I am nothing. I am just a man standing in the middle getting shot at from both sides." He looked at her, his eyes raw with pain. "I have nowhere, Ayanna, nowhere." He turned and walked away into the deepening twilight, heading toward the high rocks away from the fires. Ayanna stood there, the anger draining out of her, leaving behind a hollow ache she didn't know how to name. That night, the sky broke open.
It started with a low rumble that shook the ground, followed by a crack of thunder that sounded like the mountains splitting apart. The rain came down in sheets, cold and violent. Luke was up in the rocks trying to secure a string of horses that had been picketed in a narrow ravine. The animals were terrified, pulling at their ropes, their eyes rolling white in the darkness. He was soaked to the bone in seconds.
The temperature plummeted. He slipped on the wet stone, barking his shin, cursing into the wind. He struggled with a frightened mare, trying to calm her as lightning flashed, illuminating the world in stark, blue-white strobe lights. "Need help?" He turned. Ayanna was there.
She had thrown a heavy wool blanket over her head, but it was already soaked. She grabbed the mare's lead rope, her hands sure and strong. Together, they wrestled the horses into a semblance of order, tying them securely to the scrub oaks. The rain intensified, turning into hail that stung like buckshot. "Here," Ayanna yelled over the roar of the storm.
She grabbed Luke's sleeve and pulled him toward a dark slash in the cliff face. It was a shallow overhang, barely deep enough for two people, but it was dry. They scrambled inside, collapsing against the back wall of rock. The space was tiny. They were forced to sit shoulder to shoulder, their knees touching.
Outside, the world was a chaotic fury of water and noise. Inside, the air was cold and damp, smelling of wet stone and ozone. Luke shivered violently. His shirt was plastered to his skin. Ayanna wasn't much better off.
Her buckskin dress was soaked, clinging to her frame. She opened the heavy blanket she had brought and threw half of it over him. "Share warmth," she said, her teeth chattering, "or we die." Luke didn't argue. He pulled the blanket tight around them. They sat huddled together, creating a small pocket of heat in the freezing night.
Luke could feel the trembling of her body against his. He could smell the scent of rain and wood smoke in her hair. He felt a sudden, overwhelming awareness of her, not as a symbol, not as a duty, but as a woman. He turned his head. In the dim light, he saw she was looking at him.
Her eyes were wide, dark pools reflecting the lightning flashes. "Why did you come up here?" he asked softly. "I I checked the horses," she stammered. "Liar," Luke whispered. She looked down at her hands.
"You were right," she said, her voice barely audible over the rain. "You are not nothing. You are you Luke watched her profile. The anger of the afternoon had burned itself out, leaving something raw and exposed. "When I look at you," Luke said, the words tumbling out before he could check them, "I don't see an enemy.