The Indian next to Mr. Williams interrupted him roughly. "We kill. You tell."Mr....

The Indian next to Mr. Williams interrupted him roughly. "We kill. You tell."
Mr. Williams ceased to pray. "Joe Alexander escaped last night," he said. "If anyone else tries to escape, they will burn the rest of us alive."
Burn alive? Burn innocent women and children because one young man flew from their grasp?
Her Indian stood some distance away amid the other warriors. He was now wearing a vivid blue cloth coat of European design. In one hand he held his French flintlock, and over his shoulder hung his bow and a full otter-skin quiver--actually, the entire dead otter, complete with face and feet. His coat hung open to show a belt around his waist, from which hung his tomahawk and scalping knife. His skin was not red after all, but the color of autumn. Burnished chestnut. His shaved head gleamed. He looked completely and utterly savage.
He might sorrow for a dead brother warrior, but grief would make him more likely to burn a captive, not less likely.
Mercy imagined kindling around her feet, a stake at her back, her flesh charring like a side of beef.
Beside her, Eben seemed almost to faint.
Mercy had the odd thought that she, an eleven-year-old girl, might be stronger than he, a seventeen-year-old boy.
The English were silent, entirely able to believe they might be burned.
The first person to move was Mercy's Indian. Sharply raising one hand, bringing the eyes of all upon him, he pointed to Mercy Carter.
She was frozen with horror.
His finger beckoned. There could be no mistake. The meaning was There was no speech and no movement from a hundred captives and three hundred enemies. It was the French Mercy hated at that moment. How could they stand by and let other whites be burned alive?
She had no choice but to go to him. She set Daniel down. Perhaps they would spare Daniel. Perhaps only she was to be burned.
She forced herself to keep her chin up, her eyes steady and her steps even. How could she be afraid of going where her five-year-old brother had gone first? O Tommy, she thought, rest in the Lord. Perhaps you are with Mother now. Perhaps I will see you in a moment.
She did not want to die.
Her footsteps crunched on the snow.
Nobody spoke. Nobody moved.
The Indian handed Mercy a slab of cornmeal bread, and then beckoned to Daniel, who cried, "Oh, good, I'm so hungry!" and came running, his happy little face tilted in a smile at the Indian who fed him. "Mercy said we'd eat later," Daniel confided in the Indian.
The English trembled in their relief and the French laughed.