Free Blood of Mystery by Mark Anthony Page A

think we had better try to find a place to stay in town.”
    “Is that wise?” Sareth said. Two days’ worth of beard shadowed his bronze cheeks, imparting a sharpness to his expression. He gestured to Lirith and Durge. “We are strangers to this world.”
    Travis sighed. “So am I. At least in this century. But I still think we should go. If something is stalking us, I’d rather not be such an easy target. Besides, there’s a chance someone in town might have an idea of when Jack is going to arrive. He might have written ahead to arrange for a house. And don’t tell me you really want to spend another night in this palace.”
    As one they gazed down at the hard dirt floor, and that settled it.
    They made a dull but welcome breakfast of most of the remaining foodstuffs Travis had bought; the cold had made them all ravenous. Travis would have done anything for a pot of steaming coffee, but he hadn’t bought any at the store, and as far as he knew there was no rune for
maddok
. He started to ask Lirith if there was any witchcraft that could conjure a cup, but as soon as he mentioned the word
maddok
she snarled at him, then stalked away, clutching a hand to her head. In the end, he and Lirith each settled for a cup of hot water with a few drops of salicylate of soda added in hopes of easing their throbbing skulls.
    It didn’t take long to pack up their few belongings, and an hour after dawn they set out. The high-altitude sun was already bright, and Travis was glad for the straw hat on his head. With his shaved cranium and sensitive skin, it was a necessity if he didn’t want to immediately turn into jerky. He had bought hats for all of them. Didn’t just about everyone wear hats back in the 1880s?
    They saw no people on the narrow trail that snaked down the mountainside, and the few cabins they passed were in even worse repair than the one where they had stayed the last two days. From his years in Castle City, Travis knew most mines were abandoned not long after they were claimed, once the easy-to-reach blossom ore was hauled off. By now, the only operations still running in the valley would be the big mines, the ones that had enough capital to buy the equipment and hire the men needed to dig down deep to the bones of the mountain.
    Once it reached the floor of the valley, the trail met up with a rutted dirt road. As they approached, Travis could see it was busy with people: mostly miners on their way to the diggings, although the first mule-drawn carts filled with ore were already lurching down the road, making their way to the train depot.
    It was only when he saw the people that a troubling thought occurred to Travis. He supposed he would be able to communicate in Castle City—despite the fact that, if the woman in the store was any indication, the English they spoke wasn’t quite what he was used to. However, Lirith, Durge, and Sareth didn’t speak English at all. What if someone tried to talk to one of them?
    You could give one of them the half-coin, Travis. Except that
wouldn’t help the other two. And then you wouldn’t be able to
talk to the three of them, unless your Eldhish is a whole lot better than you think it is.
    The four had stopped on the trail, about a hundred yards from the road where the men and wagons moved past.
    “Is something amiss?” Durge asked. “These men look to be a rough lot. I suppose they’ll attack the moment they see us.” The knight reached over his shoulder for his greatsword, now wrapped in Travis’s mistcloak.
    “No, Durge. I don’t think they’ll attack us.”
    In fact, the road was so crowded—and with such a variety of people—that Travis doubted anyone would even notice them. Mixed liberally among the tide of pale Europeans were faces of black, brown, yellow, and red. But then, from what Travis knew, the Old West had been a true melting pot. Just about everyone had heard the twin siren calls of gold and silver.
    There were people from the old