At Colonel Morgan’s insistence, the travelers moved out front with the colonel, Captain Price, and a half-dozen colonial officers who had horses of their own.  It was a pleasant day even if being surrounded by soldiers put a damper on the conversation.  Katie and Tony got Lincoln and the others to agree that certain topics were off limits.  Some things they were allowed to talk about, mostly things in the past, but they needed to limit their conversation to Colonel Morgan, and maybe Captain Price if they could.

When the party neared the Hudson in the late afternoon, Colonel Morgan explained his reasoning.  “The British out of New York City came north up the Hudson.  They captured several forts up to Newburgh.  They have scouts, mostly from the five nations up to Poughkeepsie.  They sent a ship and soldiers to Kingston, the capital of the New York Colony.  They burned a bunch of houses and buildings, including the government house, but then they withdrew.  The people of Kingston are back rebuilding. We will cross the Hudson there…”

He stopped speaking and pointing.  They heard rifle fire and saw three of their scouts racing back to their position.  Elder Stow stepped forward and pressed a button on his screen device.  People heard a couple of trees or rocks snap, but mostly he accounted for the flora and fauna.  He called it a Decker Wall and waited for the scouts to get behind the line before he threw the switch.

“After all this time, I finally started to anticipate what might be on the horizon,” he said.  “It only took me six thousand Earth years or so to figure that out.”  He set the screen device and held it to the ground as the leading edge of Native warriors ran up and smashed into the wall.  They mostly bounced off, though some appeared to hurt themselves. Some stopped and fired their flintlocks at the soldiers and travelers they saw so conveniently crowded together on horseback, but the travelers ignored them, so the colonials waited, nervous but patient.

Katie noticed something and trotted up to the wall, Lockhart and Decker following.  “Mohawk,” she shouted.  “You are on the wrong side.”  Sukki and Nanette came up with Colonel Morgan.  The Colonel told the others to stay where they were, and the others held back the foot soldiers.

Some Mohawk helped their fellow warriors back from the invisible wall.  Others put their hands to the wall to gauge its strength and size.  A few listened and one responded.

“You colonials are on the wrong side.  This is native land, and you keep taking more and more without compensation.  Soon, there will be no land left for our people.”

“And you think the British will treat you differently?”

“They have promised,” the Mohawk said, which triggered some laughter from both Decker and Lockhart.  Katie quieted them before she spoke again.

“We walked with Louis, a Mohawk chief, and friend.  We walked with him in the days of Moonwalker of the Lenape who you may have heard of as the Big Swede.”

One man pushed to the front and shouted.  “Louis was my grandfather.”  The man’s eyes got big as he realized what he was seeing.  “He often told the story of the people from the future and their great and powerful magic.  I know the invisible wall.  The flood waters came, and the wall laughed at the flood.  The whole side of the mountain came crashing down, great stones and big old trees, and it just slid off the wall and fell in the river.  I know the stories.”

“Did he get home with his horse?” Nanette asked.

“Yes.  We have many horses now from that first one.”  The man smiled for Nanette and Sukki.

Lockhart looked over at Sukki.  “Would you mind floating up about ten feet and taking aim at the tree, the big one there that looks isolated from the other trees around.”

“The big oak?”

“Yes,” Katie answered for her husband.

“I’ll tell you when to turn the tree to ash, and hopefully we won’t set the whole forest on fire.”  Lockhart turned back to the Mohawk, all of whom were now listening, especially when they saw Suki take to the air.  “Choose your side carefully.  That is up to you.  But for right now, these colonials are under our protection.  You need to let us pass in peace.  We will be crossing the river and headed toward the Delaware River, so out of your territory soon enough.”

“We have been friends with the Five Nations.  Please do not make us your enemies,” Katie added.

“Sukki,” Lockhart said, and Sukki let the power flow out of her hands.  The stream of white light, visible in the daytime, looked bright as the sun.  It put a hole right through the tree mid-section and the tree made a great Crack! sound, like it got struck by a bolt of lightning.  The top half of the tree teetered before it fell to the ground.  The Mohawk scrambled to get out of the way.

Four men jogged up to the front, but one held the other three back.  “Now is not the time to start a firefight,” he seemed to decide.  He tried to say that without undue attention, but Decker, Nanette, and Colonel Morgan all heard.  The man had to push down one of the flintlocks one soldier wanted to point at the Mohawk.

“Now is not the time, William Talbert,” Colonel Morgan scowled at the four men.  Talbert, the leader of the four did not appear to disagree, though he stared mostly at Decker and Nanette, and did not appear surprised when Sukki floated back down to her horse.

At the same time, Lockhart noticed one of the Mohawk wave off and shake his head at Talbert and his crew.  Lockhart got the impression the native dressed man and the actual native knew each other.  He thought it odd that they would be on opposite sides.  He would have to think about that.

“Come,” Talbert said, and they wandered back to get lost in the crowd of foot soldiers and riflemen.  One of those men said, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian,” and he said it with enough volume, so everyone heard.  The travelers looked at each other and wondered at the cliché being so easily mouthed, but decided that far in the past, perhaps it was not a cliché yet.

“Come,” the chief of the Mohawk said to his people, and they all headed off to the north where they vanished among the trees.

“About sixty or seventy in the war party,” Decker guessed.

“At least,” the colonel agreed.  “More than we could see.”

“So, who is this Talbert and his men?” Decker asked, casually.

“Green Mountain Boys,” Colonel Morgan responded.  “They don’t follow orders well.”

Katie and Lockhart went to where Elder Stow stared at his scanner.  “My Mother.  My Father.” Elder Stow acknowledged them with a word.  “They appear to be leaving, but I recommend twenty or thirty minutes before we lower the wall and move.”

“Colonel,” Lockhart called for Morgan.  They all dismounted and came to where Elder Stow stood.  He called up a holographic image of the area.  It covered a wide area, so it was hard to distinguish the blob of yellow dots moving away from them.

“Blue is for the colonials. Red dots for us,” Elder Stow said.

Colonel Morgan looked at the image and swiped his hand through it before he said, “This is the river?  Closer than I thought.”

“It is three-forty,” Katie said with a glance at her watch.  “I suggest we move at four o’clock as long as the Mohawk do not turn around to come back.”

“They appear to have stopped,” Lockhart pointed out.

“They have some injured,” Katie said.

Colonel Morgan agreed.  “Give them the twenty minutes, to be safe.”  He looked at the travelers but spoke to Katie and Lockhart.  “As I thought, it is best to limit contact with you folks, no offence.”

“None taken,” Katie said.