by Emilia Loft
“Like that you mean? Jesus fuck, they should have slapped your Ma into Tuesday for raisin’ you so simple.”
The man’s voice comes through sulky and muffled by his hand pressed to his jaw. “You don’t have to go talkin’ ‘bout my Mama.”
They continue on in silence for a while, and Casper realizes with a sinking heart that they’ve moved past the river and he has no idea where they are. After what feels like hours but is likely closer to twenty or thirty minutes, he can hear the sound of other men and other horses and they finally come to a stop.
“Ruby my dear.” The voice that materializes next to Cas’ head is smooth and refined and came without the warning of footsteps. Something about it sent a shiver of cold dread through Casper’s bones. “Let’s see what you’ve brought me.”
Without warning Casper is hauled off the horse and dropped into the dirt, the cloth yanked from his head. The sun blinds him for a moment but he gets the impression of the man standing over him and he thinks back immediately to what Ben had said. The tall man. This man is tall, and strangely prim when compared to the ragged, frankly terrifying men that surround him. Men brown with filth, armed head to toe, sneering ugly rotted smiles at him and he knows each and every man here has likely committed the most vile acts a person could think of, but none of them scare him more than the man in front of him. The way he inspects Casper like a butcher pleased with the new animal he’ll be breaking down, considering where to start. He kisses Ruby’s hand graciously and she beams at him and blushes like a virgin.
“Now I know you wanted the brother, but I told you he’d be no easy catch. But this here’s the esteemed Reverend Turner and if the sheriff ever had a friend in his life it’s this man. I’m tellin’ you, man’s as ornery as they come and I ain’t never seen him with nobody but whores an’ family, but ever since the preacher here got to town they’ve been attached at the hip.”
“Is that so?” And Alistair, for this could be no one else, looks him over again with a raised eyebrow and a different kind of interest.
“Yup. What we got, it’s gonna kill that bastard when he finds out! Fuck Al, I almost wish you’d let me go back so’s I could watch!” He strokes her hair, smiling down like a doting father.
“And what of your pet, hmmm? Did you catch her?”
“No.” Ruby pouts and Casper praises God for small miracles.
“Now, now, this pretty face shouldn’t frown. Maybe when the Parkers are dead we can come back for your plaything.”
“Really, you mean it?!” And she squeals and kisses his cheek.
“Children.” He smiles down atParkerith a look of ‘what can you do?’ before squeezing her tit and Casper feels sick. “Get our Reverend Turner here in with the others and let the men know we leave immediately.”
With a nod from Ruby, Casitel is hauled up by one of the men and propelled forward. Ahead he sees a rickety looking carriage, which upon inspection reveals its small, iron barred windows, metal siding and countless bullet holes. This must have been a payroll coach, the kind they used out on the railroads. The door is yanked open by another man who points a gun inside and holds it there while Casper is shoved in. The door is closed and locked behind him and a pair of hands immediately starts to unbind his wrists.
It’s Lisa. And on the other bench sits Bobby, grimacing while Meg puts pressure on his leg where Casper can see he must have bled quite a bit before they’d got it tied off in a tourniquet.
“I’m gonna kill that whore first chance I get.” Meg spits.
“Reverend, do you have any news of my boy?” Lisa’s eyes are red rimmed and frantic.
“He’s fine, Sam and I found him on the road to town, took him myself and put him in Jo’s arms. He’s safe.”
“Oh thank God!” She sighs and sinks back into the seat.
“I spoke to Ash as well, he’s trying to contact Evan as we speak. Don’t worry, we’ll get out of this.”
“No we won’t.” Lisa gives him a small smile, almost content. They didn’t get her child, that was all that mattered.
The carriage jerked forward and Bobby groaned. For the rest of the day they jostled about and did what they could to make Bobby comfortable and whisper about escape. It would be no use, they knew, not with Bobby injured, but none of them was willing to say it. Lisa told Casper her story first.
The party had just started, and there were a few strange men milling about the fringes, but Lisa had just figured, what with the odd turnout at the church, it was more of the same looking for a free lunch. Then she heard Jessica scream, just as a man came out of nowhere and grabbed her from behind. She’d only just managed to yell for Ben to run when another man punched her in the gut and they’d set about tying her up, slinging her over the saddle of a horse much the same as they’d done to Casper. She’d gotten to camp first and had spent the time locked in the carriage, wondering what had happened to Ben and why men such as these hadn’t tried to rape her.
Bobby and Meg said much the same. They’d arrived only minutes before the shooting started, it had all happened so fast. Bobby had seen clear as day Jessica running to the house with a man after her and he hadn’t gotten much time to think before he’d shot the man down. In those few seconds the world ignited, people falling, splashed crimson with their own blood. What men were quick enough fought back, trying to get as many folks as they could to cover. Meg and Bobby had made it to the stable, they could hear the unholy fury of Sam when he barreled through the fray towards the house, but they couldn’t see him. They were relieved to know he’d made it to his family.
After Ruby had hoodwinked Casper, she’d barged in with three other men, one of which shot Bobby in the leg when he tried to shove Meg into a stall while aiming at them. They were disarmed, tied and brought here, though they couldn’t see what had happened to Casper.
“Why are they doing this, does he mean to ransom us?” And Casper tried very hard not to think of the word mutilated that Bobby had used so long ago.
“Not bloody likely.” The old man spit. “Evan killed that man’s boy, and your God will be a merciful one if Alistair shoots us in the head.”
“Evan’s coming.” Lisa said with quiet determination and pale lips.
“Well yeah he’s comin’, question is can he find us?”
* * *
The world was the taste of ash in the air. The world was the lifeless mineral of blood in turned earth. The world was snowfall silence but for a ringing, singing pitch that wouldn’t leave Evan’s ears.
They’d had to restrain him, like he was a convulsive, rag in the mouth and four stout men. Pin him to the table and send Ben from the room so he wouldn’t see. Wouldn’t remember Evan like this, snarling at everything, mad with bloodlust. An animal with guns and a terrifying will.
Sam finally got through. It took hours.
The survivors had seen, people had been taken. And with the bodies all counted they had the names of the missing four by the time Evan crashed into town with brimstone in his lungs.
But they didn’t know where to start. There was no call for ransom, no gloating, evil trinket that might give them some clue, taunt Evan to follow into a trap. Evan knew what this was, this was Alistair being far too clever for all that. Why kill Evan when he could flay him from the inside out? Take what he loved and steal away with it in the dark, into an unknown void too unkind to offer him the charity of death.
Nightfall and they still didn’t have any leads, only the hollow comfort of barking out orders to the able bodied men, dividing up watches and making sure every home had a gun to guard it. Evan stopped his furious pacing when Ben returned from upstairs, cowering behind Jo’s skirts.
“He’s staying with Jessica at your place.” Jo squeezed the child’s shoulder, “Ma an’ me are gonna take him over there now.”
Evan knelt down, forcing his features to calm and extended a hand to the child. Ben looked at him warily before running into his arms. He didn’t cry, didn’t shiver, just held on then pus
hed back to look up into Evan’s eyes. It was one more slice to his bloodied soul, those soft brown eyes just like his mother’s, flat and drained of life, Adam’s mouth pulling tight across his ruddy face.
“You can get her back, right?”
And Evan could handle tears, he could handle snuffling, sobbing children, but he couldn’t handle the angry resignation Ben shot at him for being too small and too young to strap on a gun and come along on the hunt. Evan was sure he’d looked that way at his age, and it was one more disaster he had to prevent.
“I surely will, ain’t nothin’ they got in Heaven or Hell’s gonna stop me from getting’ yer Ma back. The others, too.” He took off his badge and pressed it into Ben’s hand. “Not even the law. Now you hold onto that for me, ya hear?” And the boy nodded solemn.
Ellen came in then, pulling on her shawl. “Where the hell is Ruby? I told those girls they had to be indoors by now but that little tart’s never listened to a word I say.”
“Maybe she’s dead, too.” Ben shouldn’t be able to say that without a tremble in his voice, but he does.
“Oh, no sweetie,” Ellen corrects the part in his hair. “My girls didn’t go to the party, she’s fine, just-“
“Yes she did.” And they all look at him with equal confusion. “Ruby was at the party, I seen her. She even…she had a gun like you Ma’am and was shooting….”
Jo and Ellen exchanged looks.
“What the hell was Ruby doing there?” Evan demanded, for there was far more bad blood between Jess and Ruby over Sam than just the impropriety of whores at a christening.
“Ben, sugar,” Ellen knelt down. “I want you to remember everything you can about Ruby, can you do that? Did she talk to you?”
“No, I just ‘member I seen her out in the trees and I thought she was just shy cause she didn’t have no dress like the other girls.”
“She wasn’t wearing clothes?” Jo asked.
“No silly!” Ben gave her a look that was far too adult. “She was in boy clothes, pants. I remembered her cause I’ve never seen a girl in no pants before. That’s why I thought she was hiding. But then those men came and the….before the tall man got me I seen her shootin’ at stuff.”
Evan felt his anger boil beneath his skin. Thank God Ellen picked up on it or he would have been shouting at the boy, though it wasn’t his fault.
“You remember anything else?”
Ben thought hard, furrowing his little brow, “I think I ‘member her not being so good with her gun like you Ma’am, cause I think she got Jimmy from the hardware store by accident.”
“Ben,” Evan grabbed at him roughly, and the boy flinched, but Evan kissed him hard on the cheek and gave him a good shake. “You just helped me more’n any of these sorry ass men standin’ about.”
“You got an idea?” Ellen gave him her stone cold business look.
“You’re fucking right I do. Jesus this makes some awful sense. They got four they ain’t plannin’ on killin’, otherwise why not do it already like they done everyone else? They got to either lay low or haul ass, and they can’t do that proper with what they’re carrying. We looked everywhere Ellen, everywhere, except the one place nobody’d think to look cause nobody thought he was that stupid. But Alistair’s not stupid, he’s fucking smarter’n any of us, smart enough to take what’s left of his gang to Ruby’s people.”
“But Ruby don’t got no people.” Jo piped in, but Ellen’s face went dark.
“Yeah she do, she’s a half-breed.”
10
Chapter 10
It was as if Alistair had taken them, not just from their home, but from the very world they understood. That night the air had dropped to freezing when they’d camped, surrounded by laughing outlaws, but Casper noticed none of them drank, which was odd on its own, but odder still was the fact that not one of them would even look at their prisoners. Two lovely, captured ladies, and not a single leering note of lust had been thrown their way. Casper was certainly thankful they hadn’t been defiled, but it all gave him the uneasy sense that they were being saved for something. Especially in the way Alisatair would smile and wave at them over the fire.
Bobby’s leg was a concern, but when they got a proper look at it, Casper was relieved to see the bullet had gone straight through the meat of his thigh, to the side of the bone. The bleeding had mostly stopped but it would likely start up again with hard travel. After pleading his case, the men had given him a few rudimentary supplies, enough that Casper was able to use a small bit of iron in the fire to cauterize the wound and get it wrapped tight. Bobby had done his best to take it quiet, but he couldn’t help the strangled cry when the white hot iron seared the ragged flesh. Lisa ran for the safety of the carriage but Meg, God bless her, didn’t look away, just held her husband tight where he was propped up against her and handed Casper the bandages.
When he looked up, Alistair was standing close by, watching with an interested little smile. He closed his eyes and breathed deep, as if indulging in a bouquet of flowers, and it was then that Casper registered the porcine smell of burning flesh. Alistair’s smile deepened and Casper thought he might wretch.
That night they huddled together, shivering in the carriage, and the next morning the world that had once been warm and gentle was covered in frost. They weren’t being starved, for what little comfort that brought, but so too were no other extra considerations given to the women or the injured. They were so far beyond anything that might be considered well-traveled land that Bobby had become eerily silent, working the landscape over and over in his brain, trying to discover their destination.
It was Meg that figured it out.
“Well shit.” And they all craned their necks to peer out the bars, but all he could see was the plain grass spreading out in front of them to where it stopped at a row of overlapping hills. It was only when Ruby let out a loud whoop, and it echoed back in another voice that Casper realized the even little mounds in the distance weren’t part of the hill scape, but huts. A village.
Casper could see riders now, their tiny pinpoint figures getting larger on the horizon, coming right at them. The tightly concealed panic was evident on everyone’s face, there were stories about what happened to white prisoners out here, some worse than others but just enough of them frightening in a way that Casper suddenly wondered if Alistair might not be a better option.
Their caravan had stopped, waiting, and when the riders finally arrived, five of them, Alistair shocked them all by greeting them in their native tongue and clasping hands with one of them. They couldn’t understand any of it, but it was clear these Indians knew this man and that made Casper’s blood freeze over.
“Iroquois.” Bobby hissed.
“You know them?” Meg asked, the hope in her voice tragic.
“No, but I seen their like. This must be the lot that we heard about. Army sent word they’d been having a scuffle with a tribe o’ Iroquois ‘round these parts. They make the soldiers skittish cause they don’t give a fuck about the white man and his guns. This’s a big tribe, I mean bigger’n most towns, and they been suckin’ up the smaller tribes in the area too, Osage, Mohawk, Arapaho, consolidating their forces or what have you.”
“But the envoy from the army said we needn’t have fear of them, they were harmless.” Lisa argued.
“Harmless long as we stayed the hell away, they didn’t mention the part where they come to realize they can’t handle a tribe this large, not without a full on war and nobody wants that right now with all the new development. There’s a big ol’ invisible ‘Keep Out’ sign posted for miles around this territory, and anyone fool enough to ignore it can’t expect the law to save them.”
“Alright, so head down, mouth shut and nobody do anything stupid.” Meg gritted as she squeezed Bobby’s hand.
By the time they made it to the village, every man, woman and child was there to see. Words were exchanged and suddenly the carriage door was opened, each of them dragged out and shoved roughl
y in front of a line of men. There was a young man, solid muscle and a flat, inspecting gaze that looked them over coldly, but Casper knew that the real man in charge was the elder next to him. He had that look, the look of a man who was accustomed to giving orders and having them obeyed in an instant.
Ruby stepped forward and spoke in the syncopated, nasal language of the tribe with such ease it dawned on all of them in that moment that this, not English, was her first language. The young man listened then spoke his turn, it went back and forth like this, dealings, negotiations, Ruby arguing as sweetly as she could and the young man shaking his head. Finally the elder, the chief, spoke a few words and Casper watched as Alistair strangled back his anger.
“You are slaves?” The young man was addressing Bobby, and Ruby barked out something they couldn’t understand.
“We’re prisoners.” Bobby kept his tone even.
“Little Knife say you are payment for life taken, gift for tribe.” And it was suddenly plain that this was a diplomatic exchange between two parties that held each other in mutual suspicion.
“A precious gift, the satisfaction of their death should be mine, but I offer them to you as thanks for your continued generosity.” Alistair bowed with considerable gentility but the men before him only looked at him stoically. The chief stared down the outlaws, then the ragged group of prisoners. He uttered two clipped sentences and the crowd exploded.
“Unacceptable!” Alistair screamed. “Vince, put them back in the carriage.”
The Iroquois men before them went from calm to armed in the space of a breath.
“You have put them in the chief’s hand, they are no longer yours to take.” The young man was deadly serious and the tension strung out while the crowd still screamed.
“Fine!” Alistair growled, crossing his arms while Ruby looked back and forth between them in a panic.
“Our generosity has been paid. You will leave now. This is finished.” And the message was clear. Leave and never return. Alistair went pale with fury, shaking with it but even with every one of his guns drawn and men let loose, they hadn’t a chance in hell against this mob. He shot the prisoners one last look, hellfire strong as if he could drag the will to kill them with a thought from his very bones. Then he turned and mounted up, his men following suit.