I would have to stop them.
“We should stay together, Galen,” Cael said.
I shook my head. She liked the idea of killing less than I did, but I recognized that there was a time and a need for it. Such feelings went against the teachings of our people, the belief in the Great Watcher. I had discovered long ago that I had a gift for killing, and some men simply needed to die.
“One has a crossbow. The other has a longbow.” It was the longbow I feared. In the hands of the right archer, it was deadly accurate. Much closer and we would be easy targets. There were a few men in Eban with enough skill with the bow, sharp shooters that earner almost as much as I did for their skills.
Del looked back. “Someone follows us?” he asked. “How would they know we were here?”
Did I tell Del that he probably wasn’t the target? He just had the unfortunate luck of falling in with us when Orly had put a price on our heads that would draw all the men from Eban—and some from well outside the city as well—after us.
“At least three,” I said. “Mounted and moving fast.”
“Are you sure they are after us?” Del asked.
I turned and looked at the empty expanse around us. “Pretty sure,” I said.
“We can’t outrun them.”
“No. You will go ahead. Cael will keep you safe.”
“You are leaving us?” Del asked. He looked from Cael to me. “You are leaving her with me? Aren’t you supposed to keep her safe?”
“That’s why I’m leaving,” I said. I glanced at the sky. The sun was falling and was bright in my eyes. That would provide some cover as I approached. Not much, but it might be enough. “Once I take care of them, I’ll return.” I turned to Cael, ignoring the look on Del’s face. He wondered how I would take care of three riders by myself. I was glad neither would be with me to watch. “Make certain he stays upright. Do not let him get too close to you.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Del open and then close his mouth. Cael’s smile never faltered. Again I wished I could Read her as she Read me.
“Follow the old stream bed,” I said. “If you reach the bakka trees, wait for me there. Don’t try to do anything with them.” I needed as much bark as I could find. That, and I wasn’t sure if there was another way to use the trees.
Cael nodded and pointed forward. Del followed, glancing back at me as they slowly ambled along the dried stream bed.
I took a deep breath and patted the darts prepared beneath my cloak. Once satisfied that they were there, I checked to make sure that the knives I had were still in place and ready to grab. Everything needed to be ready. Had I doubted Cael’s ability to Read and possibly Compel Del, I would have diluted terad and poisoned him while I was gone, just to be safe.
Keeping low, I moved back along the stream bed until I was certain that Cael and Del were far enough away and then cut off across the plain. The grasses were dry and coarse and crunched under my feet, sending puffs of dust up into my nostrils with each step. My heavy cloak helped conceal me, but I knew that if any of the riders had decent vision I would be seen. Already I knew one carried a bow; as such, likely had good eyesight.
When I was far enough back, I dropped to the ground and waited. On foot, moving across the grassy field, I would easily be seen. Waiting for the riders risked them getting past me, reaching Cael and Del 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. Better than that, I Saw them. 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 the back of the horse 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 neared, I saw that I recognized him. Thom. Del’s friend.
He 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.
Dark eyes sparkled as he neared. 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,” I said.
Thom smiled. He was missing one of his teeth and his tongue poked through as he 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 twenty,” I said. That was Orly’s promise the last time I had seen him.
“Up to fifty now!” Thom said. He practically giggled.
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 Thom 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,” I said. 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. Thom 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 Thom 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 Thom was anything but careful.
“They were just along to help. Real help will come when he gets word. Wants you more than Orly.”
For the first time, I felt a true flutter of fear. Lorst.
I had barely survived him the last time.
Thom 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 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 that were only dipped in his poison of choice. Still deadly, though.
“Move,” Thom 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 Del?” I asked.
Thom’s face turned in an ugly sneer. “Del used his last chance. Orly won’t help him again.”
“You’re just going to let him wander?”
Thom shrugged. “Not much time left for him anyway. The way Orly talks, the antidote wasn’t working the same anymore. I think Del knew that.”
“You don’t want to help him?”
Thom 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.”
Thom 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 pulled 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?”
Thom 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.
Moving gave me an excuse to keep talking, keep Thom 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? Did he even know anything about Lorst other than the fact that he wanted us too?
“Orly pays his debt,” Thom 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 Thom 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 Thom on horseback.
“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.
Dropping to the ground, I rolled into the grasses, keeping my back flat but angling so that I could keep my eyes on Thom.
“Shit!” Thom muttered.
Then 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.
Thom 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.
Thom’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 from 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 where Thom was slumped in the saddle and grabbed the reigns of the horse. It 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 Thom 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 Thom’s shirt. It was stained but would suffice and, I thought bitterly, he wouldn’t have a need for it any longer. I shoved Thom from the saddle and climbed in his place.
Pulling on the reigns, I turned and rode toward the other horse, hoping he hadn’t wandered too far. I found him grazing not far from where the dead swordsman lay face up on the ground, almost as if waiting for its rider to awaken. 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 that 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 hesitance 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 did not 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.
Settling back into the saddle, I held the reigns of both horses and set off back down the dried stream bed. 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 from fighting back the pain to remember to keep it closed. Each step of the horse sent pain shooting through my arm. Pain and numbness on my left side forced me to hold the
reigns 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.
Del 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 hair 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 reigns from my good hand.
“What happened, Galen?” 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.
“Thom,” I said.
Del turned and looked at me when I said Thom’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. “Thom? Are you here?” he asked.
“Thom’s dead,” I answered.
“Can’t be dead. Just saw him,” Del said.
Cael pulled on my good arm. “Something changed after you left, Galen. Del 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 Cael. Only that I needed to ignore it for her safety. And likely my own.
The Forgotten: A story in the world of The Dark Ability Page 8