Cassidy Kane's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

The dust on the west road had already thinned when Cassidy Kane spurred her horse after it. The mare stumbled inside a mile. Her sides heaved. Foam flecked her neck. Cassidy pulled up and felt the truth in the animal's shaking legs. The scarred man had a full day's start and a fresh mount. She had a tired horse and a cold trail getting colder. Cassidy Tempest reined in beside her. She looked at the failing mare, then at the empty road. "You'll kill her before noon," she said. "Then you'll walk. He'll ride." "Then I walk." "No. We think." Tempest pointed west, where a fenced oval sat off the road. Weathered barriers ringed a track of packed dirt. A painted board hung over the gate. Men leaned on the rails, watching horses run. "A man who buys fast horses knows where fast horses are sold. So do racing men." Cole Ryder rode up behind them, the bound forger slumped across his saddle. He had stayed on to see the thief taken in, not just talked out of a chair. He studied the track and the row of stalls beside it. "A tired horse loses a race," Cole said. "A fresh one wins it. You don't need his trail. You need his kind of horse." They rode to the stalls. Weathered planks, open fronts, rails worn smooth. A wiry man forked hay to a bay inside one. Cassidy swung down and showed him silver from her belt. She described the scarred man and the horse he'd bought in Duskfall. The man kept forking hay. "Lots of men buy horses." Tempest stepped in close. Her voice dropped, flat and quiet. "He came through yesterday. He was in a hurry. A man in a hurry pays too much and remembers wrong." She set coin on the rail. "You remember right." The man looked at the coin. "One like that. Bought a second horse off me at dark. Paid double, no haggle. Wanted to ride through the night." He nodded south, away from the mesas. "Cut south. Said the mesa road was watched." South. Not west. The thief had doubled back to throw them. Cassidy's hand tightened on the rail. "He's got two horses now. He's faster, not slower." "He's faster on the wrong road for us," Tempest said. "But now we know the road." Cole loosened his lasso and looked at the mare. "Trade her here. Buy fresh. Chase a man on two horses with two rested ones, not one dead one." They bought two racing horses with the last of Cassidy's silver. The trail was warm again, but it bent south now, and the man had doubled his lead. Cassidy climbed onto the fresh horse and turned it away from the mesas. She was still behind. Now she knew exactly where.