Hunted

“You cut people’s heads off, Cedar.”

“I cut villains’ heads off.”

“Which is a menacing practice,” Kalisaid.

“A noble one. I help bring peace and justiceto the world.”

“Menacingly.” She bit her lip to keep a grinfrom sprawling across her face. She much preferred it when theywere not arguing about anything serious.

Cedar stuffed his hat back on his head andglowered at her from the shadows it cast over his face.

“Yes, exactly. That’s menacing.” Figuring hemight not appreciate further teasing, she switched the topic. “So,what’s the plan for investigating this Wild fellow’s claim? Want meto pack a bunch of tools and parts in case we need to do anythingcreative?”

“Wouldn’t you do that whether I wanted to ornot?”

“Well, yes.”

Kali looked around, already figuring how muchshe could stuff into a packsack. She eyed the airship model,wishing she could bring it along, not because it would serve anypurpose but because it would be fun to fly it out in the open. Bestto lock it up in her hidden, booby-trapped flash-gold vault though.No need to tempt the world.

“After you pack,” Cedar said, “let’s headover to the claims office and see what piece of land your Sebastianfiled.”

Kali had turned toward her workbench togather her gear, but she tripped over her feet at this lastcomment. “What? Why?”

“He offered you a job, didn’t he? His claimmight be close to Wilder’s since they filed at similar times. Wecould pretend to work for him while spying on the other man.”

“I don’t want to work for him, I want toshoot him.”

“Perhaps we’ll have a gunfight with Cudgel’smen and he’ll get caught in the crossfire.”

“Cedar… This isn’t a good idea. We can’ttrust him.”

“We don’t have to. We shouldn’t have to staythere long.”

Kali sighed. “Fine.”

Glass clanked outside the door.

Kali frowned. Was someone out there listeningto them?

Before she finished the thought, Cedar hadrun to the doorway. He stepped outside and paused.

“Someone there?” Kali asked.

“They were.”

She joined him outside before liquid-filledbottles hanging from ropes attached to an eave. The rudimentary“ thermometer” had come with the warehouse. The variousliquids-mercury, coal oil, Jamaica Ginger extract, and Perry DavisPainkiller-froze at temperatures ranging from forty to seventybelow zero, thus providing an indicator of the severity of a winterday. With the warmer spring weather, none were in danger offreezing now, and the contents sloshed inside the bottles, as ifsome wind buffeted them-or someone had bumped into them.

Cedar pointed to footprints in the mud underthe thermometer.

“Sebastian?” Kali guessed.

“Different prints.” Cedar waved to the deepboot marks on the other side of the door, where Sebastian had stoodto lean inside. The new ones were no larger than Kali’s ownfootprints. “Judging by the stride length, the person sprintedaway.”

Kali peered up and down the street, wonderingif anyone had seen the eavesdropper.

The covered boardwalks fronting the logsaloons, gambling halls, and boarding houses were empty. A horseteam pulling a wagon struggled with deep mud in the nearestintersection, but the drover, busy with his whip, did not glanceher way. Nor did any of the people conversing on the wood porch infront of Gamgee’s Mercantile amp; Liquorgive any indication that suspicious folk had been about.

“I’ll see if I can track him-or her-down,”Cedar said. “Want to pack whatever you’ll need for the trip andmeet me at the claim office in an hour?”

“That depends,” Kali said. “When we take downCudgel, am I getting fifty percent or a finder’s fee?”

“I’d like your full help for Cudgel, which isworth half of the five-thousand-dollar bounty.”

She swallowed. Twenty five hundred dollars?With that kind of money, she could order brand new parts instead ofscrounging for used pieces and putting them to creative new uses.She could even hire people to help her assemble her airship. Withinthe year, she could finish it and be sailing south, over themountains and far away from icy, dark winters where the sun did notshine for months.

“An hour to get ready?” she asked. “Who needsthat much time? I’ll meet you there in thirty minutes.”

Cedar lifted two fingers to the brim of hishat in salute and trotted toward the end of the building where theprints disappeared around the corner. He paused. “By the way…theladies at the dancing hall like my stubble.”

Before she could decide if she wanted toretort, he jogged out of sight.

Kali squished through the mud, her bulkypacksack bumping on her back. She crossed Main Street and headedfor the wooden steps of the claim office. Piles of dirty gray snow,sunken and melted like candle wax, hunkered against its walls.Dwindling icicles dripped water from the eaves, vexing peoplestriding along the boardwalk below.

Layers of clothing served as a method ofidentifying newcomers. Natives who had suffered through the longfrigid winter welcomed the cloudy skies and forty-degreetemperatures with rolled-up shirt sleeves, while those fresh to theYukon were bundled in scarves and jackets against weather that hadto seem nippy for May.

“Kali!” came Cedar’s voice from above.

He, too, had gathered his gear, and hetrotted down the stairs with a packsack and rolled blankets ridingon his back along with rifle and sword. He joined her at the baseof the steps.

“Good news. Sebastian Bosomhall’s claim isdiagonally across the river from Wilder’s. We’ll be able to observethe enemy camp.”

“Good,” Kali said. “I guess.” She struggledto find enthusiasm for working with Sebastian again. Maybe one ofthe claims directly adjacent to Wilder’s would consider hiringthem.

Cedar cleared his throat. “Bosomhall?That’s his name? You’re fortunate his marriage offer wasn’t inearnest. That’d be a curse of a surname to have hung around one’sneck.”

“I’m still waiting to learn your name,MK,” she said, citing the letters etched on the inlay of hisWinchester. “If you were to file for a claim, what would you writedown? Assuming the claim is only binding if you use your legalname.”

“Since I’m not filing for a claim, there’s noneed to speak of it.”

“Why don’t you tell people? Is itembarrassing? Do you believe sharing it would concede some powerover you to someone else?” Her mother had believed that, butperhaps it had been a truth for her. She had possessed otherworldlypowers few understood. Kali preferred to think it was that talentthat had driven her mother mad enough to kill herself-notdisappointment in her only child.

“I don’t use it anymore. What’s important nowis that we can move forward with this task. If we leave now andwalk fast, we can get to Bosomhall’s claim today. From there, I canspy on John Wilder and-” Cedar clenched a fist, “-find out whereCudgel is.”

Kali let him drop the name issue, though sheplanned to pry the secret out of him someday.

“Did you find our eavesdropper?” she asked asthey squished down the muddy street toward the river beyond. A roadmeandering past the docks would take them out of town and towardthe claims.

“No. I followed her for several blocks, whichwas difficult since she seemed cognizant of being tracked and chosewell-traveled streets.”

“She?” Kali asked.

“I thought the tracks might belong to a boyat first, but hips give a gait a distinctive sway, usuallyidentifiable in one’s footprints.” They turned to follow thewaterline. “The tracks left town and veered into the trees. Thetrail ended behind a hill where two lines gouged a snow drift. Logsmight have rested there, or boards. They were parallel, like a pairof large skis. Ideas?”

“I…no.”