Mk's Arc

Chapter 3 of 6

Mk swung the pick until his shoulders burned. Finn Jarro sat in the shade of a tin roof and drank from a clay jug. Thirteen days. Thirteen days while Running Bear and Aiyana Redfeather walked toward the flats past Roma's hut. Mk drove the pick again and thought about the three rocks on the horizon. The sightline would hold. A boot print next to it would not. At midday Mk set the pick down and walked into the shade. He told Finn he needed to hire a watcher for his own patch of ground. Finn laughed once, short. He said a watcher cost coin, and Mk had none. Mk said he would trade a day off Finn's count for every day someone sat on his dig. Finn shook his head. A deal was a deal. Two weeks meant two weeks. Mk walked back to the pick. The gecko shifted on his wrist. He thought of the pouch flap with the bearing written on it, and the pigments folded inside. He would not trade them. He needed another way. That evening a man came along the trail from the flats. He wore hide leggings and carried a bow. He stopped at the edge of Finn's claim and watched Mk work for a long minute. Mk set the pick down and walked over. The man said his name was Running Wolf. He said he was tracking men who had taken sacred ground from his people. He said the trail led through the flats past a clay hut and out onto the open dune. Mk described the three rocks and the sightline. He said there was a spot on that dune he could not leave and could not guard. He asked Running Wolf to camp on it for twelve days. In return, Mk would give him the names and faces of every stranger who came through Star West asking about the flats. Traders passed Finn's claim every day. Mk heard them talk. Running Wolf listened. He asked how Mk would know the spot when he came back. Mk showed him the pouch flap. Running Wolf read the numbers, then the bearing. He nodded once. He said he would sit on the sand and watch the trail at the same time. One camp, two hunts. Mk walked Running Wolf up the ridge before dark. He lined him up on the three rocks and paced the ten steps north, east, south, west. Running Wolf set his pack down at the center. He said no one would dig here while he drew breath. He did not raise his voice when he said it. Mk went back down to Finn's claim in the last light. His site had a man on it now. His debt still stood at thirteen days. The gecko climbed to his shoulder. Somewhere out on the trail, two travelers were still walking toward a patch of sand that was no longer empty.