“I should’ve seen it coming,” Blaze said.
“You couldn’t have.”
“I was leading,” Blaze said. “She trusted me.”
“Your horse died doing what she was trained to,” Graycloud said softly. “She carried you clear of gunfire. There’s no dishonor in that.”
He swallowed hard. The words helped, but not much. He’d buried Nancy out by the dry creek bed before they rode off on their two remaining horses. It wasn’t easy to do it without a shovel, but luckily, there was already a significant dip in the ground.
All they had to do was push the animal’s lifeless body into it.
“She was a good horse,” Blaze said.
“Then honor her by living,” Graycloud said.
Blaze nodded, but his chest felt hollow.
Marisol clicked the rifle shut and leaned it against the wall.
“We got lucky today,” she said. “Too lucky.”
“How do you figure?” Blaze asked.
“Six of them dead,” Marisol replied. “That doesn’t happen unless something’s off.”
“They were careless,” Graycloud said. “Thought we’d break easy.”
Marisol snorted. “Maybe. Or maybe they wanted to spook us...drive us into a trap.”
She glanced at Blaze.
“You’d know something about walking into traps, wouldn’t you?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Blaze asked.
“You froze up,” she said. “When the first shot hit your horse. You were under her long enough to get killed three times over.”
“I got free,” Blaze said.
“After Graycloud and I took half of them down,” Marisol said.
Blaze’s hands clenched on his knees. “You think I don’t know that?”
“I think you got a lot of heart, kid,” she said. “But heart ain’t enough when men are shooting at you.”
It was tough to hear. Blaze thought he was proving himself every day. Why couldn’t Marisol see that? It wasn’t like she was that much older than him.
They were practically in the same boat. They were going after the same thing.
Graycloud’s voice broke through the tension. “He is learning.”
“Learning gets you killed fast out here,” she replied without hesitation.
“Then I’ll learn faster,” Blaze said.
Marisol’s eyes met his in the dim light of the abandoned cabin. “That’s what you said before.”
“And I meant it,” Blaze said. “You think I want to be a burden out there? You think I like watching people fight my battles?”
