“When they return we’ll start our plans,” Reya stated.
~ * ~
“Bloody hell!” The big fist slamming down caused the glasses to rattle on a nearby table. “Surely someone, somewhere, has seen her?”
“It’s only been six days.”
“That’s nearly a week!”
Kiile studied his friend from his seat in the armchair. The Daamen’s forehead was creased in a frown, his mouth pulled tight. Thick black hair was tousled from his fingers continuously raking through it. There was no sign of the laughing, light-hearted Darvk that he knew so well.
The trader simmered with rage, paced with worry, and seethed with the frustrated knowledge that the lass he loved was out in the galaxy somewhere with every bounty hunter and Inka soldier after her blood.
Hurt and bewilderment also filled Darvk. He remembered the tears in her eyes, her sadness and pain. Something had made her run. But what? Why hadn’t she confided in him, come to him for help?
The first day she’d disappeared he’d wanted to send out messages to anyone in the galaxy who might have seen the fleet craft.
“They have a radar blocker on it, remember?” Kiile had reminded him.
“Damnation!”
“Not only that,” Maverk added, “but do we want to alert Shari and the bounty hunters that the Reekas are out there without our protection?”
“Shit!”
Finally it was decided to send a fleet craft to Daamen to let it be known that the warriors had escaped. That way every Daamen crew on the trading ships could keep a watch out while travelling the galaxy without letting the news out. The same applied to every Argon ship that came and went.
The disappearance of the warriors affected Maverk as well, though Kiile suspected that it was the flame-haired one that mostly occupied his thoughts.
Even the crew was affected. Although they relaxed and enjoyed themselves with the sensuous Argon tavern wenches, at least the single traders did, they were all ready to board the ship at a moments notice.
“Perhaps you’d be better to continue your trading and that way you could search for your woman without raising suspicion?” Kiile suggested.
“You tire of my dour company?”
“Far from it. You’re always welcome to stay as long as you like, you know that, but you’re restless. Besides, I’ve seen you checking the galaxy maps. You’re planning on leaving anyway, correct?”
“Correct. I can’t stay any longer waiting for news. I must go out there and search.”
“And what better way than under your guise of trading?”
“Thank you,” Darvk said quietly. “For your help.”
“No need. We’ll continue to keep our eyes and ears open. We’ll contact you about anything we see or hear.”
Darvk nodded.
Kiile smiled slightly. “The golden-haired warrior means a lot to you, doesn’t she?”
“I love her,” he said simply.
Kiile nodded in understanding.
Impatient to get started, Darvk strode from the room to collide with Maverk in the hall.
“Get the crew,” he ordered his friend. “We leave to start our own search for the wenches.”
~ * ~
The stars glittered in the night sky. Darvk was out there somewhere. Did he now hate her and strive to forget her? Did he seek comfort in some tavern whore’s arms or in the arms of the sensuous Argon women?
It tore Tenia’s heart in two to think about it.
On one hand she knew he wouldn’t do it, wouldn’t seek comfort with another woman, but on the other hand she didn’t know how he’d react to her betrayal.
Betrayal. Such an ugly word.
Sitting down beside Tenia on the ledge, Connie stretched out her legs. “There’s a sadness in your eyes.”
“I’m fine.”
“What troubles you, little sister?”
“I fell in love.” She rested her chin on her drawn-up knees. “I fell in love, and it wasn’t meant to be.”
“Darvk?”
“Yes.”
“Does he love you in return?”
“He did.” Tenia sighed. “I’ve probably killed that love now.”
“Why?”
“Because I ran away and left him.” Pain reflected in her words.
When there was no reply, she glanced at Connie. Her husband had been one of the first to die all those years back in the Reeka settlement. She’d been a very young bride and a very young widow soon after. “Do you despise me for loving the man who bought me?”
“Of course not,” Connie replied, pushing a strand of hair back behind her ear. “It’s natural for a man and woman to love each other. If he was kind to you and treated you well, then I have no reason to hunt him down.”
“Reya would have killed him in a flash.”
“I can believe that.”
“What happened to her?” Tenia asked on impulse. “She’s always had an icy demeanour since Mother died, but there’s something else there.”
Picking up a twig, Connie fiddled with it. “That barrier is between all of us and Reya. Something happened when she was out on a mercenary mission but she never told us what it was. She’s still Reya, laughs a little, thinks a lot, but the barrier has been there ever since.”
“I wish she’d tell me.” Tenia gazed out at the dark night. “Maybe I could help her.”
“Whatever troubles her is deeply buried.”
The sound of soft, feminine voices lifted in harmony floated out to them and Tenia recognized the tune, a sad song of love and war. Familiar and beautiful, it had been sung in the Reeka settlement before they were outlawed.
“Ah well, we’d better seek our blankets.” Connie got to her feet. “Tomorrow is a big day.”
“I think I’ll stay here a while longer.”
Connie brushed her hand affectionately over the younger woman’s golden head before entering the mountain.
~ * ~
“My guess is that they have headed for the Outlaw Sector,” Maverk said.
“I agree, but that Sector covers millions of miles. There are at least a hundred and twenty planets in there.” Frowning, Darvk leaned against the door of the control cabin. “That’s known of.”
“Mayhap we should start on the outskirts and work our way inwards.”
“Nay, I think we should start further in. They’ll head for the safest places.”
“Which is?” Garret asked, his hand hovering above the Outlaw Sector map.
“I don’t know, but we’ll head for Lanta which is quite a way in and stop off for trading. While we’re there, we’ll keep our eyes and ears open.”
Garret started setting the coordinates that would take them to the Outlaw Sector.
For Darvk, they couldn’t get there soon enough.
Betrayal still bit deep, burned angrily in the pit of his stomach, but his love for Tenia softened it, the memory of the sadness in her eyes when he’d last seen her.
She’d known she was leaving him, and it had torn at her as it tore at him now.
But damn it, she should have trusted him.
~ * ~
Everyone in the settlement paused as the five tall Reeka warriors strode down the middle of the road, each one beautiful and deadly as more than one man could attest to. After several minutes of speculation on their presence, the settlers turned their attention elsewhere.
Tenia walked beside Reya with Mya, Diona, and Senna bringing up the rear.
“You know this man well?” she asked her sister.
“He supplies many mercenaries with his little toys.” Reya turned into a narrow, dark alley.
Stopping halfway down, she rapped sharply on a steel door.
A piece of metal slid back and a wrinkled face peered out of the opening. “It’s you.”
“We have business with you.”
“How many is ‘we’?”
“Five.”
“Hmm. Okay.” The opening shut with a snap.
After a minute had passed, Tenia looked at Reya. “What’s going on?”
“He’s trying to decide on whether or not to let us in.”
“What?”
“It’s a game he likes to play. We just have to wait him out.”
“Don’t worry.” Diona yawned, shuffled her booted feet restlessly. “He’ll let us in.”
The door opened suddenly and a tall, thin man with a wrinkled brown face and a long grey beard stood there. “Better come in then, if you must.”
He shut the door behind them and Tenia gazed around the room. The walls and cupboards were steel-plated, the floor the same. A wooden table stood in the middle of the room, and in the corner a staircase led up to another steel door.
“We need weapons, Deathman,” Reya stated.
He glanced at Tenia curiously. “I have not seen this warrior before.”
“Haven’t you? What weapons have you got?”
“She looks like you.”
“I have no use for idle chitchat. Business or not?”
“Pah! You bringers of death are always in such a hurry. What do you want?”
“Small weapons which are easily concealed in cloaks and carried on belts.”
Tenia watched him tap his chin while squinting thoughtfully over at the cupboards. He whistled tunelessly between his teeth. Judging by the resigned expressions on the others’ faces, this was a common occurrence. Personally, she found it annoying.
Suddenly he scurried across to a cupboard and pulled the door open. It was gloomy inside, how he even knew what resided there was beyond her. After groping around, he filled his hands, slammed the door shut, and scurried back to the table where he tipped the contents onto the smooth surface.
“This is my latest.” He held up a round, flat disc no bigger than a man’s thumbnail. It had a black dot in the middle. “It’s a ‘boomer’. This black dot is pressed and it automatically locks onto laser heat.”
“And?”
“You release it and faster than the eye can see, it shoots across the room and straight up the barrel of the laser, blowing it and the holder up. Boom!” Deathman placed it tenderly back onto the tabletop.
Reya looked at the warriors. “What do you think?”
“Good for long distance, bad in an enclosed room, almost useless if no one is firing a laser,” Tenia mused.
“We’ll take seventy. What else have you got?”
Diona pointed to a small cylinder no longer than her little finger and about as round. “What does this do?”
“Ah, this!” He tapped the end and a pointed, razor sharp blade slid out.
“Thirty of those,” Reya said.
He made a note on the electronic tablet that lay on the table.
Tenia looked at the brown leather, fingerless gloves that were piled on the table. “These look interesting.”
Deathman stroked one of them lovingly. “Now this, my pretty, is what you want.” He handed one to her. “Here, golden locks, try it on for size.”
It was not as soft as it appeared, being heavier and hard. Sliding it on, she found it a snug fit. Her fingers came through the holes and the leather on her palm was soft, but the back of the hand and right up to the end of the glove just below the elbow was hard yet flexible, hindering her movements in no way.
“A sword won’t cut through it,” he informed her gleefully.
“What’s it made of?” Reya rubbed it curiously.
“I don’t reveal my sources, warrior. Mind your business as I do mine.”
“You don’t mind your business,” she returned with cold amusement.
“Well then, you tell me your business and I’ll tell you mine.” Pulling on one of the gloves, he held out his arm. “Go on, give it your best hit.”
Without hesitation she swung her sword above her head and brought it down in a hard arc. Before it made contact, Deathman yelled and yanked his arm away.
“What’s the matter?” Reya quirked an eyebrow. “Did you lie about the blow it could withstand?”
“No.” He smiled happily. “Made you think, though, didn’t it?”
“Bastard,” she returned mildly.
He held out his arm again. “Have another go.”
The sword clashed down onto his glove-covered arm and he winced and staggered.
“Did it cut you?” Reya studied his arm with no concern and all interest.
“Of course not! Nothing can penetrate my gloves. It just made my arm tingle.”
“We want twenty pairs.”
“This must be some party you’re going to. Whose war?”
“Don’t ask,” Diona said.
“Anything else you want?”
Reya glanced around the room. “Got anything else you want to show us?”
He hemmed and hawed then brightened. Hurrying over to another cupboard, he delved inside to return with a handful of spheres no bigger than marbles.
“And they are…?” Tenia’s brows rose.
“These, golden locks, are ‘smokies’. Throw one on the floor and it’ll explode and release a smoke screen.”
“Fifty.” Reya folded her arms. “What can we take with us tonight?”
~ * ~
Standing beside the trading ship, Darvk watched as money was exchanged with the local merchants and cargo was loaded aboard. When Maverk gestured to him, he strode over.
“This merchant knows of the Reeka warriors.”
He looked sharply at the middle-aged merchant who’s red and black robes fluttered in the breeze. “What do you know?”
“I’ve seen some of them pass through.” He pointed towards the distant hills. “Three weeks ago two of the district lords had a fight, many died. Three Reekas passed through our settlement about a day before the fight, they were obviously hired by one of the lords. After the battle they passed through again, stopping at a tavern for the night. The next day they were gone.”
“Do you know where?”
“No one really knows. They appear and disappear.”
“Where can we find these district lords?”
“The surviving one, you mean.” The merchant laughed. “His district is over those mountains.”
Turning, the traders stared at the distant blue-tinged mountains.
Losing interest, the merchant walked off.
“The district lord must know where they live,” Darvk said.
“Or how to get word to them.” Maverk nodded. “Mayhap our search is nearly over?”
It wasn’t so easy, they found out. The district lord was a small, mean-eyed, bull-necked man who eyed them suspiciously.
“What d’ya want with them?” He gazed narrowly at the two young giants.
“To hire them.”
“Since when do Daamen traders hire mercenaries?”
“That’s our business.”
The lord returned hard stare for hard stare then he shrugged. “I don’t know where they live. No one does.”
Darvk felt his heart drop. “How do you get hold of them? Who’s your contact?”
“There’s no real contact. Notices are posted in taverns and then you wait. Sooner or later a Reeka warrior shows up.”
“How do they know?”
“That’s their secret. Many have tried to wait in taverns day and night but no Reeka appears, nor is there a certain person who appears in every tavern where the notices go up. Somehow the warriors know. Besides, who cares? As long as they turn up to fight for us.” The lord smiled tightly. “And they fight well.”
“There’s not even a rumour where they might be?” Maverk persisted.
“There’s always rumours.” The lord laughed. “Some say they’re Satan’s demons come straight from the depths of Hell. Try there, why don’t you? Best of luck.”
They returned to the trade ship no wiser.
~ * ~
“We have some arsenal, what now?” Mya pulled the gloves on, admiring the fit.
“The next step is to get an idea of the Inka Empire, how big the fortress
is, where Shari rules from, and how often he ventures out of his domain.” Reya paced the cave.
“And how well he’s guarded when out,” Tenia added.
“Which means we’ll have to find out who the best person is to get this information from.” Nera peeled an orange, dividing it between her twin sons.
Smiling at the boys, Tenia marvelled at the love Nera showed them; the results of rape by bounty hunters before being freed by a Reeka raid. Lyla, who’d been with her, also had a son. She’d counted five girls as well, the only babes to have survived and grown to early teens. The children were a good omen, she thought.
“So what I heard was true,” a new voice said from the entrance to the cave.
Everyone looked up to see three warriors standing in the opening, smiling wearily.
“Dana, Jonette, Merly.” Reya nodded. “How are you all?”
“I thought you were dead!” Tenia stared at the laughing, dark-haired warrior. “Your mask and braid were up on a tavern wall!”
“Oh, that. The soldier had a hold of my plait but I cut through it and escaped.” Jonette laughed and hugged her. “Take more than that to stop me.”
Tenia didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Dana limped over and embraced the younger warrior. “Hello, cousin. It’s been awhile.”
Merly was the next to hug and greet Tenia, and the next few minutes were spent in exchanging stories.
It was when the blonde shifted with a wince that Connie asked, “What did you do now?”
“I didn’t do anything.” Dana propped her foot on the wooden bench to show the bandage strapped around her ankle over top of the boot. “I was fine during the fight-”
“But on the way home she tripped over a tree root,” Merly interrupted with a snicker. “Her swearing turned the air blue.”
This made Dana the centre of good-natured teasing that reminded Tenia of Darvk and his friends.
Darvk. An unexpected pang caused her eyes to darken with pain. But as swiftly as it appeared, she forced it down. Now was not the time.
Connie introducing the subject of the Inka Empire and their plans was a welcome diversion.
Jonette pushed back her curly fringe of hair. “I’ve heard that one of the Inka soldiers beat up his mistress badly. Apparently she was pregnant and wanted him to wed her. Needless to say, he didn’t take the news well and she subsequently lost the babe after the beating.”
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