Chapter 44: The Shadows of Dustfall
Even though they took turns keeping watch through the entire night, there was no sign of life in the distance. Whatever had passed as a brief midnight scare had stayed lodged in Bonnie's mind, and she kept scanning the plain for something that might satisfy the curiosity gnawing at her about it. As on other occasions, she found no answer.
All she could do was load her things onto the saddle and continue the journey with the others.
"Do you think it was a duel?" Evelyn asked Victoria.
"Could be."
Lady furrowed her brow, looking into the distance.
"Whatever it was, we'll find clues soon enough."
'So we just keep moving after hearing gunshots in the middle of the night, out in the middle of nowhere. Not that we could do much else — but I'm sure Victoria's dealt with things like this before. That would explain why she's so calm.'
She couldn't question La Señora's composure, since she clearly knew what she was doing, no matter how mysterious her reasoning appeared. As someone inexperienced, looking to learn from those who weren't, Bonnie needed to watch closely and study those behaviors.
Maybe someday that would actually be worth something.
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A few kilometers later, Victoria raised her hand to signal everyone to stop. The three girls obeyed and fell silent while La Señora moved toward what looked like the remains of a confrontation. Weeds had been shredded into pieces and splattered in red, as though they had exploded into fragments that scattered across the ground like some strange piece of art.
'There's… blood,' Bonnie thought.
Victoria dismounted, having noticed the same thing. She crouched down and touched the blood with her fingers. Then she looked ahead, where fragments of something larger lay waiting to be examined.
Evelyn nudged Bonnie on the shoulder.
"Hey — doesn't that red paint remind you of something?"
Those words hit Bonnie's memory like a direct blow. She stared at the splattered paint, her mind pulling her back to the moment Scaramuccia fled from them. It was the same shade of red and the same pattern of splatter. If the jester hadn't coated the entire inside of that wagon with his escape, it would have been impossible for her to identify it as his doing.
"Yeah. That's Scaramuccia's paint…"
"He ran — but we never found out where."
"And judging by the state of this place, someone was probably chasing him."
"You think it could be…"
Bonnie's expression darkened. In the sunlight, her shadow flickered like a fault line torn out of the world, and her eyes glowed faint with the color of her irises. Almost in a whisper, she said:
"The Devil's Cult is after him…"
She knew she couldn't assume or confirm anything — but from her own experience, she couldn't help thinking those monsters had been trying to settle a score with the jester. She could still picture how frightened and resigned Scaramuccia had looked before he vanished. Which was also strange. He had every opportunity to leave without saying a word — and yet he'd thought to leave that poem for them.
There were too many pieces that didn't fit in this picture, and that was all they had to go on.
Victoria looked at Bonnie and Evelyn.
"You two know something about this, don't you? Stop whispering between yourselves and tell us what you've got while we keep moving."
Lady nudged her horse a few steps forward toward Victoria and looked at the girls. Like some kind of second-in-command, she always stayed close to La Señora, following every instruction without question. That too caught Bonnie's attention with a flicker of curiosity — but they needed to focus on what they actually knew.
Resuming their ride, Bonnie and Evelyn filled Victoria in on everything they knew about Scaramuccia — from the moment Bonnie watched him performing his act at the center of the tent, to the fact that the jester was a follower of one of the Desert Ballads.
La Señora held her silence for a few seconds.
"It's likely the sheriff has been chasing him. If the jester follows the Coward's Ballad, there's no better option to track him down than someone walking the Hunter's Ballad. And if that man is involved, it means the Church itself sent him."
"That… also makes sense," said Bonnie.
She had been so focused on the villains that she hadn't thought about the exorcists.
'Of course — they handle eliminating the cultists, or at least that's how it looks. If Scaramuccia carries valuable information about the Devil's Cult, they'd obviously want him alive for questioning. What matters now is finding out what happened to Scaramuccia and the sheriff chasing him.'
Based on the remains of what was likely a duel between Hunter and Prey, Scaramuccia had managed to slip past the sheriff's Ballad abilities and get away.
'We're already relatively close to Dustfall. We might find him hiding somewhere in the city…'
As before, it was a possibility worth keeping in mind.
"Marcus might come across as someone who doesn't care about anything, but he's surprisingly effective as a sheriff," Lady added. "Even with the arrangement he has with Vicky, he's someone who has kept the county free of genuinely dangerous outlaws."
The direction the conversation was heading excited Evelyn, who pushed ahead and said:
"It was Marcus who drove Dirty Diana out of Gramond County — the woman who years later became one of the greatest thieves and killers in history."
That name sounded familiar to Bonnie.
'Dirty Diana, huh… There are so many notorious criminals throughout history who still haven't been caught to this day. Now that I know supernatural powers exist, I understand why. If this supposedly accomplished sheriff still couldn't catch Scaramuccia, how legendary would Red Johnny and Dirty Diana have to be to be that dangerous?'
That sounded like a conversation topic that could carry the rest of the trip on its own.
"Don't forget that Dead Hand beat him twice before he ever made sheriff," Lady added.
"Sure, but that doesn't count. Marcus was still at the First Stigma back then," Evelyn said.
Listening to the exchange, Victoria wore a nostalgic look for a few seconds that Bonnie managed to catch.
"We pick up the pace, ladies," La Señora said suddenly. "Let's burn a little energy so we can recover with a good rest this afternoon."
With a look of surprise, but also relief, Lady said:
"That sounds wonderful. I didn't sleep well last night. Some peace and quiet would do me good."
"Then let's not waste time," said Evelyn.
Bonnie sighed. These women made decisions far too fast.
'I suppose that's the difference between knowing and not knowing. They're like… one person divided into three.'
All she could do was let herself be carried along by the current — just as long as she didn't go over a waterfall of improbability.
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The crimson afternoon — the sun sinking into the horizon. The whistle of a train could be heard in the distance, and the great cloud of smoke billowing from the boiler room of a colossal locomotive built of metal and fire could already be seen.
Near the train station, the Sisters of the Horizon rode along the tracks before entering the city known as Dustfall. The brick buildings were already visible — colorful and weathered by the passage of time. Houses with reddish-brick walls and black rooftops, a small white church in the distance with its bell tower, wide cobblestone streets. And steam-powered machinery was never far away, humming along for the residents' convenience.
In essence, this city looked a great deal like Ironwood — which sent a small wave of nostalgia washing over Bonnie. Not only because of the resemblance, but because this place held dozens of memories that had always brought her comfort when everything felt wrong.
'I'm back, Mama… We're back.'
She closed her eyes and let herself feel the moment — but Evelyn had already pushed ahead, her eyes fixed on the train.
"Feels like yesterday when we robbed the Northern Dogs on a train from the same company. They've even got the same cars."
Lady elbowed her in the arm to shut her up.
"Better not to say that out loud, Evelyn. You want people connecting us to those men?"
"Alright, alright. Was there really any need to hit my injured arm?"
Victoria led the group through the arched entrance to the city. "Dustfall" was carved into the wood in large letters. The moment they crossed through it, they could feel the quiet ease that the townspeople put out into the air.
But deeper in the shadows, another shadow was running, keeping itself hidden. Its purple eyes darted in every direction, full of fear — while a creature with sharp teeth and a canine body stalked through the alleyways behind it.