Eliot Pattison - Eye of the Raven

"Did she understand the old things? The signs made by the ancients?"

"She would speak with me, yes, even come with me to the cave where the old gods live."

"Help me understand why she died."

Skanawati shrugged. "She was called away. It is not for us to say why."

Duncan extended one of the clock gears from his pouch. "Where do these come from?"

"It is a European thing."

"What does it mean, having one of these in the breastbone?"

"Asking so many questions is a European thing as well." Skanawati turned and studied Duncan. "Do not trouble about me, McCallum," he said, pronouncing Duncan's name slowly. "I am my own man.

"Others have died. Others may die. I must find the truth."

Skanawati ate a bite of the bread Mokie brought him before answering. "You mean you must find your truth."

The words strangely stung Duncan. The people of the woods may have sprung from the same stock as Europeans, but with a few words such as these it seemed they were from different planets. Despite his months with Conawago he still struggled to understand the many dimensions of truth in the Indian world. They were the most straightforward, honest people he had ever known, but truth for them was not simply a matter of never lying. With a sacred wampum belt in his hand an Iroquois was as likely to lie as to sprout wings and fly, but one still had to be careful with the words that came out, could not truly understand them without understanding the spirit of the man who spoke them. Among the tribes, truth was something between a man and the spirit god that was always with him. Each man had his own truth, for most vital of all was that each, in the Indian way of speaking, maintained his own true skin.

Duncan realized that he was staring at the small bundle of mink fur with tiny red and yellow feathers sewn around its top that hung from Skanawati's neck. Inside would be a token of the spirit animal that guided the chief. He flushed as the Iroquois noticed his gaze, then looked away as Skanawati pushed the amulet inside his shirt.

At that moment a running figure caught his eye. Hadley, eating with Van Grut, had tossed aside his mug and was darting toward a copse of bushes. "Unhand her!" Hadley shouted. Duncan leapt up and ran.

He arrived at the thicket in time to see Hadley launch himself at one of two large men wearing the colors of the Virginia militia. The second was carrying Mokie over his shoulder, a gag in her mouth, her legs bound with rope.

The man Hadley knocked to the ground rolled over and deftly unsheathed his knife as he sprang into a crouch. He paused, confused, when he recognized his assailant.

"She be Virginia property, sir!" the soldier declared in a plaintive voice. "Y'er uncle's property."

"Put her down," Hadley growled. Mokie began pounding her assailant's back with her fists.

The soldier with the knife crouched as if to attack. But suddenly there was a sound of rattling chains and a blur of movement at his side. The knife flew from his hands, his legs flew out from under him, and he was on his back with Skanawati's foot pressed so tightly against his windpipe he began to choke.

Duncan put a restraining hand on the Iroquois. "The girl is under the protection of Pennsylvania province," he declared to the militiaman with Mokie.

"That be only her mother and the infant," the soldier protested.

"Not since the attack at Braddock's field. She was there when your captain's body was taken. They sought to take her as well. She knows matters important to the investigation. She has become a witness required by the magistrate."

It was only partly a lie, yet enough to make the man hesitate. Mokie squirmed, bit her captor through her gag, and rolled off his shoulder. In the next instant she lifted a rock and smashed it down on his foot. The soldier hopped backward, clutching his boot.

"Ye little black bitch!" he howled. He seemed to consider whether to charge at the Iroquois who had pinned his companion when a hulking presence loomed at Duncan's side. With one look at McGregor the man limped away, his companion frantically following the instant Skanawati lifted his foot from his throat.

Mokie was at first so relieved, then so preoccupied with untying her feet that she did not notice that the pouch she had tied around her neck had slipped out of her shirt, or that the paper inside it had nearly fallen out. But Duncan saw and grabbed the pouch before the girl could react.

"No! You mustn't!" The mulatto girl was fast, and surprisingly strong, but Duncan was prepared for the tug of war. He held on with one hand, the other on Mokie's shoulder, until the leather strap broke in her hand. She erupted into tears. Duncan released her and stepped back to the wagon, knowing she would follow.

The markings on the paper were crudely made, but they were unmistakable. The geometric symbols from the marker trees he had visited had been transcribed. There was writing on both sides of the paper. Behind the rows of symbols duplicated from the trees was a crude map of the trail showing its starting point and the places where it crossed the Forbes Road.

"Where did you get this?" Duncan demanded as Mokie ran into her mother's arms.

Becca's eyes flared when she saw what Duncan held, and she seemed about to snatch the papers away. "You think we just wander into the wilderness and expect to be free?" she asked with fire in her eyes. "Freedom is hundreds of miles away. We need supplies to travel so far."

"You go north because the French offer freedom and land. Are you saying they actively assisted in your escape?" Duncan asked.

"What duty do we owe to your king?" Becca demanded.

The words stung, in more ways than one.

"People have been killed because of the boundary trees, and these markings seem to lie at the heart of the evil being done. More may die yet."

"I pray, Mr. McCallum." Brindle appeared from behind the wagon. He had been listening. "Do not foment more fear among our party. We have but one crime, and one who has already answered for it."

Duncan turned to face the magistrate. "I beg you not to be deceived by appearances, sir. So far I have seen these runes on two trees, and at both, men were nailed to the trunk and then slain. There is reason to believe others have died in the same fashion these past few months."

Duncan marked that there was no surprise in Brindle's reaction. "There are no other bodies. There are no other complaints to the authorities. We have but one crime," he repeated. "Surely that is more than enough."

"How many more boundary trees are there?" Duncan asked. "Fifteen? Twenty? The Pennsylvania colony will run out of surveyors before this is over. You might view it as one crime, but it has meant multiple killings." He faced Becca again. "Winston Burke helped you escape, did he not?"

Brindle stiffened.

"He helped you and perhaps died for it," Duncan pressed.

The Quaker seemed about to protest but instead looked at his brother-in-law Bythe and grimaced.

Defiance still burned on Becca's handsome face. Then the infant, Penn, in a basket inside the wagon, stirred, offering a cooing sound, and her expression softened. Her son's fate, and that of her daughter and herself, were in the hands of the Pennsylvanians. Tears filled her eyes. "Shamokin," she whispered, referring to the large Indian town on the banks of the upper Susquehanna. "A man in Shamokin was to give us supplies if we brought these to him. He would give us directions to the place where slaves are settling in the French country." She put her arms around her daughter, as if the confession placed them in new jeopardy.

"And the trees?"

"The trail was to take us all the way to Shamokin. When we reached the wide Susquehanna we were to tell the Indians at the village there that we sought the great bear and they would ferry us across."