Ethan recognized him immediately.
Caleb Mercer.
Mercer raised a hand.
The shooting stopped.
He called down.
"Ethan!"
Ethan stepped into view.
Mercer smiled.
"There you are."
Whitehawk moved beside Ethan.
"Who is he?"
"My past."
Mercer laughed from the ridge.
"I've been looking for you for seven years."
Ethan's face hardened.
"What do you want?"
Mercer lifted a folded paper.
"I want what you stole."
"I stole nothing."
"You know better."
Mercer's eyes moved toward the village.
Then toward Ayana.
His smile changed.
"Well."
Ethan felt his stomach tighten.
"Leave her out of this."
Mercer laughed.
"I haven't even mentioned her name."
"But you were looking at her."
"I was looking at the chief's daughter."
Whitehawk raised his rifle.
"You will leave this valley."
Mercer's men laughed.
Mercer himself remained calm.
"We don't want your village."
"Then leave."
"We want Ethan."
Whitehawk looked at Ethan.
"Why?"
Ethan answered quietly.
"Because I witnessed something seven years ago."
Mercer spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear.
"Ethan saw a wagon convoy carrying government weapons."
Several elders exchanged worried looks.
Mercer continued.
"He saw who stole them."
Ethan's jaw tightened.
"And he saw where the weapons went."
Whitehawk looked at Ethan.
"Is that true?"
"Yes."
Mercer smiled.
"He knows the location of the weapons."
Ethan looked toward the ridge.
"You still haven't found them."
"Not yet."
"Because you never understood the map."
Mercer laughed.
"Perhaps."
He paused.
"Which is why I came for you."
Ayana stepped forward.
"You will not take him."
Mercer looked at her.
"You are the chief's daughter."
"Yes."
"And you chose this man?"
"Yes."
Mercer smiled.
"Then perhaps you have chosen more trouble than you understand."
Ayana raised her bow.
"You should leave."
Mercer laughed.
"We will return tomorrow."
He turned his horse.
Then he looked back.
"And when we return, Ethan will come with us."
The riders disappeared beyond the ridge.
The village remained silent.
Whitehawk turned toward Ethan.
"You brought danger here."
Ethan lowered his revolver.
"I know."
"You should have told me."
"I was trying to leave."
Whitehawk's expression hardened.
"That is not an answer."
Ethan looked at Ayana.
She was still holding her bow.
Her hands were steady.
Whitehawk continued.
"You said men were hunting you."
"Yes."
"You did not say why."
"I thought it would be safer."
"For whom?"
Ethan had no answer.
Then Ayana spoke.
"For all of us."
Whitehawk looked at his daughter.
"Perhaps."
He turned toward the village.
"Tonight we prepare."
Ethan looked west.
The sun was rising.
But for the first time in seven years, he no longer wanted to run.
He wanted to stay.
And that frightened him more than Mercer ever had.
The Hidden Truth
That night, Whitehawk called a council.
Ethan sat across from him.
Ayana sat beside her father.
Several elders surrounded them.
Whitehawk spoke first.
"Tell us everything."
Ethan took a long breath.
Seven years of silence finally began to break.
"There was a military supply route through this territory," he said.
"The army transported rifles, ammunition, medicine, and food."
Mercer and his men had discovered the route.
"They robbed one convoy," Ethan continued.
"But the soldiers believed the supplies had been lost to raiders."
The truth was worse.
Mercer had been selling the stolen weapons.
Some went to cattle thieves.
Some went to mercenaries.
Others went to men who wanted war.
Ethan had discovered the operation by accident.
"My brother Samuel found their camp."
"He was sixteen."
Ethan paused.
"He saw Mercer and his men unloading crates."
Samuel had escaped.
But Mercer discovered that Ethan knew.
The night Ethan returned home, Mercer came for him.
His father tried to protect him.
He was killed.
Samuel disappeared.
Ethan spent years searching.
Eventually he found his brother dead.
Mercer vanished.
But Ethan had taken something from the camp.
A map.
The map showed the location of the stolen weapons.
Ethan had hidden it.
Mercer had spent seven years trying to find it.
Whitehawk listened carefully.
"Where is the map?"
Ethan looked at him.
"Safe."
"Where?"
"I won't say."
Whitehawk nodded.
"Fair."
Ayana asked, "Why didn't you give it to the army?"
Ethan looked down.
"Because some of the men involved were officers."
The room became silent.
Whitehawk understood.
"If you gave them the map, Mercer might learn where you hid it."
"Exactly."