Free Project Enterprise by Pauline Baird Jones Page A

she couldn’t do was ride the horse into town. Pa’d know his own horse, probably better than he knew his daughter. She slipped to the ground, took her canteen and had a drink, tied it back to the saddle. She resisted the urge to loop the reins around the saddle horn, instead let them trail and slapped Delphine on the backside. Felt almost put upon when the horse trotted off without a backward look. Ani angled away from the tracks now, heading for the side of town where Angelica lived.
    We’re not where we were. The lights, they did something to time.
    The feeling of danger she’d sensed in the wash, it rose again, chilling her insides. What if Angelica wasn’t here? Or was that different, too?
    She pulled the cap down so it shadowed her face, slowed her walk as she passed the first of the windmills that pulled water from the ground for the town. There were some signs of stirring, of day’s beginning for some folks. She passed into the shadow cast by the first adobe, moving quiet as she knew how, though trying not to look like she was creeping or anything.
    The adobes were closer together here, made it easier to stay hid. She was glad for those shadows, though she didn’t know why. Pa would tell her that her imagination was getting the better of her. And maybe it was, but this time Marfa didn’t feel as peaceful-like. The few people she glimpsed looked sullen and fearful. She stopped, leaned against a corner like she had nothing better to do and studied the adobe that should be Angelica’s, then the area around it. Saw someone lurking in the shadows across from it. Red eyes gleamed out of those shadows.
    It’s an automaton.
    Whatever an automaton was, it had turned Chance from lover to hunter in the time it took her to blink. Heard a grinding noise—and the thing moved into the light. It wore the clothes of a cowboy jeans, cotton shirt, chaps, hat and guns, all dark and kind of sinister looking. Moved with a jerky precision that should have been silly, but wasn’t. It was like he was a copy of the hired guns they’d run into every now and again—run ins that always ended with Pa giving them some of their earnings and free samples of elixir. Pa called it the cost of doing business where the arm of the law didn’t reach, buying protection. Pa didn’t like buying anything that didn’t earn him a profit but a gun to the head was mighty persuasive.
    He approached the door to Angelica’s hut, banged it once, then again. It swung open and she stood in the opening, her hands on her hips. She looked the same, brown skinned, her dark hair twisted into a knot on the back of her head, her dark eyes flashing defiance, though the thing topped her by a considerable bit.
    It didn’t speak. Did gesture for her to come out. She pulled her shawl more tightly around her, tossed her head, then stalked out, slamming the door behind her. She set off in the direction of the courthouse, the main street of Marfa, her skirts swishing with her anger, that thing clunking behind her. There was a chugging, like a train incoming, but it came from above. A shadow passed overhead, drawing her gaze. Above her, a strange flying machine passed by, no, several of them, like a flying train, only with strange bloated tops and their bows like ships, plumes of smoke streaming back from each of them, not just the lead one. It turned in the direction of the train depot.
    We’re not where we were. The lights, they did something to time.
    After a brief hesitation, Ani followed, not sure why she felt the need, because she wanted to flee, not just Marfa, but to Chance, back to the tinaja , back to where she belonged.
    Something hung over the settlement, hung thick over it, something not happy or good. And with the rising sun, came the sounds of a commotion of some kind, but it wasn’t until she crept close to the square that she saw the gallows. She did not want to see a hanging. Giving in