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but soon even those would
disappear. Now that we were away from the city, Talon came in
closer to the highway. Falling back into his scouting pattern, the
cougar darted from tree to tree.
    Instead of the two and a half hours I had
predicted, we rolled off the highway towards Hano just before
midnight. The old road was in desperate need of a few repairs. I
rode in darkness, the single headlight of my bike cutting a swift
path. Slowly the dark outline of a town started to grow ahead of
me. Easing off the accelerator, I pulled to the side of the road.
Talon was next to me in an instant.
    “This is it?” he asked.
    “This is Hano.”
    “It is smaller than I expected,” Talon
said.
    “San Juan used to be this small, before the
casino,” I said. Looking at the town I guessed that it held a few
hundred families, definitely less than a thousand people. I missed
how simple life used to be. Once, I had known almost every person
in my home town. Back then, all I had to worry about was feeding
the sheep. I feared that simplicity would never return.
    “Well,” I said, “I guess we better find
somewhere to sleep. Did you see anything coming in?”
    “The others have already found a defensible
spot,” Talon said.
    “Let’s hope we don’t need the defensible
part,” I said. “I really need some sleep tonight.”
     
     
     
    4: Reassurance

     
    My mother had urged to me go to sleep, but
after being trapped by the Shaxoa's potion, sleep was the last
thing I wanted. What I really wanted, and needed, were answers. My
mother patiently answered every question I asked for the second
time, except the ones about my father. All she would say about him
was that he would be dealt with, and that I shouldn’t worry about
it.
    Finally, my exhausted mother excused herself.
She held back her regret at leaving me behind, but I knew she
understood why I needed to stay. Sophia had left soon after our
talk in the kitchen to check on little Josiah Black, who had been
down with a respiratory infection for the past few days. I sat at
the kitchen table, unsure of what to do with myself. The soft thud
of Lina Crowe’s crutches pulled me from my chair.
    “Mrs. Crowe,” I exclaimed, “what are you
doing? You’re not supposed to be walking around.” I hurried to her
side. She took my arm with a smile and I helped her to the
table.
    “Contrary to what Sophia may think, she is
not my mother,” Lina said. “I’m fine walking around a little bit.”
Her smile was warm, but her eyes were still red and swollen from
crying. She was worried about her son, too.
    “You really don’t mind if I stay here for a
little while?” I asked.
    “Of course not. I’ll be glad for the company,
actually.” Smiling, she said, “Sophia can get a little bossy.”
    “Really, I’ve never noticed,” I said with a
laugh. It felt good to smile, even if it was at a joke said only to
make me laugh.
    “It will be good to have you here,” Lina said
seriously. “I know he’ll be back.” Her eyes darted away, and I
wondered how sure she really was.
    “Do you?”
    Lina’s eyes fell back on me, her lip
quivering. “I wasn’t at first,” she admitted. “When I spoke to him
in his room, I had the feeling he was about to do something very
dangerous. When he said he couldn’t live without you, he really
meant it. I think he was going to…I don’t know what exactly, but I
knew it wasn’t good.”
    Her hand slipped gently into mine as a
dread-filled numbness spread through me. She thought Uriah was
going to…Taking a deep breath, Lina squeezed my fingers tightly. “I
tried to say something to him that would change his mind. I tried
to tell him that no matter what happened, he was strong enough to
make it through this, but he just looked at me and said ‘I don’t
know if I believe that.’ I know it was wrong of Quaile to lie to
Uriah, but whatever she said to him before he left, she kept him
from doing whatever he’d been planning. I just want him to