When I was far enough back, I dropped to the ground and waited. Waiting for the riders risked them getting past me, reaching Cael and Nord before I had a chance to keep the men away, but I figured the risk was better than revealing myself too soon.
I didn’t have to wait long. Horses’ hooves thundered as they galloped toward me, racing along the dry ground. When they were close enough to attack, I pulled into a crouch and flung a pair of darts at the first two riders.
The first dart struck the man in the thigh and he dropped from the saddle. His horse rode onward without him for another dozen steps before finally stopping. The other dart missed and struck the dappled horse. My heart skipped a moment, more at the idea of missing and hitting the horse than anything else. The horse took another step and staggered, front legs giving way. The man atop the horse—the one with the bow that I truly wanted to target—was flung from its back and landed in a heap far away from the others.
That left one man. He carried a crossbow and had already unslung it, turning to point it in my direction while steering the horse with his knees. Had I been thinking, I would have taken him out first. I could deal with one man and a sword. A crossbow bolt at short distance was something else.
Of course, had I been thinking, this man would already have been dead.
As he turned, I recognized him. Thayer.
12
Thayer reigned in his horse, crossbow aimed at my chest. I was good, but not quick enough to move from a bolt moving at high speed. The air smelled of the dry grasses and horse sweat, an unpleasant combination. Shadows started stretching across the plain, but not enough yet to conceal me.
Dark eyes sparkled. I saw the victory and coins he was already counting on his face. “You’ll never reach her,” I said.
“No?” He gestured with the crossbow. “The great Galen thinks to barter with me?”
I shook my head. There would be no bartering. Not with one of Orly’s men. “Should have killed you last night.”
Thayer smiled. “Probably shoulda,” he agreed. “Can’t believe my luck. Stuck with that fat fuck all these months, keepin’ tabs on ’im, and then we come across you. You know the price on you?”
I shrugged. “At least forty,” I said.
“Up to fifty gold now!” Thayer said. He practically giggled. “That and the girl. I’ll be set!”
I waited, expecting him to pull the trigger on the crossbow, but he didn’t.
I should be honored that Orly had such a price on me, but felt nothing. A price like that was only bound to get me killed sooner. By Thayer or some other useless thug like him. The real assassins, men like me or Lorst, I was smart enough to keep an eye open for.
When the shot never came, I frowned. “Get to it.” The sooner he fired, the sooner I could make my move.
He shook his head and motioned toward the small path. “Not just you I’m after.”
There it was. Thayer thought to collect on both me and Cael. His greed would get him killed.
“You think you can bring us all in alone?” I asked.
“Not just me.”
“Really?” I looked around. The man with the sword was down, dead from the terad the dart had been tipped in. The other man, the one with the bow, lay unmoving. From where I stood, I saw blood pooling around his mouth, draining from his nose. If not dead, he was as good as dead.
If I could keep Thayer talking, I could kill him as well. Not a diluted dart this time. Depending on how much he angered me, he might end up with something worse, possibly even srirach. I could vouch for how much that hurt. No real antidote either, not without careful planning, and I suspected Thayer was anything but careful.
“They were just along to help. Real help will come when he gets word.”
“No help can get to you in time.”
“No? Orly made arrangements,” he said.
For the first time, I felt a true flutter of fear. Lorst.
I had barely survived him the last time.
Thayer must have seen my expression. His smile changed, deepening and twisting. “You fear him?” he asked. “I thought Galen was afraid of no man. After all the stories I heard about you and you’re just as scared as—”
“Lorst is no man,” I said.
No. Lorst was like me. Perhaps more skilled than I in some ways—in others, I suspected I still had him beat. At least, that was what I told myself.
Few had the same knowledge of poisons as I did. Isander had made sure that knowledge came first, always working to learn more about various natural toxins. The darts I used were specifically designed to carry the right amount of poison—unlike Lorst’s knives, which were only dipped in his poison of choice. Still deadly, though.
“Move,” Thayer said, the crossbow dipping as the horse turned.
“If I don’t?” I asked.
“Then I kill you and go for the girl.”
He might find that capturing Cael would be trickier than expected. If I could help it, he would not live long enough to find that out on his own.
“What about Nord?” I asked.
Thayer’s face turned in an ugly sneer. “Nord used his last chance. Orly won’t help him again.”
“You’re just going to let him wander?”
Thayer shrugged. “Not much time left for him anyway. The way Orly talks, the antidote wasn’t working the same anymore. I think Nord knew that.”
“You don’t want to help him?”
Thayer narrowed his eyes at me. “For an assassin, you sure talk too much,” he said.
“I just need to know.”
“Need to know what?”
“The reason that I kill.”
Thayer laughed, never taking his eyes off me. The crossbow remained aimed right at my chest. His finger rested on the trigger, just floating about it. Any unexpected movement I might make and he’d pull the trigger.
“Not much more killing you’ll get to do, I’d say.” He nodded again for me to start walking. “You’re going to come with me while I find the girl. Might be she’ll come easier when she sees you like this.”
It was my turn to smile. “You think so? Do you even know what the girl is?” I asked. “Ever stop to question why the price on her is so high?”
Thayer watched me and then shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. Fifty gold for each of you. After that, I don’t have to work again for a while. And Orly will owe me.”
“A dangerous debt,” I suggested as I started walking. Orly had raised the price for Cael. Now everyone and anyone would come after her.
Moving gave me an excuse to keep talking, keep Thayer distracted. A man like him would eventually make a mistake. Already he had tipped his hand, letting on that he had gone to Lorst. That told me he wasn’t confident in his ability to bring us back on his own. Did he think he could bargain with Lorst when he arrived?
“Orly pays his debt,” Thayer said. There was defiance in his voice, as if he didn’t want to believe what I said or feared that I might be right.
“He does,” I agreed. Only it was not always how you thought he might pay it. Even with me, he had tried to push. That was the risk you ran when dealing with a man like Orly.
Seeing that I agreed made Thayer relax a bit. The smile returned to his face. Already, he counted his gold. Little did he know that he would never see the gold he hoped for.
I needed to move before we got too far from the other horse. A single horse would let us travel more quickly, but we’d still be limited by someone walking. A pair of horses, though, would let us all ride. Moving more quickly had several advantages, not the least being that it made it harder for Lorst to track us. He might be able to Slide, but if he didn’t know where we were, he couldn’t find us any easier than someone like Thayer.
“What do you think you can do with all the gold?” I asked.
His mouth twitched and he smiled. In that moment, his grip relaxed on the crossbow. The tension in his hand slipped just enough, his knuckles losing some of the whiteness so that
I knew his attention was distracted.
That was when I knew to make my move.
I dropped to the ground and rolled into the grasses, keeping my back flat but angling so that I could keep my eyes on Thayer.
“Shit!” Thayer muttered.
I heard the bolt whiz through the air.
I saw it moving toward me. At this close range, he didn’t have to be a skilled shot, just a passable one. The bolt came right at my head.
At the last second, I flung myself to the side. The bolt sank into the ground where I had just been lying. My hand slipped under my cloak and I grabbed a pair of darts while rolling to my knees.
Thayer was faster than I expected. Another bolt was already docked. He pulled back on the string, his face clenched as he drew.
I flicked a dart at his arm.
Thayer’s eyes widened and he flinched back. The movement was just enough for the dart to miss, especially with his horse dancing under him.
My second dart didn’t miss.
It struck just under his neck.
The look on his face told me that he knew he was dead even before he felt the dart. He screamed and his body spasmed. Somehow he had managed to draw back the crossbow. With his dying, he squeezed off the bolt. It sank into my left shoulder before I even knew what had happened.
I bit back my own scream.
How stupid could I have been? I should have known to be careful, had seen him pulling on the bow, but failed to realize that he could still injure me with it. Another few inches and it would have sunk into my heart. As it was, I could barely move my left arm.
Grabbing the bolt with my good hand, I pulled it out of my shoulder. The barbed tip tore flesh as it came out. The wound was deep—probably deeper than any other I had taken—and I would need to have it healed properly to have any hope of function in that arm again.
Damn.
There wasn’t much time to waste. I approached Thayer, slumped in the saddle, and grabbed the reins. The horse turned its head and looked at me, dark brown eyes distrusting. I tried sending comforting thoughts, but I carried a certain tension about me that never fully disappeared. Most horses sensed such things and reacted to them. Riding was never a pleasant experience for me.
My shoulder felt hot, as if fire raced through my arm. I didn’t think the crossbow bolt was poisoned, but maybe since Thayer had known he was chasing me, he might have tried. There was little I could do about that now.
Even shrugging my cloak off my shoulder to tie a tourniquet around my arm was painful. I used a strip torn from Thayer’s shirt. It was stained but would suffice and, I thought bitterly, he wouldn’t have a need for it any longer. I shoved Thayer from the saddle and climbed in his place.
Pulling on the reins, I turned and rode toward the other horse, hoping he hadn’t wandered too far. I found him grazing not far from the dead swordsman who laid face up on the ground. Glazed eyes stared up from the swordsman, staring as if looking toward the Great Watcher.
I took a moment to take the dead man’s sword.
With one arm, darts would be more difficult to throw. They might be hard enough to even load. Likely as not, I’d spill my remaining vials of poison, wasting months of work in the process. At least with the sword, I only needed one hand. I hated the idea of close combat, but I didn’t know what it might come to before I found a healer who could help.
I knew that I shouldn’t, but my thoughts turned to Della.
She was gifted, a true Healer of Elaeavn, with an ability unmatched by any others I had found. While I still lived in Elaeavn, she had saved my life more than once. Even after my exile, she had saved me. It was on her word that Isander had taken me in, teaching me his trade, the ways and art of poisons, the delicate mixtures, the safe handling, the careful delivery through darts of his own creation.
After what I had been through the last week, part of me wanted to lie in front of her fire once more, eat her warm bread, and simply feel cared for. But my hesitation was more about the fact that Della would not want to see me. After what I had been through, what I had become, I doubted that she would want anything to do with me.
I shook the thought away. It didn’t matter anyway; such safety was not for me. Not after what I had done and certainly not after what I had become. I no longer knew if the Great Watcher would welcome me when my time came. I tried not to think of that as I made my way back toward Cael.
13
Settling back into the saddle, I held the reins of both horses and set off back down the dried streambed. The sun had nearly reached the horizon. Soon night would come. At least then, I had the advantage. With my Sight, there was little change with nightfall, only gradients of shadows.
I rode quickly. Dust kicked up by the horses’ hooves coated me, settling in my mouth. I was too tired to remember to keep it closed. Each step of the horse sent pain shooting through my arm. That and numbness on my left side forced me to hold the reins of both horses in my other hand; I steered with my knees, biting back the pain I felt. As the sun disappeared, the air around me cooled and I shivered in spite of my cloak. With my training, I knew that was not a good sign.
Finally, in the distance, I saw them.
Nord walked slowly, wide and unmistakable. From what I could tell, he looked even weaker than when I saw him last, barely more than a few hours before. Cael stood too close, almost at his side, her dark curls hanging around her shoulders. They stood near a small copse of bent and shriveled trees, the bark unmistakably gray and dried.
They had found the bakka trees. But something was wrong.
Cael turned as I approached. Rather than her usual smile, her deep green eyes shone with anxiety. She saw my injury and rushed forward to grab the reins from my good hand.
“What happened?” she asked.
I licked my lips to clear the dust. My mouth was dry and I wished for water. Where the bakka were dormant, there would be no water. I wondered how much longer I could manage to stay upright before I needed to drink.
“Thayer,” I said.
Nord turned and looked at me when I said Thayer’s name. His eyes had a strange and sickly look. The scars on his face cast deeper shadows than before. He looked as if he struggled to stand. “Thayer? Are you here?”
“Thayer’s dead,” I answered.
“Can’t be dead. Just saw him,” Nord said.
Cael pulled on my good arm. “Something changed after you left, Galen. Nord tried to wander off, getting more and more confused. He finished the last of his water and since then, his mind has seemed to go.”
I struggled to process what she told me, my mind working through things more slowly than I liked. I wished I wasn’t so damn tired. I wished my arm didn’t feel like it was on fire. I wished I could just lie down and pull Cael against me…
I shook off the thought. This time, I didn’t know if it was mine or something Cael did, part of her abilities manifesting in ways she denied. More likely than not, it was from me. There was no way I could deny the attraction to her. Only that I needed to ignore it for her safety. And likely my own.
Struggling down from the saddle, I staggered over to the three stunted trees. Dormant bakka had gray bark and leaves. I settled my hand on the bark, running it up the smooth surface. The pressure of my hand caused the remaining leaves to flutter slightly on the branch, but in spite of how dry they were, they did not fall.
With Nord acting strange and me injured, I needed to work as quickly as I could. I didn’t have everything I needed—that would take additional searching—but I could strip some of the bark to get at the meat of the tree. That was the first step in attempting the antidote for bakka poisoning. The difficulty would come later.
Taking one of my knives, I cut a shallow edge in the bark and propped it out. The bark peeled away like parchment. Breaking off a small piece, I popped it in my mouth to taste. There were many who chewed bakka bark for its effect; I wanted the alertness it could bring. If I survived, I would suffer later.
Cael st
ood next to me and watched. She said nothing as I chewed on the bakka bark, though I could see the worry on her face as I did. She wondered how I could chew the bark when we had seen what had happened to Nord.
“Bark is different,” I said. “Dried like this, it can’t poison. Not well, anyway. Gives certain benefits.”
“And which benefit do you seek?” she asked.
I jabbed the knife deeply in to the meat of the bakka tree and started sawing away at a piece the size of my hand. The insides of the tree were moist and slick, so different than the dry, paper-like bark. “Alertness,” I said.
“How badly are you hurt, Galen?” she asked. She reached forward and touched my injured shoulder. Her hand was soft and gentle. Still, it hurt. I winced, biting back a scream.
“Bad enough,” I said, pulling away from her touch. I hated that I had to pull away from her, especially when I saw the look of worry and disappointment on her face.
When the piece of bakka was worked from the tree, I slipped it into my pouch. The treated leather would keep it moist. I didn’t know how long, but hopefully enough that I could get the other parts of the antidote. Then I could finish it quickly and do what I needed to help Nord. When finished, we would leaveMord him. Only then would I worry about my arm.
After the piece of bakka was tucked into my pouch, I pulled a dozen dried leaves from the tree. I needed to do this carefully. The leaves had tiny barbs, almost completely invisible unless you knew they were there. Even dry—possibly especially then—the barbs could slice clean through flesh. I wrapped these in a strip of cloth and tucked the whole thing into the pouch next to the moistened heart of bakka.
Now that I had the parts of the bakka that I needed, I turned back to Cael. She watched me with an unreadable expression for a moment and then glanced back at Nord. He stood barely upright. I noticed now that he shivered but a flush had come over his face. From what I could tell, he barely remained standing.
The Forgotten (The Sighted Assassin Book 2) Page 9