(eng) Lindsay Buroker - Flash Gold Chronicles 02 by Hunted

Author:Hunted [Hunted]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

She tapped a pocket where she carried two smoke nuts. Her Winchester, fastened to her packsack, was within easy reach as well. She trusted Cedar still had her two vials of flash gold flakes; they were not weapons but, given time, they could be made into useful tools.

Kali picked out a familiar voice, fortunately not singing.

“That’s him,” she murmured to Cedar, who walked quietly, even with no light to brighten the trail. She reached out to brush his arm now and then to make sure he was still there.

Sebastian sat with five other men around a fire pit. All had the bearded, grizzled appearance of veterans, and more than one sported a scar on his face. A fellow with a greasy beard dangling halfway down his chest scratched beneath an eye patch with the stumpy nub of a half-missing finger. Rifles and shotguns leaned against logs or rocks, no more than an arm’s length from their owners.

Rectangular shadows behind the men delineated tents. The claim farther up the bank from Sebastian’s lay dark, its prospectors either gone to sleep or perhaps into town, but a fire burned at the one diagonally across the river, the one that supposedly belonged to Cudgel’s crony. Nobody sat around it, though a tent and the beginnings of a log cabin rose near the flames.

“Doesn’t look very active,” Kali said.

“Your old beau?” Cedar asked. “Well, he has a flask of whiskey in his hand. That slows a man down.”

“I meant the camp we’re here to spy on.”

“Ah. I’ll sneak over tonight if I can find a way across the river. Let’s get settled in here first. Those men look rougher than I expected based on my initial encounter with your Sebastian.”

“I’d appreciate it if you’d stop calling him my this-or-that,” Kali said. “And just because he’s a dandy doesn’t mean he’s not a fine flannel-mouth. I’m sure he talked these fellows into helping with promises of riches, and they believed him. As for their roughness, Sebastian probably picked them for that. It’s dangerous up here, and you’re like to have your claim jumped if anything shiny comes out of it.”

“Understood.”

When they were within a dozen meters of the fire, Kali called out, not wanting to surprise anyone with twitchy reflexes. “Sebastian?”

Sebastian bolted to his feet, eyes larger than Francis Barton’s prize nuggets. “Kali?”

“Yes.”

Despite Sebastian’s acknowledgement, the man beside him grabbed his shotgun. He raised it to his shoulder and Kali tensed, ready to throw herself to the ground. A rifle thundered a foot away from her ear. The shotgun flew from its owner’s hands. Cursing, the man flung himself behind a log even as the rest of Sebastian’s cronies lunged for their weapons.

Cedar fired two more times.

“Sebastian!” Kali ducked and scrambled behind a stump. She found her own rifle, but she did not want to fire, not if this was a misunderstanding. “What’re you—”

“Stop!” Sebastian called. “Everyone stop grabbing for your firearms.”

None of his men had managed to fire a shot, not with Cedar preempting them, but they had all found cover, and irritated snarls came from behind the rocks and logs.

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