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  A red hole appeared in McNair’s forehead as the earth mage rocked backward on the bed. His ears ringing and head hurting, Trey dropped the gun as he collapsed to the floor.

  35

  COLD AIR bit into Gray Talon as he ringed up the thermals around Bald Peak. It’d been a couple of years since he’d been to the mountain, but it still looked cold and forbidding. The fresh coating of snow made it look even harsher than it was. The snow didn’t reach much below the tree line, and the aspens carved swaths of gold down the mountainside through the thick pines that covered the area. He glanced back over his shoulder and saw the five horses and three riders coming slowly up behind him. Trey, on Spot, led the two women.

  Surprisingly, the paint stallion still followed them as it had since leaving the Dabinshire ranch. He had no need for a horse, other than a symbol of prestige among the tribe, but Gray Talon had been bonding with the animal and figured he was stuck with it. Trey had been working with it on their ride south to try to find its fire again, undoing some of the mental damage he’d inflicted on it to get his job at the ranch. After each evening, both mage and horse felt better, but it was now devoted to both him and Trey.

  A wooden structure caught Gray Talon’s attention, and he swooped down to see what it was. As he landed in the overgrown yard, he recognized the remains of Trey’s parents’ cabin. It looked like most of the creatures on the mountain had visited there from time to time. Deer tracks covered the now feral garden where Mrs. McAlister had grown some vegetables and herbs. Bear claw marks scarred the door.

  Gray Talon shifted back to his human form. The cabin was smaller than he remembered it. The roof that now nearly touched his head had seemed so far away when he was younger. There was the hearth where Trey had made them invisible to the outlaws’ eyes. No one had bothered to clean up the cabin when they left it the last time, and years of animal visitation had only added to the chaos.

  Sounds of hoofbeats brought him out of the cabin. Trey, Sarah, and Daphne rode into the yard.

  “So you found it,” Trey said. He slid off Spot and walked up to the cabin. He’d changed out of his white clothes and was back in his buckskins. It brought him back to looking like himself in Gray Talon’s eyes. Even Sarah said he wore the People’s clothes easier than he did the other.

  “You don’t have to go in if you don’t want to,” Gray Talon said.

  Trey shook his head. “I have my memories back. I want to see it for myself. The memories I had all along made it so pretty and perfect.”

  “I think we always make our childhood home pretty and perfect,” Sarah said as she joined them at the door. “I can see the rugged beauty of this place. It must’ve been a great place to grow up.”

  “It was.”

  Gray Talon stayed close to Trey’s side as they entered the cabin. Trey scanned the room, taking in as many details as he could in the shadowy light. He walked over and pulled a crumpled quilt from a corner. Rodents had gotten to it and there were several large holes, but overall, it was still useable. Years of dust dulled the color, but something in Trey’s eyes said it didn’t matter.

  “We can get Laughing Hawk to repair it,” Gray Talon said. He put a comforting hand on Trey’s shoulder.

  Trey swallowed and nodded. “That would be nice.” His voice cracked as he clutched the quilt to his chest. He turned and hurried from the cabin. Gray Talon and Sarah followed him back into the evening sun.

  “It’s going to take several more hours to ride up to the peak,” Gray Talon said, looking at Daphne still sitting on the horse they’d taken from the ranch. “You and I could get up there quicker.”

  She frowned. “No, I think I’d rather wait so Trey and Sarah can go too. I can feel my mother up there. She’s still broody. I can’t tell if the new egg has hatched or not.” On the journey from Wyoming, the young dragon woman had spent much of the time lost in her own thoughts, but as they drew closer to her mother’s home, she’d begun to open up.

  “Trey, are you okay with us camping here for the night?” he asked. His lover was busy folding the quilt before stashing it in one of the packs the last horse carried.

  “I suppose,” Trey replied. “I doubt there are any ghosts around here. It all feels so lifeless now.”

  THEIR SMALL campfire blazed, and the snowshoe hare Gray Talon had caught roasted over it. Trey had his back to the cabin and leaned heavily on his lover’s shoulder while Sarah tended the rabbit.

  “So, Daphne, you said earlier that you could feel that your mother is still broody but couldn’t tell if the egg had hatched yet,” Sarah said as she dribbled some broth over the rabbit. “When the egg hatches, what does that mean for you?”

  Her slender shoulders shrugged. “I’m not sure. Most of the time, dragons are solitary except for the child they are raising at the time. We get wanderlust to go away from our mothers. I think that’s why I went with the gang when I found them prowling around the mountain a few months back.”

  “Did they know you were a dragon when you were with them?” Sarah asked.

  Daphne shook her head. “I don’t think so. If they did, they never let on. But someone must have. When McNair and his metal men showed up at the camp, they were looking for me.”

  “We know,” Trey interjected. “They slaughtered a number of Crow on their way to find you. They thought you might’ve been hiding with the tribe.”

  “That might have just been an excuse for McNair to kill more of the People,” Gray Talon said. “Maybe a test run to see how well his metal men worked.”

  “We’ll never know for sure,” Sarah said. “How did McNair manage to get his slave cuffs on you?”

  “He paid Smiley for me. Somehow they managed to get the bands on me while I slept. In all honesty, I didn’t really wake up until you took them off.” She looked at Gray Talon with an intense gaze. “I remember everything, but it’s all like a dream. I can still hear McNair’s voice in my head telling me what to do. I never knew that humans could have such power over us.”

  “Well then, that’s another thing we owe Smiley Clemmons for when we finally catch up to him,” Trey said grimly.

  “What do you mean?” Daphne asked.

  “Smiley killed my parents, and his gang killed Sarah’s husband,” Trey replied. “We killed his gang, but he managed to get away.”

  “He was at the ranch right before you arrived,” the dragon said.

  “What?” Trey and Sarah said in unison.

  “From what I heard, he was Martin’s cousin,” she explained. “He came to the ranch looking for a place to winter over. Dabinshire wouldn’t hear of it, even if Martin was his dead wife’s brother. He and Martin fought about something, and he rode out just days before the demonstration for the railroad.”

  Sarah took a long deep breath and glared at the roasting rabbit as if it had offended her in some way. “We missed him and now have no idea where to find him.”

  Trey reached out and patted her shoulder. “We’ll find him. Come spring, when it’s safe to move around in the mountains again, we’ll come up here and find him. He will pay for what he’s done.”

  “I want to be there,” Daphne said with more conviction than any of them had ever heard in her voice before. “He violated me as much as he did you. I deserve a piece of him.”

  “You are welcome to come with us,” Gray Talon said. “But let’s see what your mother has to say about that.”

  “Her mother approves,” a voice said from the shadows.

  A slender woman with long green hair that hung down her simple verdant dress stepped into the light of the fire. Daphne jumped up and flung herself at the woman.

  “Mother!”

  “You have returned to me,” the dragon of Bald Peak said softly.

  Gray Talon and the others remained silent as mother and daughter dragon reunited. Finally the older dragon turned toward them. “So you are the ones that the Old Man of the Storms passed off his debt to. I remember you from when you were both much smaller. I remov
ed some painful memories for you.”

  Trey nodded. “I only recently unlocked those memories again.”

  “I can see that.” She inclined her head. “You’ve grown into a very powerful mage, with much learning still ahead of you, Trey McAlister. And you, Gray Talon of the Comanche, you are pushing the knowledge of what it truly is to be one of the multiforms. From the tales the spirits are singing of you, I wonder if there isn’t a dragon somewhere in your family tree.”

  Gray Talon’s mind reeled at the idea. “A dragon? But is that even possible?”

  “It isn’t unheard of, but I am unaware of it happening in recent history. Maybe you are changing out of necessity. I believe that most changes occur that way.” She turned to her daughter. “Daphne, your little brother will hatch soon. It is time for you to be on your own. I only asked the storm to find you because I felt you in danger and couldn’t go to you myself. Now that I know you are safe, find your life. There are many unclaimed mountains in this world, or you may find you wish to live somewhere else.” She looked sharply at Gray Talon and Trey. “Maybe even among the humans. I see great potential in you and your companions. The world is different now than when I was your age. Go forth and explore while you find your vengeance against the man who sold you.”

  Daphne embraced her mother again. “Thank you, Mother.”

  “Stop by and see your brother and me from time to time. If you ever need help, all you have to do is call me and I’ll be there for you.” The dragon of Bald Peak stepped back to the edge of the firelight. “Safe journeys to you all, and take good care of my daughter.” She disappeared into the shadows. Seconds later there was the sound of heavy wings cutting through the air.

  Trey looked at Gray Talon. “I guess tomorrow we head down to Texas to meet up with the tribe, then.”

  Gray Talon bent over to kiss his man. “Before the snows chase us down to lower lands.” He looked up at Daphne standing there, staring up at the dark outline of Bald Peak. Sarah knelt back down at the fire. Their camp seemed somehow empty without Copperpot there, but together, they were forming a family. Rick “Smiley” Clemons had better watch his back. Come spring thaw, after they returned to Dabinshire’s ranch to lay the spirits to rest, they’d be back in the mountains and tracking down the head of the Front Range Gang, and they were a force to be reckoned with.

  A.M. BURNS lives in the Colorado Rockies with his partner, several dogs, cats, horses, and birds. When he’s not writing, he’s often fixing fences, splitting wood, hiking in the mountains, or flying his hawks. He’s enjoyed writing since he was in high school, but it wasn’t until the past few years that he’s begun truly honing his craft. He is the current president of the Colorado Springs Fiction Writers Group: www.csfwg.org. Having lived both in Colorado and Texas, rugged frontier types and independent attitudes often show up in his work.

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  DSP PUBLICATIONS

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Native Wind

  © 2016 A.M. Burns.

  Cover Art

  © 2016 Stef Masciandaro.

  http://www.stefmasc.com/

  Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.

  All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact DSP Publications, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dsppublications.com.

  ISBN: 978-1-63476-552-7

  Digital ISBN: 978-1-63476-553-4

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2016901924

  Published July 2016

  v. 1.0

  Printed in the United States of America