His mind shifted back to his army days. He saw the map in his head. If they are 10 miles east, they are coming from the fort. They will stick to the low ground where the washes are. They won't ride the ridges in this wind.
He pointed to the north. They will swing wide around the black rocks to avoid the scree. If you run south, you will run right into their flank. Nantan studied him. You are sure?
I know the captain who runs patrols in this sector. Luke said, "Captain Harlan, he likes flat ground. He hates losing horses to broken legs. If you want to vanish, you have to go up into the rocks where the horses can barely walk." Nantan hesitated for a heartbeat. Then he turned to his sub-chiefs.
"Strike the camp. We go to the high canyon." The evacuation was a miracle of speed. Within 20 minutes, the wikiups were dismantled. The poles dragged behind horses. The fires were doused and buried.
Brush was swept over the tracks. Luke was given a horse, an old swaybacked mare, but no weapon. He rode near the rear of the column as they climbed the steep rocky trail leading into the mountains. The wind began to howl. It was a brutal ascent.
Horses scrambled for footing on the shale. Luke found himself riding beside Ayanna. She was struggling with a pack horse that was fighting the lead rope. Luke spurred his mare forward and grabbed the rope, steadying the animal. Ayanna glared at him, snatching the rope back.
"I do not need your help." "You're welcome." Luke muttered. They rode in silence for a mile. The trail narrowed, forcing them leg to leg. Luke was constantly twisting in his saddle, his eyes scanning the back trail, then the ridge line above them, then the horizon. His body was coiled tight, his hand resting instinctively on his thigh where a gun should be.
Ayanna watched him. She saw the sweat on his neck despite the cold. She saw the way his eyes never stopped moving. It was a look she knew. It was the look of a hunted animal or a hunter expecting a trap.
"You ride like you expect a bullet." She said, "I expect what I know." "Luke replied without looking at her." "Harlan is persistent. If he finds a sign, he won't stop until sunset." "You fear him." She said. "You are one of them, but you fear them." "I fear what happens when two sides stop seeing each other as people." Luke said, "That's when the dying starts." She fell silent, watching the tension in his shoulders. For the first time, she did not see a monster. She saw a man who was terrified, not for himself, but for the column of women and children ahead of them.
They reached the hidden canyon just as the sun failed. It was a narrow slash in the earth protected by overhanging cliffs. It was safe, but it was cold. The wind funneled through the rock walls like water through a chute. No fires were allowed that night.