There is a flight across the water, and Alice thinks Uncas may have clasped her shoulder briefly before jumping to the neighboring canoe. But the journey is foggy at best. Her father's death playing over and over in mind. She has moments of lucidity looking around, looking for Uncas, trying to anchor herself. Otherwise she fears what might happen. As they head into the cave her attention is arrested by the waterfall. Raging and wonderful. Alice registers Nathaniel's words that there is no where else to run and the brief touch from Uncas helping her down the rocky slope has done nothing to ground her. Now he is gone. The sound of the water however drowns out the screams of the dying in her mind. She thinks peaceful as she watches the water, that maybe it can wash her clean. Maybe it can wash her away. She isn't sure how long she watches, before she dreamily approaches the fall.
It is only when Uncas has wrapped his arms around her with a, "Get back!" that Alice truely returns to herself. His lips at her temple, her hairline. Drawing her further her back and re-situating her close to him and further from the falls. Alice isn't sure she can breath. "No, aholkwësit, you can not leave me." Alice shivers in his arms, but finally turns to him. "What does aholkwësit mean?" she asks again stumbling over the pronunciation of the world.
Uncas had not wanted to confess this way, but seeing her willingness to leave this world he tells her "Beloved, it means beloved." Alice stares into his eyes, "I watched Magua eat my fathers heart," she offers brokenly in reply. Uncas can do nothing but shift and pull her closer. Alice begins clawing at him as if she would flay him alive to crawl inside his skin, her only safe place. He traps her against her chest, and she registers the sound of he heart despite raging water. It begins to settle her and she wraps her hand around his braid, holding like it her lifeline. "You are my aholkwësit," she whispers, and yet Uncas can hear despite the roaring of the waterfall.
Uncas begins carding her hair, it having escaped its up-do during their journey. As he speaks he begins to plaite a section in a braid much like his own. "I haven't had time to prepare an offering to you, I had hoped when things settled I would be able to approach you, with gifts to prove that I am worthy of being your choice." Alice snorts but Uncas feels a smile against his neck. "And how might you have courted me if my fa...if I was kept away from you?" Uncas chuckles slightly, and Alice feels it to her bones. "I would have stolen you away, I would have found you, will find you no matter how far. I will always find you," he promises her. Tying the braid with a bit of string. "Now Alice, promise me, promise me you will never try and leave me again." Alice burrows her face further into his neck, but Uncas puts her away from him and tips her face till their eyes meet. "Promise me Alice," he commands her. Alice searches his eyes, "Tha mi a 'gealltainn leannain, it means I promise Beloved." Alice watches as the harsh lines briefly relax before reforming. "Then listen to me Alice and listen well."
Alice feels cold as Uncas deposits her next to Cora, and heads to the front of the cave to switch watch. Cora's hands reach for Alice and she gives her hand willingly. However, Nathaniel returns swiftly and pulls Cora away to give her what amounts as the same talk Uncas gave her. Already Uncas is returning and Alice feels the fear bubbling up. The three Mohicans converse and Alice hears her sister encouraging Nathaniel to go. She finds Uncas' eyes in the darkness of the cave and although it's Nathaniel speaking to Cora, Alice knows Uncas echos his sentiments. Uncas mouths what she thinks is aholkwësit and then he gone, through the falls, proceeded by his father and followed by his brother.
Cora and Alice wrap each there arms around each other. And as the Hurons approach Alice questions if she can force herself to submit, or will her fear over power her as it did that night in London and will she attempt to fight instead. Alice touches her braid briefly and re-affirms her promise. She will hold, she has to. She watches as her father's killer approaches. Kills the young officer they saved. And breathes a slight relief when they are taken prisoner, instead. Their hands are tied and they are forced march across the land. "Fàg slighe, mas urrainn dhut," whispers Cora to her. And so between the two of them they try to break as much of the foliage as possible without being to obvious.
Alice and Cora are delivered with Duncan to the Huron village to be presented for what Alice doesn't know. On the journey Magua takes great pride in destroying the girls perception of their Father by explaining why they will die. It's hard going, finding out what her father was capable of. Alice doesn't want to but her fear of Magua grows bigger. It isn't until Nathaniel shows up that Alice's fear become manageable. Now she can understand what is taking place because she speaks French. As she listens to both Nathaniel and Magua argue before the Sachem. And as much as Alice doesn't like what she is hearing, she realizes that her father and Magua had much in common. Both willing to do so many horrible things in order to prove their worth to their white masters. Had she not accused her father of the nearly the same thing that Nathaniel is accusing Magua of.
Alice looses the train of the conversation when the Sachem switches back to Huron. And then some how it all goes wrong. Duncan is attempting to trade himself for Cora, Magua is cursing the Sachem and his warriors are dragging her away. Alice's hand goes to her hair and she remembers the promise made to her and the ones she made also. Magua in his cursing of the Sachem is still speaking in french to his warriors, they must exit the Huron lands as quickly as possible so that he can murder her with out creating a tribal war.
As they march Alice takes in her surroundings wondering how they will know when they are no longer in Huron land. Wondering if Uncas will get to her time. And then he is there. His green shirt, long black hair, her Ghillie Dhu to her rescue. He battles through 5 warriors before he is facing Magua. Their fight is brutal and Magua clearly the more experienced warrior has left her aholkwësit wounded in several places. Alice knows when he looks at her that he is planing to die for her. To give enough time for his father and brother to rescue her. But he is forgetting the promise she made to him. If he dies she will follow.
She turns for a moment to steel herself to watch to the end, it takes precious moments to realize that the brave holding her has let her go. Uncas climbs to his feet, his right arm useless and so he attempts to attack with his left. She is moving her mouth open and screaming, "Chan e, chan urrainn dhut a bhith agad," shocking all and giving her just enough time for her to wrap her hands around Magua's wrist and as he swings the knife upward Alice puts all her strength into it and turns the blade so that it is Magua who receives the blade instead of Uncas. Magua in surprise turns to her, hand falling off the the knife hilt, dropping his hold on Uncas. Looking into his eyes Alice twists the blade and pulls it out. Magua stumbles back in surprise and then the prominence erupts in the sound of gunfire, and Uncas is dragging her to the ground.
Alice doesn't know how long the fight takes, she simply clings to Uncas with all the strength left to her. It's Chingachgook's hand on her shoulder, "Nichan, you must let us look at him," having Alice realizing that she has thrown herself across Uncas. And Uncas, Uncas is smiling more widely than he should be in his current state. Cora arrives shortly and begins the process of cleaning up and bandaging Uncas. And Alice is starting to understand that it is over. Being hunted by Magua has ended.
Nathaniel checks Magua's body to be sure he is dead, even if he is the one who put a bullet through Magua's head. "Nice gutting technique, Uncas, if I hadn't finished him off he'd have bleed out for sure." None in the group know what to do when Uncas states "Alice's work." Alice knows she is a killer, this isn't the first time, that night in London was, and somehow she knows it wont be the last time, not in this wild world. Yet she hears pride in Uncas' voice and locking eyes she see approval and something more. She breaks gaze with him to look a Chingachgook, who nods, "Nichan-daughter" and her heart warms. Looking at Nathaniel he smiles widely, "Good to know Uncas will have someone to watch his back now that I've shoved him over for Cora." And Alice cant help but laugh. Not the dainty laugh of an English Rose but the hearty laugh of Scottish Heather.
Gaelic and Lenape Vocabulary
Air falbh leis na sìthichean (away with the faeries)
Aon chois, an uairsin am fear eile (one foot, then the other)
Aholkwësit (beloved person-lenepe)
Hìtkwike kwëchkwëna (among the trees; burial)
Kwènishkwënayas (panther, mountain lion, cougar, puma)
Chan e leanabh a th 'annam (I am not a child)
Tha mi moiteil a bhith Albannach (I am proud to be Scottish)
Nuxa (Father)/ Nuxati (dear Father)
Kishux (sun; moon; month)
Neyo na kishux këshkinkwink (I see the moon in your eyes)
Òsòmi (certainly; oh yes)
Naxans (my older brother)
Naxisëmës -or- xàta (my younger brother/sibling/cousin)
Wètënëmao (accept it from him)
Tha mi a 'gealltainn leannain (I promise beloved)
Fàg slighe, mas urrainn dhut (Leave a trail, if you can)
Chan e, chan urrainn dhut a bhith agad (No, you can't have him)
Nichan (my child, daughter)