Seeing Is Believing by Lindsay McKenna Page A

the caw of a raven.
    Halting, Diana snapped her head upward toward the sound. Her mother’s chief spirit guide was a raven! Her jaw dropped and she called excitedly, “Wes! Look! Look!” as she pointed up toward the large black bird circling along the canyon wall.
    Wes came to her side and looked in the direction she indicated. “I’ll be damned,” he breathed. There was the Aztec “singer,” just as Diana had described it. In awe, he marveled at the thousand-foot profile, carved out of the cliff face by rain, sun and wind, not by the hand of man. He grinned at her. “You’re pretty good.” And he meant it.
    She smiled broadly. “The raven is our guide, Wes. She’s shown us where the cliff face is, now she’ll guide us to that cave.” Gripping his hand, she laughed. “Isn’t this synchronicity wonderful? The way it all works?”
    Wes nodded, humbled. Clasping her hand in turn, he lifted it and kissed the back of it. “You’re wonderful. What you do is something else, too. I can’t explain it.”
    “At least you believe me now.” It was so important that Wes believe in her abilities. Her ex-husband never had.
    Becoming somber, Wes said, “Honey, I’ve come to the conclusion that just because I don’t know how your gifts work doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Fair enough?”
    Glowing, Diana nodded. “Come on, let’s find that cave! I feel it’s very near!”
    Wes followed her, staying hyperalert. He didn’t know who might be with Ruth Horner. A kidnapper? If so, there might be trouble. Or a sorcerer? Wes wasn’t going to take chances with either Diana’s life or his own. For the first time in his miserable life, he had something to live for, and he wasn’t about to have it torn from him.
    The cawing of the raven grew muted, more distant as it flew around another bend in the canyon. Yet Wes could still hear the bird’s insistent call, as if it said “Follow me! Hurry up!”
    Diana gave a shout of discovery as they rounded the next curve of the trail. She grinned and pointed upward, toward a cave carved out of the red sandstone high above the trail.
    “Bingo,” Wes said. He took off his knapsack and pulled out a pair of powerful binoculars. “Let’s see if we can see anything,” he murmured. He quickly scanned the area. About half the cave wasn’t visible due to its elevation and the thick carpet of juniper trees blocking the way. “I see an ancient Indian dwelling up there,” he murmured, “but no people.”
    Diana nodded. “Ruth is up there. I can feel her, Wes.”
    “Is anyone with her?” he asked, handing her the binoculars.
    Grimly, she nodded. “Yes.”
    “What else do you pick up?”
    “Nothing,” Diana said unhappily. “I wish I did, but I don’t.”
    Wes no longer questioned Diana’s knowing. Taking the binoculars when she’d finished with them, he repacked them and shrugged into the knapsack. Pulling the bill of his baseball cap a little lower on his brow, he moved ahead of Diana. “From here on, you follow me. If I tell you to hit the deck, you hit it, no questions asked. All right?”
    Her heart was pounding from the elevation and the climb. She nodded. “I wish I was more like my mother,” she complained under her breath.
    Wes smiled and turned toward her. “I love you just the way you are.”
    The words melted into her heart, her soul. How much she loved Wes for his courage to tell her. Without a word, she followed him up the steep, rocky trail, which twisted and wound like a mountain goat’s narrow, dangerous path. Sharp pebbles bit into her soft palms as she scrambled and sometimes fell. But Wes was always there to lend a hand and help her back to her feet. Finally, after nearly half an hour’s climb, they stood at the foot of the cliff-dwelling area.
    The huge slope directly below the dwelling was powdery with light brown dust scattered with chunks of black lava. Here and there Diana could see potsherds sticking up out of the earth. At the top of the