Wild Whispers

Fire Thunder dismounted and placed his hands at Kaylene’s waist and helped her to the ground.

He turned her back to him and yanked her against him. One arm went around her waist and held her in a steely like grip.

Kaylene’s heart thudded as she watched her father being taken from Many Horses’ steed. She feared that it meant nothing good when the rope was untied from around him and thrown to the ground.

Kaylene scarcely breathed as she waited and watched. When the pit was soon completed, she flinched and stifled a gasp behind her hand when her father was shoved in.

Kaylene stiffened as she watched the rest of the proceedings. She could hardly believe what she was witnessing. How could they . . . ? Were they . . . ?

Then she knew. God, she knew!

She never felt as helpless in her entire life as now.

Black Hair took strips of buckskin to the river and soaked them. Four other warriors pounded stakes into the ground on the edge of the pit.

Kaylene screamed when her father was forced to stretch out across the pit, his arms and wrists tied to the stakes with the wet buckskin thongs, while his body, humped in the middle, lay facedown.

One of Fire Thunder’s warriors took a buckskin bag to the pit and shook a rattlesnake from its depths into the pit.

Kaylene could take no more. She shoved and yanked at Fire Thunder’s arm in an effort to get free. She dug her nails into the buckskin fabric of his shirt, hoping he could feel their sharpness through it.

But Fire Thunder didn’t wince. Nor did he budge. He continued to hold her tightly against him.

“Please don’t do this to my father!” Kaylene cried as she looked up at Fire Thunder. “Please! Set him free! He . . . will . . . die!”

Fire Thunder gazed down at her, his blue eyes gleaming. “That is exactly what I have in mind,” he said, smiling smugly down at her.

Kaylene turned her eyes away from him and spat at his feet. “You are a dark and sinister man,” she cried. “You are heartless!”

Fire Thunder yanked her around to face him.

His fingers dug into the flesh of her arms as he held her at arm’s length. He glowered down at her.

“Your father is the darkest-hearted man of all,” he said tightly. “He preys on innocent, small children. Our Kickapoo children are revered! Never defiled! Your father will never defile children again!”

Limp and exhausted from trying to get away from Fire Thunder, Kaylene gave in as he took her to his horse and lifted her into the saddle.

She hung her head as they left her father behind in the pit just as the sun rose along the horizon.

Soon it would be hot. Soon the wet thongs tied to her father’s wrists and ankles would dry and shrink.

His circulation would be cut off.

And the snake would want to leave the hot pit. It would slither up the sides of the pit....

White Wolf and Dawnmarie traveled onward on horseback. They had not stopped to rest. They had traveled at night instead of during the long, hot days of sunshine.

Dawnmarie cast White Wolf a forlorn look. “I doubt I will ever find my people,” she said, limp with exhaustion. “If not soon, I will be tempted to turn back and return to Wisconsin. I am weary of the long days of travel. I miss our children more and more as each day passes.”

“We have come this far, please do not give up now,” White Wolf said. He reached over and placed a gentle hand to her cheek. “I love you and know you better than anyone. If you do not find your Kickapoo people, your heart . . . your longing . . . will never truly rest. We are close. You know it. We know the Kickapoo are in Mexico. We soon will be there.”

“But, darling, I—”

She stopped in midsentence when she saw a ranch house just ahead, along the horizon. They had judged that they would soon be at the Mexican border. This would be a perfect place to find shelter and, hopefully, food, before they traveled onward.

They went to the ranch. They didn’t even get off their horses before the rancher came outside, leveling a shotgun at them with a dog at his side, its teeth bared as it growled.

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