Savage Journey

by Jessica Leigh

  Nicholas turned to view Katari’s face, his nostrils flaring with the need to release the side of himself that killed without thought, so that life could prevail. She had placed her chin on her knees, and her tied arms rested around her bare calves. Then, he saw the dark arches of her eyebrows raise and the glimmer of her golden brown eyes, as she assessed the men. Katari was no cowering captive. Nicholas felt a surge of love and pride as he viewed the intelligent gleam in her eye. She would not fall beneath the rule of these men easily.

  What would Katari think of him after he shot these men dead? Nicholas had convinced himself that she did not need or want him in her life. Her presence here at this time proved otherwise. She had been looking for him. Why?

  Nick focused on breathing slowly, steadily, until his heart rate slowed and the red haze that had entered his mind faded to a rational level. Silently, he moved three steps closer through the thick ferns and witch hazel bushes that concealed him. The spicy scent of their fronds and leaves enveloped him.

  When he looked again at Katari, her chin was still buried in her folded knees. Yet, her eyes were focused sharply in his direction. Nicholas saw the leap of yellow-gold in their depths, and her awareness of his presence in the bushes.

  If he killed them both now, Katari would view it all. The carnage, the blood, the final throes of death. But if he approached them as a fellow trapper, the outcome could be deadly. A young, large and seasoned male such as himself could be viewed as a sure threat to their well-being, or as an enemy intent on stealing their prize. And truly, his intent was exactly that.

  Nicholas did not know what weapons they possessed or what talent they held in wielding them. Katari’s imploring gaze never wavered from his. She would wait for his lead.

  ~~~~~

  When she saw Nicholas in the bushes, Katari felt a warm surge of hope. It was swiftly overpowered by a renewed and gnawing fear. Now, Nicholas’s life was at stake due to her meddling. Would she be forced to bear witness to his death, only to be raped afterward? She knew without a doubt that these men would kill without any thought of conscience.

  What did he want her to do? She stared at him intently, waiting for an answer to come to her. Katari saw him nod at her, once, then twice. But, she could not stand up and run. She was hobbled tightly, and could therefore barely shuffle.

  His nod could only have one meaning. Distraction. Katari threw back her head and moaned, then began to wail and curse as loudly as she could in her Minsi tongue. She fell to her side and thrashed, gathering the attention of both men swiftly. The old one, Tetue, approached her quickly, grabbing her by the braids and cuffing her harshly on the jaw. The hard blow silenced her instantly, and she was surprised at his raw strength.

  “Stop your jibber, sauvage,” he growled at her. Blood trickled into the corner of her open mouth where her lips stung. Her left ear was ringing. “Get her legs, Louie. This is going to be lesson number one.”

  “I got them.”

  Rough hands pulled her away from the tree and flat onto her back. Tetue’s fist tightened around her throat, swiftly cutting off her air supply. She felt the tug of the ropes around her ankles as they were cut free. Katari knew what they intended for her next and she panicked involuntarily. She could not help but struggle as Tetue’s fingers dug deeper into her neck and she began to gag.

  From the corner of her eye, she saw Tetue’s body rise up and careen into a young birch tree to her right. She drew in one, rasping breath. Then Nicholas filled her vision. It was obvious to her that rage controlled him.

  “Stay off of her,” he ground out. Tetue attempted to rise again, but Nicholas was on him, pulling him by the scruff of his shirt straight into the same sapling. It broke loudly beneath the impact and Tetue went down hard. He did not rise again.

  Louie now brandished the knife, and stepped swiftly between Katari and Nicholas. “He’s old, but I’m not,” Louie growled. He grinned and spat on the ground. “You aren’t taking my new woman anywhere. She’s mine.”

  Louie and Nicholas were nearly head to head in size and brawn. But Louie held a wickedly sharp dagger in his right fist. The obviously honed metal had sliced through the heavy ropes that bound her ankles with ease. Where were the guns Nicholas had surely been carrying? Why was he now unarmed?

  Katari felt a wave of dread engulf her as a vivid image of Nicholas’s unresponsive body cradled in her lap, back in Beverjwick, with a similar knife embedded in his chest, pointing up starkly toward the night sky. She remembered the heat of his oozing blood, and the cold of his pallor. She remembered that knowledge that he would die as a result of his wound.

  Her eyes flew to Nicholas’s face. The look on it was one that she had seen before. The intensity that flowed across his features was frightening. His grey-blue eyes had darkened like the advent of a gale-storm. They were focused and gleaming with an intent that Katari knew well. It was the blood rage of a warrior bent on protection at all costs. She felt her belly flip and twist within her. This was the dark side of Nicholas. She was not afraid of this version of him, strangely. Katari was in awe.

  When Nicholas struck, he moved faster than the strike of the stone-viper with rattles on his tail. Louie had managed one step forward before he was met with the force of Nicholas’s fist across his forearm. Katari heard the sure crunch of bone, and saw the knife arc through the air and thump upon the leaf-littered ground.

  Then, the men were on the ground, rolling together, grunting and bellowing like wild beasts. In the background, Tetue began to stir. Quickly, Katari skittered near enough to the men to scoop up the knife. She advanced on Tetue, and jumped on his back when the man tried to rise. The blade slid easily under his throat, and she twisted her hand in his beard and tugged painfully. He bleated and she knew the sweetness of revenge.

  Behind her, the brawl continued. Louie was losing badly, judging by the crunching blows of Nicholas’s huge fists. “Nick!” she called over her shoulder. “Stop. Do not kill him.”

  ~~~~~

  Through the thick, red fog that wreathed his brain, Nicholas heard the sound of Katari’s voice. Beneath him, Louie’s body was now an unmoving bulk. He drew a breath and attempted to control his racing heart. The knuckles of his right hand began to tingle piercingly.

  Nick was sure that Katari remained unharmed, but both men still drew breath. They certainly did not deserve such a luxury. “These men must be stopped, Katari. They will only hurt someone else,” he ground out in a strained voice.

  “We have stopped them, Nick. Now, I have an idea,” she replied in a clear, strong voice that held a hint of merriment.

  He raised his eyebrows and watched with surprise when she brought down the hilt of the dagger smartly on the back of Tetue’s head. The man slumped forward once again. Katari made an odd sight, straddling his back as if he were a pony, with his beard in her fist. Astonishingly, he began to laugh, first lightly, then with increasing volume. Katari giggled as well.

  “It is a fitting idea, Nick. Really, you should hear me out.”

  Nicholas released the fists that had clenched around Louie’s neck. “All right, Katari,” he returned. “Just what is it that you propose?”

  Chapter 26

  Thrusting her forearms deep into the chilly stream waters, Katari scrubbed fiercely. For the third time. It appeared that she might be returning to the village with purple-streaked hands and forearms. But the odd stain was most assuredly worth the trouble.

  She giggled at the thought, and met Nicholas’s grey-blue eyes. He looked weary, but he still managed a smile for her benefit.

  “Katari, I now happen to believe that you might be a little bit touched,” he murmured.

  She wrinkled her nose at him. “You could be right,” she admitted. “But, if so, then it is something that you will just need to learn how to deal with.”

  He laughed out loud at her response. “Well then, I accept the challenge.”

  She felt her heart swell with a blooming pleasure. She did not want anything
to disrupt such a feeling, ever again. “Are you absolutely certain that you do wish to return with me, Nicholas?” she questioned, gnawing at her bottom lip.

  “You are not permitted to ask me that question again,” he returned staunchly. “This entire matter has been settled once and for all.”

  “We belong together,” she recited, tilting her head as if in concentration. “The Creator wished it to be so, and therefore, it is. It is our path.”

  “There is no use in fighting the fate laid before us,” he added to the list.

  “My mother and father adore you.”

  “And I cannot go an entire day without looking into those unusual eyes of yours,” Nick continued. “At least, not happily so.”

  Katari giggled again. She reached out and placed a hand on his chest, where his shirt lay open and his hard chest was exposed. She felt the slow and steady thud of his heart, and traced the scar just below. “And I cannot go a day without touching you. Other places, as well as this.”

  Nicholas firmly captured her wrist. “Katari. Not until we are wedded,” he scolded.

  She rose, pulling him with her. “A useless tradition,” she grumbled. “Although I must say that I am happy that I have not lain with another.”

  He leaned into her, and brushed her lips softly with warm ones. “I promise to make you extremely happy, very soon.”

  The light and sensual touch made her shiver. “Well, let us hurry toward this happiness, Nick. Before those two lack-wits come awake.”

  As the gathered the ponies, Katari glanced back over her shoulder at the men. Her idea had been born out of desperation, and the sudden need to spare Nicholas the pain of more acts that he did not consider ‘gentle.’ Now that the deed had been accomplished, she liked what she had devised even more so. It was her own brand of justice.

  “Purple?” Nicholas questioned as he swung his large frame into the saddle.

  “Any soul who chances upon two naked, hairy and purple creatures such as these men will not tarry to help their cause,” she quipped. It was true, though. If Natives encountered them first, they would believe that the men had lost their minds or their spirits – or both - to evil forces. It was well known that such spirits should be left well enough alone, and quite hastily.

  Katari had collected a bowl of fat round fruit from the bush known as pokeberry that she had discovered growing in sunny spots near the open bed of a nearby stream. While the men were still unconscious, she had put Nicholas to work relieving them of their clothes, save their tattered under-garments, as well as their weapons and horses. They had left the men their satchels of dishes, however. And, their filthy bedrolls.

  Katari had, first, pulverized the berries. Then, she smeared the dye all over any and all of their exposed skin. When her efforts were finished, the men looked like turgid grapes that had dropped from the vine in late summer. It was likely that they would frighten off Natives, trappers, or Jesuits alike. She only wished that she could watch them come awake and realize their future. The stain of the pokeberry was long-lasting. The sting of biting insects would be even worse.

  “They may be the sort to seek out vengeance, Katari,” Nicholas grumbled one last time. “Would you bring these animals to the edge of your village?”

  She sniffed. “My village is more than equipped to handle such beasts.”

  He nodded wryly. “You do have many agile warriors.”

  Katari slanted a glance at him, and knew that he worried about the trouble he could be causing with his return. “White Lynx and I had already decided that we would not remain together. We were not suited. You know this.” She read the open hunger in his eyes when he gazed back at her, and was pleased with it.

  “He was much more suitable than a man such as me,” Nicholas continued on stubbornly.

  Katari looked forward to cover her wicked, little grin. “I will be the judge of that once you and I are wedded. I have not seen you fully unclothed as of yet.”

  Nicholas coughed. “Kat, I will relish your judgment when it finally arrives.”

  Unable to hold her laughter any longer, Katari nudged her pony into a trot.

  ~~~~~

  That miraculous day, the one that represented the culmination of all of her childhood dreams and wistful longings passed in but a hazy blur. The things that Katari remained firmly aware of were Nicholas’s large presence beside her, and the calming voice of her father over all of the others.

  There were glimpses that she could recall, such as the face of Kanti, wreathed in smiles, and the green eyes of her mother, welling with lovely and glistening tears. She remembered the embrace of her grandmother, Willow Plume, and the way that her thin arms felt both frail and mighty in the very same instant. They were tiny moments, simple heartbeats that were captured in clarity, seized by her mind and then released into the mist once again.

  When dusk rose, touching the canopy with a crown of red and spilling shadows through the undergrowth, Nicholas took her by the arm. “Come with me,” he whispered. She felt a sense of setting down upon the earth again as she looked into his glittering eyes. Now that it was actually the time to lie down with him, she felt herself tremble like a newly birthed fawn.

  “Where are we going?” she managed to ask as Nicholas led her from the village and along a tree shrouded path. Ferns danced against her bare calves as a breeze began to lift into the night air. The fringe of her buckskin dress died to a pale gold that her husband said matched the flecks in her eyes, floated around her knees. For the ceremony, Nicholas had presented her with a beautiful headband, just like she had seen and desired so much in New Amsterdam. She could feel the glittering weight of it on her brow, and she felt like a queen, like the beautiful Cleopatra walking next to her Antony. How did Nicholas know of her female longing for such an ornament? His resourcefulness continued to amaze her.

  Nicholas took her hand, and squeezed it gently. “You know that I highly value my privacy, Katari. Quite a lot, in fact.” He grinned at her, pulling a smile from her own lips.

  “It is a pity that we could not wait to marry long enough to finish a lodge of our own,” she admitted.

  He laughed. “That will happen soon enough. I simply could not wait for you another day, Kat.”

  His touch and the implications of his words sent an unusual warmth spiraling up from her fingers and through her body. Nicholas regarded her carefully now. “Katari, are you sure that you are ready for this?”

  She lifted her chin with more bravery than she actually felt at the moment. “I would see all of my husband, now. I know that I am ready.”

  They had reached a small clearing that offered a clear view of a rising, crescent moon through the receding glow of the sunset. A small hut had been constructed there, woven together with willow saplings and sheaves of sweet meadow grass. It looked both cozy and inviting. It had been neatly completed with a doorframe covered by a sleek and shiny beaver pelt.

  Katari laughed. “That hide is too valuable to serve as a mere doorflap, Nick,” she scolded.

  “Only the best for my bride. Will this little nest do for us, for the next several days?” he asked.

  “Several days?” Katari felt a heated flush rise to her cheeks. Why had her fearless nature abandoned her so suddenly? She had believed that Nicholas did not truly desire her for so very long. Now that she was confident of his love and affection…and his male need… her courage had wilted quite embarrassingly.

  Was this how the little Robin felt on her wedding night? Katari did not think it so. In fact, Opichi had whispered four, simple words in her ear before they had departed the village.

  “You will be pleased.” Her brown eyes had glittered with female knowledge.

  Keeping those words in the forefront of her mind, Katari cleared her throat with a new resolve. “Let me inspect this dwelling, Nicholas. I will tell you if it will withstand the several long days you speak of.”

  She lifted the flap and ducked under into the darkening interior. The smell of summer gras
s was sweetly intoxicating, and she breathed its comfort in deeply. She spied a central fire-pit, readied with kindling and dried grasses, and a hearth opening in the ceiling of the hut. Stars were beginning to wink in the clear, night sky above.

  There were baskets laden with food and skins of water hanging on the walls. Everywhere else that she looked contained mounds of luxurious pelts and other soft bedding materials. The hut was basically a giant sleeping space, she realized, and the notion made her giggle lightly with a dash of both excitement and trepidation. “I hope that my family does not have many tasks for me to carry out during these days.”

  Nicholas struck flint to the kindling, and soon the little arched dwelling was cast with the fire’s warm and enveloping glow. “There is but one task for you, Katari. But, I believe you will find it intensely rewarding.”

  His grey-blue eyes sought hers through the golden flicker of light. Katari could feel her breath escaping through parted lips. She made a valiant effort to keep her heart from racing and failed abysmally.

  At her anxious expression, Nicholas chuckled and reached to curl a sleek, black lock of hair around his finger. “Now, Kat? You pick now to be shy?” He pulled at it teasingly.

  Katari drew a breath to buoy her and unclasped the thong from around the column of her throat, where it held her bridal dress together. It whispered to the ground at her ankles. The heat of the small fire leapt behind her and she knew very well that it illuminated her soft skin and curves. Katari watched Nicholas intently to see if her unclothed body would affect him in the same way that it had, many moons ago, by the hearth of the little cabin where they had played the Country Wife game. So many things had come to pass since that night.

  The smoldering look that leapt in his eyes was very much the same, however. The air seemingly crackled between them, and Katari could not contain her involuntary shiver. Nicholas removed his linen shirt, revealing a broad expanse of golden chest. Katari felt her stomach flip in that familiar, aching way that happened nearly every time she looked upon him. He was a man full of great beauty, and raw masculine power. Power over her, most certainly.