Chapter Sixteen, Part One

It wasn’t easy to get to Castaño. The locals liked it that way. In the old days, before the Resource Wars, there had been a highway that connected the town with others in the area, but the citizens tore it up when they got word of federal draft agents in other towns taking able-bodied men off the streets without so much as a chance to settle their business affairs or say good bye to their families. When the civil war came, the townspeople covered the old roadbeds with heavy stones and debris for good measure. They still traded of course, but they had their own hidden ways down the mountain and guarded the town’s perimeters from those who would try to bring their trade to them without prior permission.

Even now that the civil war was over, Castaño took pride in its isolation. When the old train line north out of Santa Fe was rebuilt, Castaño’s town leaders declined to provide a spur or a road that would connect them to the rail. If you didn’t know where the hidden pathways lay, you had no business in Castaño.

All of this was a puzzle to Sophie. “What are they so scared of that they don’t want a nice road and people to trade with?”

Robert was checking the balance of the packs he was strapping onto his mare. The trip though Santa Fe several hours ago had left him irritated and unsettled, in no mood for a child’s questions, especially since he felt he had answered adequately the last time she asked. “You’d have had to have lived through it to understand.”

“But this is a different government. Why don’t they trust it?”

“They didn’t vote for it.” He didn’t look up from an adjustment he was making to his bedroll.

“I bet they didn’t even know when the election was or who was running. It’s their own fault.”

“I suppose so.”

“You should be in the government. They would trust you and know it’s okay to have good roads again.”

This one hit just a little too close to home. He had deliberately chosen a travel plan that would take them though Santa Fe at night so Sophie would be asleep and not agitate to see the town. But he had stayed awake, peering at the city lights and thinking of how his life would have been different if he had only taken a different turn. He had sent a letter on their way out of Estrella, asking his friend for more time to make a decision, offering in the meantime to advise them as a consultant. It was better than nothing, but a poor substitute for being in the thick of things again. “That’s enough, Sophie. Are you ready to go?”

“Yes.”

Ignoring the sullenness in her voice, Robert swung himself into the saddle. The trip would take only a few days if all was as he remembered it, but they could easily be on their own for a week if they encountered anything unexpected. He hoped he had everything they would need. It had been a number of years since he had needed to make a long trip across open country on horseback, cooking over an open fire and sleeping under the stars or wherever he could find shelter. Sophie had never done it at all, although she and her friends would sometimes camp overnight in a horse pasture back at Northwind. Those were parties, though, full of games and fireflies, with all the comforts and necessities of home just a short walk away. If Robert didn’t have what they needed for this trip, they would have to go without or hope to luck upon a homesteader or friendly fellow traveler.