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Updated: June 25, 2025
And for such a woman, cut off from her outlaw kin, to eventually head back toward the Red settlement as the only hope of evading her enemies logical all the way! "She would have to be well frightened," Travis observed with reluctance. "That can be done for us " Travis glanced at Buck with sharp annoyance. He would not allow certain games out of their common past to be played with Kaydessa.
And he did not question the girl again until all three of them hunkered down at a small mountain spring, to dash icy water over their faces and drink from cupped hands. "Why do you flee your own people, Wolf Daughter?" "My name is Kaydessa," she corrected him. He chuckled with laughter at the prim tone of her voice. "And you see here Tsoay of the People the Apaches while I am Fox."
"The Khatun Kaydessa says that when she was slave to the caller, you did not feel its chains," he began. "Those who rule you are not my overlords. The bonds they set upon your minds do not touch me." Travis hoped that that was the truth and his escape that morning had not been just a fluke. "This could be, for you and I are not of one blood," Menlik agreed. "Tell me how did you escape your bonds?"
"It is done. The Pinda-lick-o-yi entered the ship eagerly. Then they blew it and themselves up. Manulito did his work well." "And Kaydessa?" "The woman is safe. When the Reds saw the ship, they left their machine outside to hold her captive. That mechanical caller was easily destroyed. She is now free and with the mba'a she comes across the mountains, Manulito and Eskelta with her also.
Travis gasped, and started to crawl for the break. Eskelta loomed over him, pulled him up in haste. They reached the opening but did not climb through. Travis was uncertain as to whether he could make that descent yet, and Eskelta was obeying orders in not venturing out too soon. Below, the ground was bare. There was no sign of the Apaches, though they were in hiding there and none of Kaydessa.
"When we met you, Kaydessa and I, it was outside that valley." Travis was still of two minds about this questioning, but the Tatar camp had been close to the towers and there was a good chance the Mongols had explored them. "And inside were buildings ... very old...." Menlik was fully alert now. He took his wand, played with it as he spoke: "That is, or was, a place of much power, Fox.
"How did you become free?" she demanded fiercely. Travis hesitated. He did not want to tell of the wrecked ship, the fact that his people possessed no real defenses against the Russian-controlled colony. "We went to the mountains," he replied evasively. "Your governing machine failed?" Kaydessa laughed. "Ah, they are so great, those men of the machines.
But Travis was none too happy to have Deklay in on this. Travis dismounted, letting the pony push forward by himself to dip nose into the pool. "This is," Travis pointed politely with his chin "Menlik, one who talks with spirits.... Hulagur, who is son to a chief ... and Kaydessa, who is daughter to a chief. They are of the horse people of the north." He made the introduction carefully in English.
There was a feeling of assent, and then the animal was gone. Travis sighed. The Apache scouts were subtle and alert, but the coyotes could far outdo any man. With Nalik'ideyu and Naginlta flanking her flight, Kaydessa would be well guarded. She would probably never see her guards or know that they were running protection for her. "That was a good move," Jil-Lee said, coming out of concealment.
And following the chain of communication the result of the trap would be reported to the party at the towers. The waiting was the most difficult; too many imponderables did not allow for unemotional thinking. Travis was down to the last shred of patience when word came on the second morning at the hidden valley that Kaydessa had been picked up by a Red patrol drawn out to meet them by the caller.
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