Give Up Your Guns or the Ghost

  “ATWATER! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP OR DIE IN LETHE! You have ten seconds!”

  I gave the Marshal a choice—one that would either inflame the situation or finally bring it clean. I prayed I wouldn't live to regret the mercy. I waited, pulse steady, watching the smoke clear from the street to see what the proud lawman would do.

  “I relent!” Atwater’s voice cracked across the wood-splintered silence.

  He tossed his guns into the dirt. It seemed the local shop owners made better salesmen than they did crack-shots. Atwater wanted to live, and I couldn't blame him for that. He was a helluva lawman in a bad spot; it would’ve been a shame to weight him down with lead.

  That left me with Caleb Grimsby—one of the few in that wretched family with a lick of honor.

  “You really gonna take my colors, Corris?” Caleb asked, his voice low. “That would mean I turned yella.”

  I tossed his colors back to him. Kaplan and Caleb both looked on in astonishment. The man had saved my life back there; I couldn't leave him ass-out and shamed after that.

  “All those who put their hands on Asher are going down, Caleb,” I said, my voice like grinding stone. “Are you going to be able to live with that?”

  “They went too far on that boy,” Caleb spat, shaking his head. “Abby was supposed to be the one to suffer the indignity. Not him.”

  The world seemed to tilt. “Wait—what? What do you mean Abby was supposed to suffer?”

  “Told ya, Corris Lee,” Caleb said with a grim, knowing look. “You ain’t Pope. You don't know the skinny of this whole thing.”

  “Tell me about Abby and Asher. Now.”

  “Our deal still stands?” Caleb pressed.

  “Abby and Asher, Caleb. Talk.”

  “A first-born had to be decided. Helena had to have those twins cut out of her—the Judge needs an heir, male or female. He’s progressive like that. Kept his British roots, he did. The line must be secured through trial.”

  “The Wolf and the Deer tale...” I whispered. “It’s real?”

  “C’mon, Corris Lee. You can't be that blind. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. The Judge orchestrated the whole Ordeal.”

  I turned to Kaplan, my heart hammering against my ribs. “Kaplan, did you know?”

  “I didn't,” she whispered, her face pale. “If I did, I wouldn't be out here with you, Corris.”

  “Do we still have a deal, Corris Lee?” Caleb asked again.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “Go on. Git,” I told him.

  He didn't need to be there for what was coming. The revelation stopped me in my tracks. The Wolf and the Deer—a parable I’d never understood, a story of sacrifice and predator. What kind of parents would allow such a monstrous ordeal for their own flesh and blood? To watch Caleb ride away after dropping that truth made my stomach turn. And Pope... his involvement made even less sense. He was the godfather. How could he sit back and allow the act Asher endured to protect his sister?

  “Corris, what are you going to do?” Kaplan’s voice broke the silence.

  It was a solid question. The Judge had manufactured the trial that saw his own son violated. That had to be avenged. For Asher. For Abby.

  “We go after Pigface Grimsby,” I said, tightening my cinch before swinging into the saddle.

  “You can't be serious! We need to go back and handle the source!” Kaplan argued. In a perfect world, she’d be right. But revenge is something archaic. Something human. Asher had been unmade, and Abby had asked for this. She had placed herself in the saddle of vengeance, and I had agreed to be the horse.

  “That boy will never be the same,” I thought to myself. “The Grimsbys brought this on themselves, but the Judge signed the warrant.”

  I looked down at Kaplan. “You can go back if you wish. But this is happening. Pigface and me.”

  “I can't believe you, Corris! You heard Caleb. He placed his own children out there to be hunted for some family trial! You can't continue on his errands!”

  “I know Caleb,” I said. “That's why I was able to reach him. That's why we made it out of Lethe in one piece.”

  “But you’re still going after Pigface? You’re still doing Judge Nagy’s—my father’s—bidding!”

  The air went still. “Father? How long has... wait. You’re Nagy’s kid?”

  “I’ve been trying to earn his respect for years,” she snapped, her eyes burning. “Serving him since my mother passed. He wasn't always the upstanding husband you think he is.”

  “You’re the illegitimate child of Judge Nagy?”

  “Eat buckshot, Corris. I am his daughter. His eldest.”

  “Not by his account.”

  “By blood truth!” she yelled.

  “And you didn't know about the Ordeal?” I asked, leaning over the pommel. “You were right there the whole time and he did it under your nose?”

  “Clearly, I wasn't privy to the family secrets!”

  “No shit you weren't.”

  “We both had our reasons for serving him,” Kaplan said, her voice shaking now. “But this is where I get off. He created this duck mission we’re on. It’s a sham.”

  “That may be,” I said, “but I’m a man of my word. Asher didn't ask for what happened to him.”

  “Are you listening? My father orchestrated it! If Pope revealed anything, it was because my father set the gears in motion!”

  “Then Nagy will pay. But so will the men who laid their hands on that boy. Nobody gets a pass here, Kaplan. Nobody!”

  “Does that include Abby?” Kaplan stepped closer, her hand nowhere near her gun, but her words hitting like lead. “My father uses you just like Abby did.”

  “The fuck you say to me?” I dismounted, the spurs chiming like a funeral bell as I walked toward her.

  “You heard me, Corris Lee. She’s the reason you’re on this mission. She probably knew our father set this up from the start!”

  “Now you sound jealous,” I growled. “You’re telling me Abby is involved?”

  “Isn't she? Why bring her into Koawa territory? Why bring half an army to protect them if not to use her as the lure to get to you?”

  The logic was a cold splash of water. Why else bring the heavy hitters into hostile indigenous country? To any reader of the world, it was obvious. Asher might be the only true victim in the house of Nagy. But I refused to believe Abby would go along with a scheme that put her brother through such a hell.

  “I think this is where we depart,” I said. “I’m not letting Abby down. I won't turn her into the villain for your family feud. Those twins saved my life. They treated me like a human being when I came to the Judge as nothing but an animal. Fuck Judge Nagy, but I am not letting what happened to Asher go without recourse. No one walks away clean.”

  Kaplan looked at me, her expression blank, the fire finally dying out into ash.

  “I guess this is where we part company, then,” she said. “I’m not doing his bidding when he is the cause of the rot. I won't be made the victim and the victimizer in

  his name anymore. Good luck and Godspeed, Corris Lee.”