***
Mystique was making good time. It helped a lot not having to look for tracks or signs of where Daemon had gone. He must have pulled his ax at some point because she was finding cut branches more often than broken ones. She knew he was widening the gap between them but there was no way she was going to keep up with him now. She just had to keep going and hope he slowed down soon.
Mystique was surprised to find a small backpack hanging from a broken branch. She was naturally suspicious of a trap so she stopped and inspected everything before getting too close to it. She couldn’t find signs of any traps so she got a long stick and poked the pack a few times hard enough to knock it off the branch. A few shiny objects tumbled out of a hole that had been torn in the side of the pack. Mystique waited another minute, then crept closer when nothing happened. She collected the pack and the objects that had fallen out of it.
Mystique smiled when she took a better look at what had fallen out: a gold ring with a large diamond, and a silver bracelet with red and green stones set in it. She found a lot more jewelry inside the pack. It took her a few moments to figure out that she was holding the money Faust had planned to use to by passage on the spaceship. Her mother had told her many times money comes in all shapes and sizes. Her chances of getting off this planet had just gotten a lot better.
It had been well over an hour since Daemon had taken off running and from his trail he hadn’t slowed down yet. A small stream looked inviting and a quick look around showed that someone else had been resting here. Mystique remembered something Faust had told her once after visiting her mother, “If you’re ever alone in the woods don’t go near water. Predators hunt near water because everything has to drink.”
She’d liked Faust. He’d always brought her something or taught her something when he came to visit and never wanted anything in return. Mystique had thought he was after her like some of her mother’s other clients. But he’d seemed genuinely disgusted when she’d offered to take her mother’s place next time he came to visit. She’d been confused until Faust told her she was too young and it was sick for any man to touch her in that way. He had been upset with her mother and they’d had a big argument about it, but in the end he still came to visit, just not as often. Faust had brought her first knife on his next visit and started showing her how to use it. He was careful to explain what would happen if she ever hurt or killed anybody but someday he was sure she would need to defend herself. He even offered to let her live with him and his kids but her mother wouldn’t let her. Mystique was starting to have more visitors than her mother.
Mystique wasn’t sure what snapped her out of her daydream but all of the sudden she felt she needed to get away. She looked around quickly, trying to figure out what was wrong. The only thing that caught her attention was a black oily mass in the stream. It took her a few precious seconds to realize what was so strange about it, and then it dawned on her. The mass was floating across the stream not down it. It was coming after her!
Mystique didn’t think, she just reacted. She took two steps back and jumped as high and as far across the stream in the direction Daemon had gone as she could. She landed almost four yards away on the other side of the stream. When she landed she was already running. For the first time in a long time Mystique was afraid. She used her fear to make her run faster then she’d ever run before. The only thing she tried to think about was following Daemon’s trail.
Escape from Endeavor Page 35