Broken Wings (16 page)

“
No. I don’t want to quit.”
She shook her head. “I’ve got to try and figure out how I’m
supposed to carry on with this life—” Her melancholy seemed to
deepen. “—when I can’t get past the last one!”

“
Why don’t you tell me
everything that happened the other night?” Billy said. “And I don’t
mean a sugar-coated version. Give me full disclosure.”

She appeared to be thinking about it,
and then finally said, “It’s too wild for words.” Whatever had
happened, she wasn’t ready to talk about it. She threw him a quick,
engaging look. One that said she was going to try to change the
subject. “What happened in your vision?”

God, he was good. Billy fought the
smirk trying to tip the corners of his mouth. “I had a little chat
with Tajan and Maggie. At first I thought she was you. She did tell
me that you and she were one and the same.” He snuck a peek at her,
knowing she was freaked out by the implication. But she’d asked for
details and maybe that’d help her to reveal some of her own. “Tajan
didn’t stay long, but he did tell me to stop hating the color of my
skin. And...to stop blaming Maggie for his death.” He fell silent,
having to regroup after that. “You know…” He gave the room a quick
scan. “He showed me how much he loves her—you. He stepped inside my
body and I could actually see and feel what he feels.” He shook his
head and an eeriness rippled down into his body, shaking his
shoulders. “It was really weird, but after seeing and feeling what
it’s like to love someone that much—” His tone carried an
unmistakable quality. “—it made me realize how alone I really am.”
He looked at Rio. “That’s when Maggie said something really
strange.”

“
What?” Rio asked, totally
engrossed in his story.

“
Well, she said there was
someone out there for me, too. And that she’s coming very soon.”
Billy didn’t hide his bewilderment. “Is that weird or
what?”

“
Everything else made sense
though, huh?”

Billy thought about it. “Yeah…” he
said. “Granted, it was pretty much unbelievable, but it made
perfect sense.”

Well, except for that thing about Rio’s
identity being questioned. But Billy was wrapped up in the
possibility of his soul mate coming into his life. Now that he’d
seen what it felt like to love someone with your whole heart, he
wanted that more than anything and he unconsciously tucked away the
obscure tidbit into the deepest corners of his mind.

“
That is so weird. The same
kind of thing happened to me,” she said with a nod. “It was pretty
much unbelievable, but I understood it all...except for this one
thing Tajan said to me.”

“
What?”

“
He said my destiny was with
my partner.” She didn’t understand that and it showed. Rio had
never had a partner in any shape, form, fashion or capacity. In
light of that, Tajan’s statement confused the hell out of her.
She’d been a loner for as long as she could remember. She liked it
that way. She’d learned a long time ago that the only person she
could depend on was herself.

“
Can you take me back up
there?” she asked, looking at Billy. “Back to where they died?”
Suddenly, the locale and her reaction to it had new
meaning.

“
Yeah,” he said. “But are
you sure you want to go back there?”

“
Yes.”

* * *

Billy parked the Jeep in the same area
he had the last time they’d come to this place he called Clear
Creek. Rio’s nerves had had a healthy workout on the way over, and
by now her heart was doing double-time.

He cut the engine and she hopped out of
the vehicle. She strode across the road and stopped at the
hillside. Billy paused at her side. She peered down into the
ravine, instantly mesmerized by the sound of the rushing waterfall
and the spray misting her face.

Something—a feeling she couldn’t quite
pin-point—dragged her gaze upward, to the steep cliffs looming
about them. She stared at the ominous site, her heart on the verge
of exploding. At the thought of Tajan losing his life here in this
place, a tremendous amount of grief washed over her.

She looked at Billy—who stood beside
her in an almost protective manner—and pointed to the cliffs
towering above them. “They jumped from up there...?” She was more
or less looking for confirmation.

“
Yes.” Billy nodded and
looked away.

“
Can you get me up
there?”

“
Sure. I can get you up
there.” He buried his fingertips in the front pockets of his
Levi’s. “Don’t know that you’ll like the getting part...but I can
get you up there.”

“
Good. Let’s go.” She spun
on her heel and hurried back across the road.

Billy followed her back to the
Jeep.

They drove to the other side of the
mountain and he stalled at the bottom, revving the engine. There
was no road or even the hint of a trail that once was anywhere near
them. From this angle, nothing but a bunch of sagebrush stood
between them and the top.

Rio got the feeling it was going to
take a lot more than the state’s shrub to stop him.

He looked at Rio and winked. “You might
want to hold on.” He gunned the engine and charged his way up the
hill.

The Jeep trampled over the sagebrush,
and Rio latched onto the dashboard. “Me and my bright
ideas.”

After a rip-roaring, bumpy ride the
Jeep skidded to a stop at the top of the mountain. Rio exited the
vehicle, feeling herself being pulled, inexplicably, toward the
cliffs. The closer she got to the edge, apprehension seemed to turn
her legs to jelly. A couple feet from the rim, she dropped to the
ground and drew her legs up under her chin. She draped her arms
over her knees and stared out across the canyon.

She knew Billy was feet, maybe inches,
behind her. He was quiet. Really quiet. She took advantage of the
opportunity to do a little soul-searching, even if it was only for
a second or two.

The scenery was breathtaking. Even so,
it wasn’t enough. Nothing would ever be enough. Not ever again.
Overcome with a sense of despondency, she dropped her head to her
knees and cradled it in her arms.

She felt Billy sitting down beside
her.

“
You okay?” His inquiry came
softly.

She drew her head up and looked at him.
“It’s weird.” She glanced out over the canyon and then landed her
gaze back on Billy. “I haven’t any solid memories of Maggie’s
life...but I have all the feelings that she felt for Tajan.” She
cast a brief glimpse toward the cliffs and then returned her
attention to Billy. “Can you tell me what happened? How was it,
exactly, that they came to die here?”

Billy understood now why she needed to
hear the story of Maggie and Tajan. It was her only connection to
the love she’d lost forever.

~~~~

PART SIX

THE BOND

~~~~

CHAPTER 32

Northern Nevada, Lake Tahoe
Area

September, 1864

After hearing about the posse heading
their way, Tajan and Maggie had left their only child and a few
cherished tokens—his pouch, her necklace, their wedding bracelets
and their paintings—with Tajan’s parents.

He’d taken her high up into the hills.
He had to hide her from the white sheriff and his band of
vigilantes. It was the only way to keep her safe—if they didn’t
freeze to death first.

The high forest was his best chance to
evade the white man’s posse. It was an area he knew well, but the
lawmen would have trouble navigating or tracking them without help.
The bad news was that at such a high altitude, even in the summer,
the nights were cold.

Maggie shivered. The single blanket
they shared for warmth did little to provide shelter from the
bitter chill of an exceptionally cold night in the Sierra Nevada.
But it was nothing compared to the noose at the end of a
rope—Maggie Fuller’s fate if they were caught.

Protectively, Tajan tucked the blanket
around her and reinforced his embrace. “I am sorry,” he said in
English, “we can have no fire.” Exiled in total darkness, he hadn’t
dared build a fire for fear of discovery.

“
It’s okay.” Maggie’s voice
trembled. “I’m not cold.” Of course it was a lie. She was freezing.
Still, it was better than the alternative.

She drifted in and out of sleep several
times during the course of the night. Each time, easily awakened by
the night’s plummeting temperatures.

Just before dawn Tajan nudged her
gently. “Maggie...” he called her name just above a whisper. “Wake
up.”

She opened her eyes, surveyed the
surroundings and instantly remembered where she was and why she was
there. Even so, when her eyes met Tajan’s she smiled
gallantly.

“
Come,” he said. “We must
hurry.”

The couple mounted their ponies and
rode off, deeper into the forest. Maggie wondered if the posse was
still hot on their trail. He’d warned her during the night that a
group of seven or eight men, one of them a renegade Paiute—known
for trading his tracking services to anyone with anything of value
to him—was leading the way.

Tajan’s first inclination had been to
head down into the area that the whites called California, but
Maggie had begged him not to go that way. She was afraid of leading
the posse toward her grandfather’s farm, and thereby her only
remaining sister, Mary.

To please Maggie, Tajan doubled back
toward Lake Tahoe and down into the valley south of Carson City. He
stood a decent chance of throwing the posse off their trail if the
whites were gullible enough to think Maggie would never be foolish
enough to return to the scene of her crime.

After a few miles, Tajan coaxed Pico to
halt with a soft whistle. He slid off the horse and dropped to the
ground.

He lay there for just a few seconds but
it felt like an eternity before he jumped up and leapt back onto
his horse.

Tajan seized the reigns and looked at
Maggie. “Six or seven horses are right behind us.” He eyed the
landscape, worry wrinkling his brow. He didn’t look nearly as
confident as he had just moments ago. “This is not best place to be
trapped.”

They rode hard until they cleared the
woods and came upon a clearing at the top of the mountain. Slowing
down, Tajan realized where they were.

He gave Maggie his best stone-faced
look to hide the reality that there was no place to go with the
posse behind them. Normally, he wouldn’t have gotten himself backed
into this corner. But he had to admit, if only to himself, that his
thinking had gotten a little muddled after she begged him not to go
toward the lands the whites called California—the one place he’d
thought was safest.

Tajan slid off Pico and Maggie
dismounted Lightning. The sound of rushing water grew louder as
they moved closer to the edge of the precipice. Over the side, a
drop of about two hundred feet loomed below them and led down to
jagged cliffs. Beneath them, the mountain extended outward,
sideways from the overhang—as if in a last ditch effort—before
giving way to a waterfall inside a ravine.

Tajan locked his hand around Maggie’s
wrist.

“
What a drop!” She gasped,
looking down into the gorge.

Tajan looked at the ravine, then
glanced over his shoulder at the wooded area. Nothing. No sign of
their pursuers. But it was only a matter of time before they
emerged from the tree line. Finally, he turned to Maggie and let
his hand slide down to hers. “I am sorry,” he apologized. “I have…”
He paused, as if searching for the right words. “I have left us
nowhere to go.”

“
Tajan,” Maggie said with a
quick sigh, “I love you with all my heart. And I don’t regret a
single moment that we’ve spent together.” She shook her head. “But
when they catch us... they’re gonna kill us.” Hope had left her
eyes. Her gaze left him, peered into the ravine where it stayed
briefly and came back to meet his, once more. “So let’s not give
them the satisfaction.”

“
You know what you say?” he
asked, studying her face.

“
Let’s go by our hand,” she
said. “Not theirs!” She tightened her fingers around his as the
posse cleared the tree line behind them. “I couldn’t bear to be
separated from you again. Let’s do it together. Now.” She gave his
hand a little tug. “Before they come.”

Tajan gave her a slight nod and
withdrew his hand. The posse was making their way across the
clearing and Tajan hurriedly began tearing strips from the edge of
his shirt to bind them together.

They would jump, and they’d be bound
when they did it. Most people wouldn’t understand why Tajan had so
readily agreed to jump to his death with Maggie, when he could’ve
easily talked her out of it. But he knew their pursuers would kill
them once they caught up to them. He couldn’t bear the thought of
her last hours of life being filled with anxiety and fear over what
the white men would do to her before they finally got around to
killing him. He was not so much concerned with himself. He was
prepared to die. He had proved that. But he didn’t like the image
forming in his mind of Maggie being forced to witness his torturous
death.