Wild by Lincoln Crisler Read Free Book Online

asked.
    “I mean a damned witch, son,” Lee said. “Showed up with a few servants. Some of ‘em didn’t look too healthy, either. Took the colonel and his boy. We tried to fight, but he waved his hands and we couldn’t move. One of his buddies knocked that tooth out of my mouth.”
    “What exactly is a hechicero , Juan?” Matt asked.
    “In English, it means ‘false physician,’ roughly,” Juan explained. “In brujeria , Mexican magic, there are curanderos , good magicians, who heal and bring good luck, and hechiceros , who deal with the Devil and curse your crops and bring sickness.”
    “A hechicero could raise the dead?” Tom asked.
    “Absolutely, señor . If he was bold enough to ask el Diablo for the power.”
    “This isn’t the first time you met this wizard, is it?” Matt asked.
    “No,” the old outlaw answered. “Met him a couple of weeks ago, right after I parted ways with this piece of work.” He jerked his head towards Black Tom. “Found out we both had business in El Paso, and told me he’d pay well if I’d handle something for him. Handed me a bag of gold coins and gave me some instructions.”
    “What were the instructions?” Juan asked.
    “Told me to light a couple of fires. One before I took Waters, and one after. I had to throw coins into both fires, and scraps of paper. Had to leave some of those coins at the colonel’s home, and the others where they lay. Bastard was supposed to pay me when he picked the two of ‘em up, and he was very specific about the boy being with the old man.”
    “Do you have any papers or coins left?” Juan asked.
    “None. I’d never seen anything like those coins before. Looked like pure gold. I’m sure you can guess what I was thinking,” Lee said, grinning tightly. “That guy was scary, though. Wore a mask with teeth in it, and one snakeskin boot. Still had the head on it. And a necklace of shiny black stones. That’s all I remember. Fella spooked the shit out of me, or else I would have taken the money and ran. The papers, they had some kinda writing on them. Didn’t look like Spanish or anything else, for that matt—”
    Something whistled through the air and smacked into the old man’s shoulder. Matt jumped back, whirling about with his gun in the air.
    “Damnit!” he cried. He saw nothing but his partners and the Oliver gang. He looked back at Oliver and saw a thin silver knife, buried to the hilt in the aged outlaw’s flesh. Lee had fallen to the ground and was writhing in pain, clawing at the knife.
    A low moan echoed through the surrounding hills, accompanied by a voice muttering in a language Matt couldn’t understand.
    “More of those things,” Juan said. “We need to space ourselves around the fire, facing out.” He took up his position, and Matt and Tom followed suit.
    “You too,” Matt said, waving at Oliver and Big Steve. Grab your guns.” He tossed Fancy Jim back his revolver. “We’re all in this together.”
    The Oliver gang took their places in the circle, and the six of them cast about slowly with their guns, waiting for the attack.
    The dead shuffled out of the hills a moment later. Tom and Oliver took aim and picked off the first few.
    “We need to wait until they get a little closer,” Matt shouted. “Make our shots count. We’ll rotate around the fire to cover each other while we reload.”
    As the dead grew nearer, five howling, red-skinned men poured down the hillside, dressed in leather skins and carrying axes and slings.
    “I don’t think those boys are dead,” Tom said.
    “That’s good,” Matt said. “They’ll get here quicker and we should have them taken care of before the dead reach us.” The three men began firing as the screaming Indians reached level ground. Two of them fell. A third let out a bloodcurdling shriek and hurled his ax toward Matt. Matt dropped to his knees, and the ax whistled past. He heard a dull thump and a grunt, and whirled around. Big Steve had dropped the