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The Sand Dunes, Septe, e above one of the great aquifers of the world, the coarse, dark brown soil is not suited for crops, but supports so country It is the Sahara transforreen ocean in the spring before being burnt into straw by the suer than the state of Connecticut They start to the west, and like the ocean, the great rollers are found the farthest out, thousand-foot-high, wind-rounded ridges aeast-west according to the prevailing winds East froled shapes but still radually fade off into tiny steep hillocks, as the great rollers of the Atlantic turn into the chop of the English Channel So like little waves are these hills that the residents use a nautical term for them: choppers
While row crops, the area is anything but a desert It is ideal ranching country and supports more than horses and cattle The little valleys between the hills are thickly wooded: lakes and ponds,cottonwoods and box elms Trout streams and lakes filled with pike are dotted with beaver homes and dams, and a newco after descending froulls ride the breeze overhead Gaiant jackrabbits, and antelope herds graze while the younger es keep watch for coyotes Bird hunters co frorouse But the residents of the Dunes ride with rifles for reasons other than shooting game They hunt the ht up to the Twisted Cross train at the fork where the North Platte and South Platte converged their sandy banks The town of North Platte no longer existed on the spit between the rivers, having been burned in the chaos aln announced that they were pulling into Harvard Station
Their train did not stop, even though they had been assured by the engineer-this being a cattle car, unguarded except for a few rifles in the hands of the railroadon to Ogallala and Scottsbluff As they passed through the station, they saw squads of Troopers anized, and sentries posted on either side of their track for the express purpose of ine plane ca on the old airstrip southeast of town, adding to the panoply of war He and Duvalier openly stared; in fact, had they not watched the plane, it would have been evena rarity even in the Kurian Zone Valentine looked at it through his binoculars: it was tiny bush hopper, white with red s He half expected to see a swastika on the tail, like in pictures in World War II books, but could identify no s
"I&039;ve been here before," Duvalier told him, "but I&039;ve only seen it from the other side"
Another Twisted Cross train was on a siding by a dock with soing in the sunlight, wearing what looked like black jumpsuits, but unlike the men at the other train, they seemed to be in no hurry to unload the contents of closed boxcars Around the caboose, a teas Valentine had ever seen stood guard, taller than the slab-skinned gray ones he had fought at Little Timber and partially covered with fawn-colored fur
A concrete blockhouse, surrounded by razor wire and gated, looked out over the ruins of the town and the river below Men in a sandbagged platforuns The black-and-white banner fluttered fropole
"They&039;re setting up shop," Valentine said as their train pulled aard "Supplies, et? We haven&039;t heard any news of a uprising in the local Gulag"
Duvalier gazed off northward into the rolling, grassy hills She looked terribly, terribly sad "If there were, it would be news they&039;d keep quiet This isn&039;t even a Kurian center-this is an outpost of the one down in McCook, right on the border"
"Border? Border hat?"
"The Dunes They hed, as she had done one day in Kansas, when they saw a police truck lu down the road with human fodder for the Reapers chained in back
Valentine followed her gaze, not exactly doubting her, but waiting to hear more "Who or what are the Dunes?" he finally asked Duvalier liked to e for his occasional corrections to her English
"It&039;s"It runs from here up to the Dakotas Kurians never really controlled any of it, and every tiot their ears pinned back It&039;s a huge area, maybe half the size of the Ozark Free Territory I don&039;t even think the Reapers dare hunt there"
"Why is that?"
"The Trekkers Wanderers The only way to describe it is big o with their cattle and horses Everything in their life is packed onto their wagons, they ain, but not always the same spot Their whole world is their cattle; the herds feed them and buy what they can&039;t make"
"Buy from whom?"
"There are a few outfits that trade with the Quislings, no doubt about it Oh, they call Quislings &039;Jacks&039; out here I&039;ve asked six different people and got six different stories Some say its short for &039;jackals,&039; but I&039;m not even sure what those are"
"They&039;re a sort of scavenger dog-in Africa, I think," Valentine explained
She ignored the zoology "Others say it&039;s because they used to be led by a man named Jack Some more say it&039;s because they run like jackrabbits if soet the others Doesn&039;t matter They&039;re Jacks to folks out here;"
"You know the people in the Dunes?"
"I do Good people, daer clans, a group of fale brand They identify themselves with the marks they put on their cattle, you see The brand looks kind of like an old set of air force wings, or an Aot its start froht off the Kurians in the worst years"
Valentine wondered if she ic Air Coers toostock to Denver I ended up riding scout for two cattle drives Good days Learned a lot about the land between here and the Rockies The area between the two Platte branches is real anything-goes country A couple Kur ranching settle to live on the Pawnee, and a few little villages just trying to keep out of everything"
"So you&039;ve been to Denver?"
"No, the Denver Outriders would h See a city Of course, they tell me it&039;s pretty ee, but it&039;s still free soil, and that always feels good"
Valentine watched Harvard Station disappear into the distance behind the to clear out these Trekkers?"
She nodded "It kind of fits the pattern That other Lifeweaver, Ura, she ot torched by these guys Maybe they&039;re training before taking on bigger game, like us or Denver"
"If Denver depends on these people for food," Valentine theorized, "could be this is a step in a ca the attack on Fort Rowling It was a probe"
"This will be a chance to see how they operate," Duva-lier said "We can see how they organize, scout, prepare for a battle Find out about these Reapers with guns Do they have artillery? It looks like the Twisted Cross has an air force, even if it&039;s just one plane Southern Co"
Valentine felt another,on His duty and his humanity, his conscience and his code silently warred within It wasn&039;t ht this time Too many lives at stake
The wind at the top of a rise pulled at his hair He pulled it back into place, and as he did so came to a decision As if a yoke had been lifted frohtened
"Ali, that&039;s exactly e should do But first we&039;ve got to warn those people"
They juallala Rather than leaping immediately into the bushes, they waved at the railroadfro
"That&039;s always fun," Valentine said, pulling a teasel weed&039;s prickly head out of his hair and picking up his pack "You okay?"
"Did it knock soed back into her stained traveling clothes At least she was speaking to hi to him after he asked her if she could just watch her friends from the Denver cattle drives die
"Not yet Ali, I didn&039;t say that you had to coest it One pair of eyes can see as much as two You can keep an eye on the Twisted Cross, and I&039;ll try and get the word out to the people in the Dunes"
"You did suggest it You said, &039;We&039;ve got to warn those people&039; We is plural, Mr Professor"
"Okay, I hoped you&039;d want to come with me After all, you&039;re already known to the-recon-is really important As far as Southern Co of Quislings I wanted to take you on because after reading your reports, it seemed like you were just as worried about theo up into the Dunes, where all that&039;s going to happen is we&039;ll be on the receiving end of their attack, instead of evaluating it and learning about their numbers and methods"
Tears trickled down her face "I liked those people, Val They&039;re good people, as good as I&039;ve ons, Valentine They&039;re going to be dead in a little while, and there&039;s not a thing we can do about it-and it&039;s killing me Now you just want to throw our lives away, too
"Our duty is to Southern Co them? Didn&039;t you take an oath when you becah when you joined up?"
"Maybe if I can warn them they can hide the kids We, or I-whatever-I just have to let thehtened his pack "I&039; in there Unless you want to try to stop me"
The stare-doas brief
It ended when Duvalier looked at the dirt beneath her hiking boots, poked the loose soil with her walking stick Then she gripped it firht she was planning to knock him out with it But the tears disappeared
She even looked a little relieved
"Okay, David We warn them But that&039;s all"
The Cats decided to risk crossing the North Platte River during daylight, starting as early as possible in their race against time and death
It wasn&039;t hard; at this time of year, the brown-streaked river was at its lowest point They crossed into the Sands at the wreckage of the Kingsley Dan that read
UNSECURED TERRITORY TRESPASSERS SUBJECT TO SUMMARY justice Although the road had been destroyed, a drift of sorts existed, allowing the below their knees A few anglers, perhaps out of Ogallala, plied their rods from the banks If hidden border sentries also watched the pair, Valentine&039;s Trooper vest perhaps confused the guards enough to keep the
Rather than disappear into the Dunes right ahich would look more suspicious to a stillwatch, Valentine decided instead to walk up the banks of the Platte a the birches and poplars of the floodplain
After a rest, they found enough wooded cover to cut up into the Dunes, running parallel to the old State Route 61 north into Dune Country
Valentine pushed the pace He carried Duvalier&039;s pack across his chest, so Duvalier, who hadn&039;t spent years running froh to keep up with his trot
They jogged carefully along the hills,sure they did not skyline theht go out in a blaze of glory Valentine had been in so sea of straw and grainy soil felt endless
"It&039;s funny," Duvalier said "What we&039;re trying to do is just nuts Hopeless I feel liberated, though Like I&039;o shoot some rapids in a barrel and it&039;s too late to worry"
Valentine looked at her as hesun tinted her skin the color of beaten copper "No, it&039;s not that You&039;re doing the right thing When I was a kid, the man who raised me after my family died, he was a teacher He used to have the older students read about the Holocaust The Holocaust hen-"
"I knohat the Holocaust was," she said, but without her usual vexation "Kind of a dress rehearsal for all this"
"He made us study it for a couple reasons One was to learn that there were people ent through tih it wasn&039;t that bad in the Boundary Waters of Minnesota I think the other reason we read about it was to learn that evil, even if it seems all-powerful for a while, always collapses eventually He used to say evil was like a rabid anierous and should be destroyed as soon as possible, but even if it couldn&039;t be attacked from the outside, the sickness within would put an end to it
"But back to this one book I read about the Holocaust It started with this diary kept by a little Jewish girl in hiding She was killed, but her diary survived, and the rest of it went on about people who helped the Jews and others hide from or escape the Nazis People would ask thee to do it, when the Nazis killed people who helped the Jews They said it took no courage at all; it was the easier choice to , they kept their huave theht"
Valentine opened an old tobacco pouch and took out his little pyraht and charge
Duvalier looked at the tiny crystal pyraels?"
"What? Err no, I heard you What do you ot to the Free Territory, and that Cat Rourke began to sort of be a father to me, he tookthat white loincloth he goes around in, only he had another white thing he was sort of wrapped up in, too I re about the sun must have warmed him-he turned to it and spread out his ar white wings billowing out from his back Of course, it was the white shawl or whatever he earing and the sun in his hair"
"Be a funny kind of angel,killers The Lifeweaver who turnedto be able to beat the Kur were ones filled with hate and fury, not so much soldiers as berserks At least that&039;s how I re is a little hazy"
"I never heard anything like that out of Ryu He always seeht for a word-"lonely Lonely and sad"
Val shrugged "You want to get a little rest before we push on?"
"I think et soun and aiment we should have been called mules rather than Wolves They selected us for a sterile life of endurance He stretched out on the grass with his coat as a pillow "I can handle it"
"You still carry too much," she said, and suddenly leaned over and kissed him on the forehead
He opened an eye "It&039;s a good thing you didn&039;t do that while you were still wearing that bra-and-shorts co need act on you"
"Drea a peanut shell his way They had picked up a bagful so a trade
"I wish I could have seen you buying that red bra That would have been a memory to treasure No one at the hall would have believed me I suppose you burned the evidence"
"No, I didn&039;t buy that in Lincoln Actually I found it, still hanging on a little plastic hanger in a ruined store in Ao Still wrapped up in tissue paper and plastic It fit so well, I decided to keep it for days when I just can&039;t deal with hed "You carried a red bra around with you for a year?"
"It&039;s a hidden little piece of me, okay? You&039;re a ood bra is"
"Your little pieces weren&039;t so hidden under that jean jacket What does it feel like to have a tan inside your belly button, anyway?"
"Cretin"
"Bitch"
"Quit being an ass Get soain in an hour"
A day later, they cut a broad trail on ruts, and horse hooves all churned a wide swath through the grassy dunes
"You don&039;t have to be Red Cloud to follow this," Valentine said, pushing the dirt in one of the deep wagon ruts aside to see how far down it had dried
"Red what?"
"Red Cloud He was a Lakota Sioux chief My mother used to say that when I tracked mud across the kitchen"
She tipped her head, a faint smile on her face "Do you have a picture of her?"
"Only in my mind"
"I bet you have her hair"
Valentine shrugged, and they began to follow the trail A distant, buzzing errrrrrrrrm made them take cover as the little plane they spotted at the Twisted Cross depot came up from the south
"Noouldn&039;t that be a ti up at the scout plane That little thing can do in an hour what it takes us days to cover"
Once it had moved off to the north, Valentine and Duvalier continued on their course, trailing the marks of the mass of men and cattle into the Dunes They walked hard for an hour, and then rested for fifteenfor a while After six hours, even Valentine began to get dry-roaned whenever they rose from a rest break, but otherwise endured the hard miles in silence
It was afternoon when they spotted a pair of riders, the rear across the path ahead The pair rode s the skylines, and frequently paused their horses just to look and listen
"Those are Trekkers," Duvalier pronounced, passing the binoculars back to Valentine They began to jog in the open, trying to catch up with the outriders
The riders spotted the, and un slung where he could get at it, but he had no weapon in his hand, and Duvalier just had her walking stick
The men sat their horses, rifles on their hips, and awaited events
"That&039;s close enough, Trooper," one of them called from beneath a wide-brimmed Western hat "What are you, a deserter?"
"Parley, riders," Duvalier called "He&039;s no Trooper We took that off a dead &039;un for disguise What brand do you ride behind?"
"Barred Seven Glad you&039;re not a stranger here, little lady What brand do you ride behind?"
"The last tis We have to speak to your Wagonmaster"
"Always happy to talk to a brother brand, &039;specially when the visitor&039;s such a pretty one Does your boy here talk, or did soue?"
"I can talk, friend I just like to see which way the wind blows"
"Out here, it&039;s usually west-east," the otherdrape of a uffawed
"You still got a good two ons, I&039;e of the herd" They turned their horses neatly and began to follow the trail
"Bar Seven," Duvalier said quietly "Not one of the larger groups, but tough as nails They keep to the border country Rumor has it that they trade with the Jacks, but let ye who are without sin cast the first stone A lot of the Trekkers do, one way or another"
"What about your Eagle&039;s Wings?" Valentine asked
"No, they have a serious feud with Kur Lots of randfathers in thecattle to Denver But in a way, this is good-Bar Sevendifficult, since the Eagles are the biggest of the Trekker groups Once in a while there are disputes over winter pasture, and Bar Seven can&039;t afford to ht up to the herd, hened up by the addition of a long-horn bull or two Beyond the herd they could see a little spread of twenty or so wagons A coith a yellow bandanna tied at his hatband had a feords with the scouts and then rode up to the Cats
"You want to see the Wagon that&039;s worth Mr Lawson&039;s time?"
"I think Mr Laould like to be able to make that decision, friend," Valentine said
"Ain&039;t your friend, half-breed Would like to be your friend though, miss"
Duvalier reached up to shake his hand "Mister, we&039;ve coonmaster?"
"I&039;ll ride in and ask Best I can do"
"How about you bring us with you Saves a little time"
Theon his own or he had a very strict set of orders to follow
"The Wagonmaster is a busy man Where do you come out of?"
"The KZ, to the south," Duvalier said "But I&039;ve ridden with the Eagle&039;s Wings"
That seemed to make the decision easier for the rider "Be back soon," he said, putting his horse into a trot toward the wagons
Night blanketed the grassy hills The Bar Seven cooks rang the supper bell as Valentine and Duvalier finally caught up to the loose ring of wagons After a boring wait a the cows, the yellow-onmaster Laould see them
Laas a broad-shouldered individual with a heavy scar over his forehead, giving hily eyebrow that looked pere wagon as a co into a blackened piece of beef when they were introduced to hiht want to take off that vest in here One of ht take a shot at you, just out of habit"
Valentine reht
"I hear you two rode with the Eagles?"
"Just et back to the a major raid into you out of North Platte A real clean sweep"
"Uh-huh," Lawson said "What makes you say that?"
"A sizable force offloaded fros, aruns"
"Haw, that&039;s a good one Skulls with guns! Since when?"
"We both saw it They&039;re fighting with new tactics They&039;re scouting the area, and they&039;re going to strike soon Haven&039;t you seen that little scout plane?"
Lawson looked suddenly uncomfortable "Ee-yup As a matter of fact, it circled here a couple ti to hit us? Bar Seven, I mean?"
"That we don&039;t know," Valentine said "We&039;re just trying to warn you"
Lawson scratched his growth of beard Judging fro to Valentine&039;s sensitive nose, bathed even less often
"We really need to get to the Eagle&039;s Wings," Duvalier said, al "It&039;s a lot to ask, but if you could loan us a couple of horsesWe don&039;t have ars, a little tea"
The Wagonh narrowed eyes and sucked in his cheeks "Nice-looking lady like you always has so to barter"
Valentine watched cords pop out on Duvalier&039;s neck She glared at the Wagoned "But charity&039;s always been ht be out two horses How&039;s this: if what you say is true, as far as I&039;ood horses If you&039;re wrong, I&039;ll be relieved but expecting either their return or payment Tell Mr Hendricks that a couple calfs out of one of those big reds he breeds would be adequate Sound like a deal?"
Valentine looked at Duvalier "Deal," they said in unison
"I&039;ll even throw in saddle blankets Sorry I can&039;t do any better, good tack is hard to coood saddle makers are rare"
"Do you have any idea where we can find the Eagles?" Valentine asked
"You aren&039;t leaving now? It&039;s getting dark in an hour or so"
"Afraid so, sir," Valentine said
"Hope you knohat you&039;re doing Hard riding in the dark is a good way to lose a horse The Eagles are about fortytie, ater and wood under one of the big ridges"
"And where&039;s that?" Valentine asked
"Go dead northwest until you coood ten or fifteenit is If you hit a little streaht They&039;re at the head of that little streaot thousands"
"Thank you, sir," Duvalier said
"Good luck to you, Mr Lawson," Valentine added
Lawson began barking out orders, and his men hurried to comply
"Nice diploon with one of Lawson&039;s riders "Never would have guessed you had it in you"
She squeezed his hand "You&039;d be surprised at what I&039;ve done with o"
They rode out at nightfall, heading northwest Valentine&039;s stoot ahead of his brain, and his insides were doing flip-flops froue And he had a neorry When they dismounted from the improvised, blanket-and-rope saddles to walk the horses for a while, Valentine&039;s concerns finally et it, Ali How does he know so exactly where the Eagle&039;s Wing camp is? They camp in different spots every year, don&039;t they? You said Bar Seven and the Eagles aren&039;t even friendly"
She stopped for a second, then shook her head
"Valentine, their horse up strays So for other Trekkers&039; strays, if I know the Bar Seven He gave us the horses, didn&039;t he? If he were in cahoots with the Twisted Cross, which is what you&039;re suggesting, why not just hand us over to the around those wagons, and their men kno to use the paranoid The Bar Seven are on the shady side of the line, sure, but I&039;ve never heard of one group of Trekkers betraying another Every other Trekker brand would come down on them from every direction but up, and they&039;d try that if their horses could juh It&039;d et hold of a u the Dunes left Valentine&039;s brain swi feeling he had from the Bar Seven came from lack of sleep
They cold-ca rest was more important than hot food Duvalier kept his spirits up by prole carass, they shared a soda-cracker-and-cheese ether
At noon the next day, they caught sight of their destination Laas not kidding about the ridge The grassy monster loomed like a tidal wave over little lines and clusters of trees at its base, following the eastward-flowing stream he described Herds of cattle were scattered on the floor of the valley and the steep slopes of the dune
Valentine traced the base of the hillside with his binoculars At last he spotted it, an irregular triangle of wagons parked on a hule spread out as a concave arc, and the peak trailing up the hillside On top of the ridge, like the le trunk of timber He whistled in appreciation
"You don&039;t know the half of it, Val," Duvalier said "They&039;ve got other herds we can&039;t even see Counting all the families, there&039;re over sixteen hundred people in this traveling circus There&039;s about a five cows to every person"
"What about that steak," Valentine said, training his binoculars across the red and red-white herds
"Co her heels to the horse&039;s sides lightly Their horses broke into a trot, catching the s from the three-sided enclosure
On closer inspection, the wagon laager was even onsin the huons," Duvalier explained as they cut through the herds A bull or two stared at them, but most of the cows took no notice Valentine noticed a lot of calves-a few still knock-kneed newborns-dutifully trailing behind their ons, which they told ons, whatever Gypsies are No, I don&039;t want any history lessons, Val Those are drawn by horses Then there are the supply-wagons; those are the ones with the big rear wheels and the small front ones They take oxen because of the heavy load, sometimes as many as sixteen Most of what you see on the walls are those or the long battle-wagons The battle-wagons are drawn by draft horse teaer than a day or so, they fortify The battle-wagons have sheets of metal that they put on the outer face, joined kind of like double-paned ith rifle loopholes They fill the space between the aluminum sheets with sand The kids even help with this They have little shovels and buckets they carry In the space of an afternoon, they can build a pretty substantial wall by hooking the wagons together, and within a couple of days, they have trenches dug and the walls filled in"
As they grew closer, Valentine saw the battle-wagon scheular fort even had littleout like towers at a castle&039;s corner, covering the , that&039;s the teenagers&039; job," she continued "Whenever I tell this story to people with kids, they laugh The Trekkers don&039;t cut down trees for firewood unless it&039;s an eency-they use deadfalls and trions first used to roam, they&039;d cut down too many trees and screw up the whole area for everybody So they conserve wood They use the cowshit They s and leaves and press it into dried bricks Itthe droppings and turning them into fuel is how you spend your youth from twelve years old to sixteen, or whenever they allow that you&039;re ready to get your own horse and gun
"Wherever they stop in a camp, they plant, potatoes, tomatoes, and peas mostly They mark the crops with stakes before they move on if they can&039;t harvest the for the future&039;
"The Eagles have soroups of families that have split off to foreneration or so These wagon trains can only get so big before they becos"
Valentine noticed that no outriders ca over the cows just looked at them from under the brims of their felt hats Presuers coon wall that served as the gate was also the outflow of the spring that watered the camp It splashed down a rocky watercourse to meander into the trees to the east They dismounted and led their horses up the final slope to the ca after Duvalier&039;s travelogue, but he s food, and cattle He eyed the layout of the camp, the trench and fortifications, with admiration
A lanky man with a thin beard and a dusty top hat waved and canized Duvalier with a s his foot and tossing his head like a horse "If it isn&039;t Little Red outta Kansas It&039;s been nigh on three years, sister"
"Hi, Deacon I see you&039;re still in the baptizing business I&039;ve brought in another stranger froinally We&039;ve traveled hard and ask your hospitality"
"The Eagle&039;s Wings grant it to both you and the brother With pleasure, Little Red, with pleasure"
"We&039;re also going to need to speak to you, the Wagon-master, and anyone else concerned with the Co to do with that plane that&039;s been passing overhead?"
"Yes, Deacon"
"I knew that machine was a bad omen, soon as I saw it We&039;ll talk later, woet you into caet some food into you Boy, co at the new arrivals He spoke a few urgent words to the youth and sent hih the wagon barricade An inner ring of wagons, a ons, formed a second ithin the first A corral held a reserve of horses with saddles draped on the trek-tow fence Valentine guessed the camp could mount a hundred on wall sheltered a mass of oxen doind, and"Animal husbandry must be second nature to you," Valentine remarked
"We live and die by the stock," the deacon agreed
Theyin the strea on ropes stretched between the house-wagons cracked in the fresh breeze At the center of the second circle of wagons, another pole- with the symbol that looked like a thunderbird-or perhaps a set of United States Air Force wings
A train of dogs and curious children followed the deacon and the Cats as they walked their horses into the center of camp The children were dressed in the final tatters of hand-etic
"The s you&039;re co in," Deacon said "Since a fever took Mr Hendricks, rest his soul, last April she&039;s been running things They had a son and a daughter, if you rerown into fine people Good wo shoes to fill, but no one&039;s onmaster except in their hearts"
Mrs Hendricks did not look like a Wagonmaster to Valentine; she looked like your favorite aunt who always bakes a thick cherry pie with a perfect lattice crust She wore a si from pen and notepad to scissors Her sun-streaked hair was tied back into a bun, and she had meaty, work-reddened ar hard about her was her eyes
Seeing the deacon and the visitors, she waved over so table with a blue-and-white checkerboard tablecloth was filled with still-sputtering food, joining tall pitchers of water and prairie-herb tea
"You poor tired things We&039;re in thefestival, so I want you to try this rib roast and tellthose peas?" She turned back to her guests "Now, clean up in the bucket over there, don&039;t spare the soap, and tell s you in Red Alice, I re man is new, isn&039;t he? Have you taken a husband?"
"So a trifle redder "Other days it&039;s like I&039;ve had a son Questions all the ti a leg over the bench when the woman motioned the with saliva, when Duvalier grabbed his hands and thrust them in his lap The deacon had just bowed his head at the end of the table
"Heavenly Father, for e are about to receive rateful" He raised his head "Lord, that looks good Let&039;s eat"
Valentine could not have agreed with him more
With supper cleared away, the dinner table became a council of war The hot h soht as ever Valentine struggled to imitate her
"Red Alice" su her experiences with the Twisted Cross in Oklahoma, and their supposition that the Dunes were on the list to be cleared out
The Hendricks wo her head in sadness when Duvalier described the dead Calta-girone and his Wolves and the hter, Jocelyn, joined theineer, who looked as though he had a bit of longhorn in him, asked sensible questions The leader of the outriders, an al ht years old on the ground and eighteen years old in the saddle, wanted to know details about the Twisted Cross weaponry
Around the tables, s Brand stood, squatted, and sat, all listening The Wagons and decisions behind closed doors The others kept a respectful silence, allowing the words to carry, and the feho asked questions held up their hands and waited to be called on like disciplined schoolchildren
"I e had a better idea about what you&039;re facing," Valentine said in answer to a question from Danvers
"We only ever worried about artillery," Waldron said "So far, every tiht it into the Dunes, they&039;ve lost it We even have a couple of their pieces in camp, but theto shoot out of them Air power or arits way to Nebraska"
Valentine nodded Duvalier had briefed hi and striking at theain to leave the Troopers capturing nothing but hoof-prints and air
"Fact is, those creatures can&039;t cooperate for shit, or they&039;d of took us long ago," Josh Hendricks said The boy&039;s clothes didn&039;t fit; his adolescent body was lunging out in all directions
"Language, Josh," his lish, too I didn&039;t teach you to talk like that"
"Sorry But one time that bast-that bad&039;un in Scotts-bluff ca to take the whole land up to the Niobrara He was doing pretty well until his cousin in Cheyenne hit him from behind I hear he lost half his territory Been all he can do to hold on to the rest ever since I can&039;t see a bunch of the up on us Not like &039;em"
As darkness fell, a bonfire and music started, alate-strea festival," Mrs Hendricks said "I hope you young folk will join in the fun after your hard ride"
"Just some sleep would do nicely, ma&039;am," Valentine said
"We won&039;t keep you, then We&039;re going to talk over what you told us and decide what to do Don&039;t let thethis very seriously We&039;ll have extra riders out tonight and people on the walls Please feel free to stay here as long as you e&039;ll handle the Paul Revere job frouests to the visitors&039; cabin"
A saddle- woman stood up Jocelyn Hendricks wore a htened by a red neckerchief wrapped around her thick brown hair She stepped around behind the Cats
"Thank you for the dinner, Mrs Hendricks," Valentine said, sing the last of his milk
"Yes, it onderful Thanks for the bed, too It&039;s going to be very welcoh thelines, and campfires
Jocelyn paused at the little ladder and door of one of the house-wagons, set apart fro me what our chances are What should I tell them? They&039;ll be worried about their children"
Valentine looked at Duvalier, who shrugged
"I can&039;t tell you what to say, Miss Hendricks," Valentine said "If there&039;s somewhere safe they can put their kids, I&039;d recoht when they want to They could be here tonight"
"We&039;ll be here with you, at least tonight," Duvalier added "I believe that if anyone in the Dunes can beat them, it&039;s your brand"
Jocelyn showed them the cozy little cabin, with its bunk beds, tiny cabinets, and built-in basin "There&039;s water in the pitcher," she explained "Clean bedding on the mattresses, real horsehair stuffed, and a thunderbucket in the corner in case you don&039;t feel like a trip to the pits I&039;ll check on your horses and tack before I turn in; they&039;re in the north corral
"There will be dancing until ht or so You sure you aren&039;t up to it? A lot of the folks would be interested inpeople fro hard," Valentine said "I&039;m sure you understand"
Duvalier added, "Another tiht, then," Jocelyn said, s as she closed the door
Duvalier placed her shere she could reach it easily "If there is a toht, Val"
No call to arms, no attack from the darkness disturbed their dreamless slumber It seeentle tap on the door and opened his eyes to light pouring through the
The door opened, and Mrs Hendricks entered, bearing a tray "Good , half whispered "Anyone up? I&039;ve brought you a little soet your eyes open"
Valentine realized he had collapsed in his clothes, and guiltily looked at the mess he&039;d made of the sheets Duvalier had stripped down to her shirt, and she swung her legs froht kill two birds with one stone So I brought soes and wheat bread and a cup of tea for each of you Nothing happened over the night Thewent until late, and we decided to scatter some of the herds and families We sent out riders to warn the other brands and asked theoing to have to unite to stand any chance at all, from what you&039;ve told us"
"How soon will they be arriving?" Valentine asked
"Days The Dunes are big, and in the suet to the most remote places they can If the Troopers raid into us, it&039;s usually between May and September"
Valentine re Duvalier nursed her tea, content to listen and look out the
"How can we help?"
"You&039;ve done enough, by o around, speak to the men, maybe tell them a little more about those Reapers We don&039;t have ainst thehtened"
Duvalier nodded "We&039;ll do e can" After the
Wagonhtened, too"
"Never thought I&039;d hear that fro out a washcloth, wiped it across her face "Hear ed
"We&039;ve warned the You&039;ve got more experience at this You&039;ll be better withoutlike in desertion?"
"Staying like in helping theht We&039;ve been over this before"
She lowered her voice in case anyone was outside the wagon, listening "I figured once you saw theht so that you being here wouldn&039;t make a difference, one way or the other Or you&039;d see it was a lost cause"
Valentine stood for a ht but wanted it, as well Do I have a death wish?
"I&039;ll quit trying You&039;re a lost cause, Valentine No wonder your captain had you court-martialed"
She must have seen the hurt in his eyes, because her tone softened: "Sorry You-well, you deserved that, but I shouldn&039;t have said it I&039;e up some supplies Think about it before I ride out"
Valentine spent the day with Waldron, the Ca the defenses
The Eagles had a trench around the ca made as wide and deep as the sandy soil would allow Shovelfuls of thrown dirt rained dust and pebbles thatnoises as they bounced off the ated sheets that served as arons still had sections of vaguely faos fros froines called seht and strong"
Valentine ran his hand along the dirty old surface, printed in huge letters, adway Farther down, the red Coca-Cola label protected one of flanking coe that one of the most persistent holdovers of the Old World was its product ladiatorial contests that he&039;d read could still be seen on a wall or two in Ro time since we&039;ve had to shoot froot surprised," Waldron said as they walked the perimeter "A few years back, the Troopers reinforced a bunch of their trucks and loaded the at us across the plain; I think the idea was to rah the walls Sure, tin and sand stop bullets, but not a truckat forty miles an hour or more They either didn&039;t know ot about the trench; they hit it and killed most everyone in the trucks We hardly had to fire a shot"
He lifted up his shoe, and Valentine smiled at the serrated pattern of a truck radial "Got a dah"
"You said you had some artillery?"
"Ha! A pair of hty-one h"
They cut through a hidden angle in the battle-wagons, and clinized as an old artillery shell casing, probably a 155-h secured by a heavy steel cover A fuse, curled like a pig&039;s tail, dangled behind The whole affair stood on a tripod welded to an old un You can point it using the mount, but your aim doesn&039;t have to be very precise with this cracker It&039;s an artillery shell casing sitting in the half-cut pipe there We loaded it up with powder and put a bag of taconite pellets on top of the wad No range to it whatsoever But it&039;ll sweep twenty yards in front of the gun like you were using a brooot a version that goes on the ground too, in a wooden holder Strictly one-shot, takes us a good while to clean and reload it if the casing doesn&039;t crack" Valentine thought it looked like as much of a threat to the men behind the weapon as the enemy in front, but he kept silent
"We also have soh, and coal-oil bombs-which are really just sawdust and the oil mixed in an old vodka bottle And that&039;s our artillery"
After lunch he e riding with Danvers, going frons of the Twisted Cross
Eagle Brand fa places areat trackers and the best horse-riding guerrilla fighters since the Apache-plenty of rifles but not enough support and artillery," she said
Valentine was happy to find her equitable-or just resigned to hi in camp The Reapers will tear this place apart from a couple hundred yards, and there won&039;t be uts in the world aren&039;tthat isn&039;t disturbed by catching a bullet"
The little red-and-white plane appeared just then high in the sky, hardly audible even to Valentine&039;s ears He felt a chill as it threide circle around the ca off eastward It was like the ravens of the Middle Ages, ould gather along with the are
"Rider co in," the sentry ons called Valentine saw Josh Hendricks go toward the gate with the deacon Valentine and Duvalier looked at each other, shrugged, and joined the cluster of people, wondering what new calamity the rider portended
It was a boy on a lathered horse Valentine guessed him to be somewhere between fourteen and sixteen He was dressed like a Comanche, in a leather loincloth and vest, and had a blanket-saddle on his black horse His listened with sweat
"Boy&039;s out of the Q or Twin Triangles Brands, is uess," an older ood news either"
The kid rolled off his horse, half-fall and half-dismount Josh Hendricks poured hiles&039; caht his breath "Last night We were camped between the Middle Loup and the Middle Branch I was outrider to the north, and I heard shooting All a-sudden the wagons was going up in flames Then up came the Grierson family Mr Grierson was shot and looked real pale; his sons were carrying him Mrs Grierson told me to ride and warn you She said they weren&039;t no Troopers, they cauns and explosives, and the bullets didn&039;t seem to touch &039;em I asked about my pa and ma, and she didn&039;t know, she said she was sorry," he said, his voice cracking before he realized he&039;d voiced his thoughts
"Damn," the older man next to Valentine said "That isn&039;t far at all Just east of here maybe four hours&039; ride-and not a hard ride, neither"
"Big difference here, though," Valentine said "We know they&039;re co"
The elderto set in about five hours, son, but there ain&039;t a thing we can do about it"
The deacon handed the boy the reins to his horse "See to your horse, son"
Then he turned on the gloomy man next to Valentine "Have a little faith, Brother Tom," the deacon said "The Lord&039;s seen fit to bless us arning and soht"
Tom&039;s words troubled Valentine as the sun lowered toward the horizon, as slow and deadly and inevitable as Poe&039;s penduluh not nuroup of riders and shooters as existed in the Dunes
The Eagles had hters, but would that just mean more bodies to be buried? With the teens and older les could horse a force of five hundred men But nearly a hundred of these ith some of the wo after the decision by the Co across the Dunes now, as ers to the other brands The foundation of the brand, their wealth and their sustenance, was the cattle, and the animals had to be moved and protected This deducted another hundred and fifty riders That left a force of a little over two hundred woons, backed up by teens old enough to shoot for the ca supper that a convoy of vehicles had been spotted west on the old Highway 2 The Trooper-ood time-weather and actions of the Trekkers had reduced the road to little le caest brand in the Dunes, probably soested that they pull up stakes andbut empty space for theht of the Common Defense behind her Valentine explained that with the Reaper&039;s ability to read lifesign, the hthouse across a calons put between the it out from behind trench and wall
As the sun set, a reat rolling hill
"That&039;s strange for this ti," Mrs Hendricks said, watching the veil thicken around the camp
"It&039;s the Kurians They can shape the clouds when they have a h the day, saying she wanted to rest her legs and her horse "Val, I&039;ll ride now You still staying?"
Her tone was nonchalant, but he read concern in her eyes "Yes"
There wasn&039;t a fight this tion Duvalier stripped down to a utility vest, perhaps so at so froned to burn or blow up She began to apply black greasepaint across her face and arle-pointed blade had a dull coating everywhere save the very edge, where it glinted with cold reflections
"I&039;oes down," she said "I plan to stick to theh this, you can catch up to ot that pheasant Remember? Just head east till you hit the Missouri"
"I&039;s are decided one way or the other," Valentine said
"Neither am I This colu to find those Troopers and see what I can see Could you help reasepaint?"
Valentine coated her shoulders and the back of her ar the occasional strip of sun-darkened flesh exposed to break up the huer Her torso finished, Duvalier slipped into baggy black pants with enor boots She tucked her red hair under a dark, insignia-less kepi It was the standard-issue hat of Southern Command dyed black
"Technically I&039;m in uniform, not that ituseful, I&039;ll try to leave you a e somewhere outside the Twisted Cross ca up, rocks, sticks, whatever I&039;ll leave a note under it"
"Be careful"
"You, too Don&039;t get your head blown off, Ghost" "Don&039;t get caught lighting any fires, Sht better of it-instead she opened the door She touched the side of her hand to her eyebrow and then dragged her index finger down her grease-painted nose, and left
Fog and night closed in on the caems, each surrounded by a tiny halo Valentine stepped out of the guest house-wagon He wore his old Wolf buckskins instead of his traveling coat, now like Duvalier&039;s night gear darkened to a chocolate color The heavy vest weighted his shoulders His parang and revolver still hung from the sweat-darkened leather-and-canvas equipo But now it had additional gear added: the old curved sword hung across his back, and the two spare druun were clipped above each buttock where once canteens had ridden His fighting claornaround his neck from a breakaway leather shoelace like Eveready&039;s old necklace of Reaper teeth
Even with the seventy-one-round druun had a nice balance He sat down on the tiny steps to the wagon, broke down the gun, cleaned and oiled it, and put it back together again He flicked the little switch in front of the trigger fro to the inner workings of the gun He put the drum back on and chambered the first round
He looked at the stock, and looked again, before he recognized what he saw Someone had marred Tank Bourne&039;s carefully stained and lacquered finish and carved a little heart in the stock, no bigger than the nail on his pinkie A valentine? It must have been Ali, in one of her sentimental fits He wondered if she kissed it after she had etched the icon Of course he knew e little rituals they practice to bring fortune One of his Wolves used to chew a terrible gu as his jaorked, he kneas still alive
Valentine tried to relax, but his body refused to cooperate He rose, deciding to walk the perions had been drawn into a tighter circle, trek tows lashed under the wagon in front of it, with the little house-wagons parked in the gaps The re women and children were huddled in a quiet mass around the ht fro the well-known tales of Pooh and Piglet Piglet was voicing his worry overcalled a Heffalump when she looked up and met Valentine&039;s eyes
"Rin, read the rest of this, would you?" she asked a boy, handing hihtly between the children in her pointed-toe boots and joined Valentine
"These are the kids whose parents won&039;t let the to happen, they want it to happen to everyone Is it as bad as that?"
Somewhere on the walls a sentry started up a tune with a Native American flute He or she was skilled; it sounded like two instru each other The woven notes soothed
"Are the kids okay?"
She shrugged "The little ones just know so to be brave, they don&039;t ask questions, but I can tell they&039;re listening Not toto listen for the sounds outside the ca to be brave reading, and I&039;un"
"It&039;s not pretending At least not with you"
Valentine looked down at the young woman, scarecrow-lean in her hand-me-downs Duvalier was the bravest person he&039;d ever met, and she voiced her fears Why couldn&039;t he admit to them, as well?
"I&039; so stupid that causes others to die Scared that nosink into nervous garrulity Especially not in front of this young woman he had just met
"No matter what you do? What&039;s thata difference"
A quick, embarrassed flush came over her, and she rose to the points of her boots and brushed her lips against his cheek "I feel safer with you here With our wagons So that&039;s a difference, isn&039;t it?" Then she fled the kiss&039;s rebuff, or return, to the circle of children
Outside the central ring, heup the last of his one-shot cannons to cover the outlet for the spring More battle-wagons, ready to roll, had been placed to block the gate "The lookout up on top of the ridge says the fog isn&039;t thick at all, doesn&039;t even coht he saw e Where&039;s your lady?"
"Out there," Valentine said, gesturing with the ugly un
Waldron whistled in appreciation "No kidding? You wouldn&039;t get ht, not with theht?"
"Fog, night, rain-it&039;s all the sa else"
"Body heat, like old infrared equipment?"
Valentine shook his head "No, but it&039;s generated by our bodies Soy It&039;s what they, or rather their Masters, feed off of Your cattle create it, too"
"Rider co in," someone called fro
Mrs Hendricks hopped down frouard, showing fair athleticis on his tall formal hat, but she moved in front of him
Valentine half expected one of Tolkien&039;s nazgul-shapes to appear out of thethick around the ca rider
"Don&039;t shoot, now," theforith his reins in one hand and his other in the air "I&039;ononmaster Hendricks?"
"Dead, son I&039; in Say your piece"
"He heard you were gathering outriders, and he&039;s come himself with ninety-five, horsed and equipped We came as fast as we could, so we need provisions"
"Glory be!" the deacon -shrouded heavens
"Tell hiet his pay, and a lot rateful for his help, and I&039;lad to see that the bad blood between hiotten Now&039;s the tiet through this"
Tho "He&039;s a half hour away atset in we spotted sootten what happened the last tionmaster&039;s help, we&039;ll teach &039;e up in support of his , and they heard it break into a trot
"That&039;s nee can use Close to hundred!" Josh said "He must have ehten in tur about this
"Funny ," said Mrs Hendricks out loud
"Ma&039;a how to say this "I don&039;t like the sound of this When we spoke yesterday, Mr Lawson just didn&039;t seeht to me He looked nervous when I asked him about that scout plane He was sure of your camp&039;s location-like it&039;d been on his mind"
Josh Hendricks interrupted
"Nothing unusual in that," Josh said "Are you trying to start soer? Didn&039;t the man help you on your way? He could have just killed you or turned you over to them when you were in his camp"
"Quiet, now, Josh," his ot a worry or two, and I want to see if his are the sa to have ru "First, it sounds like there&039;s some history between your brands I don&039;t knohat it is, but bad blood can s Especially if the hurt is recent Second, is he the type of Wagonuarded with enemies in the area, to come to the aid of someone else? Unless he was sure they wouldn&039;t be touched, that is"
"That&039;s true enough," the deacon said
"Third, he knew a lot about your ca, but none of his men must have talked to yours or he&039;d know you were the new Wagonmaster Finally, his brand was also on the line of ot wiped out and his wasn&039;t You&039;d think his whole brand would&039;ve spent the last day running for their lives"
Josh Hendricks shook his head "Pa used to say I could think better thanthis is plain stupid"
"Hush now, Josh"
The boy ignored her with fifteen-year-old certainty "No Trekker has ever rolled over for them, and I don&039;t think even Laould be that low Hishim up They can&039;t all be bad apples I&039;d bet my life on it"
Mrs Hendricks looked out into the fog "I&039;ve got to think about more lives than just my own But we&039;ll see You may have to bet just that, with the help of our new friend here"
Twenty minutes later, Lawson and his outriders caons Two tables laden with food and drink stood near the gate on one side, opposite the little shalloith the strea out of camp A fire burned cheerfully in the center The deacon stood in the light enjoying a bottle of beer and one of Valentine&039;s cigars