The Wolf's Bounty

by K. T. Harding

  Chapter 13

  Raleigh mounted the steps toward the dark tunnel leading to the outside world. She got ready to duck into it when a match struck almost under her feet. She whipped around and nearly stepped on Bishop sitting on the tunnel floor. “What are you doing down there?”

  He touched the match to the wick inside the lantern, and the light spread over his face. Cuts and bruises disfigured his features, and his hand shook. Blood and muck marred his immaculate clothes, and he hugged one arm over his ribs.

  He set the lantern aside and fell back against the wall. He let out a heavy sigh and closed his eyes. “I just got here. I got here a few seconds before you. I just sat down here to catch my breath before I went outside.”

  Raleigh rushed to him. She dropped to her knees and laid her hands on his battered body. “Are you hurt? Come on. I’ll get you home.”

  She tried to raise him from the ground, but he batted her hands away. “Will you get off me? I’m fine. I can walk by myself. I don’t need you carrying me everywhere.”

  She drew back in alarm. She opened her mouth to say something, but she closed it again.

  He closed his eyes again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. I’m okay. I can get out of here without help. Thank you, though. Where were you? I thought I’d lost you.”

  She nodded toward the castle. “Those things chased me into the castle. I just got out, but they got caught in the trap.”

  His eyes snapped open. “You shouldn’t have gone in there.”

  “They would have killed me if I hadn’t. As it is, I got away and here I am. What happened to you? Did they beat you up?”

  “They’re called Underlings, by the way, and I got away from them, too. They’re stupid. You just have to think, and you can get away from them.”

  “I found that out. What are they, anyway?”

  He shrugged. “They’re just Soto’s pets. He uses them for odd jobs he wants done.”

  Raleigh stiffened. “Soto?”

  Raleigh nodded. “After I gave them the slip, I went back to his tent to try to find him. That’s where I got into trouble.”

  “Was he there? He didn’t look like he could cause anybody any trouble.”

  “Not him. It was his bodyguard. His bodyguard is a laenteglos.”

  Raleigh’s eyes widened. “Really?”

  Bishop nodded. “He caught me hunting around for Soto. He gave me a thrashing, but he said that was just a warning to keep out of Soto’s business. He let me go, and I came back here.” He sighed again. “You don’t know how happy I am to see you unharmed, Raleigh. I thought you were dead for sure. I don’t think I could live with myself if anything happened to you down here.”

  Raleigh sat back on her heels, but she couldn’t help smiling. “Thank you. I’m really glad to see you, too. I didn’t know if you were dead down there. Now come on. Let’s get out of here.”

  He didn’t argue, and they made their way back to the surface. Raleigh glanced around the forest while Bishop put the lantern and matches back in their place. “No sign of the wolves.”

  Bishop waved his hand. “Night is coming on. They’ll be out hunting. We should be all right until we get to the road.”

  The two strolled side by side through the forest falling into dusk. They jumped up on the bridge and paused. Dax would be long gone. They had a long walk back to town in the dark, but Raleigh didn’t mind. She fell in at Bishop’s side. “So what are you going to do about Soto?”

  “He got away from me this time, but I have other ways of finding him. I’ll find out where he went, and we’ll track him down. Now that he knows we’re hunting for him, he’ll stay close to the twen. When we find him, we’ll find the twen.”

  Raleigh glanced over at him, but he kept his face and eyes turned straight ahead. Did he really mean to say that, or did he make a slip? He said ‘we’. He said, ‘we were hunting him’. Not ‘I’, but ‘we’.

  Raleigh’s heart swelled with pride, but she didn’t say anything. They were hunting Soto and the twen together. She’d won her place as his apprentice.

  The night settled down with bitter cold, but the two walked on without a halt. They walked side by side, shoulder to shoulder. They were in this together.

  Raleigh’s life changed on that long, lonely walk back to civilization. She faced danger and battle all her life, but she always faced it alone. Ever since Ethan disappeared, she fought to save the farm, but she fought alone. She came up with her best ideas alone. She sharpened her blade alone.

  Not even eating her meals around the fire with her father could take the place of a comrade in arms. This was probably the first time in Bishop’s career he ever said, ‘we were hunting him’, and this was definitely the first time in Raleigh’s life she could ever say ‘we were hunting him’. She never hunted anything with another person by her side before.

  The thought filled her up from the soles of her boots to the roots of her hair. It filled her full to bursting. She could hardly contain this feeling. She wasn’t alone. She shared the danger and the triumph and the fear with someone, someone who understood, someone who wore his pistols holstered on his hips, someone who could take care of himself in a fight.

  Raleigh didn’t have to protect him, and he didn’t have to protect her. They were equals. The image of him lunging to stab that Underling in the chest flashed before her eyes. Her heart burst with pride for him. That was her partner, her other half, the man who showed her and guided her. He would teach her and induct her into all the mysteries of his world, and she would fight at his side.

  He couldn’t stop the chill seeping into her bones, though. She clenched her fingers, but they went numb with the cold. Her lips quivered and her teeth rattled by the time they got to Bishop’s house.

  They burst into the kitchen and went straight to the fireplace. They thawed out while Mrs. Mitchell bustled and exclaimed all around them. She tried the same way Raleigh did to doctor Bishop, but he wouldn’t let her come near him. “Just give me something to eat, for God’s sake.”

  She scowled at him and crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s a fine way to talk when you’ve been gone all day and Dax in a dither about your safety. The poor boy thinks you two are dead out there somewhere.”

  Bishop turned away and growled under his breath. “I don’t care if he’s crying in his pillow.”

  Raleigh held out her hand. “You can see we’re all right, Mrs. Mitchell. If you could just tell Dax we’re back, I’m sure everything will be fine.”

  “I can’t tell him. He’s gone home.”

  Raleigh’s head shot up. “Home? Where?”

  “Home to his parents’ house. He waited all day, but when it got dark, he had to leave. He stays there when Mr. Bishop doesn’t need him. He supports his two sisters and his parents and his grandfather on his wages here. He’ll be worried about you all night. You oughtn’t to have done it, Sir.”

  Raleigh’s shoulders slumped. “Well, I guess it can’t be helped now. He’ll find out in the morning when he comes to work.”

  “He won’t come to work in the morning,” Mrs. Mitchell shot back. “He never comes unless Mr. Bishop gives him orders, and he didn’t, so Dax won’t come. He’ll probably never know you’re alive, and the family will starve without his wages.”

  Bishop threw up both hands and spun away with a snarl. “Oh, for God’s sake! Can we please get something to eat instead of hanging around talking about that kid?”

  Mrs. Mitchell fixed him with her most withering glare, but Raleigh intervened. “Isn’t there any way to send him a message that we’re all right and he should come in the morning? I would take it myself if I knew where he lived.”

  “You would never find the place in the dark, Miss,” Mrs. Mitchell replied. “It’s perishable hard to find even in the light of day.”

  Bishop threw up his hands again and turned the other way. “Oh, for heaven’s sake. All right! Fine! I’ll go. I’ve been out all day doing God knows what, and now I’ve
got to go out there and deliver a message to some sniveling baby, just to make him feel better.”

  He stormed out of the room. He burst through the kitchen door into the night, and curses drifted to Raleigh’s ears fading into the distance. She stared into the fire for a while until the sound of Mrs. Mitchell made her turn around. “Come and sit down, Miss, and eat your supper.”

  Mrs. Mitchell set a bowl of steaming soup on the kitchen table and set a wooden spoon next to it. Cold, hunger, and fatigue gnawed at Raleigh’s insides, but she couldn’t bring herself to sit down. “I hope he doesn’t take this out on Dax. I hope he doesn’t lash out because of what we just did.”

  To Raleigh’s surprise, Mrs. Mitchell burst out laughing. Her whole stout frame jiggled all over. “Him? You never have to worry about Mr. Bishop, Miss. He loves Dax to the ends of the Earth. He would never do anything to harm him or make his life more difficult.”

  Raleigh blinked at her. “He does?”

  “Oh, he’s got a fine way of showing it, doesn’t he?” Mrs. Mitchell clucked her tongue. “He says a lot of rude things about Dax, but if you take a close look at his actions, you’ll see Mr. Bishop probably loves Dax more than any other living person on this Earth. He would never retaliate against Dax for anything. He goes out of his way to help Dax and his family. He makes absolutely certain never to put Dax in any danger, even when Dax himself wants it.”

  “That’s true,” Raleigh remarked. “I’ve seen that myself.”

  “Mr. Bishop’s got a heart of gold. He never wants anybody to know it, but it’s true. You watch. He won’t just deliver the message. He’ll make it up to Dax for causing him any worry.”

  “I just don’t want to be the cause of any strife in this household.”

  Mrs. Mitchell chuckled and went back to her work. “You’re worn out, Miss. Sit down and eat your supper. Then you should go to bed. Whatever you two were up to today, I’m sure Mr. Bishop has more in store for you tomorrow.”

  Raleigh nodded. She was quite certain of the same thing, and right now, all she wanted in the world was to crawl into bed with a full stomach and fall asleep. She sank into her chair and drank down the scalding soup Mrs. Mitchell set in front of her.

  Mrs. Mitchell kept her bowl full until Raleigh could drink no more. Then she slunk off to her own room, where she found the fire blazing. She hung her weapons in the corner and dropped into a chair before the blaze. She lacked the strength even to take off her boots.

  Chapter 14

  A thousand memories and conflicting emotions crowded into Raleigh’s mind when she stared into the fire. She never faced a day so packed with threats, triumphs, mysteries, and curiosities. She couldn’t wait to face another day just like it, even as she dreaded the morrow.

  She would have fallen asleep in her chair if the door hadn’t eased open. It creaked, and she glanced around. “Dax! What are you doing here?”

  He grinned at her. “Yes, it’s me. Bishop sent me a message at my house that he needed me here, and I came to tell you he wants to see you in his library, if you’re not too indisposed.”

  “Really? Okay. I better go.” Raleigh heaved to her feet.

  “I just want to say thank you for what you did. It means the world to me.”

  “I didn’t do anything. I just encouraged him to let you know we were all right.”

  He shook his head. “It’s not that, Miss. He told me to move in here. I’m not to go home at night anymore. I’m to live here from now on.”

  Raleigh stared at him. “You are?”

  He nodded. “It’s the best thing that anybody could do for my family. It means I’ll take my meals here instead of at home. I’ll still be able to support the family on my wages, and it’s one less mouth to feed at home. It’s a huge boon to us all, and we have you to thank for it.”

  Raleigh blushed. “It was more Mrs. Mitchell than me. She really knows how to put the strong-arm on Bishop.”

  Dax laughed. “That she does, but she says it was you that did it. She says you offered to go yourself, and that’s what forced him to go instead.”

  “I guess that’s true.”

  “You better go. He’s waiting for you.” Raleigh started toward the door, but he laid his hand on her arm. He lowered his voice to a confidential murmur. “Thank you for showing me what you did this morning—about your blade, I mean. I really appreciate it.”

  “I meant what I said, Dax. You’re good. You just need practice and you could be as good as me. You’re wasted driving his carriage around and fetching and carrying.”

  He shook his head again, but he couldn’t stop smiling. “He would never allow it.”

  “That’s because he cares about you so much. Every time he yells at you or says something nasty about you, just remember he’s trying to protect you. He’s trying to spare you from what happened to his other apprentices. I can understand why he does it, too, after what I saw today.”

  He stared at her with eyes as big as saucers. “What did you see, Miss? Please tell me. I’m dying to know anything about his world.”

  She turned away. “I can’t tell you for exactly the same reason he won’t let you become his apprentice. We both want you to be safe and happy in this world. It’s a boring world, but it’s so beautiful and loving and kind compared to that other place. We both want someone to live and grow and thrive here instead of getting sucked into a world of corruption and danger.”

  He looked into the fire and sighed. “I suppose I have to live with that.”

  Raleigh clapped him on the shoulder. “I’m not finished training you, though. I’ll keep teaching you how to handle weapons no matter what he says. Now stop moping and show me where this library is, because I don’t know.”

  He broke out of his depression to lead her down the hall. He took her into a part of the house she’d never seen and left her at the door. She found Bishop sitting in a chair before a fireplace in a library lined with books. He flipped the pages of the little notebook she’s seen that morning.

  She hesitated on the threshold, but he set the book in his lap and looked up. “Come in and sit down.”

  She took a chair opposite him, but he didn’t speak right away. He studied his book with his forehead knit into furrows.

  She observed him from across the fire. He really was a handsome man when she looked at him. His angular features and high cheekbones set off his flashing eyes. He crossed his long legs at the knee, and his powerful shoulders seethed under his coat when he breathed. His whole being radiated power and command and expertise. No wonder everybody stepped aside for him in Hinterland.

  No wonder those men made such a fuss about her coming to apprentice to him. He existed in a world so far removed from their reality they couldn’t understand him. No human on the planet could understand him who hadn’t seen Hinterland firsthand.

  How many people could that be? She might be the only one. She might be the only person in whom Bishop could confide. She studied him with new eyes. What a lonely, desolate life he must lead, forever protecting a world full of people like Dax, and them never realizing what it cost him to do it.

  He came home battered and wounded every day, and they never knew. They didn’t know the pain and hardship he faced for their sake. He could never live a normal life. He sacrificed everything to do this job, and not even those closest to him knew the half of it.

  She was too tired to sit here in silence any longer. He wanted her to come here. If he didn’t talk, she had a bed waiting for her. “What are you reading?”

  He waved the little black book toward the fire. “I was hoping my father’s notes might give me a clue where to find the twen.”

  “And do they?”

  He shook his head. “Unfortunately, no.”

  “Maybe you could ask your father.”

  Bishop’s eyes shot to her face. “I can’t ask him anything. He’s dead. He died in the line of duty.”

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s just that you men
tioned that conversation you had with him where he tried to dissuade you from following him into this profession. I assumed he was still alive.”

  Bishop let out a heavy sigh and glared into the fire. “He took me as his apprentice, and he died two years later. He got me started, but I didn’t learn half as much from him as I could have if he had lived.”

  “You say he died in the line of duty. What happened to him?”

  Bishop clenched and unclenched his jaw. “No one really knows. Some people say it was an accident. Some people say he was murdered.”

  This line of discussion peaked Raleigh’s interest. “What people are we talking about?”

  His head snapped around, and he fixed his gleaming eyes on her face. “If you’re asking that question, you’re halfway to becoming a slayer in your own right.”

  She fidgeted in her seat. “Did I say something to offend you?”

  He went back to gazing into the flames. “Of course not. What you just said sums up the greatest mystery of my life. I can’t figure out what happened to my father, or who is lying about what happened and who is simply stating the facts. I’ll probably never really know what happened.”

  “Why don’t you tell me the facts as you know them?” she asked. “I might—I mean, I’d like to—try to understand it, too.”

  He shook his head. “My father was trampled in the street by three runaway cabs. They came stampeding around the corner at full speed, and he just so happened to be standing in the middle of the street at the time. That’s all the facts there are.”

  Raleigh frowned. “Three runaway cabs, all at the same time? Seems a little out of the ordinary, doesn’t it?”