Savage Flames (8 page)

Chapter Fourteen

Be mine, as I am yours,

Forever.

—Robert Graves

As soon as the canoes touched the shore of Mystic Island, Wolf Dancer gathered Lavinia in his arms and ran through the thick
vegetation.

He couldn’t believe that the gods had crossed his path with hers in such a way. He had thought about her so often, and so
badly wanted her to be his.

He knew her snakebite could be lethal, but he would not believe that he had just received her into his arms only to lose her
to death’s grip. He had lost his precious bride to the jaws of an alligator after they’d spent only one night together as
man and wife. He would not even consider losing this woman.

As soon as he reached the outskirts of the vil lage, Wolf Dancer took Lavinia to Shining Soul’s hut.

He hurried inside with his precious unconscious burden still snugly held against his powerful chest, his muscled arms holding
her securely.

Joshua and Twila ran into the lodge behind Wolf Dancer, but stopped just inside the door when they saw Shining Soul rise to
his feet.

“She is suffering from a snakebite,” Wolf Dancer explained. He gently placed Lavinia on a thick pallet of furs near the softly
burning fire in the center of the room.

“What is her name?” Shining Soul asked as he reached for his bag of medicines, stopping only long enough to put on his magic
owl hat. He would need all the magic he could conjure up this time, for the woman looked as though she might already be too
near death to save.

“Lavinia,” Wolf Dancer said. “Her name is Lavinia Price. She is the mistress of the huge, pillared white plantation house
that I told you about. The woman and her husband moved into it not so long ago.”

“If she has a husband, why did you not take her to him?” Shining Soul asked, casting Wolf Dancer a half glance as he positioned
himself beside Lavinia. “Would not her husband have wanted to care for her?”

“Her husband no longer lives,” Wolf Dancer said thickly. “But were he still alive, I would still have brought her to you for
your special medicines. I do not believe a white man’s medicine would be able to save her from such a bite as this. I have
faith in you, only you, Shining Soul.”

“I will do as my magic allows me to do,” Shining Soul said, already preparing powdered sumac leavesand the root of the pallaganghy
together in one of his wooden vials.

He poured some warm water into the mixture and stirred, then gently began applying the concoction to Lavinia’s open wound.

Not planning to leave the side of the woman anytime soon, Wolf Dancer sat down and folded his legs before him. He wanted to
be there should she awaken, to make certain she was not afraid of her surroundings.

His eyes never left Lavinia as he watched for movement beneath her lids that might be a sign she was awakening. It was important
for her to awaken soon, or she might not wake again, ever.

He worried when she continued to sleep soundly, and he noticed how pale she had become since the snakebite.

Although she was a white woman with golden hair and pale skin, when he had first seen her he had observed that she had been
slightly tanned by the sun. Obviously she often worked outside beneath the sun in her garden of flowers.

He had noticed those brown dots across the bridge of her nose that he knew whites called “freckles.” He found them fascinating
and thought they seemed to make Lavinia look more innocent and beautiful.

Joshua and Twila stood just inside the door. Joshua gently clasped Twila’s small hand.

“Pappy, why does that strange-looking Indian wear an owl on his head?” Twila whispered only loudly enough for her father to
hear. “And look at hisstrange robe. It looks like something made by magic with drawings of things you only see in the sky.”

“As for the owl, I sees it as a magic owl,” Joshua whispered back as he leaned down closer to Twila’s ear.

He did not want to disturb the magic of the shaman, magic that had worked very well on Joshua himself.

“I was told by Wolf Dancer, when I asked him about the owl hat, that the owl is the Seminole symbol for a doctor,” Joshua
explained. “Just watch him, Twila. You will see a man of infinite wisdom and patience. I have never felt a touch as gentle
as Shining Soul’s. If anyone can save our Lavinia, he’s de one.”

“You do think Lavinia is going to live?” Twila asked, still seeing how quietly her mistress lay.

Twila’s eyes widened when she saw what the old shaman was applying to the wound. It looked like the chalk that she and Dorey
had used when they played school.

Dorey. Tears sprang to Twila’s eyes to think she’d never see her best friend in the world again! She hated the thought of
those two boys mistreating Dorey!

“Daughter, we bes’ leave now,” Joshua said, his eyes wide as he watched Shining Soul.

The shaman was cleaning the roots of reeds and mashing them into a pulp. He then placed the pulp on Lavinia’s wound to draw
out foreign substances from it.

The sumac leaves and roots of the pallaganghywere taken in equal parts and crushed separately again until they were almost
a powder.

These were mixed with sumac berries, then all of this was placed in a small pot in the flames of the lodge fire. The mixture
would simmer until it was ready for use later.

Joshua knew that in time the shaman would also take another root called the
ouissoucatcki
and grind it into a thin powdery substance. Shining Soul had given it to Joshua to increase his strength, and he would give
it to Lavinia when she was finally awake. He would place this mixture in warm water for her to drink.

“Do we have to go, Pappy?” Twila whined as she looked up into his dark eyes. “I’se so worried about Lavinia, I don’t think
I could stand bein’ away from her.”

“We aren’t needed here, Twila. It’s bes’ that we go to my home and wait to hear how Lavinia is doin’,” Joshua said, already
taking Twila by the hand and leading her outside.

“Pappy, you have a house here on Mystic Island?” Twila asked, her eyes wide as they walked away from the shaman’s lodge. “A
house of yore very own?”

“Yes’m,” Joshua said proudly. “And it’s a mighty fine one, Twila. You’ll see. It’s a home like ours back at the plantation
nevah was. I wished your mammy could be here to live in it with us.”

“And Dorey,” Twila said, sobbing. “Where is she, Pappy? Where can Dorey be? Those boys! They should be punished, that’s fo’
sure.”

“I’m certain they’re in a mighty bunch of trouble,” Joshua said, walking onward with Twila.

Inside the shaman’s lodge, Wolf Dancer continued to sit silently by as Shining Soul worked his magic on Lavinia. As he watched,
he vowed that after Shining Soul made her well, Wolf Dancer would never let her go!

He doubted that she would want to return to the danger waiting for her back at the plantation. Its new owner was a man who
had killed her husband in order to have her!

That man would never be allowed to get near her again.

Surely she would not want to go there after she discovered the truth about her husband’s death.

The only person she had left to care about was her daughter. And Dorey was lost in the swamp.

Lavinia was lying somewhere between life and death because of the young braves who had made plans to abduct a white child
for their own entertainment. When he and Joshua and the boys had reached the tree house earlier that evening, they had found
it empty. Somehow their prisoner had escaped.

He would make sure Running Bear and Deer Shadow understood the wrong they had done, but his main concern now was seeing that
Lavinia was alright, and finding the lost child.

Tomorrow he would resume searching for the daughter named Dorey. He would make certain many canoes of warriors were sent out
to hunt for her, and he would instruct some of these warriors to go on land and search there, too.

He did not want to think that Dorey might have been swallowed up by the treachery of the Everglades.

He would not think of that possibility. He would believe that the child would be found, just as he believed that his shaman
would work a miracle on the child’s mother.

He sat quietly by as Shining Soul continued to minister to Lavinia’s wound. As he watched he was convinced that this woman
was the loveliest on this earth, and she deserved far better than what life had thus far handed her.

She deserved to be happy.

She deserved to have her daughter with her again.

She deserved a husband who would never let her down, in any respect.

And she deserved to see the man who had killed her husband dead.

Wolf Dancer had assigned himself her protector, and he would not let her down.

Now if only she would survive to accept him as such!

Chapter Fifteen

There is a fullness of all things,

Even of sleep and of love.

—Homer

Dorey stood at the door of the
garita.
She had been awakened by a commotion in the village. Afraid that it might be something that would put her in danger, she had
crept to the door and peered outside.

The moon had slid behind clouds just as she looked out, making it almost impossible to see.

But the glow from the huge outdoor fire had at least given her a view of a tall Indian carrying a woman to a lodge.

She had seen others, as well, but it was too dark to make anyone out.

She could only conclude that someone in the village had been injured, or had become ill.

Perhaps the hut the woman had been carried to was the home of the village doctor, or the wife of the man carrying her.

The one thing that puzzled Dorey was that when the Indian carried the woman past the huge fire, it had looked as though her
skin and hair were pale.

But Dorey had quickly discounted that impression, for she knew, from having heard it said, that no whites were welcome at
the Seminole village on Mystic Island.

That was what frightened her. When she made herself known to the inhabitants, which she knew she must do tomorrow, since she
had no idea how to get back to her home, how would she be treated?

Would she be sent away with no guidance as to which way to go?

There were so many waterways through the swamp, she was afraid that one of them might lead her into even more dangerous territory
than this Indian village. Was she going to die, alone and afraid, amid the Everglades?

Tears of regret filled her eyes. Why had she recklessly traveled so much farther than her mother ever allowed?

Dorey hung her head, wiped her eyes, and went back to hide inside the food hut again.

She curled up in the warm pelts and blankets that she had found in the
garita.
She gathered them all around her, shivering when she recalled that more than one mouse had come up and sniffed at the blankets
while she was lying there.

She had to place a hand to her mouth to stifle a scream when she had seen a mouse dreadfully close to her face. When the moon
was not hidden behind clouds, she had seen the mouse’s beady eyes staring into hers.

She had been so relieved when it lost interest in her and found its way into a storage bin of grain.

So tired, so displeased with herself and the predicament she found herself in, Dorey sighed.

She again closed her eyes and welcomed escape in the black void of sleep.

Not far away, in a hut where soft flames burned in the firepit, a snack of corn cakes was being eaten by Joshua and Twila.
Twila sat beside her father, looking slowly around her.

“Pappy, this house the Seminole gave you is so nice, and you say it is yours for as long as you wish to remain on Mystic Island?”
Twila crunched on a corn cake, filling the empty void in her belly. She had missed the evening meal when she and Lavinia had
left the mansion so hurriedly to look for Dorey. “Chief Wolf Dancer is a kind man,” Joshua said. He stretched his long, lean
legs out before him; the new buckskin breeches fit him snugly. “He took me to his shaman, who made me well, and he gave me
this home and as much food and as many blankets as I want. They are all free, Twila. I doesn’t have to pay anything fo’ them.
It’s like heaven, ain’t it, daughter?”

“Pure heaven,” Twila sighed, as she looked around her at a bed made of blankets and pelts, enough for her father to give her
some for herself when they were ready to sleep.

There were other things of comfort, too: benches upon which to sit if a person so desired, and mats of various colors spread
over the wood floor.

There were eating utensils, and jugs of water.

And there was even a bow and a quiver of arrows! That alone proved how much these people trusted and cared for her pappy!

“I still can’t believe that this is all yours, Pappy, for as long as you wish it to be,” Twila said. She swallowed her last
bite of corn cake. “Can I stay with you? Can we be a family again? Or will it be forbidden? Will I be sent away? Will I have
to return to that horrible plantation? With Dorey no longer there and Lavinia ill, perhaps too ill to return there herself,
I want to stay here with you, Pappy.”

She shivered, then reached for a blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders. “If’n I return to that place where Massa Hiram
is in charge of every-thin’, I don’t think I’ll last long, Pappy,” she murmured. “Without you and Lavinia there to protect
me, I ’magine I’d not last for long. Massa Hiram sho’ nuff likes his whip and usin’ it on we poh slaves.”

She broke into hard tears. “Oh, Pappy, where is sweet Dorey?” she cried. “Where could she be? Those mean boys. They did this
to our Dorey. They should be the ones at the end of Massa Hiram’s nasty whip. I’d laugh while they were bein’ whipped, I would.”

“Now, now, daughter, don’t talk like that,” Joshua scolded. “No one deserves to be at the end of that horrible man’s whip.”
He laughed throatily. “But that whip did do one good deed. It took the evil man’s eye, it did. I saw it happen. I had to fight
off laughin’ out loud when I saw that eyeball pop from its socket. What a sight. Yes’m, what a sight.”

“I saw it, too,” Twila said. “Lordie be, I thoughthe’d wet his breeches right on the spot like I’se seen the poh chillen he’s
whipped do.”

“We don’t have to worry ’bout that one-eyed scoundrel ever again, Twila,” Joshua said. He reached out and wrapped her in his
arms. “I know de young chief will allow you to stay with yore pappy and let you share dis house with me. I knows it, Twila.”

“That would be pure heaven, Pappy,” Twila said, snuggling closer to him. “Now if only we knew Dorey was somewhere safe and
that Lavinia would soon be well, we’d have a reason to smile ’gain, Pappy. Wouldn’t we?”

“Yes, chil’, we’ve got plenty to smile about, thanks to de young chief,” Joshua said thickly. He softly rocked Twila in his
arms. “He saved my life, and we’ve become fast friends. Now dat I know how my sweet wife died, I want to make Hiram pay for
not only that crime, but, oh, so many others. Hiram Price is a man without a heart.”

“When you speak of him now, you don’ call him massa,” Twila said, gazing up into her father’s dark eyes.

“Tha’s cuz he ain’t that no mo’ to either of us, Twila,” Joshua said, gently holding her away from him. He looked her square
in the eye. “We’re as free as the birds that fly in the sky, Twila. We’re free!”

Twila began crying again. “If only Mammy could be with us,” she sobbed. “I miss her so much. And Dorey. I’se so afraid for
her. There are so many things in the swamp that could kill her.” She visibly shuddered. “The white panther. What if dat whitedevil
pounced on our Dorey and…and killed her? So many have said how elusive it is, and surely deadlier than anything else
in the Everglades, or any-wheres else, fo’ that matter.”

“Chil’, stop yore cryin’ and frettin’ and thinkin’ such thoughts,” Joshua said. He wiped the tears on her brown cheeks dry
with the palms of his hands.

“Pappy, Dorey knew not to go far in her canoe when she went explorin’,” Twila said. She snuggled again in her father’s arms,
relishing their strength wrapped around her. “But today mus’ have been different. She went way too far. And now she might’ve
died after escapin’ the tree house those mean boys put her in.”

“Darlin’ Twila, the search for Dorey will resume tomorrow, but tonight, the main concern is Lavinia,” he said. “But I trust
de shaman will make her well. He has magical powers. I know that as fact, because dat shaman used his powers to get me well.
Your pappy was almost on death’s doorstep from the wound made by dat arrow. When Hiram shoved me in de river, my blood turned
dat river red. Dat evil man laughed as I floated away down de river, fightin’ off unconsciousness every inch of de way. He
truly thought I was a dead man.”

“I’m so glad that you are alright, Pappy,” Twila said as she stretched out on her blankets, and Joshua covered her with another
one as her eyes began drifting closed. “Pappy, I’m so tired, and so glad to be with you again.”

“Sweet Twila, if you had not been in dat canoe with Lavinia, I’d have come fo’ you,” Joshua saidsoftly. He stroked her hair.
“I’d ’ave nevah left you with dat tyrant for any longer than I had to. Every minute I was away from you was pure torture.
One nevah knows from one minute to de next what to expect from dat one-eyed demon. How he murdered yore mammy is proof o’
dat.”

“Mammy, oh, Mammy,” Twila whispered as she fell asleep in her father’s shadow. His eyes gazed at her as she slept.

“You’ll meet your mammy again, sweet chil’, as will your pappy, too,” he whispered as he stroked his fingers through her long,
black hair. “When we all go to heaven, Twila. When we all go to heaven.”