Though that meant that Doka and Kard could also see better than the brigands in the valley. Moving in at night was to their advantage—assuming Kard was willing to let Doka realize that.
“I can see clearly in dusk,” he finally told them. “That should help, shouldn’t it?”
Kard chuckled softly.
“You too, huh?” he asked. “Doka?”
“One moon enough for Doka,” she confirmed.
“All right. Then we move up,” Kard ordered. “We might get lucky.” He eyed Teer. “You hang back, Teer,” he continued. “You’re not nearly as stealthy as any of us would like yet.”
“He bull bad ways well as good,” Doka agreed with a long-suffering sigh.
Teer’s ears were burning most of the way up the hill.
The three hills that surrounded the hollow Boulder’s men were camping in were emptier than most of the terrain they’d been traveling through that tenday. They were craggy, windswept rocks, forming a rough sheltered horseshoe around the small valley.
The south hill was, as Doka had warned, the tallest. A collection of rocks on top formed a natural raised fort. As Teer and his companions approached, they could see that they were not lucky.
“Watch on rocks,” Doka warned. “One man with hunter, probably pairglass, too.” There was a long pause, then she continued in a disgusted tone. “He drinking.”
“I didn’t expect discipline from a bandit gang,” Kard murmured back. “I expected them to post a watch. I half-figured he’d be drunk.”
The bounty hunter hesitated.
“Those rocks are the best place to get a look at all of this,” he admitted. “We can wait until morning or move now.”
“He drunk. Doka take him live, easy,” the guide replied. “One less.”
“Do it,” Kard ordered suddenly, his mind clearly made up. “Teer, wait with me.”
Doka pulled a length of rope from Grump’s saddle and then hit the ground again, worming her way up the hill on her belly. Teer watched her go.
“Can you do anything to help?” he murmured to Kard. “I know you don’t want her to know what you are, but you spooked that wolfen without her catching on. Can you distract him?”
“He might be drunk enough it won’t matter,” the El-Spehari muttered back. “But…I think I can make him act drunker.”
Motes of purple light flashed past Teer into the long shadows of near dusk. Unlike a real light, they didn’t cast shadows of their own as they crossed the distance to the watching brigand.
There was no immediate effect that Teer saw, though the man took another long drink from the metal flask he was holding.
For several minutes, the tableau held. Teer and Kard waited on the edge of the trees. The guard lazily surveyed the area around him, failing to see them concealed in the trees, and continued to drink.
Then Doka appeared from behind the rocks the brigand was using as his watchtower. A length of rope wrapped around the brigand’s throat, hammering him to the ground with enough force that Teer winced and touched his own neck in sympathy.
Several seconds passed, then Doka popped back up above the rocks and waved for them to join her. They crossed the bare hill carefully on foot, leaving the horses behind, and stepped into the natural fort.
The brigand was unconscious, the rope moved from his neck to his hands and feet while they’d approached and a gag torn from his own shirt tied into his mouth. Kard stepped over to check the man’s breath and pulse, and grinned evilly as the man’s eyes flickered open.
“Not even out long enough to damage him,” he noted. “Well done.”
“Practice,” Doka said with a shrug. The brigand was looking at them in stunned surprise, not even trying to speak past the gag after the first few seconds.
The guide gestured to the rocks.
“Lay of land, Kard,” she continued. “All around you.”
The El-Spehari grunted and clambered up onto one of the rocks, removing a pairglass from inside his duster so he could survey the hollow. A moment later, he grunted angrily.
“They took prisoners,” he said grimly. “I see three tied to a tree. I’m going to guess all women, and I don’t want to guess what Boulder’s people have done to them.”
Neither did Teer. Enough had been said about what type of person Boulder was to give him a solid idea.
“We’re not leaving them in his hands for another night,” Kard continued. He shimmied back down the rock and tucked the pairglass back into his duster. “Writ said six to eight brigands with Boulder. I saw Boulder down there, plus six guns. Add this one and it fits.”
“Worth questioning him?” Teer asked, gesturing at the man Kard had just indicated.
Kard loomed over the prisoner.
“Is that Boulder down there?” he asked coldly.
The brigand nodded as quickly as he could.
“Did I miss anyone in my count?” he demanded.
The prisoner shook his head.
“Do you want to live through this?” Kard concluded.
The bound man rapidly nodded.
“All right. Doka, take him and tie him to a tree next to the horses,” Kard ordered. “We’ll collect him when this is all done. I’ll meet you at the trees. Teer, that hunter of yours has a scope. Get up on the rock and tell me if you’ve got enough feel for the range to cover the hollow.”
Doka picked up their captive and started down the hill, half-dragging and half-carrying the man.
Teer shimmied up onto the rock as Kard had done earlier, bringing the hunter up with him carefully. He took a moment to check the alignment of the scope and the setting on the sights, then exhaled and lifted the gun to his shoulder.
The camp was about halfway up the hollow from him, maybe four hundred yards away. A tap on the sights set them for the drop, and he rested them on an immense Merik by the fire with a massive beard.
From the image on the writ, the black man in his sights was Boulder.
“I’ve got the shot,” he confirmed to Kard without moving. “What’s the plan?”
“I’m going to take
