Only 06 - Winter Fire

checked the position of the sun. It hadn’t peeked over the rim of the canyon yet, but it would very quickly.
    I should have been on the trail an hour ago , she thought in irritation.
    But Case had refused to let her ride off in the dark, even if he was with her. She had tried to argue, cajole, and reason her way to an agreement to leave earlier. Nothing had worked.
    When Case refused, he meant it.
    Stubborn, disagreeable creature , she thought.
    One mile blurred beneath Shaker’s hard little feet, then two, then three. The wiry mare didn’t even breathe hard. She could lope at that pace all day long.
    Occasionally Sarah looked over her shoulder to check on Case’s progress. Each time she did, Cricket was in the same place, about a hundred feet back. The stallion showed no sign of tiring, even though he was carrying easily twice the weight the mustang was.
    Irritating males , she thought uncharitably. Thick of limb and thin of brain .
    But it was hard for her to sustain her bad mood in the face of the golden light that came washing over the land.Between rosy clouds, the sky was a blue so pale it shone like clear glass in the dawn.
    How can I leave this land? she asked silently.
    It was a question that had come often to her in the days since she had made her bargain with Case. The only answer she had was the same one that had gotten her through the months after her parents had died.
    I will do what I must. For Conner, who deserves better than life gave him .
    She had never regretted the choices forced on her by circumstance. She was simply grateful that she and Conner had survived when too many others had not.
    After the sun peeked over the canyon rim, the land slid by in countless shades of ochre and rust, red and gold. She slowed only when one of Lost River Canyon’s many side canyons opened onto the river’s edge. Then she let the mustang pick a careful way through the slickrock, boulders, and dry creek beds that marked the mouth of each smaller canyon.
    Case’s pale green eyes roved the countryside constantly. He wasn’t just looking for danger. He was memorizing landmarks from every angle so that he would be able to find his way back over the trail without a guide.
    As he learned the land, he marked the flight of eagles and hawks, the bursting speed and sudden stillness of rabbits, and the abundant sign of deer. Once he was certain he saw cougar tracks hardened in a patch of dry mud at the mouth of a side canyon.
    Half of this is mine .
    That fact kept echoing through him with every new sign of life, every wild new vista. Each time the realization came, he felt a measure of calm touch parts of his soul that had known only turmoil since the war.
    The certainty that he belonged to the land grew greater with every moment, every breath.
    He would die, but the land would not.
    The land would go through eternity untouched by the hell that lived within the worst of men.
    For Case, the land’s unchanging reality offered the possibility of a calm that was more than skin deep. Through his bond with the land, he was part of something greater than the sum of all evil caused by men.
    The thought was balm for an agony that had known no ease for so long that he had stopped noticing it; he simply accepted agony as men who had lost limbs learned to live without them.
    When Sarah finally reined in her mustang to a walk, he let Cricket come alongside the little mare.
    â€œNothing like a little run to work off your temper,” he said casually.
    She gave him a narrow look and said nothing.
    â€œNeed a few more miles?” he asked. “This time you carry the saddle.”
    As always, her sense of humor won out over her irritation. She laughed and shook her head.
    â€œYou and Conner,” she said.
    â€œWhat about us?”
    â€œYou both can get around me in no time at all.”
    â€œThat’s because you’re not hard enough for this world,” Case said.
    She groaned. “Not you, too.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œUte believes I’m an angel,” she said.
    Case didn’t look at all surprised.
    â€œI mean it,” she said. “He truly does.”
    â€œA man wakes up sick and hurting and sees lantern light shining around your hair and feels your hands all cool and gentle on his skin…”
    His voice died. Then he shrugged.
    â€œUte can hardly be blamed for seeing you as a sweet angel of mercy bending down to touch him,” Case