Chapter 8 - The Valley of Her Father
Naya rode harder than anyone.
Elias stayed beside her.
By evening, they reached a ridge overlooking a broad valley.
Water glittered below.
Cottonwoods lined the river.
Naya stopped.
“Home.”
It was the first time Elias heard her say the word.
Families lived throughout the valley.
Children ran between shelters.
Older men and women came forward when they recognized Naya.
Grief and joy mixed together.
She had believed everyone gone.
Some had survived Calder's raids.
Naya embraced an elderly woman named Aiyana, her father's sister.
Elias remained respectfully behind.
Aiyana eventually approached him.
She spoke little English.
She looked at Naya.
Then Elias.
Then smiled knowingly.
Naya said something quickly.
Aiyana laughed.
“What did you tell her?” Elias asked.
“Nothing.”
“Naya.”
“Nothing.”
Aiyana pointed at Elias.
“Husband.”
Thomas nearly fell off his horse laughing.
Elias glared at Naya.
“You told everybody?”
Naya looked innocent.
“Maybe.”
That evening, happiness briefly returned to the valley.
Then scouts arrived.
Calder was coming.
Not with five men.
With nearly forty.
Calder intended to burn homes, destroy boundary markers and frighten survivors away before territorial authorities arrived.
Elias studied the valley.
“We don't fight him his way.”
Keme joined them.
Together, men who had once distrusted each other planned the defense.
Families moved to protected ground.
Riders blocked narrow passages.
No one sought unnecessary bloodshed.
They only needed to delay Calder.
At sunrise, his gang appeared.
Calder looked across the valley.
Then shouted.
“Naya!”
She stepped onto the ridge beside Elias.
Calder laughed.
“You really think that cowboy can protect you?”
Naya looked at Elias.
Then shouted back.
“He already did.”
Elias murmured, “Not helping.”
She almost smiled.
Calder ordered his men forward.
The valley erupted into motion.
Riders appeared on both ridges.
Calder realized too late that he had entered a trap.
His men scattered.
Some surrendered.
Others fled.
Calder rode directly toward Naya.
Elias intercepted him.
Both men fell from their horses.
They fought in the dust.
Calder drew a knife.
Elias caught his wrist.
Calder hissed, “You lose everyone you love, Mercer.”
Elias looked toward Naya.
“No.”
He forced the knife away.
“Not this time.”
Before Calder could reach for another weapon, Naya stood behind him with her knife drawn.
Calder froze.
She could have killed him.
Her father's murderer.
The man who had hunted her.
Instead she lowered the blade.
“Prison.”
Calder stared.
Naya's voice remained steady.
“You live knowing you lost.”
Territorial marshals arrived that afternoon.
This time Calder left in chains guarded by twelve men.
But the battle had exposed something hidden beneath the valley.
Thomas found crates in an abandoned mine.
Inside were deeds, ledgers and correspondence.
Evidence far larger than anyone expected.
Calder hadn't been working alone.
One letter carried the signature of the territorial land commissioner himself.
And suddenly the fight wasn't about one outlaw.
May you like
It reached all the way to Prescott.
---
