“We’re square,” Jem said. “I did something for you and you did something in return. We’re even.”
Osceola reached for the inside of Jem’s wrist and grasped it firmly. He pointed at Jem’s heart, then back at his own, and shook his head no.
Jem smiled with understanding and said, “I like that much better, to be honest.”
They rode until the mountains ahead were silhouetted by the light of both moons. “I know you have hard feelings for us, Jem,” Billy Jack Elliot said. “After we show you what’s up here, you’ll feel differently.”
“Is that right?” Jem said. He stayed back while Elliot and Junger rode ahead of him, wanting to keep them both in his view.
“In fact, this looks to be about the right place,” Walt Junger said. The road was dark and narrow from the thick, overgrown brush along either side. Jem recognized the path that led to the mountain pass where he’d seen Squawk for the first time.
Billy Jack Elliot turned his destrier to face Jem. His voice was smoother than a rattlesnake’s hides when he said, “It is time you knew the truth about your father’s death. He was not killed by the Beothuk. We lied to you, and we are so very sorry.”
“Well, what happened then?”
“We would have told you sooner, if you hadn’t run off like you did. We figured it would be best to let the dead rest,” Junger said.
“You going to tell me or does this overture keep going for awhile?”
“Old Man Willow shot your daddy,” Walt Junger said. “That crazy old bastard got angry with your father when he found out Sam wanted to marry his daughter Anna. I know it’s hard to hear, but it’s the Lord’s solemn truth. It was probably on accident, but Old Man Willow shot him. I swear to God.”
“It was an act of self defense, Jem,” Elliot said. “Now, we both know that you idolize your father, but he was far from perfect. Just like the rest of us. He went to grab Old Man Willow and Willow’s gun went off.”
“We should have told you the truth a long time ago, and given Sam a proper burial,” Junger said.
Elliot nodded, “We were afraid of the scandal it would cause both your families. You’ve already been through so much.”
“We admit that we were wrong,” Junger said.
Jem smiled at that. “Well, now we’re getting somewhere.”
Walt Junger tapped his heel against his destrier’s side and started moving it forward. His voice flowed with honey and sugar when he said, “I know this might be a shock for you, but I’ve been thinking that you could be my Chief Deputy. What do you say? Another Clayton in the Sheriff’s Office of Seneca 6 has a mighty nice ring to it. Your daddy was Chief Deputy for years before taking over. You could do the same.”
Junger was blocking Jem’s view of Billy Jack Elliot, and Jem stayed still, anticipating the moment to come. Junger yanked his reins to the side and Billy Jack Elliot came riding up behind him with a Winchester rifle ready to fire.
Jem kicked his destrier in the ribs and it ran forward, crashing into Junger’s steed. Jem grabbed Junger by the collar and held him fast, keeping his body between himself and Elliot’s rifle. Junger tried to push away, but Jem grabbed the Colt Defeater from his right hip and stuck the barrel into Junger’s stomach. He fired twice as Elliot rode past, splattering the Mayor with Junger’s blood.
Elliot’s destrier stopped running and he turned around, wide eyed, still holding his rifle but too astonished to do anything with it. Jem pushed Walt Junger out of his saddle and watched him fall dead on the ground. He raised his pistol to Elliot and said, “When you see Old Man Willow, thank him for warning me about your little trick.”
Billy Jack Elliot dropped his rifle and spun in his saddle, leaping to the ground and running down the road on foot. Jem spurred his destrier and holstered his gun. Within seconds, the horse was beside Elliot, and Jem reached out to snatch him by the back of his coat.
Jem pulled Elliot’s collar against his knee and lifted until only the toes of Elliot’s boots dragged on the ground. Jem yelled for his destrier to go faster, until the wind rushing through Jem’s ears was even louder than the Mayor’s screams.
Birds took flight along the road at their approach and animals scattered out of the road at the sounds of the stampede. Jem rode close to a thicket of vines and barbed branches dangling from the rock wall and kicked Elliot into them.
Elliot bounced and rolled into the vine’s tangled lengths. He attempted to free himself and only snared his arms and legs more completely. Eliot’s head hung low and he said, “Cut me loose, Jem.”
“Nope.”
“You can’t leave me here.”
“Sure I can.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong, Jem. I told you what happened…it was…Old Man…” A deep howl high up in the mountains silenced Elliot as he struggled to look for its source. “What the hell was that?”
“That’s your company for this evening,” Jem said. “I’ll go so you can all get acquainted.”
Billy Jack Elliot watched Jem ride off, and managed to get his head out of the vines enough to see the shapes of several large creatures coming down the mountainside.
21. Heroes
Seneca 6’s main square was empty, except for Anna Willow and Claire Miller. Claire’s husband, Frank, was curled up asleep on the Sheriff’s front porch with his coat draped over him like a blanket. Claire had gotten tired of telling him to go home and being ignored. She finally told him he could stay if he laid down and stayed quiet.
Jem rode through the gate and got down from his destrier to hug both women. Anna said, “What did those two skunks want?”
“Just to discuss a few things. They decided not to come back once they heard what I had to say.”
“Well, good riddance,” Claire said. There were shouts of laughter from inside the Proud Lady, followed by applause. Someone yelled out, “Tell that part again!” Claire shook her head and said, “See what you did? All anyone saw was Bart Masters riding back with Anna in one arm and dragging that Marshal in the other like he was some kind of storybook hero. They threw him up on their shoulders and carried him into the Proud Lady and we ain’t seen none of them since.”
“He’s had to tell the story so many times that the latest version is you killed a twenty-foot space monster with your bare hands and he blew up a fleet of space cruisers with a ray gun,” Anna said.
“Maybe it wasn’t twenty feet,” Jem said with a wink. “It was hard to tell with the armada closing down on us.”
“You should go in there, Jem,” Claire said. “They’ll want to fawn all over you too, I expect.”
“How’s the Marshal?”
“His wounds will take time, and he’ll be pretty immobile for awhile, but he should walk normally again,” Anna said. “As long as he listens to me and stays put and I can manage to keep Janet away from him.”
Jem opened the Marshal’s bedroom door and walked into the dim-lit room. Jimmy McParlan was sitting up in bed looking at him. “I thought that girl told you to be quiet.”
“You must be feeling better,” Jem said.
“I’m fine and dandy after the stuff she pumped into me. Before you got here I was watching little pink bunnies dance around my room.” Both of McParlan’s wrists were bandaged and there were thick casts wrapped around his legs from his kneecaps to the tips of his toes. “Still hurts though.”
“Want me to stay with you?”
“Hell no, you damn fool. You think this is the first time I’ve been crucified and set on fire?” McParlan smiled and said, “I’ll be fine. Now take that pretty doctor lady home and make sweet love to her, boy.”
“I don’t know about that,” Jem said.