Tip of the Spear (28 page)

Thais
blinked several times, her eyes watery.

Frankly,
he couldn’t be happier that they’d run into the Raefords. Watching her interact
with the boy had shown him the woman had the capacity to love more than her
sisters. The compassion she’d shown to young Ryan certainly proved she had it
within her to love another not of her tribe.

Why
that mattered, he didn’t quite know, but he worried that it meant so much more
than it should have. The attachment he warned himself not to feel for Thais grew
stronger with every minute in her presence. Would he be able to let her go when
the time came?

Caging
a woman like Thais would kill that very part of her he cherished. Respected.
The
part of her I respect, not cherish, and certainly not
love
.

Hell.
Hinto was falling hard, despite the knowledge it would only bring him heartache.
But he didn’t know how to stop these feelings. Every time he thought Thais had
given him her all, she showed him one more facet of her personality he couldn’t
help liking.

“Time
to move on,” he muttered and mounted Beast. On and away from these feelings
that will lead nowhere but to pain.

Thais
waved at Ryan and smiled, her joy bittersweet to see.

Time
to move on? If only it were that simple.

***

In
the early morning several days later, Thais gripped the small, smooth stone
Ryan had handed her. His favorite treasure, and he wanted her to have it. Such
innocence in the young boy’s face. Seeing it, she’d been hard pressed not to
wonder what life would be like raising such a child. To show him the right way
to live, to follow the laws of the Goddess and respect females, to teach him to
fight and become a warrior like her, like… Hinto.

She
shot him a glance, bemused at his continued reserve. After dealing with the
Raefords, she’d thought it best if she and Hinto were on guard day and night,
which to her meant no more sex. The act distracted her to the point she could
only focus on him when he blanketed her with his powerful body. One kiss from
Hinto knocked her world off balance, and she was having enough trouble dealing
with the fact that she’d liked holding Ryan in her arms.

She’d
expected some resistance to the idea. She hadn’t anticipated Hinto’s complete
withdrawal. Though she was glad for the respite, she didn’t like this emotional
separation. She still believed the Goddess had put him in her path as a test, but
the answer of what to do about him danced beyond Thais’s reach. Should she
embrace the gift of this man given to her? Or should she see him as no more
than an obstacle to be overcome in her quest to pursue justice on behalf of her
dead tribe?

The
pull to each side of the argument weighed heavily on her. The sex with Hinto
had been incredible, and scary. She’d have thought ceasing their intimate
connection would have severed, or at least dampened, her growing affection for
the stubborn man. Three days later, her feelings remained as strong as ever.  

As
to how Hinto thought about her…  He hadn’t taken her rejection well. Yet she
sensed more to his reaction than anger. She sensed hurt as well, and she didn’t
like the thought of causing him harm.

 Hinto
hadn’t tried to talk her out of abstaining. In fact, he didn’t talk to her much
at all. He still held her close each night to combat the cold, and she felt the
telltale response of his arousal when he pressed against her. But he didn’t
take her, didn’t even so much as kiss her.

She’d
gotten exactly what she’d asked for. So why did it hurt so much?

As
if he could hear her thoughts, he looked at her, or rather
through
her,
and cantered ahead on Beast, who seemed to laugh at her as he passed. A small
sign nailed to a tree said,
Shine, One Mile Ahead.

Irritated
she couldn’t stop wanting the old Hinto to resurface, she glared at his back and
decided to ignore him in favor of the splendor around them. Hinto hadn’t been
kidding about the wildness of this land. Big Sky Territory felt raw and untamed,
as if the Great Mother had pushed the dirty bodies of man into Four Corners and
Temeco, saving the great blue sky and its mountainous floor in this territory just
for herself.

Hinto
spurred Beast and she followed, eager to see his perfect little hometown.

She
couldn’t deny the beauty of the place. Nestled between sprawling mountains,
Shine’s commons consisted of a general store, a smithy, a bar, and a large
building that looked brand new. Two more frames appeared on either side of the
general store and the smithy, advance warning that Shine was growing bigger
than Hinto had expected, if the frown on his face was anything to go by.

The
small group of wooden buildings faced a wide expanse of river and a
breathtaking scatter of waterfalls. The rushing sound purified the air in a
crystal mist, and she imagined the water washing away the sins of all who stood
before it. The faint spray of water gave the wind a crisp, refreshing bite.

Trees
dotted the lane, as did some crumbling brick. What looked like the remains of a
once great city now lay buried under the Great Mother’s tree roots, soil and ever-growing
greenery.

Hinto
stared at the unmarked building down the street from the newly-built general
store and frowned. “Not sure what that is, or why they’re building more. Wait
here.” He rode to the bar, where several horses and two vores waited tied to a hitching
post. He left Beast without a backwards glance and entered the bar.

She’d
have to break the man of his bad habits, of which his command, “Wait here,”
happened to be one. Grumbling under her breath, Thais deliberately rode to the
end of the dusty street and tied Ainippe to the post in front of the general
store. She didn’t see anyone else about, but heard faint commotion from inside.

Not
wanting company at the moment, she studied the area and seated herself on one
of several wooden benches that lined the river.

On
the far side of the water she saw a large house poking out amidst pine trees
and barren branches. A glance to her left showed a massive bridge, constructed
of what looked like wood and metal. Interesting. The river had to be several
stretches wide, at least a ten minute ride to cross from town to that house,
and this particular point looked more narrow than the other sections of the
river, which widened considerably. Such surprising beauty in this territory.

Large
black birds
cawed
for attention. Thais saw a few fish jumping in the
water. The sky overhead looked like a bird’s egg, a purplish blue with hints of
pink. Clouds whispered across the breeze, which in addition to the freezing
water in front of her, urged her to push up the collar of her jacket.

“Colder
than last year, but not by much,” a deep voice drawled. “Mind if I join you?”

She
looked over her shoulder at an older man. Taller than Thais and broad of
shoulder, he wore a black jacket, a duster, that reached his knees. His hat
shadowed a face darkened by the sun, but it didn’t distract from the ice-blue
eyes twinkling at her with curiosity.

That
bright gaze looked familiar.

“Please
sit.” Thais watched as the man sat down next to her but left a healthy space
between them. She approved the respectful measure.

“Dan
Dakota,” he said and tipped his hat.  

Hinto’s
father.

“My
name is Thais.” She nodded back at him.

“New
to town, I see. We don’t get many visitors.”

“Yet
you have a bar, a smithy, a store, and three more mysterious buildings.”

He
smiled, showing even, white teeth. A handsome smile for a handsome man. It
should have disturbed her that she could now categorize the male gender, but
her fascination for Hinto’s relation overrode any reservations.

Hinto’s
father. A man who had raised his son into a fine warrior. She wondered what her
mother would think of Dan Dakota.

“Not
all that mysterious.” Dan looked over his shoulder and pointed at the newly
constructed frames. “That there’s gonna be the new marshal’s office. The other
is for a Runner’s station. We don’t get many visitors, but the folks up here
have a way of knowing things. Figured we’d put the info to good use and share
it. Plus we like to know what the hell the rest of world is doing, if only to
keep them away.”

He
smiled and his eyes crinkled.

“What
of that building?”

“That’s
our new town meeting hall. A few folks talked about a church, but not all of us
use one. No preacher out here anyways.” He glanced from her to the bar, and she
knew he’d recognized Beast. “Saw you ride in with Hinto.”

“You
mean the arrogant male who demanded I wait for him while he wet his throat with
liquor?” she asked in a soft voice.

Dan
sighed, but a grin lingered around his mouth. “Boy has no manners.”

“Not
like his father.” She didn’t know the man, but Dan Dakota felt like a warrior
she might come to respect. He knew how to treat a woman, or he seemed like he
did. Being catered to after Hinto’s deliberate avoidance felt nice.

“No,
ma’am. What say we leave the boy here to worry while I take you to the
homestead? I figure Hinto was heading out there eventually.”

“Yes,
he was. I’m not sure why he stopped at the bar.”
It better not have been to
sate himself with a whore, because if he—

Dan
coughed, and she hoped she hadn’t broadcast her annoyance. “Well, who knows
what comes over a man when he’s traveling with a pretty woman?”

She
stood and his eyes widened as he stared from her booted feet to the top of her
hat. Men had such odd notions of how a woman should dress. “Problem, Dan?”

“Ah,
no. No problem at all. Now how about we ride out and I’ll show you heaven on
earth?”

 “I’d
like that.”

They
mounted their horses and rode across the bridge. Thais should have let Hinto
know where she headed, but her “partner” hadn’t been too forthcoming for the
past several days. So screw him.

“This
here used to be called the Snake River. You wouldn’t believe the history we
found after all this time. A whole world buried beneath our town. The sky rocks
trapped a big enough portion of books so that we know probably more than many
out in the Territories, as much to rival the libraries they have in the East.” He
paused and coughed, his breath wheezy.

Thais
recalled Hinto’s worry for his father. “Your lung sickness is worse?” She saw a
small swath of cloth he tried to hide, one covered in flecks of dark blood.

“Boy
told you about that, eh?  It’s a sickness, but I’ve had worse.”

For
two years? She grunted. “Stubbornness must be a Dakota trait.”

“You
could say that.” Dan chuckled and they crossed the bridge onto hard, black soil.
“Now this, Thais, is nature’s gift to us. Such fertile lands. You see that
black dirt? You can grow a shit-load, ah, I mean, a heckuva lot of food out
here. Grasses for the grazers, good wood for our houses. Plentiful hunting to
feed our families. The nice thing is that the people out here are right.”

“Right?”

“We
don’t much care about our differences, only what we have together. I know a lot
of places in the Territories where women are treated as no better than cattle. A
man’s skin color can haunt him to death. And there are still those, after all
this time, who rape the land. But up here we have our own rules. We live as we
like and we hurt no one, especially not the earth.”

She
liked what he had to say. If only he lived up to his words. Territory men liked
to spin a tale, as well she knew.

“The
house you saw from the river belongs to a friend of mine. He runs the smithy,
but I think he’ll soon be passing it on to his grandson, if the boy ever gets
his ass out here.” Dan colored and apologized. “Sorry, meant to say, when he
gets out here.”

“Where
do you live?” she asked.

“A
few miles past, along an offshoot of the river. The water makes living out here
a blessing. But the view can nearly take your breath away.”

And
indeed it did. Dan Dakota lived on an expansive two story ranch still in
construction. The main section of the house was complete, but the wings on
either side of it remained open.  A large barn sat off to the side, in front of
which a corralled yard surrounded a dozen horses and one vore, sectioned off by
itself.

“It’s
me and my boys, as well as six hands who live close by, and Dozie, of course.
She runs the house, no arguin’ with that woman.” He pointed beyond the house. “Ah,
there’s the farm the boys and I rebuilt with our bare hands. My pride and joy.”

They
rode into the front yard just as two men tumbled out of the barn swinging at
each other.

“Hell,”
Dan grumbled.

The
combatants struck blows at one another that would have felled most men. The
smaller of the two swore as the larger, brawnier male flipped him to the ground
and pinned him. Their resemblance to each other and Hinto was uncanny.