The Fiery Cross

by Diana Gabaldon

  690 Diana Gabaldon

  he can take the surveying reports to be filed in New Bern then, that Ail] be good, no?" He dug into the gingerbread in a businesslike way, not looking up. There was a silence, filled only with heavy breathing and the clack

  ofspoons on wooden plates. Then Roger, who had not picked up his spoon, spoke.

  can ... do that." It might have been no more than the effort it took to force air through his scarred tbroat, but there was an er phasis on the last word,

  that made Brianna xvince. Only slightly, but I saw it-and so did Roger. He glanced at her, then looked down at his plate, lashes dark against his cheek. His jaw tightened, and he picked up his spoon,

  "Good, then," Jamie said, even more casually. "I'll show ye how. Ye can go in a week."

  Last night I dreamed that Roger was leavin

  g. I've been dreaming about bisgoingfor a week, ever since Da sufflested it. Suggested-ba. Like Moses brought down the Ten Suggestionsfrom Mount Sinai.

  In the dream, Roger was parking things in a big sack, and I was busy mopping thefloor He keptgetting in my way, and I keptpushing the sack aside toget at another part of thefloor It wasfilthy, with all sorts of stains and stickyglop. There were little bones scattered around, like Adso bad eaten some little animal there, and the bones keptgetting caught up in my Map.

  I don't want him togo, but I do, too. I bear all the things be isn't saying; they echo in my head. I keep thinking that when be'sgone, it will he quiet.

  SHE PASSED ABRUPTLY from sleep to instant wakefulness. It was just past dawn, and she was alone. There were birds singing in the wood. One was caroling near the cabin, its notes sharp and musical. Was it a thrush? she wondered.

  She knew he was gone, but lifted her head to check, The rucksack was gone from beside the door, as was the bundle of food and bottle of cider she had prepared for him the night before. The bodhran still hung in its place on the wall, seeming to float suspended in the unearthly light.

  She had tried to get him to play again, after the hanging, feeling that at least he could still have music, if not his voice. He had resisted, though, and finally she could see that she was angering him with her insistence, and had stopped. He would do things his wayor not at all.

  She glanced toward the cradle, but all was quiet, Jemmy still sound asleep. She lay back on her pillow, hands lifting to her breasts. She was naked, and they were smooth, round and hill as gourds. She squeezed one nipple gently, and finy pearls of milk popped out. One swelled bigger, overflowed, and ran in a tiny, tickling droplet down the side of her breast.

  They had made love before sleeping, the night before. At first, she hadn't thought he would, butwhen she came Lip to him and put her arms around him, he had clasped her hard against himself, kissed her slowly for a long, long time, and finally carried her to bed.

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  s for him, wanting to assure him of her love with She had been so anxiou

  herself completely, something of herself to take away, that outh and hands and body, to givehim

  uprised when the climax overand been si

  lc had forgotten se of ook her. She slid one hand down, between her legs, remembering the sen wave, swept helplessly toward shore- She ring caught up suddenly by a great

  Dpened his eyes. Roger hadgnoootdicbeyde; ihnet1hadn't said anything, nor

  ped that Or had he? dark before dawn, still silent

  He had kissed her

  he put a hand to her mouth, suddenly unsure, but there was no clue in the ot flesh of her lips.

  tnooth, co

  Had he kissed her goodbye) Or had she only dreamed it

  BEAR-KILL-ER

  August, 1771

  opSE$ NEIGHING from the direction of the paddock an-

  HE H curious, I abandoned my latest experiment and nounced company. e v6ndow. Neither horse nor man was in evidence went to peer out of th ere still snorting and carrying on as they did

  in the dooryard, but the horses w mpany must be afoot then, and have gone when they saw someone new- The co

  _n door-which most people did, this being mannerly.

  IV". round to the kitche by a high-pitched shriek This supposition was almost instantly borne out

  my head out into the hall just in time to from the back of the house. I poked though discharged from a cannon, see Mrs. Bug race out of the kitchen as

  screaming in panic. front door, which she left Not noticing me, she shot past and Out of the

  S me to see- her cross the dooryard and vanish into n thus enablin when I hanging ope , ry. it came as something of an anticlimax,

  ithe, woods, still in full c n the kitchen doorway, glanced the other way and saw an Indian standing i

  rised. looking surp rily, but as I appeared indisposed to screaming and p We eyed each other wa cared unarmed and lacking paint or any k

  running, he relaxed slightly- As he app

  other evidence of malevolent intent, I relaxed slightly e was a Cherokec and aosiyo),v I said cautiously, having observed that h

  ree calico shirts, one atop the other, homespun dressed for visiting. He wore th

  V her like a half-wound turban, that men f, breeches, and the odd drooping cap, rat rings and a handsome brooch formal occasiOns, plus long silver ear

  favored for

  in the shape of the rising sun- ng and said something I didn't He smiled brilliantly in response to MY greet" ' and We stood understand at all. I shrugged helplessly, but smiled in return,

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  there nodding at one another and smiling back and forth for several moments, until the gentleman, struck by inspiration, reached into the neck of his innermost shirt-a dressy number printed with small yellow diamonds on a blue background-and withdrew a leather thong, on which were strung the curved black claws of one or more bears.

  He held these up, rattled them gently, and raised his eyebrows, glancing to and fro as though searching for someone under the table or on the cabinet. "Oh," I said, comprehending immediately. "You want my husband." I

  mimed someone aiming a rifle. "The Bear- Killer?"

  A flash of good teeth in a beaming smile rewarded my intelligence.

  "I expect he'll be along any minute," I said, waving first at the window, indicating the path taken by the exiting Mrs. Bug--who had undoubtedly gone to inform Himself that there were red savages in the house, bent an murder, mayhem, and the desecration of her clean floor-and then in the direction of the kitchen. "Come back, won't you, and have a drink of something?"

  He followed me willingly, and we were seated at the table, companionably sipping tea and exchanging further nods and smiles, when Jamie came in, accompanied not only by Mrs. Bug, who stuck close to his coattails, casting suspicious looks at our guest, but by Peter Bewlie.

  Our guest was promptly introduced as Tsatsa'wi, the brother of Peter's Inthan wife. He lived in a small town some thirty miles past the Treaty Line, but had come to visit his sister, and was staying with the Bewlies for a time.

  "We were havin' a wee pipe after our supper last night," Peter explained, "and Tsatsa'wi was a-telling of my wife about a difficulty in their village-and she tellin' it to me, ye see, him havin' no English and me not speakin' so verra much of their tongue, no but the names of things and the odd politeness here and there-but as I say, he was telling of a wicked bear, what's been a-plaguing of them for months past,"

  "I should think Tsatsa'wi well-equipped to deal wi' such a creature, by the looks of it," Jamie said, nodding at the Indian's necklace of claws, and touching his own chest in indication. He smiled at Tsatsa'wi, who evidently gathered the meaning of the compliment and smiled broadly back. Both men bowed slightly to each other over the cups of tea, in token of mutual respect.

  "Aye," Peter agreed, licking droplets of liquid from the corners of his mouth, and smacking his lips in approval. "He's a bonnie hunter, is Tsatsa'wi, and in the usual course o' things, I expect he and his cousins might manage well enough
. But it seems as how this particular bear is just that wee bit above the odds. So I says to him as perhaps we'll come and tell Mae Dubb about it, and maybe as Himself would spare the time to go and sort the creature for them."

  Peter lifted his chin to his brother-in-law, and nodded toward Jamie, with a proprietorial air of pride. See, said the gesture. I toldyou. He can do it.

  I suppressed a smile at this. Jamie caught my eye, coughedmodestly and set down his cup.

  "Aye, well. I canna come just yet awhile, but perhaps when the hay is in. D'ye ken what's the nature of this problematical bear, Peter?"

  "Oh, aye," Peter said cheerfiilly. "It's a ghost."

  I choked momentarily on my own tea. Jamie didn't seem too shocked, but rubbed his chin dubiously.

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  Mmphrn. Well, what's it done, then?" y a year before, though no he bear had first made its presence known acarl

  had seen it for some time- There had been the usual incidents of depredaof corn hung outside e carrying away of racks of drying fish or strings -opl,

  es, the ste ing of meat from lean-tos-but at first the townspe had reed this merely as the WO of a bear slightly more clever than the usualrk d as to whether he was observed in usual bear being completely unconcerne

  act. night, ye see," Peter explained. "And it didna make it would only come at

  Folk would just come out in the morning and find their cat deal o' noise.

  s broken into, and not a sound made- to rouse them

  n Mrs. Bug,s unceremonious exit and come up to inrianna, who had see humming softly under her brcath-a soniz to which gate the cause, began ds -Oh, he'll sleeP 'til 900n, but befOre it's ory promptly supplied the wor, , Is in Jellystone Park pressed a ... be'll have every Plcntc basket that mains of the tea.

  n to my mouth, ostensibly to blot the re Peter yplained. "Footprints." bear ftOrn the first, aye?" table, thumb ,."They kent it was a 0 hands out on the

  d; he spread his tw

  Tsatsawi knew that wor footprint, then touched the longest of thumb, demonstrating the span of the

  claws hung round his neck5 nodding significantly, had taken the usual prenspeople, thoroughly accustomed to bears, eir The tow protected areas, and putting out th

  Ions, moving supplies into more as that a number of dogs had disaP gs in the evening. The result Of this w

  ared-again without sound. ier or the bear hungrier- The first victim ,Evidently the dogs had grown war ,

  . led in the forest. Then, six months ago, a Child had been taken.s a man5 kil ng abruptly.

  anna stopped humm' dle-board and all from the bank of the The victim was a baby, snatched cra sunset. There had been no er where its mother was washing clothes toward the mud.

  . and no clue left save a large clawed footprint in onths since. Two Four more of the townspeople had been killed in the rn on. One body 'Idren, picking wild ,trawberries by themselves in late afterno

  n but otherwise untouched. The other had disd been found, the neck broke, ,

  appeared; marks showed where it had been dragged into the woods. A woman n cornfield) again toward sunset, and partially eaten had been killed in her ow man, had in fact been hunting the bear.

  'where she fell. The last victim, aim save his bow and a few bits o' bloodied -They didna find anything of i rs. Bug sat down clothes," Peter said. I heard a small thump behind me, as

  abruptly on the settle.

  -So they have hunted it themselves?" I asked. "Or tried to5 I should say?" and looked at me, nodding seriously.

  Peter took his eyes off Jamie it was, finally."

  "Oh, aye, Mrs - Claire. That's how they kent what bear, armed f hunters had gone out loaded-literally-for

  A small party 0 age boasted. They had circled with bows, spears, and the two muskets the vill fothe- village in a widening gYre, convinced that since the bear's attentions

  r, the town, it would not wander far away. They had searched for four cused o ng old spoor,.but no trace of the bear itself-

  days, now and then findi 'er toward his brother-int4Tsatsa'wi was Wi5 them," Peter said, tifting a fing

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  law. "He and one of his friends were sittin' up at night, keepin' watch whilst the others slept. 'Twas just past moonrise, he said, when he got up to make water. He turned back to the fire-just in time to see his friend bein' dragged off, stone-dead, wi' his neck crushed in the jaws of the thing itself!"

  Tsatsalwi had been following the tale intently At this juncture, he nodded, and made a gesture that appeared to be the Cherokee equivalent of the Sign of the Cross-some quick and formal gesture to repel evil. He began to talk himself, then, hands flying as he pantomimed the subsequent events.

  He had of course shouted, rousing his remaining comrades, and had rushed at the bear, hoping to frighten it into dropping his friend-though he could see that the man was already dead. He tilted his head sharply to indicate a broken neck, letting his tongue loll in an expression that would have been quite fiinny under different circumstances.

  The hunters were accompanied by two dogs, which had also flown at the bear, barking, The bear had in fact dropped its prey, but instead of fleeing, had charged toward him. He had thrown himself to one side, and the bear had paused long enough to swipe one of the dogs off its feet, and then disappeared into the darkness of the wood, pursued by the other dog, a hail of arrows and a couple of musket balls-none of which had touched it.

  They had chased the bear into the wood with torches, but been unable to discover it. The second dog had returned, looking ashamed of itself-Brianna made a small fizzing noise at Tsatsa'wi's pantomime of the dog-and the hunters, thoroughly unnerved, had gone back to their fire, and spent the rest of the night awake, before returning to their village in the morning. From whence, Tsatsa'wi indicated with a graceffil gesture, he had now come to solicit the assistance of the Bear-Killer.

  "But why do they think it's a ghost?" Brianna leaned forward, interest displacing her initial horror at the tale.

  Peter glanced at her, one eyebrow raised.

  "Oh, aye, he didna say-or rather I expect he did, but not so as ye'd understand it. The thing was much bigger than the usual bear, he says-and pure white. He says when it turned to look at him, the beast's eyes glowed red as flame. They kent at once it must be a ghost, and so they werena really surprised that their arrows didna touch it."

  Tsatsa'wi broke in again, pointing first at Jamie, then tapping his bear-claw necklace, and then-to my surprise-pointing at me.

  "Me?" I said. "What have I got to do with it?"

  The Cherokee heard my tone of surprise, for he leaned across the table, took my hand in his own, and stroked it-not in any affectionate manner, but merely as an indication of my skin. Jamie made a small sound of amusement.

  "You're verra white, Sassenach. Perhaps the bear will think ye're a kindred spirit." He grinned at me, but Tsatsa'wi evidently gathered the sense of this, for he nodded seriously. He dropped my hand, and made a brief cawing noise-a raven5s call.

  "Oh," I said, distinctly uneasy. I didn't know the words in Cherokee, but evidently the people of Tsatsa',wi's town had heard of White Raven as well as the Bear-Killer. Any white animal was regarded as being significant-and often sin-

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  ter. I didn't know whether the implication here was that I might exert some i,host-bear-or merely serve as bait-but evidently I was indeed pver over the g

  icluded in the invitation.

  .And so it was that a week later, the hay safely in and four sides of venison fully hanging in the smokehouse, we set off toward the Treaty Line, bent Pcc

  exorcism.

  a and $IDE$ JAMIE AND MY$ELF, the party consisted of Briann

  my, the two Beardsley twins, and Peter Bcwlie, who was to guide us to the is wi e aving gone ahead with Tsatsa'wi. Brianna had not wanted to gel more for fear of taking Jemmy into the wilderness than from disinclinaC) had insisted that s
he come, though,

  ti to join the hunt, I thought. Jamie uable. Unwilling to wean ing that her marksmanship would be inval he seemed to be thormy yet, she had been obliged to bring him-though dle in front of his ly enjoying the trip, hunched bright-eyed on the sad

  er, alternately gabbling happily to himself about everything he saw, or th

  king his thumb in dreamy content,

  'As for the Beardsleys, it was Josiah that Jamie wanted. saw the skins, at the "The lad's killed two bears, at least," he told me. "I the harm in it." ering. And if his brother likes to come along, I canna see

  "Neither do I," I agreed. "But why are you making Bree come? Can't you d Josiah handle the bear between your" "But if "Perhaps," he said, running an oily rag over the barrel of his gun.

  heids are better than one, then a third should be better still, no? Especially it shoots like yon lass can."

  "Yes?" I said skeptically. Band what eIS0 He glanced up at me and grinned.

  Sassenach?"

  11 "NVhat, ye dinna think I have ulterior motives, do ye,

  "No, I don't think so-I know so." . After a few moments' swabbing He laughed and bent his head over his gun "Aye well. I thought it no bad ind cleaning, though, he said, not lookingLIP, I e she should need a herokee. In cas

  idea for the lass to have friends among the C place to go, sometime. 15 e didn't fool me The casual tone of voic

  "Sometime. Men the Revolution comes, you mean. he added precisely, "Aye. Or ... when we die. Wlienevcr that might be,"

  picking the gun up and squinting down the barrel to check the sight.

  It was bright Indian summer still, but I felt shards of ice crackle down my Iback. Most days, I managed to forget that newspaper ciipping--the one that rcife on Fraser's Ridge.

  ported the death by fire of one James Fraser and his w ack of my I remembered it, but shoved the possibility to the b

  other days, n it. But every now and then, I would wake up at mind, refusing to dwell 0 corners of my mind, shivering and night, with bright flames leaping in the

  terrified. living children,"' I said, determined to face down the "The clipping said, 'no

  696 Diana Gabaldo.

  fear. "Do you suppose that means that Bree and Roger will have gone somewhere ... before then?" To the Cherokee, perhaps. Or to the stones,

  "It might." His face was sober, eyes on his work. Neither one of us was will ing to admit the other possibility-no need, in any case.

  Reluctant though she had been to come, Brianna

  too seemed to be enjoying the trip. Without Roger, and relieved of the chores of cabin housekeeping, she s-

  seemed much more relaxed, laughing and joking with the Beardsley twins, tea ing Jamie, and nursing Jernmy by the fire at night, before curling herself around him and falling peacefully asleep.

  The Beardsleys were having a good time, too. The removal of his infected adenoids and tonsils had not cured Keziah's deafness, but had improved it markedly. He could understand fairly loud speech now, particularly if you faced him and spoke clearly, though he seemed to make out anything his twin said with ease, no matter how softly voiced. Seeing him look round wide-eyed as we rode through the thick, insect-buzzing forest, fording streams and finding faint deer paths through the thickets, I realized that he had never been anywhere in his life, save the area near the Beardsley farm, and Fraser's Ridge.