The Wolf's Quarry

by K. T. Harding

  Raleigh studied her. “You’re right. You know him a lot better than I do.”

  Petunia took the lid off her basket, but Raleigh couldn’t tear her eyes away from the other end of the village. Bishop was over there, completely absorbed in convincing Cassandra to come back with him to the mussel farm. What was he saying to her? Would he call in a favor for whatever he did to help her in her time of trouble?

  Insatiable curiosity over Cassandra’s history consumed Raleigh until she could think of nothing else. Maybe Cassandra didn’t consider Bishop taking Dax away a favor. Maybe she hated Bishop for it. Then again, why would Bishop ask for her help if that was the case?

  The whole case fascinated Raleigh in a horrible way, but her interest wouldn’t bring Bishop back any faster. Petunia nudged her elbow and set a bowl of stewed vegetables in her hands. In the days she spent in this camp, Raleigh grew accustomed to the outcasts’ food.

  They foraged for fruits and vegetables from the landscape, but only rarely hunted meat. They sympathized with too many creatures to kill them even to maintain their own survival. Most of their meat they stole from Hallbreck or ambushed supply caravans crossing the mountains to supply the city.

  Raleigh ate the food Petunia gave her. Fatigue wouldn’t let her turn it down, but she remained seated in front of the hut for hours. She stared between the huts for any glimpse of Bishop, even when she knew she wouldn’t catch one.

  Petunia was right, and Raleigh knew it. She learned not to question these people. These outcasts might be the only people anywhere who knew Bishop’s real nature. They worshiped him, they accepted him. This might be the closest thing to a home he ever had, in Hinterland or anywhere else.

  He didn’t come back before dark. Petunia came wandering through the camp. She pretended to be passing by on no particular errand, but she smiled and sat down once more. “You better go inside and go to sleep. He might not come back tonight.”

  Raleigh shook her head. She couldn’t look at this girl who cared so much and treated her with such kindness. “I can’t. I wish I could.”

  Petunia leaned her shoulder against Raleigh’s ribs. She didn’t say she understood. She didn’t have to. Everywhere she went, everybody knew Bishop, but no one really knew Bishop. Maybe Raleigh herself didn’t really know Bishop, but these people did. They knew him so well they didn’t even have to say it.

  The sun went down, and Petunia got up and left without a word. Raleigh waited outside until she got too cold to stay outside anymore. She curled over on herself and shivered in her thin shirt. She couldn’t stay out here, but she didn’t want to go inside. She didn’t want to face going to sleep without Bishop.

  She spent plenty of nights without him when she knew he was right upstairs, buried in work. Now she couldn’t do it. She never spent a night away from him on the road. He could be a few paces away, but the distance might as well have been a thousand miles. She couldn’t reach him. She could never know what he was doing over there in Cassandra’s hut. She would never share that secret with him.

  She gave up and got her feet under her when a faint light bobbed between the huts. She looked closer and saw a lantern shining its yellow rays off Bishop’s cheekbones. She burst into a smile, and her spirits soared. He was coming!

  Her heart dropped into her boots when he got closer and she got a better look at his expression. He stared right past her into the dark. Gloom and disappointment haunted his face, and the lantern cast his cheekbones in shadow to give him a ghostly glare.

  Raleigh shrank back from rushing into his arms. She waited by the hut until he drew abreast of her. He sank down on the ground next to her. She sat down, too, but she didn’t speak. She could already see the truth written on his face. He didn’t convince Cassandra to help him. Whatever horror stained her past, it wouldn’t let her open up again.

  Now she felt for him what Petunia must have felt for her. She couldn’t help him. She could only succor him and give him comfort. She rubbed his arm and shoulder, but he still didn’t respond. He stared into the dark the same way she did. Something out there beyond held him captive. He couldn’t think of anything else until he accomplished what he set out to accomplish.

  She took his hand, and he offered no resistance when she led him into the hut. She sat him on the pallet where they spent their nights in this camp, but she didn’t try to get him to eat anything. He wouldn’t, so she took the lantern out of his hands and set it next to the bed. She pushed him down on the pillow and set to work taking off his boots.

  She pulled them off and stuffed his socks into them by the door. He frowned at her when she smiled at him, but she knew better than he did what he needed right now. He would attack Cassandra every minute of the day to get what he wanted if Raleigh didn’t step in. She had to turn off that obsessed part of his mind. She had to get him to release that goal, for a short time, at least.

  She unbuckled his gun belts and laid them aside, but she didn’t try to take his clothes off. She knew better than that. She lay down next to him, slithered her cold arms under his coat, and blew out the lantern.

  She rested her head on his chest, and an imperceptible sigh escaped him. Her weight melted the tension out of his body, and one big hand came to rest behind her neck. She closed her eyes. Now she could sleep, even if he didn’t. He wouldn’t disturb her. He would lie still until morning so as not to disturb her. Maybe sometime in the night, he might close his eyes for a little while, but he would leave this project alone until the sun woke her. That was the best thing for him right now.

  Chapter 14

  As Raleigh expected, Bishop still lay still under her when she woke up the next morning. She sat up and smiled at him. He didn’t say a word, not even when she sat up and straightened her hair. She could relax now. He rubbed her back and petted her hair. He didn’t sit up until she got out of bed.

  As soon as she did, he swung his legs over and pulled on his boots. She glanced over. He concentrated on that simple task with his usual single-minded concentration. She didn’t have to ask what he was doing. He was going back to Cassandra’s. He wouldn’t quit until he convinced her.

  He stood up in the low hut to buckle on his gun belts. He settled them on his hips before he turned around to return her intense gaze. For the first time since they left the mussel farm, he smiled at her. He pulled her against him and kissed her before he strode out the door without a word.

  Raleigh watching him out of sight from the doorway. His broad back never slumped on the walk to the end of the village and around the corner. That was her man, her partner, her Bishop. She held him in her hand by letting him go.

  Now that she made her peace with this situation, Raleigh didn’t spend the day sitting around waiting for him to come back. She involved herself in the village life. She cleaned out her hut. She had no idea how long she and Bishop would remain in this camp, but as long as they did, this hut was home. She might as well own it and make it as nice as it could be.

  She raked the ash out of the firepit in the corner. She cleaned out all the old, dirty food containers, cleaned them, and then recruited Petunia to show her to who they should be returned.

  Petunia threw herself into the job. She filled Raleigh’s head full of every available detail on all the people Raleigh visited. Petunia couldn’t tell her everything. Some people never shared their personal stories, and others didn’t even know theirs. Petunia introduced Raleigh to an old man who came to consciousness by the side of the road thousands of miles from Hallbreck. He found Bishop at his side. Bishop cleaned up the wounds on his head and body and brought him here. The man never knew how he got there or what happened to him.

  Raleigh heard the same story wherever she went. It no longer surprised her, but she formed a more complete picture of Bishop and the real work occupying him in Hinterland. He was so much more than a bounty hunter.

  That evening, she prepared the food Petunia acquired for her when she happened to glance out of the hut. The s
un streamed over the mountain to outline Bishop’s shoulders coming down the path. She would recognize the outline of his hat and coat anywhere.

  She didn’t have to see his face this time to know what happened. He held his head high and his shoulders out. His feet swept the ground with a decided swish. When he walked up to the hut, he swept his arm behind her back and kissed her. His eyes flashed, and the faintest hint of a smile touched his lips. He’d done it. He convinced Cassandra to help him break into the mussel farm.

  Raleigh didn’t say anything. They ducked into the hut, and Bishop sat down by the fire. Raleigh served him a bowl of food, and he wolfed it down. Raleigh took her own bowl and sat across from him while they ate.

  He set the bowl down and wiped his mouth. “So.”

  Raleigh suppressed a smile. “So.”

  “So, she’s agreed to come.”

  Raleigh shook her head. “I don’t even want to know what you said to her.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  “Actually,” Raleigh remarked, “I do want to know.”

  He waved his hand. “Never mind about that. She’s coming.”

  “What will she do?”

  “She’ll disguise herself as the farm manager so she can get into their hut. She’ll find the records of shipments to the Guild of Martial Arts, and she’ll bring them out to us.”

  “I only hope it works.”

  He stood up. “We’ll make it work. It’s the only way.”

  He stepped out into the night. Raleigh regarded him through the doorway. “So what’s on your mind?”

  He gazed up at the sky. A spray of stars decorated the sky, but they cast different patterns than the stars Raleigh remembered back in the so-called real world. “I was just thinking about Dax.”

  Raleigh froze. “What about him?”

  Bishop shook himself. “I was just thinking about what would have happened to him if I hadn’t taken him.”

  “Would he have grown up here? I can think of worse ways to grow up.”

  Bishop didn’t turn around. “He wouldn’t have grown up here. I’m not sure what would have happened to him, but he definitely wouldn’t have grown up here. This is the last place in the world he would have grown up. I only convinced Cassandra to come here on condition that she would let me take him away. He wouldn’t have been safe here. If he stayed here…”

  He stopped himself from saying any more. He came within a hair’s breadth of revealing the secret, but he caught himself.

  Raleigh studied him in the faint light. He wanted to talk about it. He wanted to share this secret with somebody. It must weigh a ton on his shoulders.

  He made sure not to say too much about Dax or Cassandra in the four days following they took to travel all the way back to the mussel farm for the second time. Cassandra never said a word to anybody about anything. She made the arduous journey in stony silence until that fateful day she crawled up the same rise with Raleigh on her right and Bishop on her left. She peered down at the mussel farm. “What do you want me to do?”

  “I’m going to take you around the other side of the farm,” Bishop told her. “Tino showed me who the manager is. We’ll wait until he comes out of that hut over there. Raleigh and I will jump on him and tie him up and gag him so he can’t make any noise. You’ll take an imprint off him and take his shape. Then you’ll sneak back into the hut in his shape and find the records we talked about. You’ll bring them out to me. Then you’ll high-tail it back to the camp, and Raleigh and I will deal with the manager before we leave in the opposite direction.”

  Cassandra scowled down at the place. “Are you sure about this?”

  Bishop chuckled low in his chest. “No, I’m not.”

  Cassandra’s head whipped around. She fixed him with a terrible glare, and the lines around her mouth and forehead deepened. “All right. When do we start?”

  “Right away.”

  She nodded and turned away. “I’ll do it.”

  Bishop hesitated. “Are you sure you can do this?”

  She drew herself up. She never looked so confident and determined. She wore her age-lines with dignity and power. “I could never forget how. I couldn’t forget if I tried. You show me the manager, and I’ll copy him.”

  Bishop nodded. His dark eyes skipped across Raleigh’s face. Then he crouched low and moved off into the bushes. Cassandra followed him, and Raleigh brought up the rear.

  Bishop skirted the farm in a crouch. He stole through the undergrowth until he suddenly dropped flat on his stomach. He chopped his hand through the air to signal Raleigh and Cassandra to flatten themselves the same way. He pointed to an innocent clump of tall grass overlooking the farm. Raleigh had to look hard to recognize the guard hidden inside the scrub.

  Bishop slunk along the ground and left the guard unaware they’d ever been there, but the discovery rattled Raleigh’s nerves. Hidden guards surrounded the farm. The thieves would have to keep alert not to get caught.

  Bishop made his way from one protecting bush to another to circle the farm until the manager’s hut appeared between the trees. Bishop let out a shaky breath and whispered, “There it is. Tino said the manager comes down this path on his way to and from his own house every morning and evening. We’ll just have to wait for him to come out.”

  Raleigh and Cassandra made themselves as comfortable as they could behind the waving grasses while Bishop kept watch. Long weary hours inched by, but the manager still didn’t appear.

  The sun climbed higher. It baked down on the mussel ponds, and steamy sweltering heat filled the valley to boiling temperatures. Raleigh sweated and panted, but Cassandra only closed her eyes and lay flat on her back on the ground. She showed no sign of sensing the heat or discomfort at all.

  Toward noon, Bishop crawled back to them. “You take the watch for a while. Signal me if anyone comes out of that hut. Tino said the manager is the only one who comes in or out, so he should be easy to spot.”

  Raleigh motioned toward Cassandra. “What about her? Will she be okay out here?”

  “Don’t worry about her. She can cope with anything.”

  Raleigh didn’t say anymore. She took her position where the path turned. She waited, and waited, and waited. No one moved in or out of the hut, but she heard something moving around inside it. When would the manager come out? Didn’t he need food and drink, just like everybody else?

  The sun slumped behind the trees, and the temperature dropped. Raleigh just started to relax in the cool breeze of evening when she heard the hut door open and shut. In an instant, every sense snapped to its highest pitch. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Bishop sit up straight. He heard it, too.

  She turned back around just in time to see the manager come around the corner. From her hiding place, she got a good look at him. He stood some three or four inches shorter than Raleigh. His straight black hair cut around his flat, oval face in a simple bob, and his almond black eyes darted around the forest on both sides. He carried a sheaf of paper under one arm, and rope sandals padded between his feet and the ground.

  At that moment, a thunderous report rocked the farm. A missile too fast to see wormed out of the trees to strike not ten feet away from Bishop. The impact hurtled him off the ground, and debris spattered over Cassandra’s inert form.

  Bishop landed on his side some distance away, but Raleigh didn’t have time to rush to his aid before another projectile rocketed out of the trees to explode in front of her. She barely had time to dive for the cover of the nearest bush before the concussion hit.

  She scrambled for any weapon she could get hold of, but the shots came thick and fast from all sides. They pocked the ground all around her. She jumped up to run away, but another one hit in front of her and knocked her backward. When she scurried away, they struck behind and on every side of her at once.

  The rockets’ smoke trails crisscrossed between the trees. They came from all sides, but Raleigh couldn’t see any fighte
rs or guards firing on her. Only trees hemmed her all around. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a fleeting glimpse of the manager. He stood still in the same place and watched the whole assault. He didn’t move. He didn’t blink.

  Raleigh made one last desperate dive to reach Bishop. She propped herself up on her hands and knees to crawl back to the spot where she left him. She floundered over a clump of grass when Bishop braced his legs under him in front of her. He dragged Cassandra to her feet and propelled her toward the forest. “Run!”

  Cassandra needed no second invitation. She ran straight into the oncoming rockets. One of them struck her in the chest. She flew off the ground and hurtled back to where she started. She landed flat on her back with all four arms and legs spread. Her head lolled to one side, exactly the way she just lay before the attack began.

  Raleigh and Bishop jumped up at the same moment to help her when another dizzying barrage of missiles blasted the forest apart. A blinding flash hit Raleigh in the face, and she passed out one more time.

  Chapter 15

  Raleigh jerked awake, but when she tried to sit up and rub her splitting head, she found her arms and legs tied behind her back. Her left ankle stabbed sickening pain into her guts. She couldn’t move her leg. She rolled over and groaned, and bumped into Bishop tied up on the floor next to her.

  She nudged his shoulder. “Bishop! Bishop, can you hear me?”

  He didn’t move. She shoved her head into his back, but he didn’t respond. He lay heavy and silent. She listened to his breathing, so he wasn’t dead—not yet.

  Raleigh kicked herself for not listening to Tino’s warning. They shouldn’t have tempted fate by sneaking around the farm in daylight. They should have waited until night when the guards couldn’t see them. Instead, they had to go tramping around this place and they got hit. They never even saw their enemies’ faces.