Through the Fire (The Native American Warrior Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

potential wrenched ankle. Fallen limbs, even entire trunks, blocked her way and had to be scrambled over or gotten around.
    Sucking in ragged gasps of air, she snagged her foot on a root and sprawled onto her knees with a strangled cry. She was only bruised, but tears threatened again and pounding filled her chest. Yesterday’s injury had taken too much from her and she was totally out of her element. None of the strategies from her former life mattered in this wild place. The rules were different here, and she did not know them.
    She lay on the trail in despair. Her chest and sides heaved against the boned corset with each constricted breath. How long until someone overtook her? Likely Meshewa had feared her drowned and lengthened her lead by taking the time to search the pool. Then he would pursue her or alert Shoka.
    At that thought, she forced herself back to her feet and staggered on. Exhaustion soon ate away the edge anxiety had given her, nor was fear sufficient to compel her shaky legs forward. Her body screamed to stop. Thirsty again, she reeled down the bank to the stream, casting about desperately for solutions while gulping down more water.
    If she couldn ’t go on, she must hide and resume her flight later. But where? A large hollow darkened the base of an oak a few steps up from the water—no, bugs and hairy spiders might lurk there. She spied a flat stone wide enough to huddle on and surrounded on three sides with leafy cover. The branches curving above it formed a sort of tent. Like a child’s secret place, it would conceal her.
    She crawled inside, curling miserably into a ball. Sunlight couldn ’t penetrate her green enclosure, and she shivered in her damp shift. She’d surely freeze tonight.
    The temptation rose in her to give up and sun on a warm stone until her recapture, but she wasn ’t one to concede defeat. Nor did she care to discover what grisly punishment was dealt out to runaways.
    Would Shoka be brutal? He couldn ’t torture or kill her if he hoped to sell her for a goodly sum. But he might be too angry to consider the coins she’d fetch him.
    Bleak thoughts make poor bed fellows. Though bone-weary, Rebecca dozed only fitfully, waking to an ominous rattling noise. She sat bolt upright. A great snake lay coiled just outside her shaded enclosure, its body as thick as her arm. Glittering eyes stared into her lair. Or was it his?
    Abandoning all hope of remaining undetected, she scrambled shrieking to the back of her hideout.

 
    Chap ter Four
    A woman ’s frantic screams tore through the forest above the swiftly flowing water. Rebecca! Shoka jerked from the footprints he’d bent over. What now?
    She ’d left a trail of broken twigs, strands of gold hair caught on branches, and indentations in the spongy earth that any fool could follow. She had no more knowledge how to survive in these harsh mountains than a child. Incensed by her outrageous escape and the accompanying stab of dread for her welfare, he sprinted toward her cries, hoping he wasn’t too late and cursing himself for caring.
    He spotted her leafy hideout. The source of her terror lay coiled just outside the only entrance, an enormous rattlesnake. A chill seized him. It was uncoiling.
    “Rebecca. Be still.”
    The tomahawk he threw on the tail of his warning sliced through the air in calculated revolutions and thunked down, severing the snake ’s head. He tossed the writhing form aside and kicked the loathsome head out of the way then peered inside her shelter. She crouched in the shadows, awash in streaming hair and seemingly unharmed.
    Relief at her narrow escape only heightened his anger. Tight-lipped, he beckoned to her. “Come out.”
    She crawled shakily to him and lifted wide eyes fringed with brown lashes. “Is it truly gone?”
    Shoka gave a terse nod. Viewing her exquisite face in full daylight set an unwanted drum pounding in his gut. He looked into eyes that weren ’t merely one shade of blue, but an