Read Online Through the Fire (The Native American Warrior Series) by Beth Trissel - Free Book Online

His voice grew grave, as though a more serious matter had displaced his initial rebuke. “ Peh chena yeama tamsah majuhn tei Maka Manese.”
    A tension seemed to grip Shoka, far different from the one she ’d provoked in him. “ NiSawsawh, keteia peh nee adanida ?”
    Wabete was silent as he listened to what sounded like an earnest plea from his brother. He nodded and his earrings bobbed. Giving Shoka ’s shoulder an affectionate squeeze, he walked away. The fast-falling night swallowed up his retreating back and obscured Shoka’s face, but it couldn’t conceal his rigid posture.
    “ What troubles you?” she whispered, fearful of his reply.
    “ Wabete says I must take you before Maka Manese. Long Knives call him Black Knife.”
    A shudder ran through her. “Who?”             
    “ The war chief.”
    She swallowed hard. “What does he want with me?”
    “ Answers to questions the soldiers refuse to give. Questions I asked you last night. I know you did not speak the truth. Black Knife will also know.”
    Cold fear knotted her stomach. “He reads faces well?”
    “ Also how you move your hands, your body. He is clever. Tell him what he wishes,” Shoka urged.
    “ I’ll betray my uncle and his family. They may be sheltering in the fort. Maybe even Kate is there, or will be.”
    Shoka ’s demeanor was deadly serious. “If you do not answer him, Black Knife will become angry.”
    Waves of dread engulfed her, and she reached trembling fingers to him. “Don’t make me go before him. Spare me.”
    He enclosed her icy hand in his warm grasp. “I cannot. Yet I will give all my strength to protect you.”
    “ Then God help us both.”
    “ Pray hard, Rebecca Elliot.”
    God would have to hear a wordless prayer. She was too frightened to manage anything articulate and waited in paralyzing apprehension as Shoka recovered her clothes. Dazed, she stepped into the folds and stood while he tied the petticoats, then pulled on her gown. She took short breaths while he somehow did the hooks of her stomacher in the dark.
    “You could let me escape,” she argued in mounting panic.
    “ No. I could not.”
    She threw her arms around his strong neck. “I’ll go where you say. Wait there. Anything. I swear it.”
    He held her tightly then put her from him. “There is no other way.” Gripping her arm, he hurried her back along the water and up the bank.
    Rebecca dug in her heels, churning the leafy earth beneath her feet. “You’re walking me into a snare.”
    “ Not one of my making. Have courage, Peshewa.”
    All her courage had fled. Her legs were so weak they scarcely supported her as he compelled her through camp. At first she didn ’t see a soul; then the flames of the campfire flickered eerily over warriors clustered at the far side.
    “ Why do all gather there?”
    As if in reply, the sharp slap of a cord striking flesh and a man ’s deep groan carried above the voices. With sickening dread, she realized. “Dear God. They’re beating the soldiers.”
    “ Yes.” Shoka’s manner was grim.
    Her chest pounded like a savage drum. She stumbled through the warriors who admitted them to the inner circle as though they were expected. It struck her horribly that she was. Even more awful was the tortured state of the soldiers.
    Lieutenant McClure reeled from a crack to the jaw. The other man whose name she didn’t recall lay on the ground groaning weakly. Their faces were swollen, bleeding, their clothing torn and stained red.
    “ Make them stop, Shoka!”
    “ I cannot. Only for you will I fight my own.”
    The warrior brandishing the braided cord lashed out again at Lieutenant McClure ’s back. The force of the blow hurled him to his knees then toppled him facedown onto the ground.
    Rage coursed alongside her fear. “Leave him alone, you monster!” She pulled to break from Shoka and run to the lieutenant’s defense.
    Shoka held her back. “You think to stop him?”
    “ Will no one?” she