Keepers

by Brenda Cooper

  That left her to ride Mouse toward the woman, stopping about ten feet away. “Hello, I’m Lou.”

  She answered in a raspy and deep voice that carried well, a performer’s voice that had been overused. “I might be able to save you. Perhaps.”

  Lou blinked at her. “From?”

  “Yourself, and your foolish courage. You are coming into a dangerous town, and since you came over the hills, I suspect you know that. Will you accept advice, woman to woman?”

  Lou considered this while assessing the stranger. She had the muscle and wiry strength to hold her own in a fight. She appeared to carry nothing on her, no purse, no weapons, not even a coat with pockets. As far as Lou could tell, she was alone.

  What desperation or courage had caused her to step into the street in front of them? They could kill her easily. The woman waited patiently.

  The silence had gone on long enough. Lou asked, “Do you want to talk now?”

  “No. After I save you.”

  Daryl narrowed his eyes at her. “Save us from what?”

  Blessing asked a different question. “You found us. Were you looking for us? Did you know we were here?”

  The woman smiled and chose to answer Blessing. “You were the talk of the town last night. There were bets about whether or not you would try the new wall. Many thought you would give up. But I did not think so. It takes power to command two ecobots, and capability to keep and care for horses.” She looked grave. “There is little time. I want to get you through town before there are more people arrayed against you.”

  Lou had developed a good ear for lies. Whoever this woman was, she believed her own story. Perhaps she could help them find the place that Coryn had chosen for them, and maybe even help them tell if it was a good choice. “Do you want to come with us?”

  The woman nodded.

  “Do you have a name?”

  “I’m Valeria.”

  Lou held out a hand. “Lou.”

  “Lou Williams, the protector of wolves and the scourge of Returners.”

  It shook her a little that someone out here knew of her. “People have called me that.”

  “After the foolish men came back to speed up building their foolish little wall, they talked of who they met. I thought it was you. You’re rumored to travel with an Indian and Chinawoman.”

  Lou winced at her word choices. “I travel with friends.”

  Valeria’s smile lit her whole face. “I’m happy to hear that.”

  Lou glanced from Daryl to Blessing, giving them light nods to communicate her intent. When Blessing smiled and Daryl said his usual nothing but offered no contradiction, she turned back to Valeria and pointed at the ecobot behind her. “Would you like to ride?”

  “I would.” She didn’t approach the bot though, but came up beside Mouse and extended a hand. Up close, Lou noted that she was older than she looked, with nests of thin wrinkles around her eyes and lips. Not Julianna’s age; maybe sixty or so. But like Julianna, she moved like someone younger. She looked utterly confident, not pleading for a ride, not demanding one. The hand she extended bore the scars and calluses of someone who had worked on a farm.

  Lou hesitated. She would be vulnerable with Valeria behind her. What if she had a knife?

  “I won’t hurt you,” Valeria said.

  Lou pulled her foot free of the stirrup and extended her hand, and Valeria nearly flowed up, settling behind the saddle. She sat calmly on Mouse’s broad back, as if she were quite familiar with horses.

  As they started off, she moved easily against Lou, rocking appropriately with Mouse’s gait.

  ‡ ‡ ‡

  In spite of Daryl’s usual sixth sense for problems and Matchiko’s high perch, Mouse was the first to spot trouble. Her ears swiveled forward and she pranced and tossed her head ever so slightly. A slight sheen of sweat appeared on her arched golden neck.

  “Hold on,” Lou whispered to Valeria.

  “No.” Valeria slid off Mouse’s rump, a movement as soft and silent as possible. She stepped aside immediately even though Mouse showed no inclination to kick her.

  Lou slowed Mouse and let Valeria move around them to the front.

  Matchiko called down, “Strangers!” loud enough that the strangers undoubtedly heard her.

  Lou considered this wise. It had never worked out well when armed intruders startled them on RiversEnd Ranch.

  Lou assessed the terrain. Just ahead of them, the road bent to the left. She couldn’t see or hear whatever had spooked Mouse, but horses were prey animals, and good at sensing danger. She stopped, signaling the others to stop.

  Shuska rode up from the back, so that everyone on horseback was in front. She glanced at Valeria, and then at Lou.

  Lou merely shrugged.

  Shuska raised an eyebrow, but offered a grim smile to signal grudging acquiescence to the stranger in their midst.

  Two men on foot rounded a bend in the road, heading toward them, rifles already raised. Another two followed, flanked by beautiful dogs that walked stiffly right beside them, obviously under their control.

  The first men noticed Valeria and stopped.

  She kept going, walking up close to them. It was quite a contrast. The men were big. The dogs were big. Valeria was slight.

  They looked like they wanted to back up, maybe turn around. They didn’t, but as others came around the corner they also stopped. The moment was a quiet one, a small and still one, pregnant with the possibility of argument or even of gunfire.

  Valeria stopped in front of one of the men, and Lou kept Mouse moving forward very slowly, hoping to overhear the conversation. Now that they were this close, she could tell that this was one of the men who had tried to stop them on the way up, the one who had claimed the town was sick and that they should stay away.

  Once again, Valeria’s voice carried. “John Smith! I know you must have been doing like I was, coming out to greet these people and lead them into town. They can surely help us, since there is so much restoration work we might want done.”

  John Smith—surely a made-up name—John Smith stood there with an insincere smile, his face white.

  They were afraid of this woman. It didn’t make any sense, but it was true.

  Valeria’s voice sounded like steel wrapped in cheerfulness. “They’re here because we need them. They’re here to help. I will work with them, and if you want the things I provide, you will let us through.”

  His reply was harder for Lou to hear, but she bent forward over Mouse’s neck and that helped a little. His voice was low, resentful. “You never worked for anyone else in your life.”

  “I said with,” she replied. “Not for. They’re going to be good for us, make some balance. Besides, I’m doing this for you.”

  He stiffened. He and Valeria were of an age, the primary obvious differences being race and gender. Otherwise, both looked entirely sure of themselves and sounded accustomed to giving orders.

  His expression, slightly belligerent and clearly doubtful, challenged Valeria.

  Valeria let a few moments of silence slide between them before she said, “It’s for the best. They have power. You can see that by the bots and the horses. We can use that. It will be better to let them in. If you stop them, there might be more power sent, and more, until it’s more weight than Chelan can bear.”

  These weren’t words to inspire Lou to trust Valeria. But they served an immediate goal, so Lou fumed quietly. When she glanced back at Shuska, she noticed her jaw was clenched and her eyes narrow.

  John didn’t respond directly to Valeria but stalked right past her as if he were as furious with her as Shuska was. He went right up to Daryl and addressed him. “You may come through here. You may be here. But know that you will be expected to follow the rules.”

  Lou was tempted to ask what the rules were. Her fist tightened on her reins and she held her silence.

  Daryl had never been a man of many words. “Thanks for the warm welcome,” he replied in a completely d
eadpan voice, as if all of the subtext had gone right past him. He urged his horse forward, and she followed, then Blessing. She didn’t look back, but she heard the low rumble of the ecobots.

  Given that they were on horses and robots, they passed right through the standing men so fast that Lou wondered if the word that they were being allowed in would reach the back of the line of men and dogs before they did.

  The people they passed stood eerily still, watching them. Lou watched back, trying to memorize every face.

  She had expected them all to be men, but near the end of the line she spotted a tall woman with broad shoulders, short blond hair, and a black dog. Her eyes were as hard as the men’s. Lou wondered about her story. Men who only recognized white men as worthy to talk to were not the type she expected to include a woman in a party planning a battle.

  Well, Matchiko was certainly taking pictures. She would study them all if they got settled and had time. These would be faces to know.

  About a hundred yards past the sullen Returners, Lou started shaking. These people would have attacked despite the ecobots. She and the others would probably have won—but surely not without cost. She had lost friends out here before; she couldn’t imagine losing anyone with her now.

  Valeria caught up with them and jogged beside Mouse, looking up at Lou expectantly.

  Lou let her jog alongside for a few minutes, and just as her breath was starting to rattle, Lou asked, “Do you know what we came here to do?”

  “The first thing you came to do was get through town. I just made that possible.”

  “We might have found another way.”

  “Not without fighting, maybe killing.”

  “That could be true.”

  “There’s no easy way to get in here unless you’re called in.” Valeria paused, caught her breath. “And we still need to have that talk.”

  If she didn’t let her up soon, the woman was going to fall behind. Lou relented and extended her hand, again.

  Valeria needed more help this time, but she was soon mounted and they neared town.

  “I didn’t offer you a job, you know,” Lou said without looking over her shoulder.

  “You might find you need me.”

  Lou forced herself not to answer. Patience.

  ‡ ‡ ‡

  Valeria began to hum, and then to sing softly in Spanish. She sounded fabulous, her singing voice high and clear, utterly devoid of the roughness that edged her speaking voice. Her singing added to Lou’s frustration. Singing was something she had always wanted to do, but she had never been good at it. Sometimes she sang around campfires, drunk.

  Shuska trailed behind again, Daryl with her, but Blessing rode beside them and smiled broadly at Lou as if he knew how conflicted she was about Valeria. Well, she could talk to him later. “Do you know where we turn?” she asked him.

  “Bradley. And then on Union Valley. But we have to get around the bottom end of the lake first.”

  Valeria leaned in toward her. “Good choice. I think I know where you’re going.”

  Blessing smiled at Valeria. “Why is it good?”

  “There’s water there.”

  “A well?” Lou asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Is the house any good?”

  “It hasn’t fallen down. You’ll have to repair the barns.”

  “It has more than one barn?”

  Valeria’s laugh was bright. “Three.”

  What had her little sister done? “How big is this place?”

  “You’ll see.” Valeria fell quiet.

  Near the eastern end of the long lake, they passed two women and a young girl wearing patched coats. They turned away from the ecobots, rushing down a side street, the girl twisting her head behind her to see while she was rushed away. A group of three young men in boots and hats stopped in a doorway and watched them go by, looking like they were trying not to be curious or afraid but also looking like they were both. An emaciated dog crossed the street in front of them, intent on some clear goal.

  The streets were emptier that Lou expected. She spoke softly to Valeria. “Are people hiding from us?”

  “Yes.”

  Old hotels hunched along the side of the lake, mostly intact but with an abandoned look to them. An overgrown park threaded through the hotels on one side and buffered a small neighborhood of houses from the lake on the other, complete with broken children’s swing sets and layers of graffiti on every metal surface. Further along, they passed a rather large parking garage, which Coryn had told her might house people who didn’t want to be seen by airplanes or drones. Inside, she spotted dimmed lights and hanging sheets, and the silhouettes of people moving slowly and quietly.

  Lou squinted at the garage, and Valeria leaned in. “Don’t look too close. You’d do better to look ahead of you.”

  Lou obeyed, and whether it was from anything real or merely Valeria’s warning, her skin crawled with the regard of unknown watchers.

  They passed through without any hindrance.

  Ahead of them, a row of small shops appeared to be in pretty good shape, and a few awnings even looked fairly new, bright red with no appreciable damage from sun or storms. Lou wanted to look closer, but they didn’t go that way, turning left to follow the lake. Shortly after, they turned right on Bradley Street.

  They wound up and up, getting as high above the lake as they had been when they first saw it, the roads passable even though they had to skirt a few large potholes and one whole section that had washed out. A trail had already formed around it, a good detour that put them back on the road in a few hundred feet.

  “There,” Valeria said, pointing at a nondescript driveway.

  They turned in and Lou stopped in the drive, assessing.

  A line of half-dead trees lined a long driveway. On the far side of the trees, a vineyard had withered to a series of dead sticks clinging to metal lines.

  The fences looked like they were in decent condition, although they would all have to be checked.

  She nearly jumped when Valeria whispered in her ear. “It was beautiful once.”

  “How do you know?”

  “There are pictures in the library.”

  Lou twisted far enough around to get a glimpse of Valeria’s face. “Chelan still has a library?”

  “No. But we saved some of the books.”

  How had Coryn picked this place?

  Matchiko interrupted the conversation with a good-natured call down to them. “You’re blocking the road!”

  Lou laughed and pressed her legs tight against Mouse’s sides, asking her to move forward. She broke into a short trot and Daryl and Blessing let their horses have some head as well. Then Mouse sped up; the three of them cantered up the dry driveway, driving clouds of dust up toward the ecobots.

  The main house looked big enough for the headquarters Lou imagined in her head. They could fit staff in with room to spare. Three barns spread across the property. Part of the roof had fallen into the biggest barn. Another barn that was almost as big had slumped on one side. The third looked like it was still maintained. It was small, but it might do for the horses they had so far. She urged Mouse toward the barn, waiting to see if Valeria would complain. She didn’t.

  Between them and the barn, a tall wooden fence looked big enough to hold a few of the horses. She rode toward it and found that, mounted, she was just tall enough to peer over the edge. Inside, spent pea vines and nearly spent beans with yellowing leaves filled raised beds. Pumpkins poked out from underneath wide leaves in another bed, some pulled up from the dirt and set, still attached to vine, on the flat wooden benches that ringed the beds, as if they had been set to finish ripening. The bright reds of at least three different kinds of tomatoes gleamed in the late afternoon sun.

  Lou stiffened. She whispered through clenched teeth. “You live here, don’t you?”

  Valeria didn’t answer, but Lou felt her nod.

  Valeria wasn’t making any sense. “So then why didn’t you
want them to stop us on the road? Why would you want us to take over your house?”

  “We need protection.”

  Lou shivered. “We?”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Lou struggled not to show her dismay at the fact that her new headquarters was already occupied. Anger wouldn’t help anything. She stayed silent on Mouse until they got to the barn, the problematical Valeria right behind her, and gestured for the others to come close. As soon as she knew they could all see her, she extended her arms overhead and opened her hands and stretched her fingers wide and then closed them before bringing them down in the signal for possible danger.

  Matchiko stood up on the ecobot, which would give her a better view, and Day gestured for her to get down as he peered around, trying to find the danger.

  Matchiko flattened herself.

  Maybe she was overreacting.

  If only there had been time to learn more about their claim in this place. Chelan wasn’t sanctioned. Property could not be owned, not by Valeria or by the foundation. Rights to use could be vested in an NGO, and they had a permit. But having a right and exercising it might not be the same thing.

  Valeria hadn’t stabbed her on the way in, but Lou wasn’t ready to trust her.

  She turned. “Please get down.”

  Valeria slid down the side of Mouse this time, a less showy move than when she had slid off his rump. She turned and looked at the entire circle of people, gazing up at each one for a moment, gathering attention, turning the rocky soil under into a stage. “Perhaps,” she said, “I should introduce myself.”

  Instinct warned Lou not to let Valeria dominate the conversation. She dismounted, but gestured for her team to stay where they were. “How did you know we were coming? Tell me again.”

  Valeria’s smile was confident and even a little elfin. “I am a poet and a singer. I often provide entertainment in bars. And I’m very good.”

  What did that have to do with anything? “How did you know we were coming here? Not to Chelan, but to this place?”