"Three men. They took her."
The chief shouted orders.
Horses were brought forward.
Men ran toward the enclosure.
Elias staggered toward his own horse, gripping his injured side.
Iron Elk caught his shoulder.
"You're hurt."
"I can ride."
"You can barely stand."
Elias shoved his hand away.
"That's my wife."
For a moment, the chief stared.
Then nodded.
"We ride."
But as the men prepared, Elias noticed Two Feathers standing beside the horse enclosure.
The warrior watched the distant riders disappear into the darkness.
His expression was strange.
Not surprise.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
As though he had been waiting for something.
Elias approached him.
"Two Feathers."
The warrior turned.
"Which trail leads through the eastern ridge?"
Two Feathers hesitated.
"The lower crossing."
Elias looked toward the mountains.
"Will they use it?"
"Perhaps."
"Perhaps?"
Two Feathers's expression hardened.
"There are many trails."
Elias studied him.
Then noticed something.
A thin strip of blue ribbon caught on the leather strap hanging from the warrior's saddle.
His breath stopped.
He recognized the color.
Ren's ribbon.
The little gift he had brought her from town.
Two Feathers followed his gaze.
His hand moved toward the strap.
Too late.
Elias reached out and caught his wrist.
"Where did you get that?"
Two Feathers stared.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then the older warrior's expression changed.
Something between fear and resignation appeared.
And Elias understood that the kidnapping had not begun when the men entered the wedding shelter.
It had begun much earlier.
Perhaps days earlier.
Perhaps twenty years earlier.
He tightened his grip.
"Tell me what you've done."
Two Feathers looked toward the dark ridge.
Then whispered, "If you want your wife alive, cowboy, stop asking questions and start riding."
Two Feathers tried to pull his wrist free.
Elias did not release him.
Around them, the camp was coming fully awake. Men hurried toward the horse enclosure, children cried inside the shelters, and Iron Elk's voice carried above the confusion as he ordered the eastern approaches watched.
But Elias could no longer hear much of it.
His attention remained fixed on the strip of blue cloth tied to the older warrior's saddle.
He had purchased that ribbon with his last few coins in Lark Spur Flat.
He had given it to Ren because everyone deserved a gift offered without a hidden bargain.
Now it hung from a man's saddle after his bride had been taken by armed strangers.
"Where did you get it?" he repeated.
Two Feathers glanced toward the chief.
"Not here."
Elias tightened his jaw.
"Here is exactly where we're speaking."
The older warrior looked back at him.
His face carried an expression Elias had seen before on men trapped between two impossible choices.
"Let go," Two Feathers said quietly. "We have very little time."
Elias released his wrist.
But he did not step away.
Two Feathers looked toward the mountains.
"The men who took her won't follow the lower crossing."
"You told me they would."