. Just as she heard the other woman splashing water into the bucket, she noticed a small sharp rock about three inches out of reach. She stretched as far as possible to try and get the rock, but was unable to. The child had been watching her, he simply stood and picked up the rock and handed it to Abby. She smiled and thanked him.
“You must not tell her about the rock.”
“I not tell the mean lady,” he laid his hand on Abby’s wrist where the bindings had rubbed. “Hurt”
“It’s ok.” She smiled at him to reassure him that she was alright. “How old are you. Do you know?”
He held up four fingers; then began to cry. “My ma was making my birthday cake when the bad man came, he hurt her bad,” he cried.
Oh Lord, this sweet little boy had been taken from his home on his birthday and had most likely seen his mother killed.
“Where was your Pa when the bad man came?” Abby asked as she frantically worked at the stripes of rawhide around her wrists.
“He was with the cow, we had a baby cow”
“Did you see your Pa when the man took you away?”
“He laid down in the yard, I think he was sleepy. I yelled for him to come, but he just stayed there on the ground.”
Abby wanted to take him in her arms and keep him safe, for surely he was now an orphan.
“Tell me your name”
“I’m Joshua King”
“Hello Joshua, I’m Abby”
Lone Raven came stumbling back to the camp, acting like a drunk. “Please help me,” she screamed. “Snake bit me.” She fell to the ground.
“I can’t help you, I am tied, and why would I anyway?” Abby answered.
“Please, if you help me I will see that you get back to Shadow Spirit”
“Can you make it over here to untie me?”
Lone Raven dragged herself to within ten of feet or so of where Abby was tied, before she lapsed into unconsciousness. Abby started using the small rock to cut through the rope that held her hands when she thought about the knife that Lone Raven carried at her waist. “Joshua, can you go over and get her knife?” He stood frozen in fear. “She can’t hurt you; please this might be our only chance to get away.”
He moved ever so slowly toward Lone Raven, looking back at Abby ever few feet. “Go on, I promise it will be ok.”
He reached the Indian woman and pushed at her with his foot before gingerly removing the knife from the sheath. He turned slowly back to face Abby.
“Good boy, can you place the knife in my hand?”
Joshua bent down and started sawing away at the ropes. “I can cut the rope, I am a big boy.” He worked on the rope for a good ten minutes. He concentrated so hard on his task, all the while his little pink tongue was sticking out the corner of his mouth which seemed to make the job easier. At last, the rope fell away and the only thing holding Abby was the rope around the tree and her waist. She took the knife from Joshua’s trembling fingers and cut herself loose from the tree. When she tried to stand her legs would not hold her weight, she had been sitting there for so long. Little by little, the feeling came back and she was able to make her way to Lone Raven. When Abby saw the bite, she almost vomited. Lone Ravens arm was swollen practically double; there was an angry circle around the bite and blood oozed from the fang marks. Abby tried to wake her but she only made a small gurgling sound in the back of her throat.
Abby picked Joshua up and headed to the stream for water to clean Lone Ravens wound, careful not to run into the snake that had bitten her. She seriously considered just taking Joshua and running as far away from this place as she could, leaving Lone Raven for the vultures and wild animals. She just couldn’t leave another human being to such a fate no matter how evil they were.
When she returned with the water, she took the knife and sliced the wound in an x pattern hoping that the poison would run out. She cleansed the bite and wrapped it with a strip of doeskin from Lone Ravens dress. Lone Raven opened her eyes and looked up at Abby with so much pain in her eyes that Abby actually felt sorry for her. It was beginning to get dark, so Abby stoked the fire and looked through Lone Ravens things for something for their supper. She found strips of pemmican and dried berries. Joshua ate some of both, then lay down by the fire and was asleep in less than five minutes.
Lone Raven began to trash around and cry out in pain. Since she had regained consciousness, she had cried and begged Abby to kill her. “Please, I want to die, I cannot stand this pain”
“I won’t take your life and I don’t know what to do to help you,” Abby said as she wiped Lone Ravens face with a wet cloth. “When will Black Heart be back? Maybe he knows something that will purge your body of the snake venom”
“He will not be back until morning, and he will not help me, he only uses me.” Lone Raven barely had the strength to speak. “If you wish to live you need…” She stared off into space for a few second as if she had seen something horrifying. “I know that…..I have been a bad person and I am dying, there is nothing you can do for me.”
Abby put her hand on the other woman’s head; she was burning up. “Here try to drink some water.” Abby held the water to Lone Ravens mouth.
Lone Raven pushed the water away. “
I cannot swallow….please take the boy and go.” She convulsed, screaming in pain and then went silent, her eyes locked in a frozen death stare. Abby gently closed the other woman’s eyes. What an awful way to die.
Abby dug a shallow grave and piled all the rocks on that she could to protect the body from wild animals. She feared all the strenuous work, combined with being pushed and shoved around yesterday would harm her baby. Perhaps soon she would be reunited with Shadow Spirit, with any luck he would return to the village by morning, and she and Joshua would be closer to finding their way to safety.
Chapter Eighteen
Shadow Spirit returned to the village at dawn, tired, cold, and hungry. He was met at the edge of the village by the guard who quickly told him of Abby’s disappearance.
How could this happen, they were supposed to be in there stronghold where no white man could find them. Then he had a thought that made him quake with fear. “Please Great Spirit; do not let Black Heart get his hands on my wife again.”
He went to his mother’s lodge and found his mother and Yellow Dove huddled together. He gently nudged his mother to awaken her. She opened her eyes and saw the torment on his face, and knew that he had already been told about Abby.
“I am so sorry my son. I feel that it is my fault that I somehow should have protected her better,” Green Eyes cried.
“It is not your fault Mother. When exactly did she go missing?”
“Three suns ago, right after you left for your hunt.”
“Were there any signs as to what happened to her?”
“There were footprints leading away from the stream, but they were small, too small to be made by a man?”
Yellow Dove, who had been quite until now, burst into tears, “I should never have left her. I knew something was wrong just a short while after I left the stream,” she said between sobs.
“Why did you both not return to camp together?” Shadow Spirit asked.
“Many Flowers called to me, she wanted help with something I do not even know what she needed now,” Yellow Dove said.
“Mother will you pack some things for me for the trail,” he turned to his sister and pulled her close. “Please do not blame yourself, if you had been there when Abby was taken you would probably have been killed for I believe that it was Lone Raven that took her, and she only wanted Abby.”
Yellow Dove hugged her brother and prayed that nothing would happen to his wife, for Abby had become like a sister to her in the short time she had been with the tribe.
“My son, are you not going to take some of your warriors with you to find Abby?”
“No, I can travel with less noise if I go alone, and one horse is much easier to hide than many. I am sure that it was Lone Raven who took Abby and where she is, Black Heart is not far away,” he declared.
“You are right I know, but I would feel better if you were not going to be alone.”
“I will be fine, am I not a proud Cheyenne chief. Please Mother I need to go, I am already so far behind, and I want to find my wife.”
Shadow Spirit left with-in the hour. He rode all day, keeping to the trees away from the main path for fear that maybe Lone Raven or Black Heart had doubled back. He stopped to rest at dusk and had a meal of roast venison that his mother had packed. He had traveled south, hoping that was the way that Lone Raven had taken. Yellow Dove had said that the tracks indicated that that was the way that they had gone. Who was to say that someone had not brushed away the tracks farther away from the village, just to throw him off the trail?
He was not so sure that they would go south because it took you closer to the scattering of white people’s dwellings that had not been burned out by the Crow. Some of those shacks had been standing for years. He did not see how these people survived. Their homes looked as if at any moment a small storm would demolish them. The animal that stood in the small pens next to the barns was so thin that you could see each rib. The whites that had come from the east with dreams of prosperity, had their dreams shattered, partly from attach of the Crow and renegades from other tribes and partly from their lack of knowledge of this land. Once in a while, you would see a farm that was well tended and successful. Shadow Spirit felt sorry for those who had such a rough life, especially for the children.
He had just bedded down for an hour or two of rest when he heard a noise coming from the bushes. He pulled his knife from the sheath attached to his thigh and stood in readiness for whatever was stalking him. He had felt that he was being watched since early afternoon. Shadow Spirit was a pack of tight muscles as he watched his stalker emerge from his hiding place. He smiled broadly as Storm meander from behind the bush. He bent to one knee and tousled the big wolf’s fur; Storm licked Shadow Spirit in the face and bounced around with exuberance and happiness at seeing his friend.
“Where have you been? It has been weeks since I have even caught a glimpse of you, I thought you might have forgotten all about this Cheyenne Chief.
Shadow Spirit gave Storm the rest of the venison from his supper and settled down for some sleep, he knew now that he did not need to sleep lightly for he had the best guard in the land watching over him.
When Shadow Spirit woke up it was snowing and the sky looked dark and ominous. He prayed that Abby would be somewhere safe when the snow hit in earnest. The snow was beginning to stick to the trees and the bushes, and the temperature had dropped while he was sleeping. He felt guilty for sleeping when his wife was missing, but if he did not rest, he would be no help to her.
He ate a strip of dried buffalo and refilled his water bag, before heading farther south. Storm accompanied Shadow Spirit, occasionally going off into the distance, then stopping and waiting for Shadow Spirit to catch up, as if trying to lead him in the right direction. The snow was coming harder now and the wind was blowing and howling through the trees, the sound was lonely and bleak. Shadow Spirit hoped it was not a sign that his search today would be futile.
He searched for hours going in one direction and then another. He was about to decide that he was going the wrong way when he came upon a spot where someone had camped. There had been no fire started, but Shadow Spirit could see where someone had slept, it looked like there might have been two people in camp. There were footprints everywhere some of the prints appeared to be made by a small child and the others by a woman. He felt at a loss as where to look next, he had been over miles and miles of land in the last two days how could Abby and Lone Raven have gotten so far ahead of him, they were on foot as far as anyone knew. Then a thought hit him, what if Black Heart had been waiting with horses somewhere close to the stream where Lone Raven had forced Abby to go with her. If that were the case then they had a big head start on him.
Storm was sniffing around the camp, pushing his nose around and under brush and rocks. He acted like he had found something, so Shadow Spirit went to see what the wolf had found. Laying there right beside a large pile of rocks was an emerald from the necklace that Shadow Spirit’s mother had given Abby.
“So she has been here, maybe we are on the right trail after all.” He put the emerald in a leather pouch attached to his shirt.
If Abby had been here, then who was the child traveling with her?
Shadow Spirit mounted his horse and looked around for Storm; apparently, he grew tired of waiting and decided to go on ahead. The snow was several inches deep and the drifts were knee high in places. The farther he went the worse the weather became, it was snowing now so hard that he could not see, it was a true blizzard. He rode on in the blinding snow and wind, if Abby had not found shelter he feared that he had lost his beautiful wife and their unborn child for all time.
Chapter Nineteen
Abby and Joshua sat huddled together in the trunk of a huge tree that had been hallowed out by time. The old tree was twisted and bent, and there were several dead branches hanging down like the gnarled fingers of an old woman. Some of the branches were bowed so low that they partially covered the entrance to the hollow part of the tr
ee. Abby had hung up one of the blankets over the tangled mass of limbs and tied it in place. It helped to keep the wind out, and she hoped it would deter any wild animal that might be nosing around.
Joshua slept soundly wrapped in a thick buffalo hide that she had taken when they fled Black Hearts camp after Lone Raven had died. Abby had taken everything that she could put on, carry, or stuff in Lone Ravens bags, which were thrown across her horses back and she had also taken the horse. She had tied it to the tree, wishing there was some place that he could get in out of this raging snowstorm.
Abby shifted Joshua around so that she could try to stretch her legs but there was not enough room to move. She had on all of Lone Ravens clothes that had been in camp, and the extra moccasins she had found, that must have belonged to Black Heart. Joshua’s small body was snuggled close to hers and he was unaware that there was a blizzard going on just on the other side of the blanket. He had cried for his mother before he fell asleep, but his sobs had subsided as he held on to Abby’s hand. She cried now, wanting to be home and to see Shadow Spirit and all the people that she had come to love. Surely, she wasn’t far from the winter camp, but the way the terrain had been, she was not sure which way they were going. The last two days they had traveled uphill at times, then down along narrow ledges with dangerous drop-offs littered with huge jagged rocks. Abby and Joshua had walked when they were close to the ravines she had led both the horse and the little boy as they waded through the snow.