“Edward James’s arm was around the warrior’s shoulder, talking and laughing—until Edward James saw whom Swift Horse was carrying on his steed.
“Marsha!” he gasped, racing down the steps to meet Swift Horse. “Lord, what happened?” Edward James asked as he came up next to Swift Horse’s mount. He reached his arms up for his sister just as she opened her eyes and gazed down at him through the ash that still lay heavy on her lashes.
“Edward James . . .” she said through her parched throat. “I did an unwise thing, I—”
“Don’t talk,” Edward James said as Swift Horse placed her into her brother’s arms. “Your throat. I can tell . . .”
“It was the smoke,” Swift Horse said, dismounting. “She collapsed amidst the circle of flame that was set by my warriors.” Swift Horse then told Edward James about having found Marsha with the cowkeeper and how he had demanded her to be given to him.
“Why was she with him?” Edward James asked.
“Edward James, it was . . . it was . . . because of the one-eyed man that I did this,” Marsha managed to say before her throat became too raw to say anything else.
“You did it because of what?” Edward James said, gazing incredulously into her eyes. “Marsha . . .”
“She came to me for help when she saw One Eye at your store, and thinking it was the one-eyed man who killed your parents, sought my help—” Swift Horse began, but was interrupted when Marsha broke in.
“The man I saw at the store was the man I saw the day my parents died,” Marsha managed to say through the burning of her throat. “You wouldn’t listen, so I . . .” But her throat being so parched and achy, she couldn’t continue on.
She hung her head, for she knew that neither man believed her. Would they ever?
“The man you call One Eye is the man who—” Marsha tried to say, finding it hard to give in to the pain until she made these two understand, but her throat gave way, the pain so intense she even found it hard to swallow now. She had inhaled much smoke, and her lungs ached.
She managed to direct a soft thank you at Swift Horse for having come for her—for she would have hated being taken to the cowkeeper’s home—before drifting off to sleep, her body as well as her lungs too traumatized by the fire to stay awake.
“Edward James, I know no more than what I have told you,” Swift Horse said tightly. “I went after your sister when she left the village, but I did not find her soon enough—yet had I been much longer, I would not want to think about the result.”
He gazed toward the smoke in the distance, then at Edward James, who still stood there, his eyes transfixed on his sister. “Everyone was warned about the fires being set today,” he said with regret in his voice. “Since your sister has not been in the area long enough to understand the true dangers, she did not take it into consideration when she rode from the safety of the village.”
“But why on earth did she leave?” Edward James said, more to himself than to Swift Horse as he turned and walked up the steps, leaving Swift Horse standing beside his horse, watching until Edward James went inside the trading post.
“The fawn,” Abraham said suddenly behind Swift Horse, causing Swift Horse to turn with a start, then smile as he saw his friend taking the tiny animal from his travel bag at the side of his steed.
Swift Horse went to Abraham, who held the tiny animal gingerly in his arms, his dark eyes studying the one limp leg.
“It is broken,” Abraham said. He looked quickly up at Swift Horse. “I can make it well.”
Abraham smiled almost shyly at Swift Horse. “I love animals, large and small, but I have never owned one,” he said softly. “But I knows tiny animals well from rescuing those that got lost in the swamps of Florida land. I always took them home and doctored them, then returned them to the wild. I can do the same for this tiny animal. May I?”
“Yes, it is yours to see to, if you wish to,” Swift Horse said, placing a gentle hand on his friend’s shoulder. “But it would not be wise to send it back into the forest just yet, for its mother might have become a part of the hunt.”
“The lady?” Abraham asked, his eyes filled with a sudden concern. “What happened to the lady?”
“All I know is that she got trapped within the circle of flames that had been set for my warriors’ hunt,” Swift Horse said thickly. “It is good that that circle was far and wide, for that is the only reason the woman made it out of this alive.”
“Why did she go there?” Abraham asked, the curiosity still in his wide, dark eyes. “She has a home and a brother. Why would she want to flee them?”
“She has her reasons, and soon her brother will know them,” Swift Horse said, turning and gazing at the trading post. “I hope to know them, too.”
“I wish her well,” Abraham said, swallowing hard.
“I do, as well, for if she does not survive this, I will feel responsible,” Swift Horse said, sighing heavily.
“But you did not send her into the fire,” Abraham reasoned out. “So you should not feel responsible.”
“I feel responsible for her no
t being made to understand the dangers of our people’s hunts,” Swift Horse said, again sighing.