Peacemaker

Part IV

Low clouds hung over the Yukon River asKali’s self-automated bicycle-SAB for short-rumbled along the muddyroad, heading toward Moosehide. The fat, reinforced wheelsnavigated over and around roots, puddles, and horse droppingslittering the trail. Kali curled a lip at the latter, not wantingexcrement smashed into her treads.

Cedar sat behind her, and behind him smokefrom the stack rose into the air, mingling with a morning fog thathugged the banks. Summer was still in hiding, but at least it hadstopped raining. That meant a lot of prospectors were boating alongthe river, to and from Dawson. All of those people gaped at thestrange bicycle when it passed.

Kali barely noticed. Her mind was focusedinward, dwelling on the upcoming meeting with people she hadn’ttalked to in eight years. Though she didn’t expect a physicalconfrontation at the camp, she’d brought a vial with a couple ofher precious flash gold flakes anyway. They had proven useful tohave on hand in the past, when she’d made numerous tools andgadgets, using the alchemical ore as an easy energy source.

Cedar touched her shoulder and pointed to arowboat aground ahead of them. A few shards of wood floated nearbyin the river. Nobody stood near the boat, but the grass and foliagealong the riverbank obscured the view.

“Problem?” Kali peered upand down the river. At the moment, no other boats werevisible.

“Perhaps. Perhapsnot.”

Figuring he wanted to investigate, Kalislowed the bicycle. Cedar hopped off and jogged through theundergrowth to the boat. He stared down at something inside for amoment and then slung his Winchester off his back.

“Problem,” Kaliconfirmed.

She veered off the trail and set her machineto idle. Over its rumble, she almost missed the fact that Cedar wastalking to someone. She jogged over to join him and found himcrouching to help an older man lying in the bottom of the boat.Blood streaked his weathered face, and a bulbous lump rose from thecrown of his bald head.

“Don’t need no help!” Theman pushed Cedar away when he tried to help and clambered out ofthe boat by himself. “That boodle of mother-kissing lickfingerpirates got all my cussed gold. Shot my partner and knocked himinto the river. Lowdown, thieving cutthroats.” The man clenched afist and snatched a shotgun out of his boat. “Let them come backout of the clouds, and I’ll fix them. Pirates!” He spat, barelymissing Cedar’s boot. “Got me wrathier than a treedcoon.”

The old man took a step and tilted sideways,like he might topple back into the boat. When Cedar reached out ahand to steady him, he growled, “Don’t need no help,” again.

“Out of the clouds?” Kaliasked.

“Air pirates,” Cedar said.“Must be a new ship. The Mounties said they shot down the lastoutfit preying on successful miners.”

This was the first Kalihad heard about it, but it was hardly surprising. Not all ofDawson’s swelling population could strike it rich legitimately. Shegazed skyward. Though pirates might know about the reward for hercapture, and could be a lot of trouble, she found herself wishingto glimpse the airship. A completed, working airship. They were so rarein the Yukon. The last one Kali had seen, she and Cedar had beenforced to destroy, and she’d never gotten a chance to view theengines up close.

“It’s not appropriate tolook wistful right now,” Cedar murmured to her.

Kali blushed. The old man was still stompingabout, cursing over his losses. The missing gold seemed to beupsetting him more than the dead partner.

“I’m not wistful,” shesaid. “I’m just being observant…checking to see if it’s still outthere. That’s all.”

“Uh huh.” Cedar raised hisvoice for the old man’s sake. “Are you sure there’s nothing we cando to help you, sir?”

“Don’t need no help,” theman repeated.

Cedar shrugged and wavedfor Kali to lead the way back to the SAB. As they walked back, shegave the skies one last glance-and, yes, maybe itwas a wistful glance.She didn’t expect to see anything, but a dark shape stirred theclouds. Kali froze, mid-step. She blinked and the disturbance wasgone. Her imagination? Or simply an unusually shaped storm cloud?No, it had been too angular to be a natural part of thesky.

“I saw it,” Cedar saidwith another nudge for her back. “Let’s get out of here before theydecide your contraption is something they’d like tosteal.”

“Good idea,” Kalimurmured, hopping on. Though she and Cedar had taken down a shipbefore, it had been luck that they’d had the right supplies. Shehadn’t brought any kerosene for the trip to the Han camp, althoughshe did have her weapons, including a couple of-

“Go,” Cedar urged. Hepointed toward the clouds.

The craft had come into view again, itsshape distinguishable this time. Like a marine vessel, it had anopen deck, but instead of having sails above that deck, a vastoblong balloon hovered overhead, dwarfing the ship with its size.At either end of the deck, enclosed weapons platforms rose likecastle turrets poised over a moat. Open cannon ports ran along thewooden sides of the ship. Its size promised room for a crew ofthirty or forty with plenty of room to spare for cargo-or stolengoods.

“Going is good,” Kalisaid. She shoved the lever that controlled acceleration, and theSAB surged forward. Cedar hung onto her with one arm around herwaist, while he held his Winchester with his free hand, his torsotwisted to watch the sky.

The airship was heading downriver, whileKali and Cedar were heading upriver. If it didn’t change itscourse, they had nothing to worry about.

“It’s coming about,” Cedarsaid.

“Figures.” Kali yanked herdriving goggles over her eyes and pushed the engine to full speed,with a vague notion that they’d be safe if they reached the tentsand cabins of Moosehide. At the least, the Han would have weaponsto help fight off intruders.

The wheels churned, slinging mud in everydirection. She could get twenty miles an hour out of the engine onflat, even ground, but the Yukon River shoreline rose and fell,with the glacial rock beneath the dirt making navigation achallenge. The trail never ran more than ten meters without turningaround a boulder or tree. Fog still hovering over the hallows addedto the challenge.

“Are they after us?” Kalicalled over the breeze whistling past.

A boom cracked the air, and somethingslammed into the earth five meters ahead of them. Dirt and rockflew, and Kali jammed her heel against the brake lever to keep fromcareening into a newly formed crater.

“Yes,” Cedarsaid.

“Thanks, I gotthat.”

He fired a shot, though Kali was focused onsteering the SAB around the ditch and did not see if it did anygood. The river flowed past fifteen feet below, and they tilted andwobbled as she maneuvered past the crater. A big, black cannonballlay in the bottom.

“The artillery man isprotected inside the turret,” Cedar yelled, “and I can’t seeanybody else up there from this angle.”

Kali increased the speed again. It was onlytwo more miles to Moosehide. Maybe they could-

Another boom sounded. This time thecannonball tore a hole in the riverbank, and the trail ahead ofthem disappeared in a rock slide. Dirt and stone sloughed into theriver, and Kali had to brake again. They’d be lucky if they couldclimb past that. Driving was out of the question.

She stopped the bicycle and jumped off.

The airship had descended from the clouds,and Kali could see people in the turrets now, though the windowslits protected them while allowing them to fire out. A few piratesscurried across the deck, though they were careful not to remain insight for long. From the ground, the angle was poor for shooting atanyone up there. That didn’t keep Cedar from trying to keep thembusy. He fired his Winchester, aiming for a slit in the closestturret.

Kali considered the wooden hull of the ship,wondering if she could find a weakness. The engines were protected,but twin ducted fans on the bottom propelled and steered the craft.Scenarios for disabling them ran through her mind, but she didn’tsee how she could do anything from the ground.

Cedar fired another shot, but it onlychipped at the wood on the turret.

Kali laid a hand on his arm. “That’s notgoing to do anything.”

“You have aplan?”

“I have somegrenades.”

“Even better.” Cedarshouldered the rifle and held out his hand.

While Kali dug into her saddlebag, she keptan eye toward the ship. The gunner had to have them in his sights,but he did not fire again. A few men appeared at the railing, andone peered down with a spyglass held to his eye. Cedar promptlyreadied the Winchester again and fired.

The man ducked out of sight, and Kaliimagined she could hear his cursing. A heartbeat later, he poppedup again, this time with a rifle of his own. It cracked, and shardsof rock sheared away from a towering boulder behind Cedar.

He grabbed Kali around the waist and pulledher behind the rock. Fortunately, she had what she needed in handwhen he did it.

“What are those?” Cedarasked when she held up the fist-sized bronze balls.

“Grenades.”

“They don’t look likemilitary issue.”

“No, they’re Kali issue.You press this, and it creates a spark, like with a flintlockand-”

Something clinked to the ground on the otherside of the boulder. Kali leaned out, intending to check it out,but Cedar pushed her back. He was closer to whatever it was and hada better view.

“Smoke,” he said. “Up thehill.”

Though she debated on the wisdom of leavingcover, Kali figured he had more experience with being attacked, soshe scrambled in the direction he pointed. The steep slope made ithard to keep her footing, and she had to stuff the grenades intoher pockets. They clinked against tools, and she hoped she had madethe triggers hard enough to pull that they couldn’t bump againstsomething and go off.

“Faster,” Cedar urged, ahand on her back.

“I’d be faster if I knewwhere we were going,” Kali shot over her shoulder. The airshiphovered in her periphery, no more than ten meters above them. Itsengines thrummed, reverberating through the earth, and the fansstirred the ferns and grass on the hillside. “And if we weren’tleaving my bicycle behind,” she added under her breath.

“Just get away from-”Cedar coughed and pulled his shirt over his nose. He paused toloose another rifle shot at the airship, though it thuddedharmlessly off a turret.

A sweet stench like burned honey trailedthem up the hill. Not trusting it, Kali held her breath.

A copse of evergreens rose at the crest ofthe hill, and it seemed like as good a place as any to make astand. The airship wouldn’t be able to maneuver through the trees,and Kali could throw a grenade at anyone who tried to steal theSAB.

A giant metal claw on a chain clanked ontothe rocks to the left.

“Uh?” Kali said, for lackof anything more intelligent.

A second claw landed to her right, then athird one struck down a few feet ahead. As one, the devices swungtoward her.

“Uh!” she blurted andscrambled backward.

Kali bumped into Cedar and was surprised hewasn’t moving more quickly. A glaze dulled his eyes, and confusioncrinkled his brow.

“Move!” Kali tried toshove him out of the path of the claws, but he was heavy and didn’thelp her at all. She didn’t seem to have her usual strength either.A strange heaviness filled her limbs, and numbness made her fingerstingle.

That honey smell. It had to be some kind ofsedative.

The nearest claw scraped closer. It swungin, angling for Kali’s torso. She ducked and dove beneath it, butthe lethargy in her limbs stole her agility, and she landed in anungainly pile and skidded down the slope. Mud spattered her, androcks dug at her through her clothing.

Something landed on her. Rope?

Kali tried to bat it away, but it waseverywhere. Not just rope, she realized. A net.

Before she could reach for a folding knifein her pocket, the ropes tightened about her, scooping her up likea fish in the river.

“Kali!” Cedarshouted.

Now, he woke up. Great.

The net constricted movement, and Kalicouldn’t get an arm free to dig into her pockets. It swung her intothe air. In fits and jerks, a rope slowly pulled her up. Clankssounded above her-someone winding a winch.

Kali snarled and thrashed without anystrategy, aside from an overriding desire to damage something. Shewas angry at herself for running up the hill without a plan, andfor being captured like some dumb animal. Her thrashes did nothing;the net merely tightened.

Then something rammed into her frombehind.

“Tarnation! What now?”Kali demanded.

“Sorry,” Cedar said frombehind her ear.

Kali twisted her neck-even that was aneffort in the suffocating rope cocoon. Cedar clung to the outsidelike a spider. His eyes still had a glazed cast to them, but hisjaw was clenched with determination.

He drew a knife and started sawing at herropes. “I thought you might like to get down.”

“Yes, thank you.” Kalicould be calm and polite when someone was working to set her free.So long as he finished before whoever was working the winch gotthem on board. Already, they were nearly twenty feet from theground. The fall would not be pleasant.

“Get him off!” a manyelled from somewhere above. “Shoot him!”

“I believe someone ismaking plans for you,” Kali said.

Cedar’s swift cuts were opening up herprison, and she gripped the ropes above her head with both hands soshe wouldn’t fall free when the support disappeared.

“Not plans I’m partialto,” Cedar said. “I’ll have you down in a second.”

Wood creaked above them, and Kali looked up,fearing they might weigh too much for whatever winch was operatingup there. She wanted freedom, yes, but she didn’t fancy the idea ofa long drop while still entangled in the ropes. A man wearing ablack bandana around his head and holding a shiny steel six-shooterleaned out through a trapdoor.

“Look out,” Kali barked,afraid Cedar, intent on cutting her ropes, hadn’t seen theman.

But he was already in motion, not jumpingfree to escape the gun like a sane person would do, but shimmyingup the rope. The pirate’s finger tightened on the trigger, butCedar was already pumping an arm to throw his knife. The blade spunupward and lodged in the man’s chest.

The revolver fired anyway.

Kali buried her head beneath her arms, butno bullet pierced her flesh. Before she could lift her eyes to seeif Cedar had also avoided being hit, something slammed into her.The force snapped the remaining ropes still binding her into thenet, and her legs flew free. Twine seared her palms, and she almostlost her grip, but she clenched her fingers tighter around therope. The dead pirate tumbled past her and smashed into the rockyshoreline below. Cedar had disappeared into the airship.

Gunshots sounded above, followed by a clashof steel. That meant Cedar had his sword out. He might need help,but storming a fortress wasn’t anything Kali was trained for. She’dhave to try something else.

Kali swung her legs up and found a toeholdin part of the netting that had not been cut. She climbed a fewfeet up the rope, but stopped well below the trapdoor. Twenty feetaway, mounted on the bottom of the hull, the twin-ducted fanshummed along.

While gripping the rope with one hand, Kalidropped the other into a pocket and withdrew a grenade. Windbattered her, whipping her hair free of its braid and into hereyes. She squinted, trying to judge the distance for a toss to theclosest fan.

“Cedar!” Kali yelled. Hewould be better at this.

A battle cry-it might have been his-andanother long clash of steel answered her. Kali took that to meanshe was on her own.

She took a deep breath, thumbed the triggeron the grenade, and watched for the spark. Yes, there it was. Shecounted to two and tossed the weapon.

It sailed through the air, clanked off thefan casing and dropped. It exploded uselessly a few feet above theriver. A couple of men rowing a fishing boat and gawking up at theairship screamed and threw themselves into the water.

“Not good,” Kalimuttered.

She had one more grenade, but only one. Shegripped the cold metal, felt the grooves dig into her hand,imagined the hours she had spent patching the exterior togetherfrom scrap and carefully measuring out gunpowder and even morecarefully building the trigger device…. She resolved not to wastethis one.

Kali thumbed the trigger, held the grenadehalf a second longer than the first, and lofted it toward thefan.

This time it clanked into the horizontalcylinder containing the propeller. Kali held her breath. Thegrenade bumped against the inside of the casing and skidded towardthe fan. She cringed at the idea of it sliding past the blades andfalling out on other side.

Before the grenade came close to that fate,it exploded with an echoing boom. Orange flashed, gray smoke filledthe air, and shards of metal flew.

One whistled toward her face, and Kaliducked, throwing up her free hand. Her other hand slipped, and shelost her foothold and zipped down the rope. Fire seared her palm,tearing into her skin, but she growled and forced herself to holdon. She caught the bottom of the half-destroyed net, but her feetdangled free, swinging thirty feet above the earth.

On the hull above, the only thing left ofthe fan was a singed stump of metal. Holes and charred wood markedthe hull as well. If it were a sea-going vessel, it’d be leakingfaster than the bilge pumps could bail, but up here, holes justmeant poorer aerodynamics. Already, though, the airship was listingto one side, heading out over the river. With one workingpropeller, it’d simply float around in wide circles until someonefixed it. That meant they’d have a hard time chasing anybody.

“Cedar,” Kali calledagain. “It’s time to go!”

She scanned the countryside below,ostensibly looking for her bicycle and to see how far upstream theyhad floated, but a part of her had to admire the view, a viewusually reserved for the birds. One day, she would sail in theskies with her own ship.

A boom sounded above, not rifle fire thistime, but a shell gun or cannon. What in tarnation was Cedar doingup there?

Kali was debating whether to climb up andjoin him-whatever he was doing, he might be getting himself introuble-when a familiar shout pulled her eye to the side.

“Man overboard!” It wasCedar, leaping over the deck railing. He clutched a bag in one handand his sword in the other. “Let’s go, Kali!” he added before hesplashed into the river below.

“Someone stole that man’srudder,” she muttered.

Above her, a man with a bloody face leanedout of the trapdoor. From the pained snarl on his lips and the gunin his hand, Kali decided it was indeed time to go. After a quickcheck to make sure she was over water, she released the rope.

She dropped thirty feet and plunged intodepths so icy they shocked her to the core. The calendar might saysummer, but this water came straight out of mountains stillsmothered with snow. Her feet brushed the bottom, and she pushedoff. She popped above the surface and tried to suck in a breath ofair, but her lungs, stunned from the cold, scarcely worked. An icywave washed into her eyes.

A hand gripped Kali’s arm, helping her stayup.

“That was brilliant!”Cedar exclaimed. The water dripping into his eyes couldn’t dulltheir gleam.

Kali shook her head and swam for the shorewith frenzied strokes, hoping to warm her already-numb limbs. Sheonly paused long enough to make sure she was swimming in the rightdirection. It was a testament to how cold she was that she reachedthe shore before Cedar. She was tempted to jog back to the SAB-andrip dry clothes and Cedar’s bedroll off the back-but she figuredshe had best wait and see if he was injured or needed help. Shewouldn’t put it past him to race into battle and roar withexcitement while having a life-threatening wound.

While she waited, shewatched the airship veering inland, smoke still wafting from thecharred hull. Maybe it would crash, the pirates would abandon it asunsalvageable, and she could claim it for her own.That thought warmed hercold limbs more than a little. If the hull was in decent shape, shecould commandeer it and not have to construct one from scratch. Oh,she’d want to build her own engine from the ground up-no tellingwhat piecemeal garbage these pirates were using-and she had ideasfor dozens of modifications, but if she didn’t have to build thatcursed hull, she’d save months of construction time. She flexed hercold fingers. Maybe a few digits endangered by that saw aswell.

Her mind filled with daydreams ofreconstruction, Kali almost missed Cedar slogging out of the waterdownstream. He had sheathed the sword, but he was still carryingthat bag, a small but bulging canvas tote. It made him lopsided ashe strode toward her. Some of the glitter had faded from his eyes,but he was still grinning. “Are you all right?”

Kali wrapped her arms around herself forwarmth. “I could have done without the bath, but I suppose droppingonto land would have been worse.” She gave him a once over, decidedhe was uninjured, and headed along the bank toward her bicycle.Puffs of steam still wafted from its stack, and nobody seemed tohave bothered it. The skirmish had cleared the river of boattraffic.

“True.” Cedar strode alongbeside her. He pointed at the airship-it was drifting on the otherside of the river now, going nowhere fast. “It looks like yourgrenades proved useful.”

“Of course,” Kalisaid.

He walked in silence for a moment beforeglancing at her and asking, “Aren’t you going to ask what I was upto in there?”

“Judging by the sounds,you weren’t attending a quilting bee.”

“Nope. I had to fight myway out of their cargo hold. At first I had a notion ofsinglehandedly taking control of the ship, but there were a lot ofthem, and they were well-armed and reasonably accurate with theirfirearms.” Cedar touched a rip in the sleeve of his duster. “Theycured me of my notion, but I was able to make my way up top, and Ispotted some of their stolen loot on the way.” He hefted the bag.“I figure this might be that old man’s claim earnings. Getting itback might ease his crankiness a tad.”

“Huh,” Kalisaid.

It sounded like a good adventure, and shemight ask for more details later, but she wanted dry clothes firstand a blanket around her shoulders. Having the sun come out wouldbe a nice perk, too, but if anything the fog was growingdenser.

Cedar sighed. “I see you’re still a hardlady to please.”

“I’m pleased.”

“You are? How would oneknow?”

“I’m listening to youinstead of contemplating upgrades to my next batch ofgrenades.”

“I see,” Cedar said.“That is a highhonor.” He probed one of his soggy pockets, pulled out a knot ofbeads, and handed it to her.

Kali untangled the snarl to reveal the patchof decorated hide he’d been fiddling with all through supper thenight before. “Good that this survived, I guess,” she said, notsure why he was showing it to her.

“No,” Cedar said, delvinginto a different pocket. “Thissurvived.” He pulled out another talisman, thisone unknotted. “That I found next to the sack of gold.”

“Oh, hm. What do you thinkthe pirates are doing with an identical one? Is it something theyfound? Or are they behind the murders?”

“It didn’t come up when wewere slinging bullets and curses back and forth at eachother.”

Kali shook her head and tsked. “Men are suchpoor conversationalists.”

“There were a couple ofwomen shooting at me too.”

They crested a rise and came to the craterthe airship had blown into the trail. Kali slowed down. Her bicyclewaited on the other side, but so did two people. One was the oldman from the boat, and the other was a boy of ten or eleven years.He had raven-colored hair and bronze skin with a face still chubbywith baby fat. He stared at them-no, at Cedar-with opened-mouthedastonishment.

“That’s mine!” The old manstabbed a finger at the sack.

“Figured it might be.”Cedar laid it at his feet.

The old fellow grabbed it, dragged itseveral feet, sent slit-eyed glares at Kali and Cedar, then whippedout a small black revolver and aimed it between them. “You two stayright there. And you too boy.” He backed away, holding the gun withone hand and lugging the sack of gold with the other.

Cedar watched blandly. Kali shook her head.The old man caught his heel on something, tripped, fell onto hisbackside, and cursed mightily. He stuffed the revolver back intohis belt, hefted the sack with both hands, and jogged-if one couldcall such lopsided, wobbly staggers a jog-back to his boat.

“Grateful fellow,” Cedarobserved.

“Less good than you’dthink comes out of helping people in these parts,” Kalisaid.

The boy was still staring at Cedar, eyeswide, jaw slack. When he noticed Kali looking at him, he clamped itshut and swallowed.

She was about to try talking to him in Hanwhen he tilted his head back to look Cedar in the eyes and said,“That was amazing.” He pointed toward the sky half a mile acrossthe river, where the airship was descending into the woods. “I sawyou fighting. All of them at once! Up on the deck. I could see itall from here!”

“Just making the best outof a tricky situation,” Cedar said. Though he spoke as if hisheroics had been inconsequential, he did give Kali a pointed look,as if to say, “See? This is how you’re supposed to respond to myheroics.”

Kali propped her hands on her hips and toldthe boy, “I was up there doing stuff too.”

He blinked at her, a blank expression on hisface, then focused on Cedar again. “Where’d you get that sword?That’s the beatingest pig sticker I’ve seen.”

Kali gave the boy a closer look. He wore ahooded caribou jacket, and she assumed he was Han, but his commandof English was excellent, if one could call the local miners’ slangEnglish.

“It’s from the Orient,though I got it down in the swamps of Florida.” Cedar drew theblade. “Do you want to see it? I could show you a fewmoves.”

Kali lifted a hand, afraid the “boys” couldplay at swordfighting all day if she let them, but the youth’sshoulders slumped and he did not accept the sword.

“I’m no good at fighting,”he said, “on account of my leg.”

For the first time, he took a couple ofsteps, and Kali noticed a pronounced limp.

“What happened?” sheasked.

“Couple of summers back, Iclimbed up with a smoker to get some honey from a bee hive. Thebranch broke, and I fell a long ways and broke my hip. Medicine manfixed me up the best he could, but…” He shrugged, eyes still castdownward.

Cedar took the boy’s hand and put the hiltof his sword in it.

“What’s your name?” Kaliasked, heading over to check the bicycle for damage-and to see howshe might get it around the crater that had destroyed an eight-footswath of the trail.

“Tadzi,” the boy said, hisgaze riveted to the blade. He took a few experimental swings andgrinned.

“Tadzi, have you ever seenanything like these?” Cedar held up the beadworkpatches.

The boy lowered the sword and scrutinizedthem. “No, sir. Not very good work.” His face brightened. “Want tosee something I made?”

“Yes,” Cedarsaid.

Kali knew him well enough to hear the hintof disappointment in his voice. What had he expected? That aten-year-old kid would know something about talismans of power?

“That’s very good,” Cedarsaid.

Kali glanced over to see what the boy wasshowing him. Some sort of block of carved wood. Cedar caught hereye and crooked a finger.

“We should get going,”Kali said, though she came over to check on the youth’s handiwork.She froze when he held up a carving of an elk, a seven-point bullelk. Though the entire figurine was no larger than her hand, shecould count each individual tine on the antlers. They even appearedfuzzy, like the real thing. “That’s beautiful,” shebreathed.

Tadzi twitched a shoulder. “I can doscrimshaw, too, but ivory’s hard to get. That time with the honey,I was hoping to trade for better tools. It didn’t happen. I gotstung a bunch, on top of breaking my hip.”

Kali could certainly understand going to anylengths in pursuit of one’s passions. “Don’t get discouraged. Youdo real fine work.”

She caught a strange expression on Cedar’sface.

“What?” sheasked.

“Just wondering if Ishould be jealous of a ten-year-old boy,” he said.

“Why?” Tadzi stared up at him-he only came up to Kali’s shoulder,so he had to tilt his head way back to look Cedar in theeyes.

“Because she’s moreimpressed by your carving than by my skirmishing skills, eventhough I navigated heaps of pirates fighting harder than KilkennyCats, retrieved that surly fellow’s gold, cut the belt that held upthe captain’s pants, and escaped the mob by leaping over therailing from forty feet in the air.”

Tadzi turned hisincredulous stare onto Kali. “You are?”

Kali shrugged. “I get to see him do stufflike that all the time. Though-” she nodded at Cedar, “-you didn’tmention the part about the captain’s pants.”

“They fell clear to hisankles and hobbled him like a horse,” Cedar said.

“Nice. Tadzi, are you fromMoosehide?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“How did you learn suchgood English?” When Kali had been a girl, it hadn’t been spoken atall amongst the tribe, and only a couple of men who negotiated withtraders and trappers knew any at all.

“I’ve been working at itreal hard,” Tadzi said. “I talk to any white people I can. Someday,I want to…” He chomped down on his lip and eyed the ground. “Ishouldn’t say.”

Maybe he was someone like Kali had been,someone who always knew he would leave someday. “Can you take usthere? Introduce us to the medicine man?”

Tadzi brightened. “Can weride there on that?” He nearly threw his shoulder out of joint in his eagernessto point at the SAB. “I saw its smoke, and that’s what made me comedown here. I bet riding it is a hog-killin’ time.”

“There’s not room forthree,” Cedar said.

Kali gave him a frank look.

“Oh.”

“You’re tough,” she said.“You ran through that whole dog-sled course beside me.”

Cedar patted the boy on the shoulder. “Lookslike I’ve another reason to be jealous of you.”