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

asked, crushing her face against him.
    “ Do not hide, Rebecca. You must speak.”
    “ You ask too much.”
    “ It’s not I who asks, but Black Knife. Look.”
    Lifting her head, she stared through her tears at the chief. An older warrior still in the vigor of manhood swam in her vision. Gray streaked his scalp lock, but he stood straight and tall. A silver gorget shaped like a half-moon hung at his thick neck, and a calico shirt covered his broad shoulders and long torso. But it was his black eyes that commanded her unwilling attention. These eyes missed nothing. And they were fixed on her.
    At a nod from Black Knife, the beating ceased. The soldiers lay doubled over on the ground, moaning. Blood smeared their bruised faces and ran from split lips. Scarlet stripes crisscrossed their raw backs, a searing pain she understood. She looked from their broken bodies to the chief. This man was without mercy. Suddenly light-headed, she swayed against Shoka.
    His arms enclosed her. “ Chwek’queese mi’dologo tamsah, callaweelo, naga ma’chihi melona ,” he said firmly, calmly, but she felt how rigid he was.
    Black Knife ’s gleaming eyes studied them both. “ Peh chee yeama tamsah ?”
    Shoka nodded. The crowd murmured as he spoke. “ Ilani keteia weshe naga welah ma’chihi atn angehote yeama tamseh . Wabete, Meshewa wa miPaw’wekom .”
    Wabete and Meshewa pushed through the assembly and stood beside him as if to show their support. The murmur grew to a rumble. Some heads nodded while others shook.
    Though frightened and bewildered by the incoherent debate, Rebecca didn’t miss the cunning behind the chief’s ingratiating smile.
    “ Shoka, why do you fear I wish to harm your captive?” he asked, reaching out his hand toward her.
    She assumed the English was for her benefit, recoiling from the mature warrior as she might a scaly lizard. She flattened herself against Shoka.
    Black Knife lifted a long strand of her hair and rubbed it between his fingers. “Am I such an old man you think I cannot see how fair she is?” He let her hair fall around her shoulders. “Yet we need the knowledge she possesses.”
    “ Speak with her,” Shoka agreed.
    A hush settled over the assembly and Rebecca found herself the chief ’s sole focus.
    “ What is your name?” he asked.
    “ Rebecca Elliot,” she managed between shallow pants.
    “ Why such fear, Rebecca Elliot?”
    She looked beyond this circle to the two men lying prostrate on the ground. They were bloody evidence of his cruelty.
    “Are you a Long Knife soldier?” the chief asked. “You are a woman of much beauty. Why would I treat you as a man?”
    His quiet manner was meant to lead her where he wished her to go. She had no doubt he would treat her just as brutishly if she proved uncooperative.
    “What I ask is not difficult. You were in Fort Loudoun?”
    She nodded uneasily.
    “What is Loudoun’s strength? How many men have they?”
    “ I am told Loudoun is the strongest fort in the Virginia frontier. Soldiers number close to one hundred.”
    “ Have they good supply of powder, lead, muskets?”
    “ I didn’t see inside the magazine where supplies are stored, but the men appeared well armed.”
    Plainly, he already knew this and continued to his real question. “Where were you going with the Long Knives?”
    “ To the upper South Branch region.” This was more than she’d told Shoka, and she desperately hoped it would satisfy the imposing chief.
    “ It is large, this region. Where did you think to go?”
    She inhaled deeply. “To a fort.”
    “ I know many forts. Tell me the name.”
    If she told him their destination was Fort Warden, he ’d know the soldiers were sorely needed there as reinforcements. The men at the fort numbered as few as eighteen, and not all of these were fit to fire a musket. And she’d heard talk of other weaknesses, the shortage of powder and lead, livestock wandering off or taken, crops difficult to tend when the settlers