“Young lady,” Horace chimed in, “no matter what Marilee may have told you, no one is forced to do anything they don’t want to do around here, with the possible exception of helping to weed the fields. I just want you to know that, and to know you are welcome here.”
Ghost Wind looked over her shoulder at him and nodded. “Thank you.”
****
She had barely walked a quarter of a mile, when she saw where Eli had hidden the Terror. She hesitated a moment. Should she do as she said she would, and walk all the way back to where she had left her gear, or should she just wait by the motorcycle for his return?
Eli hasn’t done anything wrong, if you don’t count running off on his own. Why am I mad at him?
She sat next to the battered cycle, watching the multi-color sunset to the west and pondered her question.
We’re just traveling together, no strings, and certainly no obligation to each other. So why am I having this urge to be angry at him? It’s not his fault Marilee freaked me out.
Eli had been kind and solicitous to her since he had awoken in the shelter. He had been generous and concerned with her wellbeing.
A dark inner voice spoke,
Just like Axyl.
Yes, Axyl had been kind, gentle, concerned with her happiness and had treated her like a little wilderness princess. Right up until the time he had convinced her to set up a meeting with her teacher, Jannelle. Her first understanding of the enormity of how she had been fooled came when Axyl drove his tomahawk into Jannelle’s subclavian artery.
And of course, when her own sister, Ravenwing had opened her face with her knife, thinking that Ghost Wind had been a willing accomplice.
She had not shown her emotions since then. Not during her “trial,” not when she spent the time living with Lila, not even when she was alone, trying to survive, but she could feel them down there, trying to reach the surface like an underground river pushing to reach daylight.
Grief, and the demon, FEAR.
Eli was kind. Axyl was “kind.” She was attracted to Eli; she had been attracted to Axyl.
The longer I sit and mull this over, the closer I am to losing it. I need to move.
Ghost Wind rose to her feet, and walked into the twilight to find her gear.
****
Eli returned to their camp an hour after sunset. Before he had taken off, he had driven a juniper wood limb into the ground on the opposite side of the road from where he had originally dropped Ghost Wind off and driven a rusty aluminum can onto the top end. It would have been very easy to miss the spot in the fading light.
Not that darkness bothered him much.
Pushing the Terror up the hill a ways, he pulled out the tarp and carefully covered his baby then moved uphill to where he hoped Ghost Wind was. He picked up a hint of woodsmoke, and after following his nose for a short while, saw a flicker of flame in the dark.
“Hello, Eli,” she said, not looking up from the stave she was carefully carving on. “Glad you didn’t spill that thing off an embankment in your current state.”
“I tend to metabolize alcohol very fast, even that paint remover Horace calls whiskey.”
“Another one of your mysterious talents?”
“Yep. Whatcha workin’ on?”
“I found this piece of dead vine maple, near that creek down the road. It looked about perfect to make a bow out of, since mine was… lost.”
“Lost?” Eli gently said. “I wouldn’t think anyone who can track like that would ever lose anything.”
She looked into the flame. She was trying to keep her face a mask, but he could see that she was upset.
“Broken,” she replied, “When I was banished, Shining Moon broke my bow over a boulder, cut the string in several places, snapped all my arrows and threw my war knife into a deep river. I was bound at the time.”
“Holy shit! He had a serious mad on at you.”
“She. She looked at our teacher, Jannelle as a mother. We all did. She had raised and trained us since we were eight years old, but Shining Moon really loved her and that love turned into hatred for me. No one stopped her. They might have just stepped aside if she had decided to kill me.” She paused. “No, that’s not right. Black Dog, one of the most senior scouts, actually stepped in when she started to make threats. He had known Jannelle even in the Beforetime, but he still kept the hot-heads off me.”
Eli saw the memory of that act of kindness made tears well up in her eyes.
“Ghost Wind, I will never share anything about this subject that you tell me. Maybe you need to let someone hear your side, even if it can’t change things. I’m a pretty good listener, and I can keep secrets when it’s important.”
She hesitated, looked at the fire, and seemed to come to a decision.
“I fell in love with a man. His name was Axyl and he was… gorgeous. He smelled… good. I was a foolish virgin girl and he played me like a fiddle.” Her voice went from soft to bitter. “He told me sweet lies and when I could sneak away, he set my body on fire with need for him. He… was good at that.”
Eli had never met the guy, but there was an Axyl with the Road Sharks. Could it be the same asshole?
“After three months,” she took a deep breath, “he began his campaign to meet with Jannelle. He told me he was part of a group of traders that had buyers of Beforetime tech up in Canada and they needed a direct route through Clan of the Hawk territory. The scouts of our people carry a lot of weight regarding who gets in to our… their territory and Jannelle’s word carried more weight than most.”
“They couldn’t go up to Canada on old I-5? On the west side of the Cascades?”
“He told me the Western Alliance put a huge tax on anyone bringing items through their lands. I had no idea if that was true or not, but surely this man I loved so much wouldn’t lie to me.” The tone of her voice could have melted lead.
“So, I’m guessing he wanted to meet with this Jannelle lady?”
She looked up at him, her expression so wretched he wanted to reach out to her but he sensed she needed to let this out without distraction, or it would never be told.
“I was so in love. I would have walked off a cliff for him if he’d asked me to. I organized a meeting between them on neutral ground and Jannelle, myself and my little sister Ravenwing went to meet him at the appointed place. Axyl was sitting on his fusion cycle, all smiles and Jannelle told us to wait on the hill above, then went down to parley with him. We watched them talk, and I could tell by her body language that Axyl’s charming gestures were not impressing her.”
“Then what happened?”
“I remember being angry with her. Wondering why she couldn’t see how wonderful he was. And then…”
He waited.
She took a deep shuddering breath, “And then, I saw him gesture up the hill at us, and Jannelle turned our way. As she turned, he pulled a tomahawk that must have been hidden under his jacket, raised up and drove it down in a powerful chop to my teacher’s neck where it joined the right shoulder. It bit deep, she was dead in sixty seconds.”
“Gaw’damn!” Eli said. “That’s horrible!”
“The horror didn’t stop there. As I stood there, frozen, he sauntered to his bike, got on and made kiss noises at me. Then he laughed like a maniac and drove off in cloud of dust.”
“Shit.”
“I realized how much of that very thing I was in, when my darling little sister, Ravenwing, with tears and hatred in her eyes called me a traitor.” She paused again, looking into the fire. “Then she gave me this scar with the knife she carried.”
Eli, wincing, decided to keep quiet and let Ghost Wind talk.
“I woke up at my trial, covered in my own blood. No one had even bothered to cover the wound, and some of them were advocating executing me as a traitor. It was at that point I realized the depth of Axyl’s betrayal. Not only had he lied to me about everything for the opportunity to kill her, but he had left me holding the bag. If Black Dog hadn’t taken charge and told everyone I was to be banished, I’d probably be dead now. If it hadn’t been for Lila Whitefeather of the Yakama Nation taking me in, I’m sure I would be.”
They both sat silent for a while, lost in their own thoughts.
Eli broke the silence first. “Tomorrow, we’ll head up to our little hidden village, Yama No Matsu and I will introduce you to the people we’ve gathered up there. They’ve all come from different backgrounds, and I’m not gonna try to tell you that everyone there is perfect, but that diversity tends to make them more accepting.”
“Do you think they will accept me?”
“Yes. I wouldn’t take you up there only to be rejected. However, you are a strong-willed person, and we have a few very strong-willed folks up there already, so you’d better realize there’s probably gonna be some conflict. Kita is, for lack of a better word, ‘mayor’ of the place as well as being my sword teacher. She can be… how to put this gently…”
Ghost wind raised an eyebrow, and waited for Eli to continue.
“She can be a bit of a hell-bitch on wheels occasionally. I’d advise not takin’ her on too early, though I am sure you two will eventually clash, but you might want to put that off ’til you’re established. And if she busts your chops, try not to take it too personal and storm off. When she warms to people, she can be one of the most caring individuals you’ll ever meet. Sometimes concerned with others wellbeing to the detriment of her own.”
“And whatever she dishes out, I should just stand and take it?”
“Might be better, at first.”
“I can’t promise that.”
“Well,” he half laughed. “tomorrow should be interesting.”
“Do you want to tell me why you sent the half-wit on that mission, Axe?” Shell asked.
“Boss, no offense but,” Axyl looked at his employer, once again staring out the window towards the river, “I know the men a heck of a lot better than you do. I drink with ‘em, bullshit with ‘em and ride with ‘em.”
“A leader must keep a certain distance from his underlings, if he is to be respected, young man.”
“And that’s why you have a brilliant, handsome, and likable second-in-command. I can mingle with the troops and report back to you.”
“The half-wit?”
“Ah yes, Durpee. Our pal the Durpster may be an idiot, but he’s also one of them idiot…ah… saviors?”
“Savant?”
“Yes! Savant! Damn Beforetime word. Anyhow, Durp is a savant. He has a photographic memory. But he can also do one extra thing.” Axyl gestured towards the used copy paper and honed-down pencils on the large table. “Dupree can draw anything he remembers, and draw it incredibly well and in detail.”
Shell’s eyebrow raised. “I see. And you believe he may be able to draw the compound for us?”
“You know all those office supplies down on the first floor? There’s one of those empty books and a packet of unopened pencils that I promised him if he could do that very thing. Compared to all this used stuff and pencil stubs, that’s a treasure to him.”
They were interrupted by a knock at the heavy wood door and Porter stuck his head in. Shell’s face instantly darkened, and the man looked very distressed.
“Axe, I brung Durp like ya asked. Here he is.”
“Thanks, Porter. Now, make yourself scarce.” Porter was only too happy to comply.
“Durp! Howya doin’ buddy?” Axyl said, white teeth shining in a huge friendly smile. “You ready to earn that sketchbook?”
“I did what you told me Axe. I went up there and seen it all, but them people shot guns at us! I was scared.”
Axyl’s expression became tragically sympathetic, “I know, brother, and I am SO sorry about that. I had no idea those people up there were so mean! So, I guess you were probably too scared to remember what to draw, hunh?”
“I can draw it!” For a moment, the young man’s dull eyes flashed with fire.
“Whoa! Sorry, my friend, didn’t mean no offense. I’ve got some pencils here and a bunch of recycled paper for you to work on. So why don’t you sit down and show the boss here what you can do?”
Durpee’s eyes went greedy for a moment. “I’ma still gonna get that drawin’ book, ain’t I?”
“Depends on how good a job you do, Durp.”
“An’ the pencils?”
“Show me something good, brother, and they’re all yours.”
****
It took the boy almost two hours of furious sketching, and several of the half used pencils to get his images down on paper. He worked with a strange, almost trancelike intensity and Axyl set a sandwich by him when it appeared he was close to finishing.
As Durpee wolfed down the venison and homemade bread, Axyl and Shell began to sort through the stack of drawings, some twenty in all.
“My God, these are amazing!” Shell said, “They’re almost photographic!”
“Told you, boss,” Axyl said patting the boy on the shoulder, “we had no idea what a resource we have here in the ol’ Durpster. He’s gonna be very…”
Shell looked up at his second-in-command as Axyl’s words died away. The younger man was staring at one of the last few drawings, and his face had gone deathly pale.
“What is it, Axyl? I don’t like that look on your face.”
“Look at this, Darwin! For fuck’s sake, look!”
Shell moved to the younger man’s side and looked at the drawing that had turned Axyl’s face pale. It portrayed in very tight detail a young woman, dressed in rustic clothing and moccasins, carrying a rifle. The drawing showed her running down a road, and Durpee had captured her athleticism perfectly, with a subtlety that he didn’t possess in his own life. The young woman’s face in the drawing was a clear as daylight, and showed a terrible scar on the left side.
“Hmmmm. Someone of your acquaintance?” Shell asked.
Axyl looked at his employer with a haunted expression. “Boss, you sent me north to deal with the leader of the of those hill people bush ninjas, remember?”
“I could hardly forget. They kept interfering with our slaving up that way, ’til it got to the point we could hardly do business up there. They’d sneak into our camps, free our slaves, destroy our equipment.”