It should have been me that died, not Arren. Still, I had a promise to keep.
I took off my dirty clothes and began to take a quick shower. As I washed the blood and garbage off of my body, I began to feel a bit of hope, a bit of optimism.
I really didn’t want to let Arren down. Maybe I really could escape.
Rebirth
The next day, my problems got worse. Luckily, I’d stopped on a hill to eat and to let Durben rest, allowing me to see the rising dust cloud from a group of riders in the distance. Pursuit. “Rotting creation,” I swore. “Durben, we have company. This doesn’t look good.”
Durben looked at me and flared his nostrils, but that was his only reaction before bending down to eat some more grass. The zebra’s thick, wiry mane had a leaf in it, and he didn’t seem to care much about that, either. Not much impressed Durben. I don’t think he understood the gravity of the situation.
My eyes were fairly good, and I could see that at least three riders were heading my way. At this point, I was over a day away from Bittertown, and I’d chosen roads, then trails that were seldom used. I was braving territory where I could encounter monsters. I was far enough away from the city for it, plus these were roads and areas that were not patrolled very often. In short, it was a dangerous place with no real importance.
…All of which meant the riders behind me were probably after the orb, or my life. Honestly, if I thought I could just start a new life by doing so, I’d give the orb away, but I knew matters were not that simple. Damn.
“Okay, Durben, I think we need to go. Sorry, buddy.” Durben understood our break was coming to a close and barked in protest, but I gave him a good-natured ruffle on the mane. My pulse had jumped, and my future looked grim, but I didn’t want to let my worry show. Durben was a good beast, at least to me, and there was no point in stressing him out.
I’d first met Durben a couple years ago. I am still not sure Reesi or I had been more surprised when the grumpy zebra had immediately accepted me. Since then, I had enjoyed visiting Reesi with the other Jackals so that I could feed Durben and rub him down. He was always friendly with me, and if he got grumpy, it wasn’t anything that a friendly smack to the snout wouldn’t cure. I’m pretty sure I was the only one who knew about the special spot that he liked scratched on his jaw.
Of course, the fact most other people couldn’t get near him without getting kicked or bitten might have been part of that. Durben and I were close, but he was not a friendly animal…at all. And since zebras on Ludus were the size of horses on Earth—or so I’d heard—most people couldn’t go near Durben. It was a shame. He was a sweet baby.
It seemed fitting that I’d meet my end with my zebra buddy. He was quite possibly the best friend I’d made in Bittertown other than Reesi and, of course, Arren. I couldn’t think about Arren right now, though. Just the name in my mind made my heart feel like it would fly apart and maybe take my reason to continue with it. It’d be easier if I could blame someone for Arren’s death, replace the grief with hate…but I didn’t have a target for it.
Sure, Lisa was a cunt, and I’d bet there were bounty hunters after me that had been hired by her, but she was not directly responsible for Arren’s death. I guess Ludus was. I wished people could just live in peace, that little girls wouldn’t need to learn to survive on the streets, and that little boys wouldn’t need to become prostitutes to make money. Life was cruel, and Ludus was like life’s evil twin.
His saddle was already in place, so I hopped on Durben and began riding, trying in vain to escape my pursuers. The landscape scrolled by quickly as tall pine trees mixed with the stunted, broadleaf trees that were standard for the Bittertown countryside. I scanned the wilderness ahead as Durben galloped, staying alert for monsters.
It would be just my luck if a pack of horned demon wolves came out of nowhere before the bounty hunters caught me. That was unacceptable. At least if I were captured or killed by other people, Durben would live. I took comfort in that. Whoever was after me could sell a zebra.
My entire life flashed before my eyes as I rode - from my childhood to watching Arren die on the street. I’d never quite felt the weight of my own mortality so heavily before, and I vowed that if I were to survive, I’d truly fulfill my promise.
With that, my eyes narrowed, and I felt a new core of determination grow in my heart. A seed of anger and frustration at the injustice of the world blossomed. Even Reesi had hurt herself just to help me.
I was not going to give up.
“Come on, Durben!” I yelled. We aren’t finished yet!”
The zebra must have understood we were in danger. He galloped hard, putting maximum effort into our flight. As I helped Durben ride by leaning forward and gripping his sides with my legs, I took a mental inventory of my weapons. I had two Jackals clubs and three shivs. Damn. I’d forgotten to check Reesi’s house for weapons. She might have even had a bow or a sling.
I really hoped I lived long enough to pay her back for her kindness. What an amazing woman.
For the next few minutes, Durben and I raced across the Ludus landscape, slowly getting deeper into the wilderness, further into monster territory. All the while, I kept track of our pursuers. At first, they were gaining on us, but Durben was a big, powerful zebra. Reesi had taken excellent care of him, and after he got his head, we maintained a steady, breakneck speed. We even began pulling away, gaining a lead!
I whooped and entertained fantasies of escaping. All my triumph turned to ashes in my mouth as one of the pursuing riders took to the air. One moment Durben and I had been increasing our lead from the group chasing us, the next, there was a person bounding forward in huge, impossible leaps, closing the distance as if we’d been still.
Orb-bonded, I thought. Well, maybe a mage instead, but either way, it didn’t look like I had much chance to escape anymore. I made a quick decision and made a nasty grin. They might catch up to us, but they wouldn’t get what they came for! I pulled the orb from my pocket and flung it as far as I could into the undergrowth on the side of the road. Have fun finding that, motherless bastards! I thought.
The approaching figure got closer at a frightening pace. I looked back in time to see them actually catch up. A man in heavy bronze and leather armor sailed through the air, a helm hiding most of his features other than a mustache. His polished bronze helm with a Fideli-style zebra hair crest flashed with the sunlight as he bounded to the side of my position.
When he landed, his arm flashed out. A disc weapon blurred forward, coming in low, and I lifted my leg on reflex. The weapon missed me, but poor Durben was not so lucky. The powerful zebra coughed and staggered, but he still managed to take several more steps, slowing before he fell and threw me.
I tucked my arms in close and let the rest of my body go limp, turning my forward motion into a roll when I hit the ground. The clubs on my belt were attached with leather ties, probably good since otherwise they might have been shoved into my body from the fall. The impact hurt like hell, and I might have broken something, but I knew I had to move while I was still numb.
I spun and eyed the big, armored man walking towards me with a steady, confident gait. Durben whined and barked pitifully, thrashing on the ground where he lay wounded. As the big man passed, he casually lashed out with a huge sword that he drew from his back, killing the grumpy, loyal zebra.
I was glad that Durben wasn’t in pain anymore, but I was mostly dismayed and furious that yet another of my friends was now dead. “You killed my zebra,” I snarled. The man didn’t answer, and I felt a dam of emotions burst inside me. In that moment, I changed forever.
I’d never considered myself a violent person. I thought if people would communicate better, even in the criminal world, bloodshed could be avoided. But in that moment when I watched my zebra friend casually dispatched for no reason other than it had been the easiest way to capture me, I had finally had had enough.
Some people just needed to have their asses kicked.
&nbs
p; I snarled and drew both clubs from my belt. As I stalked forward towards the armored man on the balls of my feet, I noticed the other riders approaching us. Let them come.
When I was close enough, the man lazily chopped at my legs with his huge sword, probably expecting to easily take me down. I drew back just enough to let the blade pass, then darted in, slamming my club’s shaft down on the man’s unprotected hand.
The armored man let out a surprised yelp, dropping his wounded hand. The gigantic sword dipped forward while he was distracted, and I stepped forward, lashing out with my other club at his unprotected neck below the helmet. The strike probably wouldn’t have been possible for many other fighters; the angle was precise. I’d always had a knack for weapons.
My club slammed home, breaking in the process, and the mustachioed man cried out in surprise and pain.
If he was orb-Bonded, he was probably strong as well as tough. But if he were a body magic mage, he would be able to heal himself. Neither possibility was really great for me. My feet felt light as I pressed the attack.
I dropped my broken club and pulled a shiv, closing again with the reeling man. He started to counterattack, but I kicked down on his sword, the pressure pulling it out of his slick grip. His other hand punched out, and I let it brush past, sensing that the strength behind the strike could probably have broken every bone in my body. Luckily, the man only seemed to be unnaturally strong, not fast. My hand darted forward, planting my shiv in the side of his neck.
He fell back, hissing, his narrowed eyes full of malice. His hand went to the weapon sticking out of his neck where it met the shoulder, and he applied pressure to the sides of the wound, halting blood flow. Then he warily took a few steps backward.
This bastard is tough, I thought coldly. I had to give him credit. He didn’t pull the blade out of his neck, probably knowing it would just cause him to bleed more.
I remembered the resistance when I’d struck, and could see that my shiv had not penetrated the way I’d expected it to. Strong and tough, I verified.
With cautious steps, I moved forward to finish the man off, but three riders pounded forward, dismounting between Durben’s murderer and me.
The three newcomers were women, armed in various light armor, all of them dark of hair and eye. The tallest, most voluptuous of the women called back at the man, “Ven, you were supposed to wait for us after disabling her mount.”
“Sorry, Wife,” croaked back the man. “She’s just a street tough. I got impatient. This has been a long search.”
One of the other women, the shortest of the three and round of figure spat back, “This is why we do things slowly and carefully, Husband. Your medical expenses will cost us money, and you could have died. You are orb-Bonded. It’s a good thing nobody else saw this, or it could hurt our reputation.” The last woman, the most heavily armored figure, just nodded.
I thought I understood. This was a bounty hunting or mercenary group, and the three women were the orb-Bonded man’s wives.
“Jialji, I saw her throw something while I was catching up,” said the man, still holding his neck.
“Wonderful, that was probably the orb,” said the tallest woman. “That means we’ll only get the bounty for this job.” She tsked. Then she looked at me and said, “This isn’t personal, but for our client, it is. Sorry. You are not getting away. This was supposed to be an easy job. You’ve given us a hard time.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Forgive me for not giving a shit about your time or your feelings. Rot Lisa and rot you. You killed Durben.”
“Was that the zebra?” The woman shrugged. “It’s interesting that you immediately knew who our employer is, but the concern about the animal is strange. You’re street garbage. It was just a zebra. I thought your type are supposed to be pragmatic.”
I snarled. “Your husband is orb-Bonded. I thought he was supposed to be tough, but I just fucked him up. Come get some too if you feel game for it, bitch.”
“Fine.” The woman lifted her lips in a sneer. “I don’t feel any pity for you.” She turned slightly and said, “Get her. You know what the contract says. You can kill her, but we’ll make more if she’s alive for the imagecap.”
“Got it,” said the shortest woman. Then she raised her hand, and I dodged through sheer instinct, narrowly avoiding a jet of flame aimed at my face.
The same sense of frustration, of anger, that I had before came back even more strongly. People like this usually did whatever they wanted, and only other people with similar power could do anything about it. For the first time in my life, I desperately wanted that power. The injustice of the world offended me, I wanted to do something about it, and I channeled all of my ire into action.
My shiv seemed to leave my hand on its own, flying end over end towards the fire mage. The armored woman tried to dart forward to intercept the blade, but she was too late. My blade struck true and plunged into the shortest woman’s stomach. She screamed and fell back.
I ran forward, yelling, and swung my club at the armored woman’s head. She took a half step back, letting the swing go wide, and drew a thin sword. I recognized the type—a rapier.
She thrust at my chest, and I desperately contorted my body, narrowly avoiding the strike. Out the corner of my eye, I saw the mage was still reeling, but the other, more striking woman was doing something with a pack. I threw a shiv at her on general principle, but she was paying attention and dodged. Damn. I had been hoping to catch the smug bitch by surprise.
I backed up, and the whistling rapier only missed my throat by a few inches. Then the swordswoman lunged forward, executing a nasty thrust at my stomach. Unfortunately for her, I’d come up with a plan.
My club hand darted out, and I caught the blade in the hollow of my weapon, twisting and binding the blade. Then I darted forward with my last shiv, stabbing once, twice—the wounds messy but not vital. Then I went for another, lethal stab, but suddenly felt myself falling backward. My knee wasn’t working anymore. I heard another loud “Tah”, and my shoulder got knocked backward like I’d just been punched by a giant.
It took me a while to figure out what had happened. As I shook my head in confusion on the ground, feeling my shoulder and knee growing numb, aching, I noticed the tall, voluptuous woman holding a double barrel air pistol. Ah, I got shot, I thought. Uh oh.
Then the pain set in.
Enheduanna
My world was agony. I clenched my teeth and kept the screams inside; I was not going to give these rotting monster-spawn the satisfaction.
I watched on, grimly satisfied as the armored swordswoman I’d stabbed tried to staunch her blood flow. She whimpered, and I could see why. I’d stabbed her in the side. That had to hurt.
The curvy woman holding the pistol stomped her foot. “For Creator’s sake,” spat the woman, glaring at her husband and her sister wives, “She’s just street garbage. I can’t believe this.”
The short mage just hissed and glared, but the taller woman spoke for the first time. She said, “How about you go fight her, Jialji. Put the pistol away. I’ll let you use my sword.”
“Point taken, Cait.” The voluptuous woman began reloading her air pistol. “I suppose we won’t take any chances. It looks like all of you will live, but only because we have the money to patch you up. This job is now going to make us a lot less than I’d predicted.”
She must be the head of the household, I thought. The tall, beautiful woman, Jialji, said, “Just keep your distance from her. I’ll be right back.” She holstered her huge air pistol, then fetched a sapling from the side of the road. After producing a knife from her pack, she removed all its limbs, and sharpened the tip into a wicked point.
“I’m trying to move fast, everyone. I know you’re injured and we all want to go home.” Despite the woman’s ruthlessness and the fact she was my enemy, I admired her. She was a good leader. I decided that if I ever had a team again, I’d be more authoritative than I had been before, more like this Jialji.
“Ven,” the woman said, beckoning to the orb-Bonded man. “Take this spear. You know what to do.” Then she pulled an expensive, magic-powered picture device out of her bag. I’d only seen one once before. “If we took her alive, our client had very specific directions.”
The man was still holding his neck and in obvious pain, but he did as he was told. He got closer, and I tried to summon the strength to hurl my last shiv at him, but even the smallest motion was agony. The inhumanly strong man drew back his arm, and I felt a hammer blow of pressure on my stomach as he drove the crude spear through my body into the road.
If I hadn’t been in such full-body agony already, the sensation probably would have made me sick. Imagine someone reaching into your guts and opening their hand. Now add claws. That’s what getting stabbed through the stomach feels like.
The woman, Jialji, snapped a picture of me with her device. She checked the image before stowing the gadget again. “We got what we came for. Let’s go.”
“She’s still alive!” snarled the short mage. She clutched her stomach where the shiv I’d thrown was still stuck. “We will be bleeding the whole way, most of us, anyway. We’ll need to stop at that little outpost on the way back. This bitch almost killed us.”
“Yes, she did hurt us. It’s a fact I am not proud of.” Jiaji pursed her lips, looking at me with a cold, predatory expression. “I kind of admire her, but I also hate her. I think leaving her bloody in the middle of the road and mortally wounded solves my moral conundrum. We got what we came for, we will get paid, and the monsters will find Nora here.”
After a moment, the mage coughed and grated, “I supposed that will do. I need help getting on my zebra.”
“Yes, of course,” said Jialji, waving her hand. I gritted my teeth, watching them mount up and ride away. My only solace was that most of them were in pain and would have probably died without medical attention.
Then I passed out.
***
Mitigating Risk (Nora Hazard Book 1) Page 4