“What are we doing?” Remy asked.
Fargo barreled into the tavern. Once more he shouted their names, half-fearing they had rushed out when the boar first attacked and might be lying out there somewhere, torn and bleeding.
Then a voice answered. From out of the back they came, Liana with her arms around Halette and Clovis. They ran to him and Halette threw her arms around his legs while Liana hugged him.
“Mon Dieu! I was so worried! We heard cries and we looked out and saw the monster coming down the street, attacking everyone it passed. So I took them to my bedroom and we hid under the bed.”
Halette was sobbing.
“We thought we heard you a while ago and came out but you weren’t here,” Liana said.
“Where is our papa?” Clovis asked. “Did you find him?”
“Still out in the swamp.” Fargo didn’t add “and maybe dead” but he was thinking it.
Liana gave a start and recoiled, her hand over her mouth. She was staring at the doorway.
Fargo figured Remy had come in but when he turned it was a Cajun woman holding the limp body of a small boy. A tusk had caught the boy in the neck and his small head hung by shreds. Quickly, Fargo scooped Halette up and held her so she couldn’t see.
“Simone!” Liana hurried to her.
Clovis said, “We must find Papa.” And before anyone could stop him, he dashed past Liana and past the stricken mother and out into the night.
“Get back here!” Fargo hollered, and heard a yelp. He darted around the women and out the door.
“Let go of me!”
Remy had hold of Clovis’s arm. “Calm down, boy. You’re not going anywhere with that bête out there.”
“But my papa is out there, too!”
“He’s a grown man. You’re not.” Remy shook him to quiet him. “Do you think I don’t know how you feel? Your mother was my cousin, was she not? And a good friend, besides. I loved her, boy. And I swear to you by all that is holy, that beast will pay for her death, as it will for the death of my friends.” He pushed Clovis toward Fargo.
Squeals came from the swamp but from far off.
The glow from the burning buildings lit a scene of slaughter and destruction. Shouts and wails rose on all sides. Those who were not hurt were helping those who were. Bodies were being covered. And not only humans had suffered. Two horses and a dog were down, one horse kicking in its own entrails.
“It’s a nightmare,” Remy said.
Fargo couldn’t get over how much damage the razorback had caused, or how many it had killed and maimed. Granted, it was a thousand pounds of muscle and ferocity, but still. He was more determined than ever to hunt the thing down and slay it. It, and the madman that used it as a tool of revenge on those the madman blamed for the deaths of his people.
Fargo put Halette down. “I want you and your brother to go to Liana’s room and stay there.”
“I’ll do no such thing,” Clovis said. “I want to help you look for my papa.”
“First things first.”
Remy used his boot on the boy’s bottom. “Do as he tells you. This is not the time to argue.”
They went down the street to the landing. Faint in the distance they could hear the razorback.
“Tomorrow I go after it,” Remy said.
“You won’t be alone.” Fargo went to the canoe where he had left the girl but she was gone. “Damn.” He hoped she hadn’t blundered into the boar’s path a second time.
Smoke drifted over them, wispy tendrils writhing like fog.
Motioning to Remy, Fargo led him to where Hetsutu lay. “I figured we would bury him ourselves.”
His head bowed, Remy sank to his knees. “I thank you but it is mine to do. Of all my friends he was the best.”
“I’ll be at the tavern.”
But Fargo had barely taken two steps when the swish of a paddle heralded a pirogue gliding out of the gloom. He moved to meet it.
Namo stopped stroking and let the canoe glide to a stop. He sat glued in astonishment, taking in the devastation. “How can this be?”
“You haven’t seen the worst yet.”
Putting down the paddle, Namo climbed out. Fargo helped him pull the pirogue out of the water.
“I heard the beast and the screams and came as fast as I could. I kept telling myself it was impossible, that the boar wouldn’t dare.” Namo started up the street, walking as one in a daze. Then he stiffened and blurted, “My children?”
“Safe at the tavern.”
Namo broke into a run and Fargo paced him. They passed a man cradling a woman. The horse had stopped thrashing but was still breathing with the rasp of a blacksmith’s bellows. The acrid smell of smoke mixed with the pungent odor of blood and gore.
“That I should live to witness such a thing,” Namo said softly. “Who would have thought the razorback would—” He didn’t finish.
“It wasn’t by chance.” Fargo told him about the part the Mad Indian played.
Namo stopped cold. “You saw the rabbit and stake with your own eyes? Then the lunatic is as much to blame as the boar.” He smacked a hand against his leg. “I’ve just had a thought. What if the Mad Indian had a hand in the deaths of some of those who have gone missing? What if he somehow lured the razorback to them as he lured it here?”
“Anything is possible.”
“All this time we thought we were up against just an animal but the man must be slain, too.”
“Where we find one we’re likely to find the other.”
The rest of the night crawled by. Liana let the children sleep in her bed. Fargo spread out his blankets out back next to the Ovaro, the Henry at his side, the Colt in his hand. He didn’t sleep well. He kept hearing screams and squeals and waking up in a cold sweat. The last time, a pink tinge to the east signified dawn would soon break, and he got up and bundled his bedroll and went into the tavern to put coffee on.
Someone had beaten him to the kitchen.
“Bonjour,” Remy Cuvier said from over at the table. He lifted a steaming cup. “Comment allez-vous?”
“If you’re asking me how I am,” Fargo said as he stepped to the stove, “I feel about the same as you look.”
“You couldn’t sleep either?” Remy took a slow sip. “I doubt I will ever again have a good night’s rest.”
Fargo filled a cup and joined him. “I’d like to get an early start. One of us should wake Namo.”
“No need,” said the gent in question as he entered with a pack over his shoulder. “I have been lying in the bedroom for the past hour staring at the ceiling and finally couldn’t take it anymore.”
“We need to have words, you and I,” Remy said.
“I know what you are going to say and you can’t talk me out of it.”
“Hear me out. Your wife was one of the kindest women I knew. She didn’t turn her back on me as most of my family did. For that I owe her.”
Namo began slicing a loaf of bread. “Nothing you can say will change my mind.”
“Damn it, man. Think of your children. If something were to happen to you, where would that leave them? Orphans. With no one to look after them.” Remy wagged a finger at him. “If you care for them, you’ll stay here. Fargo and I can get by without you.”
“Who are you trying to fool? Just the two of you against that beast and the Mad Indian? You can use a third set of eyes and a third rifle.”
“But Clovis and sweet Halette—”
“I’ve talked it over with them. They understand. Should I share my wife’s fate, they will go live with my brother. He will gladly take them in.”