by CJ Brightley
Whistles, laughter, and jeers, and a curse from Gobby, answered this. Carden laughed as well. “I hope you like ’em spirited, Gobby, ’cause this one sure is! Let’s move.”
The other miners mounted up, except for a handful who climbed into the carts piled high with equipment and supplies. Lightning flashed, briefly illuminating the sloping sides of the canyon rising up into the mountains, and thunder cracked overhead. A few hard drops of rain hit the back of Lainie’s neck. The men complained about riding in the rain, but Carden ordered them to get going. “We want to cover as much ground as we can tonight,” he said. “There’s no time to lose.”
They rode off, the horse’s movements jouncing Lainie’s battered, aching body. She looked at Carden’s shiny black boot, just below her face, and wished she really would throw up.
A SENSATION OF being tossed around jolted Silas back into consciousness. Someone was trying to boost him up to lie on his stomach across a saddle. “I got it,” he mumbled. The person helping him backed away, and he managed to haul himself up onto Abenar. Burrett Banfrey, looking none too steady, was also mounted up nearby. A younger ranch hand, also on horseback, was leading a horse that Silas recognized as Lainie’s brown mare. Dobay, standing closest to Abenar, made sure Silas was steady in the saddle, then mounted his own horse.
“Dobe –” he started to say, then the words disappeared into the pounding in his head.
“Wik an’ me came in with Banfrey,” Dobay said. “We got knocked around a little by that explosion, but not as bad as you two, an’ we tried to stop them when they took Miss Lainie, but there was too many of them. Then we heard you say you’ll go after Miss Lainie, so we’re taking you back to the house to rest up first.”
The ride out to the Banfrey ranch was an endless blur of various discomforts. When they got to the house, the world was still swimming around Silas’s head. Everything in him demanded that he go after Lainie right away, before Carden and Gobby could do her any harm, but he didn’t think he could even stay in the saddle another minute. Dobay caught him as he half-dismounted, half-fell from his horse and guided him to a room somewhere in the house, where he dropped onto a bed and surrendered to unconsciousness.
He awoke later in the night to thunder and lightning and rain. A realization penetrated the fog around his brain – the rain would wipe out the tracks that Carden’s group left, making physical tracking much more difficult. Not impossible, but hard enough that it would be a job to figure out where they had entered the maze of canyons in the mountains to the west. He could sense Lainie’s location by her power, unless she was shielding; like many untrained mages, she seemed to have instinctively figured out how to hide her power. He might also be able to detect her shield, since camouflaging a shield was a much more difficult skill than making one, but that would be much harder from a distance. If she used magic along the way, that would also give him something to follow. But a physical trail would be the fastest and most reliable way to find her before Carden did her any harm.
At the thought of what Carden and Gobby might do to Lainie, desperate energy surged inside him. The need to find her and see her safe drove him to try to get out of bed, but his weakness and disorientation overcame him and he fell back. He was no good to anyone like this, he told himself; after he had rested and recovered he could make up lost time. The part of him that wanted to go after Lainie right away didn’t want to accept it, but soon lost the argument as he sank back into a heavy sleep.
When Silas woke up again, the room was bright and hot. The light and heat made his head pound even harder, but otherwise he felt stronger and less shaky, and his power had mostly regenerated. His long sleep had given Carden a substantial head start, but there was nothing to be done about it. He had been in desperate need of sleep; he would just have to push hard to make up the time. He seemed to remember Carden saying something about wagons; if Carden had wagons with him, that would slow him down, especially once he started up the canyons.
Silas got up and made his way out to the necessary. The sun was a little past midday, and tall thunderheads were building up over the mountains to the west and the hills to the east. He did his business, then wandered back inside to the dining room, hoping to find something to eat. Banfrey and Dobay were there, sitting at the table with plates of cold stew and biscuits.
“Sit down,” Banfrey said through a mouthful of biscuit. “It’s what Lainie was fixing for us last night. Still good, even cold.”
Silas got a tin plate from the sideboard and joined the other two men at the table. He plopped a big ladleful of cold stew onto the plate and set a biscuit in the middle of it to soak up the congealed gravy. There was a pitcher of water on the table, so he found himself a tin cup and poured some. His mouth felt parched and fuzzy, and the cold water, just pumped from the well, felt good going down.
“You mean what you said, that you’re going after Carden and Lainie? You’ll get my daughter back?” Banfrey asked.
“Yes, sir,” Silas replied. “I can’t leave Miss Lainie in the hands of men like Carden and Gobby. And it turns out Carden’s the man I’ve been hunting, though I wasn’t sure it was him until the day before yesterday.”
Banfrey and Dobay looked at each other, then nodded as though confirming a decision they had already made. “We’re going with you, Vendine,” Banfrey said. “One man can’t take on that bunch alone, even if he is a wizard.”
Silas set his fork down. “Meaning no disrespect, Banfrey, but the two of you would be in way over your heads. You saw how Carden repelled my shot at him. He’s powerful, how powerful I can’t even guess. Neither of you would have a chance if he decided to attack you, and I’m not going to be able to protect you. I’m going to have to put all my attention and strength into dealing with him.”
“We might be able to help you with the other fellas, though. The miners. The two of us are pretty good shots,” Banfrey said. “Listen, Vendine. Lainie’s my baby girl. She’s all I got left. If I don’t go after her, then I don’t deserve to be called her Pa.”
“As for me,” Dobay said, “I’ve known Miss Lainie since she was born. I’m going to lay it out here – I know there’s been some thought of me marrying Miss Lainie.” Burrett gave him a sharp look. “I know,” Dobay went on, “you haven’t said nothing yet. But I’ve known you long enough to know how you think. I know you want what’s best for your family an’ your land, an’ you want them to stay together. That’s clear enough, an’ I’d have to be a fool not to pick up on the hints you’ve dropped. I’m not sayin’ I wouldn’t do it if you came right out an’ asked me to, but I don’t see Miss Lainie that way. She’s like kin to me. A niece, or even a daughter, almost. An’ I don’t think less of her for bein’ a wizard – she can’t help it – but bein’ married to a wizard, I’d worry even more than I do now, and that’s too much already. But you’ve been good to me, an’ I’ve watched Miss Lainie grow up almost like she was my own. So I’m coming with, too.”
Silas hadn’t imagined the foreman capable of such a long speech. The news that Banfrey had thought of marrying Lainie to his foreman was unwelcome; he was relieved to hear Dobay disclaim any interest in marrying her. How did Lainie feel about the idea? He hoped she wasn’t in love with Dobay. Not that it was any of his business, of course. It was just that it would be something else to tie her to the ranch when she was going to have to leave and go to Granadaia.
“So you see, Vendine,” Banfrey said, “we’re not asking you if we can come with. We’re telling you.”
Silas let out a long breath, unhappily admitting to himself that they were right. Carden and a dozen or more miners probably was more than he could handle alone, and it was Banfrey’s right to go after Lainie and to bring his longtime friend and foreman with him. “All right. I can’t argue with that. Just one thing – if I tell you to get out, you get out. Take Miss Lainie with you if you can, but get out. Understand?”
“Seems fair,” Banfrey said. “An’ in the meantime, we’ll do as much as
we can to even the odds for you.”
9
SILAS, BANFREY, AND Dobay rode out within the hour, traveling light. They set out at a good, quick pace, hoping to catch up with Carden’s party before they went too far up into the canyons. By now, the road leading west across the valley had dried, and, as Silas had feared, the heavy overnight rains had erased all but the deepest, most time-worn tracks from the road. Still, if there were wagons with Carden’s group, they would have had to stay on the road for as long as they could, so that was the most likely trail to follow.
Several leagues west of the Banfrey place, they passed another ranch compound, south of the road, then crossed the Great Sky Creek, which was running high and fast under the wooden bridge. Another eight leagues farther on, the road crossed Yellowbird Creek, which was also full, then dwindled away a league or so beyond that, where the valley floor began to rise in ridges up to the mountains. When they reached the last traces of dirt track, the three men dismounted, to rest the horses and decide where to go next.
According to Banfrey, five major canyons, and a number of smaller ones, opened out into the valley from the Great Sky Mountains. Yellowbird Canyon lay ahead and slightly to the north of where they were. Bumblebee Canyon, the next one south, could be entered from this point without having to cross another flowing wash, but reaching Arrowhead Canyon, the southernmost, and Hangman and Great Sky Canyons, the two to the north, would require dangerous crossings of flooded creeks.
Silas studied the mountains that rose into the sky ahead of him. Far back in the range, over the highest peaks, thunderheads had built up again, and thunder rumbled in the distance. He closed his eyes and reached out as far as he could with his mage senses, checking for power. He felt ripples and waves and small bursts of a power that reminded him slightly of Lainie’s magic, but wasn’t hers. Most likely it came from the A’ayimat who lived in the mountains. Otherwise, he couldn’t sense anything. Carden must have been shielding again – how in all the heavens and all the hells could he maintain such powerful shields almost without a break? And Lainie must have been shielding as well, though it was just as hard to figure how an untrained mage could shield so thoroughly.
Then a burst of something dark and malign caught his attention – the power from the ore. It was followed by a glimmer of something he was certain was Lainie. They seemed to come from the deep cleft in the mountains almost straight ahead of him. He opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the flares of power. “They went up Yellowbird Canyon,” he said.
Banfrey and Dobay didn’t question him. They mounted up again and started riding at a pace to cover ground quickly, but not fast enough to wear the horses out, heading for the place where Yellowbird Canyon opened up into the valley and Yellowbird Creek came tumbling out.
As they rode, Silas considered the mystery of Carden’s shields. Making a strong enough shield to hide your power from another mage for a short period of time wasn’t difficult. Making the shield itself hard to detect was more difficult and required the expenditure of more power. Silas had never come across a power-concealing shield that was completely invisible and strong enough to completely conceal not only the power but the life-force of the mage who made it – though he suspected that was an unintended effect; it had given away the shield’s presence as surely as if there was no attempt to hide it at all. Neither had he ever encountered a defensive shield that could repel one of his strongest attacks so forcefully.
Silas combed back through the details he could remember of the blast when his power, sharpened and intensified into an unstoppable beam by his gun, had met Carden’s impenetrable shield. He remembered the blue of his own power, and a deep orange that must have been Carden’s, and – threads of black through the orange.
Black – That explained what Carden was doing with the ore, and where he was getting the power to make and maintain such strong, complex shields. The question was, what else did Carden intend to do with so much power? Whatever it was, Silas was sure it couldn’t be good.
CARDEN FINALLY CALLED a halt about midday, when the canyon grew too narrow and steep to negotiate with horses and wagons. When they stopped, Gobby pulled Lainie off of Carden’s horse and let her drop to the ground. Her clothes were still damp from the night’s heavy rainstorms, and her head pounded from the hours she had spent draped face-down across Carden’s legs. Her stomach twisted with hunger, and she badly needed to answer nature’s call. On Carden’s orders, Gobby untied the ropes on her wrists and re-tied them so that her hands were in front of her, and loosened the ropes around her ankles so that she was only hobbled instead of bound.
“You can go relieve yourself in those trees yonder,” Carden said. “But don’t try anything stupid.”
Lainie would rather have died than say anything about needing to go. Fortunately for her, Carden probably didn’t want her to pee on his expensive black trousers and fancy tooled leather saddle. She stumbled a little ways uphill into the privacy of a cluster of scrub pines and tall grass. It was awkward business, what with her wrists and ankles being hobbled, not to mention the eyes of nearly all the miners fixed in her direction. “What?” she shouted. “This the most you ever seen of a woman?”
A few of them blushed and looked away, and Carden said, “Now, fellas, give the lady some privacy.” Obediently, they went about their own business, and she was able to take care of her needs unobserved.
When she was done, she clambered back down to the group. Gobby shoved a piece of flatbread and a tin cup of water into her hands. With her hands tied, it wasn’t easy to eat or drink, but she managed to get some of the water and most of the flatbread into her mouth. Instead of relieving her hunger, the meager rations only made it more noticeable.
When everyone had finished eating and tending to their other needs, Carden said, “All right, boys. There’s knapsacks in the carts. Load them up with as much as you can carry, along with your saddlebags, those who have horses. We’re leaving the carts and horses here.”
“But the blueskins will find ’em, or the horses will wander off,” someone objected.
“No, they won’t.” Carden raised his right hand. It was glowing faintly orange, the glow brightest around his mage ring. He sketched a broad arc with his hand while saying words that sounded like the language Mr. Vendine had spoken when he helped Lainie fight her way free of the dark beings in the ore. A wall of orange, shot through with thin threads of black, formed around the horses and carts, then faded into near-invisibility. “There. I’ve put up a shield. It’s camouflaged, so if anyone comes along, all they’ll see is canyon, but they won’t be able to get past the shield, and nothing inside the shield can get out.”
“Will the horses be okay?” one of the miners, a tall, broad man, asked. From his voice, Lainie recognized him as the miner who had complained about the dark the night before. “There’s wolves, an’ coyotes, an’ groviks –”
“There’s plenty of grazing and water, and the shield will keep out any predators. They’ll be fine. Now, does anyone else have anything they’re worried about?” Carden directed a hard stare at each man. No one said anything. “Good. Now get moving.”
It didn’t take long for the crew to finish packing the equipment. When they were ready, Carden grabbed Lainie by her upper arms and hauled her to her feet. “Move,” he said.
Lainie held out her hands and shifted her feet. “I can’t walk tied up like this. I’ll lose my balance and fall in the creek. Anyway, I’ve got nowhere to run.”
Carden frowned. “Gobby, untie her.” Gobby came forward and undid the knots. When Lainie was freed, Carden gave her a shove forward. “Go on, now. Stay to the front, where I can keep an eye on you.”
Lainie looked up into the narrow upper portion of the canyon. Yellowbird Creek was running fast and deep in this part of the canyon. The canyon walls were rocky and steep, rising ten measures high or more. An uneven ledge, maybe just wide enough for two men side by side, clung to the wall on the left, a few hand-widths above t
he water level.
She started forward, moving carefully on the ledge, which was slippery with spray from the rushing creek and the remnants of last night’s rain. As the crew of miners followed her, the man who’d worried about the horses said, “Boss? I feel like something’s watchin’ us.”
“Don’t be stupid, Mooden,” Gobby said. “No one’s around.”
“No, there’s someone!” Mooden said. “I’m sure I saw someone – a blueskin! Boss, there’s a blueskin up there ahead of us, watchin’ us!”
Lainie looked up at the rim of the canyon. Among the pine trees growing along the edge, she thought she saw a vaguely man-shaped shadow. She blinked, and there were only trees. Then something long, furry, and low to the ground skittered away between the trees. “There’s nothing there,” Carden said. “Just some animal.”
“Just some animal?” For such a big man, Mooden’s voice was high and thin and nervous. “That was a grovik! One of them’ll eat a man alive down to the bones!”
“You want to wait back with the horses, Mooden?” Carden asked. “It’ll cost you your share, but at least you’ll be safe.”
The other men laughed while Mooden stammered that no, he wasn’t scared and he wasn’t staying back with the horses. They should be scared, Lainie thought. They weren’t nearly as frightened of the power in that ore as they ought to be.
As the upper canyon rose higher into the mountains, it grew so narrow that even though the sun had yet to reach midafternoon, the deep ravine lay more than half in shadow. It twisted back and forth so that Lainie could never see more than thirty or forty arm-lengths ahead. Distant rumbles of thunder told of storms higher up in the mountains, threatening more runoff down into the canyons and raising the danger that the creek would overflow onto the ledge.
After some distance, the party came to a feeder canyon on the right, across the creek. “Stop,” Carden said. He looked at the side canyon, then turned to Lainie, his hands in the pockets of his black trousers and a friendly expression on his face that she wasn’t buying for a copper bit. “So, Miss Lainie,” he said. “Which way do we go now?” He pulled out the pouch he kept the ore in.