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“Ina, you are to go on with the rest of our people to our new home while I and some warriors will backtrack and do what we must to stop the soldiers,” High Hawk said, searching his mother’s eyes when he heard her gasp again with fear.
“Ina, this is the only way it can be done,” High Hawk continued, still trying to make her understand how it must be. He was chief. His word was final. “As I was telling Joylynn, I will take some warriors with me and backtrack until we come to a place where we can shoot down at the soldiers. You and the rest of our people will move quickly onward toward our new home. It will be a safe haven, where no soldiers will be able to find you.”
Blanket Woman’s eyes filled with tears. She grabbed High Hawk’s hands, desperately holding them. “No,” she cried. “You cannot do this. You cannot go and draw fire on yourself. You will not return to your mother and your people alive. My son, you . . . will . . . die.”
“Ina, I must go,” High Hawk said firmly. “There is no other way. And I am skilled in ways of eluding those who hunt our people. Trust me. Go now with the rest of the Wolf band. I will join you all again soon.”
“I must go with you and your warriors,” Joylynn blurted out, drawing High Hawk’s eyes as well as his mother’s.
“No!” Blanket Woman shouted. “You will be the cause of my son’s demise. You cannot be allowed to ride with High Hawk and the warriors. You will be in the way, and . . . it . . . is taboo.”
Blanket Woman broke into tears. She sobbed into her hands, her body trembling from crying so hard. “I have already lost one son on this treacherous journey,” she said. “I . . . cannot . . . lose another.”
High Hawk swept his mother into his arms in an effort to comfort her. “Ina, I am my people’s leader,” he said softly. “It is up to me to guard them against all harm. That is what I am doing today. If I do not do this thing, I will be forced to step down as chief, for I would be a coward not to do what I can to protect them.”
“I know you believe what you are going to do is right, and I will no longer argue against it,” Blanket Woman said, easing from his arms and gazing up into his eyes. “But, High Hawk, please do not allow that woman to go with you. She has brought ill fortune into our lives. Why can you not see that?”
Ignoring what his mother said about Joylynn, knowing she spoke out of jealousy, High Hawk looked slowly at Joylynn. He knew that it would be all but impossible to keep her from going with him. He could see the determination in her eyes.
And he liked that about her.
Her determination.
Her pride.
Her courage.
He gazed into his mother’s eyes again. “I cannot deny this woman the chance to best that man whose face is ugly with moles,” he said tightly. “He harmed Joylynn in the worst way. He raped her. And he survived the recent ambush. He cannot be allowed to bring doom to my people, for it is he, Ina, not Joylynn, who has brought so much heartache and pain into our lives.”
Blanket Woman walked away from High Hawk and Joylynn without another word. She stretched out on the travois where she was riding, pulled a blanket completely over herself, and hid her face.
Joylynn and High Hawk saw her do this, then gazed into each other’s eyes.
“She will soon realize it is too hot to keep the blanket over her face, as she will realize one day that what I must do now is the right thing for our people,” High Hawk said, taking Joylynn’s hands in his. “Are you truly certain you wish to accompany me?”
“I am truly certain,” Joylynn said, squaring her shoulders. “I could not stay behind, afraid of what might be happening to you. I must be at your side and know, firsthand. Thank you for allowing it.”
He hugged her, then walked away and, with Three Bears accompanying him, managed to go to everyone and explain what must be done. Fear was evident in his people’s eyes, yet, knowing that their chief was a great leader, they trusted his decisions.
Having chosen the warriors whom he wished to accompany him down the mountainside, High Hawk led them and Joylynn back down the path on which they had traveled.
Hearing the thundering of the hooves, Blanket Woman lowered the blanket away from her face. She turned and saw the last of the warriors as they disappeared from sight around a slight bend in the mountain pass.
“Tirawahut, please keep them safe,” she whispered, tears falling from her eyes. “Tirawahut, please bring my only remaining son, High Hawk, back to me. If I should lose him, I would lose my reason for living.”
Still crying, she stretched out on the travois, clinging to it as the warrior who was dragging it continued along his way.
The Wolf band was fleeing discovery by the white eyes. The looks of hope on all their faces had changed to fear, for once again, their universe was being torn apart by the soldiers under the command of the great white chief in Washington!
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
It was more dangerous than Joylynn had imagined as they backtracked along the mountain pass.
She kept an eye on the location of the soldiers and the outlaws with her binoculars. She felt sad to think about what lay ahead. More soldiers would have to die. Although High Hawk was a man of peace, his hand had been forced now more than once, in order to preserve his people’s right to live. The cavalry seemed intent on wiping the Pawnee off the face of the earth.
Joylynn held tightly to her reins with her left hand, while with her right she held the binoculars steady as she peered through them.
Before her eyes was the man she hated with a passion.
