“It was you?” Mariah said, gasping softly. “You are the reason that I felt compelled to come to the place of your father’s burial?”
“That is so,” Echohawk said, nodding.
“But what if I were followed?” Mariah asked, taking a quick glance over her shoulder, having not once thought of that possibility while forging onward through the night.
“I did not beckon anyone else,” Echohawk said dryly. “Only you. So no one followed. When William Joseph awakens and finds you gone, only then will you be missed.”
“They will come looking for me,” Mariah worried, looking quickly up at Echohawk.
“But they will not find you,” he said, smiling smugly. “You are going with me and my braves to learn the truth. William Joseph and his men will be looking elsewhere.”
“How did you know that I was with William Joseph?” Mariah asked, her eyes wide.
“My scouts watch. They see many things,” Echohawk said, dropping his hands from Mariah. “Come. We must go. My men wait in the forest.”
“Where are you taking me?” Mariah asked, not hesitating to mount her horse as Echohawk helped her into the saddle.
“Where you will see my innocence,” Echohawk said, going to Blaze, quickly mounting. “And then, my ee-quay, woman, we will prove to Colonel Snelling that he has been right to put faith in me.”
“You are being accused of burning my father’s trading post and of his abduction,” Mariah said, easing her horse closer to Echohawk’s.
“And did you also accuse me of such crimes?” he asked, examining her through his eyeglasses. His eyesight was improving more quickly each day, yet not enough to cast aside the white man’s magic.
Mariah lowered her eyes so that he would not see the guilt in their depths. Then, knowing that she must, she looked slowly back up at him and locked her eyes with his. “I could not help but doubt you,” she murmured. “You had spoken of vengeance more than once to me. And when you fled after hearing William Joseph tell me of my father’s tragedy, what was I to believe? You could have stood your ground and defended yourself. But you fled, Echohawk! You ran away. And not only you, but Chief Silver Wing’s entire village.”
“And do you think that had I stayed and professed my innocence I would have been exonerated by the white man’s law?” he said in a growl. “No, No-din. It would have not been that way. Not even Colonel Snelling has the power to keep the white men from hanging an Indian who in their eyes is guilty. Once white people are enticed to kill an Indian, no one can stop it.”
“You think someone purposely spread the word that you did this to my father?” Mariah asked, thinking of Tanner McCloud and how he had so adamantly spoken against Echohawk to Colonel Snelling.
“Ay-uh,” Echohawk said, frowning at Mariah. “One man alone has done this. My scouts probed and found out who. It is the man I call Yellow Eyes. It is he who has caused much sadness in my life. It is because of him that my people’s number has been reduced, my beloved Fawn among those who were killed during the massacre led by Yellow Eyes and his renegade Sioux companions led by White Wolf. It is time for Yellow Eyes and White Wolf to die!”
“Yellow Eyes?” Mariah said, her heart skipping a beat. She was picturing Tanner McCloud’s eyes, having always wondered why the whites were so yellow. Echohawk must be referring to Tanner!
“Ay-uh,” Echohawk grumbled. “Finally I have found him. It is good to know that the evil white man with the eyes of a coward is near. I am going to make him pay for his deeds.”
“This man you call Yellow Eyes,” Mariah said guardedly. “Do you know his true name? Could it be Tanner McCloud?”
“Ay-uh, that is what he is called by the white men,” Echohawk said.
Anger suddenly raged through Mariah. Her eyes narrowed. “Then I was right,” she said, circling her hands into tight fists. “He is the one who did this to my father.”
Then she looked anxiously over at Echohawk. “You said that you would take me with you to find Tanner,” she said, grabbing up her reins. “What of my father? Once we get to Tanner’s hideout, we will surely find my father there. Echohawk, now that you know my father’s role in the most recent raid against your people, is it in your plans to kill him?”
“And what would you have me do?” Echohawk asked, his jaw tight.
Mariah swallowed hard, not knowing how she could answer him, not wanting to be forced to choose between the man she loved with all of her heart and her father, whom she despised. It would be far too easy for her to make the choice. Oh, but how torn she felt at this moment!
“So you see?” Echohawk said, leaning a gentle hand to her cheek. “The answers are not always so easy to sort out within one’s heart.”
With that he grabbed his reins, wheeled his horse around, and rode away.
Mariah stared after him for a moment, then rode in pursuit, soon pulling up beside him. “Where are we going?” she asked, the warmth of the autumn sun welcome on her face. “Where is my father?”
“Nothing is known about your father,” Echohawk returned, glancing at her. “Yellow Eyes is the only one I truly seek at this time. And my scouts discovered that he hides from the world across the river from the Falls of St. Anthony. This is my destination.”
Soon they met and joined with several other braves, and rode on together through the forest. Mariah had heard of the beautiful Falls of St. Anthony but had not seen them.
She had also heard of the river’s treacherous waters at the foot of the falls, which she would soon be crossing.