Blackbird (15 page)

Soaked, and laughing hysterically, the children charged her, crashing into her with such force that she lost her footing on the slippery rocks and landed hard on her bottom.  She started laughing all over again, and Little Jay began tickling her.  Adahya held her down as they attacked, Little Jay tickling her stomach and Swift Runner her bare feet.

“Stop!”  Laughter stole her breath.  She held her sides to keep them from aching, but Adahya was tickling her there now, too.

“I’m going to wet myself!” she shrieked between fits of laughter.

“You look as if you already did.”  Adahya stopped tickling her.  Then he laughed hysterically, as if he found his joke incredibly funny.

Katherine listened to his laughter, long and rich and sounding as if it had been pent up for a long, long time.  It was bold and exuberant, and she wondered that for him to do so in front of anyone, if at all, was something rare and seldom seen.

Seeing an opportunity, she wriggled out of his grasp and stood over him.  With his army of children was on her side now, they all splashed him unmercifully.

“Wait!  My shoulder!”

Katherine stopped.  “Are you okay?”  She knelt beside him in the river.  She leaned over him and began unbuttoning his linsey-woolsey shirt.  “Is it bleeding again?”

Adahya grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down full length up on him.  He kissed her open mouthed, fully and completely, not caring if Grandfather and his niece and nephew were watching.

Katherine pulled away.  “You lied!”  She splashed him again.

“I did not.  I simply tricked you.”

“Same thing.”

He pulled her down to kiss her again, but out of the corner of her eye she saw his grandfather watching them.  “He’s looking at us.”

“Perhaps he is jealous,” Adahya whispered with a wicked grin.

Embarrassed, Katherine hit him and got up. 

Adahya’s laughter echoed behind her. 

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

AS they sat on the rock and dried in the sun, Many Stories, with Adahya translating, told Katherine of his wife long since passed now and their courtship.  He had taken a Huron woman captive.  He had not planned on taking the girl as a wife.  It had just happened.  He saw her.  He wanted her.  So he took her.  Apparently, it ran in the family.

Dusk had begun to settle when they walked back to the village.  Katherine had a child’s hand in each of her own.  She was still amazed by how quickly she had earned their trust.

Katherine shrank back as they entered the stockade.  An enormous bonfire had been built in the center of the village, and dozens of people were dancing around it.  The dancers moved to music from a band of players who sat near the fire.  Their faces and bodies were painted like the dancers.  Their music was quick and fleeting with loud drums and rattles which reverted into one’s eardrums and through to their very souls.

She had been so caught up in the afternoon’s fun that the raiding party had slipped her mind.  The enormity of their celebration shocked her.  Hundreds had gathered, which meant many visitors had arrived. 

“Where did all these people come from?”

Adahya stood beside her.  “When a defeat is made upon our enemies it is customary to invite our neighboring villages to celebrate in our success.  Most are Mohawk.  Some are Seneca.”

Katherine just looked at him, revulsion returning full force.  It was not as if they had defeated an army.  They had killed farmers with families.

Adahya’s look was sympathetic, as if he knew what she was thinking.  “I realize it is difficult for you to understand.  We are at war, and there are always casualties with war.”

“They were settlers.”

“They were still our enemies.”

She started to argue, but he took her hand and pulled her toward a crowd of people.  “There is feasting tonight, and I wish for you to meet my friends.”

Disgusted by how lightly he took this, she pulled away.  She wanted no part in this.  In any of this.

He ran a hand through his hair as if he were growing impatient with her.  “Katherine, there is nothing I can do.  What has been done is done.  Now you must think of the good times that can be had tonight.”

She glanced at the pole in the center of the dancers, at the red scalps displayed.  That could have easily been her scalp had she been out there; an innocent settler just trying to survive this godforsaken frontier.

Adahya watched her gaze go to the scalps, and he knew what she was thinking.  She was right.  If she were living with her own kind, she could have easily been their victim.

She had come so close already.  He himself had had all intentions of turning her over to the British at Fort Ontario.  Before--when he had not cared what happened to her.  Only Katherine did not know that.  She would never know.

Five Seneca friends approached him, and Katherine quickly ran to his lodge.

Katherine ducked inside Adahya’s lodge.

Once inside the tiny dwelling, homesickness took hold.

In one corner on a nest of small pelts lay the curled up sleeping form of a small kitten Adahya’s grandfather had given her earlier that evening.  One of the warriors had taken it during the raid.  Katherine called him Mouse because of his dark gray coat and stringy tail.

She spotted the large conch shell by the fire and picked it up.  Adahya had given it to her that morning, telling her of his journey to the Atlantic with his brothers.  She had never seen the ocean, had never been away from Albany until now, and she wondered what it would be like, if the longing for home and family would hurt worse the further away one was.  She placed her ear against the shell as Adahya had shown her and listened for the ocean sounds that he promised would always live inside it.  They were still there.

She had been away from the mission for weeks now and wondered if anyone had bothered to look for her. Her thoughts turned to Joshua.  Images of him were no longer followed by flowery thoughts and buttery emotions. She knew that had to do with Adahya.  She had seen that he was made well again, and he was a good friend to her.  And, yes, she cared for him greatly, but she did not love him.

It would be easy to love Adahya if he were white.  The problem was not his race.  It was his world.  A world in which he murdered and tortured people.  Her people.

She wondered if he would take another woman after she left.  For reasons she could not identify, the very idea caused a darkness to fall over her.  Of course he would not pine over her for the rest of his life.  To expect that he would was as selfish as it was foolish.

With the conch shell held to her ear, she listened to the sound of the ocean trapped inside it and pondered her fate.

* * *

ADAHYA entered the lodge carrying two heaping bowls of food.

They ate in silence and listened to the beating drums of the Mohawk celebration.

Afterward, he lay down on his pallet on the far side of the lodge and watched Katherine stroke the downy fur of the kitten cradled in her arms.  He had never seen a cat and was amazed that such an animal existed solely for the purpose of domestication.

Outside, the drumming and chanting had ceased.  He could hear the families in the neighboring longhouse bedding down for the night.  All was silent except for a few dogs barking in the distance.

He watched her lovingly stroke the tiny kitten.  “At least someone receives your attention.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means you are all the way over there.”  He propped his head under one hand.  “And if you come over here you would be able to sleep better.”

“I doubt that,” she said with reddened cheeks.

He gave a soft laugh and then sobered.  “You sleep too far away.”

Katherine tossed a bark chip at him, and Mouse scampered after it. 

When Adahya tossed it back, he eased a few feet closer to her.  “When I was hurt, you did not sleep so far away.”

“That’s because you needed me.”

“I need you now, Katherine.”  He had inched a little closer and was now just arm’s length away.  Reaching out, he stroked her hair.

Katherine’s eyes closed for a moment.  Then she pulled away and scooted back against the wall of the lodge.

“I think you are afraid of me, Chogan.”

“I am not!”

“Then why do you shy away?”

“Because.”  She put down the kitten, who scampered off to explore other parts of the lodge.  “What would I do if I became pregnant?”

“You would let me take care of you,” he said, slipping under the blanket with her.  He draped one arm across her waist and stroked the side of her face with his free hand.  Tilting his head, he slowly bent down to her.

“I don’t want you to kiss me.”

“What do you want me to do?”  His lips hovered against her mouth, and he shuddered as he felt his shaft press against her soft hip.

“Please, I--”

“Touch me, Chogan.”

He caught her hand and gently coaxed it beneath the blanket.  A low moan escaped him, and his eyes slipped shut as her fingers wrapped around him.

“How does it get so big?” she muttered as her hand glided down his smooth shaft.

Adahya opened his eyes.  Her expression was that of innocent amazement and fear.  His question was finally answered.

She really was a virgin if she found him large.  Song had more than once commented that he was not as endowed as the men she had been with before him.  He shuddered involuntarily as she explored him.

Frustration warred with compassion.  He had never been with a virgin.  He had friends who said the experience was anything but pleasurable for the woman.  If he were to hurt Katherine she would never forgive him.  Then she would leave him.  Fear suddenly cut through him, giving him an ounce of self control.

He pushed her hand away, grabbed the blanket, and hurried outside where he spilled his seed in the darkness.  All the while, he cursed his cowardice.  It was no wonder Song said he was not a man.  Perhaps he was not.  All he knew was he could not lose her.  He would not lose another woman.

Cursing himself, he headed toward the river to bathe.

* * *

KATHERINE wondered what she had done to cause him to leave so abruptly.  He had been gone so long she began to think he was not coming back at all.  She had offended him. Exactly how she was not sure.

When he did return he was soaking wet and smelled of the pine bark soap Star made. Not looking at her, he lay down on the far side of the lodge with his back to her.

She wondered if he had lost patience so easily with Song.  Perhaps he had, and that was why he had desecrated her grave so disrespectfully.  She should not ask, but she needed to know.

“Adahya?”  When he did not answer, she called again.  “Adahya.”

“I am right here.  You do not need to shout.”

“I’m sorry.”  Propping herself up on her elbow, she wished he would face her.  “Do you remember when you were shot?”

“How could I forget?”

“Star told me about the tomahawk and the shells.”

Adahya rolled over onto his back and sighed.

“Star said you were angry, and that’s why you painted everything red.”

“Star says too much.”

“Only because I asked her.”

His brow furrowed, as if he were struggling some inner battler.  For some reason she wanted to go to him, tell him that everything was all right.  Something had changed in her these past weeks. She found herself wanting to do things for him.  Not to seek his approval.  She did not know exactly why, but she wanted to take care of him.

“You weren’t very happy with Song were you?”

Still, no answer.

“Will you tell me what happened?” she pressed.

“Someday, Chogan.”

“Why not now?”

* * *

ADAHYA looked up at the roof of his lodge.  The strange cat-creature had climbed onto his chest, and he stroked its ears.  Why not now?  What could he tell her?  That Song, the woman whom he had vowed to love and protect forever, had left him for another man--a white man?  Where did she want him to start?  Where Song nearly broke his heart in two?  Or where his anger had nearly destroyed him?

Katherine assumed Song had died, and he was not about to tell her otherwise.  If Star told her the truth, so be it.  He was not about to admit to her that Song had not wanted him, had never wanted him.  It was too humiliating.

He did not answer, but instead lay awake nervous and miserable until he heard Katherine’s soft, even breathing.  He would tell her the truth eventually.  Right now she would not understand.  She would think less of him.  He did not want that.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

KATHERINE watched Adahya scowl at the letters she had just written in the sand with her finger.

“That’s your name.”

Adahya just sat there on the river bank beside her and studied the letters.  He looked angry.