Chapter 14 - The Valley of Reckoning
At the exact moment the rope snapped, Chief Nana’s three hundred horsemen swept down the hills like an avalanche of iron and bone.
War cries rattled the windows of every shop on Main Street. The earth shook beneath the thunder of hundreds of galloping hooves.
"Treason! Fire at will!" Colonel Bradley screamed, drawing his saber as his cavalry soldiers scrambled to form a defensive line.
Corvin dropped through the open trapdoor onto the wooden platform below, kicking his legs forward to sweep Vance’s boots out from under him. The marshal crashed down heavily, losing his grip on his ivory-handled revolver.
Rolling onto his side, Corvin slammed his bound hands against a discarded iron hitching hook, sawing furiously through the hemp fibers until the ropes snapped free. He snatched Vance’s fallen gun.
Main Street was in total chaos. Townsfolk fled into buildings while Nana's warriors circled the cavalry troops, disarming them with surgical precision rather than slaughtering them. Tazhi provided covering fire from above, picking off any mercenary who dared raise a rifle.
Colonel Bradley attempted to mount his thoroughbred horse to flee, but a thrown war club from Chief Nana struck him clean out of the saddle, sending him sprawling into the horse trough.
Meanwhile, Marshal Vance scrambled behind the saloon porch, drawing a hidden derringer. He took aim directly at Tazhi as she climbed down from the water tower.
"Die, you red devil!" Vance screamed.
A single gunshot shattered the air.
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Vance froze. He looked down at his chest, where a dark crimson hole blossomed through his black frock coat. He looked back at Corvin Torne, who stood ten paces away, the smoking Colt .45 held steady in his right hand.
Vance collapsed face-first into the dust of the street he had terrorized for a decade. He did not move again.
