LC 02 - Questionable Remains by Beverly Connor

the mica
into sheets of silver, the flint into silver ore. There was nothing of
value here. Damn them, damn this place. Calderon raised his
sword in a rage to cut down Piaquay. The chief evaded the attack
and suffered a glancing blow to his back.
    Everything erupted into a raging storm. The conquistadores,
enraged by the paltry treasure and their dashed dreams, began to
cut down the hostages where they stood. Piaquay and his braves
tried to save them, but they were no match for the mounted enemy.
When it was over, Piaquay had lost half his braves and threefourths of the hostages. Calderon lost but five men and was driven
off only when he himself received an arrow through his face, piercing him cheek to cheek.
    Piaquay found his family among the dead. His wife and his
daughter, his sister, his nephew. He cradled them each in turn,
trying to wipe the blood from their faces with his bare hands.
    His brother lifted his own new wife in his arms. "What displeased them?" he asked, to no one in particular. There was no
answer.
    A man, one of the devils, moaned. He was the first interpreter,
lying wounded. Piaquay raised a spear to kill him.
    "Please, no. Please don't kill me, please. I just want to go
home." Piaquay did not understand him, but he stayed his hand.
He was one of the devils, but he had the adornments of one from
this world. Perhaps he could use him; perhaps he knew what kind
of men they were that everything his tribe had was not enough for
them.
    Piaquay and the remainder of the tribe took their dead to the village on the bend of the river and buried them. He also dug a pit
and buried the treasure.

    Lindsay drove through the hills of the upper Piedmont,
winding through dark green forests of oak and pine. The rock revealed by the roadcuts changed from granite to
metamorphic as the terrain became more mountainous. The
number of pine trees decreased, replaced by hickory with a
generous scattering of dogwood. Lindsay arrived at Brian's
dig, which was in a cleared area of hardwood forest in the
bend of Bigtree Creek, a small branch flowing into the
Chattahoochee River. Sally met her in a small dirt area adjacent to the site used for parking. Lindsay guessed that the
parking area would become considerably muddy after a
rain. She waited until the dust settled before she climbed
out of her vehicle.

    "I'm glad you're here," Sally said. "Brian has some skeletons he wants you to look at. He thinks they may have
European battle wounds on them."
    "Interesting," said Lindsay, as they carried her things
from the Land Rover to the tent she would share with Sally.
"I hope you have plenty of work for me to do."
    "Are you kidding?" said Sally. "Since this is a relatively
small site, we have a small crew-a little too small. How
long can you stay? By the way, did you have a good trip?"
    "A few days. I'm kind of playing it by ear. And, yes, the
ride up here was restful."
    Lindsay looked at the view of the site from Sally's tent.
She saw that about an eighth of an acre had been uncovered.
Two test trenches intersected each other: one north-south
and the other running east-west. The part of the site that
was uncovered revealed a smooth brown surface with
stakes and string creating a five-by-five grid. Several burials, two structures, and several pits were in the process of
being excavated.
    "It used to have a mound," said Sally, pointing to the left
of the clearing, "but that was bulldozed by a landowner
years ago. He thought it was a good source of dirt. It's a nice
little site, though."
    "I'm looking forward to seeing the bones you've found,"
said Lindsay.

    Lindsay stowed her gear on the cot opposite Sally's. Sally
followed her into the tent and sat down on her own cot.
    "You're going to have to kind of tiptoe around Gerri
Chapman."
    Lindsay raised her eyebrows. "Who's he?"
    "She. She's a Ph.D. student from Arizona and she thinks
she's the last word on human skeletal remains and has kind
of