The Six-Gun Tarot by R. S. Belcher

Author:R. S. Belcher [Belcher, R. S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy, cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 9780765329325
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2013-01-22T00:00:00+00:00

The Chariot

Horses screaming. They heard the sound before they saw the search party. Highfather had led Harry about an hour outside of Golgotha. The 40-Mile did not fully claim this land. There were patches of strawberry cactus, stick leaf and sagebrush, like defiant sentinels urging on the lost souls who might have found themselves consigned to this corner of Hell—hold on; keep going! There is life here; don’t stop and die.

“What the hell is that?” Harry said, slowing down.

Highfather slowed as well and turned to the mayor. “Your horses, Harry. When we found Holly’s carriage, the horses were going out of their minds. The carriage had crashed into a deep ditch and the horses and their yoke were a mess. They won’t calm down, not for nothing.”

“Maybe it’s Mutt—”

“Nope. I sent him away to backtrack the carriage’s trail. Didn’t do a lick of good.”

The two cleared the shelf of rock that had had blocked their view. There was a search party of a dozen townies Highfather had rounded up. Harry knew all of them well. He felt a disturbing amalgam of appreciation and shame gel in him, as well as a hot stab of anger at Holly for causing this whole mess with her damn fool drinking and her tantrum. But when he saw the overturned carriage, looking like the desert had tried to swallow it whole and had choked on it, and the frantic, frothing state of his two most gentle and well-trained saddlebreds the anger was quickly quenched in fear.

Besides the posse, crazy old Clay Turlough was out here with his wagon and a pair of brown drafts, trying to pull the carriage out of the deep gap it had been wedged into. That boy who was working for Highfather, Jim something or other, was here too, trying to help Clay attach a thick coil of rope to the axle of the carriage.

“Mr. Mayor,” the boy said as Harry dismounted, handed the reins of his horse to one of the towns folk and approached. Clay grunted and nodded as he wiped his already-sunburned head.

“Harry.”

“What happened here, Jon?” Pratt asked the sheriff, who had also dismounted and tied his horse a good distance away from the shrieking animals. It was taking four men with strong ropes to hold the two animals in place. “What’s wrong with my horses and where is my wife?”

“Mutt found it. Holly wasn’t here and there are no tracks or signs that she ever was. No indications she jumped out before the crash or climbed out after. No signs anyone came along and helped her or abducted her. Nothing. It looks like the horses were just running crazy out into the Forty-Mile and the wagon hit the ditch, flipped and trapped them here.”

“If they were spooked about the crash, they should have calmed down by now. They’re acting like there’s a rattler in their saddle blanket.”

Harry eased his way toward one of the horses. It was the older of the two, a mare named Dolly. She had always been Holly’s favorite.

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