Realm of the Wolf Book I: Wolf Dance (26 page)

"Kenny ... you may not like me, but we both have Laura's

best interest in mind, and right now she's in extreme danger

from the Jaguar People. We need to find her," Justin

explained.

"Laura tried to get a message to your people, but everyone

she phoned acted like they'd never heard of them. They even

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said Beaver Creek was a ghost town," Kenny told him, hoping

for some explanation.

"And it is a ghost town
now
—all the people have left. The

memories of the humans have been erased. There was no

choice as the incident brought too much attention to the

Sungmanitu.
"

"Why wasn't our memory erased then?" Jimmy voice was

tinged with skepticism.

"I don't know." Justin told him the truth. The fact was

Justin didn't have any idea why the Gatekeeper chose to

leave their memory intact.

"Will you help me find her?" Justin asked, changing the

subject.

Kenny removed the dingy white apron and threw it on the

counter. "Okay ... follow me."

An atmosphere of abandonment hung in the air when the

duo pulled up to the small—silver trailer. The structure lacked

the essence of living souls. Justin could sense that no one had

been here for some time.

Kenny was confused. "They couldn't have gone anywhere

without the truck." He repeated his assessment of earlier.

Laura's Bronco occupied a space close to the trailer. The

windows were all down and the seats were covered with dust.

It had obviously not been driven for a while.

"You check inside and I'll see if I can find any kind of

tracks," he told Kenny.

Justin had noticed some small, obscure tracks, which could

have been Laura's. He followed them to a barren hill to the

north, and then east until he reached the Kiva. Here, the

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tracks ended abruptly, covered over in some places with the

tracks of large cats.

Baalams
! The Jaguar People had taken her!

Justin returned to the trailer in time to see Kenny exit—he

still wore a look of apprehension.

"It looks as if they were preparing to leave. I found a half-

packed suitcase."

"The Jaguars have them! I found their tracks."

"Who exactly are the Jaguars?" Kenny asked in agitation.

"They come from
Outerlands
, but I don't know where in

that place they live, or who they are, but what I can tell you

is ... they are cold-blooded killers," Justin informed him.

"What is
Outerlands
?" Kenny wanted to know.

"You may get the chance to find out." This was the only

thing that Justin was prepared to offer.

A glance at the interior of Laura's car told them that she

must have left in a hurry. Her purse lay on the floorboard. It,

too, was covered in dust.

Justin reached in to pick it up and scratched his finger on

something sharp that lay hidden beneath the seat. Reaching

under the confined space, he pulled out a small green box. On

closer examination he realized that Laura must have acquired

the box at the old fort in Wyoming.

"What's that?" Kenny asked.

Justin turned the box over in his hands. It was evident that

Laura had never gotten around to opening it. "It's an old

cavalry storage box. I guess she must have forgotten about

it."

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Kenny seemed lost. "Okay, but what do we do about Laura

and her grandfather? These are your kind of people, can't you

track them down or something?"

Justin smiled. "I don't know where in
Outerlands
they have

come from, or even what they want. It would appear that for

now at least ... we will have to do things the human way, and

look for clues."

Justin held up the box. "I'm going to start with this."

Pulling a tire iron from the back of Laura's truck, Justin

positioned it to snap the box open. The rusty, ancient lock fell

apart with little effort. Inside were various metals and uniform

buttons, tarnished and corroded with age.

Justin's eyes fell on a small, leather-bound journal—its

pages were yellowed and falling apart in many places. The ink

was surprisingly crisp, considering the condition of the rest of

the journal.

For the most part, many of the pages consisted of

mundane information that may have been of importance

then, but now meant nothing.

The pages detailed a campaign against the marauding

Cheyenne. Captain William Neil spoke of his involvement in

the capture of several renegades.

But as the summer of 1879 came to a close, the tone of

his words changed to that of someone who is no longer sure

of which reality they belong in. Justin read aloud.

"September 1879

Again, while on patrol, I met the beautiful senorita walking

the loop road. We talked for quite some time. She tells me

that she is here with her family and they are struggling to

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regain their ancestral home. I am unsure of her meaning, for

I have seen nothing but mining shacks outside of the small

towns here about."

The young Captain's words told of his flowering romance

with the young Mexican girl, and soon he was convinced that

he should ask this girl to become his betrothed.

"October 1879

I spoke with Anita today of my intentions. She looked to

me with tears in her eyes and spoke of a love that could

never let happen. She claims we are of two different worlds.

She comes from an ancient city in Mexico, known as Coba'.

She told me of the Temple of Prophecy whose walls foretell of

a child who would rule both the Kingdoms of Coba' and

Coyopa'. Her father is determined that it should be one of his

own that rules. Anita was here to seduce the leader of the

Sungmanitu, and produce the prophesied child—one that her

father would control. None of this makes any sense to me,

but how can I believe that my beautiful senorita would lie to

me?"

The captain's final entry read:

"November, 1879

My senorita is terrified that our frequent jaunts into the

woods have resulted in a child. She has said they will kill her

when they discover that her child is Anglo. Her father is evil

and will go to any length to destroy us both. Our only chance

is to leave here as soon as possible."

Justin closed the book and stared at the cover. That there

was a connection he had no doubt, and it was too much of a

coincidence that Laura should find this when she did. The

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journal answered the question of where the others had come

from, but it left many more questions to be answered. And

what he wanted to know most of all was—what did all this

have to do with Laura?

Setting the journal down, Justin looked to Kenny for more

information. "What do you know of Laura's family?"

"Not much about her grandmother. I think she was

Mexican-Navajo, with some Anglo blood way back. Grandpa

Busby never spoke of her," Kenny told him.

"I have a feeling that Laura's grandmother is her

connection. She may be a descendant of these runaway

lovers."

"So how does this help us find them?" Kenny was

disturbed.

"It would seem
Coba
' is where our answers lie. If I'm

assuming correctly, they will not hurt her. The Jaguar People

have another purpose." Justin's forehead wrinkled with

concern.

The thought of his beautiful Laura in the hands of those

killers tore at his insides. He felt the beast fighting to surface,

but fought it back. He might need Kenny's help and right now

Kenny was looking at him in the light of normality. At the

present time it would not do to remind him differently.

[Back to Table of Contents]

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The room systematically came into focus as the layers of

haze lifted from her drugged consciousness. Her first thoughts

were of death. She must be in some kind of afterlife. The

comfort of her cloud-soft bed tempted her—seducing her into

oblivion.

The murmur of voices crawled past the haze to bring her

back to awareness. Opening her eyes, she strained to see

past the netting that surrounded her bed.

Where was she?

How did she get here?

Laura struggled to piece together her fogged memory. She

had been searching for her grandfather, and then the

creatures had come, in human form. One of them had

covered her face with a cloth and then the stench of

chloroform. The rest was a blank.

She appeared to be in a large room constructed of stone.

The floor was covered with plush red-velvet carpeting, and

the bed she lay in was covered in red and pink silks.

The coolness of the material was soothing against her

nakedness.

"You have returned to us, Senorita." A young woman with

large brown eyes smiled down at her. She spoke in heavily

accented English.

Laura attempted to form the parade of questions that

marched through her thoughts, but the dryness of her throat

cut off her voice.

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The young woman helped Laura to a sitting position and

held a cup of cold water to her lips.

"My name is Carlotta," she told Laura.

Laura tried to smile, but could not find the strength.

Taking a few more swallows of the life-preserving water,

Laura collapsed back in her pillows, hoping that her strength

would return quickly.

"You must get up soon, Senorita. There are many things

for you to do today."

"Where's my grandfather? Where am I?" Laura's forced

words were no more that whispers.

"You will be told all, but not unless we get you dressed."

The woman was making an effort to smile brightly, no doubt

in order to quell Laura's fears.

Laura let herself be led from the bed to a small connecting

chamber that looked to be a place to bathe. The circular room

was filled with greenery and tropical flowers— large windows

were inlaid in the exterior walls. Crystal-clear spring water

flowed into a round marble tub.

Carefully, she stepped into the water, expecting a jolt, but

the bath was surprisingly warm. Peering out the windows, it

dawned on her that she was in a tropical terrain, definitely far

from New Mexico.

Carlotta set to the task of bathing Laura with some exotic

scented soap. Laura protested, but the woman pushed her

complaints aside and continued. With no alternative but to

cooperate, Laura tried to relax. The brisk scrubbing she

received left her feeling refreshed, if not completely alert.

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Stepping from the tub, she found her skin being rubbed

with a soft towel until it took on a flushed glow. The woman

then dressed her in a peach-colored gown of light silk before

setting about the job of brushing Laura's long hair until it

shone.

Laura judged it to be late afternoon from the position of

the sun beyond the plate-glass windows. Carlotta led her back

to the bedroom, telling her that someone would come for her

soon. Laura was left there alone to try and piece together the

puzzle of where she was.

In awe, Laura examined the room's furnishings. Many of

them seemed to be carved of gold and jade.

She knew that the answers to her questions wouldn't be

long in coming when she heard the door open. The Mexican-

Indian that stood before her was a sight to behold. He wore a

breechcloth made of burgundy velvet and his body was

adorned with gold bands on his neck and arms. He also wore

a gold headband to hold his long-black hair in place.

Laura was still unsure if all this was real or if she had

awakened to find herself in some kind of weird alternate

reality. The man's iron clasp on her arm sent sharp pains into

her shoulder.

"Where are you taking me?" she demanded.

He either didn't understand English, or chose to ignore her

as he led her out of the room and down a huge stone hall.

The passage was illuminated with candles that managed to

push the shadows back into the dark corners. Laura all of a

sudden had the notion that she was in a Mayan Palace.

But that was not possible!

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Carvings of Jaguars decorated almost every inch of the