James Axler – Demons of Eden

There was a stunned silence for a moment. Then Jak laughed scornfully. “Man is jolt-brain.”

“Mebbe so, mebbe not so,” J.B. said. “The gold is real enough.”

“So it is,” Doc agreed. “But what has it to do with tribal superstitions?”

Joe made a fierce, impatient gesture. “I knew you would doubt me, that was why I dared not tell you the truth.”

” ‘Magic Ti-Ra’-Wa,’ ” Mildred intoned softly. ” ‘Life, death, good, evil, joy and sorrow/All born in the Cavern of Creation.’ ”

Ryan spit on the ground, breaking the spell of the fantastic Joe and Mildred’s words had woven. “This is all bullshit, but we can spread it out thin later. Right now I want to know what kind of danger we’re talking about. How far are we now from Ti-Ra’-Wa?”

Joe gestured to the craggy cliffs on the far side of the wooded gully. “The valley lies on the other side of those cliffs. But reaching it will be extremely tricky now.”

“Why?” Krysty asked.

“There is only one entrance into the valley. It leads near the lair of the Wolf Soldiers, yet we must pass through it to reach my people. Now, if the wolves get back word of us, they’ll block us at the pass.”

“Wolves?” Jak echoed incredulously, his crimson eyes glowing with suspicion. “Wolves tell on us?”

“The beasts of Ti-Ra’-Wa are not the beasts of the white man’s world,” Joe declared. “They are intelligent, some as intelligent as men. That is why we must hurry.”

Ryan and his five friends grasped at least the urgency of the situation. They had, all of them, fought too many battles and made too many forced marches through dangerous territory not to understand the need for stealth and strategy.

“Let’s do as he says,” Ryan told his friends. “He’s either a liar, a lunatic or a superstitious stupe. We’ll find out later. Right now I smell trouble.” Joe’s face was tight with anger at Ryan’s words, but he said nothing as he jerked his pony’s head toward the path to the gully below.

The sun continued to sink, and darkness came with an unwelcome rush as Joe led the little caravan down into the heavily treed gorge. They made their way through the tangle of fir, pine and poplar. A stream rushed noisily somewhere nearby.

Joe knew the trails. He turned southward, and the companions turned after him, their horses stumbling on loose turf and stones. J.B. swore beneath his breath each time his steed’s footing faltered. Only Judas Redux tramped on without mistake.

A cold breeze sighed down from the mountains, stirring tree limbs. Ryan had a sudden and claustrophobic awareness of the huge mountain ranges that boxed them into this wild pocket of the world, and he thought of how the Red Cadre had been trapped in a gorge.

A wolf howled, a long, mournful cry that floated from somewhere up in the wooded slopes on the west side of the gully.

Joe turned on his pony’s back. “Faster!”

The wolf cry came again, echoing thinly through the night.

Joe abruptly reined in his pinto and dismounted. “They’ve pinpointed our position.”

Drawing his SIG-Sauer, Ryan turned to his friends. “Blasters primed and loaded. Triple red.”

Joe reached beneath his fringed deerskin cape. Ryan assumed he was pulling out a weapon, but in his hand was the wafer of gold with the two crystal disks mounted on either side of it.

“What are you doing?” Ryan demanded in a harsh whisper.

“Quiet,” Joe commanded. “I need to concentrate.”

He pressed the wafer of metal to his forehead. The crystals caught the glow of the rising moon and the frosty starlight, and the facets seemed to sparkle.

Ryan felt stunned wonder and a swelling fear that the Lakota had suddenly and completely lost his mind.

“What is it? What’s he doing?” came Mildred’s anxious whisper from behind. There was the rattle of hooves on stones.

“More jolt-brain shit,” Jak said angrily. “Can’t stand here all night.”

The wolf howled again, and this time it was answered by another yelping cry, then a third.

And a fourth.

And a fifth.

“Go,” Jak declared. “Leave him.”

“Wait, Jak,” Krysty said softly. “Joe seems to know what’s he doing.”