Page 58 of Mattox
Picking it up, she carried it back to where Mattox had dug a fire pit and placed several pieces of wood in it. She watched as he struck the edge of his knife with the piece of flint and ignited the bits of dry grass and leaves. Within seconds, a decent fire was going strong.
She started to hand him the prairie dog, but he waved it off. “Huh. It’s a male. Was sort of hoping it would be a female. They’re bigger. And if they’re lactating, tastier. Do you know how to gut and skin one of these?” he asked.
“No. Why should I?”
She caught a hint of amusement in those pinkish-red eyes. “Because one day, you may need to know how to do it if you want to survive.”
Holding up her cuffed wrist, she gave him a quizzical look. “Did you forget this?”
Mattox sighed. “Cara, there may be times you’ll be injured worse than that. I’m teaching you survival skills.”
“Ohhh.” His intention was clear. She squeamishly eyed the dead animal. “I guess you’re right. You wanna show me how?”
“No. I’m going to tell you what to do, and watch you do it.”
When she started to indicate her wrist again, he shook his head. “Improvise. Now, first things first, find yourself a flat rock. It doesn’t have to be big. Just large enough to lay your kill on it. You don’t want to clean it in the dirt, and definitely not in your lap.”
The last part held a hint of amusement. She made a face at him. “Ha, ha, ha. So what if I don’t have a rock? What if I’m in the forest? Do I use a log?”
“A log or a tree stump will work.”
It didn’t take her long to find a suitable-sized rock that wasn’t too big for her to move closer to the fire. “All right. What next?”
“Cut the head off. Be sure to point the neck away from you so any blood that spurts out won’t get all over you.”
Gritting her teeth, Caralas followed his directions as he patiently went over each step. She had an especially difficult time with the skinning with her bum wrist, but Mattox assured her she was doing fine for her first time. He was patient, and didn’t try to rush her, for which she was grateful. He was totally unlike her father, or any of his men, including his second. They didn’t try to hide their irritation whenever they attempted to show her how to do something, and she either didn’t live up to their expectation, or they really weren’t willing to give her a chance.
She paused as she prepared to cut the feet off the carcass. Mattox noticed her hesitation, but he also seemed to realize it had nothing to do with the work at hand.
“What are you thinking?” he softly inquired.
She looked up at him. “Tanger.”
“Who?”
“Marlin Tanger. He’s the battle lord of Red Rock, just outside of Vega City. He and his second, and a handful of his soldiers, traveled down here with us.”
Mattox tilted his head. “What about him?”
“He and Dad don’t get along. I mean, they’re sociable and polite to each other, but as long as I’ve known him, he’s always commenting on the fact that Vega City and Red Rock used to be all under the jurisdiction of one battle lord. And it should be that way again.”
“What happened? Why did it change?”
“From what I was told, my great-grandfather, who was the first battle lord, he was the one who put his best and most trusted friend, Tristin Tanger, in charge of Red Rock. Vega City had a little over a thousand inhabitants at the time. Red Rock had around three hundred. But because the two compounds were some distance away from each other, Great-Grandfather didn’t feel that he could effectively rule both at the same time.”
Mattox nodded. “When my father defeated the battle lord of Bearinger, he did the same thing. That compound’s just a few days away, but he didn’t feel he could run both it and Alta Novis, so he put one of his captains in charge.”
“Does the captain still take orders from your father?”
“Actually, the captain sends regular reports back to Dad. Every six months, Dad sends a replacement, to give his men the experience of running a compound. That way, whenever we gain another compound, or we take another Mutah compound under our wing, Dad has a trained and experienced man he can send to run the place. A man he can trust.” Mattox raised an eyebrow at her. “I take it Tanger turned on your great-grandfather. Broke his trust.”
“Yeah.” She didn’t try to hide her anger. “But, like I said, they remained cordial to each other. Just like now. Marlin Tanger just never took orders from him anymore. And it’s stayed that way for generations.”
“Are you thinking this Tanger may be behind the assassination attempt on you?”
“I don’t know, but I can’t in all fairness rule him out.”
“I agree,” Mattox told her. “If something happened to your father, you’d be left to run Vega City. If you were also out of the picture… Cara, who would take command? Your father’s second? What’s his name again?”
