Chapter 6 - The Turquoise Beads
They searched until darkness.
Naira found scraps of cloth, rusted cups, broken chains, and bones belonging mostly to animals.
No grave.
No Tomas.
Elias found something else.
A ledger fragment beneath collapsed boards.
Several names remained readable.
Beside each was a number.
“Payments,” Elias said.
“For prisoners?”
“Maybe labor.”
Naira stared toward the abandoned mine.
“You think they used them.”
“I think somebody profited.”
That night she held the turquoise beads beside the fire.
“Tomas hated mines.”
Elias looked over.
“He said the earth should not be cut open for men who already had enough.”
She smiled faintly.
“He would have complained every day.”
“Sounds stubborn.”
“He was.”
“So are you.”
Naira gave him a look.
Elias smiled.
For a moment, grief loosened.
Then a gunshot cracked through the night.
Elias threw himself toward Naira.
A bullet struck the rock behind them.
“Down!”
Another shot.
Elias pulled her behind a boulder.
Two riders moved along the ridge.
Voss's men.
Naira raised her rifle.
“Don't.”
“They're shooting at us.”
“They want us shooting back. They can see muzzle flash.”
She understood.
They waited.
The riders circled.
Elias whispered, “When I move, take the horses.”
“You're not sacrificing yourself.”
“Wasn't planning to.”
“Good.”
He threw his coat toward another rock.
A shot followed.
Naira fired once toward the flash.
A horse screamed.
The attackers retreated.
Minutes later, silence returned.
Elias exhaled.
“You hit him?”
“The ground near him.”
“You missed?”
“I wanted him frightened.”
Elias looked impressed.
“Remind me never to anger you.”
“You already do.”
They left before sunrise.
Now there was no doubt.
Voss was afraid.
And frightened men made mistakes.
When they returned to Silver Creek, Hollis Mercer was gone.
Crawford claimed he had left town.
Elias didn't believe him.
Neither did Naira.
Then a stable boy secretly approached them.
“Mr. Ward?”
“Yes?”
“I saw Crawford take Hollis somewhere.”
“Where?”
“Old slaughterhouse.”
They found Hollis locked inside.
Alive.
Barely.
He had been beaten.
Naira treated him.
When he regained consciousness, he grabbed Elias's sleeve.
“Voss sold them.”
“Who?”
“Prisoners.”
“To whom?”
“Mining companies.”
Naira went cold.
“Tomas?”
Hollis nodded.
“He wouldn't work.”
Her eyes filled.
“What happened?”
“They moved him.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“Was he alive?”
“When they moved him, yes.”
“When?”
Hollis whispered the year.
Two years ago.
Naira staggered backward.
Two years.
Tomas had been alive only two years earlier.
Not five.
Two.
Elias steadied her.
Then Hollis said something worse.
“Crawford has letters.”
“What letters?”
“From Tomas.”
Naira stopped.
“To me?”
Hollis nodded.
“He wrote you.”
Her face emptied.
“How many?”
“I saw a bundle.”
Naira slowly turned toward the trading post.
For five years she had believed her husband dead.
May you like
For at least three of those years, Tomas had been writing home.
And Crawford had kept every letter.
