Witch Hunt (27 page)

“I quit. You win. Let’s go home.” Her throat was parched and raspy.

Magic Man grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down beside him.

“Please? Please let me go home.”

Magic Man shook his head, and in her own language, in her own mind, she heard his thoughts.
You have great power, but you lack harmony with the earth. You’ll never be truly great until the earth becomes your friend and not your enemy
.

Rose was startled. She had experienced psychic moments but never one such as this.
How do I do that?
her mind asked.

Thank the earth for the pain because it’s a gift you can use to go beyond.

She tried to feel thankful for her suffering.

If we never knew pain in this world, we would never seek to explore the other one.

Rose thought about the world in her mirror.
Tell me what you know of the other world.

What happens here, happens there first. Medicine power is captured there.

She silently thanked Magic Man for the insight, and settled down to continue the ritual. She conjured gratitude for her misery, and soon relaxed. The pain was there, the exhaustion was there, the thirst was there, but she didn’t suffer. The remainder of the day passed quickly.

That night, when the star beings summoned her, she went. As soon as one of them appeared in the archway and beckoned, her consciousness passed through the archway into the star world.

Rose found herself in a world that was resplendent with light and color. Her senses were heightened, and her emotions intense. A rush of giddiness filled her as she realized that she had indeed passed into another reality. She looked down to see that her body was naked and pulsated with a bright light. The star being who greeted her in the doorway stood only to the height of her waist. He — she didn’t know why, but he seemed to her to be a male — took her hand and led her into the waiting arms of the other star people. As if she were weightless, the group of six lifted her up, and, holding her above their heads, flew through the foggy air. The sensation of flight was exciting, and she laughed. She had never felt so light and free, and she was intoxicated by the experience. All too soon they put her down, and she found herself at the feet of an old woman. The woman, completely human in appearance, was dressed in a flowing black gown and had bright gray eyes, which perfectly matched a bright gray head of hair. She smiled at Rose, and, as it had been earlier with Magic Man, she heard the woman’s words in her mind.

Welcome to reality, my daughter.

Is this the ultimate reality?
Rose asked.

The old woman laughed.
Mercy, no. Just reality as it directly applies to your own world.

Who are you?

One of your teachers.

What do you have to teach me?

The old woman handed Rose a small box made of gold. It resembled a round jewelry box and had an image of the sun engraved on its lid.
This is your gift. It’s time you truly used it.

Rose opened the box and was blinded by the bright fire it contained. She tried to avert her stinging eyes from its ferocity, but couldn’t do so. Then, as if she were a moth being irresistibly drawn to the flame, she entered and became one with the fire.

The previous definitions of her body were gone, and she was a mass of heat, light, and energy in combustion. The choleric nature of the element threatened to overpower her, and she successfully fought back the anger and irritation that arose. Courage and enthusiasm replaced the disagreeable emotions, and for the first time in her life, Rose experienced her power with passion.

For an undeterminable period of time, Rose reveled in her element. Then a cooling wind began to blow. In a startled flash of comprehension, she knew that Magic Man had found her.

At first she didn’t know how to react to the confrontation. How could fire destroy air? She tried to resist his efforts. She concentrated on intensifying her own nature to counteract the calming effect of his, but he seemed to be the stronger force. In a moment of inspiration, she realized that she could destroy him by consuming him. Her attitude changed, and she devoured the air, using it to fuel her own fury. Within a space of time that seemed like moments, her might became so intense that it literally exploded upon itself. The fireball self-destructed, and in the wake of its demise she found herself back on the high bluff where her journey had begun. Only she wasn’t in material form. She stood by the sweat lodge and observed both of their unconscious bodies. However, the form of Magic Man had a luminescence about it that hers did not have. She assumed that the body of energy that housed consciousness had returned to his form, while hers, obviously, had not. She thought about what he had told her earlier regarding the nature of the other world. Her mind was still conscious in the world of causes — perhaps because of her victory — and his was not. Perhaps the reward for her success was the possibility of engineering an escape. She glanced up at the location of the moon and judged it was still the middle of the night. Urged on by instinct, she approached his body and wished for something to tie him up with. Instantly, a glowing length of energy rope appeared in her hands, and she used it to bind him.

Then she wished herself to be where Caroline was, and her consciousness was transported to where a small bonfire was burning out on the prairie not far from the Cheyenne village. Caroline was lying on a buffalo robe while an Indian whom Rose knew was called Wolf Tooth — although how she knew his name was a mystery to her — was engaged in sexual intercourse with her. Startled, Rose didn’t know at first how to proceed. However, she soon reasoned that she could bind him as well, even given the circumstances. When she wrapped the glowing rope around him, he stopped moving and became rigid. Rose could feel Caroline’s confusion as she pushed the stiff, unconscious body off her and pulled on her clothes.

Good. I hope you’re dying, you drunken bastard,
were the thoughts Rose heard from Caroline before she wished herself to be with Brady and Laura.

She found the children asleep in their lodge on robes near where their adoptive mother was sleeping. She bound the woman and her husband then wished herself back into her body.

With a start, she awoke. She carefully eased away from Magic Man, but her caution wasn’t necessary. His slumber was sound and would remain so for quite a while. She knew that he’d eventually be able to overcome his bonds and awaken, but she hoped it wouldn’t be until she and her family were safely away. And she knew that after he revived, he would also be able to bring the other three around. She stood over him. In his way, he had been kind to her, and she had learned a great deal during her short time with him. She put her hand on her belly, where, unbeknownst to him, his child was growing. She wondered, with the mingled essence of their respective powers, what kind of child she would bear. Before she turned away she bent and gave him a tender kiss.

Her ordeal had changed Caroline into a nervous, high-strung woman.

“Why did we have to bring these cows?” she asked Rose as they crossed the Platte River on horseback, urging on their three stolen cows — cows that had originally been stolen from their own wagon train by the Cheyenne.

“Because we’re going to need a stake when we get to the end of the line. I doubt if milk, cheese, and butter are readily available in the mining camps.”

“But they’ll slow us down, and the Indians will find us.” Caroline started to cry. “They’ll kill us.”

“They’ll kill us if they can catch up with us, but I started that fire to sidetrack them.” Rose looked back to the shore of the river and noted with approval the progress of the fire she made. The wind was taking it toward the Cheyenne camp. When Magic Man awoke, his priorities would be clear. He wouldn’t sacrifice his village to follow her.

“How do you know where we’re going?” Caroline asked.

“We follow the river south, and it’ll lead us to the gold camps.”

“Why don’t we just turn around and go home?”

Rose sighed. “Because the Rockies are closer, and besides, we don’t have any home left to go back to.”

The children were quiet. Laura rode with Rose, and Brady rode with his mother. Rose didn’t sense that they were necessarily pleased to have been rescued from the Cheyenne. They had found happiness in the lodge of the cheerful, fat squaw who adopted them. Now they were once again facing the unknown.

Rose had only taken two horses to minimize the Indian’s anger. Since buffalo was more highly prized by them than cattle, she hoped the missing cows wouldn’t incite them. She hadn’t wanted to create a situation that was unbearable for them to ignore with honor. She hoped that as a warrior people, they would respect the fact that some of their prisoners had managed escape. She thought that Magic Man probably wouldn’t feel a desperate need to retrieve her; her power had defeated his, and it was doubtful he would want a wife who was stronger than he. At least, that was what she hoped.

As they rode, Rose nibbled on one of the many cakes of pemmican she had brought along, and sipped the water her pouch contained. She had taken enough provisions to see them through until they reached their destination.

“Women alone. We’ll be raped by the men in the camps,” Caroline said. The whine in her voice grated on Rose’s nerves.

“I’ve heard that the men in the camps, for the most part, have good moral character. We’ll be all right.”

“So, what are we going to do, start a dairy?”

“To begin with. And then I’m going to look for gold.”

“Gold?” Caroline spat the word. “That’s what got us in this mess in the first place.”

“And gold will get us out of it, too.” That was something Rose didn’t doubt in the slightest.

At the junction of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek was the small settlement of Denver City. A half a day’s ride east of the Rockies, it was a tiny frontier town consisting of little more than a crude gathering of tents and hastily built cabins. When Rose, Caroline, Brady, and Laura arrived, it was already well into the month of October.

“This is pitiful,” Caroline said upon seeing the scrawny town that was, for them, the end of the road.

“If the rumors are true, it’ll grow,” Rose said.

A look of panic crossed Caroline’s face. “If the rumors are true? Oh, dear gods, what if they’re not?”

“Then, come spring, we’ll head for California and open a dairy farm. Ambrosia and Velvet Eyes are pregnant; could be one’s got a young bull in the oven, so we could eventually breed.” Rose’s patience was wearing thin. “Please, try not to think the worst. The worst is over. Now’s the time to muster some enthusiasm for our new beginning; if nothing else, do it for the sake of the children.”

Caroline started to protest, but pursed her lips and stopped herself.

Rose issued a sigh of relief.

A small contingent of men met the travelers when they stopped on the edge of town to water their horses and cattle. They eyed the newcomers — all dressed in Indian garb — with confusion.

“Howdy,” a tall, skinny man said in greeting. “I’m Zach. We don’t see many women in these parts.” He scratched his unkempt head of hair. “Ah, you look white, but you’re dressed red.”

“I’m Rose Hawthorne. This is my sister-in-law, Caroline Hunter, and her children. We survived an Indian attack on our wagon train. The Cheyenne took us, but we managed to escape.”