The other scouts returned at dusk, but Kale didn't. They'd gotten separated during a brief skirmish with a patrol, and when they circled back to find him, he was gone. Ethan organized a search party immediately. They rode out that night following the route the scouts had taken, looking for sign. They found blood on the rocks near where the skirmish had happened, but it was impossible to tell whose.
They searched for 2 days, found nothing. On the third day, a soldier rode into view carrying a white flag. He stopped 100 yards from the camp and shouted that he had a message from the fort commander. Nizhoni and Ethan rode out to meet him. The soldier was young, nervous.
His hand never far from his pistol. He handed over a sealed envelope and rode away without a word. Nizhoni opened it. His face went hard as stone. "What does it say?" Ethan asked.
"They have Kale. They are offering a trade. Him for you." Ethan felt his stomach drop. "Me?" "They know you are here. They know you trained Vance's men.
They want you for murder." Nizhoni looked at him. "They say if we hand you over, they will release Kale unharmed and pull the patrols back from our territory for 6 months. If we refuse, they will hang him at dawn tomorrow." "It's a trap." "Of course it is a trap, but it is also Kale's life." Ethan stared at the letter, his mind racing. They wanted him. Vance's death had made him a wanted man, and now the military was using Kale as bait.
"I'll go," he said. "No." "It's not your decision. That kid trusted me, followed me. If he dies because I'm hiding here, then he dies a warrior. Better that than you dying for nothing." Nizhoni's voice was firm.
"They will hang you both. You know this." "Maybe, but I can't let them kill him without trying." "Trying what?" "Walking into their fort and asking nicely." Ethan looked at Nizhoni. "I'm going tonight, alone. You can try to stop me, or you can help me." Nizhoni held his gaze for a long moment, then he sighed. "You are a stubborn, foolish man." "Yeah, I get that a lot." "And if you die?" "Then Ela raises our child and tells them their father was an idiot who got himself killed trying to save a friend.
At least it's better than the truth." Nizhoni smiled grimly. "Which is?" "That their father was an idiot who got a lot of people killed trying to run from his past." They rode back to camp in silence. When Ethan told Ela what he was planning, she didn't argue, didn't try to talk him out of it. She just looked at him with those dark, knowing eyes and said, "Come back." "I will." "Promise me." "I promise." It was a lie. They both knew it.
But sometimes a lie was all you had. That night, under cover of darkness, Ethan rode south toward the fort. He carried no weapons except a knife hidden in his boot. His hands were raised in surrender before he even reached the gates. The sentries saw him coming and raised the alarm.
Within minutes, he was surrounded by a dozen rifles, all pointed at his chest. "My name is Ethan Cross," he said clearly. "I'm here to trade myself for the Apache boy you're holding. Let him go, and I'll come quietly." The fort commander was a thin man with wire-rimmed glasses and the permanent expression of someone who'd bitten into something sour. His name was Captain Morrison, and he listened to Ethan's offer with barely concealed amusement.