Savage Skies (28 page)

Earl took an unsteady step away from her. He had grown pale. “I knew you were married to an Injun, but had no idea it . . . was . . . such a powerful chief,” he said. “I had no idea it was his village I had been stalking. I just knew it was a village of redskin heathens and that you and Judith lived there. I even watched you from afar, and also Megan, waiting for the chance to get you.”

He laughed cynically. “You probably think you've done yourself good by marrying a chief,” he said.

He looked past her, at the spot where he had seen Megan hide. “Megan, come out, come out, wherever you are,” he said. “If you don't, Papa is going to come for you. You don't want Papa to spank you with his belt, do you?”

Just as he spoke the last threatening words, an arrow came whizzing past Shirleen and Speckled Fawn, landing directly in the arm that held the shotgun. Earl dropped it immediately.

And then another arrow came just as quickly, sinking into Earl's stomach. He screamed in pain and fell to his knees, trying to yank the arrow from his stomach.

“You son of a bitch!” Earl cried out as Blue Thunder stepped into view, his bowstring readied with another arrow.

Shirleen hurried and grabbed up Earl's
shotgun, then stepped quickly away as Blue Thunder ran up to her side.

He held the bow steady as he glared down at the injured man. “The girls came and warned me,” he said as he looked from Shirleen to Speckled Fawn, and then gazed down at Earl again. “I told them to stay with Aunt Bright Sun while I went to save her mother and Aunt Speckled Fawn.”

Speckled Fawn smiled widely at her new title of aunt. Every day she felt more accepted by Blue Thunder and his people.

Shirleen gazed unblinkling down at Earl as he fell over to one side and lay in his own blood, his eyes glassy now as he looked back at her, pleadingly.

“Save me,” Earl begged. “I was something to you once. Please . . . save . . . me. Your papa would want you to save me. Don't you remember? He thought I was something special.”

Blue Thunder eased his bow across his shoulder and slid the arrow that had been locked on its string back into his quiver. He took Shirleen's hand. “Let us go home,” he said, totally ignoring Earl as he clung to his last moments of life, begging for mercy.

Shirleen could not help staring at Earl as his breathing became slower and slower and his eyes grew dull. “What about him?” she asked, looking quickly up at Blue Thunder.

“Leave him be,” Blue Thunder said coldly. “He deserves to die alone, and he will. He will
die soon. He will be food for the animals that roam the darkness of night.”

Earl heard that last comment. “No!” he screamed pitifully. “How . . . can . . . you be so inhumane? Shirleen, how . . . can . . . you . . . ?”

Shirleen turned away from him with Blue Thunder and Speckled Fawn at her side. Together they walked away from Earl, his screams growing weaker and weaker.

“It does seem so inhumane,” Shirleen said, visibly shuddering.

“Consider who the man is, and then you will see why he should die in such a way,” Blue Thunder said implacably. “I will send warriors later to make sure he is dead. When word of his death is brought to me, I shall do what is right in your eyes. I shall have him buried, but far, far away, so we will never come across his resting place. I want no reminders of him to trouble us.”

Shirleen sighed with relief that Earl would get a proper burial even though she knew he deserved much less.

When they reached the outer edges of the village, Megan came running toward Shirleen.

Shirleen bent to her knees and took her daughter into her arms. “The nightmare is now truly over,” she murmured into Megan's ear. “My
micinski
, you can sleep well at night now, and you can run and play free of worry that your father may suddenly appear to abduct you.
My darling daughter, we have both been freed of a demon.”

As Blue Thunder stood there smiling, he watched mother and daughter embracing lovingly.

He was glad he had been able to stop Earl Mingus in time today, or all would have been lost, not only for Shirleen and Speckled Fawn, but also for himself.

He would not be able to live through the death of another wife!

We'll live our whole young life away
In the joys of a living love.

—Wilcox

Several Years Later

Blue Thunder's Wind Band of Assiniboine had been forced to move from their homeland as more land was grabbed up by the white government.

Blue Thunder had vowed never to put his mark on any papers that were offered to him by whites. He had learned that most treaties weren't honored.

He had chosen to take his people high into the mountains of Montana, where no whites dared to venture, although winters were worse there.

At the Assiniboine village, located near a beautiful waterfall that splashed far down into a river, there were enough warriors to provide their people with food, firewood, and clothes. Chief Gray Eyes had brought his people, with their powerful warriors, to join forces with
Blue Thunder's people for the protection of both tribes.

Gray Eyes and Blue Thunder shared the duties of chieftain and felt doubly powerful against the white-eyed pony soldiers.

Although Speckled Fawn was somewhat older than Gray Eyes, he had taken her as his
mitawin
, his wife. They were content, but childless. Speckled Fawn could bear no children but they shared Blue Thunder's and Shirleen's children, which now numbered six.

One more daughter had been born to them, then three sons.

The daughter's name was Sweet Wind, their sons' names were Night Moon, Swift Fox, and White Wolf.

Megan had become quite a tomboy, who challenged her brothers in every way possible, while Little Bee was delicate and very ladylike.

Blue Thunder and his people's happiness had been lessened when Aunt Bright Sun had suddenly died two winters ago; her heart had just given out.

Little Bee now lived in the same tepee as her parents, brothers, and sisters. Happiness overflowed within the lodge of the great chief Blue Thunder and his wife Shirleen, who was now called Tiny Flames by all who knew her!