She quieted and fell into step behind him. She found herself moving at a near jog in order to keep up with his much longer paces, but she discovered she didn’t mind. The faster she moved, the more ground she could cover, and that meant she drew further and further away from her old life in the prince’s harem. She would have decorated herself with feathers and flapped her arms if she thought she could escape faster through flight.
The sun broke over the treetops at about the same time that they drew abreast of the outpost tower. Looking up, Kili could see the figures of two guards standing along the ramparts with their eyes on the terrain below. She instinctively shrank back against a tree trunk. Deacon halted just ahead of her and scanned their surroundings, including the outpost and its guards.
She kept her voice barely above a whisper. “What do we do now?”
Deacon eyed the guards, gave a last glance around them at the meeting of forest and plain, and shrugged. “Be very, very quiet.”
Chapter Thirteen
Deacon’s casual answer belied the hair standing up on the back of his neck. Or rather, the hair that would have stood up, if it existed. His instincts and his training all told him to expect pursuit, so that wasn’t causing his unease. The problem had more to do with his gut telling him the pursuit had already started and he just hadn’t spotted it yet. That was pissing him off.
He had to give his companion credit, though. She had kept her cool during their botched escape plan, and she’d been keeping up with him since. She had determination going for her, that was for sure. Deacon had led trained mercs in the past without as much gumption as this runaway slave. How sad was that?
Glancing back over his shoulder, he saw her carefully picking her way along the path behind him. He wished he had something for her to put on, and not only because the bouncing of her breasts as she walked could distract a stone monument from standing. Her pale golden skin was too visible even in the shadow of the trees. If the guards had left him his shirt, he’d have given her that. His much darker skin wouldn’t call so much attention.
Kili noticed him watching her and offered a tentative smile even as she quickened her pace. He didn’t have to say a word to her, didn’t have to keep reminding her of the urgency of their predicament. She seemed fully aware of what was at stake. Hell, she had to be -- she had a lot more to lose than he did. All Deacon risked with a failed escape was maybe a beating and a quicker execution. Kili risked an entire lifetime of retribution and abuse from the hands of her captors. He wouldn’t have traded places with her on a dare.
Just thinking about her life on this shithole planet made his blood simmer. He turned his back on her again, partly to refocus on their path, but mostly so she wouldn’t see the spark of rage in his expression. He didn’t want her to mistake his anger and think it was directed at her, especially if he looked half as homicidal as he felt. The idea of any man enslaving women and forcing them into sex as their only method of survival made his stomach churn, and the idea of a whole race of them made him wish he’d taken up a career in demolitions instead of navigation. Powers, what he wouldn’t give to be able to blow each and every one of these foul, thrice-cursed pieces of rat dung to hell and gone. Now that was a thought that could give him a happy.
He felt the tingling in the back of his neck intensify and he stopped abruptly. A soft current of air caught him when Kili froze just behind him. He held his hand up to his mouth to signal for quiet and scanned the area around them. The guards stood in the same places atop the outpost tower, so that didn’t account for his sudden unease. In fact, nothing he could see did account for it. So what was going on?
She placed a hand on his shoulder, feather-light and tentative. He could feel it tremble. A quick glance over his shoulder showed him the question in her eyes, but he shook his head. Not only was silence imperative, but he had nothing to tell her. He had no evidence to support his gut feeling of something wrong, only half a lifetime doing the sorts of jobs where instinct became a survival tactic.
In this case, it was instinct that had him tackling her and pinning her to the ground before he finished taking his next breath. He felt the heat of blaster fire radiating from overhead, exactly where they had stood a second before.
“Fuck!”
Kili jerked beneath him. “Where did that come from?”
Deacon lifted his head and checked the outpost, then the horizon. The nonchalant tower guards of a moment ago now had their blasters trained into the tree line, clearly searching for something. He still saw nothing on the horizon, but now, pressed against the ground, he felt something that tore another curse from him. He pressed his ear to the soil for a moment, and when he lifted his head, Kili momentarily recoiled from his expression.
“Riders. At least half a dozen. No more than a couple hundred yards away.” He eased up into a crouch, telling her with a hand on her back to keep still. It didn’t take him more than a second to weigh their options. Option, really. He didn’t see more than one. “We’ll have to make a break for it.”
He felt another shiver rip through her, but he shouldn’t have been surprised when she quickly followed with a tensing of muscle and a look of resolve.
“All right,” she said. She turned her head and spoke in the same near whisper he’d been using. “Which way? I’ll follow right behind you.”
Keeping his gaze on the outpost guards and the open land beyond, Deacon took her by the arm and lifted her into a crouch beside him. “You’ll be right beside me. I don’t want you out of my sight.”
He didn’t give her a chance to protest, just pointed her in the direction they needed to go, pressed her head down, and gave her a good shove deeper into the tree line. “Move fast, little bit,” he growled. “We’ve got ground to cover and our asses to save. Now go!”
Chapter Fourteen
Kili didn’t need to be told twice. Staying low as he’d indicated, she shot off toward the shuttle as fast as her slightly awkward position would allow. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Deacon right beside her. He didn’t seem to even bother to glance at the path they were taking. All his attention was focused on whoever might be following them.
She knew who it would be -- the Protectorate soldiers who had been crawling all over the palace in the day since the rebel and the false nitara had escaped from the very home of the prince. They seemed to regard Deacon as a highly valuable prisoner. She wasn’t sure if it was because of his ties to the rebellion or his ties to the rebels who had escaped, but she didn’t suppose it mattered. They wanted him back. She would merely be a side-benefit of the capture. If only she had been missing, a minor guard or two at most would have been dispatched to bring her back, and then only to save face. She had no real value to the prince, but no member of his harem could be allowed to leave of her own free will. It could undermine his authority, and that would never be allowed to happen.
Kili pushed the thoughts out of her mind. She had more important things to concentrate on -- like getting the hell out of here -- and she refused to jeopardize the best chance she would ever have by being distracted when she needed to be focused. If Deacon could do it, so could she.
Sparing a glance over at him, she read his focus in the set of his features and saw the fierce determination in his eyes, which stayed constantly on the lookout for pursuit. She knew there was no way anyone could sneak up behind them with Deacon on guard. She turned back toward the path ahead and the small smile faded from her lips. Now if only she had half so much confidence in her own part of this escape attempt.
She felt a nagging sense of guilt over how bungled things had gotten so far. The rational part of her knew it wasn’t her fault that the prison guard had decided they didn’t need privacy for her to service him, and she hadn’t asked Deacon to save her. It had astounded her when he had. Kili had been fully prepared to do whatever she needed to do to make their plan work, and it wasn’t as if she’d never used her mouth on a man before in the last twelve years. To her, it had been one l
ast duty to get out of the way before she won her freedom. Somehow, though, Deacon hadn’t seen it that way.
She remembered the sound he’d made as he launched himself off the cot toward the guard. He’d sounded more animal than man, and she would never forget the mindless rage she’d seen burning in his eyes. It had taken her half the trip to the outpost before it had really registered why he’d reacted so violently. His rage had been on her behalf. That knowledge had nearly sent her tumbling off their horse’s back, and she would have, if not for the death grip of her fingers in the animal’s mane. No one had ever been angry for her before. At her, certainly. Almost daily. But never for her. It gave her an odd feeling in her stomach, a strange, twisting tickle she’d never felt before. But now wasn’t the time to think about that. She had a hard enough time keeping her attention on moving forward and pretending she couldn’t already feel an unwelcome stirring somewhere a bit lower than her stomach.
Not again, she thought, concentrating on breathing deeply and evenly as she and Deacon pushed forward toward the waiting shuttle. I do not have time for this right now!
She jumped a little when she felt Deacon’s shoulder against her back, propelling her forward at an even faster pace. Startled, Kili looked back at him and frowned. “What’s the matter?”
He glanced toward the open land off to their left and grunted. “Just move. Come on. It’s not that much further.”
Kili picked up speed, but she couldn’t stop herself from following his glance toward the field. Where before she had seen nothing but grassland and the lonely outpost tower at its edge, now she saw the fast-moving shapes of five mounted soldiers bearing down on them like birds of prey.
She inhaled sharply but didn’t slow down. In fact, with Deacon pressing her on, she moved even faster. She ignored the bite of pebbles and branches against the soles of her bare feet and practically flew over the ground toward the shuttle. If Deacon said it wasn’t much further, it would take more than some armed guards and the threat of a certain fate worse than death to keep her from reaching it.
Putting her head down and keeping her gaze fixed on the next few steps, she nearly missed the break in the trees and the cleared area of the trade road opening up in front of her.
“About fuckin’ time,” Deacon growled from over her shoulder. “Move it! Shuttle’s in a clearing, about ten yards west and ten yards in. The entry’s in the rear. I’ll be right behind you.”
Kili nodded, but it was the heavy hand in the small of her back and its forceful shove that actually got her moving. Sending up a quick prayer, she took a deep breath and made a break for it.
The minute she cleared the tree line, she heard a great shout go up from the direction of the meadow.
“There!” A man shouted. “They’ve made the road! Catch them!”
Kili risked a brief look over her shoulder and immediately wished she hadn’t. The five riders reached the road only a second after she did and wheeled their horses to bear down on her at a gallop. There was no chance in hell she could outrun them. Still, she refused to give up without a fight.
Instead of taking the quicker path down the center of the well-cleared road, she dashed straight across and began weaving in and out of the trees as she raced toward the area Deacon had indicated. She didn’t waste any more time looking behind her, but from the sound of the newly familiar roar and the echoing impact of blaster fire, she could guess that Deacon had also reached the road and begun firing. Taking advantage of the opportunity he was risking himself to give her, she poured on another burst of speed and blocked the sound of screaming from her head. Someone had been hit, but she knew it wasn’t Deacon and she didn’t care about anyone else.
The sound of hoofbeats didn’t sound quite so close, but she refused to look back. She kept her gaze on the ground in front of her and nearly ran straight into a very large, very unhappy-looking man with dark, dark hair and an even darker expression in his storm-gray eyes. She squeaked and tried to dart out of the way, but his reflexes were almost as quick as Deacon’s and he seized her by the arms before she could so much as twist aside.
He glared down at her with a truly furious expression on his face, and when he spoke, she could feel the sharp daggers of anger being aimed straight at her. “Just where the hell do you think you’re going?”
Chapter Fifteen
Kili opened her mouth to reply, even though she wasn’t entirely sure she could speak, but nothing came out. It didn’t have time, because another figure stepping out of the trees in the direction of the shuttle drew her surprised attention.
“Take it easy, blockhead,” the newcomer snapped. “Look at what she’s wearing. You think she’s a highly trained mercenary guard? This is fucking Ankhar. She’s a sex slave. Now lay off.”
Kili was having a hard time registering what the second person had to say. Part of that difficulty might have to do with the bruising grip the unhappy-looking man had on her arms, but the rest of it could be immediately and unmistakably traced to the identity of the second speaker. Not only was it someone Kili had seen before, but it was a woman. A free woman, with short-cropped hair in a thousand shades of blonde and a high-powered force rifle in her freckled and capable hands.
“Evenaril,” she breathed, not quite believing her eyes.
The woman looked at her again, her eyes narrowing. “The name is Eve,” she said. “Eve Cartwright. Who are you?”
Kili ignored the suspicious looks she was getting from the dark-haired man and focused her attention on Eve. She had been right! This was the woman who had posed as nitara in the prince’s harem, and then escaped with Deacon’s rebel partner. “I am Kili. Kishantiana. I am -- I mean, I was a nitara in service to Prince Jaru. I thought you had escaped. We all did.”
“I did,” Eve said, lowering the rifle just a bit. “But the frickin’ Protectorate goon boys got our partner.”
“You mean Deacon.” She twisted away from the man’s softened grip and stepped forward, her hands outstretched. “He was right behind me, but there were soldiers. I am afraid they will take him.”
The man behind Kili gave a throaty growl that reminded her a bit of Deacon, and grabbed her by the arm again, drawing a weapon of his own with his free hand. “Show us where,” he ordered. “Right now!”
Hope surged in her and Kili nodded eagerly, spinning on her heels and retracing her steps toward the road where she’d last seen Deacon. She heard the two rebels running along at her heels and moved faster, heading right back into the danger she’d just been running from. She heard shouting before they reached the road and suddenly a hand at her shoulder jerked her backward. Eve and the man Kili now assumed to be Taggart stepped in front of her and began firing at targets Kili could barely see.
“Deac!” Taggart shouted over the echo of the fire. “You there, man?”
Kili held her breath, waiting for the reply. When it failed to come instantly, she felt her heart begin to sink and her throat tighten. She heard Eve swearing up ahead and instinct began driving her forward. Taggart grabbed her again to hold her back. She glared at him and prepared to put a knee someplace really uncomfortable when a very unhappy growl sounded from up ahead.
“Here!” Deacon roared back. “But I could use a little --”
He broke off and Kili heard a loud thud and an angry male grunt.
“-- fuckin’ help!”
That was all anyone needed to hear. In one movement, the three of them leapt forward and charged through the trees into the open road ahead.
Eve and Taggart didn’t even hesitate. They seemed to know what to do before Kili even had time to see what was going on. While she was still blinking to adjust from the dimness of the woods to the bright sunlight of the roadway, the two of them had charged on the four soldiers currently trying to subdue an unwilling Deacon. The fifth soldier lay unconscious or dead at the base of a large tree. Kili found herself wishing with unaccustomed bloodlust that he was dead.
The anticlimactic battle took less than
a minute. By the end of it, Taggart was slapping lightweight polyfiber wrist restraints on the unconscious guards while Eve shrugged a tiny pack off her back and took out a canteen, handing it to Deacon.
He accepted with a grunt and took a long swig before handing it back to her. “What the hell are you two doing here, anyway? Didn’t I just risk my ass so you could get off this Powers-forsaken rock?”
Taggart stood and shrugged, taking the canteen from Eve’s hand. “We forgot to say goodbye.”
There was a long moment of silence before Deacon started to laugh, a deep, rumbling sound that made Kili press her thighs together.
Not again!
She didn’t think she made any actual noises, but Deacon turned in her direction as if she had and held out his hand to her. When she hesitated, he raised an eyebrow and his mouth curved in a sardonic smile. “C’mere, little bit.”
Hesitantly, she moved forward. Eve and Taggart had turned to look at her curiously, and she felt awkward under their intent stares. She also had to concentrate to keep her hips from swaying in an unmistakable invitation. For the first time in nearly a decade, she found herself fighting the urge to cover her breasts with her hands. She told herself that would only draw more attention to her nudity, but honestly, she was afraid of what would happen if she touched herself. The urgency was building back up inside her. Her experience with Deacon hadn’t been enough to suppress it for long.
Her jaw clenched tight as she sought to stay calm, to fight back the fever threatening to take her over. She hated this feeling, had always hated it. No matter what the nitarana or her master or any of the other girls had told her about it making her life easier, she wished more than anything that it would stop. She wanted to be in control of her own body, not feel controlled by it.
By the time she stopped beside Deacon, his smile had turned to a frown and his brow creased in concern. “What’s wrong?”
The Bargaining Page 6
