“We need the lay of the land,” Kard repeated. He looked up at the setting sun. “We only get one moon tonight; that’s not enough light for a good survey. We need a look now.”
“If Doka take watchman, he missed fore dawn,” Doka warned.
“I know,” Kard said sharply. “If we move now, we move now.”
Teer glanced up at the sun himself. Maybe a quarter-candlemark until dusk, a candlemark until full dark. He could see reasonably well in the dark, given a few moments to adjust. Was that as unusual as his hearing? He had no idea anymore.
If everyone could see as well as him, the single moon should be enough, though…so he was probably unusual. Again.
Though that meant that Doka and Kard could also see better than the brigands in the valley. Moving in at night was to their advantage—assuming Kard was willing to let Doka realize that.
“I can see clearly in dusk,” he finally told them. “That should help, shouldn’t it?”
Kard chuckled softly.
“You too, huh?” he asked. “Doka?”
“One moon enough for Doka,” she confirmed.
“All right. Then we move up,” Kard ordered. “We might get lucky.” He eyed Teer. “You hang back, Teer,” he continued. “You’re not nearly as stealthy as any of us would like yet.”
“He bull bad ways well as good,” Doka agreed with a long-suffering sigh.
Teer’s ears were burning most of the way up the hill.
The three hills that surrounded the hollow Boulder’s men were camping in were emptier than most of the terrain they’d been traveling through that tenday. They were craggy, windswept rocks, forming a rough sheltered horseshoe around the small valley.
The south hill was, as Doka had warned, the tallest. A collection of rocks on top formed a natural raised fort. As Teer and his companions approached, they could see that they were not lucky.
“Watch on rocks,” Doka warned. “One man with hunter, probably pairglass, too.” There was a long pause, then she continued in a disgusted tone. “He drinking.”
“I didn’t expect discipline from a bandit gang,” Kard murmured back. “I expected them to post a watch. I half-figured he’d be drunk.”
The bounty hunter hesitated.
“Those rocks are the best place to get a look at all of this,” he admitted. “We can wait until morning or move now.”
“He drunk. Doka take him live, easy,” the guide replied. “One less.”
“Do it,” Kard ordered suddenly, his mind clearly made up. “Teer, wait with me.”
Doka pulled a length of rope from Grump’s saddle and then hit the ground again, worming her way up the hill on her belly. Teer watched her go.
“Can you do anything to help?” he murmured to Kard. “I know you don’t want her to know what you are, but you spooked that wolfen without her catching on. Can you distract him?”
“He might be drunk enough it won’t matter,” the El-Spehari muttered back. “But…I think I can make him act drunker.”
Motes of purple light flashed past Teer into the long shadows of near dusk. Unlike a real light, they didn’t cast shadows of their own as they crossed the distance to the watching brigand.
There was no immediate effect that Teer saw, though the man took another long drink from the metal flask he was holding.
For several minutes, the tableau held. Teer and Kard waited on the edge of the trees. The guard lazily surveyed the area around him, failing to see them concealed in the trees, and continued to drink.
Then Doka appeared from behind the rocks the brigand was using as his watchtower. A length of rope wrapped around the brigand’s throat, hammering him to the ground with enough force that Teer winced and touched his own neck in sympathy.
Several seconds passed, then Doka popped back up above the rocks and waved for them to join her. They crossed the bare hill carefully on foot, leaving the horses behind, and stepped into the natural fort.
The brigand was unconscious, the rope moved from his neck to his hands and feet while they’d approached and a gag torn from his own shirt tied into his mouth. Kard stepped over to check the man’s breath and pulse, and grinned evilly as the man’s eyes flickered open.
“Not even out long enough to damage him,” he noted. “Well done.”
“Practice,” Doka said with a shrug. The brigand was looking at them in stunned surprise, not even trying to speak past the gag after the first few seconds.
The guide gestured to the rocks.
“Lay of land, Kard,” she continued. “All around you.”
The El-Spehari grunted and clambered up onto one of the rocks, removing a pairglass from inside his duster so he could survey the hollow. A moment later, he grunted angrily.
“They took prisoners,” he said grimly. “I see three tied to a tree. I’m going to guess all women, and I don’t want to guess what Boulder’s people have done to them.”
Neither did Teer. Enough had been said about what type of person Boulder was to give him a solid idea.
“We’re not leaving them in his hands for another night,” Kard continued. He shimmied back down the rock and tucked the pairglass back into his duster. “Writ said six to eight brigands with Boulder. I saw Boulder down there, plus six guns. Add this one and it fits.”
“Worth questioning him?” Teer asked, gesturing at the man Kard had just indicated.
Kard loomed over the prisoner.
“Is that Boulder down there?” he asked coldly.
The brigand nodded as quickly as he could.
“Did I miss anyone in my count?” he demanded.
The prisoner shook his head.
“Do you want to live through this?” Kard concluded.
The bound man rapidly nodded.
“All right. Doka, take him and tie him to a tree next to the horses,” Kard ordered. “We’ll collect him when this is all done. I’ll meet you at the trees. Teer, that hunter of yours has a scope. Get up on the rock and tell me if you’ve got enough feel for the range to cover the hollow.”
Doka picked up their captive and started down the hill, half-dragging and half-carrying the man.
Teer shimmied up onto the rock as Kard had done earlier, bringing the hunter up with him carefully. He took a moment to check the alignment of the scope and the setting on the sights, then exhaled and lifted the gun to his shoulder.
The camp was about halfway up the hollow from him, maybe four hundred yards away. A tap on the sights set them for the drop, and he rested them on an immense Merik by the fire with a massive beard.
From the image on the writ, the black man in his sights was Boulder.
“I’ve got the shot,” he confirmed to Kard without moving. “What’s the plan?”
“I’m going to take Clack around the front and come in from where they’re expecting,” the bounty hunter told him. “I come out of the night into their fire all intimidating-like, challenge them and demand their surrender.
“Doka is in hiding behind me and you cover me. Shoot the first one to go for a gun and we see what happens.” Kard shrugged. “Worst, we end up shooting most of them before they lay down guns. Best, we don’t shoot anyone.”
“I’ve never shot anyone before,” Teer admitted.
“Then shoot Boulder,” Kard ordered. “I don’t think either of us thinks that monster is actually a person after all he’s done. Just remember that we need his face intact to collect.”
Teer was surprised to find that he agreed with the bounty hunter. He understood that the role he’d taken on when he’d sworn to Kard was going to involve violence, but it was still new and harsh to him.
But while he wasn’t sure he could shoot anyone in most circumstances, Kard was right. Teer was pretty cursed sure he could shoot Boulder if he needed to.
“I’ve got you covered, boss,” Teer told Kard. “I promise.”
“Then you’ll see me on the main path in a quarter-candlemark,” his master replied. “You might even be able to hear us.” K
ard snorted. “Winter knows you hear well enough.”
16
Teer waited as patiently as he could for his companions to get into position. His oversight position gave him a disturbingly good look at the three women tied to the tree in the middle of the camp. They still seemed to have their clothes, but all of them looked injured.
Swallowing his anger for a few more minutes, Teer slowly unhooked the bandolier from his hunter. Spreading the leather strap out on the rock next to him put the rounds in easy reach. He had ten bullets to hand, with another forty in the pouch he made sure was in reach on the other side of the bandolier. If he somehow managed to fire fifty bullets tonight, they were in far more trouble than Teer could even guess.
He breathed out, calming his nerves as he aimed the gun into the valley. One round in the chamber. A few seconds to reload—he knew he could do it faster, but he’d never trained for rapid loading of the rifle.
There were seven men in the valley. All of them were gathered around the fire, drinking and singing a filthy song Teer didn’t recognize. He knew which one was Boulder, and he kept the scope focused on the big Merik as he studied the overall camp.
Fifteen horses were tied to the trees at the back of the hollow, near Teer. An intact stagecoach and a partly torn-up wagon sat next to the horse. Teer figured the wagon was from the homesteaders the brigands had attacked on the road, torn apart for firewood now since the brigands weren’t keeping anything from their loot.
He scanned the bushes around the camp, looking for Doka. He didn’t know what her role in this was going to be, but he figured Kard had a plan for the blue guide that wasn’t watching their prisoner. He couldn’t cover his companions without knowing where they were—but it was Kard who was going to make himself visible.
And there the bounty hunter was. There was an ominous lack of subtlety to Kard’s approach as he walked up out of the night with a quickshooter in each hand. Clack was presumably left somewhere behind him, the gelding trained to stay or come on command.
It took the bandits longer to respond to Kard’s approach than Teer would have expected. The El-Spehari was almost into their camp before anyone spotted him, the first brigand to do so falling back away from the fire with a startled shout.
“Boulder, I have a writ for your death or capture,” Kard proclaimed loudly, his voice carrying clearly to Teer’s ears from across the hollow. “No, don’t go for your gun.”
One of Kard’s guns was leveled on Boulder. The other now pointed at one of the other bandits—Teer figured the one who’d been going for his gun.
“You are a brave one, aren’t you?” Boulder asked, the big Merik rising from the fire with his hands spread clear. “Seven men on one and you just walk up.”
“You assume I’m alone,” Kard replied.
“You assume you can see all my men,” the brigand replied. “You’re already dead, bounty hunter. Brave but stupid.”
“And how many of you die before one of you succeeds in shooting me?” Kard asked levelly. “You first, Boulder.”
“I think not,” Boulder said calmly. “The sheer size of your balls amuses me, hunter, so I’ll make this offer once: walk away. You’re not as in control as you think you are.”
Teer realized Boulder was shouting, pitching his voice to carry up to the fort he was sitting in. Their quarry didn’t realize that his sniper had been neutralized. Exhaling, he focused through the scope, dropping the sights onto the bandit.
“Or are you the one who is no longer in control?” Kard asked. The second gun swapped to another bandit. “Do you want to be the first to die, son?”
The brigand raised his hands away from his pistol.
Boulder laughed.
“That’s not taking my offer. Cardan!” He bellowed.
Teer figured Cardan was the man who was supposed to be in the natural fort on top of the hill. Certainly, no one replied from the hills, and Boulder looked taken aback for several moments.
“Take him!”
Boulder was moving as he barked the order, his hands and feet a blur even to Teer as he sidestepped Kard’s aim and drew his own gun in the blink of an eye. He was faster than anyone Teer had ever seen, his gun drawn and rising before Kard even pulled the trigger.
He wasn’t faster than Teer’s trigger finger. The shot rang out unconsciously, Teer barely registering making the decision to shoot. Even with Boulder’s sideways dodge, Teer’s shot was perfect.
The bandit’s quickshooter fell from suddenly nerveless fingers as he collapsed to his knees, staring blankly forward at Kard.
Teer reloaded unconsciously, yanking the bolt back and grabbing a round from the bandolier as he watched the situation on the ground unfold. The bandits had started moving on Boulder’s order, but the bandit chief had hit the ground before most of them had finished drawing.
One had his gun out and just froze, staring at his boss for a long second—and then Kard shot the gun from his hand.
“Fuck!”
The bandit had his hands in the air a second later, the scene frozen. No one moved for a second. One bandit seemed to consider going for his gun again—and Doka seemed to materialize out of the darkness, her thunderbuss pressed against his back.
Teer couldn’t hear what she said to the bandit, but he slowly drew his gun with two fingers and tossed it on the ground in front of him.
“Guns on the ground,” Kard ordered. “It’s the end of the line for you all. You’re riding back to Carlon with me. The only question is if you’re riding on those horses back there or being carried in a sack.”
Another gun hit the ground. Then another. One by one, Boulder’s men tossed their weapons on the ground and raised their hands.
“Doka, tie them,” the bounty hunter ordered. He waved up to Teer. He didn’t shout anything, but his message was clear.
The youth reattached the bandolier to the Hunter and reslung the weapon. Time to go deal with their living bounties—and try not to think too hard about the man he’d just killed.
The seven bandits were lined up next to the fire by the time Teer made it down into the hollow, each of them seated cross-legged with both their hands and feet tied together. The position Doka had tied them into didn’t look comfortable, but Teer only had to look at the three women Kard was cutting free from the tree to purge any sympathy.
“You’re safe now, miss,” he heard Kard murmur to the eldest of the three women. “Who are you?”
“I’m…Kova; this is my sister Pote and my daughter Rala,” the woman managed to squeak out. “My…my husband was with the wagon. I didn’t see…”
“We were heading east to a homestead our husbands had saved up to buy,” Pote told Kard. “Our men. They’re dead, aren’t they?”
“There was one wagon left on the road,” Kard said. “Boulder’s men had stacked bodies in it and burned them. They…they wouldn’t be identifiable even if I took you back.”
The three women collapsed against each other.
“Some of these horses are yours?” the bounty hunter asked.
“Just two, I think,” Rala confirmed, holding her mother and aunt tight. “What happens to us now?”
“It’s your choice,” Kard told them. “But we’re heading to Carlon with these scum. If you ride with us, we’ll keep you safe the whole way.”
“What about coach?” Doka suggested. “They might not…be able to sit on horse.”
It took Teer more than a few seconds to grasp Doka’s meaning. The baleful glare he turned on the bound brigands when he did silenced the last muttering against the gags.
“We need to return the stagecoach to Iko,” Kard noted. “I’m sure they’ve got partners in Carlon, though. They won’t begrudge us using it, not so long as we return the cargo. Teer, check the cargo in the coach.”
Teer nodded and left his companions with the freed prisoners. He wasn’t overly familiar with the style of wagon, but it wasn’t exactly hard to find the cargo compartment. It was at the back of the coach, a s
eparate box from the passenger compartment, and it was visibly damaged. Boulder or one of his men had taken an axe to the box and split it open.
The wrecked compartment was empty.
“They moved the contents,” Teer shouted back to Kard. “Coach is intact, but the cargo box is wrecked.”
“Well, it will work to carry the women,” Kard replied. “Are you okay to spend the night here?”
“I’m… No,” Rala admitted. “No, I don’t think we are.”
“Of course,” Kard told her. He glanced around the camp and met Teer’s gaze grimly. The bounty hunter gestured for him to hook some of the horses up to the coach.
“Doka will move you tonight in the coach,” Kard promised, waving for the guide to join Teer. “We’ll load some supplies in and we’ll meet on the road tomorrow. If you wish to travel with us to Carlon, that is?”
“That seems best,” Rala replied. The older women had spoken first, but the power of speech seemed to have fled them now as they clung to the young woman. Rala had the same nineteen turnings as Teer, at most.
Teer and Doka were already picking the best-looking horses from the small herd and getting them into the harnesses. The coach might be strange to Teer, but the harness was at least much what he expected. It was the work of a few minutes to get the horses hooked up and get some of the brigands’ supplies loaded in.
“Meet you on north road, one candlemark after dawn,” Doka told the two men as she carefully helped the women into the coach.
Neither of the men was touching the liberated prisoners. Teer was pretty sure he’d have figured that part out on his own even if he hadn’t been following Kard’s lead.
“Wait for us if you can,” Kard said. “I don’t trust this lot to be cooperative.”
“Shoot one. Rest will follow. Worked once, yes?”
Teer glanced over at the still form by the fire and shivered.
“We get paid better if we bring them in alive,” he pointed out.
“Get going, Doka,” Kard told the woman. “We’ll meet you tomorrow. Keep them safe. The world’s been cruel enough to these ladies.”
Wardtown (Teer & Kard Book 1) Page 9
