The Saga of Indian Em'ly by Sara Harris Book Tour and Giveaway :)
The
Saga of Indian Em'ly
Books
1-4
by
Sara Harris
Genre:
Historical Adventure
Twelve-year-old
Wind That Knocks Down Lodges loves his little sister, Cactus Flower,
and the wildness of the desert canyonland the Apache call home. But
in one night of misunderstanding and mistakes, Knocks Down and Cactus
Flower’s innocent world is shaken as they find themselves locked in
the nearby fort with the pale face soldiers and their mother’s
lifeless body. With no one to lean on but each other, Knocks Down and
Cactus Flower must make their way as children of The People in the
pale face world—pale faces who have now become the enemy.
After
finding themselves at the mercy of the Army, far from Apache
Territory and well on the trail to Colorado, Knocks Down must bring
himself to trust the soldier, Pale Face Joe. But Joe disappears, and
when ordered to dispose of the children or else, the other Army
soldiers waste no time in depositing them at the nearest Catholic
orphanage.
They
manage to escape the evil orphanage along with a new pale face
friend, Kid McCoy. But they are set upon by a gang of murdering claim
jumpers who steal Cactus. With Kid McCoy’s help, Knocks Down goes
after her. When they encounter a soldier who was responsible for
their mother’s death, they realize he’s set on seeing them dead,
as well. How can a boy defeat a battle-hardened soldier? Just when
Knocks Down is about to give up, the biggest surprise of all changes
everything…
Something
isn’t right. The
night animals ceased their songs in unison, and another troublesome
cloud shrouded the moon. An icy shiver trickled down my backbone to
the tune of silence. The happy drumming coming from the camp, telling
the world of the birth of Red Lake’s firstborn son, had slowed to a
stop. I froze, pulling Cactus Flower back onto her bottom. She rose
from the hard-packed earth, her bottom lip puffed out and her inky
eyebrows knitted together above her eyes. Before she could open her
mouth to speak, a flock of beating wings sent me cowering, nose
first, into the dirt beside her. “Knocks
Down, why did those birds –” Instinctively,
I slapped my hand over her mouth, taking care enough to be gentle. No
sooner had she quieted, than another sound echoed through the solemn
night air. “Halt!
Who goes there?” I slipped
my finger over my lips, wordlessly instructing Cactus Flower to
remain silent. She nodded and I removed my hand from over her mouth. “That
voice ... it’s pale face. Do you know it from your visits to the
soldier fort?” I kept my own voice low, so it fairly bounced along
the mesquite branches before disappearing into the canyon, no more
out of place than a wren scratching on a rock. She shook
her head and wrinkled her nose. I knew she was scared. I was, too. “I
say again, halt! I have orders to shoot!” A woman’s
voice answered. “Izdzaa, yiiltse! Pa-lease,
please!” Cactus
Flower and I exchanged a look. Peering through the mesquite branches,
I saw my mother, our mother, her outstretched hands
bathed in the moonlight as the cloud slid from over it. She was
making the Apache sign for peace. Cactus flower saw her, too. Before
I could raise my hand back to cover her mouth, the word tore from her
lips in a shriek that echoed down through the canyon and back again.
“Ma!” “Sentry,
fire!” came another voice, followed abruptly by two booms. Booms
which echoed the very one that had taken the life of Silver Sky, my
father, so many winters ago. My
mother’s moans filled the empty darkness. I pushed my fear deep
down and jumped from our hiding place. In a moment, I was at her
side. “Mother?”
My spirit ached as I took her head in my lap. “Why?” The
soldier’s boots hit the earth hard as they struggled both to find
us and to make sense of what they’d done. Stealthily
as either of the mountain lion cubs we’d been watching, Cactus
Flower slipped up behind us, sobs catching in her throat. “Ma, Ma?”
She curled into Shining Waters’ outstretched arm, snuggling against
our dying mother. “No, Ma.” I didn’t
have to look down to see the pool of my mother’s blood, I could
smell it, coppery and unwelcome. Tears stung my eyes, and hatred
filled my heart as the soldiers approached. “Oh,
my stars, Tom. It was a woman! We done shot a woman!” The soldier
dropped to his knees and scooped up my mother’s hand. “Tom,
administer first aid. We can’t let her die right here’n front of
her chill’ns.” The
second soldier stood, his mouth hanging open like a dog. “She was
Injun, Joe. Ain’t no matter now, we done kilt her. They said to be
on th’ watch, heard tale of Injun attacks.” Joe, the
first soldier, never took his eyes from my mother’s face. “Go get
supplies, Tom. We will do our best to save’er.” Sure
enough, Tom turned and trotted off in the direction of the soldier
fort. I watched him go, visualizing my hand-carved arrow flying into
his retreating back. My hands began to shake. “I
come…I help,” Ma sputtered in broken English. Joe
covered his mouth with his free hand. “Lord above, she speaks
English.” His eyes darted about a moment before resting first on me
and then on Cactus Flower, who lay whimpering at my mother’s side.
“Ma’am, are you Cap’n Redding’s wife? His Indian bride?” He
gulped. “Indian…Em’ly?” A weak
smile found its way onto my mother’s lips. “Me Em’ly. Me help.” Old Joe
bent down close, my mother’s hand still in his, as though he were
tending his own kin. “How did you want to help, ma’am?” “Gonna
be a …” My mother coughed. “Raid. Raid on soldier fort.” Joe’s
back stiffened and he hefted his weapon from where it had fallen
beside him. “They told us to watch those thievin’ Apaches.” “Not
Apache. Comanche.” His gaze
settled back on Shining Waters. I had to fight the urge not to reach
out and grab his throat. I could almost feel my fingers squeezing his
last breath from his body ... Comanche
war whoops echoed off the rocky canyon walls. “They’re
coming,” Cactus Flower whispered. “Get up Ma, let’s go home.” “Em’ly!
Em’ly?” Captain Charlie Redding skidded on his knees, almost
tumbling as he came to a stop near my mother. Her face
relaxed. “Take care of children, Charlie. Comanche raid soldier
fort.” The
blood-chilling cries of the Comanche met my ears as my mother,
Shining Waters, expelled her last shuddering breath. Captain
Redding grasped the sides of his head and dug his fingers into his
hair. Wordlessly, he spun on his booted heel and, with one punch,
sent Tom reeling backward into Joe, who had backed off to a
respectable distance when Captain Redding approached. Both soldiers
collapsed in a pitiful heap. “We’re under Comanche attack and you
killed my wife! You fools!” I watched
through wide and surprised eyes as Captain Redding drew his sabre and
marched over to his soldiers. “Ma?”
Hysterical confusion overtook Cactus Flower as she tried to help our
mother up. “Get up, Ma, we have to go!”
Sara is a mother of four, animal lover and advocate, and conservationist. Little House on the Prairie, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, and Lonesome Dove are among her favorite shows/movies and books. Sara holds her B.A. in History and is the author of the historical romance series, An Everlasting Heart, from 5 Prince Publishing and recently debuted into the children's book realm with Chunky Sugars (5 Prince Kids), written for her own chunky baby.
I first learned of a woman named Indian
Em'ly when my parents and I accidentally found her supposed grave
while wandering lost at Fort Davis. Her story and legend lives
on there in the mountains of south Texas. Several people have
told me Em'ly never existed . . . that she is just a legend.
They can't explain why she has a tombstone (which has since been
taken down . . .) but seem certain she never existed. Me? I
side with the Shinbone Star newspaper reporters from the John Wayne
classic, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance . . . "when the legend
becomes fact, print the legend." This one's for you,
Em'ly. I started writing this four-book series
even before I published my first novel, A Heart on Hold. Funny
thing- in my four-book Everlasting Heart series (where A Heart on
Hold is book #1), a young child is born to 19th century Army wife
Charlotte and her husband, Captain Sanderson Redding named Charlie
Redding, one of the heroes of my Indian Em'ly saga. Silver Sky
is another of my characters from another of my fiction novels, Silver
Sky at Dawn (coming soon). Young Cactus Flower is named in
honor of Quanah Parker and Cynthia Ann Parker's young daughter,
Prairie Flower -- I lived down the road from their final resting
places at Fort Sill, Oklahoma when I wrote these books.
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