“What did you see, Madje?” I repeated.
“The people were on zebras and went toward the lake, on the other side of the village from here.”
“Okay thank you for telling me, Madje, that was very brave.” I straightened.
Chief Smith looked visibly embarrassed, and I would be too. If in the middle of an attack by monsters, a group of mercenaries came in, killed a few people, and just left, it would be rather shameful if none of the dozens of defenders had seen where they went.
“Lieutenant Santos,” I called to Christopher.
“Yes?”
“You have command until I return. Watch over the villagers. If the lizardmen attack again, Lieutenant Porter will have control of the team for combat ops. Do you understand?”
“Understood,” Chris said, voice full of uncertainty. “You are leaving?”
“I am going to track down the criminals who put this settlement at risk. I am fastest.”
“Then we should go as a team. I can do recon and—”
“There is no time.”
Christopher gave me a probing look, and I knew what he had to be thinking. I was a good fighter, but not invincible. Finally, the man slowly nodded. “Be careful. If it’s too much for you to handle, please come back and get the team.”
From behind me, Jessica asked, “What’s going on?”
I didn’t turn. “Lieutenant Santos will brief you, Porter.” I rose straight into the sky. Jessica asked another question or two, but I tuned everything out, my thoughts focused inward. Jialji, I thought. I uncorked the emotions that I’d been suppressing and a torrent of hatred, pure venom seemed to erupt from my heart.
With a death grip on Eneus, I moved in the direction Madje had indicated. This high up, I could see the lake in the distance. Maybe I was chasing ghosts of the past, but my gut told me I wasn’t. That rotting snake of a woman had been here, I could feel it in my bones.
What I was doing was against protocol and against everything I’d learned as a military officer. As I flew, picking up speed, heat gathering behind my eyes, I didn’t feel any doubt, though. Right or wrong, I had to do this. I had to know.
Late to the Party
It took me a few minutes to admit to myself that I might need help. Flying off on my own had probably been necessary if I actually wanted to catch up to Jialji, but it didn’t leave me with much support. The trees had begun getting thicker, so even from the air, spotting a few people on zebra would be difficult.
I was experienced enough now to know that the higher I flew, the more I could see, but the harder it would actually be to spot anything. There was a maximum height I could fly if I wanted to actually be able to spot anything with my own eyes, but I would not need to actually use my own eyes.
I continued to move forward, but dropped my hand to where Vistvis, my dagger was sheathed. I would never truly be friends with the ancient Areva woman trapped in the weapon, but over the years we had come to an understanding. Her situation was awful, trapped in the dagger for hundreds of years. Of course, her personality was awful too, but she’d helped me out enough times, grudgingly, to give her a bit of a pass.
Asking for her help still felt sour sometimes, though.
I channeled my Vibration power through my hand in the way I’d figured out in the past, and said out loud, “Vistvis, I’m assuming you know what I need.”
I gritted my teeth. “Yes.”
“I am not going to change my mind.”
After a long sigh, the insufferable woman said,
My face empty of expression, I did what was I was told. Vistvis’ words had put a damper on my half-made plans, but right now what I was doing was more important than my pride. Since I’d left the settlement, I’d worked to put a lid on my emotions. Angry people made mistakes, and I remembered my father saying that revenge is a dish best served cold. That simple advice had saved my life in the past.
I kept my hand on Vistvis as I few faster, continuing to rise. The Areva woman in the dagger didn’t have different senses than a regular person, just better, and she could just see more at once with a little sharper clarity. She still couldn’t actually speak into anyone’s mind without a vast amount of energy, though. Based on what she’d told me a few months ago, she had regained some of her lost energy. This meant she might be able to manage a few words on her own now, but was not in a big hurry to try it out.
It seemed like I traveled forever, at least a couple hours before I heard Vistvis’ voice again. she said.
I looked where she’d indicated and slowly nodded. “Thank you, Vistvis,” I said. The woman was infuriating, but we both knew we needed each other. This would be one more favor on top of all the others, giving weight to my promise to one day find her a body. Somehow.
After flying even higher and angling over, I studied the group below. From this high up, I couldn’t see many details. One of these days I should really invest in a spyglass for situations like this. What I could make out was the number of the group below on zebras, one more than I’d actually been looking for, and the fact that they really probably were my targets. Then I began to plan murder.
Probably the smartest thing to do would be to follow them until they bedded down to sleep, then come down from above, killing them all before they knew what was happening. Unfortunately, there were a few problems with this idea.
The first and most obvious issue with this approach was that it would take a lot of time, and I was still on duty, beginning to feel guilty about leaving my team. It was true they were all individually powerful, and we’d just crushed a large group of lizardmen, but I was still responsible for them.
Second, the bounty hunters might continue traveling until they found a town or village to stay in. This would increase the likelihood of unintended casualties, and I wanted to avoid that.
Third, it had been three years since these people had hurt me and left me for dead. I hadn’t even been completely sure of their abilities back then. In three years, a lot could change.
The fourth and last reason was entirely emotional. Unfortunately, the fact that I didn’t know Jialji’s group’s capability or power made this motivation foolish, but still very real. I needed to face them. After all the time that had passed, imagining this moment, I needed to...I wasn’t sure. Tell them they were evil? Show that I was no longer the same person I was back then, maybe to myself?
I wasn’t sure, but I knew I had to do this. If I didn’t, I’d regret it for the rest of my life.
With an effort of will, I flew ahead faster.
***
I’d been tracking the riders with my Vibration power for some time, even before I could actually hear them. My guts were spinning like a clothes washing machine. I knew I had to confront the riders, not least of which to verify they actually were the same people that had almost taken my life on a lonely Berber road.
Attacking them from the air might have been smart, but accidentally killing random people, murdering them, didn’t sit right with me. Of course, the fact that they had put an entire settlement at risk for what sounded like an assassination mission made me far less sympathetic. I really should just kill them from the air, I thought, not for the first time.
Finally, the time was right, and I stepped out from behind my concealing tree, Eneus in one hand. I had chosen this location carefully. The d
ense, prickly bushes, jumbled deadfall, and a nearby stream all made this area a natural chokepoint, one my targets would need to pass through. I’d just placed myself directly in their path.
The riders shouted, and reined in their mounts. If they’d kept moving, had tried to run me down, I would have lifted off and began blasting with Pewpew. A deep, whispering part of me felt disappointed that the riders hadn’t just attacked me. The lead zebra reared before stopping completely, and I laid eyes on Jialji, my would-be murderer.
It really was her. The moment stretched, and I forgot to breathe.
There were five riders, one more than there had been last time I’d met them. They all wore masks like I did. Without their masks on, I wasn’t sure if I would have seen any of their ‘Bonded status scroll over my left eye since I’d met them before Dolos had changed the rules.
I knew three of their names. One of the lead riders, a huge man with a mustache in bulky armor, was called Venu. I knew he was a strength-based orb-Bonded.
The remaining riders were all women and wore light armor except for one Terran at the rear of the group. I didn’t know her name, but I remembered she had carried a rapier when I fought her before. It warmed my heart that she probably had terrible scars from where I’d stabbed her.
At the front of the group, beside Ven, Jialji tilted her head at me. I could see the shine of intelligence in the tall, voluptuous woman’s eyes even from where I stood. She led this group and was Venu’s wife, probably the first wife of the household. Over three years ago, she’d shot me with an air pistol and had sharpened the stick that Ven had shoved through my stomach.
Cait, the fire mage, was still short and plump. I noticed she’d cut her hair short. My last memory of her involved her trying to burn my head off my shoulders.
The fifth newcomer with this merry group was a Mo’hali woman, some sort of rodent race. She stared at me with beady eyes, her nose twitching. Her inhuman ears swiveled towards me.
“A soldier! She tracked us!” Cait yelled. If I hadn’t known she was a fire mage, I might not have noticed the way she flexed her fingers. She was prepared to raise a hand, to attack.
“That’s impossible, it’s only been hours since we got the job done.” The woman whose name I didn’t know flicked her hand dismissively.
“Not impossible, just improbable, Heather,” said Jialji. She watched me with glittering eyes. “I never forget a face, usually even if it’s covered by a mask like hers. Something is very odd here.”
“You mean besides the fact we are in the middle of nowhere and a soldier just jumped out from behind a tree?” Now I knew the more heavily armored woman’s name was Heather. She loosened her sword in its sheath. Her weapon had a complex guard, probably still a rapier.
“We should just keep going. She’s just one soldier,” said Ven. His armor really did seem even thicker than last time I’d seen him—a subtle sheen meant it might be enchanted. He dismounted and moved forward, his feet sinking deep into the grassy land from his weight. I absently wondered if he had an enchanted saddle on his zebra to deal with the burden.
Jialji held out a hand as Ven stalked forward. “Wait.”
He protested, “But we can—”
“I said wait, Husband,” she ordered. Her eyes flashed. Then she turned to me. “Why are you blocking our path, Captain. You are a long way from any Army base.”
I wasn’t sure where the words came from when I heard myself saying, “So are you. There is nobody nearby, no help, and no witnesses—just like last time.”
“Last time,” she said slowly. She studied me carefully, and everyone seemed to hold their breath. “Ah,” she finally said, blowing out a sigh. Her mannerisms turned brisker than before, more tightly wound. She nodded. “Nora Hazard, I got it now. It’s the voice, you see. Time does fly.”
“Nora Hazard?” asked Heather. She drew her rapier. “The bitch who stabbed me?” Her eyes glittered and she studied my spear. “Wait, Hazard—the name. Hazard, like the Hazardous Captain of Tolstey? We’ve heard that name and we’ve only been in this country for a few months. They can’t be the same motherless trash, right? What are the odds she’d be here?”
Jialji studied me. “I didn’t put it together either until now either, but it does make sense. The two are probably the same woman. We know she got away before, it’s one reason we’re here in this rothole now instead of Berber. But yes, she is the Jackal from Bittertown with a price on her head. She wounded you, Ven, Cait, and was a major annoyance. We barely made any money at all on that job.”
“Should I go deal with this?” asked Ven. He drew a huge sword from his saddle.
“That didn’t work out so well last time, did it.” I smiled. “How is the neck, lover?”
Ven took another angry step forward but Jialji’s voice cracked out, “Stop. All of you dismount. Now.” The mounted bounty hunters immediately obeyed. She regarded me levelly as she slid off her own zebra. “What are you here for, Hazard? As you said, this is a long way from anywhere worth being.”
“Maybe she wants us to say sorry,” snickered Cait.
Heather shook her head, her expression sober. “Cait, look at where we are. She met us here on purpose.”
Jialji nodded. “Yes, she did. There is no way this meeting would be happening if Hazard had not planned it this way.”
Ven shrugged. “Maybe she somehow used that orb that she threw away before. Isn’t the Hazardous Nora we heard of supposed to be some hotrot orb-Bonded?”
The tall woman shrugged. “She might have become orb-Bonded that way. We know she somehow survived the road, as improbable as that seemed. Only the pictures we got saved us from a price on our heads, remember?” Jialji’s hand slowly fell, resting on the grip of her air pistol. She seemed relaxed, but was also obviously wary. Her eyes met mine. “I hope you aren’t actually looking for an apology, because you won’t get one. We are not sorry. For anything.”
“I know.” As I muttered the words, the atmosphere grew even more tense. Violence felt imminent, like a calm before a storm.
“And if you are looking for revenge, I’m not sure why you didn’t ambush us, or bring your friends. And it’s one on five.”
Those are good points, I thought. What did I come here for, especially like this? Maybe—I thought about it as I eyed the five before me. They didn’t know about my power, at least not for sure, but I didn’t know anything about them, either. After three years, the original four were still alive, and apparently doing well. They were originally from Berber, too, where adventurers and monsters were stronger. Odds were they were not pushovers in a fight.
Was I really ready to die here? I guess I was. That realization led me to what I’d come for. I’d been weak before, my life and my freedom taken from me by these people. Peace of mind had eluded me for years. I wanted to take it back, and prove that I was not the same person I had been before. I hadn’t lost many fights in my life, but the times I’d been defeated all seemed to have been turning points in my life. If not for Enheduanna, meeting this group in the past would have been the end for me.
“You caught me before at my weakest and left me for dead. Things have changed. You beat me then, but I want a do over.”
Jialji blinked at me. “You are challenging us to a fight? A rematch? Seriously?”
“Yes. I am also doing my duty by stopping a bunch of criminals from escaping after an assassination in a government-backed settlement.”
“That’s not really the Army’s job, is it?” Ven twitched his mustache.
“It is when orb-Bonded are involved. At least since I already know about you people.”
Cait raised her upper lip, her hand twitching. “No, this is personal for you. You should just let us go. We were on contract before and didn’t do anything wrong. I’m tired, and killing you again might cause problems for us now that we are in Tolstey.”
I ignored her and regarded the rodent-race woman who still hadn’t said anything. “You back there, the Mo’hali. You we
ren’t there last time. You can just walk away.”
She shook her head. “No. These people saved me, and Ven is my husband now. If you fight them, you will fight me as well.”
“You should—” I began, but dodged to the side, air skating with the speed and precision I’d gotten from years of practice. I’d felt something hit my Vibration deflection shield and had reacted without thought. My head jerked up and I realized what had happened. Jialji had drawn and shot her air pistol faster than I would have believed possible.
“That won’t work so easily this time,” I said with a snarled smile.
The beautiful, dangerous woman looked over the barrel of the weapon at me. Her voice was as cold as ice when she spoke. “Apparently not.” She spoke to her group, “Captain Hazard wants a fight, so let’s give her one. Kill her.”
“We all knew this was coming. What took you so long, Wife?” Venu sprung to one side, his orb-enhanced body propelling him like a giant crossbow bolt into the trees. I suddenly had to dodge a jet of fire from Cait, the attack covering the other bounty hunters as they spread out.
My enemies definitely fought as a team. This was bad. I air skated back, dodging between a couple trees and noticed the bark chip off of one as another air pistol round almost found my head. One of the trees I’d just swerved behind shuddered and began to fall, sliced in half. I saw Jialji’s raised hand, and the glow of magic around her hand. She might be rotting orb-Bonded now! I thought.
When I’d been tracking them down, in the back of my mind, I’d always assumed that simply flying away would be an option if my enemies had proven too strong, or I’d been in danger. I was no longer so sure that a simple escape would even be an option.
With a hiss, I dropped into my familiar floating time. For better or for worse, I’d decided that I needed to do this thing, and I’d picked this fight. Now it was time to see it through. I was not Enheduanna’s toy. It was time to find out whether my life was truly my own, if I deserved this life.
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