Claimed

by Lindsay Buroker

  Though he was supposedly going to see the commissioner for a chat, Cedar couldn’t help but notice how the two constables walked behind him as escorts. At least no one suggested he give up his weapons. Maybe the Mounties simply wanted clarification about what had gone on in that cave up Bonanza Creek. He had given the location the night before, during the Tremblay questioning.

  Cedar followed his guide the few blocks to the in-town NWMP headquarters and to an office at the back of the building. Commissioner Sam Steele sat in a chair, his rifle disassembled for cleaning. Cedar hadn’t seen the man before, but he had heard of his reputation and knew him to be experienced, with more than twenty years in the military and the Mounties. His mustache and hair were more gray than brown, but Cedar judged Steele could still handle himself in a fight.

  “Sir,” he said carefully.

  “Leave us.” Steele waved to the sergeant and the constables.

  The way the sergeant hesitated told Cedar much. Something had happened, and he had gone from trusted ally to... he was about to find out what.

  The door shut. Steele had the barrel of his rifle between his legs, his bore brush out to clean the interior, but he opened a drawer and pulled out a folder. He tossed it on the desk and went back to working on the weapon.

  Cedar hesitated before approaching, not positive that had been an invitation to peruse the contents, but his curiosity eventually tugged him closer. He peeled back the folder and spotted his name, Cedar Kartes on the first page. He knew right then that the Americans had caught up with him. He had never given the Mounties more than “Cedar.”

  “I inherited that file with my new position, among others,” Steele said.

  So the Mounties had known about his history for some time?

  “My predecessor apparently thought you were useful enough to let roam free.”

  “I caught a lot of known criminals for him,” Cedar said carefully, wondering what was on the commissioner’s mind. He would have arrested Cedar already if that were the plan.

  “So I’ve heard. Is that what you were doing at that cave? Catching known criminals?”

  “The cave on Bonanza Creek? Your men found it?”

  “And the newly dead men in it, yes.” Steele set the brush aside and stared hard into Cedar’s eyes.

  “Those men were the ones trapping innocent prospectors inside, prospectors who refused to sell their claims, and then setting them up to die. Your people must have seen the bones—the snakes.”

  “It’s an ambiguous scene,” Steele said. “The men you killed don’t—didn’t—have criminal records. They were all Canadians as well.”

  “Working for the murderer, Cudgel Conrad,” Cedar said sturdily, though he had long since caught the gist of the conversation and worried this new commissioner had already made up his mind about him.

  “So you say.”

  “Even if there’s no evidence to prove they were, I was merely defending myself. They had trapped us in a pit full of rattlesnakes.”

  “There were no snakes there when my men arrived,” Steele said, his tone suggesting he believed there never had been.

  For a moment, Cedar didn’t have a response. Had more of Cudgel’s men come out and somehow removed the snakes before the Mounties arrived? He couldn’t imagine that would be easy or could be done quickly, but why would Steele lie? Or was it one of his men who had lied to him?

  “Did you go out there yourself, sir?” Cedar asked.

  “No.”

  Cedar searched for a way to suggest the commissioner hadn’t received an accurate report without calling his men liars. But Steele spoke again first.

  “Listen, Kartes. I was of a mind to have you shot or deported, but many of my people spoke highly of you, and nobody is quite certain what happened with Tremblay or out in that cave, so I’m not planning to take action against you.” Yet, Steele’s pause added. “But stay out of trouble. I suggest you put your weapons away and find peaceable work. You’re a big boy. You can be someone’s porter.”

  Cedar found his lips forming the word porter in silent disbelief. He forced himself to say nothing more than, “I will consider it, sir.” Then he walked out of the office.

  Porter. Tarnation.

  Part VI

  Cedar leaned against the wall at the mouth of Kali’s cave, gazing out at the Yukon River and the sprawling mess of mud, tents, and buildings that was Dawson. The buzz of the lumber mills—there seemed to be more of them every week—drifted up the hill, reminding him, as it always did, of his youth, of playing with his brother outside his grandfather’s mill. He wondered if it was still in operation, if—

  “Cedar?” Kali walked out of the back of the cave wearing a dress and a wig, the brown curls falling to her shoulders. “What do you think?”

  Cedar shook his head slowly. “While I’m sure it’s a fine and fashionable look, Cudgel isn’t one to forget a face. He’ll see through that.”

  “I thought I could get some makeup to paint up my face.” She flexed her fingers. “Maybe my skin too, so I look like a white girl.”

  “I don’t think that’ll be enough.”

  “No? Any other suggestions?” Kali asked.

  “Yes. Forget the costume. There’s no reason why a couple would be more believable than a single man as a buyer of a claim. Send the boy in alone.”

  “It’s not about believability; it’s about us being there to guide him and help him if something happens.”

  “We can wait right outside. Andrews can give us a signal if he needs us, and we’ll charge in.”

  “Charge in? We don’t even know where the meeting is going to be.”

  Or if there would be one. Kali had left the contacting of those selling the claims to Andrews, yet another part of the plan Cedar wasn’t pleased with. Supposedly, as a journalist, he knew how to talk to the right people and get the right information. Cedar questioned how much of a journalist he was at this point; he’d looked more like the paper’s janitor when they had walked in. Errand boy, at the best.

  “Travis said to come down and see him this afternoon. He promised he’d have a meeting set up by then.”

  Cedar kept his thoughts about the kid’s ability to get a meeting to himself. He also decided not to mention that he had considered following Andrews around and spying on him as he attempted to contact someone high up in the Honest and Earnest Holding Company.

  “Any luck learning more about that powder?” Cedar asked instead. Studying it—and how to counteract its effects—would probably be more useful than dressing up in costumes.

  Kali removed the wig and tossed it onto a crate. “I don’t have a microscope or anything that might let me take a guess as to the substance’s nature. Based on my dealings with the flash gold, and what I remember from the gadgets that alchemist made, I did get a similar... otherworldly sense from the powder. That’s about all I can say, though. Once you get away from the mechanical, you’re outside of my area of knowledge.” And interest, the quick twist to her lips said. “But I know what you’re really asking, and I came up with something that might help if you have an idea of where your invisible prey is standing.” She walked over to her workbench and picked up something that reminded him of a cross between the potato launcher she had once made and a blow gun he had seen in the tropics. “It’s air-powered,” Kali said. “It shoots out pellets full of white powder that burst open upon impact.”

  “So if I were to strike an invisible object...” Cedar felt idiotic talking about invisible objects, but the proof had been on his fingers, and hadn’t he seen Kali’s flash gold magic in action several times? Scarce as real magic might be in the world, it did exist.

  “Or even if you were to hit the wall close to said invisible object,” she said, “the powder would go everywhere—it’s like chalk dust—and you should be able to see the outline of the figure.”

  “Excellent.” Cedar ran a hand along the weapon, wondering what his brother would have thought of some of the strange devices Kali had
made him. Would he have found them honorable tools to employ against outlaws? Or cheats of a sort? Andre had always been one to face a man for a fair fight, not pull out tricks to get the upper hand. Of course, that had gotten him killed. If there was a way to be an honorable man and survive in a land full of cheats and villains, Cedar hadn’t figured it out yet.

  “You all right?” Kali asked.

  “Hm?”

  “You seem pensive.”

  “I was admiring the weapon,” Cedar said.

  “With the same thoughtful look that you were gazing out over the valley with?” She raised her eyebrows. Something in her frank expression made him think she had said his name more than once before she had walked up. He didn’t usually give in to reminiscing about the past, not when enemies might be sneaking up on him at any time. It was odd, he supposed.

  “I was thinking of my brother. He’s... been in my mind a lot today.” Since his talk with Commissioner Steele, to be more accurate.

  “Maybe because you know you’re finally going to get the man who killed him.”

  “That must be it.”

  Kali frowned at him. “You don’t sound certain.”

  “No.” Cedar gazed out at Dawson again, this time toward the center of town where the Mounties had their local headquarters. “I’m not quite sure how to explain. Having the Pinkertons after me, it’s been a pain, but... it didn’t bother me that much, being mistaken for a criminal in the United States. That’s not my country, so it doesn’t seem that real, I guess. This Commissioner Steele, though, he could decide I’m a criminal here, in the Dominion of Canada. If that happened, I’d never be able to go home again. My parents are both gone, but I have cousins and uncles and grandparents back east, and... I guess I assumed I would be able to walk back into town and let everyone know that I had avenged Andre’s death.”

  “What do you mean Steele is thinking of making you a criminal?” Kali asked. “What’ve you done that’s illegal?”

  “Apparently the men who came to check on us in the cave, the men I killed, weren’t known criminals or gangsters. I know they were working for Cudgel, but... I don’t think the Mounties even know Cudgel is here. Steele found the cave suspicious.”

  “Suspicious? If we had been doing anything except defending ourselves, why would you have told the Mounties about the cave in the first place? He’s not thinking. And what about the snakes?”

  “The snakes weren’t there when his men checked.”

  “What? You’re telling me someone came behind and fished all of those ornery things out?” Kali jammed a fist against her hip. “Maybe the Mounties this commissioner sent out weren’t reporting the truth. If Cudgel is the mastermind we think he is, he’s probably already got people paid off in this town.”

  “Possibly.” Cedar couldn’t see any good coming of suggesting that to Steele.

  “Well, I don’t want to see you tagged as a criminal, but even if it happened, once the airship is finished and we can go wherever we want...” Kali shrugged. “There’s a whole world out there. I reckon we could keep you away from those who want to hang you. You could send a letter back to your kin if nothing else.”

  Cedar tried to smile—truly, he appreciated that she would still want to take him with her—but she would become a target as well if she were an accomplice to an outlaw. He wouldn’t want to see her in trouble because of him. She had enough trouble already, with people after her for the flash gold.

  “You’re not finding that as comforting as I had hoped.” Kali’s expression grew hard to read. Wistful? Sad?

  “I’m appreciative that you would consider an outlaw as a security captain, but—” Cedar poked at a divot in the cave wall. “I don’t know if I told you, but my ma and pa died when I was about eleven. Grandpa and Grandma were still around, and Andre and I stayed with them. I didn’t have any interest in going into the mill business that Grandpa kept trying to groom me for. Somehow Andre got out of that, mostly because he was a good hunter. He went out and provided for the family. I ran off, rode the trains, stole here and there... mostly food and little things, but I reckon it might have turned to more if not for my brother. He came after me, dragged me home, and started taking me off with him, hunting in the fall and trap runs in the winter. He taught me to track, to trap and shoot, to survive off the land. He talked to Grandpa when I was too much a coward to, and suggested an apprentice for the mill, someone outside of the family. He said we were both going to become Mounties, so we couldn’t work for him. I hadn’t much thought about wanting to be a lawman, but it sounded more glamorous than sawing boards.” Cedar shook his head at the memory of his childhood notions. “I helped him study for the exams, and by the time he went off, I was sure I would follow after him.”

  “So he’s basically the one who turned you into a good man,” Kali said.

  “A law-abiding one, anyway. I feel like if, in seeking to kill Cudgel and avenge Andre, I become a criminal... I will have failed him. Failed everything.”

  Kali blew out a long breath, then took his hand and leaned against him. Cedar closed his eyes, appreciating her closeness, that he had someone now that he could say these things to. For so long, his road had been a solo one, and there had been nobody except the coyotes to hear his laments.

  “Don’t think I’ve gone and skipped a cog,” Kali said, “but suppose... just suppose, you didn’t kill Cudgel. What if you walked away from Dawson and from Cudgel and went on about your life?”

  Cedar gazed down at the top of her head. He knew she was playing Devil’s Advocate more than anything, but he couldn’t entertain the notion, not for a moment. “Then he wins.”

  “Are you sure your brother would have wanted you to spend so many years of your life chasing after his revenge? He doesn’t sound the vengeful sort.”

  “He wasn’t.”

  Kali looked up at him. “Then why...?”

  “I’m not as good a man as he was. I can’t let it go. I can’t let Cudgel continue walking the Earth, not after all the evil he’s done. I have to stop him. Permanently.”

  “Even if it means he turns you into an outlaw in your own home in the process?”

  “I hope it won’t come to that, but yes.” Cedar watched her eyes, hoping he wouldn’t find disappointment there. Did she want him to forget Cudgel? Was she afraid that, even together, they wouldn’t be a match for the wily criminal? He couldn’t walk away from this quest, not for anyone. He hoped she understood.

  “All right,” Kali said. “I had to ask, just because you seem a touch conflicted yourself.”

  “I know.”

  “And I want you to know... uhm—” her gaze dropped to the ground, “—whatever happens, I know you’re not an outlaw.”

  “Good,” he whispered.

  Cedar rubbed the back of her hand, wondering if she might like a physical demonstration of just how good he considered her words. But she was still studying the ground, as uncomfortable with admitting to feelings as he was—even more so. She hadn’t let go of his hand, though. Maybe...

  He lifted his fingers and brushed her cheek. “Kali?”

  She met his eyes. “Yes?”

  Kiss her? Or ask her if she was willing to commit to him and him alone? And make it clear he wanted to do the same. “I—”

  One of the alarm bells dinged.

  Her attention shifted to it, and the hillside below. She pulled away from him, and Cedar sighed, his shoulders slumping.

  “I see you reset the alarms.”

  “Yes,” Kali said, ran a couple of steps, and picked up her Winchester. The determined set of her jaw suggested nobody else better try to come in and ravage her workshop.

  “Hello?” a tentative call came from a hundred meters down the hill. “Kali?”

  She lowered the rifle. “That’s Travis.”

  Cedar supposed he shouldn’t be annoyed that the person who had interrupted their moment wasn’t someone he could shoot. He went back to leaning against the stone wall as the young report
er snapped every twig on the trail on his way up to the cave. He was out of breath when he arrived, with his spectacles askew and fir needles sticking out of his hair.

  “Kali.” He smiled, lifting a hand toward her, then noticed Cedar in the shadows. “And, er, Cedar. Greetings.”

  Well, at least the kid was using his name. “Andrews,” Cedar said by way of return greeting and gave a nod. Though he was skeptical as to whether Travis Andrews could truly help snare Cudgel, the kid had agreed to help them. Or help Kali, anyway.

  “Any news?” Kali asked.

  “Yes.” Andrews puffed his chest out. “I’ve set up a meeting.”

  “With Cudgel?” Cedar asked.

  “I’m not sure who it’ll be with, but I did a little research, found a contact, and mentioned my father and his holdings—and that he might be interested in purchasing a proven claim. I have a meeting at that new sawmill tonight. The holding company owns it.” He smiled at Kali and waved to her dress—that better be what he was waving at down there. “Are you planning to come with me? To pose as my... lady friend?”

  “No,” Cedar said.

  “I’ll come if you want me to,” Kali told Andrews, “but Cudgel has seen me before, and we think he may recognize me, costumes notwithstanding.”

  “We.” Andrews glanced at Cedar, though he was careful not to hold gazes or make his stance challenging. “I see. You want me to go in there alone?”

  “No, of course not,” Kali said. “This isn’t even your fight.”

  It wasn’t hers, either, Cedar thought, wondering if he should be involving her at all, but he had already tangled with Cudgel and lost so many times... he feared he needed her help.

  “Tell us when the meeting is,” Kali went on, “and we’ll arrive first and set up some traps. We’ll wait right outside, or maybe inside if we can stay out of sight, and be there if anything goes wrong. Right?” Kali turned to meet Cedar’s eyes.

  Cedar wondered if it was a sign that he had been thinking of his grandfather’s mill and that it turned out this meeting would be at a mill. And if it was a sign, was it a good one? Or... an ominous one? Cedar also wondered if someone had seen Andrews mosey on up to the cave. Since he had the stealth of an elephant on a rampage, if he had beelined up here right after his meeting, it wouldn’t have been hard for someone to follow him.