Dead Reckoning by Mercedes Lackey, Rosemary Edghill Page A

Revelation!” Brother Reuben added enthusiastically. He wasthe youngest man at the table, and Jett was willing to believe that whatever was going on among the Fellowship of the not-so-Divine Resurrection, Brother Reuben was wholly innocent of it.
    To her relief, the meal was quickly over. Jett hadn’t been able to force herself to eat more than a few bites, though the others had emptied their bowls. When Brother Shepherd rose to his feet, it seemed to be a signal. Everyone else stood as well, and the women began to clear the tables.
    “Figure I’ll unsaddle my horse and turn him out if I’m staying,” Jett said, picking up her hat and moving toward the doorway. She didn’t add—as she would have otherwise—that she could just go ahead and put her gear wherever she’d be sleeping. Somebody might follow her to show her the way, and that was the last thing she wanted.
    She settled her hat on her head as she stepped outside. The sight of Nightingale waiting patiently for her was the sweetest thing she’d seen in a long time. With a few quick strides she reached his side and tucked a toe into the stirrup. A second later she’d vaulted into the saddle and was heading up the ranch road at a brisk gallop. She didn’t care what the Fellowship thought about her abrupt departure: she never meant to come back here if she could help it.
    Once she was well away from the compound, she headed for the stand of pines she and White Fox had used earlier to spy on Jerusalem’s Wall. She’d told White Fox she’d wait for him back in the pines, but what she’d do if he didn’t show up by dusk, she didn’t know. The sound of hoofbeats behind her made her put a nervous hand on her pistol, but to her relief, it was only White Fox and Deerfoot. She brought Nightingale to a halt and waited for Deerfoot to catch up.
    “I got some bad stew and worse news back there,” she said when he joined her. “Looks like this place is some kind of commune calling itself The Fellowship of the Divine Resurrection. Their Brother Shepherd says it was
angels
in Alsop last night.”
    White Fox looked worried. “My discoveries were equally troubling. Perhaps between us we can make sense of our findings.”
    Jett nodded and quickly told him what she knew, from Jerusalem’s Wall having enough livestock that it needed forty men to wrangle them, to the bizarre “service” she’d attended, to being served a meal prepared entirely without salt.
    “And Br’er Shepherd wasn’t shy about saying Alsop had been ‘cleansed’ by an army of the ‘Blessed Resurrected,’ and he said it was just the first town on their list, so I guess he’s playing things close to the vest,iff’n your troubles are connected to Alsop’s,” she finished grimly. “And I don’t know about you, but where I come from, a man bragging on something like that is responsible for it.”
    “You may be right,” White Fox said. “Though I know not how a living man could have done all that you describe—or I have seen—nor do I believe the
wasichu
can summon spirits of vengeance that will act in such a fashion.”
    “If prayin’ could wipe a town off the map, there’d be a lot fewer folks in a lot of places,” Jett agreed, and White Fox nodded briefly before he began his own story.
    * * *
    White Fox had waited in the trees until he’d seen Jett enter the house, then circled around until he was concealed by the bunkhouses before riding down to investigate. He left Deerfoot behind one of the new buildings and moved cautiously on foot until he reached a place in a direct line from the gate. A working ranch was a busy place, but this one was both silent and nearly deserted.
    Whatever he’d been tracking had always moved in a straight line: it had turned down the road heading into the ranch, so his first thought was that it hadcontinued on the same path. But to his frustration, the ground here was just as hard as that of the ranch road had been, and whether his quarry had come