Chap. 345.1 Which Way Did She Go?

Chap. 345.1 Which way did she go?

Only because they had horses did the four raiders escape the Stella Maris crew.

They’d managed to break free, derisive laughter and taunts following them as they kicked their horses into a run.

“Come on back, cowards!”

“We ain’t even started yet, you *&**^!”

“Send your sister, she has to be a better fighter than you!”

“Shaff, send your granny!”

The tall man raised his hand to halt his team a safe distance from the port’s gate. Both of his eyes were beginning to swell. Already he was having problems seeing.

All of them bore marks of having been in a fight.

“Okay, which way did she go?”

“Wha?? You don’t know? I thought you were leader.”

“One of you, all of you, had eyes on her and now where is she?”

“My eyes were on three yobs all throwing punches at ’em.”

“They tried to break me arm.”

“I were busy, if you hadn’t noticed, fighting off that pack of louts pissed because you cheated ’em at cards. Dumbarse, couldn’t you tell half that crew is Bitrans? I wouldn’t play cards with a Bitran even with a handful of aces hidden up me sleeve.” He rubbed the growing knot on the side of his head.

“I didn’t play anything with them! And I’m the leader here, I told you to watch the courier. She’s got a thousand marks in that barrel and I, I mean us, we need to get them. You’re locals, you should know which way she must have gone.”

One of the raiders gently felt his nose, wondering if it was broken. It wasn’t but it was bleeding freely. He sneered.

“Some leader you is. You don’t know nothin’ about Southern. They’s three roads, one goes right through the wall into the Weyr and it’s the safest way for him to go. If we so much as show a hair inside their walls they’ll grab us and if they don’t behead us they’ll take us out into the ocean and drop us halfway. I’m betting he’s in the Weyr.”

“Maybe not. That’s the long way round to Toric’s Hold and I’m thinking he’s headed there. The dragonriders, they don’t have any dealings with Toric in any way, and west means nothing but wilderness for a thousand kilometers,” said another. He looked at the leader. “You keep saying her, but I saw a lad, with a sea cap on his head. I think you’ve misled us.”

The three suddenly turned mutinous.

“Aye, that’s true! I didn’t see no girl. That were a lad.”

The leader stroked his fire lizard to calm it, and himself.

He began to doubt what he’d seen and been told. His contact in Lemos Hold said it was a girl taking the barrel South, he thought, but was it a girl? I did see a girl, a bloody bandanna on her head, but that was through fire lizard eyes. But the person leading the two horses off the ship didn’t have long plaits down her back, like I was told. No, the person had a clean sea cap on. I didn’t get a good look, not with the horses between us.

Did they lie to me, at Lemos? Why would they do that? Unless it’s that one shyster, I never did trust him.

His stomach began to churn with anxiety. I’ve been tricked.

He unconsciously held up his hands to ward off the three men’s anger.

“No, lads, listen. It doesn’t matter if it was a man or a woman. The point is, the barrel is what we want. It’s on a packhorse. So we look for the packhorse. “

That placated the men. You’re nothing but a bunch of morons, he thought, but you’re all we could find for muscle. If it had just been me sent out, I’d never have lost him. When I get back, I’m going to have a word or four with the boss. At knife point, if I find he lied to me.

He gentled the fire lizard. “Look for the packhorse,” he said, pushing an image of the bay into the lizard’s mind.

The brown whimpered. He’d not been hurt, just frightened. He cowered on the man’s shoulder.

“It’s okay. Go on, south. South.”

The fire lizard lifted off his shoulder and flew due south, over the palisade into the Weyr.

“You’re sending him south?”

How dare you, he thought, tiring of having to defend himself against a bunch of yobs.

“Why not?”

“He or she, they have to go east. Has to.”

“You just said he must have gone into the Weyr. I’m sending him to see if he did, indeed enter the Weyr.”

They were getting ugly, he realized. And maybe, just maybe they do know better than me, despite their being provincial yokels.

“And that’ll take time, I bet. Meantime, that packhorse be getting closer to Southern Hold, and once it crosses that boundary, I’m done. I ain’t crossing that line. No way,” one of the men said. He was favoring his arm.

“And why is that?”

“Toric’s put a price on me head, and I intend to keep it. He’s banished me twice, and I don’t believe in that ol ‘third time’s a charm.’ I dasn’t go near his men OR his Hold.”

He floundered, feeling the twin pressures of managing the suddenly rebellious crew and the ever increasing distance of this prey.

“Isn’t there a fourth route? A road, a trail, maybe a fork?”

The men laughed, scornfully.

“Only fork is on Southern Hold, and it bears southeast. The only other way is north. That means across the sea. So, ‘lessen you want to take a ride on a shipfish, no,” one said. His compatriots giggled despite their pains. “And I don’t think them horses can swim all the way to Northern.”

“Not without a sea monster getting them.”

The three locals all shook their heads. He could barely see it. Damn those seamen. If they’ve half blinded me, I’ll sink that damned ship with every one of the bastards on it.

“You got the fire lizard, what do he say?”

“He, um, he’s not seeing the packhorse.”

“If what you are saying is true, if the courier has all that money in the barrel, why didn’t he just go to Toric’s men? They were there waiting for him.”

He felt a twinge in his gut, already hurting from a dozen blows to it.

Yes. Why DIDN’T the courier just go to Toric’s men? If he was truly a courier from Lemos Hold, he would have known they were there, waiting to provide escort.

“I don’t know!” he shouted at them, pushed beyond the edge of patience. Panic began to swirl in his mind. “Look, I’m beginning to believe I was double crossed by the bastards in Lemos Hold. Maybe they’re at the border with Southern Hold, we got the lumps and they get the money.”

“And you promised us part of it, as pay,” said one of them, scowling. “Does this mean we’re not going to get paid?

He unconsciously touched the bow and quiver on his saddle. The leader saw it and felt ice down his spine. “That’s not what I’m saying! I don’t get paid, either, if we don’t get that barrel!” he cried, fear making his mouth dry.

“Let’s get it, then,” said one with the injured arm, ” ‘Stead of waiting for your lizard to look around. Only way he coulda gone was east.”

“You’re right, ” the leader said, feeling his status as leader falling into the depths.

“We go east.”