“Come now,” Graves said. “This could be your last job. Even split among us four ways, this vase would be enough for each of us to live in wealth for the rest of our lives. No more life of crime, fleeing from the law at every step.”
She laughed at that.
“You have romantic notions of banditry, I fear,” she said. “Most of the time, the law doesn’t bother to chase you.”
“Tell that to the Kid,” Graves said.
Jules frowned. The Kid had been chased by the law for years, though if any lawman was responsible for taking him out, he’d never stepped forward to take credit for it. And if the last conversation with her father was any indication, the Kid was involved here too, though she couldn’t see how.
After a moment, she nodded. “I’ll do the job. We can be partners.”
Miranda grabbed her arm. “No, you can’t.”
Graves ignored her. “Excellent. Shall we leave tomorrow?”
Jules shook her head. “Doubtful, unless you have a cache of silver bullets nearby. If we’re going to face Vipers, I need a lot and I’m out.”
Graves nodded. His earlier fury appeared to have vanished entirely, though she suspected it was still there, lurking just beneath the surface.
“A sensible precaution,” he said. “I’m impressed you know their name.”
Jules could have given Luke credit for that, but she preferred this man think she’d long known that information.
“I’ve become acquainted with them the past few months,” Jules said. “And how to kill them.”
“Silver bullets. Fire and daylight too, I believe,” he said. “From what I understand, they can only travel outside the Maelstrom while they are part of a storm.”
Jules thought of the one she’d seen catch on fire in the sunlight.
She opened her mouth to move on, but Luke—who’d been watching the negotiation silently still standing by the case-keep—spoke up.
“Where did they come from?”
Graves eyed him. “They showed up at the same time the Maelstrom did, some twenty years ago. Of course, there weren’t nearly so many of them at that time. Their numbers have been growing.”
Jules shuddered, remembering their inhuman shrieks and the way they scuttled across the ceiling like bugs.
“So they die when the storm they travel inside blows itself out?” Jules asked.
“The storms don’t dissipate, my dear,” Graves said. “They break off from the Maelstrom, travel through nearby country, and then eventually return to where they started. That’s how Vipers move about.”
“That’s impossible.”
“All evidence to the contrary,” Graves said. “I shouldn’t worry. I’ve never had the pleasure myself, but my understanding is they’re not very intelligent. They won’t be expecting us to arrive at their front doorstep.”
Graves said this with haughty self-confidence. Jules suspected if he’d ever actually seen a Viper, that would change quickly.
“Their mode of transportation may give us the advantage we need,” Graves said.
“Not sure I follow.”
“I’m not sure how much of a population they have,” he said. “If we choose the right moment, when a storm has broken away from the Maelstrom, we may possibly find they are not at home when we enter ourselves.”
“Or they could be having a big meeting there,” Miranda said.
Graves shrugged, as if it were no big deal.
“This is crazy,” Miranda said again.
“Let’s talk about it later, Mira,” Jules told her, giving her a warning look.
Miranda bit her words back, but Jules could see the effort involved. Jules was going to get a tongue-lashing later, that much was certain.
“How much time do you need?” Graves asked.
“A week,” she replied.
“That long to get silver?”
“And whatever else we need,” Jules said. “I won’t make my father’s mistake of rushing in without proper supplies. If we do this, we do it my way.”
He nodded and spread his hands wide.
“Very well,” he said and stood. “I’m in your hands. Much though I’ve enjoyed our little game, I have preparations of my own to do.”
He reached down to take the keys, but Jules got there first, scooping them up and holding them in her hand. She expected him to object, but he merely smiled instead.
“Of course. They are yours, after all. We’ll meet back here in a week.”
Graves left without another word.
Chapter Twelve
“Interestingly, the rumors of the creatures that lurk within the Maelstrom—the so-called Vipers—don’t start until sometime later. Indeed, they seem to be regarded as something of a ghost story for the first decade or so of the Maelstrom’s existence.”
— Terry Jacobsen, “A History of the Supernatural,” 2013
Miranda waited a few minutes until she was sure Graves was gone before she rounded on Jules.
“You can’t possibly be serious.”
Jules glanced at Luke, who looked neither alarmed nor worried. For some reason, the thought of entering the Maelstrom hadn’t disturbed him. Maybe he was planning to quit.
“Can you give us a moment, please?” she asked.
He nodded and strolled out of the room, leaving them alone.
“You know how I feel about you questioning me when I’m on a job,” Jules said.
“And how do I feel when you do something reckless and stupid?” Miranda asked. “First off, you know going to the Maelstrom is madness. Secondly, I wouldn’t take a trip to the general store with Graves, much less somewhere dangerous. You saw what he was like. He—”
Jules held up her hands in mock surrender.
“I don’t trust Graves,” she said. “You know me. I don’t trust anyone except you and Onyx.”
“You trusted Luke easy enough,” Miranda replied.
That was true. By rights, she should have made Luke wait outside the brothel while she conducted her business with Graves. For some reason, she’d ceased to see him as a threat.
She couldn’t put a finger on why, but she trusted him.
“We both know who this is really about,” Jules said. “And it’s not Luke.”
Miranda shook her head. “For someone so appallingly rational sometimes, you can be foolhardy the next. What was Father’s first rule?”
“He only has the one. ‘Above all else, you must survive,’” she repeated dutifully.
“Precisely. And how does heading off into the Maelstrom fit with that philosophy?”
Jules stepped away from her. She’d known the moment she’d made this decision—hell, the second she’d decided to follow her father’s trail—that this fight was coming. But it didn’t make it any easier.
“He had exceptions for family,” Jules said.
Miranda laughed bitterly. “It doesn’t apply here. He’s dead, Jules. If he rode off into that storm, he’s gone. There’s no sense in going after him.”
“He’s not dead,” Jules said quietly. “Trent Castle was the exception to many rules.”
“Not this one.”
Jules closed her eyes. This wasn’t getting them anywhere, and she had lots of work to do. It was time to move this along.
“You know he’s alive,” she said, opening her eyes and holding Miranda with her gaze. “Don’t lie and tell me otherwise. You know it.”
Miranda locked eyes with her. “That’s not true.”
“You think you don’t talk in your sleep?” Jules said. “You think I don’t hear you screaming in those dreams of yours? I’m two feet away, Mira. I can hear you just fine.”
“Don’t bring my dreams into this!”
“Why not? They’re the reason we’re here!” Jules said, raising her voice. “You want to pretend that what you dream doesn’t come true, fine. You want to pretend you don’t dream of places we’ve never been, okay. You want to tell yourself you’re just lucky at cards, that’s your busin
ess. But don’t lie to me about Father. I’ve heard you talking to him.”
Miranda was shaking and Jules could see the effort it took her not to look away.
“That’s how I know he’s dead,” she said. “I’ve seen it in a dream.”
“Liar!” Jules shouted. “Tell me the truth, Mira. What have you seen in your dreams? Is father alive?”
They stared at each other like gunfighters in a duel, each determined not to break away. But Jules knew the truth of it. She would never back down.
“He’s lying in a pool of his own blood, attacked by those… Vipers,” she said.
But Jules didn’t flinch, just held her gaze steady. She knew a lie when she heard one.
“You can’t fool me, Mira.”
Miranda finally broke away, looking to the side. Jules felt some satisfaction from winning the duel, though some part of her wished she could believe. If she did, she wouldn’t be on this grim business.
“What do you see?” Jules asked. “Tell me truly.”
“A mountain in a storm,” Miranda said. “A cage inside the mountain. Father locked inside while those things go past. There’s something else there, a darker presence. It talks to him sometimes.”
That was news to Jules. She’d seen Miranda writhing on the ground, calling for their father. But she’d never heard the details. Miranda had always insisted she couldn’t remember.
“Vipers don’t talk.”
“I don’t know if it’s one of those things,” Miranda said. “Maybe it’s something else. But it communicates with him, maybe not in words. It’s torturing him. It tells him horrible lies.”
Jules grabbed her arm. “Why haven’t you told me this? You knew where he was all along. We could have dispensed with this nonsense and gone straight there.”
Miranda shook her head. She was shaking again and there were tears in her eyes.
“You don’t know what it’s like,” she said. “It’s an awful place.”
She started crying, jagged sobs that made Jules simultaneously want to punch her and wrap her into her arms. Miranda had known all this time what Jules had blindly insisted upon: her father was alive. They’d wasted precious time and couldn’t get it back.
“We need to go get him, Mira,” Jules said. “We’re not going to let him rot there.”
Her sister looked back at her, some defiance still in her eyes.
“You said you heard me talking to him. Do you know what he says every night I see him?”
Jules shook her head.
“He tells us not to come,” Miranda said. “He begs us to stay away.”
Chapter Thirteen
“Arguably the strangest story of the Old West is The Lady of Shadows. Her real name is unknown, but she’s described as a thin, mysterious woman of Asian descent—there are conflicting accounts of her nationality—who told fortunes. While plenty of others fell in that category, she had an uncanny ability to show up at key times in history. It is said she visited General Custer’s tent shortly before Little Big Horn. It’s not clear what she told him, but reportedly his mood was uncommonly somber afterward.”
— Jessie Berry, “Overlooked Women of History,” 2016
Jules stalked toward the blacksmith’s shop with a dark cloud hanging over her.
The idea of her father locked in some kind of cage—with those Vipers all around him—was disturbing. Why keep him alive? Was it possible he’d been a prisoner for three years?
Vipers were mindless monsters. They didn’t keep prisoners. She again thought of the way they’d crawled across that ceiling of the bank while distracting her group down below. Maybe it was time she stopped underestimating these creatures. If they had enough sense to keep her father prisoner, there was clearly a lot about them she didn’t know.
She opened the door to the blacksmith shop to find Hubert repairing a horseshoe. He was a tall man, nearly six feet, with massive, muscled arms. Jules had seen him shirtless and sweating on hot summer days, his fire was roaring while he repaired something. He was quite a sight. Jules had no yearning for matrimony but she wouldn’t have been averse to distracting herself with him for a night or two. It was a pity he had a wife. As it was, she’d have to be satisfied with admiring the view.
He looked up from his work, his face breaking into an easy smile.
“Jules Castle,” Hubert said. “How can I help you?”
Jules swung her satchel around, opening it up to reveal a small wad of greenbacks. It was most of what she had left from the bank robbery after paying Luke his cut before riding into Stanton. She tossed them on the counter.
“I need all the silver bullets you can make in the next day,” she said.
Hubert’s expression darkened, and he shook his head sadly.
“That would be a quick job,” he said. “I’m out of silver entirely, Jules. I’m sorry. It’s been scarce since the last time you bought my supply. Everybody’s hoarding it.”
She frowned. Before she reached Stanton, she’d scrounged through her saddle bags and found a tiny pile of silver bullets. But it wasn’t nearly enough for what she was planning. Hell, it wouldn’t be enough to survive a couple of those creatures, much less saunter into their fortress.
“Who’s got it?” she asked.
Hubert shook his head. “Now, Jules, don’t go getting any ideas.”
“I’ve got plenty of ideas.”
“From what I hear, it’s the U.S military that’s keeping most of the silver these days. Doubt there’s much even you can do about that.”
Her heart sank. She’d been hoping to hear that perhaps it was a single person or bank hoarding the silver. The government wasn’t what she had in mind.
“Why do they want it?” Jules asked. “They making a run at the Maelstrom?”
That would be all she’d need.
Hubert shook his head. “To pay the men, Jules. That’s how soldiers get paid, in gold and silver coins.”
She cursed under her breath. She urgently needed that silver. Without it, her plan to ride into the Maelstrom truly was suicide.
“They can’t have a stockpile sitting at all the forts,” Jules said. “They must bring in payments. How?”
“There’s a shipment that goes out from Fort Abraham Lincoln about once a month. Nearest place it goes to is up north by Fort Curtis. But I wouldn’t get any ideas, Jules. It has an escort. They don’t send men with that kind of money across the open prairie without guards.”
“How many?”
He crossed his arms in front of him and shook his head.
“I see what you’re thinking, Jules. Don’t do this. If you did, I reckon they’d chase you down this time.”
She’d like to see them try. They weren’t likely to follow her into the Maelstrom, and that assumed she was sloppy enough to let them know who she was.
She nodded her head, trying to look resigned.
“Okay,” she said. “I’ve got a crazy way of thinking, I know.”
He continued to eye her skeptically, but she gave him some of Onyx’s horseshoes to repair, made some small talk and hurried out.
She crossed back to Dy’s saloon, where Luke stood outside, waiting. She nodded her head in his direction, but didn’t stop. Instead, she strode right up to the bar. Dy eyed her speculatively. He put a glass on the table, but Jules held her hand over it. She needed all the wits she had left for this conversation.
“How often does Fort Curtis receive a visit from its paymaster?” she asked.
Dy considered. “Once a month this time of year,” he said, and his eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“When’s the next one due?”
Normally, she would have been more circumspect about her efforts. But she didn’t have time.
“Next few days, as it happens,” Dy said. “At least a dozen guards. Jules, you sure you’re up for this?”
Twelve? Even if Miranda brought her bow, she doubted she could handle that many. She’d been hoping for five, maybe six.
Still, s
he had a sudden inspiration. It might be possible to scare them off, make them think they were under attack by a large party of Sioux.
“You know the route it takes?” she asked.
“The usual cut?”
“Naturally,” Jules said, nodding. She was just appreciative he didn’t try and talk her out of it.
Dy disappeared into the back, returning with a map a moment later. He traced the route from Fort Lincoln to Curtis, showing her the main travel route in between. Much of it was a narrow trail surrounded by grassland, but she did spot an opportunity—if she wasn’t too late already to meet them there.
“They’re on their way already, Jules,” Dy said. “You don’t have a lot of time.”
That was good. It was less time for her to hear her father’s voice in her head telling her this was a foolish plan. Outnumbered and outgunned was never a great place to start.
“I can still do it,” Jules said.
Dy nodded and she took comfort that this man, at least, believed in her. He leaned in, however, a moment later, even though there were only a few people in the saloon, all of whom appeared drunk.
“Just know this,” he said. “You’re not the only one who’s been asking questions about the pay route. Couple strangers were inquiring about this a few days ago. Not sure who they worked for. I didn’t have anything to tell them then, but I looked into it since. The lack of silver has raised its value considerably. A target like this…”
He drifted off. He didn’t need to finish. Jules swore under her breath.
“I’ll deal with them too, if I have to,” she said.
He nodded curtly and she slipped off the stool, walking back outside. As she did, she saw Miranda crossing the road toward her, having returned from her supply run to the general store. She joined Luke and Jules outside the saloon.
“Well?” Miranda asked. “You get the silver?”
Jules shook her head. “No, but I know where to find it.”
Miranda’s face fell. Jules wondered if she knew this part was coming. Jules turned to Luke.
“We have a new target,” she said. “They have the supplies we need.”
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