“Oh, shoot, yeah. I’ll run down and procure provisions and explain to Dinah why she’s on her own for a while. You assure Daisy food is coming. She’ll point you to the path that leads to Cass’s so you don’t have to comeback this way. The farm really is the key to this town. I can’t believe you own it!” Mariah pressed past Sam to go back down, but squeezed her arm with excitement as she did so. “Bless you for finding us! I haven’t felt this positive inages.”
“You have a way of getting into town without walking through the town hall again?” Sam asked inamusement.
“I drop over the wall and ontoMonty’s car most times. Haven’t heard him leave. But if he has, the drive will be clear. I can go around thebuilding.”
That sounded like a precarious path. She’d have to study it better later. But now, curious to see where the stairs came out, Sam kept climbing. Maybe she could persuade Daisy to show her the art she protected with her stonestatues.
The stairs at the top were morecrumbling sandstone than solid granite. She had to watch where she put her feet. She was grateful she’d taken Harvey’s staff with her. She pounded the rocks, although she didn’t see any crevasses where snakes mightslither.
At the top, she reached the wooded area that served as windbreak. She could see now that someone had planted redwoods among the pines, and she ran her fingers over thepeeling bark, trying to guess the age. The area had obviously been logged of old growth, but the new trees were doing well in the shadow of the Douglas firs. One day, they would tower over the mountainagain.
She even found a few California rhododendrons surviving in the damp fog that rolled in off the ocean. What a wondrous place this must have been! And it might be hers? Did she darelet excitement build? Probably not, given the land’shistory.
Once out of the wooded area, she was back on unhospitable rock and the burned remains from the recent fire. She knew the dirt between the rocks would grow habitation, but it needed water. Without the pines and redwoods to catch the moisture in the air and provide shade, the rocks driedout.
She studied the open landscapein the light of the setting sun. The light was probably fabulous for artists. And if she climbed up high enough, she might even see the ocean. She hadn’t gone up on Bald Rock with Val, but that was probably a good perch. She could see it looming over the plateau, well above the hedges surrounding thefarmhouse.
She called Daisy’s name to let her know she was coming. A staff raised abovethe manzanita, indicating she’dheard.
The line of protective statues had nearly doubled to surround the old stone foundation. Daisy had beenbusy.
“I’ve brought water but Mariah had to go back for food. I didn’t know we were coming up here.” Sam pulled an unopened bottle of water from her cargo shorts and stepped over the guardianborder.
Daisy looked up with a frown as Sampushed through the hedge. “You shouldn’t be here. The mountain will tumble in yourpresence.”
“Uh, well, sorry.” At that warning, Sam glanced nervously at the tall bluff and evidence of previous rock falls, but there wasn’t any good reason for them to fall after the winter rains had stopped. Sam handed her the water. “I’ll leave when Mariah returns. Can Ihelp?”
Daisy gestured ather dwindling collection of sticks and stones. “The hills are not safe. The village is hungry. They have sent their bravest warriors to hunt the Great Bear, but the warriors do not return. The women dance in mourning around the fires, and the childrencry.”
Listening to Daisy’s chanting voice, Sam could almost travel with her through time, smell the campfires and see the shadows of longlost huntsmen tracking grizzlies with bows and arrows. In a place this isolated, the spirits just might linger. “And then the Spanish came, Iguess.”
If she couldn’t get sense out of Daisy, she might at least hear some history. In comfortable silence, she gathered stones and lined them up bysize.
“The men with spears took the people as slaves,” Daisy said sadly some while later.“The women weep for their homes and the sons who lived and diedhere.”
“The grizzlies are gone, aren’t they?” Sam thought Daisy was getting too heavily into doom and tried to bring her companion back to bettertimes.
“The Great Bear hunts us all. White men bring evil and the wrath of the gods. You shouldleave.”
Sam quit asking questions and wandered further afield, searchingsticks and stones. When she heard the sputter of an engine, she breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t want to leave Daisy alone, but she didn’t know how to talk to hereither.
Daisy heard the sound and gestured dismissal. “Take Valdis back with you. Don’t make the Evil One’s job easy. Go far faraway.”
Arguing with Daisy was wasted effort. Sam stood up to welcome the newarrivals.
Mariah had indeed brought Valdis. Wielding her walking stick like a cane to keep her weight off her injured ankle, Sam’s aunt lurched across theyard.
“Valdis, go home,” Daisy cried from behind thehedge.
“You can’t stop Death,” Valdis calledback.
Behind her, Mariah caught Sam’s eye and shrugged. It was good to know she wasn’t the only one thinking she needed to learnthe Lucys’language.
“Monty and Kurt were about to come to blows in the parking lot when I left Dinah’s,” Mariah whispered, letting Valdis limp ahead on her own. “If only cell phones worked, we might have heard them yelling at the real bastards. But that slime ball Gump apparently wasn’t within shoutingdistance.”
“He was in the café earlier with his sales team, remember? What doesGump have to do with anything?” Sam helped Val over the stonefoundation.
“Don’t know. His name just kept coming up. And he’s an asshat who needs to be yelled at. He agitates the universe. And I think he’s harming Xavier.” Mariah pushed through the hedge with her sack offood.
“How is he harming Xavier?” Sam followedher.
“He just busted him out ofrehab.”
