Stranger (13 page)

“Eeeew,” Dee shrieked.

Henry eyed Ross. “With a knife?” He whistled. “Damn!”

“I don't want to talk about it.” Ross got back on Fuego even more awkwardly than before. Mia tried to show him how to hold the reins. He could barely manage them; his hands shook. Fuego shied and balked skittishly. It made Yuki uneasy.

The patrol resumed, everyone chattering.

Paco rode up beside Yuki. “What do you make of that?”

“He's starting to remind me less of Alvarez and more of the prospector who thought blue paint made her invisible.”

Paco shook his head. “It made me think of something I saw when I was a kid. I must have been seven or eight—way before you came here. King Voske sent a strike force of thirty soldiers to Las Anclas. Mom thought the plan was to sneak over the walls, assassinate the council, and take over. The Rangers spotted them twenty miles out of town. They got reinforcements from town, rode out, and fought them. They killed some of them, and the rest retreated. Some of our people were killed, too.”

Yuki had heard this story, but never from Paco. “Anyone you knew well?”

“Not really. But the Rangers all came back to our house afterward. Mom sent me to my room, but I peeked out. Uncle Omar was sitting at the kitchen table, not saying a word, looking a lot like Ross did just now. Something about it scared me, and I went back to bed.”

It was hard to picture that haunted expression on the boisterous man whom the entire town had called “Uncle.”

“So, you're saying there's nothing wrong with Ross?” Yuki asked doubtfully. “He's shaken up, not crazy?”

“I'm saying I wouldn't look for blue paint just yet.” Paco idly tapped the saddle in an intricate rhythm, then lowered his voice even more. “I'll tell you this, though, Yuki. That was when I stopped wanting to be a Ranger when I grew up.”

They had passed the mill and were headed for the back fields. In the distance, below the bluffs, lay the ruins of the great city, surrounded by a forest of singing trees. Most of the trees were gray or tawny, the colors of coyotes and javelinas, but a few had brighter, man-made hues. Yuki spotted the sapphire tree, and couldn't hold back a shudder.

The sweet scent of the bean fields perfumed the air. Jennie set a faster pace as the afternoon shadows lengthened. Thanks to Ross, they'd have to hurry to make it back by sunset.

“Yuki,” Dee said, riding up close, her little nose lifted smugly. “Princess Cloud ate a biscuit.”

“That's nice.”

His sarcasm didn't register. Triumphant, she and the furry slug returned to Nhi.

The patrol was rounding its northwest corner when Kogatana squealed a warning. A rattle arose from the shrubs on the left.

“Rattlesnake!” Jennie yelled.

“Kill it?” Henry shouted hopefully.

“No. We don't know how big it is. Leave the road. We'll swing around these bushes. Go.”

The line turned northward. Since that took them into the scrub beyond the tilled field, they were now out of Las Anclas's bounds, and the standing orders were to ready arms. Yuki unslung his crossbow and slapped an arrow into it. Gripping Reckless tightly between his knees, he began to crank the bow.

“Snake on the right!” Sujata shouted.

An enormous head reared up from behind a boulder. It was the biggest rattlesnake Yuki had ever seen—the length of a grown man. Maybe longer.

Reckless tried to rear, but Yuki settled his weight down to control him. Yolanda sent a gust of wind into the earth, directing a spray of gravel into the snake's eyes. It dropped down behind the boulder.

“There's another one!” A frightened-looking Becky pointed left, at an ominously rustling shrub. “It's huge!”

The snakes were blocking the most direct route back to Las Anclas.

“Ride out!” Jennie ordered. “Straight west!”

As she began to gallop, another giant snake rose up before her, fanged jaws gaping. Her horse reared, whinnying shrilly.

Yuki clapped the crossbow tight against his side, gathering the reins in his free hand. None of the snakes were in his range. “Meredith!”

“On it!” His sister shot three times in quick succession. The snake dropped with an arrow in its head and two in its body. “Ten points.”

“Ten to you,” called Brisa.

Despite the danger, Yuki almost laughed. “Are you girls still doing that?”

Jennie got control of her panicking mount and waved her arm. “North!”

“But that's away from town,” Sujata protested. “We'll be nearing the bluffs, and we're losing the sun.”

“We have to get around these—”

A boy screamed. Two snakes popped up on the left, one close enough for Yuki to see the diamond markings on its back. He leveled his crossbow.

The arrow whizzed past the snake as Reckless danced, head tossing. Yuki slapped in another arrow and cranked hard.
Sight and fire
—the bolt crunched through the snake's head.

“Cool!” Grabbing his slingshot, Henry loosed a rock at a snake slithering out from under another boulder.

Dee and Nhi began shrieking. Their horses whinnied in panic.

“Hold on,” Yuki shouted. “Hold them.”

He waited for Jennie's next order, but she had dismounted to grab one of the younger boys, who was off his horse and trying to run.

“If you run, you're dead!” Jennie shouted. “Get back on!”

Despite Jennie's orders, the younger kids were breaking the line in panic. The patrol had disintegrated into chaos. A row of hissing snakes rose up between them and the town. But none had struck, though they'd had many chances, as horses sidled restlessly, always retreating northward—

Northward, into the scrub. And all the snakes were on the south.

“Jennie!” Yuki shouted. “We're being herded!”

Her head lifted, then snapped northward. “Paco, scout!”

Paco rode away, circling through the scrubby bushes.

“The rest of you, in line!” Jennie pointed. “Meredith and José, ride the line as rovers. Brisa, give us some covering fire.”

Brisa reached into the sack of fist-sized rocks by her saddle. She grabbed one, concentrated on it, and threw it at the nearest snake. Its tail lashed, knocking the rock aside. The rock hit the ground and exploded, and the snake slithered off.

“Oops.” Brisa frowned. “Should've aimed at the head. Let me try again.” This time she scored a direct hit. “Ten points! That makes eighty!”

Paco rode back, his tension evident only in the sharp-cut angles of his face. “I didn't see anything but grass. No sign of snakes.”

The horses were as nervous as the patrollers as they began another wide circle to the north. Yuki's skin prickled with apprehension. He'd rather face the snakes than whatever unknown thing they were being herded toward.

“Jennie, can I try with Kogatana?” he asked. At her nod, he pointed northward.

“Kogatana, scout.”

Kogatana ran, nose down. Yuki urged Reckless behind the racing rat, who was no more than a ripple in the tall grass. Then she rose on her haunches, squealing in warning. Yuki saw nothing but dirt and scrub, so he dismounted to investigate. Kogatana instantly darted up and pressed herself against his boots.

Yuki froze. The rats were trained to do that as a signal to their partners:
Take one more step and you're dead.

He unsheathed his sword and prodded the ground in front of him. The point touched dry earth, then broke through into nothingness. Yuki twisted the sword, levering up a piece of earth woven through with grass and something that glistened like slug slime. His hand jerked involuntarily, jostling another fragment. The entire field crumbled before him.

Reckless scrambled back, nickering in fear. Yuki stared down into a huge funnel carved into the ground. At its bottom, the powdery earth stirred and he saw a glint of something sharp and white.

“Shit!” Adrenaline spiked. He jammed the sword into its sheath, grabbed the rat, leaped into the saddle, and galloped back, shouting, “Get back! Get back! It's a pit mouth!”

Several younger kids screamed in terror.

Gasping for breath, he added, “It's the biggest one I've ever seen. That thing could swallow all of us.”

“Meredith!” Jennie shouted. “Take your bow team, and clear those snakes. Paco! Brisa! Yuki! Reinforce them.”

Mia leaped off her horse and unstrapped her flamethrower. Clutching the hose in both hands, she directed a blast of flame at the nearest snake. With a high-pitched hiss, it retreated into the tall grasses. “Fire in the grass. Help me stamp it out.”

“José!” called Jennie.

He knelt down and placed both palms flat on the earth. A ripple of disturbed grass spread outward until it reached the flames. The fire sank into the earth and vanished.

José stood up and was almost trampled by Fuego. Ross struggled to control the horse, but Fuego was trying to get to the front, as he'd been trained to do. Ross dropped the reins and grabbed his sword. When Fuego began to charge, Ross lurched awkwardly. His left hand fumbled at the reins, and he dropped the sword in order to use his right.

Yuki wished he'd argued harder with Jennie over letting Ross come on patrol. He was endangering himself, Fuego, and everyone around him.

“Ross!” Yuki shouted. “Get out of the way! Go to the rear!”

This only confused Fuego, who danced sideways. Yuki drove Reckless forward and slapped Fuego on the neck, commanding him to retreat.

The younger kids began shooting wildly, creating a whole new danger.

“Aim,
then
shoot!” Jennie shouted.

Meredith's sword whistled, and a snake head bounded away in the dirt. Grimly, she scanned for another, the counting game forgotten.

“There must be ten of them!” Paco scythed his sword at another. Despite his lack of enthusiasm for fighting, his technique was perfect. A scaly head thumped to the ground.

Yuki urged Reckless into the gap where José had been. A snake slithered down a juniper branch, dangling by its tail, so close that he could see a drop of venom glistening on one fang. He cocked his shoulder back and turned in the saddle. Reckless shifted to help him balance. Then he brought the sword around in a whistling arc. The snake dropped headless to the ground.

From behind came the whistle and crunch of another snake decapitation. Ross scrambled up from the dust, recovering from a backswing as the head bounced into the bushes.

José got to his feet beside Ross. That explained how he had managed to kill a snake—José had trapped it in the earth.

Jennie's horse shied as she bent over its withers. “We have two people down! Henry, Brisa, get Paco.”

Paco!
Jennie shouted more orders, but Yuki couldn't hear. He scanned frantically. Paco was rolling silently back and forth on the ground, hands clutched near an arrow in his knee. Yuki leaped down. “Paco.” He caught Paco by the shoulders. “It's me.”

Paco opened his eyes but didn't speak. Yuki could see he was clenching his jaw so he wouldn't scream. The arrow had sunk in behind his kneecap. It wasn't bleeding much, but the pain had to be terrible. Yuki picked him up, careful not to let the arrow touch anything.

Henry and Brisa helped him lift Paco onto her horse. Yuki knew he ought to get back to Reckless, but he didn't want to leave Paco.

Jennie clapped her hands. “Mount up! We need to get out of here.”

Mia reached up to hook the flamethrower back in her saddle pack. A scaly tail swished out from the bushes, knocking her off her feet. The tip, as wide as a man's arm, wrapped around her ankle and jerked. Her body slid a few inches in the dust. The snake was trying to drag her away. As Yuki ran to help, Mia stopped trying to kick free and whipped her flamethrower's nozzle around. Her other hand scrabbled at the canister.

A jet of fire shot out, but the flames vanished into the air as the snake jerked her in another direction. Glasses askew, Mia flung herself onto its tail, angled the nozzle at the thick body, and ignited the flamethrower. The snake released her with a hiss and writhed away. She aimed a final blast, but the flamethrower stuttered and stopped, out of fuel.

Yuki turned around. Mia's horse had stampeded. Ross had managed to get back on Fuego. They halted next to her.

Ross fumbled with the reins and dropped his sword
again
. It lifted as if kicked by the earth, and Jennie caught it by the hilt. Ross extended his hand to Mia, though he was seated so precariously that she'd pull him down if she took it. Luckily, she had the sense to mount by herself.

Meredith's bow twanged as she shot at a pair of snakes. One thumped to the ground, twitching. The other vanished into the underbrush. “No more in sight. We can ride right through here.”

“Do it,” Jennie ordered.

Yuki took one last look at Paco, then hastily mounted. The line galloped behind Jennie. A couple of the small kids were whimpering, and one moaned in pain.

Yuki hadn't been this scared since he'd first come to Las Anclas. Being endangered by a creature that no one had ever seen, other than its mouth at the bottom of the pit, was more terrifying than any number of snakes.

The sun had sunk past the distant line of the sea when the patrol reached the western fields, where the exhausted horses forced them to slow. The smell of fertilizer from the giant compost worms drifted on the breeze. They could see the sentries now—which meant they could be seen. Yuki counted under his breath. Six seconds, and the bell began to clang the alert.

“Jennie, should I take Nhi ahead?” Dee called. “She broke her arm.”

“Stay together. Once we get inside, take the wounded to the infirmary.”

Yuki caught up with Paco and Brisa. Paco leaned against her, pale and sweating, but he didn't make a sound. He was more stoic with an arrow lodged behind his kneecap than that useless Ross had been just looking at something that scared him.