The whip was the standard, everyday variety but the guard carrying it was massive. This man had to be over seven feet tall with biceps bigger than her thighs. If that giant used all his strength, neither of them would leave this room alive.
The first strike lifted Talon off the floor, but he didn’t make a sound. Shadow jerked and tears rolled down her face. Without the mouthful of shirt she would be screaming at the guards, the magistrate, even the stupid woman breathing down her neck listening for a sound.
The second strike drew blood and a groan. She had to lock her knees to keep from falling to the ground.
The final three blows were a blur. It would have been difficult to see through her tears without the added barrier of the body cover. When they removed the shackles she wanted to run to him but guards blocked her way.
“Bring evil woman.”
Before the guards could grab her arms, she marched across the floor, still grateful for her mouthful of fabric.
“Take your man and leave here.”
Shadow nodded and rushed to Talon’s side. His injuries weren’t life threatening but traveling would be painful.
“Let’s get the hell out of here, Blue.” The body covering wasn’t full enough for her to put her arm around his waist. All she could do was let him lean on her and pray he didn’t stumble.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“Please tell me you didn’t steal our horses?” Shadow paced beside the open fire pit, careful to keep the hem of the body cover away from the flames. Because of her ‘trial’ and guilty verdict, they couldn’t get a room anywhere in town and ended up making camp outside the city gates. Correction, she camped here. He left right after their evening meal and didn’t come back until just before dawn. It was barely full sunrise now.
“Don’t ask stupid questions,” Talon barked without slowing his inspection of their supplies.
“I happen to know we had very few coins left when we were arrested. Yet, here you are with the horses we boarded when we left for the island. How did you pay that fee? And you bought supplies. You did all this in the middle of the night.” Frustration and inactivity made her bitchy. It was a fact. He could deal with it or not, made no difference to her one way or the other.
“Lower your voice before we end up before the magistrate again.” He twisted to reach a torch that rolled away from his pack and hissed in pain.
“I could help with that if you’d let me get another pair of pants. The medic told you to avoid physical activity for several days.”
“He treats farm animals not humans. Can we, please, just load up, mount up, and get out of here?”
“Fine. You mind telling me how I’m supposed to ride dressed like this?” She figured she was about thirty seconds away from tossing this glorified blanket into the fire and riding hard and fast to the territorial border.
“Sidesaddle?”
She growled. Was he serious? Let him ride with his leg wrapped around the saddle horn and see how far he got before he rubbed a blister on the back of his knee or fell on his ass.
Talon ran his hands through his hair, leaving it standing in wild spikes. “Look, Blue, I don’t have all the answers. Hell, I don’t even know the questions. I know this whole town is geared toward taking travelers for every coin they bring with them and you’re still in the magistrate’s crosshairs.”
“Yeah, yeah. I hear you. Let me think.” She paced not because it helped her think but because if she didn’t do something she’d get them arrested again. “I’ll put on pants…don’t give me that look until you hear what I have to say!”
He raised his hands in surrender.
“You can cut this shroud from the crotch to the hem, front, and back. The pieces will cover my face and legs without flashing the good stuff.” She waited patiently while he considered her suggestion.
“That might work.” He finally said.
“You take care of the fire while I dig a pair of pants out of my bag.”
In no time, Talon knelt at her feet with a sharp knife and made quick work of altering her wardrobe. The freedom to move freely made a glorious improvement in her attitude. When she mounted her horse, Talon wrapped the ends of the body covering around each leg. He had to cut the front a little higher so she could grip the saddle horn. He tied her horse to the packhorse, mounted, and they headed for the border.
* * * *
Talon waited a full hour after crossing into a safe zone before looking for a place to stop. Shadow would demand answers and he’d try to be honest with her. He had to be careful not to arouse her suspicions.
A game trail led off into the trees and he followed it to a small clearing. His back was on fire and he could feel a trickle of blood from at least two different spots but he couldn’t give in to it. The medic urged him to rest or risk infection and scaring. He had to get Shadow to safety and get back on Draagon’s trail.
When he dismounted he had to grip the saddle horn until his knees agreed to support him. He blamed it on the condition of his back until he heard Shadow groan.
“Let’s plan on making camp here tonight.” He hoped she didn’t want to push through to the transport station. It was still a good six hours of steady riding and another two hours—minimum—to get the animals registered and loaded.
“Deal. My butt’s numb but when the feeling comes back it’s going to hurt like a son of a…uh…you know what I mean. Wait! Are we still in that jerk magistrate’s territory?”
Talon grinned and shook his head. “Not for more than an hour. You can lose the outfit, Blue.”
Shadow whipped it over her head as soon as her brain registered his answer. “How can those women wear that all year long? And that brings up another question. When we left your island, there was frost on the ground every morning. It’s still summer here. Why?”
He chuckled at her chattering. Her enforced silence for half a day created a backup of conversation that now had to be freed. “It has something to do with the ocean currents. I’ll get a fire started if you want to dig out the tea.”
“We need to take care of your back first.”
She was systematically rearranging every item in the supply packs while she searched for the kit. There wasn’t a meek and mild bone in her body and he wouldn’t want her any other way. Her efficiency made short work of setting up their campsite.
“Your back has fresh bandages. We’ve fed and cared for the animals and ourselves.” She poured them a second cup of tea and carefully lowered herself to the ground. “I want to know where you got the coins to pay for all this.” A wave of her hand encompassed everything around them.
“The medic mentioned he was late for a poker game and I begged an invitation to join their game. You know how I supported myself in Cypriana. Different town—same game. They’re only allowed one night of gambling a month so the bets are small to make the night longer. It took me all night to win enough to cover everything.”
Shadow couldn’t recall a single conversation with Talon where he was in such a hurry to get the words said. There was something he wasn’t telling her.
“That’s your story?” When he just nodded she knew he was hiding something. She took each sentence and examined what he said.
“You used enhanced touch to read the cards back then but you lost that ability shortly after the new implants. I remember the trouble you had reading the history book.”
“That ink was five thousand years old, Blue, I was never that good.”
“Maybe.” She stared at him trying to pull the missing pieces of his story out of what he said. When he kept looking at something above her head, it hit her. He’s checking out my aura!
“You can see the aura colors. Did you lie when you said that with the implants you could barely make out the color?”
“Yes and no.”
She didn’t respond despite wanting to start a fight. She quit blocking her body heat because he said he couldn’t see them anymore. Was that his plan all along? Get her to let down her guard so he could use it
against her? He damn well better come up with a better answer than that.
Talon eased up to a sitting position and met her stare. She could see the regret on his face and almost told him it didn’t matter. She clenched her jaw and kept her lips pressed tightly together.
“I lost the enhanced vision in one eye. It’s not a major issue, Shadow. I now have the best of both worlds. The left eye sees the potential physical challenges and the right eye guarantees I can go back to my old way of life.”
She was so focused on his plan to go back to his old life that she almost missed the significance of the eyes. “The cart handle…!”
“Don’t, Blue! That’s why I didn’t want you to know. I knew you’d blame yourself.” Talon reached for her but she rolled away from his touch.
“It is my fault.” She whispered, horrified at what her meddling in his life cost him. She had to make this right and if it took the rest of her life she’d find a way. The emotional rollercoaster of the past week finally caught up with her. It was just too much to deal with tonight.
“I’m going to call it a night. We’ll talk more in the morning.”
“It’s the middle of the afternoon, Blue. We need to settle this and figure out our next move.”
“Whatever you plan is fine with me. We need to locate Draagon. After you take care of business, I’ll send a final report to Dak and…oh, no! The rifle was in the dimensional locker and the only key was on my belt! You don’t have a weapon!”
“I still have the crossbow and I can still see. When we reach the transport dock tomorrow we can check in with the bounty station. They’ll have the latest information on Draagon. It’s almost over, Shadow. You’re not giving up on me are you?”
She couldn’t deny him when he flashed that crooked grin at her. Damn, she was going to miss him when this ended. She shook her head and forced a smile to her lips. She’d stay until she found a way to give him his life back—again.
“Can we talk about this later? I’m really tired.”
“Sleep, Blue. You’re safe with me.”
Shadow rolled over and pulled her wilderness bag around her shoulders. It was hot as blazes, even in the shade of the trees, but she was shivering. She knew in her heart that when Talon left she’d be cold for a long, long time.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“The bounty station is two streets down and one over. We have time for breakfast before they open for non-emergency business.” Talon pointed to a tavern sign not far from where they stood.
“A cup of anything hot sounds good to me.” Shadow shivered despite the sun beating down on their heads.
“Do you need to see a medic, Blue? It’s got to be eighty degrees out here and you’re shaking like a leaf.” He had to keep the fire blazing all night trying to warm her. It got so bad that she allowed him to join her in her wilderness bag to share body heat. He was sweating like a pig all night but he couldn’t raise her temperature at all.
“No, I do not want to see a medic. Haven’t had much luck with healers over the years. It’s just a bug of some kind that I probably caught in that disgusting, germ-pool of a cell. Let’s just get something to eat.”
He wanted to argue but since that hadn’t worked during the entire six and a half hour ride from the campsite, he bit his tongue. She was right about that cell so her assumption made sense.
The tavern owner offered them seats near the open windows to catch the breeze that made the heat inside tolerable. Shadow’s teeth already chattered so he asked for the table beside the kitchen door. Her smile was the first genuine expression he’d seen since she found out about his eye. He cursed himself for a fool every time he thought about his slip-up.
While they waited for their food, Talon outlined the plans he made during the long hours of caring for the woman across from him.
“The reward for those two escaped criminals will cover the cost of transporting us and the horses to wherever Draagon was last seen. I figured on two or three day’s surveillance after we locate him. Once we know his schedule it’s just a matter of picking the best position and waiting.”
“Didn’t the guards keep everything of value in your pockets? They did mine.”
“I slipped the badges into my boot as soon as I realized what was happening. Those guards weren’t trained to be law enforcement. They’re good at intimidating visitors who didn’t spend enough coins in their shops.” Talon waited until the server deposited their meal before continuing.
“My pockets were emptied but they never checked the boots.” He cut a healthy bite of steak and slipped it into his mouth. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a thick, rare steak. “Mmmm, this is perfect.”
“It’s not even cooked!” She wrinkled her nose in disgust. “I’ll stick with my soup, thank you.”
They consumed their meal in relative silence, only speaking when the server asked them a question.
“Have you noticed that servers around the galaxy wait until you have a mouth full of food before asking you if your order is correct or if you need a beverage refill?” He grinned when Shadow laughed at his rambling. Her hands stopped shaking about halfway through the meal and that made him feel better about her health. She grinned at him when he pointed that out to her.
“I told you I’m fine. Let’s do whatever you have to do and get aboard that transport.”
She sounded almost back to normal—as long as he ignored the haunted look in her eyes. Something, probably her misplaced guilt, rode her hard enough to make her sick. The spikes of color that were constant and clear on the island were muted now. He didn’t believe for an instant that it was because of his damaged eye. She was controlling it again. Was that making her sick or was her illness muting the colors? His knowledge of the colors came from trial and error and she needed the advice of a trained professional to translate the change in her colors.
He dropped coins on the table to cover their meal and something extra for the server. The heat was intense and every step along the unpaved street raised clouds of dust. Twenty minutes after leaving the tavern, they walked into the bounty station.
“Be right with you folks,” said a disembodied voice from inside a closet.
“No rush. Our business isn’t urgent.” Talon remembered the hundreds of bounty stations he had visited over the years. It was where you picked up a list of targets and returned the live prisoners or proof of death for those who refused to be captured.
Damn! I don’t miss this at all!
“Sorry about the delay, what can I do for…Talon?” The officer turned from whatever he was doing and spotted them.
“I’m sorry.” Talon tried to put a name to what he saw of the face. “I don’t remember you.”
“No reason why you should. I was just a dumbass kid right out of the academy. You folks come on in my office where it’s cooler. Can I get you something? Water? Tea? DAMN! The guys at HQ won’t believe this! Everyone thought you were dead!”
Talon probably looked as confused as Shadow. This guy acted like he was entertaining visiting celebrities. “No thank you. We just left the tavern a few blocks from here. We have….”
“Before we jump into business can I ask you something? You were—are a legend among bounty hunters. Hell, you’re the reason HQ eliminated the assassin part of the name. You brought in over five hundred criminals and only killed one and that one was self-defense.” He grinned at Shadow.
“The question, Officer…?” Talon wasn’t comfortable with being praised so enthusiastically.
“Right. You have business and I’m just rattling about past history. Everyone wants to know what happened? Where did you go? It was like you just dropped off the face of the planet.”
Talon never thought he’d be asked his side of the story. There was no reason to seek out the other assassins. It was a solitary profession. “I was almost killed by Draagon’s Phantom Riders. It took a long time to fully recover and by the time I did, the job didn’t mean the same.”
“No
w that makes perfect sense to me. What can I do for you?”
* * * *
“You really know how to show a girl a good time, Mister Bounty Hunter.” Shadow kicked back in the luxurious seat of the private transport. Who knew bounty hunters travelled in such splendor?
“I’m still trying to come to terms with my immortality. They changed the academy name to Ta’Londal Academy. Why would they do that? How did they know where I came from?”
“They’re trained to track down the most elusive of criminals. How hard would it be to track someone who had no reason to hide his origins?”
He didn’t really expect an answer to his questions. It was his way of dealing with the honor his peers bestowed on him. He kept reading the obituary notices from around Cyperia. The entire planet mourned his death while he drank away his pain alone.
Shadow was so proud for him. The men who governed the bounty hunters honored him the only way they could when reports of his death reached them. The respect he garnered from every law enforcement agency he worked with was evident in the eulogy read at his memorial service. His ethics were held as the bar every new bounty hunter trainee was expected to reach. They even offered him a job teaching at the academy. They understood his decision to go after Draagon, even giving him the coordinates from the latest attacks; but still tried to convince him to bring him in alive.
He believed he was alone in the world when, in fact, he had hundreds of brothers-in-arms. Could their opinion of him temper his thirst for revenge? Time would tell but did he have that time?
Meanwhile, the Regional Director insisted they travel in his private transport. This baby could carry a full company of hunters and their weapons on the level below this one. There was even a fully stocked and manned stable for the horses. She could definitely get used to this. This trip wouldn’t require transferring through seven different transport stations, waiting for hours to days between flights. The pilot had orders to take them, non-stop, from Karphor to Cyperia.
Chapter Thirty-Five
The Men of Anderas III: Talon, the Assassin Page 19