Wild Thunder

Chapter 26

How you ’mid other forms I seek—

Oh, love more real than though

such dreams were true.

If you but knew!

—ANONYMOUS, 19TH CENTURY

Hannah slapped the reins and nudged the horse’s flanks with her booted heels. She just couldn’t go fast enough. She needed answers now! Surely Tiny had made it all up. If not, surely someone would have let her know what had happened to Strong Wolf?

Especially Proud Heart. He knew how much she loved Strong Wolf. He knew they were making plans of marriage! It just wasn’t fair that she would have been left out of something like this.

She reached her eyes to the blue heavens. “Oh, Lord, please let this all be some sort of ugly joke made up inside of Tiny’s twisted brain,” she whispered. “Please let me find Strong Wolf at his lodge. Please, oh, please, let him be all right!”

When she came to a fork in the road, one that would take her to the fort, the other that led to Strong Wolf’s village, she drew in a tight rein. “Oh, what should I do?” she cried, looking down one avenue and then the other.

Still feeling it was best to go to the village first, Hannah made the turn in the road that would take her there.

Again she pushed the horse to its limits in speed. The wind blew through Hannah’s hair, tangling it. The sun beat down onto her face, burning it.

She rode hard until finally she saw the village a short distance away. She sank her heels into the horse’s flanks and her knees into its sides, sending it again into a hard gallop.

Breathless, Hannah entered the village. She patted the horse’s neck, finding it lathered with sweat. “Sorry, boy,” she whispered. “I don’t make it a habit of pushing a horse so hard.”

As she rode farther into the village, she became aware of people standing outside in clusters, wailing, as though they were mourning someone’s death.

“No,” she whispered to herself, dying inside at what it could mean. What if Strong Wolf had been imprisoned? What if he had not been given a trial and had been hung at sunup?

This thought made her head reel, then she caught sight of Proud Heart and several warriors getting their horses from the corral.

She smacked Tiny’s Horse on the rump and rode in a hard gallop to the corral.

When she got there, she drew a tight rein beside Proud Heart, who was just ready to mount his steed.

“What’s happened?” she cried, near to tears from frustration.

“Have you heard about Strong Wolf?” Proud Heart asked, swinging himself into his saddle.

“I heard that he had been arrested.” Hannah said, imploring him with questioning eyes. “Was he?”

“Yes, and we are making plans to release him,” Proud Heart informed. “Tonight. When the moon is low in the sky. We will go and take Strong Wolf from the fort. We are leaving now to study the fort walls, to make plans on how we will enter.”

Hannah’s heart skipped a beat. “You are planning to go at night and get him from the fort?” she faltered, her voice hoarse in her fears.

“Yes, that is the only way,” Proud Heart said, nodding.

“No!” she screamed. “That is not the answer! Strong Wolf will then be classified a ‘renegade’—a fugitive. We must all come together as one heartbeat and go speak in the defense of Strong Wolf, the proud Potawatomis leader!”

She then leaned forward, her voice lower in pitch as she prodded Proud Heart for answers. “Tell me what happened,” she demanded. “Everything.”

Proud Heart proceeded to tell her about the fire they set, and then about finding Claude Odum dead at his house.

She lowered her eyes at the thought of how Claude had died. Feeling ill at her stomach, she swallowed hard.

Then she turned angry eyes up at Proud Heart. “How could Colonel Deshong have, for one minute, thought that Strong Wolf would kill his friend?” she remarked, her voice shaking. “It doesn’t make any sense. We must do something to stop this lunacy.”