“What’s yours?”
“I’m the one with the gun, so you can answer my questions first.”
I shook my head. “I’d strongly advise against firing that thing. Has a crack in the barrel, just ahead of the chamber. Next shot, maybe the one after, it’s going to make that face of yours a lot less pretty.”
I wasn’t lying. My tech had scanned the weapon and highlighted the crack as a serious flaw. If it had been a rifle, with a rifle’s much higher chamber pressure, it would have blown up long ago.
I saw her look at the gun, study it for a moment, then look back up. She scowled in a way I knew was meant to cover her surprise at my being right. “How could you have seen that?”
I tapped my head. “I’m a Legacy. Got tech inside me that lets me do things like that. You should see me at parties.”
She puffed out a sigh, reached for a pistol, then hissed in frustration before letting her hand drop away, free of a weapon but curled into a fist.
“And who might you be?” I asked.
“Name’s Kai,” she said. “And you still haven’t answered my question about your interest in those boats.”
I couldn’t resist a smirk. “You don’t have your gun anymore. Seems to me my question’s as valid as yours.”
I saw a hint of a smile flash across her face, but she went serious again just as quickly. “I asked you first,” she said, “so it’s just polite if you answer first.”
I laughed and caught that glimmer of smile again. “Stubborn, aren’t you?”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
“Okay,” I said, shrugging my surrender. “They’re fishing boats out of Watermanse. Went missing a few days ago. I’ve been asked to find out what happened to them.”
Her face went suspicious, but she stayed noncommittal, obviously trying to not give anything away she didn’t have to. “Well, there they are. You found them.”
“Uh-huh. Except they’re sailing the wrong way. East, instead of back west to Watermanse. And they’re connected, somehow, to some raiders that seem to be coming east.” I gestured inland. “Whoever they are, looks like they came ashore, did some hunting, and made a bloody awful mess of it.”
The suspicious look on her face softened. “Yeah, they’re raiders, alright. Two days ago they landed, robbed my family’s cabin, then torched it. I’ve been tracking them ever since. They took things that are . . . important to me. I want them back.”
“So you were going after them all on your own? Three ships-worth of them?”
“You said it. I’m stubborn.”
While we were talking, Flint edged closer and started sniffing at her. I didn’t intervene. This was between her and Flint. Kai did look a little anxious at those big saw-teeth, yet she held her hand out tentatively to let Kai smell it. But Flint didn’t give her a choice. She suddenly stuck her muzzle under Kai’s hand, then lifted it, which made Kai yelp and yank her hand away. I think she expected the next feeling to be the searing burn of teeth sinking into her flesh, but Flint just stared at her with a sad-eyed, poor puppy dog expression she’d long ago perfected.
“You’re making Flint sad,” I said. “She just wants to be friends. Which,” I went on, unable to resist a bemused frown, “makes the second time in a week. She must be getting soft in her old age.”
Flint shot me a look I would have called a glare if she was human. I grinned and rubbed her chin. Kai obviously felt braver now, offering Flint her hand and getting a few, sloppy licks. So Kai was obviously bush-wise, knew how to handle her weapons—even if she might be a little careless of when they were beyond repair—and was good with animals. I already liked this girl.
“So,” I said, “you’re tracking the boats, and I’m tracking the boats. We could join up, at least for now, and track ‘em together.”
“You’re pretty trusting, considering we just met across a gun.”
“It’s Flint I trust,” I said. “If she thought you were trouble . . . well, it wouldn’t be her tongue she’d be applying to your flesh right now.”
I looked at Flint, still happily lapping away at Kai’s hand, coating it in a slimy sheen of dog-spit.
Kai gave a self-conscious shrug, then said, “So what are we waiting for? Still got a good chunk of daylight left, and those boats ain’t going to track themselves.”
We pushed on well into the night. Kai was good with her bushcraft, able to keep up with me in a way I wasn’t used to, at least when it came to someone who wasn’t a Legacy. She wasn’t exactly a ghost; I could sometimes hear her footsteps, leaves rustling as she brushed them, once a twig-snap. But she was still damned good. It did throw me off a little, though. Flint and I had long since worked out the way we moved—me following a more or less straight path, setting the course, and her roaming about, ahead, to the sides and even behind. We’d essentially become an extension of one another’s senses, so if one of us saw something, the other one pretty much did, too.
It was the reason I usually didn’t work with others, unless there was a good reason to. No matter how good they might be, someone else traveling with us became a distraction, something to factor into my and Flint’s ongoing awareness of the situation around us. It added something potentially unpredictable. And unpredictable wasn’t good. It could lead to trouble. It could lead to ending up injured . . . or dead.
Kai apparently thought so too. As we took a brief rest among some hoary pines, she said, “I’m amazed I was able to surprise you. You and Flint . . . you’re amazing. All I can think is how much I must be in your way.”
“Well, part of it, I think, was the stink of blood and sweat from those raiders and their hunting,” I said. “I think that’s what threw Flint, anyway.”
“So what threw you?”
“You did. You’re just pretty damned good.”
I meant it. And I made sure to try to show my sincerity. I’d met lots of bush-wise folk, but I couldn’t recall any as good as Kai. It prompted a smile from her I could tell she didn’t want me to see. That told me that Kai wasn’t used to complements, and probably not because people wouldn’t offer them to her, but more likely because she just wasn’t around people all that much to begin with.
We carried on. So did the boats, making their steady way east. We were fortunate there was a slack wind since early yesterday, so it wasn’t taking them east much faster than we could walk along the shore. Our pace was too slow for Flint, who urged us on with small yips as she looked over her shoulder with accusatory glances. By the time dawn threw them into silhouette, they’d gotten a little smaller with distance, but not much.
“We didn’t lose much ground on them,” I said.
“Good,” Kai said, her eyes narrowed at the distant ships, “because one way or another, I’m getting my family’s stuff back.”
We took a short break just after dawn, then carried on. Then another issue with traveling with a non-Legacy came up. I couldn’t keep going forever, but my tech-pumped stamina would hold out far longer than any regular human’s. Flint could keep up with me, but Kai couldn’t. By midday, the drowsy heat and laborious walk through the pretty much unchanging bush started dragging at her. She started getting careless with her bushcraft, making noisy mistakes I knew weren’t natural for her. Even worse, her attention began wandering; if it came to a fight, she’d probably be more liability than asset. I admired her dogged determination to keep going, but by early afternoon, she’d clearly had enough. We’d just climbed to the top of a rocky outcrop, one that thrust into Le’kemeshaw like a massive finger pointing north. I glanced back and saw Kai dragging herself up behind us, pulling herself over the stony lip and opening her mouth to speak, probably to announce her final surrender to fatigue. I shushed her, though, and gestured her down. Then I pointed through the scrubby grass and bushes growing on top of the outcrop, showing her what had made me stop.
We’d lost sight of the boats behind the stony headland, covered in lush trees that obscured the lake from our view. We climbed to the to
p and pulled back in shock--- the boats were right there, in a broad bay closed in on one side by the headland we stood on. As we watched, sails were furled, anchors dropped.
“Looks like they’re sticking around for a while,” I said. “Give us a chance to get some rest.” I had an optimistic streak wider than the lake, it seemed.
Kai shaded her eyes and blinked slowly, with obviously leaden eyelids. She was a woman on the edge of collapse, so I made sure to say us, but I really meant her, of course, and she knew it. She gave me an appreciative look anyway. We made our way back down the outcrop, worked inland a bit until we found a big, blown-down tree whose upturned roots made what amounted to a discrete little cave, and hunkered down inside. I told Kai that Flint would keep watch while she and I put our heads down. She grunted something back then promptly started to snore.
I knew when Kai woke up, but she didn’t open her eyes right away. That was a common thing among those used to waking up when hazards might be nearby—listen and smell first, because once you opened your eyes, anyone watching knew you were awake. I just let her be and went back to looking beyond the fire I’d made, and into the surrounding night.
She opened her eyes and sat up, then looked around, blinking and bleary-eyed. I saw her take in the fact she was in her bedroll, and barefoot, and no doubt not remembering taking the time to do any of those things before she passed out . . . because she hadn’t.
“Here,” I said, tossing her socks into her lap. “Good as new. Well, almost. I didn’t wash them out, so you might attract various male animals.”
She blinked dumbly at the socks and again at the blanket and fur wrap swaddling her. Finally, she looked at me and asked, “Your musky socks aside, did you tuck me into bed? Like a child?”
I shrugged. “You passed out in the dirt. Figured you’d appreciate sleeping on something a little warmer and drier.”
Pine boughs crunched under her as she moved. “Looks like you went all out. You even took my boots off.” She wiggled her toes appreciatively.
“Shouldn’t sleep in them. Makes your feet colder. Though I suspect you already knew that.”
“So you were undressing me while I slept, huh?” Her smile pulled at one corner of her mouth, making it a lopsided indictment of my courteous behavior.
“I was. Oh, and by the way, your feet stink.” I nodded with a sage air, as if I’d done her a favor informing her about foot odor.
She pulled on her socks and reached for her boots. “Sorry. Been busy these past few days. Missed my bath.” Sniffing, she grinned, then began lacing up the boots. After a pause, she gave me a sincere, measured look. “Anyway, thanks. Look, I’m really not new to the wilderness, as you may have guessed. Sort of born to it.”
“Didn’t think you were.” I pulled a small metal pot off the fire, poured some of the steaming contents into a tin cup, and offered it to her. “Hot tea.”
She took it with a thank-you nod and sipped. As she did, she glanced up, frowning at the tangled roots of the blown-down tree sheltering her.
“Moon’s up there,” I said, pointing somewhere above her and to her left. “You’ve had a good sleep. Regular night’s worth, and maybe half that again.”
“Guess I was more tired than I thought.”
I poured tea for myself. “So you’ve been on the go, not stopping, for . . . what, three days now? And then you tried to jump me and Flint, which means you never even properly sized us up.” Seemed like an awful lot of carelessness from someone who should know better. “Why? You’ve gone pretty bush-stupid trying to catch up to these raiders in these ships. How come?”
She pulled the fur wrap around her shoulders and resumed lacing her second boot. “Fuckers landed near the cabin where my father and I live, about a day this side of Watermanse. Ransacked it. Took food, some clothes, but I’m not really worried about that. Took some books and coins, too. Not much good for anything, but my father was so proud of ‘em. And, the assholes took a bracelet that belonged to my mother. My father and I—we kept that bracelet on our mantle, to remind us of her.”
“So your mother passed,” I said. “I—I’m sorry. No words for it, really. What about your father? Did the raiders—?”
“No. He’s a trapper. Was out on his line when they came. Probably still not back. I left a note in what’s left of our cabin.”
“That’s good. You think even when things are going to shit.”
She nodded. “Like said, I want our stuff back, and losing my head isn’t going to help it. Plus, I fight better when I’m organized.”
“I do too. Only so much raw anger can do. How were you planning to do that, though . . . alone, cracked shotgun, and hole in your sock?”
“Hadn’t thought quite that far ahead,” she said, shrugging. “Figured that once I’d caught up to them, I’d work something out.” She shrugged. “Not much of a plan, I know—”
“It’s not a fucking plan at all, and you’re lucky it was me and Flint. You know that, right?”
“I wasn’t going to let them just get away, dammit. Fuck them. They’re not walking on this one.”
She stopped, her voice catching. She balled her fists and blurted, “Fuck Osterway and the Huntsmen and that reeking whore Venari—fuck them!”
Huntsmen? Venari? I recalled hearing those names but didn’t know much about them. I leaned in a bit. “Please, tell me who they are. Those names, what are they?” I lowered my voice out of respect for her rage. It was like a physical force clouding the air around us.
Kai wiped her eyes. “Oh, right,” she said, fighting to regain control of her emotions. “My father and mother and I came through the Osterway from Canadia. Winters were brutal; a killing cold that took man and beast alike, and the growing seasons were getting shorter each year. We had snows so late the butterflies died off, and every year was harder on my family. First place we thought to settle was actually Osterway. But they’re a bunch of raiders and thugs and fucking slavers. Not the sort of neighbors we wanted.”
“How about the Huntsmen? And Venari? I mean, I’ve heard things but haven’t had much to do with Osterway myself.”
“You haven’t missed much. Venari, she leads Osterway. I never saw her, just heard she’s a damned terrible bitch that terrifies the fuck out of everyone . . . threatening to kill people, actually killing people, that sort of shit. A warlord who thinks blood is cheap and tech is worth and ocean of dead bodies, if that’s what it takes to get and edge on everyone in her way.”
“The Huntsmen? Heard the name, but know fuck all about them.”
She gave me a sidelong look. She might be wondering if I really didn’t know these things, or if I was testing her somehow. “The Huntsmen are Venari’s elite troops. When she needs shitty things done, she sends the Huntsmen. They’re led by”—he frowned again— “Igor? Egon? No, Egnor. Yeah, that’s it. Egnor and his father, name of Zagros, they’re Venari’s right and left hands, if you know what I mean. Egnor leads the Huntsmen, and Zagros . . . he advises her, or something like that. And then there’s the Blackwings. Called that because of their armor. They guard Venari herself.”
“I despise people who play at war. Costumes are for kids, not soldiers. I already hate these so-called Blackwings.”
“That’s why we knew it was time to get out, find somewhere else to live, before we ended up slaves. We came west from near Cold Water, where Venari has her main base, and that’s how we ended up where we ended up.”
Slavers. Fuck. My fists balled themselves. I forced them to unclench. “Should’ve just gone west another day, moved into Watermanse. Would’ve been a lot safer.”
“My father’s been a trapper . . . well, forever. After my mother died . . . it was some sort of wasting away, we just couldn’t stop it. Anyway, I thought maybe he’d finally want to move, settle down somewhere like Watermanse. But, no. Seemed to just make him more determined to stay where we were.”
“Well, it’s where his wife died. His last memories of her were there.”
&
nbsp; “Mine too—”
Movement just beyond the fire made Kai suddenly tense up and reach for her pistol, but I put my hand on hers. “Easy, it’s just Flint. She’s keeping watch. Keeping an eye on our friends on the ships, too.”
She looked down at my hand, the skin slightly darker than hers, but both of us with our share of scars. Her fingers were long and elegant, despite her existence in a wilderness made people hard. Flint gave a soft snort, as though she was laughing, then turned and vanished back into the darkness.
“Why don’t you sleep, now, Cus?” she said. “I can watch.”
I didn’t really need much sleep, but I did need some. I decided I trusted Kai. “Sounds good. Wanna be well-rested if we’re going to take on the Osterway assholes in those boats. Unless, of course, you’d prefer to work something out along the way.”
She rolled her eyes. “Eh, I’ll let you help.”
I laughed and pulled my own bedroll out of my pack, then settled down on the pine boughs. Kai sat by the fire, looking into the night, then up at the stars. I did, too, settling my eyes on the Sisters—seven stars together, not far from the North Star. They were something that never changed. They felt safe. You could count on them.
I glanced back at Kai. I’d only known her part of a day, but there was a comfort growing between us like parts that fit. I don’t trust many people, but Kai made it easy—when she spoke to me, I had all of her attention, and she would often pause a beat before answering. She noticed things in the same way I did, and it felt familiar and good.
She must have shared some of my conclusions, because she’d woken up to find I’d been the one to put her to bed after she passed out, and never really raised an objection to it or complained.
I thought about pulling off her boots, slipping off her socks . . . then went on in my mind, tugging more of her clothes, exposing her, a little at a time. . .
Looking up at the Sisters, I let my imagination run free until I drifted off to sleep.
Legacy Page 4
