by Rory Black
The tall gaunt figure twisted on his heels and stared vainly into the shadows. His eyes searched the dark corner of the roped-off section of the enclosure for what had made the strange sound which had alerted his honed senses.
Iron Eyes was bewildered by the noise he was listening to.
It was unlike anything he had ever heard before and it troubled the tall hunter. Without making a single sound, Iron Eyes stooped, pulled the long knife from the neck of his boot and then straightened back up.
He gripped the handle of the long-bladed dagger and aimed its lethally sharp point to where he could hear the strange whimpering. Although he was certain that the sound was being made by an Indian, it was unfamiliar to him.
His eyes darted between the line of tepees to one side of him and the skittish ponies to the other. He then concentrated on the gentle but eerie noise that continued to come from the dark foliage before him.
‘Who’s there?’ Iron Eyes whispered in the language of the Indians. ‘Speak up or I will kill you.’
As he cautiously stepped toward the noise, it grew louder.
Iron Eyes held the knife tighter. The ponies shied away from the tall stranger and gathered at the far end of the roped off enclosure.
‘Speak or die,’ he threatened in a low growl.
Yet whatever it was that was drawing his attention continued to ignore his pleas. Iron Eyes could not understand what was happening, but realized that it could not be an Indian warrior or he would have been cut down by one of their arrows.
His heightened nerves had only just started to calm down when suddenly he saw something move in the depths of darkness directly before him. His keen vision could just make out that it was the shape of someone moving.
‘There you are,’ Iron Eyes gritted his teeth and lowered his head until his mane of hair covered his determined features. He started to snort like an outraged buffalo.
The savage nature of the wild beast swelled up inside his chest as he defied his fears and continued on toward whatever was making the strange noises.
Staring through the limp strands of hair hung that hung lifelessly over his face, Iron Eyes raised his knife level with his chest and then gritted his teeth.
Iron Eyes charged into the shadows.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Driven by a mixture of trepidation and outright fear, Iron Eyes charged into the shadowy corner of the pony enclosure wielding his knife. The gaunt figure knew that whoever it was lurking in the depths of the blackness, he had to either knock them senseless or silence them permanently before they alerted the rest of the tribe.
As Iron Eyes hurtled into the shadows he had every intention of killing whatever was hidden within it. Then as he was barely five feet from his target his unblinking eyes saw what he was charging at.
It was a sight that totally shocked him.
Somehow he managed to stop his long-legged body before he crashed into the small female. The blade of his lethal dagger was only inches from her buckskin-clad torso as Iron Eyes came to a halt beside her.
Even though no light could penetrate the shadows, their eyes focused on one another. He eased his long frame back a few inches and studied her as she continued to whimper.
The Indian girl had a crude gag in her mouth. She wore a short fringed dress made from rawhide and her exposed legs and arms were cut and bruised. Iron Eyes noticed she was bound to a wooden stake. Both her hands and feet had strips of rawhide tied so tightly that they were cutting into her flesh.
His bony fingers pulled the gag from her mouth and cast it into the mud. She looked up at him with large grateful eyes as he stood beside her in stunned amazement.
‘Help me,’ she whispered as tears rolled down her face.
Iron Eyes suddenly realized that he understood her. Years of eavesdropping had made it far easier than communicating with the white men at Silver Creek.
‘Please help me,’ she repeated.
Without uttering a word, Iron Eyes slid the honed edge of his knife blade under each strip of rawhide and cut the leathers. As he sliced the restraints that were holding her arms above her head, she slumped to the ground.
He knelt beside her and touched her cheek.
‘Why your people do this to you?’ he asked as he gently helped her back to her feet.
She lowered her eyes as if ashamed. ‘They say I have been a bad squaw. They punish me.’
Anger swelled up inside the tall young hunter as he glanced between the nearby tepees at the majority of the tribe. He then looked back at her.
‘What did you do?’ he naïvely asked.
She looked embarrassed and glanced away from the tall man beside her shapely form.
‘It is what I would not do which angered them,’ she sighed. ‘They punish me because I would not become Chief’s new wife.’
Iron Eyes frowned as he stared at the tiny young female in bewilderment. He had never been so close to anyone of her gender before and it confused him. Her scent was like nothing he had ever sensed before and she looked delicate. He touched her braided hair.
‘What is a wife?’ he muttered. ‘I do not savvy your words.’
Her beautiful eyes fluttered as they looked at him. Her hands then rose to her mouth as though attempting to subdue her sudden realization.
‘You must be Ayan-Ees,’ she gasped through her fingers.
His expression altered. ‘You know who I am?’
She nodded but kept her eyes averted from his curious face. ‘I know who you are. You are the one they call the evil one. My people hate you.’
Iron Eyes grinned. ‘I hate them.’
She moved out of the dense shadows and looked at the cuts on her wrists before glancing up at him. There was urgency in her handsome expression.
‘We must flee,’ she said. ‘They will kill both of us.’
‘Why would they kill you?’ Iron Eyes wondered. ‘You are Injun like them. I do not understand.’
She gripped his arm and looked up into his face. ‘I was being punished and you cut me free, Ayan-Ees. For that they will kill the both of us.’
Iron Eyes was no wiser as he pulled away from her and then paced toward the skittish ponies. He vainly tried to corner one of them but they kept their distance. After a few endless attempts, he stopped and rested his knuckles on his hips.
‘This is not going to be as easy as I thought,’ he growled. ‘Ponies scared of me.’
The young female hobbled to his side.
‘You are going to steal a pony?’ she asked in surprise. ‘Is that why you are here? You come to steal a pony?’
Iron Eyes glanced briefly at her and then returned his attention to the small muscular mounts.
‘This is why I am here,’ he nodded.
‘I thought you had come to save me,’ she shyly sighed.
Iron Eyes did not comprehend her words. He raised an eyebrow but said nothing as he tried to work out how he was going to achieve his ultimate goal.
‘You take me away from here?’ The female’s words almost sounded like begging. She tugged on his shirt sleeve. ‘Take me with you.’
‘Why?’ he asked drily before sliding his knife into his boot neck and rubbing his hands together. ‘Why would you want to be with me?’
She moved between Iron Eyes and the ponies to get his attention. Although Iron Eyes was at least a foot taller than the petite female and could still see the ponies quite clearly over her head, he lowered his eyes and looked at her.
‘My people will kill us both,’ she repeated her warning.
Iron Eyes studied her carefully. She had been brutally whipped, judging by the scars on her naked arms and legs, he thought. Then he noticed that she was bleeding from the wounds on her wrists and ankles. The fringed buckskin dress was tattered and torn and barely covered her well-proportioned body. A desire swelled up inside the naïve young hunter which he neither understood nor cared for. Long-supressed feelings were awaking in Iron Eyes, and this troubled him.
‘Can yo
u climb trees?’ he asked as he began to doubt that he was ever going to corner any of the ponies. ‘I think the only way to escape is by climbing the trees.’
She looked over her shoulder at the ponies and then back at the frustrated hunter. She placed a small hand on his chest and drew his full attention.
‘You want ponies?’ she asked.
‘I did,’ he snorted in reluctant admission that for once he had failed to achieve his goal. ‘I cannot even catch one let alone ride it out of here.’
She moved even closer to the tall youngster. His flared nostrils filled with her natural perfume.
‘I can get us ponies,’ she smiled. ‘I can ride like a warrior. You want ponies?’
Iron Eyes gave a firm nod of his head. ‘Yes, I want ponies. You can catch them?’
To his utter surprise he watched as the young female moved toward the group of small horses. They did not shy or run away from the tiny female as she approached them. Iron Eyes was stunned when he saw her grab their manes and fearlessly lead two of them back to where he stood.
‘Here,’ she beamed. ‘We must go now. Fast.’
Iron Eyes bit his lower lip and cautiously walked around the strange creatures as they flicked their tails. The ponies looked a lot bigger up close.
He looked over the back of the closest pony at the female.
‘What’s your name?’ he asked.
‘My name is Ketna-Toi,’ she willingly informed her saviour.
‘Fire Bird,’ Iron Eyes translated her name without even noticing that he had done so. ‘Good name.’
Fire Bird held the mane of her pony and then threw her tiny form up on to the animal’s back. She straddled the pony and then encouraged her tall companion to do the same.
It was only because of Iron Eyes’ long legs that he managed the feat and found himself sitting astride the grey pony. Again he was disillusioned by the way it felt to actually sit astride a pony.
‘This hurts,’ he grumbled as the unfamiliar sensation of having his legs so far apart chafed his manhood. ‘I do not like this at all, Fire Bird.’
She could not hide her amusement at his discomfort. Then her senses were alerted to the rest of her tribe. She glanced over her shoulder as she heard the sound of warriors heading toward them.
‘We must go now,’ Fire Bird urged.
‘Wait,’ Iron Eyes said as he dug out his box of matches and carefully scratched one. The flame lit up his gaunt features as he carefully guided the pony toward one of the tepees. He leaned across to the tent and carefully placed the match under a huge bear skin draped across its side. Flames raced like a speeding locomotive across the tinder-dry fur and then engulfed the tepee. ‘Now we go.’
Fire Bird gripped the pony between her thighs and leaned forward. She then kicked and got the sturdy animal moving at the gap in the bushes which Iron Eyes had used to enter the enclosure.
‘Follow me, Ayan-Ees,’ she called out to her inexperienced companion as he steered his mount away from the roaring inferno he had just created.
Iron Eyes held on to the mane of his mount and copied the actions of the feisty female.
Both ponies tore through the choking smoke and ploughed through the surrounding undergrowth. They raced passed the tepees and turned into the trees. As the ponies gathered momentum, both Fire Bird and Iron Eyes could hear the raised voices of the hysterical Indians behind them.
As they rode into the ever-darkening depths of the woodland they heard another sound. The unmistakable noise only arrows make when flying from bowstrings. Both riders ducked close to the necks of their mounts as a swarm of arrows peppered the trees all around them.
‘Where are we going, Ayan-Ees?’ she shouted back at the novice horseman behind the tail of her spirited pony.
‘We go to my camp,’ he shouted back at the buckskin-clad female. ‘We gotta get my whiskey and cigars.’
The petite young woman did not understand what either of the items were. She looked back. Iron Eyes grimly rode through shafts of moonlight after her. She allowed her pony to slow down so that he could draw level with her.
‘What are whiskey and cigars, Ayan-Ees?’ she asked the uncomfortable horseman. ‘I do not understand.’
His screwed up face looked at her as his mind raced in searched for a suitable translation.
‘Have you heard of firewater and peace pipes?’ he yelled.
She nodded and then considered her companion. Everything she had ever heard about the legendary Ayan-Ees from her fellow Indians made no sense. He certainly did not look evil to her as he clung on to the pony beneath him. Iron Eyes just looked in pain as he bounced up and down on the back of the muscular mount. Her pony picked up pace and raced ahead of his.
Fire Bird looked back at Iron Eyes as he desperately clung on to the pony. ‘Then what is your plan?’
Iron Eyes had no plan. He was baffled that he had managed to steal one of the Indians’ ponies as well as one of their women without getting killed.
‘I’m working on it,’ he lied.
It seemed as though they had been riding for hours to Iron Eyes as he gripped the mane of his galloping pony beneath him and followed the tail of Fire Bird’s pony through the dense moonlit trees. Yet it had only taken minutes to travel the few miles from the Indian encampment. As they rode up a muddy rise both of the riders noticed a wall of flickering flames ahead of them.
Fire Bird pulled back on the mane of her mount and stopped the snorting animal in its tracks as Iron Eyes duplicated her actions. His mount came to a shuddering stop beside the confident female. Both ponies dropped their heads and started to eat as Iron Eyes and Fire Bird stared through the trees at the strange illumination. Nearly a hundred fiery torches made an ominous sight when viewed through the dense undergrowth.
‘What is that, Ayan-Ees?’ she fearfully asked her haunting companion as he winced in pain atop the pony. He glanced up through his long lank hair at the sight before them.
‘I’m not sure,’ he replied as his bullet-coloured eyes narrowed and focused on the flames ahead of them. ‘Whatever it is, it’s coming this way.’
‘We should turn back,’ Fire Bird said hastily.
Iron Eyes looked over his wide shoulder and gritted his teeth as he caught sight of a dozen or more Indians riding after them. He shook his head and spat at the ground as the true enormity of the situation dawned on him.
‘I can see ten or twelve Injuns riding after us, Fire Bird,’ he sighed. ‘I reckon they want their horses back.’
She lowered her head.
‘We are trapped,’ she said. For the first time since he had met the female he detected defeat in her voice. ‘Death rides at us from both sides.’
Iron Eyes reached out and patted her shoulder reassuringly. Her tearful eyes looked at him.
‘We are still alive, Fire Bird,’ he said firmly. ‘Death has not claimed us yet. We have time.’
Fire Bird straightened up and looked at Iron Eyes as he continued to watch the eerie light. She moved her pony closer to him.
‘Is the forest on fire?’ she stammered.
He shook his head and pushed his limp hair off his face as he continued to watch the moving lights. He sniffed at the air and then gritted his teeth.
‘That is the smell of white men,’ he stated. ‘They burn oil in their town to make light. This smells the same.’
‘White men?’ Fire Bird sounded frightened as she repeated his words. ‘The same white men that cut down the trees and forced my tribe to move from our ancestral home?’
Iron Eyes nodded. ‘I reckon so, Fire Bird.’
The young Indian girl looked terrified as she glanced back and listened to the riders getting closer with each beat of her pounding young heart. Fire Bird returned her attention to the fiery torches.
‘What do the white men want?’ she asked.
‘Me by the looks of it,’ he surmised. ‘They want me.’
‘But why do the white men want you, Ayan-Ees?’ she could not hide her f
ear from the man who had saved her life. ‘Have you stolen their ponies?’
Iron Eyes shook his head. ‘No.’
‘Then why do they want you?’ she pressed.
He rubbed his jaw and shrugged. The words of warning which the blacksmith had uttered after he had killed Drew Smith flooded back into the young hunter’s mind.
‘They just want to kill me, Fire Bird,’ Iron Eyes sighed heavily. ‘It’s what the white men call vengeance.’
‘I don’t know this word?’ Fire Bird said fearfully. ‘What does it mean?’
He shook his head. ‘I’m not sure.’
Iron Eyes cast his attention at the flaming torches and then looked back at the Indians. The hunter could see their screaming faces daubed in paint as they charged through the scattering of moonlight shafts. He bit his lip and then pulled the bow off his shoulder and drew an arrow from its leather quiver. His long fingers carefully placed the arrow on the bowstring.
‘I reckon it means that I’ve got even more enemies than I figured, Fire Bird,’ he said before turning on the pony and facing the galloping Indians. He drew the string back and then fired. He then swiftly threw his long right leg over the neck of his pony and as he slid to the ground he looked up at the trusting female and smiled.
‘Ride, Fire Bird,’ he whispered. ‘Take the ponies and ride like the wind. You are not safe with either the lumberjacks or your people. Ride.’
Fire Bird was going to argue and then realized that it would be pointless. Her left hand took hold of his mount’s mane, turned both animals and then kicked her bare feet back.
Iron Eyes fired another arrow and then heard the deathly response. The advancing Indians had released their own arrows at him. The forest buzzed as the lethal projectiles flew through the eerie light at the gaunt hunter.
His pitifully thin frame had only just managed to duck behind a tree when arrows hammered into its trunk or passed between the slender elms and on toward the advancing lumberjacks.
