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“All I want is shelter in a place that’s hard to find,” Ty said as he went back to cleaning the area. “I sure as hell don’t want anything else from you.”
Chris saw that the dog was indeed only grazed then she went to get the water bucket. It was slippery with slime. “Ty, your leg,” she said, looking back at him. The tourniquet was gone and there was dried blood about the wound but now, with this new activity, it was beginning to bleed again.
“I can’t stop now,” he said. “Go get the water.”
As Chris took the bucket and started up the hill, the old man stopped in front of her. The foul smell that rose from him took her breath away. “He don’t have a mother. He killed her.”
Chris moved away from him as she’d moved away from the piles of rotting meat.
By the time she returned with the newly clean bucket and fresh water, Asher was back with a deer he’d shot and Tynan had cleaned a place under a lean-to for Pilar. Chris saw that his leg was bleeding steadily.
Asher prepared a fire and began to roast the meat while the old man crouched on the outside of the group watching them suspiciously.
Tynan eased himself down onto the ground near where Pilar rested on a blanket covered pile of hay. For just a moment, Chris saw pain register on his face. It was growing dark now and the only light was from the fire.
“We have to make some plans,” Ty said and he sounded very tired. “Prescott, we’ll have to take turns keeping watch.”
“Watch?” Chris asked. “But surely Dysan’s men won’t be able to find us here. The dogs won’t be able to track us after the number of streams we crossed, and, Ty, you need to rest.”
“I thank you for your concern, but it’s not Dysan who needs watching. It’s him.” He nodded his head toward the old miner. “If he thinks there’s a reward for us, he’ll find whoever wants us and bring them here. We have to stay awake to make sure he doesn’t leave.”
“Oh,” Chris said, taking meat from Asher and moving to lift Pilar. Tomorrow she’d try to make a broth but for now this would have to do. “Then as long as we stay here someone has to stay awake and watch him.”
“If we want to stay alive,” Ty said.
Asher cut off chunks of the roasted meat. “Pilar needs a doctor and she needs to rest. And you’re in worse shape than you let on.”
“I’ll be all right,” Ty said. “But I agree that we have to take care of Pilar, it’s just that I don’t know anywhere else that’s as safe as this—or it would be safe if he weren’t here.”
Asher threw the old man a piece of meat as if he were a dog, and the man grabbed it, hiding it from the others, eating it with watchful eyes. “What we need is some help,” Asher said as he looked at Chris. “If we could get a message to your father, he could send an army of men to escort us back to his place. I don’t think even Dysan wants to take on Mathison’s men.”
Chris drew her knees to her chest and gave a little smile. “Yes, my father could defeat him. But he’s there and we’re here.”
“You have to go get him, Prescott,” Tynan said. “You have to leave the women and me here and travel as fast as you can and bring Mathison back.”
“And leave you to the mercies of that?” Asher asked, motioning toward the old man. “Do you have any idea how many people are looking for you?”
Tynan looked toward the dark sky for a moment. “About half a dozen Chanrys, a hundred or so of Dysan’s men and…”
“And Rory Sayers would probably like a piece of your skin,” Chris added.
“And what was the name of that man on the far side of the rain forest?”
“Ah, yes,” Chris smiled. “Hugh Lanier. I don’t imagine he’s over his anger at what I wrote.” She smiled at Tynan, remembering the way he’d helped her that day.
Tynan leaned back against a post. “So half the world is looking for us, two of us are damaged, and we have a traitor—if he were given the chance to be—in our midst. It doesn’t make for a secure, healthful future.”
“I’ll take him with me,” Asher said softly. “I’ll take the old man with me and leave the three of you here alone and I’ll bring back Mathison with every man he can spare.”
“He’ll slit your throat the first time you turn your back on him or the first time you sleep.”
“I’ll not turn my back on him and if I sleep, I’ll tie him up. It’s our only chance and you know it. You can’t take care of him here and all I have to do is get him fifty miles south of here and then Mathison can have him. It’s our only chance. One man might make it out of here, but not two women and a wounded man.”
Chris could see the way Tynan was considering Asher’s words. She could see how much he hated them, how much he hated being put in such a position. And she also realized that he must be hurt more than he was allowing them to know if he were so much as considering what Asher proposed.
“Ty, it’s the only way,” Chris whispered. “We can’t move Pilar and we can’t leave her here. Dysan is out there and someone has to go for help.” She arched one eyebrow at him. “Are you afraid you won’t get your pardon if someone else brings my father to me?”
Tynan looked at her for a long time before he spoke. “Prescott, you’ll leave early in the morning. I’ll stay awake tonight and watch the old man and you sleep. I want you rested in the morning. Now, the both of you go to bed.”
