El Paso Way (18 page)

“Ah, you did well,” he said. “Just enough pressure to keep the bleeding down. Don't look like anything important was hit. I'll get you sewed up and rebandaged, then hope for the best.”

“What are you saying, doc?” Dutton said.

“I'm saying that you'll heal up so long as we avoid infection. As of now that's your only danger.”

“Well let's make it quick. We've got a job to do.”

“I'm afraid that's out of the question. You'll need at least a month of inactivity. Maybe more. You need healing time, mister.”

Enrique looked solemnly at Pang.

“Now,” the doctor said, looking at all of them, “leave me alone to attend to your friend. You can all wait in the parlor.”

They walked out slowly and followed the doctor's instructions. He closed a curtain between the rooms, and they all sat on wooden chairs padded with red center-tucked velvet.

Enrique looked at Amelia. “Can you help us?”

“All I can tell you is to leave town. If I go with you, they will track me down and we will all die. So go and spare your lives while you still have them.”

“You know I cannot do that.
Mamá
and
Papá
, they are dead. Valdar's men killed them. Did you know this?”

Amelia stared gravely. “No, I have always wondered, but I did not know.”

“Have you been here all of this time, in El Paso?”

“
Sí
,” she said. “Most of the women he captures go to Mexico. But he kept me for his own.”

The thought of it made Enrique regret he hadn't come to El Paso sooner.

“My
patrón
, the man I killed, he and all of his men look after me while Valdar is away. I always dread the day he returns. About a year after he brought me here, I finally gave in to him. Before that, every time he came to me I fought him. After a while I realized it was what he liked, so I stopped doing it, figuring he'd take me away and sell me somewhere else. But it did not work that way. He just didn't come around as often, and I remained here, his prisoner, his mistress, his slave.” She looked at Enrique and smiled. “I kept my mind at peace only because of hope.” She knelt in front of him and held his hands. “Hope that one day my family would come for me. And at last that day has come.”

He rubbed a hand along her cheek. “Yes, it has.”

“That was a horrible day, when they came. How did you get away from them?”

“Valdar and his renegades . . . they would have killed me, too, but I escaped. I lived in the wilderness for days. I thought a lot of our grandfather, and coming here to find him.”

Amelia looked sadly away. “I thought of that, too. Occasionally, strangers would come, and I would ask them if they'd heard of him, but nobody had. I always hoped that one day someone would, and that he'd come for me. But I'm not sure even our grandfather could have withstood the power and influence of Valdar.”

“Like you, I still hope to find him. The priest told me to have faith, because with the right amount of faith, all things are possible.”

“The priest?”

“Father Gaeta. He took me in shortly after Valdar's visit. I stayed with him at the mission all these years.”

Amelia smiled. “
Mamá
would have liked that.”

“I owe much to him,” Enrique said. “More than I'll likely ever repay.”

“And he approves of this? You taking vengeance?”

“He is letting me make my own choices.”

“I am afraid for you, Enrique. Do you have any idea how bad these men are?”

“Did I not see the bodies of
Mamá
and
Papá
? I saw more than I ever care to see again. It is what drives me. I believe it is my destiny. I have already killed Beshkah. Now there are two left.”

Amelia seemed astonished. “
You
killed Beshkah?”

“
Sí.
I was glad to do it.”

Amelia stared solemnly at the floor. “Beshkah—dead.”

Pang leaned forward, holding his hat between his knees and fondling the brim. “Valdar is coming back here, and he has my fiancée.”

Amelia looked up at both of them.

“That's right,” Enrique said. “It is not only me and my own yearning. Pang has his as well, and together we will see justice done.”

Amelia rose to her feet and looked out a window as the setting sun cast many shadows on the street. “There is a place not far from here, by the river, an old mine. When he comes to town with women, he hides them there until he is ready to cross the river into Mexico. I should know. I spent a month there many years ago.”

“Can you tell us how to get there?” Enrique said.

“No, but I can take you there.”

“No, Amelia,” Enrique said. “It's too dangerous. Stay here with Dutton and the doctor, and we will come back for you.”

She turned to him. “You are forgetting,
mi hermano
, that I am your
big
sister. I have endured much since I was taken from you and brought here. My heart is hard but my mind is clear. There is nothing I am afraid of now.”

Enrique acknowledged her willfulness. “All right. But what if we rescue Sai Min? After that, where do we find Valdar?”

“Finding Valdar is never hard,” she said. “It's knowing who to ask, and then finding the courage to face him.”

Pang took a deep breath, his nostrils flared. “We're halfway there, then. You supply the knowledge, we'll supply the courage.”

* * *

The doctor sewed up Dutton and bandaged the wounds, and the new trio moved him to a hotel room and put him to bed. The doctor agreed to check on him hourly. The loss of blood made him weak, and sleep found him easily.

Amelia stayed with him while Enrique and Pang went back for their horses. It was dark now, and they knew they'd be able to sneak into the alley without being spotted. But when they got there, their horses were gone. They retreated back to the hotel, and Amelia told them that she was sure the horses were taken to the personal livery of Francisco Juarez, her late
patrón
. She also told them that it was there that Valdar kept his own horses that he brought Juarez to sell.

“Horses he stole, you mean?” Enrique said.

“
Sí
,” she said.

“It could be that the horses and mules he took from us on the trail are there as well.”

“But we should not be greedy,” Pang said.

“There will be a young livery boy there,” Amelia said. “He will not be difficult for me to persuade.”

“Very well,” Enrique said. “Let's go get our horses back.”

* * *

The livery was near the center of El Paso and almost a stone's throw from Fort Bliss. While approaching the livery, they could hear the sound of a fiddle playing inside the fort and see the shadows of guards near the corners of the bastion. Amelia went inside through the main entrance of the livery, while Enrique and Pang snuck in on either side, through the corral and into the stables. As she had envisioned, the young Mexican stable boy was there, and she found him carrying a wooden pail of water. He seemed startled by her presence and slopped the water as he stopped.

“Pedro,” she said.
“Necesito los tres caballos de los gringos. Dónde están ellos?”

Pedro dropped the bucket and ran. Two men appeared out of the darkness of the stables. Amelia recognized them as men who worked for her
patrón
. She took two steps backward, and then Pang swung in from a rafter above and lit on the ground in front of them. The men stood frozen for a moment, then one of them smiled, one front tooth missing, and lunged at Pang. The Chinaman darted to one side, and the man fell clumsily into the straw and dusty muck of the stable floor. The other man rushed Pang, but Pang blocked his punch with a forearm, jabbed his chest, and as the man fell, wheezing, Pang knocked him unconscious with a jab to the back of his neck. The other man rose from the ground, his face partially covered with dust, making his lips appear pinker than they really were. Straw fell from his hair and his eyes glared as if they were equipped with their own weapons.

He growled and dove for Pang, but Pang jumped, twirled on one foot, and brought the other foot up against the Mexican's chin. He spit blood through his lips and his eyes rolled back in his head before he hit the ground. Slowly, he tried to get up, but Pang delivered the same crippling move to the back of his neck that had put his
compadre
out of commission.

Enrique made his presence known, holding a pitchfork. Pang turned to see who he was, then stood at ease. Once Enrique saw the two men down, he leaned the pitchfork against a stall.

“Glad I could be of help,” Enrique said.

Pang wrinkled his mouth and shook his head.

Amelia came forward and kneeled down by the men, then looked back up at Pang. “I've never seen a man fight like that. You have some gift.”

“A gift taught by my father,” Pang said. “A good and wise man.” His face grew solemn. “A man whom Valdar murdered in cold blood.”

Amelia did not know what to say, but she now understood his purpose more than before.

Enrique put a hand on his shoulder. “Let's get our horses and go find Sai Min. Then, we can pay our respects to Valdar.”

* * *

The young Mexican ran with all his might to the adobe hideout south of El Paso. He saw a faint light and stopped to catch his breath, then took off again toward the sounds of laughing and drinking men and women.

When he came to the door, he knocked wildly. All grew silent inside, and then he heard pistols cocking. The door opened slightly, and the eye of a woman peeked out at him; then she turned and said: “
Es el chico del establo
.”

The door opened, and Baliador looked out at him, his eyes glassy and red.
“Qué quieres?
”

Pedro caught his breath before he spoke.
“Los gringos—ellos tomaron—los caballos.”

Baliador pointed toward the darkness with his chin.
“Largo de aquí.”

* * *

Amelia led the way to the abandoned mine. They rode hard and fast, knowing the boy ran scared and would likely be alerting Valdar of their coming, and that possibly, as a precaution, he would remove his female captives before they arrived. What battered her mind the most, though, was how she had betrayed Valdar to the point that she could never go back, and that he would kill her for sure if she did. Her confidence in leaving with her long-lost brother increased after seeing him throw the knife, but mostly after he mentioned killing Beshkah. That would have been no easy feat for anyone. Her faith was sealed after seeing Pang fight, and knowing that they both had powerful skills as well as motives to see Valdar's blood. Their abilities and their reason were all that was needed to succeed, and likely the best chance Amelia would ever have to get out.

* * *

Enrique was amazed at how well Amelia rode, and how sound her thinking was after having been through such a long, horrible period with Valdar. He had tried to prepare for the day he would find her, and after talking to the priest about it, he'd become convinced that if she was still alive, her mind likely would be gone. It was a true miracle that she had been able to keep hope alive, and it was a powerful witness to her inner strength.

They rode the horses to a lather, through a bitter darkness that enhanced the jittery feelings among them. Enrique worried some about Pang's inept riding talents, but one thing about being a drag rider in a rush was that all one really had to do was hang on. That, it seemed, Pang could do well.

They followed Amelia down into a ravine and wound around several knolls and into a dry streambed, which no doubt helped feed the Rio Grande somewhere along the way. She slowed and eventually came to a halt and dismounted. Though it was hard to see, there was the faint outline of a hillside. Suddenly a match was lit and Amelia's face was cast in a dark orange. She found a lantern and lit it, then held it down by her feet.

“Fresh tracks,” she said.

Enrique got down from his horse and looked at them with her. “Soft prints,” he said. “Not heeled shoes. Valdar wears moccasins and leggings from the Apache.”

“But there is only one set of prints,” she said. “And they go in, but don't come out.”

“
Sí
,” Enrique said, knowing what she meant.

Pang looked down at the prints as well, and then down into the shaft entrance. “Is this the only way in or out?”

“That I know of,” Amelia said. “But I am not sure.”

Amelia and Enrique looked at each other, as they knew what Pang was getting at. If there was no other way out, then Valdar and Sai Min were still in the shaft. Either way, they knew they had to go in.

* * *

Enrique held the lantern and led the way. Amelia held on to him by the tail of his serape, and Pang followed close. They all ducked from the low clearance.

“How far in?” Enrique whispered.

“I'm not sure,” Amelia said. “It's been a long time. But he chained me to a wood beam. That I do remember.”

Enrique thought of the damp darkness, night or day, that anyone would have to endure in this place, and that his own sister had been held captive here in her youth so many years ago. The strength in her, to be here now, amazed him.

They continued walking and came to a dead end, a rocky mass as if the tunnel had collapsed.

Enrique sniffed the air. “This is fresh. I smell fresh earth.”

“Then there must be another way out,” Pang said. “And he blocked us from finding it.”

Enrique thought for a moment, and looked behind him. “And it could be a trap, one that he is setting for us.”

“But why?” Pang said. “Valdar is not afraid of anything. Why leave us in here? Why would he be afraid to confront us?”

“I think I know,” Amelia said.

“What is it?” Enrique said.