Savage Skies

It was Two Moons, one of his most favored warriors.

“Little Bee, I must go and see what brings Two Moons in search of me,” Blue Thunder said, gently placing her on her feet.

He bent low and kissed her cheek. “Play with your new doll while I am gone,” he encouraged as he stepped away from her. “She needs a big hug, do you not think so?”

Little Bee giggled and nodded her head, then hurriedly picked the doll up and gave it a hug.

Blue Thunder stepped outside. “Two Moons, what brings you to my aunt’s lodge?” he asked, concerned when he saw his warrior’s serious expression.

“One of our scouts has come to have council with you, my chief,” Two Moons said. “He says that he might have news of the child. He is waiting for you in the council house.”

Blue Thunder’s pulse raced at the thought of possibly hearing something that might lead him to Shirleen’s daughter.

He would enjoy seeing Shirleen’s reaction when he put the child into her loving arms.

“Pila-maye, thank you, Two Moons,” Blue Thunder said, walking away from him. He could not arrive quickly enough at the council house, where the scout awaited his arrival.

When he stepped inside, he hurried over to where his scout Proud Horse stood beside the lodge fire. Proud Horse turned quickly to receive Blue Thunder’s manly embrace.

Blue Thunder stepped away from Proud Horse and gestured with a hand toward the pelts beside the fire. “Sit,” he said, sitting down himself as Proud Horse made himself comfortable. “Now tell me what news you have brought to me about the child.”

“My chief, when I was at Fort Dennison this morning, questioning the people there, I saw a white man with his daughter, who is four winters of age, the same age the white woman said her daughter was,” he explained. “He was bragging about how he had duped his wife by stealing the child from her. He said that he was now waiting for the next riverboat so that he could take his daughter far away from her mother. That riverboat should arrive after one more sunrise.”

“Was the name of the child spoken?” Blue Thunder asked, trying to hold down his eagerness to leave and see if the child truly was Shirleen’s daughter. If so, he would not return to this village without her!

“Ho, the ahte spoke the name Megan to his white friends,” Proud Horse said, drawing a quiet gasp and then a broad smile from Blue Thunder.

He knew now that everything was going to happen as he had prayed it would.

He would rescue the micinski.

He would then pursue a way to make Shirleen his mitawin, his wife!

He would not allow the husband to stand in the way of his need for this woman. He wanted her so badly, his heart ached for her to be in his arms, their lips touching tenderly as they shared that first, wondrous kiss.

Ho, he would find a way, for when he wanted something as much as he wanted this woman, nothing would stand in his way!

Up until now he had been a patient man.

Well, his patience had just left him!

Chapter Eighteen

Oh! Who would inhabit

This black world alone?

—Moore

Knowing just how anxious Shirleen was about her daughter’s welfare, Blue Thunder hurried from the council house to his tepee. He stopped just outside the entrance flap.

He suddenly realized that Shirleen might not be completely happy about his news. Yes, she would be jubilant that her micinski was alive, and not held by the murderous renegades.

But she could also be filled with dread that Megan might not be rescued soon enough and her husband could get on the riverboat and disappear with Megan for the rest of her life.

Shirleen would also surely be filled with more hate for her husband than she felt already. It would be awful to learn that he had been planning to abduct his daughter for some time, just waiting for the right opportunity, and had finally found it.

Surely he had somehow discovered Shirleen’s plan to leave him and to take his daughter away from him.