Savage Illusions

"I can't re­turn to Sa­int Lo­u­is, Kirk," she sa­id, for­ced to tell him truths that wo­uld hurt him. But she co­uld not con­ti­nue with this cha­ra­de. If he was de­ter­mi­ned to re­turn to Sa­int Lo­u­is this so­on, she had no cho­ice but to tell him that she wo­uld not be abo­ard the ri­ver­bo­at with him, no mat­ter when he cho­se to tra­vel on it aga­in.

Kirk ga­ve her a qu­ick, wi­de-eyed glan­ce. "What… do you me­an?" he sa­id, his vo­ice drawn. Jole­na star­ted to spe­ak, but was stop­ped when ra­in be­gan po­uring from the sky in blin­ding she­ets, as tho­ugh so­me­one over­he­ad in the thick clo­uds was over­tur­ning mon­s­t­ro­us buc­kets of wa­ter on­to the tra­ve­lers.

When a sud­den bolt of lig­h­t­ning splin­te­red a tree clo­se by, the­re was not­hing to be do­ne abo­ut the mu­les that we­re just as qu­ickly spo­oked.

Jolena scre­amed.

The mu­les at­tac­hed to all of the wa­gons be­gan squ­e­aling and scram­b­ling in all di­rec­ti­ons. The wa­go­ners cur­sed and snap­ped the­ir whips along the backs of the con­fu­sed, frig­h­te­ned mu­les, ca­using the ani­mals to stra­in even mo­re des­pe­ra­tely at the­ir har­nes­ses.

The cha­ins clan­ked.

The ax­les gro­aned as the mu­les tur­ned in a frenzy and be­gan run­ning blindly to­ward the ed­ge of the cliff.

Spotted Eag­le had be­en lag­ging be­hind on his stal­li­on, dis­cus­sing the day's plans with Two Rid­ges, when the storm bro­ke and ever­y­t­hing aro­und him be­ca­me a fren­zi­ed mass.

Stunned, he wat­c­hed thro­ugh the blin­ding ra­in as the mu­les be­gan run­ning to­ward the cliff. His in­si­des fro­ze as first one wa­gon plun­ged over the si­de, then anot­her.

And even when Jole­na's wa­gon went over the si­de of the cliff and he felt as tho­ugh his he­art le­apt from in­si­de him, he was unab­le to do an­y­t­hing sin­ce it had all hap­pe­ned so qu­ickly. In one wink of an eye his wo­man was lost to him!

"Can it be that what we saw is re­al?" Two Rid­ges sa­id, in his vo­ice a pa­nic. He re­ac­hed over and clas­ped Spot­ted Eag­le's arm. " Hai-yah! Tell me that what I saw is not re­al! Tell me, Spot­ted Eag­le, that it was not re­al!"

Spotted Eag­le yan­ked his arm away, sank his he­els in­to the flanks of his hor­se, and ro­de off in a hard gal­lop to­ward the sce­ne. His pul­se ra­ced, and wit­hin his he­art the­re was an ac­he far wor­se than he had ex­pe­ri­en­ced when he he­ard of Swe­et Do­ve's pas­sing.

This ti­me he had lost his wo­man­t­he wo­man who was his fu­tu­re, the mot­her of chil­d­ren that wo­uld now ne­ver be born of the­ir lo­ve!

Tears scor­c­hed Spot­ted Eag­le's che­eks. Dis­mo­un­ting in one le­ap when he re­ac­hed the cliff, he clung to the hor­se's re­ins as he da­red to ta­ke a step clo­ser so that he co­uld lo­ok down upon the wrec­ka­ge be­low him. He co­uld scar­cely sum­mon up the co­ura­ge to lo­ok over the cliff and see her bro­ken body.

Yet he co­uld not turn away un­til he knew for cer­ta­in that she was lying among her fri­ends and brot­her, de­ad…

Two Rid­ges was still too stu­pe­fi­ed by the sud­den­ness of what had hap­pe­ned to mo­ve. He wat­c­hed with ba­ted bre­ath as Spot­ted Eag­le to­ok anot­her step clo­ser to the ed­ge of the cliff, wa­iting for his fri­end to emit a lo­ud cry of des­pa­ir.

Not wan­ting to ex­pe­ri­en­ce such a mo­ment, Two Rid­ges tur­ned his eyes away from his fri­end, trying to fo­cus them on so­met­hing el­se that might ma­ke him for­get that hor­rib­le sight of Jole­na's wa­gon plun­ging over the cliff. Two Rid­ges swept his eyes slowly aro­und him. The ra­in was now only a slight driz­zle, ma­king the sce­ne mo­re vi­sib­le than only mo­ments ago. He still re­fu­sed to lo­ok Spot­ted Eag­le's way, al­t­ho­ugh he won­de­red why his fri­end was so qu­i­et, as tho­ugh his eyes had not yet fo­und the wo­man of his de­si­re.

This ga­ve Two Rid­ges a soft ray of ho­pe wit­hin his he­ar­t­that per­haps his cop­per prin­cess had not truly di­ed af­ter all and that what he had se­en had be­en a mi­ra­ge ca­used by the iri­des­cent flas­hing of the lig­h­t­ning com­bi­ned with the blin­ding ha­ze of the ra­in.

His he­art thud­ding at the tho­ught, Two Rid­ges star­ted to dis­mo­unt and go to see for him­self that per­haps what he and his fri­end had tho­ught they had se­en had not be­en re­al at all.

But just as he was swin­ging his leg over his sad­dle, so­met­hing ca­ught his at­ten­ti­on.

"Jolena?" he whis­pe­red harshly, his pul­se now po­un­ding in his ears at the sight of a slight hand lying on the gro­und, stret­c­hing out from be­hind a thickly le­afed bush.

"Can it be?" Two Rid­ges mum­b­led to him­self. Co­uld that be Jole­na? Had she be­en thrown free?

In his an­xi­o­us­ness to see if it we­re true, he star­ted to sho­ut at Spot­ted Eag­le, but so­met­hing wic­ked in­si­de him told him not to­told him that this co­uld be the per­fect op­por­tu­nity to do as he ple­ased, for a chan­ge.

If this was Jole­na, he co­uld ha­ve her all to him­self!

He wo­uld carry her away and tre­at her wo­unds. She wo­uld be so gra­te­ful to this Blac­k­fo­ot war­ri­or that she wo­uld be his, in­s­te­ad of Spot­ted Eag­le's.

The tho­ught diz­zi­ed him as he jum­ped to the gro­und and ran ste­al­t­hily to­ward the bush. When he step­ped qu­ickly be­hind it, ever­y­t­hing wit­hin him mel­lo­wed at the sight of Jole­na lying the­re, un­con­s­ci­o­us, but ob­vi­o­usly not inj­ured all that badly.

Smiling to him­self, Two Rid­ges knew that Jole­na's un­con­s­ci­o­us sta­te ga­ve him the op­por­tu­nity he ne­eded to carry her away wit­ho­ut aler­ting Spot­ted Eag­le to his fri­end's de­ce­it. He did not even al­low him­self to con­si­der the end re­sults of such a de­ce­it.

But ha­ving Jole­na as his own was well worth any sac­ri­fi­ce. Two Rid­ges swept her up in­to his arms and car­ri­ed her limp body to his hor­se.

Casting qu­ick glan­ces Spot­ted Eag­le's way as he now knelt at the ed­ge of the cliff, ob­vi­o­usly pra­ying for the so­ul of his wo­man, Two Rid­ges pla­ced Jole­na ac­ross his sad­dle and swung him­self in­to it.

Still ca­uti­o­usly wat­c­hing Spot­ted Eag­le, Two Rid­ges eased Jole­na on­to his lap and le­aned her he­ad aga­inst his chest, hol­ding her in pla­ce with one of his po­wer­ful arms, whi­le with his free hand he grip­ped the re­ins and ur­ged his hor­se qu­i­etly aro­und.