The Outcast

“I am not hungry.”

“We have far to go yet before dark.”

“Are you my friend or my mother?”

Splashes Blood chewed and shrugged. “It is your stomach. If you like it empty, that is your choice.” He gazed at the lake. “Have you noticed their wood lodges?”

“What about them?”

“Usually there is smoke rising from all of them. Today smoke rises from only one.”

“You think only a few of the Bear People are there?”

“It could be. We know they go out of the valley to the east from time to time. Where they go, we cannot say. But they always come back.”

“Just so there are some for us to kill,” Skin Shredder said. “I will spill their blood for the blood of my brother.”

“If I am right, if some of their lodges are empty, we can take whatever we want.”

Skin Shredder had been thinking the same thing. “Their lodges are not like ours. We have watched, and they do not go in and out as we do. Their lodges do not have flaps. Part of the wood opens and closes. How is a mystery.”

“They are people, like us. What they can do, we can do.”

“They are not like us,” Skin Shredder disagreed. “Their bodies are different; their ways are different.”

“I am only saying that we are as smart as they are. What they have figured out, we can figure out.”

Star Dancer joined them. He raised an arm and pointed. “When you are done arguing, look there.”

Skin Shredder tingled with excitement. Midway between the ridge and the valley floor a rider had appeared. A man on a black-and-white horse, climbing an open slope.

“He is not white,” Splashes Blood observed.

“He is still an enemy.”

“There is a woman with him,” Star Dancer said. “She is on her belly over the horse.”

Skin Shredder peered intently. He never ceased to be amazed at how sharp Star Dancer’s eyes were. A human hawk, Star Dancer. But he was right. There was a woman. A white woman.

“See how her arms are behind her back? And her feet are close together? She is tied. I think she is gagged, too, but it is too far for me to be sure.”

“Tied and gagged?” Splashes Blood mused. “That warrior has stolen her from the Bear Men.”

A smile curled the corners of Skin Shredder’s mouth. “What he has stolen from them, we can steal from him.” He motioned at the others. “Come, brothers. Tonight we eat two hearts.”

Seven human wolves bounded down the ridge, their scarred faces lit with the glow of bloodlust.

Chapter Ten

Zach King had a temper.

He’d had it since he was old enough to remember. When he got mad, he got really mad, so mad that he sometimes lost control and did things he later regretted. In a few instances he had gone berserk.

His father and mother always cautioned him that if he wasn’t careful, one day his temper would get him into trouble. They were right. He ended up being put on trial and nearly hanged.

Since meeting Lou, Zach had tried extra hard to keep his temper under control. He got angry, sure, but these days he rarely became so mad that he was beside himself with fury.

This day was one of them.

As Zach tracked the warrior who had taken his wife, he boiled like molten lava. The woman he loved, abducted. That Zach had just found out she was with child added to his rage. If anything happened to her, if anything happened to them, Zach would wage a war of extermination on the Bloods. He couldn’t kill them all. They would probably slay him in the end. But he would rub out as many as he could. They would pay a hundredfold for what they had done.

Zach was so mad that when he had gone barely a hundred yards into the forest, he drew rein and took deep breaths to calm himself. He had to concentrate, to keep his senses sharp. The Blood would count on being pursued and be watching his back trail.

As McNair had pointed out, it was unlikely the warrior was alone. There must have been more. How many, Zach wouldn’t know until he struck their trail. They were probably waiting in ambush. All the more reason for him to keep his wits and not let his wrath sweep him away.

The tracks were easy to follow, as fresh as they were. Zach came to where they entered a stream. He crossed to the other side and stopped. The ground was undisturbed. The warrior had stayed in the water and gone either upstream or down-stream.

Zach reined around and rode to the middle. Bending as low as he could, he examined the stream bed. Much of it was gravel. Some of it was rock. Here and there was plain mud, and in a muddy spot a partial hoof pointed upstream toward the mountains to the west.

Straightening, Zach gigged the bay. He held his rifle across his saddle in front of him. Eyes narrowed, he scanned both banks. Sooner or later the warrior had to leave the stream, and when he did, there would be evidence of it.

Zach struggled to focus on the hunt. He kept thinking of Lou, of what she must be going through. It was like having a knife pierce his heart. The ache was almost more than he could bear. He resisted the urge to fly blindly ahead so that he could rend the warrior limb from limb.

Zach would do it, too. When he caught up to them he would kill the warrior slow so that he suffered as few ever had. Anyone who would abduct a pregnant woman deserved no less.

Zach wondered how it was that the Bloods found the valley. There was only one way in, as far as he knew. His father and Shakespeare had blocked the other passes. They did it to keep something like this from happening, yet it had happened anyway. Life was fickle. The things a person least wanted to happen happened.

Zach remembered Lou’s last embrace. How she had looked into his eyes, her own so happy and alive with love and the knowledge that in nine months they would be parents. She’d told him that she loved him. She said it a lot, far more than he did. His nose clogged and his throat grew tight. He went to cough to clear them but caught himself. Sounds could carry.

He wished his pa were there. There was no finer shot, no man alive more resourceful. With his pa at his side, Zach would be assured of rescuing Lou and bringing her home safe.

The grass on the left bank was trampled.

Zach drew rein. He had found where the Blood’s horse climbed out. Of the Blood and Lou, there was no sign. Apparently the warrior had gone off up the mountain, perhaps to rejoin the rest of the war party. Zach poked the bay with his heels. The bay started out, slipped, and fell back when part of the bank broke and slid into the water.

The bay snorted and stamped.

“Easy, boy,” Zach said, and patted its neck. He slapped his legs and the bay started up the bank a second time. It was even slipperier now, and loose dirt dribbled from under the bay’s hooves.

“You can do it,” Zach coaxed.

The bay lunged and dug in its rear hooves. It whinnied as if in pain. More of the bank broke off, but the bay made it up and over, and stopped.

Zach climbed down. He inspected each leg, and they appeared fine. “You seem all right to me.” He went to climb back on and his gaze strayed to the ground ahead. Something pricked at him, a feeling that did not seem right somehow. It bore closer scrutiny.

Zach took a few steps. A downed pine branch was at his feet. He looked around. There were saplings on both sides, and grass and brush. All perfectly normal. Then he noticed another pine limb propped against a bent sapling,