Conspiracy of Ravens by Lila Bowen

Author:Lila Bowen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction / Fantasy / Historical, Fiction / Occult & Supernatural, Fiction / Fantasy / Paranormal, Fiction / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Coming Of Age
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2016-10-11T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter

14

They hit the trail at dawn to avoid dealing with Mueller again. Blue had to bray his good-byes, but the wagon canvas didn’t stir. For just a second, Rhett wondered if maybe Winifred had managed to hobble over there and slit the man’s throat herself. But no. She wouldn’t do that to the little girls, who were already stretching and standing sleepily to attend to the camp’s chores.

“Roads are more trouble than they’re worth,” Rhett grumbled.

“But far less likely to end with a horse being shot for snakebite or a broken leg,” Dan said cheerfully, only vexing him all the more.

Rhett had watched Dan and Winifred, quiet-like, all morning. Watching Winifred for some sort of sentimental attachment or troublesome expectation, and watching Dan to see if the feller knew what had happened in the wagon last night and might want to break his nose for the transgression. They’d acted completely normal, and he’d therefore done likewise. Now they were on the road like nothing had happened at all, with Sam leading out front on his palomino, Dan and Rhett in the middle, Winifred behind them on Kachina, and Earl in back driving the wagon.

“You been to Lamartine before, ain’t you, Sam?” Rhett asked.

Sam nodded, his hips swaying with the saddle. “A while back. It’s one of those places that’s getting too big for its britches. Townfolk wanted to build a bridge across the Rio de los Brazos de Dios, if you can believe it.”

“How far off are we?”

“Hard to tell. A few days, I reckon.”

“We might know more if you’d use your bloody gifts to give us a bird’s-eye view,” Earl shouted from the wagon-box. “Anytime now, you great oaf! Do something useful, aside from nearly getting us all killed, why don’t you?”

Rhett tamped down his anger and didn’t turn around. “I reckon we should’ve sold you to Mueller. You two would’ve gotten along right fine. Cantankerous and demanding.”

“Don’t needle him,” Dan said, quiet-like, riding up beside Rhett. “Can’t you tell he’s scared?”

“I figured him for angry and annoying.”

“We don’t always show our true feelings.”

Rhett glanced at him, eye slitted against the sun, but Dan didn’t seem to be talking about anything else, like Winifred. The feller seemed downright balmy, like always.

“But he’s right, Rhett. We’d learn more if you’d transform and check the route ahead, maybe see how close the railroad camp is. We’ll continue on the road. And if you’re back before dusk, we can return to your lessons with the bow.”

With a snort, Rhett shook his head. “I didn’t take to it with two eyes, and I reckon I’ll be worse with only one. Unless you think they’ll let me mosey into a railroad camp carrying a quiver of arrows, I figure I’ll save myself the trouble.”

“That’s the whole point, Rhett. You can mosey in empty-handed and make a bow when you need one. You don’t strike me as the kind of person who would turn down a weapon.”

Rhett huffed and hopped off his horse, tossing his reins to Dan and stalking off behind the wagon, where nobody could see him.

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