“Done. Doka take coin,” she told him.
Kard pulled one of the stamped red crystals and several green-glass ten-shard coins out of his purse and passed them over.
“And the larger problem with letting you drag Teer off is that we need to be on our way right now,” he told her. “Are you ready to go?”
“Doka always ready to go. This shithole worst of both worlds. Wilderness better, but at least real town has tailor.”
“Let’s move,” Kard ordered. “I want Boulder in manacles by the end of tomorrow. Every day he’s free, someone is likely to die.”
“Doka know type,” she agreed.
Doka barely came up to Teer’s shoulder, but her horse dwarfed Star and Clack. The animal was an immense black stallion, easily five and a half feet tall at the shoulder. The stable hand who released him into Doka’s care gave the beast a wary distance, the kind that suggested an animal who didn’t like strangers.
The glare it gave Teer and Kard confirmed that suggestion—but the beast promptly knelt on the ground to allow Doka to toss a well-appointed saddle onto his back before climbing on herself.
“This Grump,” she told him. “Grump loves Doka. Grump hates everyone.”
“He looks it,” Teer agreed. “Kard? Where are we headed?”
“It’s up to Doka now,” the El-Spehari replied. “Doka?”
“Follow Doka,” she instructed. “Get out of town before night. Won’t make it to any camps Boulder might use, but Doka know a good spot along the way. Nice campfire, secluded sleeping spots.” She turned to wink at Teer. “Nice soft moss.”
He was blushing again. Teer was pretty sure he could get used to Doka, but her relentless flirting was getting to him. It wasn’t that he was uninterested—he was a male of nineteen turnings—it was mostly that he didn’t think she was serious.
Kard cleared his throat.
“How far to the camps?” he asked.
“Four candlemarks to ours,” she answered instantly. “Four from there to first possible. Will be two, maybe three days to check ’em all.”
The bounty hunter grumbled but nodded.
“Lead on, then,” he ordered. “I don’t want the bounty to get away.”
11
Getting all three horses settled down for the night took Teer and Doka about as much work as he was expecting. Grump was surprisingly easy for Doka to get calm and brushed down, but Star and Clack were far more taken aback by this new and impressive stranger than they’d ever been by each other.
By the time Teer and Doka returned to the campfire, the stew smelled almost ready.
“That smells good. You can’t cook,” Doka accused. “What is it?”
“Dried stew packages from Teer’s mother,” Kard told her. “I added a package of dried beans to the chicken stew. I think they should pick up the flavor and extend it for three of us.”
He stirred the pot and took a careful spoonful.
“Promising,” he said. “Pull up seats, both of you. This will still be a minute and it sounded like the horses were trouble.”
“Mare not sure if she looking at Grump as threat or ‘vailable dick,” Doka said bluntly.
“And this is why most folk don’t ride stallions,” Kard told her.
“Doka ain’t most folk,” she agreed genially. “Grump’s a good beast. Better at boundaries than most men.”
“And some women I could name,” the El-Spehari said cheerfully. “Tea?”
“Please,” Doka confirmed, ignoring the barb directed at her. “Doka has honey. A moment.”
She dove back into her saddlebags and returned a moment later with a cloth-wrapped ceramic jar. Without asking, she dropped a dollop of thick golden liquid into each cup as Kard poured the tea.
Teer stirred carefully as she put the honey away and Kard started serving the stew. The tea was much the same overbrewed black drink he’d have had on the ranch. The honey smelled good and he took a cautious sip.
“That helps,” he conceded. “Thank you.”
Doka nodded, but a mouthful of stew kept her silent for several more moments. She’d eaten half the bowl before she spoke again.
“His mother made mix?” she asked, pointing her spoon at Teer.
“Sent us on our way with a pile of them,” Kard confirmed. “She seems a good woman.”
“She is,” Teer confirmed. “Ranching isn’t an easy life, though I don’t think fisherman’s wife was much better.”
“It isn’t,” Kard agreed with a grimace.
Doka had finished her bowl. She tossed soap and water into the kettle before adding the dish to it, then grinned back at the two men.
“Boy’s good stock, looks pretty, and smart-ish,” she said. “Where you find him, Kard?”
“Can’t tell you that,” the El-Spehari replied. “I’ve got to keep some secrets.”
Teer busied himself finishing his soup. He suspected that Doka didn’t even begin to grasp Kard’s secrets. Teer’s master was, after all, still wrapped in the illusion that made it hard for Teer to look at him. Kard clearly knew and trusted Doka, but she didn’t know what he truly was.
To Teer’s surprise, his bowl and spoon were gently removed from his hands as he finished. Doka dropped them in the kettle—and then dropped herself in Teer’s lap.
“Doka is known to play,” she told him, her face very close to his and her voice very soft. “Many ways. And to get some types of play, other types get in way. So. Openness. Doka not do partners, but Doka interested in roll in moss with you.
“Whatchu say to Doka?”
Teer blinked, his ears burning again. Doka was definitely very straightforward. He glanced over at Kard for some kind of sign or hint of what his new boss thought, but the El-Spehari had very specifically put his back to them and started doing the dishes for the three of them.
Which was, he supposed, a sign.
“Okay?” he finally squeaked.
Teer woke up to the light of dawn leaking through the trees above the patch of promised soft moss. The blanket they’d started on top of had been carefully wrapped around him to protect him from the night’s chill.
He was still naked inside the cocooned blanket, and he held the blanket to his chest as he raised his head to look around. Doka had folded a second blanket under herself and was sitting cross-legged, watching him.
“Morning,” he said carefully.
“Mornin’,” she replied with a smile. She was still completely naked. “Doka didn’t want wake you. You sleep cute.”
“Thanks,” Teer said. He gestured toward her blanket. “You slept well?”
“Doka always sleep well after good sex,” she told him, still smiling. “You do okay for boy. But…you get…terms, yes?”
Teer blinked at her serious tone, then remembered what she’d said the prior night.
“This was just once,” he said aloud. “No promise, nothing more. I get it.”
“Good.” Doka was still smiling as she unfolded a leg and yanked the blanket away to expose Teer’s nakedness. “You very pretty. But Doka have work. So does Teer.”
“I know,” he agreed. It took him a minute to remember where he’d left his clothes—Doka prancing naked across the mossy clearing didn’t help—but he was packed up and dressed within a few minutes.
Kard was waiting when they returned to the main campsite, a pot of tea steeping on the fire.
“I figured you two could use the extra steam this morning,” the bounty hunter told them, gesturing to the tea. “It’s jerky and trail bread from here. Fires might warn Boulder we’re coming.”
“Or get attention,” Doka said. “Travelers come through here. Man like Boulder sees that as prey.”
“It’s two on seven,” Kard replied. “I’d rather we did the ambushing.”
“Three on seven,” the guide told him. “Doka not great warrior, but Doka help.”
“I appreciate that,” Kard said. “Might make more difference than you think. Now, from here…four candlemarks
to the first camp, you said?”
“Yes,” Doka confirmed. “Need tea. Was busy night.”
“I heard,” Kard said drily.
Teer realized he was blushing again and quickly took his own tea. He didn’t know his boss all that well yet, but he had the distinct impression there was no way Kard was going to let this go anytime soon.
He didn’t get the impression Kard disapproved, but he didn’t think he was going to hear the end of it.
12
“We close,” Doka told the two men, holding up a hand. “Horses probably fine, but want to walk from here.”
“All right,” Kard agreed. He dismounted and drew his repeater from the scabbard.
Teer followed suit with his hunter, casting an eye on his boss’s gun as he tied Star to a tree to keep her calm. It wasn’t quite the weapon he was expecting. Most of the repeaters he was familiar with weren’t much shorter than his hunter, lever-action rifles with magazines in the grip.
The grip on Kard’s gun was identical, but the barrel was at least eight inches shorter. Teer could see how that made it a handier weapon, more easily used from horseback, and he wondered why he’d rarely seen the short version of the gun before.
“Still hauling rebel gun, Doka see,” the guide observed as she followed Teer’s gaze.
“The Unity army cavalry uses the short repeater just as much as the Sunset Brigades did,” Kard replied, his tone somewhat defensive. “And for my purposes, it’s the better gun. Not my fault everyone has decided they’re specifically the Sunset gun.”
Teer shook his head.
“That answers my question before I even ask it,” he admitted. “Was wondering why I hadn’t seen a short repeater before.”
“Unity cavalry still use them,” Kard told him. “But they used to be issued to a bunch of other units, too. They’ve been phased out since the war, since everyone sees them as a ‘rebel gun,’ as Doka put it.”
“Good gun,” Doka admitted as she pulled two weapons from scabbards on her stallion’s saddle. Both were recognizable to Teer, though he wouldn’t have expected either of them to be a weapon someone would carry into a fight.
First, the guide had a short-barrelled thunderbuss. Only the most rudimentary attempt had been made to smooth the end where Doka had sawed the barrel off at much the same length as Kard’s short repeater, and the gun was, in general, a cheap and rough-looking weapon.
The second weapon was the thunderbuss’s opposite in every way. While Teer had never used a bow in his life, he recognized the weapon on sight. Doka’s was a gorgeous piece of spectacular craftsmanship, with multiple woods composited together and lacquered for both aesthetic and, he assumed, practical purposes.
The thunderbuss went in a holster on Doka’s left hip, where Teer wore his quickshooter, and the bow went over her shoulder.
“This…second likely spot,” Doka told them. “Step quiet, be careful.”
Teer nodded as he took in her meaning. Of the three spots, she didn’t think this was the most likely place for Boulder to be camping, but she also didn’t think it was the least likely place. They were in a quietly wooded part of the hills, and he stretched his ears for any kind of hints.
All he heard were wildlife and a distant brook burbling.
“Where to?” Kard asked.
“This way,” Doka told them, gesturing to follow her. “Brook over hill, sheltered by trees, cliff. Good water, good shelter. Very good campsite—but others easier to reach Odar from.”
“Lead the way.”
Their blue-skinned guide led them slowly through the trees and up the hill. Every step Doka made was carefully considered; Teer presumed she was checking for things that would make noise.
Teer quickly realized that the other two were far better at stealth than he was. He didn’t think he was making that much noise, but it was obvious he was making far more than Kard or Doka. After a few minutes, he swallowed his pride and started following literally in Kard’s footprints, putting his feet exactly where the El-Spehari had stepped moments before.
“Down. Here.” Doka obeyed her own order, going flat on her belly as she reached the top of the hill. “Stay low.”
“Stay back,” Kard murmured to Teer. “Watch the hill behind us. If Boulder’s been here for a tenday, his men know this hill better than you and I.”
Teer nodded, kneeling on the mossy ground and checking the forested slope behind them. Kard joined Doka on his stomach, slowly squirming forward to get a view down to where the camp was supposed to be.
The young Merik couldn’t hear anyone and was figuring that meant Boulder wasn’t there. He wasn’t going to say that out loud yet, though. Doka and Kard knew this type of task far better than he did.
“Looks clear,” he heard Kard whisper. “I see the overhang by the water. No sign of a camp.”
“Not roadside camp,” Doka replied, also whispering. “No firepit. Smart folk clear debris, signs. Should check closely; might have been here and moved.”
“Agreed. Teer!”
The call for Teer was in a more normal voice, loud enough for Teer to hear clearly.
The youth turned and moved far enough forward to see his boss.
“Yeah?” he asked.
“Get up here and cover us,” Kard ordered. “We’re going down into the valley. It looks empty, but someone might be playing games.”
“Yes, sir.”
With less of an immediate concern over being spotted, Teer joined the two quickly. Doka was carefully picking dirt out of the front of her corset as she knelt and studied the slope downward.
“If here, they moved on,” she finally said. “Doka think we check for track and sign, but no threat.”
“I agree,” Kard said. “I still want Teer to cover us with that hunter. Boulder’s left more than a few dead Wardwatches and hunters in his trail who weren’t careful enough.”
Doka looked back at Teer, then at the gun he was holding.
“Like this,” she agreed. “Friend outside trap is best key.”
Teer checked the scope on the rifle as the other two headed down the hill. He wasn’t used to having one—the hunter he’d used on the ranch didn’t have one, as the optics were expensive—and he was surprised by how much it brought everything closer.
Almost dangerously so, in his opinion. The wider view of the brook’s valley was more valuable than the very focused view through the scope. If he needed it, he could use it, but he was pretty sure he could hit anything that threatened his companions without it.
Anyone, he supposed. He shivered at that thought. He wasn’t hunting deer today. If he pulled the trigger on the gun Hardin had given him, he was firing at a person.
“Nothing,” Doka finally said in disgust after poking through the sheltered area for at least a quarter-candlemark. “Doka not think so. Still had to check.”
“Agreed,” Kard replied, standing up and stretching. “Teer!”
Teer stood up from his own kneeling position, slinging the hunter over his shoulder and stretching carefully.
“Nothing?” he asked loudly.
“Nothing,” Kard confirmed. “Go check on the horses; we’ll catch up.”
“Yes, sir,” Teer replied. He was pretty sure he’d have heard something happen to the horses, but there was no point taking chances. Keeping his hand on his quickshooter, he slowly headed down the hill.
There was less concern about making noise now that they knew the brigands weren’t camped here, and the horses started whinnying at him as he approached. The animals had done a solid number on the scrub near them, but the tone of Star’s whinnies told him they’d probably need more food.
He gave each of them a handful of oats, dodging back from Grump’s halfhearted attempt to take some fingers with them, and then set about checking Star’s hooves for rocks and burrs.
The other two rejoined him a few minutes after he started checking the horse, both of them falling to the same task in silence.
“Two more cam
ps, Doka?” Kard finally asked.
“Can reach one today,” she told him. “Best wait till morning for other. Reach it in dark if we push on.”
“I’m not coming up on Boulder in the dark without knowing exactly what I’m doing,” the bounty hunter agreed. “Let’s get to the next site today, though. I want this bastard’s trail.”
“Doka want to get paid,” the guide agreed. “Grump ready to go.”
“So is Star,” Teer said. “Just taking the time to take care of her.”
“Without horses, everything else becomes much harder,” Kard said. “Let’s take the time. It won’t hurt us, not that much.”
“Next site likely. Longer route to town but clear,” Doka warned. “Well hidden. Less water, but good hiding spot.”
“Would Boulder have found it, then?” Teer asked.
“Coach drivers know it,” the guide said. “Could buy or hurt it out of them.”
“We’ll see soon enough,” Kard replied. “Clack’s hooves are clean. Shall we?”
13
“Stop.”
Kard and Doka pulled their horses up at Teer’s sudden order, both of them looking back at him strangely.
“What’s going on?” Kard demanded.
“Voices,” Teer told them, straining his ears to try and make out words before shaking his head. “I think at least four.” He gestured to the side of the road they were riding along. “That way, probably a quarter-mile?”
“Quarter-mile,” Doka repeated. “Through trees, hill, water.” She glanced at Kard. “If they camped where Doka think, that nearest stream.”
“You can hear them?” Kard asked.
“You can’t?” Teer replied. From what he understood, the El-Spehari should have superior senses to him, able to both see and hear farther than he could.
“No,” the older man said, then shook his head. “I believe you. Pull the horses off the road. Doka, can you check it out? Quietly?”
Wardtown (Teer & Kard Book 1) Page 7