A Serpent In Turquoise

They reached the river around noon. Poquita waded to her knees and drank deep of the chuckling current. “Think we should stop and have a swim?” Raine asked the burro.

Nothing but slurps and a belch in reply.

“Better not,” Raine decided. Stop now, and in all conscience she’d have to unsaddle the jenny. By the time they got moving again, they’d have lost hours, and she was determined to reach Lagarto on the morrow. “Maybe this evening we’ll find a swimming hole.”

Preferably some spot more private than this. The paths through the canyons were the roads of the Raramuri, the doctor had told her. And this time of year the People were on the move.

Most Raramuri had two seasonal homes, he’d explained. A little cabin on the cool heights, safe from the torrid summer floods. Then another cabin—or frequently a cave—in the warm depths of the canyons, when the winter snows fell above. Some families were more nomadic—with a third shelter near good grazing for their animals, perhaps a fourth where they’d planted beans and corn.

So far Raine had been overtaken by three bands of Raramuri. First would come the men, striding on ahead; they carried massive loads on their backs, supported by the tumplines across their brown foreheads. Behind them trotted the boys, bearing burdens according to their size. The women brought up the rear. With babies tucked in their shawls, they herded the goats, a few cows if this was a prosperous family.

The black eyes of the men would slant sideways at Raine as they passed, then flick away. If they understood her greetings in Spanish they didn’t deign to respond. The boys were gleefully fascinated; they elbowed each other and whispered. The women were shy, but not austere like their husbands. They’d steal glances, then cover their mouths and giggle, ducking their scarved heads as they hurried past.

Raine was used to being a source of amusement in foreign lands. If her pale-blond, ripply hair didn’t strike the locals as bizarre enough, there was always her height. At five foot eight, she was taller than most Raramuri men, nearly a foot higher than their women. She must look like a big gawky white bird, blown down from the north. “As long as you leave ’em laughing, you’re doing fine,” her father had always advised. “It’s the ones who can’t take a joke you have to look out for.”

An hour’s walk brought them to the end of the floodplain. The canyon boxed in on both sides to rise a thousand feet straight up from the water, while the path climbed the left wall—and narrowed. “We meet any oncoming traffic here and somebody’ll have to back up,” Raine told the burro. Or dive into the river, which now tumbled over toothy rapids, some fifty feet below.

She must have sensed something subconsciously. A minute later, she could hear it clearly, the drumbeat of overtaking footfalls. Her pulse quickened to match their padding rhythm. In her experience, a runner sometimes brought bad news, even danger.

But in the world of the People who run, this must be a standard encounter. They’d come to a slightly wider stretch of trail and Raine swung her back to the cliff, then tugged Poquita inward—at least she tried to. The donkey swerved toward a clump of weed growing along the brink. “Poquita, dammit, not now!”

Intent on the prize, the jenny flattened her long ears, stretched out her neck. With the lead pulled tight between them, they’d trip the runner, if they didn’t watch out! Raine swore and stepped out to stand alongside the rebel, with a hand on her halter. The runner would have to squeeze past on the inside. “Look out!” she called toward the oncoming sound.

He burst around a shoulder of the cliff, startled at the sight of them, then bounded on. A young man, lean and fit, stripped to the waist; for an instant Raine thought he must be an Anglo. The Raramuri were prim about showing skin. But no, even if he was breaking the dress code, this one had the face and coloring of an indio. His black eyes locked on hers and Raine blinked. Prolonged eye contact was unusual, and—Where have I seen you before?

He slapped the burro’s rump as he passed, and not with a smile.

“¡Hola!” Raine said as he drew abreast. “¿Sabe usted si—Oh!”

His flying foot hooked behind her knee and she spun backwards into space.

Chapter 7

B ut a burro makes a good anchor—if her halter holds. Raine’s left hand clutched Poquita’s cheek strap. Dangling over the gorge with one arm flailing and her feet scrabbling at stone, she found no foothold.

Eyes rimmed with white, Poquita ducked her head and braced her short legs as she brayed her outrage at these gringo antics.

Half-deafened, Raine got her other hand on the halter. “You think this was my idea?”

Snorting and jerking her head, the burro hunched backwards along the path, doing her best to shake herself free.

“Calmate, you jackass!” Raine’s boot toe found a protruding rock. She stomped upward just as the jenny tossed her head, and Raine’s knee crested the ledge. She rolled inward to land on her back, panting in the dirt, clinging to the burro.

Noses only inches apart, they glared at each other, upside-down to right-way up. Poquita gave a snort that summed up her opinion.

“Are we having fun yet?” Raine found the lead, gave the beast some slack. She shifted to lean against the cliff. Arms clasping elbows to hold in her shudders, she gazed out over the drop-off. “Whew, that was a close one.”

After a long, disgruntled pause, the burro noticed the same clump of weed that had started the trouble. While she swallowed it, grubby roots and all, Raine muttered, “But what d’you think, was it an accident?”

Whether that shove had been a silent “gringa, go home” or mere clumsiness, it was over, the runner long gone. So they went on their way—slowly at first, till Raine’s knees stopped wobbling. Another hour’s walk brought them again to the canyon floor. The river had twisted to flow due west, and the sun was setting straight down this slot in a bonfire that dazzled their eyes. “Next thing that looks like a swimming hole, we’re stopping,” she assured the jenny.

At the moment, the path cut through a field of chest-high green weeds. The river ran somewhere off to their right, but Raine preferred not to bushwhack. “With our luck, there’re werewolves or witches out there, and I’ve had enough excitement for one—Hey!” She staggered backwards as Poquita crouched on her haunches, yanking the lead. “What the—?”

An eerie buzzing filled the hot air. The burro squealed and scuttled backwards, dragging Raine with her.

The fine hairs stood straight up on her arms as her slower instincts kicked in. Rattler! But where?

When it came to snakes, anywhere was too near. They retreated another five yards, then wheeled, peering wildly. Raine shielded her eyes with a palm against the glare—and there it was. A diamondback—a big sucker, easily as long as Raine was tall. He lay coiled in the middle of their path, shaking like a meth-crazed marimba band.

“Good spotting!” Raine rubbed the burro’s fuzzy ears, which for once, were standing straight up at attention. “That’s two I owe you.”

Poquita whuffled and jerked at her lead, trying to swing right around.

“No, no, we can’t go home yet. Not for a silly snake. We just scared him is all.” Raine leaned to scoop up a fistful of pebbles. “Snakes are all cowards at heart. Go on, shoo!” She tossed the gravel underhanded.

The snake struck at the missiles. He slithered a yard closer—and coiled again. The burro squeaked and retreated, hauling Raine with her.

“Great. We have to meet the tough guy.” Raine scooped up more rocks to pelt him. “Go on, beat it! Don’t make me break out my blowgun.”

The snake struck and advanced—assumed the position and rattled his intentions.

This would be a whole lot less amusing once the sun went down. “Okay. If that’s the way you want it.” Raine chose a rock the size of a cantaloupe—and bowled it down the trail. “Scat!”

That broke the thug’s nerve. He flinched at the oncoming menace, then whiplashed off into the bushes at a speed that made Raine gulp. But once he started moving, he’d keep on going. She patted her heart a few times; it refused to be comforted.

That went double for the burro. When Raine tugged on her lead, she flattened her ears and engaged the parking brake. “Hey, this is no time to play the diva. Get over it. He’s gone. We get past this field and we’ll call it a day. Find a nice waterhole, take off your saddle, settle in for a lovely night of grazing. How’s that sound?” Raine rubbed the spot beneath the ear strap where the burro liked to be scratched. “Good girl, you ready now? Then why don’t we—”