Savage Spirit (24 page)

Sandy Whiskers shouted over his shoulder at his guards. "Follow me!" he cried. "We must escape now! The Apache chief might be smart enough to find the trap doors."

"But what about the prisoners?" one of the guards said. He broke into a run and followed Sandy Whiskers.

"The women are lost to us," Sandy Whiskers shouted back. "Perhaps we can return later to get the men and deliver them to the copper mines for payment." He stopped long enough to get his breath. "If not, we will start anew somewhere else. We will have to return to Mexico, far enough away from the Apache chief Cloud Eagle."

Charlie listened with interest. Sandy Whiskers had mentioned women. Did that mean that perhaps Alicia wasn't dead after all?

Again he tried to pull his wrist loose as men on all sides of him were shouting at Sandy Whiskers to set them free. They were begging for food.

Charlie's insides grew cold. Although he and the other prisoners had not been fed well, at least they had been fed enough to keep them alive from day to day. Without the outlaws there to supply food, they could die!

Realizing that dying of hunger could be slow and torturous, Charlie hung his head. Behind the veil of his tears, in his mind's eye he was seeing Alicia as he had last seen her in Saint Louis.

Ravishing. Vivacious. Spirited.

And stubborn. . . .

"Alicia, oh, Alicia," he moaned. "What have you gotten us both into this time? Where are you? Are you dead or alive?"   <><><><><><><><><><><><>

Hearing the rapid shooting outside and seeing how frightened the guard was, Alicia gazed intently at the door of the small room. "Cloud Eagle," she whispered, her heart beating soundly. "Oh, darling, is that you? Am I going to have the chance to tell you how sorry I am for having doubted you?"

The light from the door was suddenly shut out. Alicia blinked her eyes and stared at the man standing there. He completely filled the doorway.

His knife in his trembling hand, Sandy Whiskers' gunman rose slowly to his feet, having seen the large figure looming at the doorway. There was no doubting whether it was foe or friend. The man wore only a breechclout, and his bronzed skin was sleek with sweat.

"Get out!" the man spat between clenched teeth. "Get out!" He edged backwards when the Apache did not move, but spoke in a slow, dignified manner, in English, to the women.

"Have you been harmed,
Ish-kay-nay?
" Cloud Eagle asked.

"I'm fine," Alicia said, eyeing first Cloud Eagle, then the guard.

Cloud Eagle asked the Apache woman the same. She replied the same.

"Thank God you came," Alicia cried. "Forgive me, Cloud Eagle, for having doubted you. Please forgive me."

Cloud Eagle nodded, then fastened his gaze on the man who held his knife threateningly before him, pointed at Cloud Eagle.

In the distance, rifle fire still popped and cracked and exploded.   In the small cubicle of the room, the branding iron now lay gray and lifeless on the floor between Cloud Eagle and the man.

Cloud Eagle moved slowly toward the man.

The guard backed slowly away.

Cloud Eagle followed. He kept only a short distance between himself and the other man. They were watching each other's eyes.

Suddenly the man lunged toward Cloud Eagle, the knife making a straight path toward his chest.

Cloud Eagle was quicker. His hand moved faster than the guard's. It grabbed the wrist of the knife hand. The grip tightened.

The man swung his left fist at Cloud Eagle's face. He too soon felt his left wrist seized. The knife fell with a hollow ring to the floor.

They stood with bodies pressed tightly together.

Slowly Cloud Eagle forced the guard's hands upward. He still gripped the wrists. The man's face and beard were wet with sweat as he tried to get his wrists free. He screamed as his arms cracked like dried sticks beneath Cloud Eagle's pressure.

Cloud Eagle then released the man.

His arms broken, the guard fell to the floor, crying in pain.

Cloud Eagle leaned over the man and grabbed a fist full of his hair. With his free hand, Cloud Eagle took his knife from his sheath and held the knife blade before the man's eyes.

"For your sins," he hissed.

With a quick motion Cloud Eagle ran the knife across the man's throat. He died without a sound.

The gunfire had stopped outside. Several warriors ran into the room where Cloud Eagle was   already setting Alicia free. Turtle Crawls went to the Apache woman and released her from her shackles and soon had a blanket around her bare shoulders.

Alicia flung herself into Cloud Eagle's arms as her shackles fell away from her. Sobbing, she clung to him with all of her might. "It's been so horrible," she cried. "And the women, Cloud Eagle. Did you see all of the women in the cages?"

"They are going to be set free," Turtle Crawls said, his arm around the waist of the Apache woman.

Cloud Eagle held Alicia close. He looked over his shoulder at Turtle Crawls. "Did you kill Sandy Whiskers?" he said.

"He has disappeared," Turtle Crawls said, his eyes filled with rage. "We searched. We did not find. We burned his cabin. Nothing, Cloud Eagle. There is nothing but what you have seen already."

"For now that is enough," Cloud Eagle said. He framed Alicia's face between his hands and felt icy currents of remorse flood his insides to see her face so damaged. "Had you not fled, you would not have suffered so."

Alicia lowered her eyes. "I know now so much more than before," she said, swallowing hard. She looked slowly up at him. "I shall never doubt you again."

Then a fresh stream of tears flooded her eyes. "My brother," she said, biting her lower lip as she paused before saying the dreaded words. "I am almost positive now that he is dead. Sandy Whiskers' interest lay in keeping women alive, not men."   She quickly explained the breeding program to Cloud Eagle. He was stunned, but not altogether surprised. It did seem now that the Englishman might be capable of anything.

He cradled Alicia close. "Let us return home, where you can forget these things that have brought heartache into your life," he said, stroking her back. "We will take those women with us who have been locked away in cages. We shall return them to their rightful people."

"But the children they will bear?" Alicia asked, a chill encompassing her at the thought of the men forcefully impregnating the women. "What will become of them?"

"It will be up to the women," Cloud Eagle said. He placed an arm around her waist and walked her out of the room, through the room of cages to the outdoors that was filled with the scent of gunpowder and death.

Alicia took one look at the death scene, then looked away. She stumbled along until Cloud Eagle led her to his horse. He helped her into the saddle.

"Stay. I will see to everyone else's welfare, then we will return home," he said. "We will not look back at what has been, but ahead, at what will be."

Alicia swallowed hard. She flicked tears from her eyes and nodded. Then she sat in the saddle, numb, as she watched the activity around her. A long string of mules and horses were led from the corral. The Apache loaded the mules with the war weapons of the enemy. Next came food from the dwellings, then bolts of cloth, tools, and clothing.

The sun was shifting its way downward in the   sky as the last mule was loaded. The women were helped onto horses and mules. The warriors mounted.

Cloud Eagle slipped into the saddle behind Alicia and placed a protective arm around her waist. With a silent wave, he led his warriors out of the outpost, the horses snorting at the smell of blood and death. No death had come to the Apache today. Only to those who deserved it.

After they were outside, on open ground, Cloud Eagle turned his frisky roan in the direction of his stronghold. The warriors followed. Everyone was quiet. The sky was bright.

Cloud Eagle looked heavenward and saw something that broke the tranquility of the turquoise, cloudless sky.

Buzzards.

Spiraling buzzards.

His shoulders and back tightened, knowing that there were two unmistakable signs of trouble on the plains.

Black, billowing smoke and spiraling buzzards.

Both were signs of death.

Cloud Eagle appointed two other warriors to ride with him, to see what the buzzards were after.

Not wanting to see any more death, Alicia turned and clung to Cloud Eagle, her face pressed against his powerful chest. She could hear the rapid beat of his heart as he drew his horse to a sudden halt. She could hear anguish in his voice as he shouted into the wind the name.

''Red Crow!" he cried.

"Red Crow?" Alicia whispered, unable not to follow Cloud Eagle's gaze, not after hearing the   utter shock in the depths of his voice over what he had seen.

The blood drained from her face and she felt dizzy with her own anguish when her gaze fell upon the five bodies that were hanging lifelessly from the limbs of several cottonwood trees, their necks broken, enormous black clouds of blowflies covering their naked bodies.

Now everyone knew why Red Crow and his warrior companions had not returned from the hunt. It was not because their hunt had been good. Instead someone else's hunt had been successfulmore than likely Sandy Whiskers'!

Cloud Eagle rode up to Red Crow, and while Turtle Crawls stood waiting, he cut the rope that held Red Crow's body on the limb.

Turtle Crawls dutifully caught him, then lay him peacefully on the ground. Others shooed the flies from his body.

This was repeated until all of Red Crow's warriors lay side by side on the ground.

Alicia stayed on the roan as Cloud Eagle slipped from the saddle.

His eyes moved from Red Crow to the others, then back to Red Crow. He knelt beside Red Crow, his head bent.

Alicia could not stand to see him suffering alone. She dismounted and went and knelt beside him. She placed an arm around his shoulders. "I'm so sorry," she murmured. "Darling, I'm so sorry."

"I grew up with Red Crow," Cloud Eagle said, his voice hollow. "My heart strings are bound around my friend. And he had to have died nobly. Never have I seen fear cross the face of my friend!"   Cloud Eagle's fury knew no bounds. "At whatever cost to my own safety and comfort, I will demand just satisfaction for the death of my best friend," he then said, his eyes filled with fire. "The Englishman is responsible for this. I will hunt him down. One day I will find him. He will wish that he had never come to the land of the Apache!"

Alicia clung to Cloud Eagle, his hurt and anger melding with hers. She wanted revenge also. And against the same man. As Cloud Eagle avenged the death of his kindred, especially that of his best friend Red Crow, she would avenge the death of her beloved brother. She now knew for certain that her brother had been slain by the wicked Englishman.

"We shall find a way, Cloud Eagle," she murmured. "We will find Sandy Whiskers and make him pay."

"Not we," Cloud Eagle said, placing a gentle hand to her cheek. "You will be protected at all cost from coming face to face with that fiend again. This is our fight, that is true. But it is for this Apache alone to see that revenge is carried out and that you are kept safely from it."

Alicia listened, and she wanted to please him. But she was torn with feelings. That part of her which always met challenges head-on did not want to allow someone else to fight her battles for her.

Yet on the other hand, she did not want to disappoint Cloud Eagle again.

"Do you hear me well?" Cloud Eagle said, his eyes narrowing. "
Ish-kay-nay,
you understand what I just said? That you will not interfere in my sought-for vengeance?"

Alicia innocently nodded, yet was still not   sure which way it would be for her when the time came.

"Good," Cloud Eagle said, yet doubted that Alicia was being altogether truthful. He knew that it would take time for her to forget her willful, stubborn ways.

And he understood. Her fiery nature was still attractive to him.

He rose to his feet and gave Red Crow a lingering look.

He then gave orders to make enough travois for the return of the bodies to their homes.

Cloud Eagle lifted Alicia into the saddle, then swung himself up behind her. The sun was now setting. The twilight had deepened. The evening coolness and shadows fell over Alicia and Cloud Eagle as they rode onward, in silence, she with her feelings, he with his, yet intertwined as one thought, as one wish.

To see the Englishman dead.  

The moon was high in the sky when the procession of Apache entered their stronghold. Alicia stirred awake in Cloud Eagle's arms when he slowed the pace of his horse. She looked quickly around. Firelight struck the tepees from within, turning their skins translucent. As Cloud Eagle's people became aware of horses' hooves entering the stronghold, they emerged from their lodges.

The flames of an outdoor fire leapt high into the sky, as the Apache people's eyes anxiously scanned the faces of those who were arriving, understanding that not only were their warriors returning, but also several women, white and red-skinned. And it was obvious to everyone that several of the women were huge with child.

Cloud Eagle rode on ahead and dismounted. He put his people as a whole at ease when he explained about the attack on Sandy Whiskers'   outpost and that not one of their warriors had been killed or wounded.

As the people broke away and ran to greet their warriors, Cloud Eagle reached his hands to Alicia's waist. She leaned into them as he gripped her and helped her to the ground.

They embraced for a moment, then Alicia stepped aside so that Cloud Eagle could attend to his chief's duties.

She watched him go to those who had been released from the dreadful cages, joining his warriors who were helping the women from the animals. The white-skinned and those of copper skin were treated alike.

The weak, thin, and gaunt, and those who were large with child, were led to the fire. Soon they were resting on blankets, accepting food and water.

Then Red Crow's wives came into sight. Alicia and Cloud Eagle saw them at the same moment, exchanged quick glances, then went to them.