Red Star Sheriff

by Timothy Purvis

  “Wh, who are they!?” he shouted looking back. The riders became eight and all gave chase.

  “Don’ know! Don’ care! Not sittin’ ‘round ta find out!”

  Mesmerize beat out a thunderous retreat and they made for the rising mountain range of the Spine that was now not so far in the distance.

  CHAPTER SIX: INTA THE SPINE

  “WHEN AH WANT ya tearin’ off like madmen, ah’ll tell ya!” Asta shouted riding past her six-man crew.

  “Huhn?” one replied.

  She stopped and twisted towards them. “Ah want ‘em alive! When ah tell ya lot ta start shootin’, then start shootin’! Not bafer!”

  “Sorry, Ms. Lynch!” they said in near unison.

  “Form up and git yer asses in gear!” she howled and started after their quarry.

  The posse fell in behind Drevan and Asta as they rode hard after their mounted mark who were now some distance away and making good time for the rocky canyons beyond. Asta figured there was maybe less than ten minutes before they entered.

  “They’re headed fer the Spine!” Drevan shouted furrowing his brows.

  “Yeah, ah see ‘em!” Asta replied. “Kent let up now! Let’s see if’n we ken cut ‘em off at the pass!”

  Drevan growled in doubt. “Gonna be close!”

  “Yup!”

  They pushed harder and were gaining some ground but not before the two entered the mouth of the Spine. Several paths opened up as they followed prompting Asta to bark commands.

  “Dawson! Hairn! Tyler! Take up the right! Mills! Hicks! Mason! Take the left! Come on, Drevan!”

  Hooves echoed off of rusty stone as they took their branching paths. The Sutures vanished from sight behind them as their marks vanished beyond one of the bends ahead. Asta could still hear the whinnying and heavy breathing of their mount.

  “They kent be far!”

  Drevan only grunted in response.

  AIDELE DIDN’T LOOK back as Mesmerize careened up the central path and plunged deeper down the canyon crevice, that posse closing in. Behind her, Durante was clinging to her waist for dear life, eyes closed. Aidele navigated path after path until Durante held his head up and looked back.

  “I think they’re gaining!”

  “They are! They’re trying to cut us off at the pass!”

  “The what!?”

  “The pass! The direct entry to the Spine! A series of shallow and steep crevasses! Only, we’re not goin’ that way!”

  “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll see!”

  Aidele pushed another three hundred feet and slowed Mesmerize as she angled left into a narrow offshoot. There was barely enough room for him to fit, but they managed and after a few minutes brought him into a gallop over the course, rising terrain as they zoomed down the cavity until they came to the end of a gully. There, Aidele guided them into a tunnel leading up through a wall of stone. Several times Durante’s knees skimmed the walls causing him to yelp. The ceiling started getting lower until they were forced to lower their heads. Light became low and diffuse but what little there was seemed to radiate from everywhere. It was enough for Durante to notice small burrowed holes deep in the walls.

  “They look like snake holes.”

  “What?”

  “The holes in the wall.”

  “Are ya really concerned about geological features right now?”

  “Keeps my mind off getting shot.”

  “Well,” Aidele huffed a chuckle. “Guess ah can’t argue with ya there. Those are bricker tunnels.”

  “Bricker… what?”

  “Sorta like gophers, but dig through rock like it’s jelly. Hell on crops. If’n yer dumb enough ta plant out in the Spine, that is. Though ah guess sometimes they do manage ta git out in the countryside. Now that ah think ‘bout it, ah did find one once out in our pinta fields.”

  “They, uh, don’t have a taste for flesh, do they?”

  Aidele laughed. “Not generally. But don’ git too close. They may look cute but they have a real bad tendency for biting. And since they can burrow through stone, they’ll make short work of your hands.”

  Durante felt the color drain from his face and drew his knees in closer.

  “Watch yer head,” Aidele said as they started up a steep incline.

  Durante struggled to hold on, his grip around Aidele’s waist tightening. After what seemed like an eternity, they exited the narrow cavern tunnel and came out onto a small enclosed alcove. It was a circular room lit brightly by holes through the domed ceiling that offered a view of the mountainous Spine beyond and around. There was barely enough room for them all with maybe a clearance of eight feet in any given direction and a scant few above their heads. To their right, another cave led downwards into the black abyss of the Spine. Though, from what Durante could see, it wasn’t as steep. Aidele motioned to dismount.

  Huhn. This must be what it looks like from inside a ball of coral. He thought taking in the view.

  Durante whistled and then pointed at the decline into the Spine. “Let me guess, after a short breather, we’re headed down there.”

  “Ya guess correctly, Mr. Weiss.” She replied looking around herself. “They won’t be able to follow us that deep inta the Spine. There’s only a few ways inta where we’re headed. This is one of them.”

  “Been here before I take it.”

  “A few times.”

  “Alright. So, got a flashlight then? Cause it’s looking pretty dark down there.”

  “We’ll manage.” Mesmerize whinnied loudly right next to his ear causing Durante to jump. Aidele smiled and reached up to pat Mesmerize’s neck. “Yes, yer right! Ya did a good job, ole boy. There’s plenty of moss fer ya ta lick down below.”

  “Moss? Ew.”

  “Didja hear that!?” a voice echoed all around them. “Sounded like a horse whinny!”

  Durante braced his hand on the wall to his left and saw movement out beyond one of the openings. He dropped down into a crouch and stared through the long hole. The stone was maybe twelve feet thick but the hole offered a wide view of the plateau beyond.

  “They’re here,” he whispered ducking against the wall.

  Aidele knelt beside him and they watched the bounty hunters meeting at the top of an overlook.

  “They’re not that close. Maybe about a hundred fifty feet or so.”

  “Still, keep your head down. We don’t want them to see us.”

  “They ain’ gonna see us.” Aidele shook her head. “From their perspective the holes here are jet black. ‘Sides, even if by some chance they did happen ta spot us, there’s only a deep gully going straight down separating this cropping from them.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. Now shush.”

  Aidele witnessed eight riders arriving one at a time and saw no more.

  “Ah’m tellin’ ya ah heard a horse whinny! But… it was like it was comin’ out from ev’rwhere!” One of them said to a dark-skinned woman dismounting.

  “Damn…” the woman said. “They managed ta git inta the Spine, then.”

  “How d’ya figure?” a short man asked.

  “Because if’n it’s echoin’, it’s travelin’ the network. They could be practically anywhere.”

  Mesmerize snorted and the posse and the woman glanced all around.

  “He’s going to give us away!” Durante gasped.

  “No, he won’t. Like she said, sound travels everywhere in here. No way ta tell where it’s comin’ from. Like a giant echo chamber, with no sense of direction.”

  Durante knitted his brows. “My god. Just what is this Spine anyhow?”

  “Only about two thousand miles worth of mountain runnin’ all the way north. Its center rises high and tapers down into shallow canyons at the north end where it collides into the Crags. The south end a little shallower until it flushes into the Sutures. A delta fan of canyons, crevasses, and gullies. Kinda looks like a giant spine with ringed tunnels runnin’ through it occasionally
popping out of the ground like the hollow skeletal remains of giant snakes that were tryin’ ta escape. The tunnels run ‘bout as deep as ya can imagine. Which is why the echoes reverberate everywhere.”

  “Wow,” Durante muttered staring up at one of the rising peaks beyond a ceiling hole.

  “Wow, indeed,” Aidele responded in a voice tinged with anger. “Fucking bitch.”

  “Huhn?”

  “Gawddamned Asta Lynch.”

  “Who?”

  “Wastelands bounty hunter. We have… history. And ah hate her ever-lovin’ guts.”

  Aidele scowled as she watched Asta wander around the plateau giving orders to her posse. They were about to start searching tunnel entrances. Several of her crew mounted up and went in different directions.

  Good luck tryin’ ta find us, whore. Ya won’t get anywhere near us.

  “So, what happened?” Durante brought her out of her thoughts.

  “Ya know what,” Aidele stood and went to Mesmerize where she rummaged through her saddlebag, “ah don’ want ta talk ‘bout that cunt. If’n she’s gettin’ a pretty penny ta hunt us, then all the more reason ta go deep.”

  Durante frowned sitting against the wall, his legs under him still in a crouch. “Maybe… I should just turn myself in. Give them the journal. And that’ll be that.”

  Aidele stopped rummaging and stood still for a moment. Then turned and glared at him, eyes enraged.

  “If’n ya want ta go back out there an’ git yerself kilt, go right on ahead. But don’ think fer one second that ah would ever allow that soulless skank ta place one finger on that journal.”

  Durante was silent for a long moment before replying. “I’m just trying to figure a way out of this mess. Of course, we can’t turn it over. Not anymore. So, a dark hole with no guiding light?”

  “Ya can cling ta Mesmerize up in the saddle. Ah’m surefooted ‘nough. The walking isn’t too treacherous.”

  “I suppose I can handle a few hours in the dark.”

  Aidele chuckled. “Try a few days.”

  “A few days!?” he cried out and covered his mouth quickly.

  “Maybe a week.”

  “A week!?” he squeaked and uncovered his mouth, color draining from his face. “You can’t be serious?”

  “Ah have enough rations for two or three days. After that, we can hunt. Or, rather, ah can hunt. Ah’ll build a fire when we make camp. Come on, get up.”

  Durante didn’t immediately move, his jaw hanging in shock. Then he decided his options were nil and shook his head as he got to his feet. Aidele helped him up onto Mesmerize. He paused for a moment as she gathered the reins into her hands. Then pulled the journal out of his satchel and tapped her on the shoulder with it.

  “Here. I might be tempted to flee for my life if I don’t give it to you now. Yours anyhow,” he gave a haphazard grin.

  Aidele quirked a brow and took the book from him gently. “Durante, if’n ya were gonna dart, as ya claim, ya’d already done it ‘fer comin’ all the way up in here. Now, settle down. It’s going to be a slightly bumpy ride down into the deep.”

  “Great,” Durante mumbled as Aidele guided them down into the dark.

  “GUESSIN’ AIDELE’S INVOLVED after all…” Asta said her fists on her hips.

  “Regrettably.” Drevan replied standing at the edge of the overlook.

  Mist rose at the base of the mountains in the far distance. It would turn into a fog further into the evening making travel hazardous at best. For now, it was just a light vapor making the surrounding range look like a huge beast lumbering from a steaming lake. At the horizon, the sun was a tiny orange ball seeking cover behind mountains so far away it’d take weeks by mount to reach.

  Asta glanced at Drevan. “Think Weiss knew ‘em? That why she’s protectin’ him?”

  “Could be. Being shot at probably din’t help matters any, either. Even if so, not really important. Ya already know how ah feel ‘bout the whole thing.”

  Asta sighed and went back to watching the sun set. “An’ ya know mine. Goin’ back empty handed ain’ somethin’ ah want ta do. Course, gittin’ lost in the Spine ain’ high on mah priorities list neither.”

  “Could always jus’ cry off. After all, he needed us ta track cuz he couldn’t do it.”

  Asta scoffed. “Right. That’d be real good fer the rep. No. We have a crew ta feed’n pay, horses ta care fer, a plantation ta manage. Last few hunts were nothin’ more’n a waste o’time. Barely made ‘nuff fer food. Wit’ what Berricks is payin’, we’ll be good ta go fer months. All we need ta do is acquire one gawddamn book.”

  “Yeah, a journal written by the father o’the girl who’s mum ya kilt.”

  Asta turned away so quick he barely had time to hear the sob. Her hand went to her mouth and she went quiet. There was a subtle heaving of her shoulders and Drevan gritted his teeth. He braced his hands on his hips and cursed himself staring at the ground.

  “Shit.” He shook his head and exhaled sharply. “Ah’m sorry, Asta. That was jus’ mean’n uncalled fer. Ah know it weren’t yer fault—”

  “Yes, it was!” she screamed turning on him. Saliva shot from her lips and tears streamed down her cheeks. “It was mah fault! An’ anyone would tell ya the same! Ah know what ah did! An’ if’n ya think it don’ sit well wit’ you, it sits even worse wit’ me! Ah ain’ never gonna be able ta take that back! Never! An’ fuck you fer throwin’ it in mah face!”

  She dropped her arms and stormed past him. Drevan kept his gaze to the ground, saying nothing. He thought she’d just go off to be alone, but then she stopped.

  “We got a job ta do.” She glanced over her shoulder. “We’re gonna git that book whether Aidele cooperates or not. Git the camp set up. We’ll sleep in shifts. Send the boys in by pairs’n see if’n they ken flush ‘em out. An’ while yer doin’ that, see if’n ya ken keep that foot o’yers outta yer mouth.”

  She walked off and Drevan kept staring at dirt. “Yes, ma’am.”

  DURANTE SHIELDED HIS eyes from the fiery blaze as Aidele leaned back against her saddlebag. Mesmerize stood nearby eagerly licking moss off a cave wall. He tried to focus on how long they’d been riding through the cavernous network of tunnels, it seemed like days. An eternity of ups and downs, bumps and scratches with hardly any sight of sunlight coming from occasional holes in the ceilings. At one point during their ride he could have sworn something brushed his legs, though it was impossible to tell with how dark it was in the cold depths of the Spine.

  He inched closer to the fire, shivering uncontrollably. Aidele tossed a pack of jerky like rations toward him. He devoured it in less than a minute.

  Two, three days at least. Shallow naps, stolen moments of campfire… sucks trying to refocus my eyes every time. I’ll be glad when this nightmare is over.

  He looked over at Aidele. She always looked so unfazed. By any of this. And not for the first time he wondered why that was. She could be sociable but was always so dead serious. Rarely cracking a smile, but sometimes offering up a rather warped joke or two. In many ways, Aidele reminded him of her parents. In so many other ways she was as different as could be. Her mother had been pleasant and easy going. A gentle soul with a rough spirit that was sometimes hard. Professor Wilson, on the other hand, was sweet as could be. Jocular and warm.

  Aidele, as far as he could tell, was rather cold and aloof. He’d tried to talk to her about some things, nothing pressing, just about living in the country and questioning about Mesmerize (he was allegedly a horse, but he was so slender and tall the comparison was generous at best. More like a sinewy greyhound of a multiverse of colors bred with a unicorn, minus the horn). She answered very few and seemed put off by any real conversation. As it was now, with her leaned back, arms behind her head staring up at the dark cavern ceilings. He couldn’t see the details of the cavern too well, and couldn’t imagine she could either. But she looked content staring off at something. Maybe the shadows cast by the flickering flames making it look like
there was some sort of movement—

  “Holy fuck! What the hell is that!?” Durante screamed and drove himself backwards, legs spider-walking a few feet.

  Aidele glanced at where he was pointing and smiled. Something was slowly moving away from the light of the campfire along one dark wall. It had a tiny body no more than three feet wide and long legs that had to be nearly eleven feet in length. Dozens of tiny black orbs dotted its body and he couldn’t help but to imagine that this was what a skeletal demon spider would look like slinking off into the darkness. If it had a gaping maw, he didn’t’ want to know it. He might never sleep again. Its form blinked in and out of existence in the firelight.

  “That’s just a spindler.”

  “A fucking what!?”

  “Oh, cool yer jets. You’re not on the menu.”

  “What about the horse!? Is the horse on the menu!?”

  “For crying out loud! No, Mesmerize is not on the menu. They’re harmless. They live off the lichens and mosses growing on the walls. Their mouths aren’t even big enough to give you a welt. Yer ‘bout as nervous as a nelly on a stud farm.”

  “And you’re sure? They don’t have like suckers or a needlelike proboscis?”

  Aidele glared at him and he exhaled, trying to settle back down. She was probably right. He sighed and inched back towards the fire. Whether they were vicious or not, he still didn’t like the idea of fourteen-foot eldritch horrors playing peekaboo in the dark.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t like being in a cave, not being able to see most of the time. It’s killing my eyes. And to be surrounded by… spindlers, chased by bounty hunters, and freezing to death in the dark… I’m just a little jittery. How much longer do we have to be in here?”

  Aidele watched Durante warming his hands. “The way we’re going is way off the beaten path. Two more days, I reckon, and we’ll be out on the Dustlands Reach. Day after that, we should arrive at the Pyre Trench. Then it’s just a straight shot back ta the ranch.”