16
Ataru's Mission

Ataru loosed a long, weary sigh as he stepped from his horse. He couldn't believe how long he had been gone, but then, he had never dreamed that tracking that gang would prove to be such a monumental task. It had taken forever. And that had been the easy part. They had caught them out in the open and there had been a brief, bloody battle. Ataru had lost four good men, the gang had lost six, and the others had surrendered. But the leader himself had managed to escape. Ataru had sent his men back to town with the captured outlaws while he trailed the leader. He found his man in a two-bit tavern in a backwater little town that probably wasn't even on the map. Ataru had relieved him of his gun, but the man had pulled a hideaway weapon and Ataru had been forced to kill him. And now, at last, he was home again. Some of his weariness left him as he contemplated a hot bath, a cold drink, and an evening with Kaoru.

He had thought of her constantly on the long ride back to Seiyo, remembering the way she laughed, the way her hair swayed when she moved.

Leaving his trail-weary mount at the livery barn, he walked down the main street toward the office to write his report. It took the better part of an hour to get it all down on paper.

Ataru leaned back in his chair. Two of the men who had been killed had wives who would have to be visited even though they had already been notified of their husbands' deaths. It was the worst part of his job.

Swearing quietly, he signed his name to the report, then went to his room at the boardinghouse to get cleaned up. Forty minutes later, dressed in clean clothes, he went to visit the widows. It was a job that never got any easier, no matter how often he did it.

He was feeling rotten an hour later when he headed for the tavern. One man's wife seemed to handling her loss well, but the other, well, she had gone into hysterics at the mention of her husband's name and it had taken a quarter of an hour just to calm her down.

Ataru swallowed the first cup in a single gulp, lingered over the second one. He wondered again if it wasn't time to call it quits in his line of work. It was a rough life, being a lawman, laying one's life on the line day after day. Spending weeks away from home chasing outlaws, wrestling drunks, writing endless reports, upholding the law. A hard job, he mused, and usually a thankless one.

He thought of one of the wives of his dead men, six months pregnant with her third child. Why was it always the married men who got killed? Men with families.

He tossed off his drink and left the tavern, eager to see Kaoru, needing to hear her voice, see her smile It was a moment he had been looking forward to all day.

He was whistling softly when he entered the inn. He walked the familiar hall, felt his heart beat fast as he knocked at her door. And then knocked again. He frowned when there was no answer.

Returning to the lobby, he stopped at the desk and asked the clerk if he knew where Kaoru-san had gone.

"She checked out a long time ago," the clerk said, checking the register.

"Checked out? Did she say where she was going?"

"Not as I recall." The clerk studied the worried expression on Ataru's face, then his memory was jogged when Ataru flashed a coin. "I believe she took the stage east," he drawled. "Toward a little place called Iyo, I think."

Ataru gave his thanks and his money and, disappointed, left the inn and made his way back to the office. So she had gone home. He swore under his breath, hurt more than he cared to admit because she had left town without a word.

He was thumbing through a sheaf of wanteds an hour later when one of his men sauntered in.

"Welcome home," the man greeted.

"Thanks," Ataru said listlessly. "Anything happen while I was gone?"

"One of the boy's broke his leg rescuing one of the seamstress's cats from a tree," came the chuckled reply. "Oh, and one of the coaches from here was attacked by Wild Boys or dragons or something. I wish the army would hurry up and round up those savages and animals once and for all."

Ataru felt the short hair rise along the back of his neck. "Which coach was it?"

"I don't remember. Happened two, three weeks after you left town."

"Did anyone go looking for the stage?"

"Sent a man out. He found the bodies of the driver and the guard."

"No passengers?"

The man shook his head.

Ataru thrust the wanted posters into his hands. "Finish these. I'll be back in a few minutes."

It took twenty-four hours for the answer to his wire to arrive. It was the longest twenty-four hours of his life. He knew, deep down he knew even before he read it, what the answer would be. Kaoru had never arrived in Iyo.

Twenty minutes later he was riding out of town following the stage depot's eastbound route. He was on a fool's errand, and he knew it, but he had to see for himself. He found the burned-out shell of the coach three days later, set alight by dragon's fire most likely. Time and the elements had erased whatever tracks he might have been able to follow.

Swinging aboard his horse, he rode in ever-widening circled around the coach, hoping against hope he might find some clue as to Kaoru's fate.

He came upon a shallow stream some fifteen miles from the coach. And there, wedged between two moss-covered rocks, he found what remained of two bodies. The tattered remnants of their clothing identified them as male.

Ataru cursed under his breath. The man that had been sent must not have looked very hard or very long, he thought angrily. He probably took a quick glance at what was left of the coach and hightailed it back to town. And who the hell could blame him?

He stared at the remains, his eyes thoughtful. How had these men managed to escape from the stage? Dismounting, he took a closer look and saw an arrow embedded in the ribcage of one of the men. Dragons didn't use arrows, but Wild People sometimes did.

Ataru frowned. Something here just didn't add up. It was obviously dragons who attacked the stage, and yet if it was a someone Wild traveling with them who shot down these men, why allow them to get a hour's distance on horseback from the coach before killing them? Two men on foot, getting that far when there were Wild People and dragons on their heels? Not at all likely.

He dug a shallow grave and buried the bodies, marking it with a pile of rocks in case the families of deceased wanted to retrieve the remains for a proper burial.

Remounting his horse, he sat staring into the distance. Where was Kaoru? If he kept riding, would he find her body decaying on the grasslands, or had the savages or animals taken her prisoner? Her image played across his mind: huge blue eyes, long black hair, the smile of an angel. And then he thought of her living as a slave in some savage's hovel and knew he couldn't go back without at least trying to find her.

The next two days were long. The weather was cold, the wind blew icy gusts, and dark clouds gathered over the face of the land.

Ataru was about to give up and turn for home when he came across what looked to be like a large Wild campsite. His horse snorted and rolled its eyes as they approached it. The smell of death was heavy in the air. Several large black vultures squeaked noisily and took to the air at his approach.

The lawman felt his stomach churn as he dismounted and picked his way through the carnage. Predators and scavengers had been at the bodies, all of whom were soldiers. Most were picked almost clean. Someone had dug several graves in the shade of the trees. He felt his anger rise when he passed several tiny graves. There was no reason to make war on women and children, he thought bitterly. Wasn't it enough that the men were trying to kill off each other without attacking harmless infants?

He walked through the entire camp, poked into every hide tent that hadn't been totally destroyed, hoping to find some clue that Kaoru had been there and escaped, but he found nothing, only ashes and graves and bodies and bits of burned cloth.

Utterly discouraged, he swung aboard his horse and rode away from the camp, eager to put distance between himself and whatever ghosts lingered there.

There was nothing to do now but go back to town, he thought wearily. Any drakes who might have survived would be long gone, and Kaoru with them if she still lived. If she had ever been at this camp. He shivered as a light rain began to fall. He refused to believe that Kaoru had been killed.

She was alive and somehow, someday, he would find her again.