Page 25 of Mistaken

Not an impossibly huge distance under normal circumstances. But when she had no idea how she would even get away from Abdul, let alone cover those four miles on foot before he realized she’d gone, her prospects for escape seemed pretty dismal.

She nodded, then said, “Have you ridden up here a lot?”

“Several times,” he replied. “When I came here and saw there were stables, I realized this must be a good place for riding. This horse and I have begun to know one another.”

In response, the stallion tossed his mane — not, Sarah thought, because he was fighting against the reins Abdul held, but almost as a way to confirm what the djinn had just said.

“Do you keep the horses in the stables?” she asked, now curious. Her blood bay and the stallion Abdul was riding had appeared out of nowhere, but she supposed they could have been kept somewhere nearby on the property rather than being conjured out of thin air.

“No,” he replied. “That is, they roam free on these lands, and I make sure there is ample fodder for them. They are part of a herd that stayed nearby even after the humans who kept them were gone, and when I wish to ride, I summon one of them. I suppose they use the stable from time to time if they wish to shelter from the weather, so I made the necessary repairs to keep it intact. It was beginning to look somewhat ramshackle.”

She could imagine. One thing that had fascinated her during these past four-plus years was how quickly buildings and roads could fall into disrepair, and how much effort had to be expended to keep them functional. Sure, back in the day there had always seemed to be road crews and construction crews in various spots around town, working on some project or another, but she hadn’t paid a lot of attention to exactly what they were doing.

Now that she’d helped to fill potholes and had been part of a crew that went around Los Alamos and fixed siding and patched stucco, she had a much larger appreciation for the power of entropy.

And she had to admit she was kind of relieved to hear that Abdul had ridden these trails before. True, he was a djinn and therefore could probably get them out of any trouble they might find themselves in, but still, it always helped to have a guide who knew where he was going.

He proved that even more in the next fifteen minutes, because they entered a narrow canyon with a small creek that cut through the center, and soon after that, the soft chatter of the water over its rocky bed turned louder, splashing into the stillness. Sure enough, the canyon terminated in a small waterfall that flowed over the red rocks and down into the streambed, and on its banks, cottonwoods provided welcome shade from the bright nearly noonday sun.

Abdul dismounted and came over to Sarah, then extended a hand to help her down from her horse. She hesitated for a moment — except for that first time when he’d grasped her from the bicep, they had never touched one another — but then she told herself to get over it, that falling while she was trying to climb down from the little mare wouldn’t be a very good look.

So she reached over and took his hand, feeling the strength of his fingers as they gripped hers, holding her steady as she got down from her horse. His black stallion had already wandered over to the creek and begun to drink, and the blood bay mare followed as soon as she knew her rider had gotten safely down.

“Thank you,” Sarah said. Abdul had let go of her as soon as she stood on solid ground, so it seemed pretty clear that he hadn’t been looking for an excuse to touch her.

“You appeared as though you needed the help,” he replied. Again, even though she couldn’t see his expression, she got the feeling he was smiling as he spoke.

“It’s been a long time,” she said lightly. “But I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it eventually.” She paused there so she could look over at the waterfall, at the way the dancing water caught the sunlight and shimmered like a scatter of diamonds. “This is gorgeous, though. Thank you for bringing me here.”

“I am glad you like it,” he said. “I discovered this place when I first surveyed this land and thought it a good destination, especially on a warm day such as this one.”

Yes, it was warm. Not hot yet, although Sarah thought it might get there later this afternoon. Even so, she was glad of the hat and the sunglasses Abdul had given her, although she guessed they might look a little ridiculous in combination with her blue silk tunic and trousers.

Well, she wasn’t here to put on a fashion show. The outfit was more practical than she’d first thought, and it certainly didn’t seem as if her companion…her captor…cared what she looked like.

“I suppose you could live here for a thousand years and never get tired of it,” she remarked, and his head lifted toward the sky, where a trio of hawks circled high overhead.

“Perhaps,” he said. His voice sounded almost doubtful, as though he wasn’t quite sure of his answer. “It is a land of many interesting corners and nooks and crannies. That is why I often go riding, even though I have other ways of surveying this part of the world.”

Meaning, she supposed, that he could take to the sky and fly like some kind of oversized bird. A raven, she thought, considering he never seemed to wear anything except black from head to toe.

“How long have you been here?” she asked, and his hooded head swiveled toward her.

However, he didn’t reply right away, and Sarah wondered if she’d overstepped somehow by asking such a question.

When he spoke, though, his tone sounded friendly enough.

“Not so very long,” he said. “Only a week, although I explored this territory before that, just to make sure this was truly the place where I wanted to settle.”

A week? She thought of all the changes he’d wrought in the landscape. No human could have accomplished so much in such a short amount of time, but she knew you had to put aside normal measures when you were dealing with djinn and their apparently limitless powers.

Still….

“You chose this place? I thought the elders made the decisions as to who lived where.”

Or at least, that was what she had heard. Since she’d gotten all her knowledge secondhand…often thirdhand…she had to admit it probably had some decent-sized holes in it.

Once again, Abdul didn’t answer her right away, and she worried all over again that she was asking questions that bordered on rude. Maybe she should have just kept her mouth shut the way she had at breakfast and during dinner the night before, but she couldn’t help being curious about him, about why he had come to Ghost Ranch out of all the other locations on the planet.

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