"If all men were just there would be no need for valor."

Agesilaus

Chapter 1

Alkini Mathews stood rooted to the floor inside her neatly kept taproom. The message tacked to her front door was attached with a bloody knife. It was the third letter she'd found in as many days. With a trembling hand she pulled the knife from the wooden door and read the message. It was short and to the point, as the other two had been.

"Half-breed squaw. We citizens of Logan's Fort don't take kindly to your holding the title to our water. Sign it over to the town now or face the wrath of righteousness."

The exact spelling and punctuation indicated a high level of education. No one that Alkini knew in the settlement of Libertyville was that educated except for the Justice of the Peace, and he was receiving threatening letters too. There must be someone either employed by dissatisfied townspeople or an outside agitator had come among them. Either way, Alkini was scared.

As she leaned against her well-stocked bar for support the door opened and Thaddeus walked unsteadily across the floor. His face was white and his hands were shaking. In his right hand Alkini could see a wadded up piece of paper. She could imagine what was written upon it.

"I got another one, Alkini."

"So did I, Thaddeus." Alkini's voice was sympathetic as she reached out to pat Thaddeus' thin shoulder.

"I don't know how many more of these I can read. There's so much hate here!"

Alkini nodded. There seemed no one to turn to for help. She didn't feel that she could discuss her fears with any of the white townspeople since she didn't know who was behind the hateful letters. And the Cherokee settlers that had returned all kept to themselves as a precaution against the prejudice that had once again risen in the community that had been known as Logan's Fort. The threatening letters proved that the Cherokees' perceptions were correct.

The two friends and founders of Libertyville stood side by side, lost in thought. Alkini's mind traveled back more than a year to remember how Libertyville had been founded. A stranger had ridden into Logan's Fort with the title to Craw Greene's homestead. His subsequent actions had freed the town of Roark Logan's dictatorship.

A half-breed Cherokee like herself, Mingo's bravery and staunch defense of liberty had inspired the new town of Libertyville. If only Mingo had not ridden back to his own people perhaps he could confront this new effort at tyranny and defeat it too.

Suddenly Alkini's mind stopped. Like a compass needle pointing true north her mind focused on Mingo. A man so dedicated to freedom would be just the person to help her and Thaddeus. At the thought her pretty lips lifted into the first smile she'd produced in days. Thaddeus saw the smile and frowned.

"What are you thinking that's caused you to smile? There's nothing here to smile about that I can see!"

"Thaddeus, let's write to Mingo. I suddenly feel that he is the one to help us now as he did before. He knows our peculiar situation here. He'd come and help us, I know it!" Alkini walked quickly behind her bar and took out a paper and quill. Together she and Thaddeus composed a letter to Mingo explaining the tense situation in Libertyville and the threat felt by many Cherokee in the outlying cabins. Alkini added that she and Thaddeus had received three threatening letters thus far, and were feeling very vulnerable. Then she ending by asking for his help. Both she and Thaddeus signed the letter.

"Now, Thaddeus, who can we send to Boonesborough with this letter?"

"Don't you know any young Cherokee? It seems to me that Mingo would understand the problem here better if he could talk to one of your people. After all, the biggest threats seem to be directed at Cherokee settlers."

"That's a good idea. I do have the perfect person in mind." Alkini snatched her shawl from the hook by the door, walked rapidly through and trotted through her own door.

She arrived at her mother's cabin as the evening bird calls were spilling from the treetops. She tethered her borrowed horse to a small tree nearby and walked softly across the porch. She stood listening for several seconds before she opened the wooden door.

Her mother was bending over the fire stirring the evening stew. Before the fire, lying quietly beside each other, lay her two babies. The little boy was asleep, but her daughter looked at her with large dark eyes. Alkini reached down and lifted the baby to her shoulder. The soft warmth of the baby's body drained some of the tenseness from her own body.

Her mother straightened from the fire. "Alkini, why are you here? The babies are to be a secret. What if you were followed? I hear whispers of danger from your town every day. Whispers against you, my daughter." Kamama's eyes were boring into Alkini's.

The young woman turned from her mother and continued to hold her baby. Kamama continued. "What of the father? I hear whispers that he is not far away. You said that you feared his anger. You said that he would harm the babies. So why have you brought your danger to them now?"

Becoming aware of his sister's absence the little boy began to whimper. Kamama raised him to her shoulder and cuddled him. Over her mother's shoulder Alkini could see his bright eyes looking at her. His bright blue eyes. The baby had inherited his father's blue eyes, and Alkini was reminded of Roark Logan every time she saw the baby's eyes. Because of that feature, and that feature only, Alkini did not feel the same love for the little boy as she felt for his sister. The knowledge caused her heart to shrink every time but she could not deny her feelings. All she could do was keep the knowledge pressed deeply into her heart, never let him see, never let him know.

"I must see Tsiya, mother. Is he at home?"

"He is gone with his friends. They are hunting. But he should come back tonight."

"Send him to me when he returns. I have need of him."

"For what purpose, daughter? Your brother is not your servant."

Alkini looked into her mother's haughty face. "Is he yours then?" Alkini thought in her agitated mind. But she pressed her lips together tightly and turned to lay her little girl down in the cradle. Though her mother was still very distant with her, Alkini had to admit that she treated the babies very well. They were clean, plump, and very content.

"There has been another threat against me, mother. And against Thaddeus. I have thought of one who can help us. I want Tsiya to take a letter to this man."

"And is this the man who drove Roark Logan away from you?"

"Roark Logan drove himself away, mother. He could not accept who he was, and he fed the same attitude in me. I am ashamed of the way I let him manipulate me. Mingo freed the settlement, mother, and he freed me. I can never repay the gift he has given me."

Kamama looked into her daughter's large dark eyes. There was distress there, surely, but also a beam of something else. Something that looked like pride. The older woman frowned at her daughter's expression.

Kamama was jealous of the beautiful young woman. Inside Alkini's veins ran the blood of her Scots father. In the older woman's mind the white blood gave Alkini a social advantage that eluded Kamama and she felt it bitterly. Her bitterness caused her words to come in hateful bursts.

"Take your brother. He is but a Cherokee. His blood is not mixed with white as yours is. He is fit but to be a servant to one who thinks herself a queen!"

Kamama pushed her tall daughter out of the cabin door and shut it loudly. Standing on the porch Alkini felt the sudden tears well up in her eyes. Her mother always made her feel somehow guilty. Of what she was not sure. Unbidden came the image of her father as she had last seen him. His dark wavy hair blowing in the Kentucky wind, his sky blue eyes filled with an expression of sadness and longing. His last embrace was too short, and then he pulled Alkini's arms from his waist and walked purposefully across the yard and into the trees. Alkini had never seen him again.

Reluctant to ride back to Libertyville in the darkness Alkini sheltered through the night on her mother's porch. She sat with her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped around them. Her head rested against her crossed arms. Her dreams were stark and disjointed, full of wild weather and darkness. She awoke at first light and climbed onto the horse's back, turning him toward the distant settlement.

Tsiya knocked on her cabin door the next night. The moon had not yet risen and Alkini could barely see him standing silently on her porch. She pulled him inside quickly, her finger to her lips in the gesture of silence. Then she hugged her younger brother.

Tsiya was a full-blooded Cherokee. Their mother had chosen a minor chief in the small Cherokee band that lived in this part of Kentucky before Roark Logan arrived to terrorize them. Tsiya the otter was slender and quick. Alkini was very fond of him and he considered his older sister quite special.

Tsiya knew how their mother thought of Alkini and the boy never missed an opportunity to point out one of Alkini's good traits. Their mother never agreed, but Tsiya continued in his habit nevertheless.

Alkini quickly explained what she wanted the boy to do. He took the letter from her hand and carefully placed it inside his leather vest. Then he hugged her. He could feel her tremble with unexpressed emotion. Compassionately he kissed her cold cheek and gave her a reassuring smile. Then he turned and slipped out the door.

Alone in her cabin, Alkini reviewed her position. She was determined to see that the Cherokee settlers, the original inhabitants of the land, were treated fairly. As long as she held the title to the cabin, and the resulting water, they would be granted access equally with the white settlers. It was this equal treatment that the unknown tormentors could not accept.

When the threats started she had initially considered returning to the Cherokee village and letting the others take over as they seemed to wish. But what future would her Cherokee people have then? And what about her children? Could she see them robbed of what was theirs by right? At that point she always thought of Mingo. What would he want to see her do? The memory of his bravery, his steadfast defense of liberty and equality, always stiffened her own resolve.

As the days passed, Alkini and Thaddeus continued to receive threats. They drew together for comfort and reassurance. Several times a day the two brave but embattled people spoke the words that gave them hope: Mingo will come.