Instinctual (Rise of the Iliri Book 2)

by Auryn Hadley

  True, Arctic agreed. I just thought you were doing a bit of wishful thinking, LT, when you asked about them.

  He shook his head. I had a few reasons to believe they were more than just a myth. Why'd you give them the intel, Sal?

  Because she was waiting for a reason to trust us. We may be iliri, but not all iliri are on the right side, love. You all want me to be this Kaisae? Then I'm going to have to make a few decisions, and telling stories to myths doesn't seem like that big of a problem to me. I've already broken enough regulations. I figure a few more won't hurt.

  Chapter 43

  Sal and Cyno had chosen to leave their excess gear at the iliran inn. They would pass back through on their way to Anglia and the innkeeper was willing to store it for them. Suited for battle, the Blades rode out of Issevi at dawn, eventually turning toward the east.

  Within an hour, they realized someone was following them. Dark shapes dotted the tops of hills behind them, always far enough back that even the best iliri sight couldn't be sure who or what it was. The fourth time it happened, Sal was sure it was not a coincidence.

  "It's got to be Star Fall," she said.

  Blaec reined in Scorch, and looked. "How many do you see? I've got nine."

  "Yeah, me too," Sal said.

  "Last time there was ten," Cyno said, pulling beside them. "She's right, LT. It's got ta be them."

  "Ok. Ideas?" he asked the men.

  They argued, debating between attacking and fleeing, none of them wanting to get so close to the final load of steel, just to be stopped by their own side. That's when Audgan spoke up.

  "Talk to them," he said.

  "Yeah," Geo agreed. "Makes sense. See what the fuck they're doing and make them attack first. Can't really be worse than where we're at now, right?"

  "How far out is the steel?" Sal asked Razor.

  "Day or more," he said. "I can't even be sure they're in the mountains yet."

  "Ok," Blaec said around a long sigh. "Check your weapons and gear. I'm not sure what side of this they're on, but I don't want any of us slacking. Better to be prepared for no reason than wishing a cuirass was properly strapped on."

  Each of them made one last check, Sal pulling her sabers from the pack behind her and strapping herself into the scabbards. Cyno tested the edge of every blade, turning a few so they were facing properly. Zep merely patted his chest piece, then his horse, and declared himself ready.

  They turned back the way they'd come, slowly fanning into a wide line to make the silhouette of their unit look that much larger. When they topped a large rise, Blaec called the unit to a halt.

  Arctic, open us up, he ordered, and Sal felt the familiar brush of her brothers' minds joining hers.

  Geo looked at her quickly, the shocked expression on his face fading as soon as he met her eyes. Audgan simply sighed, relaxing in a moment of bliss. Then they waited.

  Minutes ticked past slowly, and their horses fidgeted in place. Cessa began to paw, annoyed at the inactivity, but Zep corrected her. Nazar cocked a hip, proving she was a veteran of battle and knew to catch her rest whenever she could. Then the first man came into view on the hill across from them. None of the Blades moved, keeping their relaxed posture, but their eyes tracked each form.

  They're in brown, Cyno said. Ya realize, LT, we fight this out, we're na going back.

  Yeah, he said. I'm well aware of that. Not without a good excuse or a lot of bodies. Let’s hope they just want to help.

  The humans finally saw them. Star Fall pulled their horses together, riding forward in a cluster before spreading out to match the Blade's posture. Sal watched, aware that Blaec had secured the high ground and was threatening the infiltrators with the prospect of fighting mounted, something they typically refused to do. She glanced at her hip, checking that her helm was within easy reach, then leaned across the pommel as Captain Tharp pulled ahead of his men.

  "Look what we found. The beasts!" Tharp jeered, an obnoxious smile on his face. "What are ya running from?"

  "To," Blaec said. "We were running to our objective. You come to help? Or hinder?"

  "Really, Doll? You're acting like we're across the line from each other or something."

  "Aren't we?" Blaec gestured to their positions.

  "Thought we both fought for the CFC."

  Sal spoke up. "Thought we did too, until you tried to kill me the other day, or did you forget about that so quickly?"

  "I wasn't speaking to you, bitch," Tharp said.

  "Yeah," Blaec told him, "ya kinda are. So start talking."

  "Get off your ego trip, Doll. We're all here for the same reason."

  "Which is?" Sal asked.

  "Getting this ore back to Prin. You don't know where it's coming from, so you need us."

  Arctic snorted in contempt. "So we can do your work and then let you kill us off because we're just scrubbers?"

  "So we can tell you which pass."

  Sal laughed, making Tharp glare at her. "Is this a bad time to mention that I learned to lie? We know where it is."

  He gestured at her dismissively. "You're not very good at it. Doll, you're playing blind. Help us get the ore back, and we'll put in a good word for you."

  "No," Blaec said, the corner of his lip lifting.

  "What?"

  "No. I am not telling you where it is. I am not leading you to it. I am certainly not going to trust you, not after what you did to my Second Officer."

  "Cut the shit." Tharp pushed his horse closer. "She's not qualified to be the Second Officer. She's your lover and that's it. We all know it."

  "Pretty sure Blaz Eason might be a bit offended to hear that," Blaec taunted. "Heard he was pretty fond of her. If nothing else, you really need to ask yourself what man is dumb enough to want to stand on the other side of Cyno's blade. But we're not here to talk about who Sal's fucking, are we?"

  "We're just here for the ore, man," Tharp said, trying to sound like a desperate friend.

  "We're here to talk about how you can get the Blades busted back to blues," Blaec corrected.

  "Toth hasn't been subtle," Sal told him. "He's scared of being voted out so he's playing on the anti-iliri sentiment in his district to keep his seat in the next election. Thing you don't realize is that he doesn't have the first clue about the damned war. He just wants to sit on his ass and get lots of presents from people who are trying to buy his vote."

  "What do you know about politics, scrubber?" Tharp snapped.

  Ten hands slipped to the hilt of their weapons, their bodies tensing. Zep yelled across the space, "Which one of us did you mean?"

  "Sorry," Tharp said, raising his hands to show he was out of line.

  "What are you doing?" Sal asked him. "Seriously, all this posturing aside, what the fuck are you doing? Do you not understand what we're playing with?"

  "Do you not understand that we'll get the ore?" Tharp asked her back.

  "It's steel!" Sal yelled, her anger flaring. "It's ingots of steel, not ore. Your intel is so bad you don't even know what you're chasing! Five crates, one hundred kilos of precisely measured, smelted steel ingots in each. It's ready to be hammered, you dumb fuck. Each ingot is enough to make a standard two-handed sword! You ever fought against steel?"

  Sal glared at him, and Tharp finally shook his head. She reached behind her back and pulled out her dagger, holding it by the blade so none of them could consider her a threat.

  "This is steel. It's harder, stays sharper, and is more forgiving than anything we have. With enough force, it can cut through your composite armor. Resin and ceramic can't even dent it." She slammed it back into the sheath along her belt. "I've been fighting with steel for six months, and I've almost matched Cyno's kill record. I'm not that much faster than him, but my blade's a lot fucking better. You want to stand across the line from that shit?"

  "Where did you get that?" he asked.

  "Escea," Sal told him. "That's why we cleaned up the Warlords. The Emperor was trying to buy them with swords a
nd daggers like this. He's trying to buy Anglia now, and your head is so far up your ass worrying about what color my hide is that you keep forgetting the most important thing! We're on the same damned side!"

  "We're not," one of the men behind him yelled. "You're not fighting for the Conglomerate. You're fighting for the damned iliri."

  "We live in the Conglomerate," Sal yelled back. "Human, iliri, what's the difference? If Terric takes our homes, I promise I'm going to lose a hell of a lot more than you will. He'll send my damned head to a fucking politician to mount on his wall. You? What will you lose?"

  "Our freedom," he yelled back.

  "We already lost that," Arctic said, grabbing Sal's arm to calm her. "About three thousand years ago. We're fighting for our lives, now."

  "You don't look like you're doing too bad to me," Tharp said.

  "Hey, Tharp?" Shift asked. "Whatcha gonna do when you retire? Me? I'll be fertilizing a garden from the bottom up, so kiss my ass, ok?"

  "Now let's try this again," Blaec said, lifting a hand to silence his men. "Why are you here?"

  "We just want to stop the ore," Tharp told him, again.

  "So why did you try to kill my Second Officer?"

  Captain Tharp gritted his teeth and looked away. He shook his head, then looked back. "Our orders say to remove the Black Blades' combat efficiency and create a catastrophic failure in the unit."

  "Keep going," Blaec suggested.

  "There's a city senator who's moving up. She's promised a few politicians a few favors if we can get Guttertown under control. Your little revelation does not work in her plans, so she wants to see all of you embarrassed enough that you'll fall out of the spotlight."

  "And you took the mission?"

  "I didn't have a fucking choice!"

  "You always have a choice," Blaec said calmly.

  "Not this time, Doll. I tried to refuse the mission and was informed that if we cannot complete it, we will be disbanded as an example of what happens to ineffective units. Don't tell me you wouldn't do the same."

  "I wouldn't," Blaec said meeting his eyes. "The Blades don't operate like that."

  "We wouldn't let him," Arctic said from his right side.

  "Then what the hell would you do?" Tharp growled back.

  Sal pushed Arden a step forward. "I'd learn to play politics. It's a hell of a lot different than combat, but pretty damned effective in that big building in the middle of Prin. Woulda thought infiltrators would know all about making the right impression."

  Zep shook his head, anger clear on his face. "I sure wouldn't start trying to strangle elites in the bath house. Dumb fucking idea, Tharp."

  "And yet my new 'friends' in Parliament got those charges dropped, didn't they? They were really interested to hear about the hallucinogenic effects the iliri cast on us."

  Sal shook her head in disgust. "Guess no one told them that female iliri are a bit different than the males, did they?" Her tone was too sweet. "We evolved to have a few defense mechanisms. Seems to me that it works."

  "Bullshit."

  Sal shoved Arden forward, riding right into his face and held her arms out to her sides, exposing her entire body, pushing the bluff. "Then try it again. Let's see who's full of shit? You try to kill me and it will happen every time. It will hit every human in twenty meters of me, maybe more."

  Blaec shook his head at his men, holding them in place.

  More, Audgan thought, amused.

  "Did you need a weapon?" Sal asked him. "I have a few you can borrow."

  "You'd be bleeding out on the ground before you could do anything, bitch," Tharp warned her. "Don't try me."

  She smiled slowly. "I'm trying you, and you don't have the balls to do shit to me. We both know I could tear your throat out before you'd have a blade in your hands. We both know that your men wouldn't be able to do a damned thing about it. We both also know, Captain Tharp, that the Blades have the high ground, and your foot soldiers are sitting mounted across from us." She paused letting that sink in. "And everyone thinks that Star Fall is headed to Ryass, and we aren't. The entire CFC thinks we're hundreds of kilometers apart. Let's fucking play."

  Tharp looked over to Blaec. The leader of the Black Blades just smiled and patted the loaded crossbow at his hip. "She's right."

  "And how would you explain Star Fall's disappearance?"

  "Not my problem," Sal whispered to him sweetly. "We were busy securing the steel. Have a long enough line of witnesses to it that I'm not scared. I told ya. You should have learned to play politics."

  Chapter 44

  "Captain?" one of the men from Star Fall spoke up, interrupting the arguments of the officers.

  "What!"

  "We got company, sir."

  Sure enough, a group of soldiers was headed their way, riding hard. Through their link, without turning her head, Sal could see that they wore purple. Terrans. The two units had been so intent on each other, they'd stopped right in the line of a patrol. Behind her, Blaec cursed under his breath, realizing how foolish they'd been.

  "What now?" Sal asked Tharp, unwilling to turn her back on the man.

  "If you're really on our side, then we fight," he said, staring into her eyes, daring her to say otherwise.

  "Can the Blades really stop this?" the First Officer asked, pushing his horse closer.

  Sal looked over to him and nodded. "Yeah, we can get the steel." She recognized his voice from the other night. He'd held the rope around her neck.

  "Tharp, call a truce. She's right. They'll lose more than us, and they're better suited for this mission."

  Captain Tharp spat an impressive string of vulgarity before nodding. With a deep sigh, he looked at Blaec. "Ok, Doll. We'll pull these fucks off your tail, but we're gonna catch back up."

  Sal reached across the space between them, and grabbed his shoulder. "Echo Gap, day and a half out, Imperial Paradox, twenty-five strong. We're hitting them on the downhill side, near the boulder pinch."

  "Shit," Tharp breathed. "Got it. Now go. Just don't fuck this up, ok?"

  Sal turned her mare and called over her shoulder, "See you on the back side, when we're playing for the same team."

  With a nod from Blaec, the Blades spun and raced in the opposite direction. Behind them, Tharp began screaming orders and Star Fall pushed toward the oncoming soldiers, the elites pulling ranged weapons.

  They're not on our side, Arctic said to her as they ran. I know you expect the most from everyone, but they are not on our fucking side, Sal.

  They are for now, and the rest of the unit just decided we're team players. Besides, we're changing the plan. We're going to hit them in the middle of the pass and see if those humans can keep up on the top of a mountain. She grinned at Arctic as she leaned over Arden's neck. I'm not that stupid.

  His laughter tickled in the back of her mind.

  They pushed hard across the foothills, heading south. When the Terrans were long out of sight, they turned back east and moved higher into the mountains, letting Razor's sense of direction lead their way.

  The footing was difficult for their mounts as the land grew higher and higher. Sal had never been in real mountains before, but she'd expected a gradual shift in the terrain. Instead, large crops of stone sprang up without warning, as if they were trying to break free of the ground and reach for the moons. Their progress slowed when they moved from grassland to evergreen forest, and again when the trees began to grow thin around them. As the day wore on, the horses gasped for breath in the thin air as the sun stained the land around them with fire.

  "They're done for the day," Zep called ahead to Blaec. "Air's too thin."

  He just nodded, staring intently to his left and right, seeking something. Blaec's own breath made pale clouds before his face. It wasn't long before he pointed.

  Flat spot to the right, he thought to the unit. We're making camp.

  It's gonna get cold tonight, Arctic warned them. Build a fire and we'll sleep around it. Someone put LT's tent f
ar enough away for those two to have privacy?

  Weary and tired, they dismounted and dragged the tack from their horses. Zep and Razor, being the tallest, strung a picket line while Sal and Cyno filled nose bags for each of the mounts. She whispered an apology to them for the lack of hay, but they would manage well enough on what they had grabbed on the way in. Shift and Audgan scoured the area for dead fall, and Geo cleared an area for a massive fire.

  "I think you're a little overzealous," LT said to him, patting the new Blade on the shoulder.

  Geo grinned up at him and shrugged. "I saw a grass fire once, sir. Can't imagine a forest fire. If nothing else, it'll be softer to sleep on, right?"

  "I'm sure the rest will thank you. Hey Risk, give me a hand with this?" he called out, gesturing to his tent.

  By the time it was truly dark, the Black Blades lounged casually around the fire. Razor still insisted that the steel was moving but would not be close until well into the following day. Cyno walked past Sal, reaching out to touch her gently, before moving to sit away from the rest.

  "Where's Star Fall?" Sal asked Razor.

  "Coming this way." He shrugged. "They won't be here until well into the night."

  "What are we doing about them?" Risk wanted to know.

  They all looked at each other for the answer, and Blaec pulled her closer against him. "You willing to forgive them?" he asked her quietly.

  "No," Sal told him. "They tried to kill a Conglomerate soldier. That crosses the line in my book, but I'm willing to use them to our advantage. Why?"

  "Because we're not going to be able to get the horses up there, Sal. It's too steep on this side. We'll be on foot against mounted, and I wouldn't mind a few more to help us."

  She nodded, looking at the faces around her. "Makes sense to me, but I get Cyno at my left."

  "Yeah," he said. "Always, love. I feel safer knowing he's there."

  "What's the plan?" Razor wanted to know.

  "We hope they miss us in the dark?" Blaec laughed, then shook his head. "They'll likely find us in the morning. No one in their right mind would move through this shit at night. We do what Sal suggested earlier and give them the chance to share the 'win' with us, but keep it on our terms."