T'on Ma (10 page)

When night came, Nathan could see the campfires in the distance, but he kept riding closer. Almost there, he dismounted and tied his horse to a bush. First he walked and then he crawled closer to the camp. Raising his head, he studied the layout. The remuda stood on the left, guarded by three Apaches. The rest of the band gathered around the two campfires. To the right, just on the edge of firelight, sat two women.

He recognized Lana and, from a distance, she looked to be all right. That encouraged Nathan, but he couldn't see Two Hawks. He lay on his stomach while he kept looking for him.

After thirty minutes, one of the braves walked away from camp in his direction. He stopped a few yards away and called quietly. "Nathan?"

"Yes," Nathan answered softly.

Without approaching him any closer, Two Hawks continued talking in halting English. "T'on Ma hurt foot. Two women."

"I see that. We'll need one more horse, then."

"Yes. Mine tied."

"I'll get them."

"Run horses away. Shoot rifle."

"The Apache will have to chase the horses and then we can get the women out." Nathan said, understanding Two Hawks' plan.

"Yes."

"Wait for my gunshot and then the three of you meet me here."

"Yes."

Two Hawks was about to turn back when Nathan stopped him. "Someone's coming."

Two Hawks looked over his shoulder to see a brave approaching. Nathan flattened to the ground, praying he wouldn't be seen. Two Hawks took a few steps toward the brave.

"Why are you out here so long?" the brave asked.

"Just thinking. It's noisy back there."

"Oh." The brave looked around suspiciously. "What's that?" he pointed at Nathan's supine form.

"What?" Two Hawks followed the direction of his pointing finger. "That? That's your death."

"My what?" Those were the last words the Apache uttered. Two Hawks' bone-handled knife plunged deep into his chest.

"Go!" Two Hawks whispered fiercely to Nathan while he cleaned his knife on the dead man's shirt, resheathed it, and started the walk back to camp.

Once back at camp, one of the Apaches asked him, "Where's Loping Dog?"

"Out there." Two Hawks hadn't known his name. "He has - um - stomach trouble. He may be a while." He grinned as if diarrhea was funny. The others laughed.

Hunched low to the ground, Nathan first brought his horse to the rendezvous point before he hurried to the remuda. He stopped to look for the guards. Two were on the far side of the herd, talking. The third sat fast asleep beside a boulder, a rifle in the crook of his elbow.

Nathan quietly made his way between the horses, moving slowly so as not to spook them. He found Two Hawks' horse tied with four others. He untied all five and cautiously, slowly led Two Hawks' and two of the other horses back through the herd. It took fifteen agonizing minutes to cover the short distance. His heart stayed in his throat the entire time. Nathan expected to be spotted at any second, putting all of them in danger. But, after giving the camp a wide berth, he eventually made it to the rendezvous point undiscovered. After he tied the horses, he laboriously made his way back to the remuda and looked across the camp for Two Hawks.

Two Hawks finished joking about Loping Dog's intestinal trouble, then nonchalantly walked in Lana's direction. He squatted down by the fire with his back to her.

"Don't get too close," one of the warriors teased him. "She might hit you again."

Two Hawks looked up at him and laughed. "She's just a woman. She can't hurt me."

"You're not married, are you?" the man asked, grinning. "Because they
can
hurt you when they want to."

Two Hawks just shook his head and raised his hand briefly in a gesture of,
All right, if you say so.
Then he returned his attention to the fire. When the Apache walked away, Two Hawks looked over his shoulder at Lana.

"Be ready," he said in English. "Both of you."

Christina's head jerked up as she looked at Two Hawks' back and then at Lana. Lana turned to her, squeezing her hand.

"What's going on?" Christina asked, bewildered. "Do you know him?"

"Sshhh," Lana whispered. "Be ready to run."

Christina stared unbelieving at Lana for a second before she nodded, licking her dry lips and swallowing hard. For the first time in days, a flicker of hope sparked in the young woman's eyes.

At the remuda, Nathan could see Two Hawks squatting close to Lana as he waited for the signal. Nathan crept to the sleeping guard and stood behind him, watching him. He had never killed a man before. It disturbed him that the man didn't have a fighting chance.

Nathan almost decided to simply knock him unconscious. But, as he stood there thinking about what was about to happen - that his sister would be running for her life - this would be one less Apache in pursuit. With reluctant deliberation, Nathan pulled his knife out of its sheath, its blade glinting in the starlight. Gritting his teeth so hard that his jaws hurt, he leaned over and, in one swift, seamless motion, slit the unsuspecting man's throat. There. It was done. As easily as that. He wiped the man's blood off his knife onto the grass beside them, his stomach twisted in a nauseous knot.

With that grisly task done, he stood to his feet, aimed his gun at one of the remaining guards, fired, and began screaming and waving his arms. The horses close to him reared in fright. He picked up the dead Apache's rifle and fired that as well. The horses began to run as he flapped his arms and yelled. Once they were stampeding, he grabbed the two rifles, jumped on the back of one of the horses, and galloped to the rendezvous point.

At the sound of gunfire, Two Hawks jumped up and yelled. "The horses! Someone is stealing the horses!" All attention turned to the remuda at the opposite end of the camp. Warriors scrambled to their feet, running to save the herd.

"Now!" Two Hawks pulled his knife and quickly cut through the ropes holding the two women. "Run!"

He grabbed Lana's hand and pulled her to her feet. They ran out of camp with Christina right beside them.

They hadn't gone very far when Lana saw the horses waiting for them. Then she saw her brother.
"Nathan?"
She couldn't believe he was there.

"There's no time.
Ride!"
he exclaimed.

Two Hawks threw Lana onto her horse, but Christina balked. "I can't ride bareback!" she cried.

Without hesitating, Nathan jumped down, threw her on his saddled horse, and leapt onto another. Within a matter of a few frantic minutes, all four rode for their lives, scattering the wind as they flew.

Even at a gallop, Nathan reloaded one of the rifles, pouring in powder and shot. Instead of tamping down the bullet with a ramrod, he slammed the butt of the rifle against the ground for the same effect before he tossed it to Two Hawks. Nathan loaded the second one as well. Two Hawks had never fired a rifle before and worried about using it correctly - especially on the back of a running horse, in the dark. He preferred his bow and arrows. Lana reached across for the gun, understanding his consternation. He nodded and gave it to her. Now, there were three of them who could fight. Their odds had just improved.

"How long have we got?" Nathan yelled over the sound of hooves.

"Not long," Two Hawks shook his head. They might have an hour head start, maybe two, depending on how far the stampeding horses had run. Recovering them in the dark would take the Apaches even longer than usual. But once the Apache were mounted, Two Hawks and his small, desperate group were in a fight for their lives. If they were caught, there would be no mercy - only slow death.

Forty-five minutes passed and they were riding at a slow lope when Two Hawks veered due north instead of keeping the northeasterly direction they had been taking. The other three followed, hoping he was sure about his choice.

"We didn't come this way," Lana said across her horse's mane at his back.

"I know this trail," he told her over his shoulder. As Lana followed, she wondered how he knew. For that matter, how had he found her so quickly? The only answer was that he had been this way before. With stolen horses? Or captives? She wondered.

They rode for two more hours when exhaustion of both people and horses forced them to stop. Two Hawks found a secluded place and slid off his horse. He walked over to Lana and helped her down. Pulling her to him, he kissed her as she wrapped her arms around him.

"You came for me," Lana whispered.

"Of course. You are my heart."

"I suppose Nathan got you?"

When he nodded, she stepped out of his embrace and over to her brother. "Nathan, I was never so happy to see you as I was tonight." She hugged her brother tightly.

"You scared us to
death,"
he told her, and then looked behind her as Christina walked over to them.

Lana turned around and smiled. "Oh, Christina, this is my brother, Nathan." The two nodded at each other. "And this is Centas Yi."

"Hello," Christina greeted them both. "Thank you for not leaving me behind."

"You're welcome," Nathan told her, "but we're not out of this yet."

"No. We need to rest so we'll be ready for tomorrow," Lana agreed. Nathan had the only blanket, and the night had grown cold. He handed the blanket to Lana, assuming the two women would share it. To his surprise, Lana handed it to Christina.

"You take this. I'll sleep next to him," she nodded toward Two Hawks. "I'll be plenty warm." Christina only smiled tiredly at her as she took the blanket.

Two Hawks had lain down and, when Lana came over, he raised his hand, inviting her to lie down beside him. He put his arm around her as she laid her head on his shoulder and her arm across his chest. She reached up and kissed him once, twice. She felt safe in his embrace, and he felt relieved finally holding her. They both fell asleep in a few short minutes.

Christina lay down a few feet away and settled under the blanket. She was almost asleep when she looked across at Nathan, futilely trying to fall asleep in spite of being cold. Taking pity on him, she called softly. "Nathan?"

"What?"

"I only need half of this." She waved the edge of the blanket to make her point.

"That's all right."

"Would you get over here? You'll freeze otherwise."

After admitting that she was right, he gratefully moved to lie beside her underneath the blanket. The sleeping arrangements would have seemed highly inappropriate, except that everyone was too exhausted to care.

Nathan awoke a few hours later, on his side, snuggled against Christina's back, with his arm across her waist. "Oh, excuse me," he muttered as he hurriedly sat up.

"Don't worry about it. We both kept warm, didn't we?"

At the sound of their voices, Two Hawks and Lana woke up, still tightly wrapped up with each other. Lana sat up, stretching to get the stiffness out of her back.

"I guess we'd better hit the trail," she yawned. "I wish we had some food."

"I might have a little left," Nathan said. He dug through his saddlebag and produced the last of his mother's cornbread. Dividing it up as equally as he could, he passed it around.

"Here. That's all of it."

"We'll be home soon," Lana encouraged him. "Then we can make ourselves sick from eating too much." She got him to chuckle over that.

They mounted up and began a new day of trying to stay ahead of, or possibly even lose, their trackers.

"Christina?" Lana called over her shoulder after they had been on the trail for a while. "Where are you from? I mean, when did you get captured? Are your folks homesteaders, too?"

"The Apache attacked my family's wagon train. They killed my parents and took me captive. They almost brought my little brother, too, but he put up such a fuss at seeing Ma killed that they killed him instead."

"I am so sorry to hear that," Lana sympathized. "How long had you been captive?"

"About three days before you got there."

"A wagon train this late in the fall?" Nathan joined the conversation. "Where were you headed?"

"A new settlement. We were almost there. Just a day or so away, from what Pa said. Others had gone on ahead of us, so we had a house waiting."

"That's unusual," Nathan said. "I mean, to have a house waiting."

"Pa was a doctor. They were giving him a house to move out there."

"I see. A doctor sure would have been good to have around these parts," Lana said.

They had ridden quietly in single file for a few hours when Two Hawks turned northeast again.

"No. Wait," Nathan stopped him. "We need to go east."

"Why?" Lana asked. "Home isn't that way."

"No, but do we want to lead the Apache to our home? Think about it, Lana. We need to go to an Army fort. This spring, the Army built a string of forts down the length of Texas. Ft. Gates and Ft. Graham are two of them. But I think the closest one is Ft. Worth."

It took time before Two Hawks understood Nathan's plan. This decision made Two Hawks uneasy. He didn't want anything to do with soldiers and his deep frown told of his unhappiness.

"Please," Lana asked, reaching across and putting her hand on his arm. "We'll be safe there. All of us."

"No," Two Hawks argued. "My tribe is closer. They will protect us."

"But aren't the Kiowa and Apache at peace? Won't this bring trouble?" Nathan asked.

"No. Not when the Apache know that you are with the Kiowa."

"Are you sure?" Lana asked.

"If we give them many horses, they will be happy."

Lana looked at Christina, who only shrugged her shoulders. She had no home to go to, no family waiting for her.

"Nathan," Lana said, "I think Centas Yi might be right. His tribe
is
closer and we don't have a lot of time."

Nathan felt as uneasy about putting his fate in the hands of Kiowa as Two Hawks felt about putting his in the hands of the U.S. Army.

"Please?" Lana asked, seeing her brother's hesitancy.

"Well," Nathan conceded, "Pa did ride out to find Lt. O'Connell. If he found him near our place, the cavalry would be closer, too." He looked hard at his sister, hoping they were making the right decision. "All right, Centas Yi. Let's go find your people."