Free Wolf Shadow’s Promise by Karen Kay Page A

to follow his trail.”
    â€œHe left a trail? That’s odd. He usually covers his tracks well.”
    â€œIt was a path of blood, Mama.”
    â€œOf blood? He’s not—”
    â€œNo, I think he’ll be fine now. For a few days, he rana terrible fever and I didn’t know if he would pull through, but I think the worst is behind him.”
    â€œSo he’s recovered?”
    Alys nodded.
    â€œAnd that’s where you’ve been these past few days, I would assume?”
    Another nod.
    â€œI had wondered. You were gone for so long each day and seemed in such a hurry, even when you were here.” Her mother looked thoughtful. “A trail of blood, you say? Did anyone else see it, do you suppose?”
    â€œI don’t think so.”
    Ma Clayton seemed to settle down somewhat, though her eyes took on a faraway look. “He told me what you had done for him when you were young,” she said. “I don’t think he ever knew that you were my daughter, I had never mentioned you, but he told me how he’d come to know about the caves.” She gave her only child a warm look. “That was a brave thing you did for him. Why did you never tell me about it?”
    Alys shrugged. “I was afraid for them, the Indians and for myself, too, partly. I was too scared to say a word about it.”
    â€œI understand.” Her mother took Alys’s hand into her own and patted it, continuing, “I don’t rightly know when the few white people in this town came to be in such a powerful grip of hate. I can still remember the first time your father and I took a look at this land—right here where this town is. We fell in love with it. There was nothing here back then, not in the fur trade days, and making friends with the Indians was a necessity if we wanted to stay alive. Why, I’ve thought more times than I can count that if it weren’t for the caves and the legacy to you down there, I’d have left here long ago.”
    â€œTo go back east?”
    â€œEast? Land sakes no, why east? I don’t know anyone back there. No, I’ve often wondered what it would be like if I should go spend some time with the Indians. I have a hankering to see how it might feel to be free again.”
    â€œBut we live in a free country now, Mama.”
    â€œIn this town?”
    Alys grinned. Her mother had a point. Although the country was free, here one had to toe the line with certain people, whose tongues were known to be more than a little unfriendly. That is, if one didn’t want to find one’s life in a shambles.
    Luckily for her, her mother had never cared to cater to such people. “I never knew that about you, Mama, that you yearned to be with the Indians.”
    â€œWell, I never told you or many others about it. I wanted a better life for you. That’s why I sent you east.”
    â€œOnly to have me return as soon as I was able. I never really fit in back there.”
    â€œI’m sorry.”
    â€œI learned a lot, though,” Alys added as an aside in the hopes that her mother might not think her efforts had been wasted.
    â€œWhat’s he doing now?”
    â€œMoon Wolf?”
    Her mother nodded.
    â€œOh,” a wave of heat washed over Alys’s skin and she prayed that if there were any color in her face, her mother wouldn’t notice. “He’s probably asleep,” she offered. “I left him with the wolf to guard him. I guess I’d better get back and see how he is faring.”
    â€œYes, you’re probably right. You go on ahead, then. And treat him well. He’s a right honorable young man.”
    â€œHmmm,” Alys uttered noncommittally.
    â€œGo on, now. There’s some fresh bandages in the drawerover there and you can take him some of your father’s old clothes.”
    Alys drew in her breath in a hiss. Had she mentioned that Moon Wolf lay naked in the caves?
    â€œIf I know