“Why wouldn’t my cousin be alive?” Wendell asked.
Kady thought she might as well tell the truth, since she didn’t have time to try to concoct some plausible lie. “He may have been hanged for bank robbery.”
“I see.”
Kady’s lips tightened. “You can stop patronizing me, as I know very well that you see nothing.”
“I see that you have no weapon and no backup army. Hell, you don’t even have information, so how can you save anyone from anything?”
Kady began to walk faster.
“So what are you going to do? Cook something so wonderful that the bad guys hand Tarik over to you as a thank-you gift?”
“No, I’m going to trade you for him,” she said with all the spite she could muster and could have kicked herself for ever asking this woman for a ride on her bike.
“That’s not a bad idea,” Wendell said softly.
Kady almost paused in walking as she looked at Wendell, who was staring straight ahead, her eyes wide. “You would certainly cause a distraction,” she said, and Wendell smiled.
“Look, cookie, we ought to make a plan.”
“All right, Spike, I am going to make one.”
Wendell snorted in laughter and kept following Kady, the huge black motorcycle at her side, masses of red hair blowing about her. “Not that I have much use for women, but I could half like you.”
“If that’s a compliment, thanks. So here’s the plan.” Kady didn’t bother with the preliminaries of asking Wendell her thoughts, nor did she bother informing her of what had led up to today. “I want you to hide. I want you to keep out of sight while I go into town and—”
“Like hell I will! I’ll—”
“You’ll have everyone looking at you!” Kady half yelled. “Which is what I want nearly as much as you do, but you’re going to do it when I say you can.”
At this Wendell almost smiled, and Kady took a deep breath. “I’m going into town alone and find out where Tarik is and what’s going on. No one will pay any attention to me. You’ll wait here, and I’ll come back for you.”
“Stay out of sight, huh?” Wendell asked with a little smirk as though to say that was an impossibility.
Looking at her in her skin-tight leathers, Kady shook her head. “In the real world, what do you do for a living?”
“Nothing. I married a rich old man, and he died three days after the wedding. Left everything to me.” Wendell said this with a look of defiance, as though daring Kady to make a judgment.
“You must be a very lonely woman,” Kady said, surprising Wendell so much the smirk left her handsome face.
But Wendell recovered herself quickly, then snorted. “Go on. I’ll take a nap. I had a busy night.”
Kady paused only long enough to watch Wendell roll her motorcycle under the shade of some cottonwood trees before she took off at a half run. As she knew from having seen the town with Ruth, this was Damnation Avenue, and to her left was the Jordan Line, which meant that she was illegally on the Jordan side. Would armed guards shoot her for trespassing?
To her right she passed the dirt road that led to the Jordan house, the place that she was staying in the twentieth century with Hannibal. For a moment she hesitated as she got her bearings. The town was so different each time she saw it that it was difficult to find her way around, and now the fading light was making it nearly impossible. Past the road to the Jordan house was what Cole had called the library. In his dreamworld it had been big and beautiful, but in truth it was just a small, simple board building that needed a coat of paint. Further ahead she could see the church that was half the size it had been in Cole’s town.
Between the library and the church, the road turned left and there was a huge circle that could be used to turn the largest wagons, so there would be no excuse for anyone coming onto Jordan land. Beyond the stone wall that kept out the riffraff was the town of Legend, and even at this distance Kady could see the reason for the wall. Was there anything in Legend besides saloons? As far as she could see there were nothing but garish signs advertising gambling and girls: French girls, pretty girls, wild women. On and on the signs went.
“No wonder Ruth hated the place,” Kady whispered before she turned and started down the street, thinking that maybe she should have strapped on a pair of six-shooters and—
She halted as she heard the unmistakable sound of steel against steel, like the sound she’d heard in a hundred swashbuckler movies. “Tarik!” she said under her breath, then stayed still and listened. When she heard the sound again, she didn’t hesitate but picked up her skirts and began running through the grass and weeds toward the back of the library.
When she reached the sound, she paused in horror for a few seconds before leaping. Tarik was being held by a man who had his arm around Tarik’s throat, a huge curved-blade sword ready to remove his head. As Wendell had pointed out, Kady had no weapon, so she grabbed a rock from the ground and jumped onto the back of the man, bringing the rock down on his head, and he crumpled instantly.
“What the—?” Tarik said when the man suddenly released him.
“Are you all right?” Kady asked as she threw her arms around Tarik’s waist. “Did he hurt you? Are they going to hang you? Luke got away, and he wanted to come back for you, but—”