Relic (5 page)

“Here now,” she said, smiling. “The perfect place for a midnight swim.”

“A swim?” I asked, taken aback. “It’s so late.”

“That’s what makes it the perfect time.”

“But I don’t have a swimming costume.”

“You don’t need one,” she said, her blue eyes glinting in the moonlight.

“What are you suggesting?”

Adelaide laughed. “Don’t be so modest, Maggie. We’re both girls.”

She pulled her blouse over her head and dropped her skirt so quickly, I barely had time to look away.

“Please, Miss Adelaide. This isn’t decent.”

“Oh, come now,” she said, “it’s just a little swim. Aren’t you hot on a night like this, after all that work you had to do? Think of it as a nice bath.”

I
was
hot. The grit and grime of the saloon clung to my skin and the hair on the back of my neck. “Well…”

“We’re perfectly safe here,” she promised. “Everyone’s asleep! And if it will make you feel better, I’ll keep my camisole on.”

She didn’t look so terribly indecent in her white lace shift. I had seen her in less when she danced.

“Well, okay.”

“Perfect,” she said, shaking out her pale locks. “Now come on!”

As I nervously unbuttoned my blouse, Adelaide plunged into the water. She let out a cry and then laughed freely.

“It’s wonderful! Hurry up!”

I kept on my camisole and petticoat, though I cringed, knowing that the thin white fabric would be mostly see-through when wet. At least it was dark out.

“You sure there aren’t any water snakes?” I asked, inching toward the bank.

“None,” Adelaide said. She smoothed her wet hair back and took a deep breath. “Oh, I needed this, Maggie. I certainly did.”

The cold water felt like heaven on my feet.

“Isn’t it marvelous?” Adelaide asked.

I nodded, breathing in the cool breeze that brushed over the river as I moved deeper.

She grinned mischievously. “You can’t really appreciate it until you get all the way under.”

“I don’t think—”

But before I could finish my sentence, Adelaide lunged for me. I yelped once, and then I was under the water, the chill gripping my skin. I jumped up, gasping for air. Adelaide was laughing hard. Maybe it was the rush from being dunked into the cold water, but a surge of giddiness overtook me, and I splashed a wave in her face. She shrieked.

“Oh, you’re in trouble now!”

She lunged for me, splashing handful after handful of water. A memory came to me of playing Catch the Mermaid with Papa when I was a little girl. With a grin, I plunged headfirst into the river. The pale gleam of Adelaide’s legs stood out in the murky darkness. Wrapping my hands around her ankles, I pulled with all my strength. Adelaide’s bubbly scream rippled through the water as she was dragged underneath. She kicked free and spun around to grab my arms. We wrestled beneath the cold, rushing river for a few moments before we both burst to the surface, laughing and coughing for air.

When the battle had subsided, Adelaide and I sat in the shallows, cupping water in our hands and letting it spill through our fingers in little trickles.

“How long you been here now?” Adelaide asked. “Two months? Three?”

“Not quite one.”

She nodded, her eyes distant. “I always lose track of time in the spring.”

“How long have you been here? At The Desert Rose, I mean.”

She laughed shortly. “Too long.”

“You don’t look so old,” I said. “If you don’t mind my saying.”

“Not at all.” She grinned. “I’m only twenty. Not too terribly ancient, though I feel it sometimes.” She got a somewhat sad look in her eyes. “I was only sixteen when I started.”

“Oh…”

Adelaide shook her head with strained brightness. “That coyote Mr. Connelly snapped me up soon as he saw I didn’t have a ring on my finger.”

“Me, too! Him and Álvar Castilla?”

Adelaide looked taken aback. “Well, no. Just Connelly. I only wish it had been Señor Castilla.”

“You do? Why?”

“He’s the richest man in town. Owns most of it, too. I tell you, if I had a chance to impress him, I would. And then some.”

“Isn’t he married?” I asked, my face warming a little at her cheeky talk. “He looks old enough to be.”

“He’s only twenty-six.” Adelaide laughed. “Anyway, I hear he has a long-standing betrothal to some rich, pampered Haciendella. Don’t know why they haven’t tied the knot yet. Fussing over their big wedding, I guess.”

It would be nice to be so rich that my biggest problems were what I wanted at my wedding. I was so busy with trying to scrape out a living, I’d be lucky if I ever
met
a respectable gentleman, let alone married. And that was assuming he’d overlook my borderline scandalous job. Sighing, I let the river water slide from my palm and vanish into the dry desert soil.

Adelaide must have sensed my mood, and she tried to keep a pleasant conversation flowing. “So,” she said, “how’s your sister?”

“All right,” I said. “She’s being well taken care of. But I miss her a lot.”

“I have a baby brother,” Adelaide said, her voice soft. “I miss him something awful. He’s with my father in Flagstaff.”

“So far away? Do you get to see them much?”

She stared at the black river ahead. “No. They wouldn’t see me anyway, even if I went.”

I felt a sudden pang of guilt for having judged her. Clearly, plenty others did, too. Even her own kin.

“I’m sorry.”

She put on a strained smile. “Doesn’t matter. I’m too busy dancing for those varmints to think much about it. Quite a crowd tonight, wasn’t there?”

“They come from all over the valley to see you perform. The girls were whispering tonight that a man from Green Springs brought you a relic shard just to have supper with him.”

She smiled slyly. “You’d be surprised what a man will do for a woman he’s in love with. You know, you’re pretty enough to win a man or two, Maggie, with that dark, mysterious look you got goin’. You should try it.”

I smiled, embarrassed. “I don’t think so.”

“Why?” She laughed. “You leave a boy back where you’re from?”

The smile dropped from my lips.

Adelaide clapped a hand over her mouth. “Good Lord, I forgot. You’re from Haydenville, aren’t you?”

I said nothing.

“Oh, Maggie, I…I’m so sorry.”
She set her hand on my arm. “How horrible for you.”

I nodded wordlessly.

She sighed. “All of Burning Mesa was up in arms when we got word of what happened. It was bad enough when we heard about Buena, but then to hear it happened right next door to us? No one could believe them Apaches would destroy whole towns.”

“Apaches?”

“They’re the ones who did it, of course. They’re mad about the relic mining. Everyone knows that.”

I pictured Yahnuiyo’s honest expression as he told me his people weren’t responsible. “Has anyone tried to talk with them?”

“What on earth for? To be killed on sight?”

I dug my toes into the cool mud of the river bottom. For some reason, I wanted to keep my moment with Yahn to myself.

“Maybe we don’t understand,” I said.

Adelaide shrugged and wrung out the golden twist of her hair. “Well, it makes sense to me. And frankly, I think we ought to do something about it before they strike again. The disputes over those mining sites aren’t getting any calmer, you know.” Her face became serious. “I talked with a miner two nights ago. He said he’d heard things.”

The unmistakable fear in her eyes sent a chill down my spine. “What things?”

“He said he’d heard there was going to be another burning. Soon.”

It felt like the air had been sucked out of my lungs. Maybe it was simply idle gossip or the bragging of a man trying to impress a pretty girl… But maybe it was true.

Just then, a rustle sounded in the nearby brush. I spun around. I was already on edge from the conversation, and the sound of movement sent me out of my skin.

“Adelaide!” I whispered. “I heard—”

“Shhh!”

We listened for a tense moment. Sure enough, over the gentle song of crickets, I could hear distinct footfalls. The soft mumble of voices. I gripped Adelaide so hard, my knuckles went white.

“We have to run.”

“Wait…”

And then, pushing through the bushes, two men.

“Well, well, well,” one of them said. “What have we here?”

Chapter Five

I screamed and flung myself into the water, away from them. “Adelaide!
Run!
”

She called my name, but I thrashed frantically through the river, trying to get to the other side.

“Maggie! Wait!”

I spun around. She stood on the banks, looking like a water nymph with her long, wet hair hanging around her and her curvaceous body draped in see-through linen.

“What are you—”

“It’s okay,” she said, exasperated. “These are my friends. Now settle down. You about near gave us all a heart attack.”

I stared, speechless, as Adelaide turned to the two men. The dark-haired one with a black cowboy hat chuckled. “Didn’t mean to interrupt you two water lilies.”

I jerked my arms around my chest. Even though the water mostly covered me, the awareness that I probably looked as visible as Adelaide in these wet clothes made me light-headed.

The dark-haired cowboy stepped up to Adelaide and swept her into an embrace. My heart stopped, but Adelaide giggled. She threw her arms around his neck, and they began to kiss in a most indecent way. I was frozen there in the river, completely stunned.

When they were done, Adelaide turned to me. “I want you to meet my beau. These two cowboys just rode into town, and I’m real happy to see them. Come on out and say hello.”

I clung my arms tighter around my body. “I can’t!”

Adelaide laughed as if I were being silly. “Landon, give Maggie her clothes.”

Landon. The name shot through me like a bullet, and I whipped a look at the younger of the two men. In the chaos of my own fear, I hadn’t noticed, but now I could clearly see the boy I’d spoken to outside The Desert Rose. He stepped forward, removing a light-colored cowboy hat he hadn’t been wearing before.

“My, my,” he said with an amused smirk. “Fancy meeting you here.”

Words escaped me for a single frozen moment. Landon scooped up my blouse and skirt. “Forget something?”

“Don’t touch those!” I shouted. Even in the cold river, I could feel my face heat with humiliation. I wanted to dive under the water and vanish downstream. “What are you doing here?”

“Just out for a stroll with my friend Bobby. Though seeing you two here, I have to say an evening swim sounds mighty refreshing.”

It was definitely Landon there on the bank, and yet he seemed a wholly different person. Where was the lonely soul who searched for his mother in the stars? This smirking rogue bore almost no resemblance to him.

“Shall we all strip down and join you out there,
Maggie
?” Landon asked, reaching to take off his boots.

“Don’t come any closer,” I shouted. I looked to Adelaide. “Can’t you send these ruffians away?”

“Ruffians?” Landon asked, laughing.

Adelaide stayed focused on her dark-haired cowboy, not even looking at me. A shiver passed over my skin. The temperature of the water was dropping by the second.

“Adelaide,
please.
”

“There’s no need to be so ruffled,” Landon said. “You come on out. I’ll close my eyes, I swear.”

“Somehow I don’t believe you.”

Adelaide began to kiss her cowboy again in a way so intense, I was surely sinning just
looking
at it. A flash of betrayal filled me. So
that’s
why she wanted me to come along—to cover her tracks while she met up with her beau. I’d been played a fool. And apparently by more persons than one.

I glared at Landon, shame burning through me at the memory of our intimate conversation. He was clearly a liar and a no-good, probably looking to take advantage of me in my low moment. Well, he wouldn’t succeed.

“Throw me my clothes,” I called to Landon firmly.

He raised an eyebrow. “They’ll get all wet.”

“You throw me my clothes this second. I am
not
stepping out of the water in this state.”

“Suit yourself.”

My clothes landed on the water with a
plop
. I lunged to salvage them, but they were already soaked. Grimacing, I assessed the damage. The navy skirt would be fine, I supposed, provided it didn’t cling to my legs too much. The pale blouse, on the other hand, was now as see-through as my camisole. I contemplated swimming to the other side of the river and dressing there, but I knew the current was too strong to risk it.

Closing my eyes, I rallied my courage and waded awkwardly to shore in my soaking clothes. When I reached him, Landon smiled a wide, shining smile and tipped his hat.

“Howdy,” he said, and then he lowered his voice with words meant only for me. “Sure is a happy surprise to run into you out here.”

I ignored him. “Adelaide, I want to go back now.”

She broke away from whispering sweet nothings to Bobby and pouted. “Aw, Maggie, why don’t we stay awhile? Landon here’s real nice. And he’s about your age, to boot. He’ll keep you company.”

“No, thanks. I’d really like to get home.”

“Then go,” she said, frowning. She turned a gaze of longing to her partner. “I so rarely get to have time alone with the people I actually want to be around.”

She clearly wasn’t leaving. In the cooling breeze, my clothes felt especially cold against my skin. I was shivering, though I tried not to show it.

“Fine, then. I’ll go.”

“Have Landon walk you back.”

“No.” I didn’t want to be anywhere near him. I wasn’t going to let him laugh at me one second longer.

“It ain’t safe for a lady to walk alone at this time of night,” Landon said, holding out his arm to escort me.

I kept my limbs tight at my sides. “Even so, I’d rather go alone than with a
complete stranger
.”

Landon’s brow lowered a little. I could see my words had stung him as I’d planned. But the realization came with an unexpected twinge of guilt.

“Or…if you like, you can walk along,” I said, flustered. “What do I care?”

Without waiting for his reply, I lifted my drenched skirt and marched up the embankment. As I passed through the bushes, Landon came beside me. My pulse raced a little at him so near. I stepped away quickly, both from him and my foolish reaction.

“What’s goin’ on?” Landon asked. “Why are you so mad? Aren’t you pleased at all to see me?”

“I’ve never seen
you
before
.
The person I spoke to outside The Desert Rose is not
you.
”

Landon let out a frustrated breath. “I can’t very well go weeping about my dead mother every second, now can I?”

“If that’s even true. You obviously have no scruples about lying.”

He stepped forward, stopping me. “What are you talking about?”

“You lied about being a railroad worker to trick me into thinking I’d never see you again.”

“I never claimed I was a railroad worker. You said that.”

I opened my mouth to argue but then realized he was right. I folded my arms. “Well, you didn’t try to correct me.”

“I didn’t see the need at the moment.” His blue eyes lowered, and he sighed. “I just wanted to talk to you.”

The sincerity in his voice silenced me. We walked along for a moment. Landon took off his hat and shuffled it in his hands, clearly frustrated. I pursed my lips. I knew I was being harsh; I could see that. And Papa always said everyone deserved a second chance.

“So you’re a cowboy, huh?” I asked, shooting him a sidelong glance.

He perked up a little. “Yes, ma’am. One of Señor Castilla’s finest. And a skilled fighter of rock devils, if I do say so myself.”

I’d heard stories of cowboys but had never met one before. Ranchers hired them to move their cattle and horses and whatever other livestock they had to different grazing locations. But given that a pair of rock devils could wipe out half a herd of cattle in one night, and one organized pack of ghost coyotes could take out a whole one, the cowboys also had to be skilled warriors. I’d heard they carried infinitely growing behemoth rope, and that they had rare goblin bones, which could cause the user to blend into whatever landscape he was in, essentially giving him invisibility. Or giving invisibility to his herds. Very useful. And very expensive.

But the trademark weapon of the cowboy was the dragon-claw rifle. For most people, fire relics brought an agitating effect, which made them less than ideal in an intense situation, so ranchers hired men with not only physical strength but cool heads. The cowboys displayed their dragon-claw rifles as a proud badge of this composure.

It went without saying that for a man to be given the use of those relics, not to mention a rancher’s entire livestock, he’d proved he had to be more than trustworthy. If Landon really was a cowboy, then I could count myself lucky indeed to have such an escort.

Though I wasn’t about to tell him that.

When we reached The Desert Rose, Landon stood beside the closed doors, leaning against the wall. He studied me with a smile, and I couldn’t help noticing how blue his eyes were even in the dim moonlight. My face heated a little under his gaze. Trying to look confident, I smoothed my damp hair out of my eyes.

“Well, thank you. I think I’m safe now.”

For the second time that night, Tom broke up the moment. He pushed out the swinging double doors of the saloon.

“You again?” he said, eyeing Landon, his tone ripe with disapproval. His gaze then fixed on my wet clothes, and his dark brow furrowed. “What happened here? Are you all right, Maggie?”

As gruff as he could act sometimes, Tom had been like a protective big brother to me from the beginning. My first day at The Desert Rose, I caught him watching me real strange, like he knew something. I couldn’t figure out what to make of it, but he’d treated me kindly every day after. I figured he just needed to get used to me.

“I’m fine,” I said. “This gentleman was just leaving.”

Tom frowned. “Where’s Adelaide?”

The image of Adelaide, locked in an embrace with the darker cowboy, shot into my mind, and I was certain my face fell to match. Dropping my gaze from Tom’s, I fingered the damp hem of my blouse. “She’s coming. When…when I fell into the river, she ran for help. This cowboy here came to our aid, and…Adelaide is still talking with his friend. Letting him know I’m all right.”

Tom’s face betrayed nothing as to whether or not he believed my story. He gave Landon one final, piercing look, then turned back to his post.

I blew out a little sigh of relief.

“Nicely handled,” Landon said, grinning. He had been watching me the entire time. He tipped his hat, not taking his eyes off me. “Good night, ma’am. It’s been a pleasure.”

I looked away, smoothing down my skirt again to show that I wasn’t as ruffled by his words as I felt. “Yes, well… Good-bye.”

When I glanced back, he was laughing quietly to himself.

I put my hands on my hips. “Did I say something that amused you?”

In response, he took a step closer, smiling. I knew I should smack him for being fresh, but instead my stomach fluttered like a caged bird. I couldn’t look away from his gaze.

A distant scream shattered the moment like a hammer to glass. It was the sound of pure terror.

We both spun in the direction of the noise. A lone man sprinted toward us from up the otherwise dead-still street, screaming at the top of his lungs. Landon and I exchanged a look, and without saying a word, ran to meet him at the same time.

The screams didn’t let up. Sudden patches of light illuminated windows all along the main street. A few people in nightclothes stepped out looking bleary-eyed but frightened. Tom and Mr. Connelly ran from the Desert Rose to see what the commotion was.

The man, a Chinese laborer covered with dirt, ran straight for us.

“Huo,”
he said in a frantic rasp.
“Huo!”
He gripped Landon by the shirt.
“Ta wen lai dau!”

“Easy there,” Landon said, prying him off. “Take it easy.”

“What in the hell’s got your goat?” Tom asked. “Wakin’ up everybody in the town like that?”

“Huo!”
the laborer said, eyes wide.

“How about you try telling us in
English,
boy,” Connelly said. “We don’t talk your damn Chinese gibber jabber.”

The laborer trembled all over, pale as death. “Ah…pah…chey,” he said, struggling to enunciate the words through his terror. “Ah pah chey!”

The small crowd that had gathered around exchanged confused looks. But his words struck me right in the chest.

“Apache,” I whispered. Landon heard me, and our eyes met with a flash of fear.

His voice was louder. “Apache.”

The word seemed to suck the air from the street. The laborer nodded frantically.
“Ta wen lai dau!”
He pointed to the flickering lantern that hung by the door outside a nearby shop.
“Huo!”

I stared at his shaking, dirty hand, and all at once I could see it wasn’t dirt. Of course it wasn’t. I knew that color, that smell. Better than I wanted to. It was ash and smoke.

Huo
. He meant fire.