Lindsay McKenna - Brave Heart

The last of the miners disappeared around the curve of the river. Serena dragged in a shaky breath, lifting her head. Looking down at herself, she realized her dress was not only in dire need of a washing, but damp and muddied. So were the thick, twisted strands of her red hair that hung against her aching breasts.

After waiting another five minutes, Serena was convinced the miners were gone. She tested her legs, finding them rubbery but willing to sustain her weight. Getting up, she planted her bare feet apart to steady herself. A cutting smile crossed her lips. Blackjack had forced her to wear shoes, but every time, she would get rid of them. All her life she’d gone barefoot, the thick calluses on the bottoms of her feet tougher than any shoe leather. Digging her toes into the mud reminded her that there was life despite the feelings of numbness within her.

I’m free. Blackjack thinks I’ll die. But I won’t. Somehow, I’ll survive. Just like I did before. Serena picked up the folds of her skirt and lifted her head. In front of her was a small knoll with several large oaks upon the crown. If the miners were heading north, she’d go south, following the river. In Ireland, she’d eaten roots, grubs and anything else in order to survive. Standing at the river’s edge, she could see mussels in the shallows, and a fish peeking out between rocks. There was food to survive upon.

Just as Serena turned to begin her trek south, she heard a woman’s piercing scream slice open the dawn. Jerking around, she nearly fell, dizzy from the sudden movement. Another scream, this time from a different woman, split the air. Children began to shriek in alarm. She heard a baby crying. Then, a gun went off, shattering the calm for miles around.

The cries of the women triggered something primal within Serena. Gripping her skirts, she moved clumsily up the riverbank. The bulrushes slowed her momentum, but after she reached the halfway point, the land smoothed out into velvet-green grass. Panting from the sudden exertion, Serena staggered to a halt at the top of the bank, leaning heavily against one of the rough-barked oak trees.

Her eyes widened. First terror struck her, and then revulsion. Below, the six gold miners had discovered a group of unarmed Indian women, with their babies lying in cradleboards nearby. Roots that had been gathered from the river’s bank lay scattered around the area as the miners attacked the women. Mules brayed and danced nervously. Gasping for breath, Serena gave a low cry of anguish. The miners had chased down the women and were in the process of raping them. One child, barely four years old, lay dead. Serena saw another woman holding her baby to her breast as a black-bearded miner ran after her, hunting her as if she were little more than a game animal. The children!

Hatred spurred Serena into action. For two months she’d been tortured by a white man. She’d endured rape and incredible pain from the constant beatings. And now these filthily clad miners were going to rape these innocent, unarmed women. Without thinking, Serena grabbed a long oak limb. Her hands were small but her fingers were long, and she wrapped them around the huge club.

“No!” she shrieked, flying down the bank, her hair streaming like a red banner behind her. “You won’t hurt them! You won’t!” Lifting the club above her head, Serena allowed the momentum of the slope to carry her into the fray, surprising the miners, who had dropped their guns to rape the Indian women.

Evening Star, mother of a two-month-old baby boy, gripped the cradleboard to her breast. Her eyes widened enormously as she saw a white woman with red hair flying down the hill, screeching at the top of her lungs. The miner who had been chasing her jerked to a halt, equally surprised. He had no time to yell a warning to his busy comrades. Evening Star saw the wildness in the white woman’s green eyes as she brought the oak branch down hard on the miner’s head. The black-bearded one fell with a grunt, unconscious.

Before Evening Star could say anything, she saw the white woman whirl around, leaping toward another miner who had taken down her older sister, Redwing. Sobbing, she gripped her baby, realizing that Redwing was dead. Satisfaction soared through her as the red-haired woman brought down the club on the murderer’s neck. A crack split the air. The second miner toppled like a felled ox, his back broken. Just reward for killing her sister!

Placing her baby beneath the protection of a clump of willows, Evening Star ran back to help defend the women of her village. She, too, picked up a dead tree limb. Then, noticing the red-haired woman was in danger, Evening Star cried out a warning.

Serena saw a brown-bearded miner hesitate, his pants down. An Indian woman lay unconscious beneath him. Mules were braying and stampeding in all directions, mud being kicked up everywhere. The miner fumbled toward his holster, but it lay too far away from him to retrieve before Serena got to him. At the last second before she charged him, a crazed mule began kicking out viciously with his rear feet. The second kick caught the miner in the head just as he stretched across the muddy earth to reach the gun. In seconds, he was dead.

“Bitch!” a blond-bearded miner roared at Serena. “You’re gonna die!” And he jerked up his trousers.

Serena saw the miner lunge for the closest weapon—a limb of a tree that was twice as long and thick as the one she carried. A baby, no more than three months old, lay in a cradleboard on the ground between the miner and herself. The baby was in danger if she charged the miner.

The blonde scooped up the limb, his blue eyes gleaming with hatred as he whirled back upon the red-haired woman. “You’re dead, bitch!” he roared.

Unleashing further rage, Serena threw her weapon as hard as she could at the miner, and ran forward to pick up the child. Escape! We have to escape! The miner ducked her poorly aimed tree limb and scrambled after her. Her legs rubbery from fatigue, Serena tripped over the hem of her long skirt. Holding the baby to her breast, she fell forward. At the last moment, she twisted to her side. Her shoulder and hip took most of the impact, absorbing the shock of the fall instead of the baby.

“No!” Evening Star shrieked, running toward the miner who stalked the red-haired one and Redwing’s infant daughter. She lifted the branch, hoping to frighten away the half-dressed miner. It was no use! Despair filled Evening Star. She increased her forward speed, hoping to protect the white woman and her sister’s daughter. Too late! Too late! Evening Star saw the miner raise the limb like a mighty sledgehammer above his head as he loomed over the crouching white woman. As she struggled closer, Evening Star could see the defiance and hatred in the white woman’s eyes as she faced her enemy, unafraid. To her bosom she clutched the cradleboard, protecting Redwing’s daughter.

Serena stared up into the blond miner’s angry blue eyes. Her hatred of him as a man knew no bounds. His arms were thick and hairy, looking more like oak than human appendages. He was built like a bull. As he raised the limb that would strike and probably kill her, Serena no longer cared. What mattered was the tiny baby clinging to her breast. It was a good trade, she thought in those seconds that slowed to a crawl as she saw him lift the club to kill her. Her life wasn’t worth living. But the baby had a chance, undefiled and untouched by whites.

Something commanded Serena to look beyond the miner who would take her life. An eerie calm filled her as she lifted her eyes to a hill not far away from where she knelt. An Indian warrior on a black horse appeared at the top, his bow drawn back, the arrow pointed down at her. At that moment, the sun brimmed the horizon, sending blinding shafts of light across the land, illuminating the warrior in blinding radiance. Serena had expected herself to feel revulsion and hatred for the Sioux warrior because he was a man. She felt anything but that. There was a calmness about him, an energy that radiated from him just as the sun’s rays enveloped him and his horse. He was dressed in buckskin, his thick black hair in two braids, with brown and white golden eagle feathers attached to his head.