Kestrel kissed her daughter’s forehead in relief. “Let us go and try to sleep. The sky is clear and we’ll have a full moon tonight. Maybe we can start walking again at midnight.”
The oaks stretched their crooked branches toward her like beckoning arms as she neared her camp. How beautiful the trees were. The afternoon sun shimmered off of their tiny green buds.
So relieved was she that she didn’t notice that the birds had stopped singing and that the crickets no longer chirped in the grass. Kestrel got on her knees and crawled into the dark interior of her lodge with Cloud Girl still pressed to her shoulder.
She smelled his male scent before she saw him sitting on her bedding in the rear. A ragged scream tore from her throat as she threw herself backward out on the ground and frantically stumbled to her feet.
He caught her by the arm and whirled her around. Kestrel clutched Cloud Girl tightly. A broad smile split his young face. He couldn’t have been more than sixteen summers, but he stood eleven hands tall and had broad, muscular shoulders. A long black braid hung over his left shoulder.
“I heard your baby crying,” he said. Then more softly, as though speaking to himself, “A woman and a baby. Yes … a woman who looks beaten up … and a newborn baby.” He scrutinized Cloud Girl. “Oh, this is a great day. I think that maybe Buffalo Bird has just become a rich man.”
“What are you talking about?” He kept a firm hold on her arms, as though afraid she might try to run. “I met a Trader. An ugly old man. He offered many wonderful trade goods to the man who could track down his runaway wife.” He chuckled. “You’re her, aren’t you?”
“Who?”
“Kestrel… from the Bear-Looks-Back Clan. Lambkill’s woman. You have a funny accent. Like you’re from the marsh country.”
Her breathing went shallow as hope drained from her soul like water from a torn basket. Her knees wanted to shake, but she wouldn’t let them. She could see his indecision. He looked her up and down and peered at her face, as though memorizing the bruises and the festered gash across her forehead. With a violent wrench, Kestrel twisted loose from his grip.
“No. I’m not!” she said. “My name is Lame Antelope and I’m from Otter Clan Village on the seal Who are you?”
He studied her through narrowed eyes. “You’re two days from home, Lame Antelope … why?”
“That is my business.” Only two days? Blessed Spirits, I’m closer than I thought. So close!
The youth ground his teeth thoughtfully for a moment. As though testing her, he said, “That Trader, he was as crazy as a foaming-mouth dog. If he’d been my husband, I would have run away, too.”
“Crazy?” she asked, unable to help herself. “What do you mean? What did he do?”
Buffalo Bird laughed in disgust. “He carries a dried-out baby around in his pack. Whenever he sees a camp fire, he and his brother—Tannin is his name—walk into the camp carrying that dead boy before them.”
Kestrel’s heart lurched. She fought to keep her face blank while she tried to figure out how it had happened. Had Lambkill searched the shoreline looking for her trail? And that’s when he’d found the baby boy? Her heart pounded nauseatingly. Had he also found the cave where … Yes. He must have. He knew she’d had twins. “A woman and a newborn baby.”
Panic gripped her like the fists of doom. She longed to ask when Buffalo Bird had talked to Lambkill, and where. Instead, she hoisted Cloud Girl up onto her shoulder again and patted her back furiously. A loud burp erupted from Cloud Girl’s mouth. Cloud Girl seemed surprised by it; she turned to peer questioningly at Kestrel. “Good girl,” Kestrel said. “Can you manage another one?” She patted Cloud Girl even harder, and the baby burped again.
Buffalo Bird watched.in irritation. “So you’re not this Kestrel, eh? Well, it doesn’t matter.” “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that I have to take you to Lambkill anyway. Just to be sure. I wouldn’t want to chance losing my fortune.” He gripped her arm tightly. “Come on. My lodge is much bigger than yours, and I killed a deer this morning. You can cook it for me and my brothers for dinner.”
“My clan will kill you for this!” she exclaimed. “You can’t just kidnap me and my baby for no reason. My family will come looking!”
“Let them. I have many brothers with weapons. Four of them are at my camp right now.”
He roughly hauled her up the slope by her sleeve. His moccasins shished lightly in the wet grass, a warrior’s wary step. “Let go of me!” Kestrel said. “You must at least let me