When the Wolf Breathes (Madeleine Book 5)

by Sadie Conall

  “I’ll bring her in, you go on,” Hanyewi’winyan said.

  The younger woman glanced back at the child in annoyance then shrugged, before turning away and following the others. Within moments she had disappeared down the path, eager to catch her friends and get under shelter, the child forgotten.

  The old woman went down on her knees, opening her arms as the child weaved her way towards her. Yet unwilling to drop her bundle of kindling, the little girl simply fell against the old woman, her tiny head bowed, settling against the woman’s worn blanket as though she were a pet, eager for an embrace.

  Hanyewi’winyan uttered soft words of love and gently swept the kindling aside before picking the child up and holding her close, wrapping her blanket around the small body in an attempt to get the girl warm, for she was trembling from hunger and the cold. Hanyewi’winyan knew the child had eaten very little since the night before and as she kissed her, uttering words of comfort, she marvelled as she often did at the girl’s beauty for even at her young age the child owned long dark hair, a rosebud mouth and the most wonderful almond shaped eyes. She was like some tiny creature come from the woods themselves, owning some of that wild earthly beauty. Yet that beauty, even though she was so young, was already threatening the young woman who had just left her behind.

  The child quietened in her arms and as she lay her head against the elderly woman’s shoulder, Hanyewi’winyan closed her eyes, afraid of the decision she had already made, wondering if she dared, knowing she had no choice. For she loved this little girl more than she loved her own life and the decision she had made, was made only for this little one, no-one else. Her only fear now was death before she was ready, for her death would condemn the child.

  “Come little one. We are going on a great adventure and you must be very brave.”

  The child nodded, trusting her completely. Hanyewi’winyan thought of her as the most gentle of creatures. She never spoke unless spoken to and did all that was asked of her no matter the task. Some said she owned a simple mind, but Hanyewi’winyan knew the child was aware of everything going on around her, for she had seen a quickness in the girl, an intelligence that was hidden beneath her timidity.

  She felt the child relax in her arms as she hurried back to where she hid the blankets and buffalo robe. She put the girl down to pick them up, then taking her hand in her own, she stepped off the path and turned north. When Hanyewi’winyan came upon the horses brought here to shelter from the storm, she stopped and stared at them for a long moment. A horse hadn’t been in her plans. But when she saw a horse standing alone, its long rawhide reins just feet away, she made a decision she hoped she wouldn’t regret.

  She had never been on a horse before for horses were the domain of men, but when the animal turned to her and whickered, as though calling her, Hanyewi’winyan took every bit of courage she owed and reached down to pick up the trailing rawhide reins. She pulled the animal across to a fallen log and it followed her willingly enough, then she lifted the girl, placing her gently on the horse’s back, urging her to hold on to the mane while she lifted her belongings and set them behind the child. Then using all her strength, balancing on the log, she pulled herself up on the back of the horse, the girl before her. She sat there for a long moment, terrified, struggling to get her balance but the horse stood utterly still as though aware of his fragile passengers. Then Hanyewi’winyan wrapped the blankets around them both, binding them together before lifting the fur buffalo robe over herself and the girl, not only to protect them from the wind and rain, but to get them both warm. When Hanyewi’winyan took up the reins and kicked the horse on as she had seen men do countless times before, the horse surprised her by doing as she bid. Yet the strange rhythm of his huge body beneath her was a frightening thing and Hanyewi’winyan reached out in terror, clinging to his mane with both hands and willing herself not to fall off, even as the little girl snuggled up against her. And then they were heading north, at a slow walk.

  She didn’t glance back towards the village but there were few memories for her there, for she had been born in one of the other Mandan villages upriver. But her life changed twenty years ago when the face eating disease swept through this territory, taking all her family except her youngest, mean spirited son. He had married a girl who was as spiteful, breeding two sons who were as mean-spirited as their parents. With the death of her son some five years ago, she had moved into the home of her eldest grandson. Yet Hanyewi’winyan had no qualms about leaving it behind, for his young wife was a lazy, cunning woman.

  As the horse walked on, as the village faded behind them, the child suddenly went limp and completely relaxed against Hanyewi’winyan’s body, not only from the warmth of the blankets wrapped around them and the buffalo robe over them, but from the comforting heat of the woman’s body behind her own. And if Hanyewi’winyan had any doubts about what she was doing, she knew in that moment she was doing the right thing. There was no future for either of them back in that village.

  But she loved this child as much as she had loved the little girl’s mother and although the mother was lost to her forever, she was prepared to risk everything to make sure this girl was safe.

  When Hanyewi’winyan left the trees some time later, she pulled on the rawhide reins and turned the horse towards the river. She easily found the deep rutted tracks left in the wet earth by the horses of the man and woman. She gently nudged the horse on with her legs, the rain and wind pelting them now, although they were sheltered from the worst of it by the buffalo robe covering them. She didn’t think of where they would spend the night, or the food they must find to eat in the days ahead. All Hanyewi’winyan knew was that this child’s future lay with that man and woman.

  Four

  The lightning streaked across the darkening sky followed by great booms of thunder. Madeleine and Ryder both shivered from the cold as the wind and rain lashed them, chilling them to the bone. They could no longer see the Mandan village for they were now five miles or more from the Missouri River, but close enough to its tributaries to see the rising waters threaten to break their banks. It was only the middle of the afternoon, yet it seemed like dusk as a dense mass of low cloud lay suspended above them.

  “Let’s keep moving. We’ll try and get beyond it,” Ryder shouted above the wind and kicked his horse on.

  Madeleine followed him yet glanced back at the cloud, feeling a menace about it, for it seemed to spin on its own axis before dropping terrifyingly close to earth as if driven by some demon. Within its edges it fell and rose like some monstrous thing, as if it had a life of its own, even as thunder and lightning boomed off to the east.

  “What the hell is it?” Ryder shouted, as he looked back at it. “I’ve never seen anything like it!”

  “I saw one similar when I was very young,” she called to him. “If that spinning part of the cloud touches the earth it will suck up everything in its path. It will leave nothing but debris in its wake.”

  They rode on, yet couldn’t take their eyes off the clouds as they spun and twisted as if taking part in some savage dance. And then the tip of the cloud briefly reached down to touch the earth, like a lover’s kiss, yet the violence of it swept mud up into that twisting vortex before spitting it out way up in the top of the cloud.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Ryder cried. “We need to find shelter, something that will withstand that monstrous thing if it turns and comes this way.”

  *

  They found it some ten miles further north, although they nearly missed it. For had they not left the deer trail when they saw a dozen or more wild hares running across their path, had they not been desperate for supplies having run out of all their provisions before they reached the Mandan, had they not managed to kill three of the hares with just their bows and arrows, they would never have come across the massive tree in the woods which blocked their path north.

  The tree was an ancient hickory, it’s trunk and foliage so dense they could see no way around it. It
had smashed smaller trees as it fell, creating debris which spread out for quarter of a mile or more, presenting a barrier as solid as any fort wall ever built.

  “Good God,” Ryder whispered in astonishment.

  The forest here was dense and gloomy, almost impenetrable and for the next twenty minutes they rode their horses along the tree’s length, looking for a way past it. Madeleine saw the gap first. The very tip of the hickory, its lightest point, had fallen on an ancient oak which hadn’t yet given way under the hickory’s weight, causing the topmost branches of both trees to hang awkwardly, creating a tunnel of some fifteen feet high by ten feet wide. The horses rode beneath it easily, stepping over the debris of foliage and broken branches lying on the ground. But it was dark beneath those two trees and the sound of wood and branches and leaves grinding against each other in those high winds was eerie, yet it also gave them a moment of respite from the rain.

  When they came out on the other side of the fallen hickory, the forest here wasn’t as dense, although the land began to slope away to their left. Madeleine and Ryder pushed on, winding their way through the forest when suddenly they came out into a massive clearing. They both uttered an oath of astonishment, reining their horses in to sit and stare in astonishment. For before them lay a lost world, a remnant from the beginning of time, a land untouched.

  On the other side of the clearing and off to their right lay more dense forest, but to their left the land fell away into a deep gorge, with cliffs on either side rising some eighty feet or more above them where more dense trees swept away into country unknown. And because of the rain, a low mist had settled in the topmost branches of the trees, giving Ryder and Madeleine a feeling that they had entered a lost realm.

  “Where the hell are we?” he said, his voice soft, in awe of this strange place.

  “I don’t know,” Madeleine answered him, looking up at the dark, wet cliffs which soared above them. “But I feel an emptiness here, as if no other living creature has ever step foot in this place.”

  They kicked their horses on, looking for a way out and then they found a narrow deer trail through the trees to the right of the clearing.

  “Thank God,” Ryder said. “At least we won’t have to fight our way through here.”

  He wiped his face again, yet it was a hopeless gesture for the rain now fell in heavy sheets, the ground slippery beneath the horses’ hooves. It was only an hour or more until dusk and when the night came to this place, Ryder knew it would be a bottomless black pit. He shuddered, having no desire to camp here, nor sleep out in the rain. Desperate for a fire, not only to get warm but to see out into the dark when it came, he glanced at Madeleine and saw the same unease on her lovely face.

  “Let’s look for somewhere here, either a great log we can shelter under or a cliff ledge we can climb up to. I don’t want to be out here tonight,” he said and dismounted.

  Madeleine followed his lead and they walked around the perimeter of the clearing, but there were no logs and the cliff walls were sheer. And then Madeleine called to him. Ryder turned and found her down by the edge of the gorge, pointing to a high overhang of rock which lay some twelve feet below them. He hurried across the clearing to see what she had found.

  She stood on a bank and below her, sloping gently away before meeting the sheer walls of the gorge, was a ledge, some twenty feet wide. To the right of the ledge was a large overhang of rock. Ryder climbed down the bank and onto the ledge. It felt solid beneath his feet and he stepped carefully to the edge of it, aware of Madeleine coming up behind him. The gorge below was not even a quarter mile wide, but it was deep and dark, the water running some fifty feet below them, yet there was no white water suggesting there were no submerged rocks or boulders lying beneath the surface. They both turned and made their way across to the overhang, careful not to slide on wet grass or leaves or rotten wood and tumble over the edge of the gorge and into the river below.

  The overhang was in fact a long narrow cave that went right back under the bank. They couldn’t stand inside, but there was more than enough room for them to sit and stretch out and sleep. And it was all solid rock and dry. Ryder came back out of it and glanced at Madeleine before nodding. Both of them were saturated, the rain so heavy that it was impossible to see more than fifty feet ahead of them and the trees high above the gorge were now invisible behind that wall of mist.

  “If you’re willing to take the chance, I am,” he said, his voice raised above the noise of rain and wind.

  Madeleine knew what he meant. A flash flood. And with this rain, rivers and streams in the hills above them would need to empty their load of water somewhere. And this gorge would more than likely be one of those places. But would the water rise more than fifty feet? She didn’t know, but like Ryder, she was willing to take the chance.

  “We need to get warm. The horses will be alright under the trees,” he yelled.

  They hobbled the horses under a stand of elm, allowing them to graze on the rich summer grass while they carried their belongings down to the overhang. There was a rocky ledge in front of it, some fifteen feet wide, before it dropped off into the gorge below. As Ryder carried his saddle inside, he glanced at Madeleine as she followed him with their blankets and waterskins and the hide parcel containing the duelling pistols and saw his own feelings about staying here mirrored on her face. They both knew it wasn’t safe, but it was better than sleeping out in that clearing in the rain, in full dark without hope of a fire.

  Once everything was undercover, before they went back into the forest to search for kindling, they stood at the edge of the ledge and looked down at the river below. The water seemed a long way down.

  “I’ll keep checking it through the night,” Ryder said, although they both knew they wouldn’t have a chance if a flash flood came roaring down the gorge.

  Madeleine glanced at him as he ran his hands through his wet hair and saw the fatigue on his face. She knew they needed to rest and get out of their wet clothes and get a fire going, so she was prepared to take the risk.

  They found plenty of old wood and kindling, hidden and dry enough under old fallen logs and beneath great roots of trees, the wood so old and brittle that it caught within a few strikes of Madeleine’s flint. They lit two fires, one near the back of the overhang where they would sleep and the other at the front in case a predator came here in the dead of night. By the time they made their last trip up into the trees, their shelter now full of enough wood and kindling to get them through the night, the afternoon lay deep in shadow with thunder and lightning way off to the east.

  Ryder left Madeleine to light the fires while he went back out into the rain to skin the three hares. They would roast them tonight over the flames, allowing enough cold meat to get them through the next few days. And before he lost the light of day, he quickly made a small frame to roast them on, using wood from the dogwood trees which stood near the clearing. When he returned to the shelter Madeleine was already undressed, her buckskin lying beside their other wet belongings to get them dry. She had one of the wet blankets wrapped around her, with steam coming off it as she sat close to the fire. She helped him set up the dogwood frame above the fire, her mouth watering with hunger as Ryder set the butchered hares upon it but as he made a move to undress, to get out of his wet clothes a flash of lightning lit the early evening sky, following by a blast of thunder overhead.

  They both uttered an oath as the thunder rolled above them and Ryder moved quickly, going outside once more to check on the horses. When he returned, he paused in the last of the day’s light to peer down into the gorge but for now at least, there was no change in the level of water far below.

  Rain water dripped off him as he stepped past the fire by the opening and he quickly undressed, dropping his saturated buckskin and spreading it out on the stone floor by the flames. Madeleine threw him the other blanket, although it was as wet as her own. She smiled at him as he covered himself, a grin on his rugged features before he joined her at the f
ire.

  “The horses are alright,” he said. “A little spooked, but I’ve moved them back a little further into the trees.”

  They sat and talked as night came down, watching the light change over the gorge, from grey murky twilight to full dark. And other than the rain and the wind, there was no sound of running water. Their blankets slowly dried as they sat by the fire and as they ate their fill of meat, as thunder boomed overhead and the rain fell in thick sheets, they were both grateful to have found this place. And as the flames reflected off the stone walls around them, Ryder found himself glancing at Madeleine, thinking her skin like gold in this strange place. She caught his gaze and smiled at him, yet he could see the unease in her lovely eyes.

  “Perhaps we should take turns standing guard,” she said. “This is such an eerie place. And only God knows what’s out there in the dark.”

  Ryder shuddered, yet agreed with her. “It’s more than a little creepy. As if time stands still here. And we would never have found it had we not chased these hares and left the deer path.”

  Madeleine nodded, agreeing with him, for there was a strangeness to this place she couldn’t explain. Although she felt no evil here, nor ghosts, just a stillness as if there were no life. She looked across at Ryder and found him watching her and for a little while they spoke of the Mandan. The Ryder asked her the question she knew was coming.

  “Is it over? Is it done Madeleine? This quest to find Deinde'-paggwe?”

  She looked at his strong rugged features and knew he would follow her to the ends of the earth and back, if she were to ask it of him. Just as she would follow him, so she nodded, reaching out to touch him, her fingers trailing along that firm stubborn jaw.