Taji slowly reached inside his coat and removed a folded piece of paper.
"I found this beneath the floorboards where the knife was hidden."
Whit opened it.
The page was weathered, creased, and stained around the edges. But he knew the handwriting.
Adelene.
His knees weakened enough that he pulled out a chair.
The first line had been written hastily.
Whit, if you find this, Bragg is lying about the southern line.
Whit stopped breathing.
For two years he had imagined Adelene's final hours. Had she been frightened? Had she known she would die? Had she called his name? Now her handwriting sat beneath his hands.
He continued reading.
The new survey is false. I found the county copy and compared it with our deed. They moved the boundary almost three miles north. It takes the spring, the south pasture, and the old stone ridge. Bragg says it is an error. It is not. I saw three other altered surveys on his desk. All run west toward Kosoha land.
Yanaba moved closer.
Whit read the next lines aloud.
There is a company behind it. Western Continental Development. Bragg has been meeting their agent after dark. Voss carries papers between them. I heard another name tonight. Ascala.
Yanaba went still.
Taji closed his eyes.
Whit kept reading.
If anything happens to me, do not believe an accident. I copied what I could. The proof is not at the land office. Look where you first asked me to marry you.
Whit stared at the words.
The cabin seemed to disappear. He saw sunlight, Adelene laughing, a red scarf tied around her hair, and a little cottonwood growing beside the southern spring. He had been twenty-six, poor, terrified, and holding a ring he had bought with almost every dollar he possessed.
He had proposed beside that spring.
The land Bragg's false survey now removed from his ranch.
Yanaba watched him.
"Where?"
Whit folded the letter.
"My south pasture."
Taji pointed at the knife.
"There is more."
Whit forced himself to look away from Adelene's writing.
Taji said, "That blade belongs to Ascala. I know it because I made the sheath."
"You are certain?"
"I carved a small mark beneath the grip. Look."
Whit turned the knife over. A tiny crescent had been cut into the bone.
Taji nodded.
"Ascala carried it for years."
Yanaba stared at her brother.
"You never told me that."
"I did not know it mattered."
Taji reached into his saddlebag and removed a small leather pouch. It was stained with dirt and dried blood.
Yanaba recognized it immediately.
"Niko."
Taji nodded.
Niko had been Ascala's young cousin, the boy whose murder had turned Yanaba into a fugitive.
"I found the pouch in the same cabin," Taji explained. "The knife was wrapped in a strip of cloth. The pouch was hidden beneath a loose floorboard."
"Why would Ascala hide his own knife?" Whit asked.
"Because he did not want anyone to find it," Taji replied.
Yanaba's face hardened.
"Ascala killed Niko."
"Maybe," Whit said. "Or someone used his knife to make it look that way."
Taji nodded slowly.
"That is what I fear."
He explained that Niko had discovered Ascala meeting with Voss near Wolf Creek. The young man had followed them because he believed they were arranging something against Chief Kosoha. Niko had intended to tell the chief.
He never reached home.
The next morning, his body was found near a dry creek bed. The knife was missing. Yanaba had been the last person publicly seen arguing with him, and Ascala had told the council that she had threatened Niko.
The accusation spread quickly.
By the time Yanaba understood what was happening, Voss had already sent word to Wolf Creek that she was a murderer.
Whit leaned back.
"Bragg had a reason to make sure nobody asked too many questions."
Yanaba looked at him.
"What reason?"
"If Ascala was working with Bragg, the sheriff needed something to control him. A murder accusation could be used as a threat. And if Ascala wanted to become chief, he needed you out of the way."
Taji looked toward his sister.
"Father would never have allowed him to sign away our land while you were still alive and speaking against him."
Whit glanced at the letter.
"Your wife was looking into the same land."
Yanaba nodded.
"Then the rope, Niko's death, and Adelene's accident all belong to the same story."
Outside, a horse whinnied.
All three turned.
Taji grabbed the rifle beside the door.
Whit extinguished the lamp.
No one spoke.
A second horse answered from beyond the barn.
Then a third.
Yanaba whispered, "They found us."
Whit crossed to the window.
At first, he saw only darkness. Then a tiny orange glow appeared beyond the north fence. Another to the east. Another behind the corral.
Torches.
Taji's expression hardened.
"How many?"
Whit counted silhouettes.
"Too many."
Then a gunshot split the night.
The barn roof exploded into flame.
---
PART 3 — THIRTY WARRIORS AT THE BURNING RANCH
Fire climbed dry wood faster than any living thing Whit had ever seen.
Within seconds, the barn's western wall glowed orange. Horses screamed inside.
Whit ran for the door.
Yanaba caught his sleeve.
"They are waiting for you."
"I know."
"You go outside, they shoot."
"I know."
"Then what are you doing?"
"Those horses burn if I stay here."
Before she could stop him, Whit kicked open the rear door.
A rifle cracked. The bullet struck the doorframe. Whit dropped behind a rain barrel as another shot hit the dirt near his boots.
From across the yard came Voss's voice.
"Bring her out, Calder!"
Whit crawled behind the woodpile.
"Come get her!"
Voss laughed.
"We aren't here to negotiate."
Taji appeared beside Whit.
"How many cartridges?"
"Twenty-three rifle. Twelve revolver."
Taji checked his weapon.
"Eighteen."
Yanaba crouched behind them with her bow.
Whit glanced at it.
"You really planning to use that?"
She looked at him.
"You prefer noise?"
An arrow flashed into the darkness. A rider shouted and fell from his saddle.
Whit nodded.
"Fair enough."
The barn doors were fifteen yards away. The fire had already spread across the roof. Whit could hear his mare kicking against the stall.
He started forward.
Taji grabbed him.
"No."
Whit looked at him.
Taji pointed toward the side fence.
A dark figure moved through the smoke. Then another. Then five.
Whit raised his Winchester.
Taji pushed the barrel down.
"Wait."
The shadows continued arriving.
Not Voss's men.
Warriors.
One after another, emerging from the prairie in complete silence.
Ten.
Fifteen.
Twenty.
By the time Voss realized what was happening, thirty riders had formed a wide circle beyond Whit's attackers.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody needed to.
Voss turned his horse. His torchlight revealed the faces around him.
Kosoha warriors.
At their center sat an older man on a black horse. He wore no ceremonial headdress and no ornament that announced rank, but the men around him watched him instinctively.
Chief Kosoha.
Yanaba slowly stood.
"Father."
The chief looked toward the cabin, then toward Voss.
His voice carried across the burning yard.
"You came for my daughter."
Voss swallowed.
"We came for a murderer."
Kosoha's expression did not change.
"No."
The answer came from another rider.
A gray-haired warrior dismounted beside Kosoha. He held up Niko's medicine pouch.
Taji stepped into the open.
"I found the knife."
Murmurs moved through Kosoha's riders.
Voss turned sharply.
"That's none of my concern."
Whit laughed.
"You seemed awfully concerned about hanging her."
Voss pointed his rifle.
Whit raised his.
Kosoha said one word.
"Stop."
Oddly, everyone did.
The chief rode toward the center of the yard.
"If you came with lawful authority, show it."
Voss said nothing.
"Show the order."
Still nothing.
Kosoha looked at Whit.
"Was there a judge?"
"No."
"Sentence?"
"No."
"Trial?"
"No."
Kosoha looked back at Voss.
"You tried to kill my daughter before I could ask why."
One of Voss's men suddenly backed his horse away.
"Deputy, you said the sheriff had papers."
Voss turned.
"Shut up."
"You said Bragg signed an order."
"I said shut your mouth."
The rider looked around at thirty armed warriors.
"I'm not dying for a piece of rope."
He dropped his rifle.
Another followed.
Then another.
Voss stared at them.
"Cowards."
Whit said, "Looks more like arithmetic."
The barn groaned. A section of roof collapsed.
Whit remembered his horses.
He ran.
This time, no one shot.
Taji followed.
Together they ripped open the doors. Smoke poured out. Whit pulled the mare's lead while Taji freed two geldings.
Yanaba entered despite Whit shouting at her not to.
She led the final horse through smoke so thick Whit lost sight of her for several seconds.
Then she emerged.
Her hair was blackened with soot.
Whit grabbed her shoulders.
"You all right?"
"I can breathe."
"You could've been killed."
"So could the horse."
He stared.
She stared back.
Whit released her.
"You are impossible."
"I have been told."
The barn collapsed behind them.
Kosoha watched the flames, then looked at Whit.
"You saved her life."
Whit shook his head.