“Which building is the library?”
Talon laughed at her enthusiasm. She was practically bouncing in her seat. “If it survived it’s on the street behind this one, on the opposite corner from where we are. Most of the families had their own private editions so you may find more as you scavenge the village.”
“You make it sound like I’m stealing.”
“Not at all.” He rushed to reassure her and wipe the dejected frown from her face. “Draagon took anything of value when he destroyed the village. Whatever you find is yours to keep, just be careful where you step. Some of these houses are held together with nothing more than the vines climbing unchecked up their walls.”
“That reminds me…the house next door has a strange door upstairs. It won’t open but there’s no lock and it’s not made of wood like the other doors. Any idea what it’s made of or what might be inside?”
Talon pushed his empty plate away as a cold, hard knot of fear settled in his gut. By all the gods, he didn’t want to think about that house or the room; but she deserved the truth—at least, as much of the truth as he was willing to share.
“It’s the burial vault for the village.” Please don’t ask more questions, Shadow.
“In someone’s house? Why not a separate building?”
Sipping his rapidly cooling tea, he forced the words past his clenched jaw. “The original crypt was destroyed and the ashes of hundreds of thousands of the departed were scattered to the winds and stomped on by the Phantom Riders. The funeral urns were more valuable to the Riders than what they contained.
“The room next door was the only secure room after they left. The remains in there are those who died during that week or were taken from here by force. If you need to go in, the sonic key is buried in a tin box beneath the bottom step. If you will excuse me, I’m going to stretch and get ready for what you have planned for us.”
Shadow ached for the pain and sadness he couldn’t hide. Suddenly, it all made sense. The house next door was his. How was he the only survivor of that long-ago slaughter? He couldn’t have been more than ten or twelve years old; yet, he prepared the dead, cremated them, and placed their ashes in a safe place. No wonder he’s had only one driving force—destroy the malevolent man who destroyed everything in his world—everything that was him. Wiping the tears from her face, she headed out to join Talon. She would do everything in her power to give him what he needed to succeed.
* * * *
“Stance and balance. The two most important tools in hand-to-hand combat. If you lose your balance your enemy wins.” She stood beside him to illustrate the correct form.
“I know how to fight, Shadow. Former bounty hunter, remember?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You and the threat of a couple of laser guns that didn’t require much in the way of aiming—just spray the general area and everybody dies. Is that how you want to take down Draagon? If so, this whole training program is a waste of time for both of us.” She used the tail of her shirt to wipe the sweat from her face, waiting for Talon’s answer.
“No,” he finally muttered. “I want to feel that bastard’s blood run through my fingers.”
“You just earned yourself another fifty push-ups for cussin’. Drop and count ‘em out.” So far this morning Talon’s mouth had earned him a total of one hundred and fifty push-ups—and he says I have a potty mouth! At the rate he was going, he would be able to bench-press a tree by the end of the week. When he finished his punishment, she tossed him the water skin.
“When you catch your breath, we’ll see if you can put me on the ground.” She glanced at the sun just peeking above the treetops. “Looks like we have an hour—maybe a little more before midday. Why don’t we make this interesting by setting up a small wager?” She grinned at him when he sealed the skin and flopped back onto the grass. His stamina surprised her, but in a good way.
“What did you have in mind? I, obviously, have no coins.”
“IF—and I have serious doubts that you still have any fighting skills left—but if you manage to take me down more times than I take you down, you get the afternoon off. But if you can’t….”
Talon didn’t acknowledge her semi-threat. He waited until she looked back up at the sky; hooked his foot behind her knee, and jerked. She went down hard beside him.
“Oooooh, you are one sneaky bas—ket. That’s how you want to do this? Blitz attack?”
“I’m sorry, Shadow.” Talon tried hard to maintain his frown at her annoyance. “Are there rules you haven’t given to me?” The grin he couldn’t hide spread across his face. “I must say, as an instructor you aren’t very…articulate in explaining your lesson plans.”
The arrogant ass! So he wants to play games. Fine. I’ll give him what he wants. Exactly what he wants.
Shadow drew in a deep, calming breath before pushing to her feet. “You know, one of my trainers used to tell us to be careful what you prayed for because you just might get it. I’ll try to articulate slowly. I wouldn’t want you to miss anything important.”
With feet spread shoulder-wide; her hands fisted on her hips; the faint blue aura firmly in place, she was magnificent! He was going to love whatever she threw at him. He was also pretty certain she was going to kick his butt.
“There’s only one rule, Talon.” She held up one finger. “Stand up.”
Talon grinned, and followed her order. “I don’t think you’re supposed to point with your middle finger.”
“This special gesture is all for you.” She replied in a sickly sweet voice.
When she stepped close enough for her breasts to touch his chest, Talon held his breath. He struggled to focus on her mouth instead of her chest but looking at her mouth came with its own set of problems. One in particular he would have trouble hiding. If he missed what she was saying because she suddenly morphed from a jailer/trainer to a sexy woman…? Yep. I am in serious trouble.
“There are no rules.”
No sooner was the last word out of her mouth before she jabbed him just above his pubic bone. He doubled over in a natural reflex used by men throughout time to protect their jewels. Unfortunately, it left the back of his neck open to the rapid slash of her hand. He hit the ground…hard.
“That’s one for you and one for me. Now let’s get down to business.”
For the next hour they punched, flipped, wrestled, and kicked. Shadow was well trained in multiple fighting disciplines but Talon was a down-and-dirty street fighter. The scores rocked back and forth and blood dripped from busted lips and noses. By tomorrow both of them would be covered in some interesting bruises.
Talon was currently flat on his back on the ground with Shadow standing over him. He couldn’t move because she held his brutally twisted wrist in one hand while the other pulled his index finger back in an unnatural position guaranteed to keep him from moving. Any movement of any part of his body pulled against his hand and arm. On the off chance that he would try to retaliate, her right foot rested on the back of his elbow. In a real fight, she would have already broken his finger and wrist and crushed his elbow. He was done. She tied the score with a move he couldn’t counter. There was no way to escape and score another point.
“Looks like we end in a tie, Blue.” His lungs burned from the strenuous workout. “I can’t get free on my own. Don’t suppose you’re willing to release me for another round.”
Before she could answer a bolt of lightning struck a tree across the park from where they practiced. Almost instantly, thunder rumbled overhead. They were both so focused on winning the wager they failed to notice the building storm.
Shadow released him instantly, offering her hand to help him stand. “Today may end in a tie, bounty hunter, but don’t expect to be saved by the weather next time.”
Another crack of blinding light sent them running for shelter.
Chapter Thirteen
“Do you know how to use a bow?” Shadow asked after they finished their warm-up. He no longer suffered the stif
fness of neglected muscles so his stretching was much smoother than when they started.
“Used to find a crossbow useful. It’s been a few years, but yeah, I know to put the pointy end to the front and the feathers to the back.”
She just shook her head at his answer—and the grin that came with it. This new Talon was hard to resist. His sense of humor would pop out when she least expected it and totally disrupt her concentration. Could he still see her aura? Did he notice how often her control slipped? She refused to think about why she was losing that control.
He no longer bothered with a shirt and his body already showed the effects of his training. Before, he had the lean build of a runner. This week he’d gone from ‘four-pack’ abs to a full ‘six-pack’ and she struggled with her growing fascination with his anatomy. That damned treasure trail is keeping me awake at night. I’ve known several men who shaved their chests. Why can’t he?
“Something wrong, Blue?”
“What? No! Why would you think that?” She could feel the heat rush to her face. She knew what he was talking about. He caught her gawking…again.
“I was obviously mistaken.”
She wanted to slap the smirk from his face. “I was mentally revising your training schedule. With your improved vision, the strengthening phase has progressed faster than I expected. Wait here.”
Shadow raced back to her room, taking time to splash cool water on her heated face. Grabbing her quiver and bow, she headed back to Talon at a more sedate pace to give herself a few extra minutes to gather her shattered self-control.
He was just where he was when she left except he now wore his shirt. If she wanted him dressed why was she so pissed off that he was now fully covered?
Because I’m losing my freakin’ mind!
“Do you remember where the game trails were when you lived here?” She asked, handing him the weapon.
“Maybe. I was only twelve when I left. My father was a scholar so he never took me hunting. I remember some of the older boys talking about where they went up into the foothills. I’ve hunted for survival but I still don’t see how man can call it a sport.”
“Do the best you can. There are fifteen arrows in the quiver. I expect there to be the same number when you get back and….”
“I know—don’t talk to strangers and be back before dark.”
“I was going to say be careful. You kill it. I’ll cook it. Now, go.”
“Bossy and beautiful,” he muttered just loud enough for her to hear.
He thinks I’m beautiful? Oh, hell no! Damn it! I will not fall for that…that…man!
Pushing all thoughts of Talon and his pecs and abs and treasure trail to the place in her head reserved for anything she needed to examine ‘later’, she headed for the library. Talon was right about one thing. There were thousands and thousands of books there but with a major portion of the roof gone, most were too damaged by the elements and local wildlife to be salvaged. Her heart squeezed at the loss of so much knowledge.
Yesterday, just before it got too dark to see without a lantern, she spotted a small door beneath the skeletal remains of a spiral staircase. That was her goal for today. Talon would be gone for hours and she wanted to see what was in that room.
* * * *
It felt good—better than good—to have a weapon in his hand again. He never thought it would happen. Kierin’s little bits of rock changed his life. Again. Man’s most basic instincts came from the need to provide food and shelter. The limits of the original crystal implants allowed him to function—barely. Now…now, he could see where he was walking without constantly touching a wall. It took months before he learned which buildings kept chairs or benches or merchandise stacked next to their walls. The laughter of countless witnesses to his clumsiness ate at his sense of self-worth like acid. He suffered myriad bruises and busted lips; broke his nose four times; dislocated every finger on both hands attempting to break his fall; even broke a couple of ribs when he landed on the edge of an open keg. Not a single, living soul asked if he was hurt or if he needed a medic.
Shaking the memories away, Talon focused on his assignment. The game trails would be difficult to locate after twenty years. Even more so for him because he wasn’t sure where they were to begin with. He must have explored some of them while growing up but never with the idea of killing anything.
Talon watched the changing shades of trees and underbrush. He remembered asking his mother why she only painted near the ocean. She said nothing away from the water inspired her art. He shut down those memories before they could morph into the nightmare of the last hours of her life.
It was more of a struggle than he imagined to navigate his way through the heavily overgrown brush. Thorny vines clung to the shoulder-high vegetation and threatened to rip the hide from his bones.
“I need to find a jungle knife for next time.” He mumbled, wishing he had one of the two-foot long blades.
It took more than an hour to reach the first of six plateaus that made up this side of the mountain. It wasn’t really tall enough to be considered a mountain but it was definitely more than a foothill. He remembered a couple of boys talking about their first hunting trip to the ‘lower steppe’. His understanding of the term steppe was a flat grassland. This was certainly flat but the grassland the boys talked about was long since thickly covered with brush for as far as he could see.
Sitting on a fallen log, Talon reached for the water skin. Before he could quench his thirst, he realized the birds and insects were suddenly silent. It could be nothing more than his presence but that itchy feeling on the back of his neck told him he was being watched. Funny how you take the tweets and chirps and buzzing for granted until they’re gone.
Slowly and carefully, he replaced the skin and pulled the string taut on the bow. With an arrow notched just in case, he stood and listened for any sound. He and Shadow should be the only two people on the island. It was possible that someone was here, but they had found no evidence of recent human habitation. To his right he caught the rustle of something moving through the brush. Scarcely daring to breathe, Talon raised the arrow a little higher…waiting…watching.
The sight of an eldorak picking his way through the undergrowth made him smile. Sorry, fella, but your magnificence isn’t enough to keep you off my dinner table. He took aim and let the arrow fly. He must have made some small sound just before releasing the arrow because the eldorak looked in his direction then took off through the trees. The arrow hit him in his rear haunch. It would slow him down but it wasn’t a kill shot.
“Dammit!” He yelled, grabbing his gear and jogging after the animal. He couldn’t leave a wounded animal for other predators. At lease the blood trail would be easy to follow. With his new vision the blood glowed a pale green. Since the big male was heading away from the village, it was going to be a long, slow process to get the meat down to Shadow. That thing would still weigh over a hundred pounds after it was gutted.
“Next time I’ll shoot a small doe instead of a buck.” He grumbled as he fought the tangled vines wrapping themselves around his arms.
* * * *
Shadow picked her way carefully around the mounds of molding books. Just yesterday she knocked over a small pile and disturbed a nest of rodents. Not all of the residents were as harmless as the family of field mice. The deadlier critters usually warned the unwary with a strong odor or noise. The last thing she wanted to disturb was something with fangs, teeth, or stingers.
She breathed a sigh of relief when she reached the small door. This would be her final excursion into the old library. The damage to the vast knowledge that once filled the building was too massive. She hadn’t found a single salvageable book. The small door, less than half the height of a regular door, was her last hope.
The years of rain and cold caused the wood to swell. It took some serious pulling before she managed to open the door enough for her to enter. She pulled the small lantern from her pack, grateful for the powerful beam. Th
e space was maybe eight feet square and half that tall. Crawling to the center of the room, Shadow trailed the light over the walls. It looked like a storage room. The wall to her right had three narrow shelves with what looked like holo-disks like commercial spacecraft used to entertain the passengers on long flights. She picked a couple of the disks at random and slipped them into her pocket in case she located a player. The opposite wall was a mystery. A quick examination of several of the large books on the two shelves showed numbers in several columns. She couldn’t translate the words but they appeared to be ledgers, possibly the library’s financial documents. Again she slipped one into her pack to show Talon.
The back wall was a cabinet with double doors and ornate, gilded handles. When she reached for the handle, that tingling, static electricity feeling you get when your instincts are screaming at you that something momentous is about to happen washed over her. “Shit.” She whispered, wiping her hands against her pant legs. “What the hell is that about?”
With a deep breath, she grabbed the handle with one hand and aimed the lantern with the other. The reality was kind of anti-climactic. The only item in the roomy cabinet was a large book. It was easily three feet tall, two feet wide, and a good eight inches thick. The spine and corners of both covers were gold. Two substantial clasps, also gold, held the book closed. Whatever this book contained, it was valuable. How did Draagon and his goons miss something like this? It was almost too heavy to pick up. No way could she carry this back to her room.
“Think, woman! You need a wagon or freight trolley but you haven’t found one of those.” She suddenly remembered finding a large piece of canvas in one of the houses, but which one? Talon said it was probably a sail.
“Sail. Sail. Sail.” She whispered over and over, trying to trigger the memory. “The grey house!” It was the color of the sea during a storm. “And it’s just across the road.”
The Men of Anderas III: Talon, the Assassin Page 7
