Forever Young Birth Of A Nation (60 page)

As usual she knocked softly at his door
sometime around two o’clock in the morning and as usual, he
answered with a pistol trained on her until he saw who it was. She
said “Good morning Mr. Culper. 355 here with a package from Mr.
Culper Jr. It is quite urgent.”

“Very well, Cosette. I’ll handle it somehow.
We have a problem.”

“What is it?”

“I have no one to take it today.”

“I’ll take it across myself.”

“That is a large body of water to cross. I
have experienced sailors who do that for us. I can’t let you do
it.”

“I’m not afraid, sir. There is a fair
southerly wind tonight. Get me a dory fitted with a sail and I will
take it there. I can return when the wind allows.”

Woodhull paced the floor a bit, wanting to
open the package, but knowing that it was dangerous to their cause
for them to even know what the contents of any communique said. He
had only been allowed to open a part of the first one that Cosette
brought him in order to verify her.

“All right. I’ll send word to Culper Jr.
that you took it across instead of our men here. They are all being
watched by British even now and can’t make a move for us. If he
thinks it merits a duplicate, he can send it again.”

“I’ll need a compass and a heading.”

What about your string of horses?”

Caught by surprise, Cosette smoothly lied,
saying “I have pastured them some eight miles south of here and I
stayed off the road from there onward. I thought British dragoons
might be ahead. Anyway, they will be fine there. We had better get
going now. I don’t want to be out on the sound when the sun rises
if possible. The Brits might want to haul me aboard and ask why I
am out there” she said as she thought
we vampires do not like
open water in small vessels on sunny days.

The two departed in the darkness then, and
Priscilla who was outside listening intently knew what was
happening. Handing Cosette his compass, he said “The heading would
be three four zero if it was calm, but with this southwesterly
wind, you will want to bear three zero zero. Your goal is ten miles
west of Bridgeport at the shore itself. A mounted rider with his
own number will meet you. If he’s not there, you must try to find
him or stay concealed until you see him looking for you.”

In minutes Cosette had bid him farewell and
had cast off, heading across the sound. Not more than two minutes
after she had cast off, a figure approached her in the water,
swimming as fast as a dolphin. Cosette heard the approach and saw
Priscilla reaching up toward the gunwale to clamber aboard. She was
up and in like a flash, laughing as she said “I’ve never sailed
before, Cosette.”

“You won’t like it if the sun rises and we
are still on open water. I can take it, but I don’t know if you
can. Can you be absent long enough if we have to return through
Connecticut by land?”

“Yes. Three days.

“All right then. I’m glad for the
company.”

“What do you think is so important that they
would take a chance like this?”

“I don’t know. I only get the ones that need
to get here fast. There is another who carries the bulk of the
packages.”

In fact, what neither Cosette nor Priscilla
knew was that they were carrying details of a plot to capture
General George Washington himself.

Ian and Moon Owl had come to where the two
rivers met and now were proceeding more slowly, knowing that the
Shawnee village was somewhere in the vicinity. Eventually they
caught the faintest scent of smoke and began to follow that to its
source. The village was in a large level place alongside of the
river itself and the two kept approaching it from downwind to be
certain that if dogs were present, they would not catch their
scent. They both cached their rucksacks and hats in the bushy
foliage of a low growing tree near the river so as not to be so
easily noticed as intruders in the darkness. Each took one flask
and drained it quickly for energy.

Silently climbing a tree they looked out
over the scene, trying to see where the captives might be in the
darkness. There were no sentries as the people felt secure, being
deep inside of their tribal lands. Ian whispered “We will have to
go straight into the place now and begin to search for them. It’ll
be slow.”

Silently they both bounded out of the
treetop and glided like two shadows toward the village. They glided
past the back of a longhouse to a large central cooking fire that
had burned down to a sizable pile of glowing coals and approached
another long house, one of nine. Ian whispered “You go in and
search this one, and I will take the next. We will meet back here.
Look for a group who might be bound. If we’re lucky they’ll still
be all together.”

The two of them then searched through the
first two longhouses and met some ten minutes later and then split
up again to try two more of them. Ian glided silently through the
place, stopping only now and then to peer intently at larger groups
of people. In each longhouse there was a central hole in the roof
for smoke to escape from the fire. It being well past midnight, the
fires in each of the longhouses were well burnt down to only
glowing embers and provided only dim light in the gloomy interior.
Again they came out and met having not seen them. This was repeated
until they approached the last two longhouses.

Moon Owl glided silently into one and
shortly after entering she was startled to see a brave stand up and
start her way in the dim light. He did not seem alarmed so she
feigned being one of them and just lay down among a small group
where she had been standing. The brave passed her by and went
outdoors to go and relieve himself. As quickly as he had gone out
of the door, she was up and immediately she noticed a gap of some
twenty feet or more between the others and one group at the very
back of the longhouse.

Gliding closer she saw that there were nine
women and two little girls all bound. Quickly she moved among them
and lay down near them, posing as if she was bound and watching the
door for the brave to return.

Soon enough he did and went straight to his
place after looking in her direction. She waited a bit and then she
clamped her hand over the mouth of one of the women and whispered
to her “We are here to free you. Be silent.” Then she cut her bonds
and moved to the next one. It took several minutes to free them and
until she did, she could not even look to see if she could try to
cut a way out of the place. She saw a place that looked promising
so she began to quietly work at it, cutting the elm bark and
rawhide ties to see if a hole might be made.

As she worked she was startled to see a hand
come through the little hole and wave at her. She wriggled her way
to where she could put her ear to the hole and Ian whispered “Stop
that. They’ll hear you. I’m going to make a distraction on the
other side of the village and then you can make all of the noise
you want. Say ‘yes’ if you understand.”

“Yes” she whispered.

Ian glided away and found his way to the
rear of the furthest long house from the one where the captives
were and in under a minute had taken a pot near the fire and dumped
its contents, using a stick to rake a sizable amount of hot coals
into the thing. Soon enough he had a fire started at the rear of
the longhouse, and had added some tinder to it. He silently glided
back to the one where Moon Owl and the captives waited and
whispered through the hole to her. She put her hand through it and
he kissed it and whispered “Be ready now. As soon as the hollering
starts, I will cut a big hole here.”

He had no sooner said that than they all
heard a cry of “Fire! Fire!” quickly other voices began to cry
‘fire’ too and those in the long houses awakened and began to run
to their doors.

Moon Owl watched intently from her place as
the people nearly to a man ran out the door and she said in a low
voice “Now, Ian!”

He took his sword and put it through the
hole and lifted mightily, holding the blade at an angle, ripping
the wall as he pulled and sawed through the rawhide and bark. After
getting a slot some three feet tall, he sheathed his sword and
grabbing one side of the opening he ripped it back away from the
other as Moon Owl did the same with the other side. The little
girls came through first and then the women began to come through
one by one.

The whole camp was in an uproar by now and
the braves and women both were carrying vessels back and forth from
the river to try to extinguish the blaze. A brave came running back
into the longhouse to wake everyone and roust them to help. His
eyes met those of Moon Owls and she instantly made them glow
brightly. He was stunned for just a second to see a demon with
glowing eyes taking the captives through the hole and before he
could raise the alarm, she had unsheathed her sword and rocketed
some forty feet in the blink of an eye decapitating him. The
Shawnee women and children screamed and ran out of the door in a
panic as Moon Owl vanished through the hole in the wall.

She and Ian each picked up one of the two
little girls and he said to the women “Follow us now or die!” They
ran to the darkness of the forest then and went for some four
hundred feet before veering off to the north for the river. Ian and
Moon Owl leaped the river with the children and setting them down
on the far bank they leaped across and took two of the women and
did that again. By then the others had entered the water and swam
across.

Picking up the two little girls, the two led
the women to the north around a quarter mile before stopping near a
rock outcropping some thirty feet tall. Ian rocketed back to the
village and bounded over the river downstream from the place,
rocketing to the low tree where he had cached his and Moon Owl’s
hats and rucksacks. Retrieving those he paused to look at the
pandemonium in the village. By now the blazing longhouse was
lighting up the scene and the people had scattered away from it,
and were standing around in groups while watching it burn, but even
now there was a general alarm as more braves listened to the
hysterical women who were trying to drag them to the longhouse
where they had seen a demon kill a brave. Ian stood behind the
tree, pondering what to do and making up his mind, he bounded away,
leaping the river and rocketing off to the north toward Moon Owl
and the captives. “You stay with them here. I am going back there
to discourage any of them from following us.” Leaving their hats
and rucksacks there he rocketed away to the village.

Circling the burning longhouse he had an
idea and when he found an end where no one was standing he rocketed
toward it and leaping high he came down in the middle of the flames
and immediately jumped out of them in a single bound landing right
in front of the greatest number of the braves with his eyes
glowing. To most at that moment it appeared as if he had literally
materialized from the burning structure itself and a great cry of
fear arose from all as they shrank back in terror. The few who
thought they saw him bound in and then out of the flames were as
terrified of the sight of him as anyone else, but the majority of
them were convinced at that moment that he had indeed materialized
from the inferno itself.

His eyes blazing Ian shouted in the Iroquois
tongue “I am Night Stalker of the Seneca. I have come to take back
our people. We leave you in peace tonight, but if you follow us, we
will kill you.” He whirled then and bounded back into the inferno
and then bounded back out the other side of it where he had
entered. A great cry went up then, as to most it appeared as if he
might have jumped back into the blazing long house itself and just
disappeared. The few who did see him running out of the fire saw
him heading southward into the forest, away from the river.

Within only a few minutes after that he had
circled back to rejoin Moon Owl and the others. Organizing them
into a column he led them northward slowly through the night, Moon
Owl trailing to listen and watch for pursuit. Ian and she each
carried one of the little girls. They walked nearly a half mile
before leaving the noise of the confused villagers behind them.

It was evening in Paris and the family all
sat in the opulent parlor of the Laforge suite on the Champs
Elysees as Celeste began. “Ian is now in Pennsylvania and has just
now rescued some of the Seneca women and children who were carried
away.. James and Melissa are now with Cosette in New York City and
have leased a house. They will help her to watch the coven there
that Yvonne started. Stuart’s still working at the Millhouse Tool
Company in New York City and the two of them are still living with
the Millhouses.”

“Is there any chance that Ian will come to
New York” asked Aimee.

Marie said “Cosette left a note in James and
Melissa’s home that she was alive and waiting in New York at the
Millhouse home.”

Henri said “If he goes to Boston, he’ll
surely find that note. Didn’t we hear that he goes there to get
James before they report to wherever the American Army is spending
the winter each year?”

“Yes. That’s been his habit.”

“Oh good” said Aimee, as Jennifer put an arm
around her and gave her a kiss. “He’ll finally find her then! Oh
this is such good news, everybody!” Several of them nodded
agreement and several positive comments were made then as Marie
caught Celeste’s eye and each gave the other a meaningful look.

Sophia caught that look between the two and
wondered about it thinking
there is more to this than they are
telling us now. What could it be?

Henri said “We now have wanted posters all
over Paris and Marseille seeking one Arnaud Moreau for sedition. He
won’t dare try to establish another coven very soon now.”