The Treasure Hunter's Lady Page 22

  Romy's body was rigid with fear. “We shouldn't have come here.”

  “I couldn't go back. Even if I wanted to,” he ground out. “It knows we're here and it's coming. It knows about the knife too. Or some part of Ten Horses that still exists in the knife.”

  From the sheath, the knife gave a little quiver of excitement as though it was aware Uktena was on the way.

  “What do we do?” she asked.

  On shaking legs, Abel forced himself up. As tempting as it was to run in the other direction, it wasn't possible. The tattoo and the knife both called him toward Uktena.

  “Romy.” He looked down at her, hating himself for letting her get drawn into this. “This is your last chance to go home. There's not a blessed thing you can do to help me. I have to be the one to destroy Uktena. I have the curse. Both curses, and unless I strike him dead, then no one will survive. You have to hide. Wait until Maggard comes. He'll keep you safe. When I've got the stone, I'll come back.”

  Panic flooded her face. “No! I can't leave you here.”

  “You don't know what I saw. There's no way I can protect you while I try to kill it.”

  She flew to her feet, fury replacing her fear. “I won't abandon you. That's not what you do when someone you love is in danger. You stay and you fight until you can't or there isn't anything to be afraid of anymore.”

  “Romy.” He shook his head, frustrated, but touched by her fierceness. By her words.

  “I have the gun! I can shoot at it and weaken it while you try to pierce its heart. It can't be as big as the legends say. That's—that's silly.”

  “It's moving up the river right now. With hundreds and hundreds of snakes. All kinds. They aren't going to sit back and watch while Uktena has tea and cake. They'll come at us from everywhere.”

  “More snakes?” The blood drained from her face.

  “I want you to go back to the other side of the gateway. Wait for me.” He couldn't guarantee his return, couldn't even give her a timeframe for when to expect him back.

  Her shoulders straightened. “It knows the power of Ten Horses and knows if you have the knife, it can be killed.”

  Abel took her hand, but stared hard into her eyes. “I know I can't change your mind. You'd just follow me if I forbade you to come. So I want you to promise me you'll stay back. First sign of that damned thing, first sign of any trouble, you hide. I'm going to scout ahead, figure out the path.”

  “What should I do once we find it?”

  “Nothing. It's enough that you've come this far. That you stayed beside me when most people would have run or written me off as crazy.”

  Romy nodded. “All right. I won't interfere. Not even if you ask me to.”

  Neither of them believed that.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  She recognized his words for what they were; a ruse meant to throw her off the trail. One wrong turn in the twisting maze of canyons and Romy would be lost. Or perhaps he thought she'd grow tired of following him and stop altogether. Abel's footprints weren't easy to spot in the hard, rocky path. So she'd done the only thing that would ensure she was able to find him.

  Before he had left her, she’d hugged him and slipped her hand inside the pouch where he carried the fang, drawing it out, sliding it up her sleeve. He hadn't suspected a thing, because surely if he had, he’d have taken it back.

  Dark and vile as ever, the fang Romy clutched in her hand barely registered any weight. There was a presence about it that made her feel dirty and small.

  She stared up at the sloping canyon walls. The fang would let her know which way to go. It seemed impossibly alive, warm against her skin although it hadn't rested there more than a few minutes.

  From the supposed safety of the awful rock with a painted red serpent, she had watched Abel set off through the rocky canyon. The men in her life were forever telling her to stay behind, but that advice grew tiresome. Abel needed her, just as Papa had needed her companionship after her mother passed away so long ago.

  This was different, she assured herself as she hung the fang, still bound to a leather thong, around her neck. This was life or death, and when they held the Diamond in their hands, Abel would thank her for helping him. Then, she thought, glancing down at the bit of leather he'd tied around her finger, then they'd sail off to Texas and get married.

  “You've ventured into worse than this, Romancia,” she muttered. Never by herself and never because people she loved would be lost if she didn't. One of these days Abel and Papa would realize she didn't ever mean to be left behind again.

  The steeply rising path tested Romy's endurance. The last few days had both strengthened and weakened her. White Elk had explained that this world wasn't the same one she lived in. It crossed her mind that her body might react differently in this unusual place.

  She perused the gray pearls of clouds blocking the sun and her eyes came to rest on a small black dot in the distance. It was too far off to make out much of a shape. It bobbed along, traveling a crooked path. For a second, her heart jumped into her throat. They wouldn't have to walk out after all! Van Buren had come for them with his ship.

  The longer she watched, the more she realized it wasn't big enough to be the Ursula Ann. It was too round, too unsteady. Papa and Christensen were coming. In a hot air balloon, of all things. A brilliant idea really. There wasn't much opportunity to land the craft, but it could hover in the sky and one could drop a ladder over the side to climb to the ground.

  She had to find Abel, warn him that Christensen was on his way. If the wrong man got the Diamond first, there'd be no saving the Courtes. The upside to spotting the balloon was that they now had a faster means of transportation back to Bismarck. Between the three of them, surely they'd be able to overpower Christensen. A sense of triumph, a brief flash of relief, stole over Romy.

  There was only the small matter of finding Uktena then. The arches of her feet ached, along with her arms and back. She could already feel the miles passing by as they soared back to town in the balloon.

  ****

  I know you're close, human. The scent of your blood is in my nose, the flavor of your soul on my tongue.

  The cold voice rang in Abel's ears, but he didn't let it shake him. He stopped to gather his wits. The knife would be his weapon, along with the determination to make it out of this alive. The fang would serve as a distraction, long enough for him to stab the damned beast and send it back into the earth.

  He reached for the fang. Panic assaulted him. He looked into the pouch and searched it for holes, unable to process that it was gone. Then he knew.

  Romy. The little vixen had taken the fang to keep track of him. To know exactly where he was headed, because the fang wanted to be reunited with Uktena.

  “Dammit, Romy. You're going to get us both killed.” He aimed a kick at stone as his frustration mounted. Just once he'd like her to follow an order. But then, she wouldn't be the same woman he loved.

  I am close enough to hear the weak beat of your heart. The knock of your knees and chatter of your teeth, mortal. Soon all that I am owed will be paid. Run, if you dare, but I will find you as sure as the cursed sun rises.

  Abel gripped the bone handle of the knife. Fury coursed through his blood. Enough from the damned smug snake. “You'd better hope I don't find you first, worm.”

  Whether Uktena heard him or not, Abel couldn't tell. He stalked forward, listening to the faint hum of the knife. It almost sounded as if it was whispering. Maybe the voice of Ten Horses was encouraging him or slinging its own ancient insults at the snake.

  Tension knotted Abel's shoulders. Gravel crunched under his boots, a sound that would no doubt alert anything that cared to listen to his position. It didn't matter who stumbled on who first. One way or another there was going to be blood, just as Uktena suggested.

  I see your shadow, straight and tall, young warrior. For now. I will see it fall, as I've seen hundreds of others fall. Their bones litter my lair. Yours shall join them.r />
  “Overgrown rattlesnake. We eat rattlesnake where I come from.” The knife was in his hand. Sharp laughter filled his ears.

  We shall see, He Who Seeks.

  That gave him pause. How did Uktena know the name White Elk had given him?

  The language of the ancients. Ten Horses himself sent you. Mortals are foolish creatures. Especially the Europeans. They think they know the world, when in truth they see so little. You are no different. No more than a blemish on the face of the earth.

  Abel had the distinct feeling that Uktena could see him. This was the Serpent's version of hell, a realm he controlled. It made sense that he knew everything going on here.

  You admit to yourself that this is world is mine. What you call hell, I call paradise. So it is and has always been. Rest awhile, human. Your woman comes and she possesses that which is mine. I shall see you both soon. My legion will precede me. If you come with fang and knife held before you, I shall consider granting you a boon when you beg me to spare your life.

  ****

  Panting with exertion, Romy couldn't believe Abel had come all this way. She understood why. Though the trail was difficult, it held an allure. Like a mystery waiting to be unraveled, she had to take the next step and the next. It was almost a magnetic attraction.

  Against the iron gray of the sky, an arch of rock stood apart from the ground. Romy stared at it, and Abel's silhouette perched on a stone to the side.

  He gave her a scowl, but it was halfhearted. “I see you found me.”

  The sky opened and let down sprinkles of rain.

  “You don't look very happy to see me. Not yet at any rate, but I have good news.” She settled beside him, waiting for him to take interest in her impending announcement. He didn't. “Papa and Christensen are on the way in a balloon. We'll be able to leave immediately, after we knock Christensen senseless, of course.”

  “Snakes are coming, Romy. Dozens, maybe hundreds.” His voice was curiously flat. “To usher us right into Uktena's mouth.”

  “Us?”

  “He knows you're here. Since you took the fang.”

  “Oh.” She fingered the leather thong. “I hadn't realized he might sense it as it senses him. Well, we're just going to wait for his thugs to get here then?”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “Thugs?”

  She shrugged. “Escort, if you like. He's talking to you openly?”

  “All manner of conversation going on in my head. I don't even need to acknowledge him to let him in on what I'm thinking. Probably part of the curse.”

  “We're getting wet, you know.” She looked around for shelter and was pleased to find it right away. “There's an overhang across the way if you want to wait somewhere drier.” She nodded across the narrow run of valley. It was a long ledge in the red wall, not as deep as the cave they'd spent the night in days ago, but shelter against the weather. “I'm tired and I know you must be as well.”

  The long rock was crumbling but fortunately it appeared solid. The rain picked up, pattering noisily on the ground. Neither of their options held much appeal, either sitting in the wet or huddling under stone. Resigning herself to the idea that the ledge was better than walking in the rain, she lifted the pack higher on her sore shoulders and rose from the rock.

  “I know you're exhausted. Anyone would be, a snake whispering evil lies in his head. But listen to me. I believe in what you're doing. That can carry you as far as you let it. Because love is greater than any magic that ignorant beast can throw at you.”

  “All right. You win.” He tucked the knife away and took the hand she offered.

  Together they ducked beneath the stone. The tang of reptile reached her nose again, disgustingly thick. “I'm so tired of that smell. Nasty, stinking serpents.”

  He frowned, shadows falling into the lines of his face, creating a harsh look. “Smells a little like copperhead. The old timers in Texas swear they can smell a copperhead nest.”

  “Copperheads. They're venomous, aren't they?”

  He swallowed, causing his Adam's apple to bob in his throat. “Them and plenty of others.”

  “I don't think anything is living under here. Or that anything lives in this valley.” They could stay until the sky cleared or the snakes came. Whatever happened first. She shivered at the idea of hundreds of writhing bodies flooding the tiny space.

  “Pity there's no tinder for a fire. We could have built a barrier around us, kept them out for a while. Even hoards of serpents will probably hesitate before they rush through that.”

  “We'll make do.” She rubbed the growth of hair on his cheek and brushed her lips against his.

  He grasped her shoulders, staring down at her with such an intense gaze, she felt guilty for following him.

  “I should have known you'd never follow an order like that.”

  Her guilt must be so obvious to him. “Now you do. And it will do you good to remember it. Does Uktena know when his little, what's the word? Posse? When they'll arrive?”

  He frowned. “He wasn't too specific about it. He could keep us here for days, making us wait and worry. That's what I'd do, if I wanted to frighten a couple of mere mortals who vowed vengeance on me. Leave 'em frightened and hungry. Trapped.”

  He made a good case and she wished he hadn't. Huddling on the gravelly floor, staring up at a rock teeming with cobwebs, waiting for Uktena's slithering family to retrieve them was the most miserable thing they'd gotten into so far. Uktena's land was a horrible place, devoid of joy and life. Romy longed for the hard planks in the airship. At least it was dry there and had a galley stocked with tea.

  “For now it's enough that we have a roof over our heads. Tomorrow things will seem better.” Said with conviction that she didn't feel.

  He slipped his arms around her, his broad chest warm and comforting. She laid her head against him, breathing in the scent of male body. For a long while neither of them spoke. Her fear ebbed away, leaving her mind a little clearer.

  She smiled at him just as the sky darkened and the light faded. The sudden darkness made her stiffen, but his fingers caressed her arm.

  “We should try to get some rest,” he suggested. “There's no sense jumping at every noise while we wait.”

  Neither of them mentioned that they'd never be able to see the snakes coming. Lighting the lantern would only draw unwelcome visitors. Romy pushed her anxiety down. She'd never feared the dark before; now wasn't the time to start. Not if she was going to help Abel retrieve the Diamond.

  No sounds around them indicated they were about to have visitors. The only noise from outside the ledge was the steady patter of rain. The evening dragged on with no sign of a change in the weather. No signs of impending doom either. The snakes were far away and moving slowly or Uktena had only used the threat to frighten them further.

  Abel leaned against the rough wall. It wasn't long before he was asleep and snoring softly. Romy curled next to him, tucking her legs beneath her and resting on his shoulder. Fear was exhausting and Uktena probably wanted them tense and nervous. If the stories were true, he'd baited plenty of warriors the same way.

  Her father's curiosity had placed a terrible burden on Caden and Abel. It was only right that she help destroy the monster that had taken so many lives before it claimed any more. She hoped that none of them would ever stumble upon such a horrible artifact again. She'd gladly exchange a life of excitement for one of sitting about with no real purpose if it meant keeping her family safe.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  A bead of sweat rolled between Abel's eyes, trailing down the bridge of his nose before dripping onto his shirt. For the first time in his life, he was terrified of a little bitty ring-neck snake.

  Its tongue slipped out of its mouth, tasting the fear that no doubt surrounded him like a cloud. As slowly as he could, Abel reached for the knife at his side. The tiny head bobbed and black eyes blinked. The golden ring around its pencil-thin neck glimmered. No more than four inches long, it was smaller than one of
his fingers, but still served as a scout for its master. In his opinion, the only good snake was a dead one.

  Abel sank the knife right above the ring. Muscles danced and jerked, but the head rolled a few inches away and lay unmoving. An ungodly roar of anger filled the canyon. A few fist-sized rocks rolled down around the shelter they'd taken the night before.

  Romy's eyes popped open and she sat up so quickly she hit her head on the ledge. She moaned and rubbed the sore spot.

  “You might want to keep that Lighthouser handy.” Abel crouched, the knife humming in his hand like a tuning fork.

  He watched her eyes widen when she saw the tiny snake body, a thin trickle of blood staining the earth in front of it. “One little ring-neck couldn't have been that much of a threat.”

  “One ain't. Two or three dozen could be more than an inconvenience. A hundred, now that would be a real problem. But the death of one gives that scaly son of a bitch the idea that I'm just as serious about as winning this as he is.”

  She fumbled with her gun, eyes skittering around the open space. “Bigger ones will come. And the venomous kind among them. Then what do we do?”

  “Shoot them, stab them or step on them. Throw rocks for all I care. Just don't let any get close enough to bite you.” He kept Ten Horses' knife gripped tight in his hand. The air was still, the sun bright this morning. “He didn't send them last night because of the rain. They're cold-blooded. They have to be warm to move around.”

  “Oh, dear,” she mumbled.

  A slender head and long body seemed to ooze from the topside of the ledge. Big, round eyes watched them curiously. Abel wrapped his hand around Romy's, aimed and pulled the trigger. The black body exploded. What was left of it slipped to the rocky ground.

  “How's that for warm?” he asked the stringy carcass.

  The scent of blood tinged the air. Romy winced at the gore. “We're trapped here. It won't take long for the magnets in the gun to discharge if we can't turn it off a while. Then all we have is the knife. It wouldn't take more than a few minutes for them to overpower us.”