“Makes Giant Chief sad to see you hurt.”

  Diamond appeared as a child cradled in Owl’s arms. He had swooped her up after finding her cried to sleep, face down in the desert dandelions next to Dylan’s grave.

  “You carry him,” Chief said, referring to the unconscious Chip.

  Tears blurred my vision. I’d been too stunned to tend to either of my friends and had barely formed the words to inform Chief on what transpired. Medical students don’t learn to heal some sick world populated by shadow monsters and dark entities.

  “Stop feeling sorry for yourself. What’s left of my son is beast. You can cry for that. Her loved one die. You can cry for that, too. But you no cry cause you don’t want to pick up Sheriff.”

  I walked over to Chip, bent at my knees, and wrapped my arms around his waist. Straining and about to buckle, I said, “Wake up, you bull. You big auger, wake up.”

  Thankfully, be blinked and broke my hold.

  “What happened?” Chip said.

  “You get knocked out by girl,” Chief replied.

  Chip wore a sour frown. “These entities…I can’t catch up with them with a mule train. Doc, you were right.”

  We escaped that wretched boneyard garden to where the muleskinners waited on the nearby soil, their shadows as tall and quiet as the saguaros next to them. Chief lay Diamond by a barren mountain.

  I knelt in front of her with a bottle of opium to treat her depression. She awoke, eyes swollen, and said, “No, I don’t have the appetite for it.”

  “Listen, miss,” I whispered. “I lost a loved one before. I know—"

  “You don’t know,” Diamond said. “You and everyone, leave me alone.”

  Lost for words, I pulled myself up and made my way over to confide with Chip and the mule men.

  “We need something more to avenge her loss and Grand Jose’s,” Chip said. “Something has to happen right now.”

  Returning from the mule train in a trance, Giant Chief passed by with a flute. A few steps ahead of us, he put it to his mouth; big man made it look like a whistle. He blew it off key, and I covered my ears. What was he doing with that toy at a time like this? I said, “Hey, if you can’t play the flute, don’t even toot.”

  Chip settled me down. “You keep that up, and he may come over here and whoop you.”

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  “Oh bubba,” Charlie Bass chimed in, holding a shocked expression.

  As we all turned to get far from the noise, Chip spread his arms to block us. His eyes had opened wide. He directed our attention to mountains on either side.

  Watching from above were three four legged creatures. They were enormous and not of this realm. Their fur, a chaotic blend like black and red clouds swirling in the sky, had peculiar features – cat ears, whiskers, beaks, and wings. They were moving testaments to how far from normal we’d drifted. Wings a-popped up from their backs, and they came a-flapping to encircle us. I kept my mouth shut, rotating in any awe I had left.

  “These are the creatures from Taiowa’s legend,” Owl declared. “Light entity animals.”

  “Our path forward,” Sheriff insisted.

  I threw Chip a look and said, “Now just a-minute ago you were telling me I was right. That we can’t beat these dark entities.”

  “This is a sign, damn it, and we—I have a job to do. I must avenge Grand Jose. You can go back home with the muleskinners, Doc.”

  Before I could reply, Diamond had made her way into our midst. She sniffed and said, “They’re beautiful. I don’t know what’s happening but give me one to fly. I don’t know how far I can make it, and I really don’t even know which way I should go, but since I gotta go one direction or the other, I’ll fly along to Mexico, missing Dylan the entire way.”

  “Hallelujar. Would you look at them fine cat birdies!” That shout came from way over at the forest. Dunbar had emerged. Something like a groan came out my mouth, had all but forgotten him and was better off for it.

  He said, “The one who knows his name rescued me again, and that one wants me to say shame on you for forgetting about me. I’m the only one who has the witch’s whereabouts. You can fly all day, but without me, you’ll fly to the Rio Grande, and you’re up the spout after.”

  “Alright, this confirms my decision,” I said, turning to the muleskinners who watched on. I switched right back in Chip’s direction and offered a handshake. “Thank you for your class, Sheriff. I’m going to take you up on your offer to go back with the mule men.”

  As I made my decision heard, Charlie remained expressionless.

  I said, “Come-on, Charlie. We have to snap out of that trance, and as you may say, ‘git.’ There’s a long trip ahead.”

  “Remember what I said,” Charlie Bass replied. “Wisdom aint got nothing to do with what’s happening in this world. This world is gittin’ too big for us mule men. Aside from that, Mayor Heck’ll have me and you hung if I bring you back from an incomplete mission.”

  I gave him a mean smile. “Thanks for nothing.”

  Emotionless, he replied, “It doesn’t take a big man to carry a grudge.”

  I chuckled with indignation. “With all due respect, I don’t think you’ll be on my mind with what I’m facing, Charlie.”

  “I’m referring to a grudge with yourself.”

  I opened my mouth, stopped, pulled elegance deep from within, winked, and said, “Mule man, Charlie Bass, I think I’ll hear that slow drawl droning out proverbs long after we part.”

  A blast went up to the heavens; Dunbar had his barrel fixed upright. “Drop your weapon, negro, or I’ll shoot you down and have no remorse for it.”

  Turned hind first, I lifted my hands and let my musket hit the ground.

  “Now, here’s what’s gone happen. I’m flying right behind the quack and keeping a gun on him, cause the evangelist wants to see him.”

  “Evangelist? We’re going to the Rio Grande,” Chip argued.

  “We got one stop on the way. That’s Fort Cross. There, we gone reload, and for those of you who bathe, you can do that, and then we gone go to the third floor to have a pow wow—as that big Indian would call it. On that third floor, you gone meet with the man who healed my nether eye. You gone meet the evangelist.”