“We heard gunfire,” Kard told her. “We came to help. We could always have left you.”
“Well, you can leave me now,” she said. “I thank you, but I’ve nothin’ to give you. May as well let you on your way and I’ll stay up here.”
Teer looked over at Kard, who gestured for him to start circling the trees.
“That’s not going to happen, I’m afraid,” Kard said with a sigh. “We were following your trail, Miss Lora. I have a Writ of Seizure for you, to bring you before the Magistrate at Carlon for attempted murder.”
“You stay back,” Lora barked. “You know nothin’, Hunter man. I’m armed!”
“Is that the thunderbuss you dropped or something that actually might hurt the wolfen if we leave you?” Kard asked.
Teer was now on the far side of the copse of trees, watching the motion as Lora climbed down her tree as quietly as she could while shouting back.
“I will kill you; I won’t go back,” she snapped. She grabbed the thunderbuss from the ground and then took off at a sprint.
She’d guessed what Teer had done and ran in a direction away from both of them: north, toward the river.
Teer had been expecting that and kneed Star after her. He made the split-second judgment that his lasso would probably hurt her more than he wanted and that Star could catch up to her.
He rose in the mare’s stirrups as Star closed the distance, galloping toward the running woman. Both of them knew how the chase would end, so Lora tried to dodge to the right…and Teer jumped a moment later, colliding with her and sending them both tumbling to the ground.
She ended up on top of him, pointing the thunderbuss at his face. He knocked the empty weapon aside and bodily picked the smaller woman up as he rose from the ground—and got kicked in the groin for his efforts.
They both fell, and this time, she somehow had his gun out. He froze.
“I’m leavin’,” she growled.
“No.” Teer had been trying not to hurt her. Now he moved at full speed, yanking the gun out of her hand and using her gun hand to lever her to the ground. Now he was on top of her, with the gun in his hand.
Of course, he was holding it by the barrel, so it wasn’t much use to either of them.
“You’ll not be going anywhere but back to Carlon, Miss Lora,” Teer told her quietly. “You beat a man to the edge of death and left him to bleed out. There are penalties for crimes like that.”
She spat in his face but didn’t resist much more as Kard tossed him a rope and he swiftly bound her.
7
Bound or not, Lora broke down when they reached the spot where her horse had been dragged away.
“Oh, Toss, you didn’t deserve this,” she muttered, kneeling on the ground next to the spatter of blood.
“Horses generally don’t deserve what we drag them into,” Kard said from behind her. “Neither, I suspect, do most people who get beaten to death.”
She said nothing, ignoring him as she knelt on the ground and muttered soft words.
Teer could probably make them out, but he intentionally focused his hearing on the distant river. That felt like something that should be private, between the young woman and her horse.
“It’s later than I like, but I don’t want to camp where we know wolfen are prowling,” Kard told Teer. “She’ll ride double with you. It’ll slow us, but Clack isn’t going to be any better at carrying two.”
“Should we check for any of her stuff?” Teer asked.
“Wolfen have it all, I think,” the Hunter replied. “I’m not going to beard a venomous animal pack in their den for horse brushes and rations.”
He gestured toward their bounty.
“Keep an eye on her,” Kard continued quietly. “She’s shocked right now, but she’s a clever one and it’ll take us at least three days to get back to Carlon with a horse carrying double.”
“Then we’d better get going,” Teer replied. He whistled Star over to him and crossed to Lora. “Time to go, miss,” he said gently. “You’re riding with me.”
“Do I get a choice?” she snapped.
“No.”
It took both Teer and Kard working together to lift her intentionally limp form onto Star and then tie her to both Teer and the horse. Both men were being extremely careful with their hands, which earned them at least one exasperated sigh before she finally started cooperating a little bit.
“I’d ask if you’re enjoyin’ this, but ’twould make it easier on me if you were,” she hissed to Teer as he checked the reins and got Star moving.
“Wardkeeper pays us to bring you to face trial,” Teer told her as they road. “You still a person, still…”
He trailed off, not sure of the words for what he was trying to say. Somehow, though, he figured he’d come close enough to buy some relaxation on Lora’s part.
“Come on,” Kard ordered. “I want at least a candlemark’s ride between us and this place before we rest. Should get us back to somewhere with water, at least.”
They made camp by the same stream Lora had followed to get away from the Carahassee River, with the woman spending the first ten minutes sitting against a rock with her hands and feet tied together while Teer and Kard set up camp.
“You watch her,” Kard ordered. “I’ll get dinner started.”
“Oh, the mighty Hunters can cook, can they?” she asked. “I’m impressed.”
Teer shook his head as he took a seat across from her.
“We’ll even feed you,” he told her. “We’re taking you to trial, not torturing you.”
“Right. Because fair trials are so common round here,” Lora said. “I’m kidnapped by a bloody child.”
“You tried to kill a man,” Teer pointed out, feeling awkward. “That was your choice.”
That silenced her for a moment, and she seemed to shrink into herself at the reminder. Teer kept half an eye on the campfire while most of his attention was on her. If anything, keeping his attention on her felt more awkward than anything else.
She was very pretty now that she was out of the tree. Her skin was only a bit paler than his, but her features were much sharper and more elegant. He figured her hair was the same shoulder length as his own, but Lora had done a much better job of cutting it and had it tied back into a practical bun that kept it out of the way as she traveled.
Paying attention to her to make sure she didn’t escape also meant he was trying not to stare. The conflict between what he knew was rude and what he had to do to do his job was harder than he expected.
“I need some privacy,” she finally told him. “Nature calling.”
“We can walk away from Kard a bit, but I can’t leave you on your own,” Teer replied.
“I guess that’s somethin’,” she conceded. “Help me up.”
He did, carefully balancing himself to make sure she didn’t yank him down. They walked off into the bushes, out of sight of the camp to give her some privacy. Then she stopped and glared at him.
“Turn around,” she ordered.