While the burned man lies comatose in a burn unit, the rest of his crew is found deep inside the black—where the fire has burned through—singed and suffering from smoke inhalation, but alive thanks to their fire shelters.  The charred body of Grampa Ned is discovered nearby in the seared forest—but he has not died from the fire, but rather from a blow to the head. The FBI investigates the murder, and the agent in charge asks for Jamaica’s help.  The Chimney Rock Fire intensifies, threatening homes, highways, and a major power line feeding much of Southern Colorado.

Meanwhile, even as the fire threatens the high mesa on which they are encamped, a determined gathering of Puebloans, descendants of the ancient civilization that built the ruins at Chimney Rock, are doing ceremony atop the high cuesta.  They refuse to evacuate because the sacred Lunar Standstill—an event that takes place every 18.6 years, when the moon rises exactly between the two spires of Chimney Rock—is about to occur. One of them is Momma Anna, Jamaica’s medicine teacher from Tanoah Pueblo, who has brought Jamaica’s wolf Mountain with her to Chimney Rock and into the path of danger.

The author, Sandi Ault,

is a Type 2 Information Officer

for a Colorado fire protection district

and responds locally and nationally

to wildfires.