Then he spoke in English.
"Where is my daughter?"
Corvin tightened his grip on the rifle.
"Inside."
The man's expression did not change.
"Is she alive?"
"Yes."
A long silence followed.
The Apache leader closed his eyes briefly.
When he opened them, Corvin saw something that looked almost like grief.
"You gave her water?"
"Yes."
The man nodded slowly.
Then he turned toward the hundreds of warriors gathered behind him.
He raised one hand.
Every rider dismounted.
The movement happened almost simultaneously, and the sound of hundreds of boots striking the ground rolled across the valley.
Corvin felt the hairs rise along the back of his neck.
The leader looked at him again.
"My name is Chato," he said. "I am Naya's father."
Corvin glanced toward the doorway.
"I didn't know who she was."
"You did not need to know."
Chato studied the rifle in Corvin's hands.
"Put it down, son of Elias."
The words struck Corvin harder than any threat could have.
He lowered the rifle slightly.
"What did you say?"
Chato's gaze moved toward the mountains.
"Your father was a friend to my people."
Corvin stared at him.
"My father died twenty years ago."
"No."
The Apache leader's voice was quiet.
"He did not."
For a moment, the entire world seemed to stop.
The cattle stood motionless in the corral. The wind died. Even the horses seemed to hold their breath.
Corvin looked at the three hundred warriors surrounding his home.
Then he looked at Chato.
"Tell me where he is."
Chato did not answer immediately.
Instead, he reached beneath his blanket and withdrew a small object wrapped in leather.
He held it out.
Corvin recognized the object before he could understand why.
It was a silver pendant shaped like a hawk.
His father had worn one just like it.
The same pendant appeared in the only portrait Corvin possessed of Elias Torne, a faded photograph kept in a wooden box beside his mother's Bible.
Corvin stepped forward.
"Where did you get that?"
Chato opened the leather wrapping.
Inside lay a second pendant, identical to the first except for a small mark engraved beneath the wings.