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“Bryant? What if I was to tell you that not all of these alleged priests and teachers have honorable motives?”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“What if they’re a part of a larger platform not to educate, but to indoctrinate the native tribes, beginning with their youth?”
Bryant set his fork down. “Go on.”
“It will start off as innocent and friendly,” I explained tenuously. “Some English language skills, reading, writing, basic mathematics. Then at some point, it will be suggested that the children would learn much better in a more conducive environment.
“So they’ll be taken from their villages and families and placed into government sanctioned boarding schools where the taskmasters there will work hard to convince these children that their native culture is wrong, and they must change to conform to the so-called modern way of thinking and living. These evil leaders will use abusive and torturous tactics, and their atrocities won’t be discovered until several decades later.”
Bryant frowned deeper. “A suggestion, are you telling me? Or a warning?”
I set down my own fork and leaned forward saying, “Bryant, you need to talk to the elders again. Tell them that they must reject this alleged free education being offered. It will become the beginning of sorrows for their people as such as they’ve never seen.”
He rubbed his jaw as he considered my words. I don’t know if he believed what I told him, or what he planned to do with the information, if he did, but at least I had done my part to stop the evil, destructive monster in its tracks.
At least I tried.
Conversation lightened after that. We made practical plans on how to amiably cohabitate until he deemed it safe for me to return to Silver Falls without detection from possible Arcan Hunters.
After dinner, Bryant insisted I take the only bed in the cabin, explaining that he would find other sleeping accommodations, either on the porch steps, in the smoke shed or even the makeshift stable.
“Well then,” he said. “I’ll take my leave now.”
I whirled around from the fireplace that I had been warming my palms over. “Wait, you’re leaving now?”
“Just to search the area for any hunters about,” he assured me.
“How long will you be gone?”
Not that I was afraid to be alone here.
Okay, so I was a bit nervous at the prospect, but with good reason.
“As long as it takes,” Bryant said.
“For what? For you to be found, shot and killed?”
“I’ll do, Callista. Don’t wait for me to put out the lantern and candles. I don’t need the light, and don’t want to waste the them.” He gave me an interested look, adding, “Electric lights for every household, you say?”
I nodded. “They actually have the technology now in this time, but it’s not in common use yet. Very soon though. If you have any money, invest in a company run by the man named Thomas Edison. Alexander Graham Bell, too. You’ll make a fortune.”
“Hmm. Bolt the door after me.”
“How will you get back in after you’ve done your night patrol?”
“I have my ways,” he said, which I knew was a sacrificial lie, since there wasn’t any way that he could get back inside but through this door. “And close and latch the window shudders. If I’m not around and any Arcans do approach the cabin, use the .45 on the mantle. It’s loaded and ready, should you need it.”
I grimaced at the handgun on the fireplace mantle. My mother had taken me out target shooting a few times when I was a teenager, but I was far from proficient. And I had never in my life aimed a weapon at another human being—pop bottles and milk jugs at the worst.
“Don’t be long,” I told him.
“Pleasant dreams, Callista.”
“Oh, sure,” I muttered. “Just rock me to sleep like a baby tonight.”
Bryant exited then, and I lifted the wood plank into place across the door, then closed and latched the two windows as instructed.
