Stormrider (19 page)

Stormrider gasped. Shook her head. Nearly toppled over again. “Goddess help me,” she murmured under her breath, aware now of everything. Chaos around her. Her own moon-cursed weakness.

“I’m afraid she’s not here and I’m all you’ve got,” Raptor ground out.

She eyed him with trepidation, her mind not yet focused enough to form a biting retort. The pain was gone, the unbelievable paralysis too, but her mouth was furry and her head hammered. And worst of all were her limbs. Arms and legs felt and moved like wet straw.

Finally she nodded. “You’ll do.”

Stormrider strove mightily for control, but it was slow in coming. Legs folded beneath her as fast as she could gather faculties to command them to lift her.

Sweat and weakness assailed her. Choking, smothering dust filled the air along with palpable desperation. So much desperation. A groan of frustration forced its way past her clenched teeth.

The dun-colored pony snorted in distress, tossing its head sharply and Raptor tore his gaze from the struggling Stormrider to fasten it on the great silver wolf as the hoofed animals plunging through the
Jaiqi
camp parted in a wave for his passage.

Strongheart.

Head down, ruff bristling, blood speckling his golden muzzle, he was a vision from a warrior’s hell, and he was heading directly for them, white teeth gleaming from behind curled lips. Raptor, his hand unconsciously possessively resting on Stormrider’s shoulder, went still, grit his teeth and presumed the infuriated wolf would discern friend from enemy even here, even now.

The dun pony, ears back and large teeth bared, stood lock-legged above, apparently presuming the same, in very un-pony-like fashion, stood his ground.
 

Strongheart acknowledged Raptor with a sharp toss of his magnificent head, ignored the pony, then thrust a cool, wet muzzle into Stormrider’s face.

We must go, Stormrider. There is little Time. Get up.
 

“I’m trying! In a moment . . .”
 

Raptor, eyes taking in the shifting tide of this strange battle. “We don’t have a moment!”

“I can . . .” Stormrider protested weakly, flailing limbs not yet fully controllable.

“Can what . . . crawl? Shut up and come on.” Raptor hesitated no longer in grasping one slim, firmly muscled forearm and hoisting her across his shoulders.

“Hela take you!” Stormrider slung the curse at him with something less than her usual vehemence.

He is right and I cannot carry you.
A gentle rebuke from Strongheart.

“Be still,” Raptor added his own reprimand, “By the Gods of the Fourteenth Moon, I’m paying my blood debt. We’ll talk about any remaining later.”

Raptor kept his grip and Stormrider capitulated. It had something to do with the advent of good sense, or the wolf at his feet which didn’t matter to Raptor. What mattered was getting out of the
Jaiqi
camp, and quickly. Carrying her was the only way.

Stormrider gave herself over to Raptor for the moment. Each passing minute would add to her strength. If Raptor offered his own in substitution, in repayment, she could do no less than accept.

One Eye appeared through the swirling clouds of dust. His single good eye glittered in the light paled by the billowing dust. His muzzle dripped saliva and blood and there were more crimson flecks in his white and gray coat. It was not his own blood.

We must hurry. Surprise is ended. The Jaiqi are arming themselves.
Bluntly delivered by One Eye.

Littlefoot, not visible but joining in the exchange:
We must not risk these animals to no purpose, I am freeing them.

Stormrider spoke to Raptor, her voice barely above a husky whisper. “The wolves are freeing the animals. They will scatter. We must be with them. Song Dog and the others of The People captured by the
Jaiqi
must be with them.”

Raptor glanced around. The animals were indeed scattering, beginning to make their way clear of the camp. A11 but a few ponies hovering near the clutch of slaves as Raptor approached, the dun pony keeping pace with Raptor.

He knew better than to try to argue with this woman of the Janissaries. How Raptor would’ve loved to steal one of the fliers of the
Jaiqi
, and put a great deal of distance between himself and this camp, but they were far too small to accommodate the prisoners.

Brain working at full speed, Raptor searched for another avenue of escape. The effect of the counters had been nullified when he had retrieved the damaged box and completed damping it. Many of The People were in much the same shape as Stormrider, but they were mobile. He glanced again at the disconcerting dun-colored pony and in that moment he knew (didn’t understand how he knew) that this was the way out. He had only to hope some of The People had escaped having their counters activated and would be strong enough to help those who were still as weakened as Stormrider was.

Other faculties returning slowly, Stormrider’s mind nonetheless whipped furiously at the problem confronting them and found the solution simultaneously with Raptor.

“The ponies . . .” she blurted as, with no warning, Raptor turned and tossed Stormrider across the dun pony’s back.

The pony’s eyes rolled showing the whites, but the beast stood firm as Raptor vaulted astride, one arm encircling Stormrider to keep her from slipping off.

Song Dog was upright, but wobbly. Raptor grabbed him and swung him up behind before the young warrior could voice any protests. A few more strides carried them to the other prisoners, some dazed, but many alert as Raptor had hoped. He released his hold on Song Dog and the young man slid unsteadily to the ground.

“Get on the ponies!” Raptor barked in their dialect. “Run!”

And they knew they had better run with the wind because the slavers were going to be hot on their trail, moving swiftly in their fliers, causing havoc with their little boxes controlling the counters. Raptor cringed at the thought as the captives began clambering aboard the ponies.

They were far from free, but Stormrider could not suppress a smile. “The animals are not wild,” she addressed the remark to Strongheart referring to the domesticated ponies as they stood calmly taking on their burden.

Great jaws gaped in a wolfish grin.
We borrowed them.

“There are few who would lend such.”

Choices. The wealth of one over the enslavement of another?

Stormrider half craned around to peer into Raptor’s anxious face.
“
The
Jaiqi
will follow. We must have time.” She reached to her boot drawing forth the somewhat dimmed stun gun she had been holding so long in reserve. “Overload it. It should do considerable damage.”

Raptor didn’t ponder whether it was suggestion or command. He flipped the switch, pulled a wire and urged his dun pony toward the clutch of closely parked fliers. Yes, it should do considerable damage.

He hesitated only an instant, glancing back toward where the slaves had been held. They were all astride one way or another, moving off into the desert with the last of the hoofed creatures of Strongheart’s roundup.

Raptor heaved the overloaded weapon and put his heels to the pony’s sides. The animal bolted almost as if it had read his mind.

Moments later the gun exploded. A great hissing whine, then a brilliant flash, whiteness so intense he didn’t think about looking back as the ground bucked and debris filled the air.

The dun-colored pony was running full out when the ground shuddered. He gave a short shriek and poured on even more speed, rapidly closing the gap between them and the others fleeing before them into the desert. Strongheart raced by their side. Littlefoot and One Eye were ahead.
 

Behind lay the rubble of many very sleek fliers and among them, many very angry
Jaiqi
.

Chapter 16

Raptor was an excellent horseman. Adapt or die was pretty much the bounty hunter’s credo. He held the dun-colored pony to a swift, even gait, glancing frequently over his shoulder. The pony passed over the desert sands and slipped around scrub and rock like swiftly flowing water.

He guided the animal without benefit of reins or saddle and suspected he had more than a little cooperation on the pony’s part. Something about the dun-colored animal was unique to the point of uncanny, but Raptor did not care to dwell much on the fact. He shifted his grip on the recovering Janissary.

Stormrider sat stiffly before him, the only way she could sit and remain on the pony’s back, staring out over the open expanses of sun-splashed desert. Strongheart loped at the pony’s side, a little ahead, tongue lolling. One Eye and Littlefoot ranged even further ahead, pacing the fleeing slaves of the
Jaiqi
.

Stormrider had recovered enough to be able to ride alone, but there were no other ponies available. Not unless she wanted to commandeer one from some other of Grey Wanderer’s band forcing others to double-up. Practicality could come up with no reason why she should demand to be somewhere other than where she was. Reason assured her that she, as a woman, would cause quite a furor if she demanded her own mount. Especially at the cost of a warrior being unseated. It mattered little that they were ungainly horsemen at best since Grey Wanderer’s band had few horses.

But there was even more. She smiled faintly into the wind. It was an awkward admission, even if only to herself, that she was quite comfortable where she was. Raptor had proven himself non-enemy as Strongheart had predicted and Stormrider found she could relax for the first time in a blue moon rising.

Almost.

There was still the matter of the
Jaiqi
counter in her neck just as an identical one remained lodged in the neck of each of the newly freed slaves.

“We must stop soon and remove the counters,” Stormrider said strongly, “we can wait no longer.”

“Removing them is dangerous,” Raptor said into her blowing hair where the scent of it tickled his nose, driving him nearly to distraction. He tightened his arm around her bow-taut waist, hand curling more firmly in the pony’s mane as he used his other hand to brush the hair away. “One slip could kill someone. I have no intention of risking slitting someone’s throat or inflicting more pain than they’ve already suffered. The counters will have to wait.”

“Wait for what? The
Jaiqi
to use them to find us? And the pain of removal is nothing once you have experienced the effects of an activated
Jaiqi
device planted in your throat. A small knife cut, nothing more.”

“It is more, Janissary,” Raptor responded roughly. “Your reputation precedes you. Even the
Jaiqi
themselves admire, grudgingly, what you did when you removed your own. It is more or others would have done it.”

Stormrider’s lips tightened. “All right, bounty hunter, it is more, but that cannot stop us from removing them or none of The People will ever again be free and all will most assuredly be dead. The Maven is a slime creature of the black crevasse, but he will not make the same mistake twice. Next time he will kill me. He might well kill all of them as an example.”

Strongheart broke into the exchange.
There is a place ahead. It is near. Over the next hill. There is water and a place to rest.

“And beyond that?” Stormrider asked.

For the moment it is far enough. It is where we will leave the Jaiqi no trail to follow, no counter to trace.

“You understand the threat the counters present?”

Strongheart dropped back to lope close by the pony’s galloping hooves, powerful, sleek body flowing like silk. He turned large golden eyes to her.
I have seen its effect on you. I have felt the pain through you. I have seen enough to understand and to believe if you say they can be used to find you. Where we will go from there the Jaiqi cannot be allowed to follow. Another time perhaps we can set a trap to lure them to their end. It is no more than their due. But not where we go now.

“The wolf has something in mind?” Raptor asked, a little irritated at being closed out of the exchange between wolf and woman and being privy to only half the conversation which told him nothing at all. He was in this for more than the pleasure of being Stormrider’s adjunct, her shadow. He had feelings for her, but he still had a job to complete. He remained a bounty hunter, a damn good one with a quarry, not a good shepherd.

“It seems we are being shepherded somewhere,” Stormrider replied, echoing his thought. Her final remark was tossed over the side to Strongheart. “Do I read this correctly to interpret it as meaning we have little choice in the matter?” It was a flip remark. She knew it. The wolf knew it.

A low huff and a snort from Strongheart were her reply.

“Not everyone has a guardian wolf.” Raptor observed. “Perhaps it is not so wise to antagonize him. You told me before he was leader of the pack.”

A sharp glance from Strongheart and another huff and snort.

“And he is,” Stormrider agreed. “That’s why we’ll be stopping just ahead to remove the counters. Strongheart says where we’re going after that is no place to lead the
Jaiqi
.”

We’ll scatter the counters, put them in so many unlikely places the Jaiqi will not be able to trust anything their strange boxes tell them. It will work. You will see.