if you have something to say
You'd better say it now
'Cause this is what you've waited for
Your chance to even up the score
And as these shadows fall on me now
I will somehow
'Cause I'm picking up the message, Lord
And I'm closer than I've ever been before
So if you have something to say
Say it to me now
Just say it to me now.
- Glen Hansard
They rode together in relative silence for some three miles outside of Strawberry, the snow falling heavily around them as they drew nearer to the mountain's summit. Rane had never even heard of Mount Hagen, let alone been there, and she gave Eli his lead to follow along behind John and Sadie, his bridle lax. The pine trees were growing taller around them, and so was the chill. This was Ambarino in its full and formidable glory if she had ever seen it.
"What's at Mount Hagen?" she asked at length, her breath puffing out in front of her. "A town? Anything? I've never made it up there that far."
"A whole lot of nothin'," said Sadie quietly. "What he's doin' up there all by his lonesome like that I'm sure I don't know. Too bad we can't ask Cleet," she added sardonically. Rane scoffed, turning her eyes to the heavens.
"Walk with me, Lord, these children are testing me today."
Sadie snorted. "You gonna chop my head off too? Shit."
"Keep it up." Rane was pulling her flask. "Don't play with me when my blood's all up, I might just go on a head-chopping rampage, start fricasseeing everyone that I come across -"
"Y'all, knock it off, would you?" John snapped abruptly. "Christ, this ain't a goddamn day trip, listen to yourselves. Feels like I'm riding around with Jack or somethin'."
"Alright, alright, sorry, I'll shut up."
Rane popped the top of her flask open with her thumb. John leaned over, snatched the flask from Rane's lax grasp and turning in his saddle hucked it as hard as he could into the forest at the side of the trail. It sailed end over end, throwing glints of sun off its silvery hull, and vanished into the overgrowth. Rane cast John an outraged look.
"You better start icing your ass right now, Mister Marston."
"No, now, you had enough," said John, brushing his hands off on his duster and meeting her gaze. "It's ten in the goddamned fuckin' morning, Rane Roth. Christ, what would Arthur say? You ridin' in to square up with Micah damn Bell halfway tanked before midday? I'd have thought you'd be takin' this more seriously than any one of us, and here you are horsin' around like it's a thing to do."
Rane, to her credit, looked quite reproved by this, her gaze sliding back to the snowy path before them, frowning. John wasn't mollified by this.
"You think this is a damn joke?" he went on reproachfully. "I haven't quit thinkin' about this since Arthur died, Rane, I really ain't. This matters to me a whole hell of a lot and I don't look too warmly on you making a bunch of goddamn jokes about shit while we're on our way there."
"John, I've spent the last three years in self-exile over what happened to him. I promise you that I don't take this lightly."
"Well, it sure does look that way to me, Rane, and I got a young kid, so I oughta know."
"Okay." Rane looked chastened indeed now, her head low. "I hear you. I'm sorry."
She kicked Eli on before he could say any more, cantering past them both ahead onto the trail, dirt and snow flying up at Eli's heels. Sadie cast John a cool look from his side.
"Let her alone."
John cast her a scandalized look. "Me? She's acting like a damn -!"
"You think you're the only one hurtin' for Arthur?" Sadie snapped at him. "Not everybody handles shit by laying up on a goddamned ranch and playing house, John Marston."
"Oh, so you think she's dealin' with it by laughin' it off? That it?"
"Well, yeah, actually, I sorta do," Sadie replied in a low hiss. "It ain't the prettiest way I ever saw, sure, drinkin' herself stupid and makin' jokes, and most of us maybe are a little bit better at it, but there it is. So before you get all hard on her, try and remember that. She seems all tough and hard and making like it's funny, John, but we both know better. Shit, you saw her last night."
John glared at her for a moment, scowling, then shook his head. "Fuck." He lifted his voice. "Rane, come back here!"
Rane, glanced back, heeling Eli a little. "What, you wanna throw something else of mine into the woods?"
"No, we just gotta level up, fall on back here and quit sulkin'."
Rane halted Eli, waiting for them to catch up. "Is that an apology?"
"Hell no it ain't." John gave her a grimly amused look. "Are you on drugs or dog food? Just 'cause we gotta sort this shit out with Micah don't make you any less drunk, does it?"
Rane scoffed. "Okay, I get the point, John, I'm drying out."
"Cleet said Micah wasn't alone," said John, still looking surly. "So I think we oughta go in expecting more than just him."
"Well, Micah never was the sorta man to fly stag, the leechy son of a bitch," Sadie remarked.
"All I'm sayin' is we ought be ready for an onslaught, this ain't gonna be no stealth shit."
"Well, that's why y'all came to find me for this, right?" said Rane.
Both Sadie and John looked over at her. Rane laughed at their expressions, sounding for the first time genuinely amused, her eyes lighting up a little as she shook her head.
"Oh, man. If you guys ever wanna play poker, you call me up first. I'll take your money."
"Hey, we asked you to come along because we knew you had an ax to grind same as us," said Sadie, looking a little uncomfortable.
"Really? So it didn't have anything to do with the fact that you guys are going into a buzzsaw and you wanted me to back you up? Would you have come looking for me if I was a little tender-hearted creampuff in a bustle waving a fan around? Huh?" She added, still grinning as Sadie and John both looked away, clearly uncomfortable.
"Well." John waved a hand, a little red. "Rane, we wanted you with us for a whole bunch of reasons."
Rane laughed loud and long, throwing her head back. "John, I oughta kick your ass like an extra point, trying to play that card."
"I ain't playin' cards, Rane, that's the truth!"
"Whatever you say, Slim."
"Oh, hell." Sadie flapped her hands. "Don't start making it all funny."
"Yeah, it's funny, sure, it's fucking hilarious, you guys making a spectacle out of me," Rane agreed, low. "If they gave you an enema they could bury you in a matchbox, Sadie Adler -"
"Always, always so fuckin' glib," John muttered, shaking his head at her.
"Glib is better than suggestible," Rane snapped.
"If you say so."
"If I say so? You don't think -?"
A shot rang out, suddenly, shockingly loud, echoing off the rock walls around them. A few seconds later, the bullet hit the trail near Rachel's hooves, throwing snow and dirt into the air. She reared, braying, causing John to snatch at the bridle in alarm.
"Shit!" he hissed, staring around. "That was a goddamn sniper, I think!"
"Where's he at? I don't see him!" Sadie was roving the mountainside, alarmed. "That sound like a big old bolt-action to you too, John?"
"I think if it wasn't, we'd be dead already," John agreed, fumbling for his gun. As if to punctuate this, another shot rang out, followed by the whistling ricochet of another bullet. Rane felt the wind from this one pass far too near her head for comfort, rippling her hair back. The horses all started, whinnying.
"Alright, well he's either real damn close or he's a crackshot, and either way I don't wanna be standin' out here in the open," said Sadie, sliding hastily out her saddle. "Let's lose the horses. YA! G'ON, GET!"
Rane slipped off Eli, slapping at his hindquarters. He balked, pawing, and she hissed at him through her teeth.
"Go on, Eli!"
He didn't, though; he held his ground, stamping, eyeing her, ears pinned back defiantly. It was the first time he'd ever disobeyed her this brashly, and Rane felt a little twinge of disquiet at it. She'd had no other companions during her years on the road, and he knew her better than anyone did these days. She hardened her heart, though, waving a hand obdurately, meeting his dark eyes with her hazel. She wasn't about to see him get gunned down by some fool working for Micah, not today.
"Go, I said! Go, before you get your goofy ass shot! Gwa'em!"
He snorted, clearly reluctant, and turning fled away at last, hooves flying. Rane slid hastily behind a boulder at the side of the road, keeping low. The silence was ringing and portentous.
"Do you guys see him?" she hissed.
Sadie and John were crouched behind a pine tree on the other side of the road, shoulder to shoulder, guns drawn.
"Do you see him?" John replied. "You're the one with the peeled eye, girl!"
"Hey, you wanna jump my ass some more, you pick him out first, pretty boy, put those sparkly eyes to work -!"
"Oh, the pair of you, hush!" Sadie shouted, looking affronted. "Will one of you just get eyes on him so we can keep on?"
"I think he's northwest, towards the left." John jerked his head. "Think I saw a glint, coulda been a gun."
"Are you sure?" Rane asked, looking over at him.
"Well, there's bullets comin' from up there, ain't there?"
Rane squinted towards where John had indicated. After a moment, she spotted what he must have seen; motion, and the faint twinkle of metal.
"John's right, he's laid up right there," she said, shifting her weight and drawing her sword. "So now that I've got eyes on him, you guys get behind me when I -"
She didn't get to finish her sentence. A shot rang out as soon as Rane broke cover, but her blade was flying before her just as quickly. She wasn't quick enough with the first one to send it back at its point of issue - John suspected it was all the booze she'd sucked down earlier - and she froze, waiting for the next crack of gunfire. It came right on schedule, and in the second or two between the sound and the bullet, John had a moment of raw astonishment for her speed. She listened, gauged the distance, her sword hanging two-handed above her shoulder, and at the perfect moment swung her blade around her like a baseball bat, teeth gritted, crying out hoarsely with effort, the muscles in her shoulders bunching. The clang of the shot striking her blade was shockingly loud - a heavy caliber, throwing sparks into the snow - and they all saw the sniper jolt out of cover a moment later and then fall without fanfare from the side of the mountain, limbs akimbo.
"Jesus, you really put your back into that one," Sadie remarked, eyebrows high.
Rane swung her sword around her wrist once, casting a wry grin towards where Sadie and John were crouched. "See? Told you guys I wasn't that drunk."
THE three of them fought their way to the peak over the next few minutes, though it wasn't easy. There were men stationed all along the mountain, and the bullets rang almost constantly as they went. Rane was instrumental, though John would never have said as much to her; she was out in front of them, her blade flying, the bullets flying away from them, and Sadie and John were responsible for laying low the men who were shooting at them. The snow was falling steadily now, lighting in their hair and falling around them heavily. It was cold and silent save the firing of weapons.
At last they came upon a summit, and by that time the three of them were soaked through, cold and exhausted. John and Sadie had their weapons pulled, panting and damp, Sadie with her hair hanging in strings about her face and John with his shirt clinging to his lean chest. Rane was at the fore, sword drawn, eyes bright and cold beneath her brows, her dark hair clinging to her cheeks, panting.
"There's a little shack up there, you see it?" Sadie said.
"Yeah, I see it," said John, his guns still aimed. He dropped another man before them.
"You want for me to go first?" said Rane, glancing at them.
"Nah, nah, you're gonna go down just like the rest of us," said Sadie, smirking at Rane as she made to wave them back again. "Ain't no hero business about this one, sweetheart, this is personal."
The hut was small, quite practical, and Rane was a little amused at the sight of it. She had never known Micah to allow himself shelter in such a humble little process.
"You really think he's in there?" she said, low, striding forward, her sword drawn.
"Yep," said John. "I think he might just be."
"Well, let's have ourselves a little misunderstanding, then. MICAH BELL!" Rane screamed, and twirled her sword around her wrist once, its blade whistling. "COME ON OUT!"
