Red West II.

Chapter twenty six - The pursuit

Their hasty journey down from the mountains was not only dangerous; the tough weather conditions made it also quite exhausting.

While Esler and Ryo kept trying to come up with the best way to approach the tavern, and to decide whom they should contact to find out the details about what happened, without alarming half of the city, Koki kept complaining – about the difficult road, the dark, then about the mist. They descended only a short part of the whole way, when they entered the thick mass of the white blanket. It didn't make their travel any easier, and nobody's mood any better.

Unlike the other members of the rescue group, Jin was very quiet.

Kame didn't try to pull him out from behind those walls of silence, which the older one built up around himself, not yet at least. He felt it would have been useless anyway. Naturally, Jin was worried about his brother and upset, as they all were, about that Leo didn't wait up for their return and just rushed to Leadville, apparently without thinking much about the consequences.

Nevertheless, considering everything Kame knew about the Akanishi brothers, he was quite sure that in a similar situation, Jin would have done exactly the same thing. Leo was probably convinced that going there alone, accepting the bounty hunter's conditions, was the best way to protect the others – or rather those, who remained from the original Black Riders.

It was quite difficult to absorb the news about Benny, Ian, Sherman, Todd, Carl and Patrick being dead, even for Kame, and he knew those guys for just a couple of weeks. What it had to be like for the rest of the gang then? They knew each other for so long; they were not only companions in crime, but also good friends, who trusted each other. Not to mention that everything went wrong so suddenly. In general, it was not surprising that something like that would happen, not while wandering around with wanted criminals. But that blow, falling upon all of them, was awfully unexpected.

Kame noticed Ukushi's movements slowing down a little. The mare snorted and on her own retreated to the left side of the path as much as was possible. It was because the other side ended on the edge of the cliff. Thanks to the thickening mist, they couldn't have seen a thing over there, even if they had the daylight instead of the flickering torches, but his mare surely felt the danger of the hidden pit. Ukushi didn't like their night travelling any more than Kame did. Just a wrong step could have meant a fatal mistake.

Kuro, proceeding in front of them, didn't slow down a bit though; the stallion's hooves kept sending small stones away from the path, letting them sink in that nothing which surrounded them. Frowning, Kame soothed his mare across the neck and made her speed up the pace gently; he didn't intend to let Jin out of his sight now or any time soon.

*

The descent to the valley took them the whole night. That thousand-time-damned fog got even thicker with the dawn; they didn't even notice when they had passed the first houses of Leadville, until they were in the middle of the first big street.

To Ryo's relief, Jin and Kame, who were leading their way all that time, didn't need to be reminded to wait up for them. They found both the black stallion and the white mare standing in one of the side alleys, not too far away from the tavern, but at the distance, which was safe enough not to raise any unwanted attention.

The older one had just finished checking the hooves of his animal friend, while the younger one was carefully greasing a long scratch on his mare's hind leg, caused by some sharp twig, with the mysterious ointment.

Ryo had already noticed this before – no matter the circumstances both guys prioritized their horses' comfort. It made him feel a little guiltily that he had never took care for his own stallion so much.