Chapter 3 - The Secret Beneath Red Mesa
They reached the abandoned mission shortly before midnight.
Its roof had partially collapsed, and one wall leaned dangerously toward the desert, but it offered something the open canyon did not.
Cover.
Amos lit no fire.
“Creed's rider will report back.”
Elias nodded.
“How long until Creed gets here?”
“Depends where he is.”
Aayoka sat against the mission wall.
Her injured leg had worsened.
Elias noticed blood beneath the torn fabric.
“You need that cleaned.”
“I am fine.”
“You're bleeding.”
“I have bled before.”
“That's not an argument.”
“It is where I come from.”
Elias knelt.
Aayoka watched him carefully as he removed a clean strip of cloth from his saddlebag.
“May I?”
She hesitated before nodding.
He cleaned the wound with water from a different canteen Amos carried.
Not the spring water.
Aayoka noticed.
“You won't use it.”
“Use what?”
“The sacred water.”
“I drank enough strange voices for one day.”
A faint smile touched her face.
It vanished quickly.
Elias wrapped her leg.
“You said your grandfather told stories.”
“Yes.”
“About the spring?”
Aayoka looked toward Amos.
The old prospector sat near the doorway.
“He knows some.”
Amos sighed.
“I know what I was told.”
“Which is?”
“That the spring's been protected longer than anyone remembers.”
Elias leaned against the wall.
“Protected from what?”
Aayoka answered.
“Not from something.”
She looked at him.
“For something.”
Elias waited.
Aayoka took the map from her dress.
“My grandfather said there are caverns beneath Red Mesa. Water travels through them from deep underground.”
“That's not unusual.”
“No.”
“But?”
“He said people once hid things there.”
“What things?”
“Records. Objects. Memories.”
Elias frowned.
“Memories?”
Amos interrupted.
“Don't make the mistake of taking every old story literally.”
Aayoka gave him a cold look.
“And don't make the mistake of assuming everything you don't understand is superstition.”
Elias held up a hand.
“Fine. What did Creed find?”
Aayoka unfolded the map.
“Maybe one entrance.”
“And this second entrance?”
“The spring.”
Elias remembered the impossible cold.
The whisper.
The silence.
“Why would Creed want a cave?”
Amos answered.
“Because Creed never wants anything unless he can sell it.”
Morning brought no answers.
It brought riders.
Elias spotted dust on the western horizon.
“At least six.”
Amos swore.
Aayoka tried standing.
Elias stopped her.
“You can't outrun them.”
“Neither can you.”
“I'm not planning to.”
The mission had once possessed a bell tower.
Half remained.
Elias climbed it.
From there he could see the riders spreading apart.
Creed's men.
One carried binoculars.
“They know we're here.”
Amos looked at the rear wall.
“There used to be a drainage tunnel.”
“Where?”
“Under the chapel.”
They found a stone slab beneath years of sand.
Together Elias and Amos moved it.
Darkness opened below.
Aayoka stared.
“You knew this existed?”
Amos shrugged.
“I've been around.”
Elias lowered a lantern.
A narrow passage continued east.
“Go.”
Aayoka shook her head.
“You first.”
“Why?”
“If it collapses, I want to know.”
Despite the danger, Elias laughed.
“You really don't trust me.”
“I met you yesterday.”
“Fair.”
They descended.
Minutes later, hoofbeats surrounded the mission above.
Elias pulled the stone closed.
Darkness swallowed them.
The tunnel smelled of earth.
They moved slowly.
After perhaps half a mile, sunlight appeared.
They emerged behind a ridge.
The mission stood distant behind them.
Creed's men had not seen their escape.
“East,” Amos said.
“Where?” Elias asked.
“Red Mesa.”
Elias stared at him.
“You want to go toward the thing Creed wants?”
“He expects us to run away from it.”
Aayoka nodded.
“And I need answers.”
Elias looked between them.
Two days earlier his only goal had been reaching Fort Stanton.
Now he was traveling directly toward the man who had ruined his life.
He almost laughed at the absurdity.
The whisper returned in his memory.
You are no longer free to keep running.
Aayoka had said those words.
But perhaps she had only repeated what the desert was already telling him.
They rode until afternoon.
Red Mesa rose ahead like a fortress.
Aayoka led them through a narrow passage.
The canyon tightened.
Then Elias saw familiar cottonwoods.
His stomach sank.
“The spring.”
They had returned.
Boone refused to approach.
Elias dismounted.
Aayoka walked into the shallows.
The scene resembled a dream.
Sunlight touched her dark braids.
Turquoise jewelry glimmered.
The blue-green water moved around her knees.
She held out her hand.
“Come.”
Elias remained on shore.
“Last time I did that, a woman started talking inside my head.”
“Maybe she has more to say.”
“That isn't comforting.”
Amos stayed behind.
“This part is yours.”
Elias looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
“I didn't drink.”
Aayoka waited.
Finally Elias stepped into the spring.
The water was freezing.
Aayoka reached for his hand.
He allowed it.
“Close your eyes.”
“No.”
“Elias.”
“Absolutely not.”
Aayoka almost smiled again.
“Then listen.”
They stood silently.
At first Elias heard water.
Then wind.
Then something underneath both.
A vibration.
Aayoka led him toward the cliff.
The spring emerged from a narrow opening.
She placed Elias's hand against the stone.
“Feel.”
The rock vibrated.
“There is water behind this.”
“More than water.”
They searched the wall.
Elias found a narrow crack.
Behind vines, a carved symbol appeared.
A spiral surrounding a hand.
Aayoka inhaled.
“My grandfather drew this.”
Elias pushed.
Nothing.
Then he noticed a shallow depression shaped like a palm.
“Don't.”
Aayoka's warning came too late.
Elias placed his hand against it.
Stone moved.
A hidden section of cliff shifted inward.
Cold air rushed from darkness.
Amos approached.
“Well, I'll be damned.”
A passage descended beneath the mesa.
Aayoka stared at Elias.
“It opened for you.”
“It's a stone mechanism.”
“My grandfather tried.”
“Maybe he didn't push hard enough.”
“He tried for forty years.”
Elias had no answer.
They lit lanterns.
The tunnel descended.
Water flowed beside them.
Symbols covered the walls.
Not treasure maps.
Not gold markings.
Records.
Generations of carvings.
Then the tunnel opened into an enormous cavern.
Elias lifted the lantern.
His breath caught.
Wooden crates filled one side.
Modern crates.
Government markings.
Rifles.
Hundreds of them.
Amos whispered, “Dear God.”
Aayoka's face changed.
“Creed.”
Elias opened another crate.
Ammunition.
A third contained cavalry uniforms.
Suddenly everything became clear.
Creed had been storing stolen government weapons beneath sacred land.
He could arm raiders.
Stage attacks.
Blame whoever he wanted.
Then sell protection to frightened settlements.
A perfect business built from fear.
Amos found documents.
Shipping records.
Names.
Payments.
One signature appeared repeatedly.
Silas Creed.
Another name appeared beside it.
Territorial Marshal Horace Vale.
Elias stared.
“The marshal who signed my warrant.”
Amos looked at him.
“You were framed by more than Creed.”
Aayoka opened another ledger.
Inside was the freight company's payroll record from three years earlier.
Elias's name had been written beside the stolen money.
Below it was a note.
BOON ELIMINATED. BLAME ACCEPTED.
Elias sat down.
For three years he had run from a crime documented as a lie inside the very ledger before him.
Aayoka placed a hand on his shoulder.
“You can clear your name.”
Elias looked at her.
“If we get this out.”
A sound came from the tunnel.
Clapping.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Elias turned.
A tall man stood at the entrance.
Gray at his temples.
Black coat.
Revolver already drawn.
Silas Creed.
Behind him stood eight armed men.
Creed smiled.
“Three years, Elias.”
Elias slowly rose.
Creed's smile widened.
“I always wondered if I should've fired twice.”
His gaze moved toward Aayoka.
“And you.”
The smile disappeared.
“The survivor.”
Aayoka stepped forward.
“You murdered my family.”
Creed shrugged.
“I removed an obstacle.”
Elias's hand moved toward his revolver.
Eight rifles immediately aimed at him.
Creed laughed.
“Go ahead.”
Elias stopped.
Creed walked toward the sacred records.
“You know what I like about legends?”
Nobody answered.
“They make people afraid to look closely.”
He tapped one crate.
“Your people guarded this canyon for generations. Everyone called it sacred. Nobody came here.”
Aayoka's eyes burned.
“So you used it.”
“For years.”
Creed looked at Elias.
“Then you drank from the wrong spring.”
Elias's jaw tightened.
Creed smiled.
“Funny thing about you, Boon. You always survive long enough to become inconvenient.”
He raised his revolver.
Then the cavern went dark.
Every lantern extinguished simultaneously.
A woman's voice filled the darkness.
Not a whisper this time.
A command.
RUN.
May you like
And somewhere beneath their feet, the mountain began to move.
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