Then it reared up. Then the other horses reared. Then they started wheelin’ around in tight, fast circles.

I looked at Rose again and had to jump back. Her lips were still makin’ silent words, but her eyes had turned yellow, with black pupils that went vertical, like a snake’s.

The gunmen tried to calm their horses, but couldn’t. The horses were so out of control, the riders had to use both hands just to hang on. Their guns clattered to the ground as they attempted to still their mounts.

But the horses were havin’ none of it. For some reason—and I’m pretty sure it had to do with Rose—they were spooked out of their minds. They whinnied and stamped their feet and bucked and spun.

And then, for no reason I could determine, they turned and galloped away, despite their riders’ best intentions to make ’em stop.

I looked at Rose. She was still starin’ at somethin’ I couldn’t see.

“Where are they goin’?” I said.

She kept starin’ and movin’ her lips as though she didn’t know I was there. I said, “Rose! What happened with the bull? Where were you? How’d you keep from gettin’ gored?” But she never responded, never stopped movin’ her lips.

There were lots of questions I wanted answers to, but they could wait. Gentry couldn’t.

“Watch the women!” I yelled to Shrug, and bolted across the camp toward Major. As I untied his lead I heard Phoebe say, “Why didn’t they just jump off their horses?”

I’d wondered the same thing.

I jumped on Major’s back. Heard Mary say, “They couldn’t.”

She was right. It was as if they’d been stuck to their saddles.

“She did it!” Mary yelled, pointin’ at Rose. “She’s a witch!”

“Shut up, Mary!” Phoebe scolded. “She just saved our lives!”

Had she?

I dug my heels into Major’s flanks and forced him up the hill.


 

 

 

33.

 

Bose had been right about one thing.

There weren’t many trees on the hill.

But he was wrong about Earl Grubbs fuckin’ Gentry under one of ’em.

Earl was lyin’ face down in the grass, dead as a doornail, by Gentry’s feet. She was holdin’ Earl’s horse on a lead line.

“You okay?” I hollered as I rode up to her.

“I’m fine,” she said. “How’s Scarlett?”

I climbed off my horse. Gentry dropped the lead line and threw her arms around me and held me like I was a post and everythin’ around us was a cyclone. Like if she let go, she might get swept away. The poultice on her face was all dry and cracked, and curled in places. It didn’t seem to smell half as bad as before.

“How’d you know about Scarlett?” I said.

Her face was in my coat, so her words came out muffled. “Rose told me.”

“What?”

“Rose told me.”

“What? When?”

“Couple minutes ago.”

I pulled away from her.

“What are you talkin’ about?” I said.

She looked at me like I was daft.

“Rose said Scarlett got hurt. You just left the camp, right? So I’m askin’ if she’s okay.”

I shook my head.

“She ain’t. But she’s alive.”

“Thank God.”

“What do you mean you saw Rose just now?”

“I didn’t see her.