Vivid (50 page)

She flung him into the sky and the strong
wings propelled him up. Vivid slapped the reins against Michigan's back and
they rolled out.

Vivid had many worries as she followed
Hector's flight. Chief among them, could she control the dogs, would she be
able to handle the reins for what might possibly be a long ride, and had she
lost her mind. That had to be the reason that she was out following a bird. But
at this point, she'd follow an inchworm if she thought it would lead her to the
girls.

High above them, Hector continued to soar.
Every so often, he'd fly a distance ahead, then circle back until he flew
directly overhead again. Vivid swore he was leading her. She periodically
checked his position to make certain they were proceeding in the direction he
seemed to want her to go, and listened to his impatient-sounding calls. At one
point, she shouted up to the sky, "I'm going as fast as I can."

The dogs, on the other hand, were as
silent as assassins. Every few hundred yards, Blue, accompanied by two or three
of the others, would peel away from the main party and, with noses down, sniff
bases of trees and the leaf covered ground adjacent to the road. They'd
investigate for a few moments and then, as if satisfied, head back and join the
wagon. The only unconcerned animal in Vivid's party appeared to be Michigan.
For the mule, it was just another drive.

Vivid had been stopping periodically to
mark their trail by tying pieces of bandages to a roadside tree. If Nate was
following he'd be able to find her.

They were traveling west, she thought. Her
gloved hands were beginning to hurt from gripping the reins for the past hour.
She dearly hoped they'd reach some type of destination soon because she didn't
believe she'd be able to drive for much longer. She could now see the river
flowing swiftly on her right. She'd only been to this wooded stretch of the
Grove once, and at the time she'd been lost, so she had no idea where Hector
would lead from here.

About a half-hour later, the bird flew off
as had been his pattern. Vivid expected him to circle back as before but he
kept going. When he was no longer in sight, she began to worry. The dogs seemed
to be agitated by someone or something, too, so she pulled back on the reins
and Michigan stopped. She sat a moment to listen. At first she heard only the
rush of the river and the wind in the trees. Suddenly, the dogs bounded off
into the brush, barking as they disappeared, and paying absolutely no heed to
her shouted commands to return.

Filled with frustration, she knew she had
to find the dogs, so she drove the wagon to a spot beside the road, tied the
mule's reins to a small-trunked tree, and took off with the rifle in one hand
and her bag in the other. She set off walking in the direction the dogs had taken
and could hear them barking in the distance somewhere ahead. The path through
the thick underbrush had to be no wider than a dinner plate. She pushed aside
bramble bushes and stepped over large tree roots, glad she had on her denims.
Were she in a skirt, she would have spent the whole time untangling herself
from the spiny fingers and thorns.

The path ended at the top of a ridge.
Winded and tired, Vivid stopped a moment to gaze down at the rolling meadow
below. The beautiful vista set against the wide blue ribbon of the river took
her breath away, then her heart stopped at the distant sight of a child running
across the meadow as if her life depended on it. Vivid stood too far away to
accurately determine if it was Magic or Satin, but she was sure it was one of
them. Vivid's elation died as she spotted a man, Cole, running hard to catch
the child.

Vivid began to run down the ridge. The
barking dogs were bounding swiftly in the child's direction and closing fast.
However, Cole was certain to get to the child first.

Vivid stopped and brought the loaded rifle
up to her shoulder, sighted, and fired. Although she was still too far away to
hit her target, the rifle's crack would let him know the child was no longer
alone. Vivid saw him halt immediately and quickly glance around as if trying to
determine where the shot came from, but blessedly the child did not stop
running. The dogs were almost within striking distance. He seemed to realize
this also and ran to a shack among some trees near the riverbank. The door
closed just as Maddie's dogs reached it.

The dogs circled the shack, their baying
carrying on the wind. Vivid started running, calling to the child still
sprinting across the meadow. Vivid watched her stop and look back. Upon seeing
Vivid, she turned and ran toward her. It was Satin. Vivid swept her up and held
her tightly as they both cried.

"Are you hurt?" Vivid asked,
moving her trained hands lightly over the dirty little face that looked so much
like Magic's, and then over her thin shoulders and arms. Vivid was so glad to
see her.

Satin shook her head and said excitedly,
"He's got Magic tied up inside! We have to rescue her!"

"I know darling, and we will, but I
need to know some things first. You said it's a man. Do you know him?"

"No. He said he's our cousin."

"Tell me what happened?"

Satin and Magic had been so intent with
their play, they had forgotten about lunch, but Magic, ever the woods woman,
knew Maddie's apple trees still held the last of its fruit, so the girls went
there to pick their lunch. While Hector hunted, the girls ate their apples and
were about to head the mile and a half back home when they ran across Maddie,
who was out gathering wood. Mad-die offered to take them home since it would be
dark very soon, but she had to unload the wood from the wagon first. Satin, for
all her mimicking of her big sister's ways, still had a strong fear of Maddie's
dogs, so Satin rode in the wagon with Maddie while Magic walked with the dogs.

When they arrived at Maddie's the girls
volunteered to help unload the wood. Because of Satin's fear of the dogs,
Maddie penned them up. Hector, seeing the dogs penned, decided it would be a
perfect time to introduce the dogs to the game of "Duck!" Hector's
lightning-fast dives into the pen made the dogs frantic, and because Magic
could not make Hector stop, Maddie took pity on her poor animals and put them
in the cellar.

Satin said, "After we put the wood on
the porch, we were ready to come home, but I had to go to the privy and Magic
did, too, so Maddie told us to go ahead, she had to fetch a book out of the
house for Aunt Gail. When we came back around to the front of the house, Maddie
wasn't on the wagon, so..."

Satin's voice faltered. She looked into
Vivid's eyes, and Vivid saw the fear. Vivid gently pulled Satin into her lap
and held her tight. She kissed her brow and said softly, "What happened
next, Satin?"

There were tears running down Satin's
cheeks. "Mad-die wasn't on the wagon, like I said, so we went into the
house to find her. The man—he was stabbing at Maddie with this big old
knife and Maddie was screaming and trying to get away."

Satin's tears continued to flow. "We
tried to help, but he was too strong, he threw me and Magic off. Maddie told us
to run, but Magic wouldn't. She kept jumping on his back. He snatched her
around and slapped her hard. I tried to run out the door but he grabbed me and
pushed me over by Magic. Magic was on the floor— and she was so
still—Aunt Viveca, I thought she was dead."

She began to sob openly and Vivid
whispered through her own tears, "You girls were very brave, Satin, very
brave. Go on."

“Maddie was lying on the floor and there
was all this blood—then he shook Magic until she woke up and made us go
with him on Maddie's wagon. Hector tried to help, but the man kept swinging the
knife at him until he flew away."

"How did you get away just now?"

"He was taking me to use the
facilities behind the shack and all of a sudden there was Hector. Aunt Viveca,
I've never seen Hector play 'Duck!' so rough before. Hector clawed his shoulder
the first time he flew by and the man grabbed his shoulder and screamed. When
Hector circled the second time, he flew right by his face and the man started
waving his hands trying to make Hector stop. Magic made me promise that if I
could get away I would. I didn't want to leave her, Aunt Viveca, but I ran.
When I saw the dogs, I didn't even think about how scared they make me, I only
wanted someone to help my sister."

"Well, someone is here to help your
sister. I'm going down there and I want you to stay here. If anything happens
to me, my mule Michigan is back down on the road on the other side of this
ridge. You high-tail it back and get your Uncle Nate."

"But I can't drive, Aunt Viveca, and
I wouldn't know which way to go."

Vivid explained about the bandage ribbons
and how, if Satin followed them, they would lead her back to Maddie's. Then
Vivid added, "Satin, you just escaped from a very dangerous man. Driving
is very easy compared to that, believe me. Does the man have a gun?''

"All I've seen is that big
knife."

Vivid headed down the meadow. She didn't
have a clue as to how she would free Magic, but she would give it a damned good
try because at this point she was Magic's only hope.

Vivid approached the shack but halted a
good distance away. She could see the dogs. They were no longer barking but
were lying in positions around the front of the shack, effectively keeping
their prey inside.

Vivid approached the ramshackle dwelling
and called out to the man. Vivid searched the sky above for Hector but saw nothing
but the gray clouds of late morning.

Then the door opened and Vivid raised the
rifle. She could see him standing just inside the shadowy entrance. He was the
same short squat man she'd seen with Quentin. Seeing his big arm circling
Magic's neck and the big knife he had pointed at the girl's throat, Vivid
tightened her jaw. Magic appeared to be maintaining a brave front. There was no
evidence of tears in her eyes, just anger.

The dogs rose and began to growl at the
sight of the man. In response he quickly dragged Magic back inside the portal
and yelled, "Call the dogs!"

"I think if you let her go, they'll
leave you alone."

"Call them off, or I'll slit her
throat."

"Then I'll shoot you," she
called back easily. "Think about it. You have a knife and I have a gun. I
also have the dogs. I possess all the cards. Let her go."

Vivid had no idea what he would do next;
any man who'd stabbed Maddie so savagely probably had no qualms about slashing
the throat of an innocent child. However, Mrs. Rand had stated that he needed
at least one of the girls alive. Vivid could see no way out for Cole. His
desperation must be making him act irrationally. Surely he didn't believe she'd
simply let him walk away. Vivid and her sisters had been taught to shoot in
order to protect themselves and their family. With times being the way they
were, a woman of the race had to know how to use a gun and she had to know how
to use it well. More importantly, if Magic came to harm it would break Nate's
heart, and Vivid could not allow that.

Neither would Hector, it seemed. Hector
appeared out of nowhere and he swooped down to rake his talons across Cole's
face. Evan Cole screamed and Magic stumbled out of the doorway. She fell to the
ground but picked herself up and ran to Vivid at full speed.

Then the dogs attacked.

They became snapping, leaping furies that
surrounded him like dervishes. Cole tried to shut the door, but they were
steadily herding him out into the open. No matter how much Vivid screamed at
them or how many times she fired the rifle, the dogs refused to obey, so she
sent Magic up the ridge to join her sister. She didn't want her viewing the
awful scene.

While the main pack barked and circled and
attacked his neck and arms, Blue sank his fangs into the fleshy part of Cole's
calf and shook ferociously. Cole screamed and tried to clutch the injured limb
only to have Blue tear into his hands. Out of the sky came Hector, his screech
splitting the air. Cole somehow broke free of the dogs and tried to run.
However, Blue's bite had crippled him, so all he could do was limp away as fast
as his injuries and the dogs would allow.

From behind her Vivid heard the awed voice
of Adam Crowley. "They're herding him and bringing him down, like a buck.
Nate, look at that!"

Vivid spun and saw not only Adam, but
Nate, Eli, her father, and many other men of the Grove spread out over the
ridge behind her.

She smiled at Nate as he walked toward her
carrying Satin in one arm and Magic in the other.

"Hello, princess," he said.

As some of the men ran down the hill to
try and corral the dogs. Vivid looked into his eyes. "Hello
yourself."

He bent to kiss her cheek and the movement
caused both girls to dip, making them giggle. The happy sounds nearly brought
tears to Vivid's eyes. She looked into their dirty little faces and asked.
"Are you two sure you're okay?''

They both nodded, and Nate squeezed them
until they giggled again. Vivid smiled at the girls who would soon be her
daughters.

Eli's voice was filled with concern.
"Nate, they're not having much luck calling off Maddie's dogs. Maybe we
need to go down there."