Page 151 of The Fire Line

“Were we not already doing that?”

“Faster now.”

No more explanation came. Harris touched his heels to Rain, and Jay followed.

They were less than a mile from the lookout when Harris stopped again. This time Jay saw the problem before he had to ask. Smoke lay thick ahead, and when a gust opened the view between the trees, a darker column rose from below the eastern slope.

“That wasn’t there before.”

“No.”

Harris sat still on Rain, studying the terrain. Jay had watched him solve failed equipment, injured livestock, weather arriving earlier than forecast, and one gate hinge that had apparently offended him on a personal level. Harris rarely wasted time reacting. He gathered information, decided, and moved.

He was doing that now.

The difference was that his eyes kept coming back to Jay.

“What are our options?”

“Eastern descent is gone. South puts us closer to the main fire. North gets too steep past the rock face.” Harris looked west, toward the lookout and the land beyond it. “There’s an old burn on the other side. Less fuel. More open ground.”

“Can we reach it?”

“Yup.”

The answer came too quickly.

Jay held his gaze. “Can we reach it safely?”

For a moment Harris said nothing.

Then, “We can reach it.”

Apparently this was where the standard changed.

Harris turned Rain west. “Stay close. Red spooks, give him enough rein to keep his feet, but don’t let him choose the trail. Keep him behind Rain.”

Jay nodded.

“Say it back.”

Under ordinary circumstances, Jay would have objected to being treated like a child receiving instructions before crossing a street. Harris’s expression stopped him before the complaint made it out.

“Give Red enough rein to keep his feet. Keep him behind Rain. Stay close to you.”

“No matter what happens.”

Cold moved beneath Jay’s ribs.

“No matter what.”

Only then did Harris turn away.

The trail deteriorated quickly. Wind struck in violent gusts, carrying smoke strongly enough that Jay could taste it. His eyes watered until the ground blurred, forcing him to trust Red’s footing more than his own vision. Harris kept them moving fast enough that the gelding had to concentrate on each step instead of inventing new ways to panic.

Every few minutes, Harris looked back.

At first the checks reassured Jay. By the fifth or sixth, they began making the danger measurable.