Keech found Pa Abner kneeling between two graves, his head lowered, his arms draped over a pair of crumbling headstones. Whatever second life Bad Whiskey had bestowed on him was quickly draining.
“Pa,” Keech panted. He hooked his arm around Pa Abner’s waist and tried to lift him to his boots.
Pa sank back to his knees. “Lean me against one of these tombstones.”
Moving the man was a struggle. The other young riders ran up. Nat took one of Pa’s arms and helped prop him against one of the stones. Pa looked at Nat and smiled. “I know your eyes. You must be Bennett’s son.”
“I am,” Nat said, his face slightly troubled at the use of his father’s real name. He shuffled back. Keech noticed that all four of his trailmates had taken off their hats.
“Keech, listen to me,” Pa Abner said. “There are things I must tell you. My memories have returned, but you must listen before this false life slips away.”
Keech stooped to one knee. “Go ahead, Pa.”
“It is vital you find the Char Stone before the Reverend Rose. As we speak, his Gita-Skog are closing in. For years they’ve been scattered across the Territories, hunting down the Enforcers, hunting down the sacred objects we hid, the dark objects Rose had stolen from ancient grounds. But what happened here tonight has focused the Reverend’s eye. His sights are set.”
“On what?” Keech asked.
“On the path of a man named Red Jeffreys.”
Keech glanced back at the others, but none of the young riders had apparently heard the name.
“He was one of the other Enforcers who knew the whereabouts of the Stone,” Pa said. “Like myself, he took the Oath of Memory. Or, at least I thought he did.”
“What’s the Oath of Memory?” Keech asked.
The question made Pa Abner sigh. “I knew this day would come. The day that events would force me to impart my very last lesson, the most important lesson of all.
“There is a place you must go, Keech. It’s called Bonfire Crossing. I’ve taught you about the Osage clans who dwell in the riverlands. The Crossing is one of their best-kept secrets. Not for its size, but for the kind of knowledge that dwells within. At Bonfire Crossing I took the Oath of Memory, the ritual that cleansed my mind and obscured the Stone’s burial place from the Reverend’s eyes.”
“The Osage taught you to forget?”
Pa Abner’s breathing was ragged. “That’s right. The Reverend, and many of his disciples, can reach into minds and take what they wish. The Oath of Memory veiled the whereabouts of the Stone. As well as other sacred objects.”
“My pa performed this ritual, too?” Nat asked.
“He did. He also had the idea of leaving clues before our memories of Bone Ridge were gone.”
A strange notion occurred to Keech. “The cursed Floodwood. It was part of that protection?”
Pa Abner hesitated, as if buried under a mountain of returning memories. “Floodwood, yes, Floodwood was a precaution,” he said. “There’s so much to tell you, Keech.” His body slouched farther down the stone, as though he wanted to fall asleep.
“It’s all right, Pa.” He spoke a different question now, this time more urgently. “Who were my parents, really? And why are they buried here?”
Pa smiled feebly.
“Your mother, Erin, was a strong woman, Keech. She met your father while the Enforcers were riding through the plains, seeking shelter. Your father was a fierce fighter. Terror of the West. The Osage didn’t call him Bill, though. They called him Zha Sape, ‘Black Wood,’ on account of the way no enemy could find him while hunting him in the forest. You bear his name to preserve his honor.”
“He knew the Osage?” Keech asked.
Pa Abner managed another smile. “My boy, he was Osage. Half, at least. His father—your grandfather—was a tribesman in the village known as Naniompa, the Village of the Pipe. Your grandmother was a trader’s daughter from St. Louis.”
Keech sighed, feeling a lonely kind of warmth.
Pa drew another tattered breath and continued. “When your folks died, I feared the Reverend Rose would raise them for his wicked schemes. So I carried them here to Missouri along with you and the Stone. I found refuge in the village of Snow, up the ridge. The place was long abandoned, a perfect hideout. But you were hungry, frightened. I knew I couldn’t linger. I decided to hide them in Bone Ridge Cemetery.”
Keech remembered the feelings of déjà vu when he had glimpsed the ruins of Snow. He had, in fact, been there before. As a toddler.
“I brought you to their graves, Keech. Just before we left for Big Timber. You were afraid of this place. You cried so hard, till I showed you the angel. You touched her robes and your tears dried.”
Keech imagined standing there all those years ago, gazing at the sculpture. “Is that when you met up with the other Enforcers?” he asked.
“Soon after. We traveled to Big Timber, you and I. Then Bennett found me, and not long after, Red Jeffreys and Milos Horner. We formed our plan to hide the Char Stone. We scattered the clues that led back to this place. Then we turned to the Osage at Bonfire Crossing to take the Oath of Memory.”
Pa Abner took a short breath. His eyelids began to slip. “There’s something else,” he said, and pointed to the silver pendant. “The amulets are sacred. They can hold the Reverend’s power at bay. I shattered the original piece into five. The other Enforcers have the other fragments. Find the shards, Keech, and unite them.”
Pa Abner closed his eyes.
“No, Pa, wake up!” Keech pleaded.
But Pa Abner didn’t seem to hear. “I am a wild horse cut from the reins,” he murmured. “Let me run to the mountains.”
A tear filled Keech’s eye. “Pa, don’t go. You have to tell me how to get to Bonfire Crossing.”
Pa Abner’s eyes fluttered open, but only a hair. “Ride west, my boy. The Crossing moves, so follow the rivers, the bending trees. Beware of the crows, and hold the amulets close. The People of the Middle Waters await.”
He closed his eyes again. “Remember, my young warrior. Remember who you are.”
As he spoke, he lifted his hand and pointed a shaking finger to the hunter’s moon.
“You are the Wolf,” Pa whispered in Keech’s ear.
Then Abner Carson stirred no more.