“Touch-the-Sky,” she blurted.
“Call me Joe,” the Lakota replied in uninflected English. “I’m pleased you remember me.”
Ryan wasn’t sure if he was pleased; the summer before they had met Touch-the-Sky in the Black Hills. Though they hadn’t been allies, the Lakota and his band of warriors had saved Krysty, Mildred, J.B., Jak and Doc from the guns of Helskel’s sec men. From what he had been told, the rescue had been unintentional, more of a by-product of the Lakotas’ attack on Lars Hellstrom and his squad of sec men.
Touch-the-Sky himself, who preferred to be called “Joe” by the whites, prowled the ancient tribal lands of his people, seeking out and punishing interlopers and desecrators. He had warned them about the chill-crazy citizens of the settlement of Helskel, and a few days later Ryan had spared the man’s life when he could have just as easily ended it. Under the circumstances he supposed they owed each other nothing and had to renew their relationship on fresh terms.
At a loss for something say, Ryan ventured, “Autry told us your name was Yutan-kin-something-or-other.”
“That’s the Lakota pronunciation,” Joe replied with a thin smile. “The English translation is, of course, Touch-the-Sky.”
“Care to join us for breakfast?” Krysty asked.
Joe shook his head. “Thank you, no. This isn’t a social call. When Little Mountain told me that Ochi-neethat’s you, Mr. Cawdorand his friends were here in Amicus, threatened by the Red Cadre, I came straightaway. I arrived too late to help rout them, I see.”
“That blaster of yours would have been a big help to us. As it is, some got away,” J.B. told him.
“The survivors, the stragglers, have already been dealt with.” Joe’s tone was cold, firm and decisive.
Ryan leaned back in his chair. “You said this isn’t a social call. What do you want with us?”
Joe pointed through the open door toward the gray-green mountains on the horizon. “My people dwell there, in the mountains you call the Wind River Range, in a valley called Ti-Ra’-Wa. We have enemies there, and they are too powerful for us to conquer on our own. We have few weapons. I came to Amicus when I heard you were here because you left Helskel aflame and drove their evil from my people’s ancestral land. You can help us in our struggle.”
Ryan suddenly felt certain Joe wasn’t seeking aid to win a petty intertribal conflict. The stakes were far larger than property or hunting rights.
“Not mercies,” Jak said.
Joe shrugged. “You are warriors, and that is enough. I’d hoped to reach Amicus in time to aid you in your battle with the Cadre, and you would subsequently discharge the debt by helping me. Therefore, we must bargain. Though I won’t pay you, I will reward you.”
Doc’s face suddenly showed interest. “Reward us with what?”
Joe reached beneath his deerskin cloak and brought forth a dully gleaming object that he laid carefully, almost reverently on the tabletop.
It was a flat wafer of dull yellow metal, several inches long. Inset on either side of the wafer were two small hexagons of crystal. Though they looked like quartz, there was something odd about their structure. Each was only an inch in diameter, but bore an interlocking pattern of facets that blurred the vision, made it difficult to focus directly on them.
“More shiny metal,” Jak snorted scornfully.
“Not again,” J.B. muttered.
Joe started. “What do you mean?”
Ryan dug around in his pocket and brought out the pieces of gold he had taken from John Hatcher. “Got this off Hatchet Jack.”
Joe’s eyes widened, and his nostrils flared. “That is from Ti-Ra’-Wa! It is the Mazaska WakenSacred Gold. How did he get it?”
“He never said,” Doc replied, picking up the slice of metal. “He was more concerned about accruing more.”
Gingerly Doc nipped at one corner of the wafer. He examined it closely, saw the faint indentations of his teeth and exclaimed, “By the Three Kennedys! Pure gold!”
Ryan looked up at Joe. “Where did this come from?”
“From Ti-Ra’-Wa,” the Lakota answered. “There is more. All you can carry away. If you help me.”
“The map Hatcher had on him,” Autry said in surprise. “It must have been legitimate after all.”