not moving when his mama insisted. “Why are you sending
me away with the women? I’m not a child anymore, you
know.”
“I know.” Tara stood with Torgo, snapped her heels
together, and clasped her hands behind her back. “Stand
at attention, and let me give you your orders.”
Torgo imitated her stance and became serious, his large
gray eyes glowing with fascination.
“These women need protection. Right now I have no
soldiers to send with them. You will escort your mama to
Reena’s. You will stay there, guarding them with your life.
Understood?”
“Yes. Understood.” Torgo broke out in a grin, and before
Tara had time to react he reached for her and gave her a
quick hug. “Be careful, okay?”
Tara smiled when Torgo released her. “I always am.” Torgo hopped out the front door ready for the adventure.
Hilda didn’t look at Tara as she left. Since the old woman and Reena had been friends for so long, Hilda probably had known about Tara when she was a little girl. Although she’d probably never hear it, knowing Hilda’s side of the story about Tara leaving Gothman might have been a good
one, or at least interesting, if not educational, to hear. As soon as the front door shut, Tara jumped up and ran
to the shed out back. There was a lock on the door this
time. Tara sighed and looked around the yard to see who
might be watching. No one was in sight. She pulled out her
laser, and a small blast caused the lock to fall to the
ground. Within seconds, she rolled her bike out of the shed
and snapped her landlink on it.
Tara narrowed in on Darius’ signal. He was south of
town and from what she could tell, twenty or so others
were with him. She scanned for local roads and was
surprised to find a map of Gothman. She took off at top
speed.
Who would have led Darius to believe he should go
south? This was now the question at hand. There was
really only one reason she found plausible.
Tara considered the matter. The Sea People approached
from the north, but had come from the west, which made sense since they lived along the West Sea. Darius would be protected from any attacks if he was in the southern region, but Gothman would not. Someone wanted Darius out of the way so Gothman would be defenseless against a hard attack. Who would want to place Gothman in such a
danger?
When her dot was practically on top of Darius’s dot on
her landlink’s screen, Tara parked her bike and scanned
for Gothman communication. It wasn’t hard for her
landlink to pick up their simplex form of transmitting.
Static crackled through her
equipment wasn’t designed to sound transmitters. Her receive such antiquated forms of communication signals. Tara was lucky anything
came through at all.
She adjusted her frequency and managed to tap into the
Gothman conversation. Normally, Tara used her comm,
which wrapped around her ear and came down to her
mouth, to hear anything or communicate with anyone. The
Gothman audio transmission wouldn’t work with her
technology. She was forced to turn up her volume on her
landlink and listen that way.
Tara glanced around at her surroundings warily. There
were definitely Gothman nearby. They picked up on her
landlink although she didn’t see, or hear them. Adjusting
her sound transmitters to a very low volume, she then
leaned forward on her bike, keeping alert to any movement
around her, and listened. The audio was poor but leaning
forward she heard conversation through the small boxes
attached on either side of her handlebars.
Every inch of her tensed when the first man’s voice
crackled through her sound transmitters. She became
acutely aware of the slightest breeze moving branches, as
well as any sound she picked up that didn’t come through
her landlink.
“He’ll be within sight in a few minutes. Be ready now.” “Have you had any further communication?”
“I have. They’re coming across Runners.”
“Is that a problem?”
“It’s a passing clan. It shouldn’t be.”
Tara remained straddled and pushed her bike forward
with her feet into the forest so she was better hidden. She
then stopped and froze. Up in a nearby tree, a Gothman
was lodged between two branches holding a walkntalk in front of his mouth. Tara pressed her ear to her sound transmitter, turned the volume down further, waited, and
listened.
She didn’t have to wait long. Tara heard voices and saw
movement through the trees ahead. So did the Gothman in
the tree. He pulled a bang stick from his jacket and aimed
at the group approaching.
Tara watched the Gothman focus on his target. She
shifted her attention when she heard Darius. He barked
orders, and the booming sound of his voice carried easily.
Then it dawned on her. Darius was the target!
Tara slid off her bike, moved to the tree where the man
was perched, hoisted herself up and knocked him off
balance. Before he had a chance to yell out, she shot him
in the back. The man’s body slumped over a thick branch.
His bang stick fell to the forest floor with a quiet thud.
Blood flowed down the tree from where she’d sliced him
open with her laser. It formed a sticky dark pool over the
bang stick. She pried the man’s walkntalk from his hand.
Tara leapt free of the stench and crept behind some nearby
bushes. The dead man’s companion had to be nearby. “What is that smell, my lord?”
Tara froze and watched as Darius came into view with a
group of his men.
“I smell it too. It smells like something’s burned,”
another guard answered.
Darius passed by without seeing her. “It smells like
burnt blood.”
He stopped so close to her hiding place she easily
smelled the scent of his soap, and the smell of him she’d
grown all too fond of.
“How does blood burn?” an older, stocky warrior asked. “Should we search the area, my lord?”
The group of men stopped around Darius. Their boots
shuffled over the undergrowth, crunching crumpled leaves,
dried pine and twigs underfoot. They weren’t concerned
about concealing their whereabouts. Nor did they notice
the dead man hanging in the blood soaked tree not far from
them. The walkntalk in her hand crackled and a voice
came through. If the guards hadn’t been so noisy, the
sound of it would have given her away.
“Why didn’t you get him?” a voice said. “Mikel will be
furious.”
Tara frowned. Her heart skipped a beat, and a pain
tightened in her chest. She fought for a soothing breath as
reality hit her. Mikel was Darius’ brother.
Something moved in a tree beyond where Darius and his
men stood. Scooting past the bushes, Tara moved crab-like
until she was sure Darius and his men wouldn’t see her.
Now all she needed was time to find the other man on the
walkntalk, kill him, and get back to her bike unscathed,
and undetected.
Right now she would keep Darius alive.
Later she would learn why Mikel wanted him dead.
Someone jumped from the tree and shot at her.
“Who is firing?” one of Darius’ men yelled.
“Over there!” Darius barked the command. “I see
movement.”
“You’re a Runner,” hissed the man who had jumped
from the tree. He aimed his bang stick directly at her chest. “And you’re a dead man,” Tara whispered through
clenched teeth. The whistling sound from her laser pierced
the air. The man fell to the ground.
She took a second look at the Gothman’s ugly face. It
was the guard who had tried to attack her the first day
she’d visited Daruis’ home. Now why didn’t that surprise her? At the sound of Darius and his men approaching, she damn near rolled into the bushes. Then scurrying for distance, she crouched where she could see him between
trees.
“This is the smell.” Darius stood over the second man
she’d shot.
His men coughed and covered their mouths with gloved
hands as they stared at the man who had been sliced wide
open by the laser.
“What was Judo doing back here?” one of Lord Darius’
soldiers asked, as he stared at the charred body. Tara watched Darius as he studied the dead man. She
guessed he’d never seen a man killed by a laser before. Yet
his expression remained blank. If his emotions were that
much in check, then he was a better warrior than she. Her
emotions swarmed in her head, making it hard to
concentrate. Darius needed protection. Gothman might be
attacked and at the moment stood unprotected. And for
some unknown reason, Darius had an internal problem. “Judo was supposed to be with the other troops, my
lord,” a guard standing next to Darius said. “Maybe he was
trying to get word to us about who ever shot at him.” “We’ve been all across this land. There’s no indication
that any Sea People have been here. If he wanted to tell me
something, he would have used the walkntalk. It’s right
here.” Lord Darius squatted to take the walkntalk off the
dead man and studied the laser wound. He searched the
foliage and was silent for a moment.
No Gothman bang stick would have killed in that
fashion. Tara pushed the button on the walkntalk in her
hand. “I need to speak with you alone,” she whispered into
the rectangular-shaped black box.
She took a chance contacting him in that manner, but it
made sense that the walkntalk by the corpse and the one
she’d taken from the other dead man would be on the same
channel. The dead men had been collaborating with Mikel.
She needed to warn Darius.
Darius stared at the walkntalk in his hand. Then taking
his time he took a good look at their surroundings. Tara
had just spoken to him. He seriously doubted she was
trying to reach Judo. That told him two things. One, she
had one of his other men’s walkntalk, and Darius seriously
doubted they loaned it to her. And two, she was watching
him right now.
An intense desire to wrap his fingers around her Runner
neck distracted him for a moment. Tara was risking her life
out here, and not knowing where she was at this precise
moment pissed him off and terrified him. He was going to
enjoy the challenge of taming his Runner claim.
“Let’s head back to camp.” Darius stood and kept a
shrewd eye on their surroundings. “Something’s not right
here. I want to confirm that the Sea People are south of
Gothman. Grab Judo and haul him back.”
His men began dragging the body toward the bikes. Tara
was somewhere in the woods. What was she up to? He
thought about all the stories he’d heard about Runners
over the winters. They were rumored to be better warriors
than Gothman. While he questioned that, Tara had just
proven she did some things as well as a man. There was no
doubt that she’d killed Judo. The blood still flowed. She’d
just killed him, and he hadn’t noticed she was here before
she spoke through the walkntalk.
She was perfect in so many ways with that tempting
mouth, long soft strands of hair, and elegant slender neck.
He could feast on those breasts all day. Those toned thighs
she wrapped around him had the strength to make him forget about a nation. But she was so much more than a
luscious female who warmed his bed.
Darius listened. Concentrated. He squinted and looked
in the direction where he thought he’d just heard
something. There! Through the bushes! Something in
black. His men were at their bikes, working in solemn
uniformity wrapping Judo’s body to prepare for the trip
home. Judo had died in combat, a warrior’s death. His life
would be celebrated and his claim a valuable commodity.
Many men viewed it as good luck to claim a woman who’d
fucked an honourable warrior til death.
Darius would consider it good luck to capture one hot
and incredibly disobedient Runner without his men
learning what he was doing.
He took care moving though the tress. He spotted Tara
as she reached her bike and straddled it. He crept up from
behind, wrapped his arms around her and cupped his
hand over her mouth.
Instantly, Tara lurched backward off the bike. She
shoved herself into her aggressor. Her body had more pack
to it than he might have guessed. She pulled her legs up and slammed her heels into his knees. The pain was
damned annoying, but determination prevailed.
Tara must know it was him. She was trying to convince
him how well she fought. She twisted her body and
thrashed against his. He tightened the arm around her
chest until he was afraid he would smash her rib cage if
she didn’t succumb.
Darius was impressed. More than once he struggled to
keep his balance. Finally he tightened his grip until she
was gasping for breath. She stopped thrashing her legs. “What are you doing here?” he whispered into her ear. Tara relaxed. He slowly removed his hand from her
mouth and slid it possessively down her neck.
“You’ve been fed wrong information,” she whispered as
she coughed in air. “Hopefully, your spies are dead. I don’t
detect any other Gothman in the area other than those
behind us and about twenty or so down the hill.” She
spoke quickly then stopped and inhaled sharply. “What are you talking about?” He flipped her around
and gripped her arms, fighting the urge to shake her until
she made sense.
“The Sea People are north and northwest of Gothman.
They’re heavily armed and driving metal groundmobiles
loaded with artillery. You need to move all of your troops
now.” She paused for a moment, confirming they were
alone. She pulled her shirt down and adjusted her face
cloth. “I’m pretty sure Mikel fed you false information to get
you out here and kill you.”
A look Tara couldn’t identify crossed Darius’ face. “I
didn’t know he was warrior enough to try such a stunt.”
“I heard your men talking on their walkntalks.” She tried
reading his reaction to what she was telling him. “There’ll
be several thousand Runners meeting you at your northern
borders in about two days. Your defense needs to be strong
to hold the Sea People off until then.” Tara turned and
began punching keys on a flat pad between her bike’s
handlebars. It hadn’t been there when her bike had been in
his shed. “Patha’s on line. He’s verified reinforcement.” “Patha of the Blood Circle Clan?” He frowned. “How do
you know Patha?”
“He’s my papa.” It would confuse matters to tell him
she’d just found this out today.
“I see.”
Tara thought Darius already knew who she was. They’d
never discussed her clan though. At least she had the
satisfaction of knowing he hadn’t tried claiming her
because she was heir to all clans. If he didn’t know her
clan, or her relation to Patha, then he wouldn’t know where
she ranked among Runners. It wasn’t much better that
he’d initially claimed her based on her looks. Something
told her that more than her body appealed to him now. Darius looked away from her and murmured, “My papa
knew him.”
“So I’ve heard.”
Darius took his time looking at her again. Although it
was only a brief moment, he stared at her and it seemed a
silent understanding passed between them. There was
history the two of them would discuss. But not now. Now
was time to prepare for battle.
“I’ll confirm your information.” He started to walk away
but then turned to look at her. “I’d hate to think of what
might have happened if you hadn’t interfered.”
“I’m not interfering.”
A small smile played at his lips.
“What are you going to do about Mikel?”
“He’ll be taken care of.” His voice was quiet, and his gray
eyes melted her insides. “He’s not my priority, though.
Gothman comes first. Trust me, my lady, Mikel won’t
interfere with my securing the strength of my nation. I
won’t allow it.”
Tara grabbed her handlebars and started her bike. She
believed him. His gray eyes might seduce her with a look,
but they also held the gleam of a warrior. Not only would
Darius fight to the death to maintain Gothman, the
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