Eye of the Raven by Eliot Pattison Read Free Book Online Page B

"Might I ask one more favor?"
    Duncan, finding his tongue would not work, nodded.
    "Stay near the tree they pick," Conawago said, his breathing labored now. "I would like to gaze on the face of a friend. Then return the little god to her cave. It was a fool's errand." He smiled weakly then slipped into unconsciousness.
    Duncan pointed Hadley to a bucket with a rag hanging on its side and began cleaning the old man's wounds.
    "He . . . he speaks well," Hadley ventured over Duncan's shoulder.
    "I daresay he is the best-educated man in the fort. Conawago was brought up in Jesuit schools. He speaks English, French, and half a dozen native tongues. He knows more about healing than most doctors in Europe." Punctuating his words was a rustling sound from one of the darkened chambers further down the corridor. No doubt there were rats in the shadows. He pulled the linen bandage roll from his belt and began wrapping the broken finger against the adjacent one.
    "He had his knife out, McCallum. Why did he have his knife out if he was trying to tend my cousin's wounds?"
    Duncan did not reply at first, only searched the tail of Conawago's shirt. After a moment he showed Hadley where a small strip had been sliced away. "To cut a bandage. He is innocent."
    "That is for the court to decide."
    "Court? You mean Major Latchford, the Indian hater, and a mob of Virginians in the payroll of the Burke family?" When Hadley did not reply Duncan gestured to Conawago's shoulder. "Help me lean him against the wall, so he can drink more."
    When they lifted the ladle to Conawago's lips, his eyes fluttered open again. "Not me. You can do more for her," he said weakly, extending a trembling hand toward the shadow.
    Duncan hesitated, glancing at Hadley, who shrugged. A muffled cry rose from the darkness.
    The two figures were in the deepest and darkest of the chambers, and they reacted to the light of the lantern by burying their faces in the tattered sacks left them as blankets.
    "We mean you no harm," Duncan declared. Two wide, shining white eyes emerged from a blanket. The girl, in late adolescence, leaned over as if to protect the second figure, who lay under sackcloth, writhing. Duncan advanced slowly, his hands open before him, and knelt beside them. The figure in agony was a woman of perhaps thirty, her dark, handsome face contorted with as much fear as pain.
    Hadley groaned. The lantern fell from his fingers.
    "You know her?" Duncan asked as he grabbed the lantern.
    Now he saw that Hadley's face too was gripped in fear. "She ... they belong to Colonel Burke, back in Virginia." He said nothing more.
    Duncan lifted the lantern closer to the two prisoners. Their skin was a light cocoa color, African hints in their features.
    "Damn the French for toying with lives the way they do," Hadley murmured.
    "The French?" Duncan asked.
    "Rumors have spread like wildfire back home, from the Piedmont to the ports. Any slave who can make it to the French-controlled Ohio country will be granted their freedom and given land to work. A cheap way of blocking British plans."
    The girl had clearly recognized the Virginian. Tears were streaming down her face. "Mama needs help, Mr. Hadley."
    Duncan's companion seemed about to bolt.
    "Please, Mr. Hadley," the girl pleaded. "It's the only reason the soldiers found us. Mama cried out from all the pain."
    "Mokie ... no," Hadley answered, retreating a step.
    Duncan put a restraining hand on his arm. "I can't do this alone."
    "What do you mean?"
    "Fetch me clean blankets, even if you have to steal them from the major himself. The officers' quarters may have their stove banked for the night. Boil some water."
    "I don't understand."
    Duncan threw back the sacks covering the woman. "Your uncle's slave is about to have a baby."
    By the time Duncan emerged from the guardhouse the eastern trees were mottled with gray light. His heart sank as he saw men running to the officers' quarters, and he dropped onto a split log bench, too