“Doka is in hiding behind me and you cover me. Shoot the first one to go for a gun and we see what happens.” Kard shrugged. “Worst, we end up shooting most of them before they lay down guns. Best, we don’t shoot anyone.”
“I’ve never shot anyone before,” Teer admitted.
“Then shoot Boulder,” Kard ordered. “I don’t think either of us thinks that monster is actually a person after all he’s done. Just remember that we need his face intact to collect.”
Teer was surprised to find that he agreed with the bounty hunter. He understood that the role he’d taken on when he’d sworn to Kard was going to involve violence, but it was still new and harsh to him.
But while he wasn’t sure he could shoot anyone in most circumstances, Kard was right. Teer was pretty cursed sure he could shoot Boulder if he needed to.
“I’ve got you covered, boss,” Teer told Kard. “I promise.”
“Then you’ll see me on the main path in a quarter-candlemark,” his master replied. “You might even be able to hear us.” Kard snorted. “Winter knows you hear well enough.”
16
Teer waited as patiently as he could for his companions to get into position. His oversight position gave him a disturbingly good look at the three women tied to the tree in the middle of the camp. They still seemed to have their clothes, but all of them looked injured.
Swallowing his anger for a few more minutes, Teer slowly unhooked the bandolier from his hunter. Spreading the leather strap out on the rock next to him put the rounds in easy reach. He had ten bullets to hand, with another forty in the pouch he made sure was in reach on the other side of the bandolier. If he somehow managed to fire fifty bullets tonight, they were in far more trouble than Teer could even guess.
He breathed out, calming his nerves as he aimed the gun into the valley. One round in the chamber. A few seconds to reload—he knew he could do it faster, but he’d never trained for rapid loading of the rifle.
There were seven men in the valley. All of them were gathered around the fire, drinking and singing a filthy song Teer didn’t recognize. He knew which one was Boulder, and he kept the scope focused on the big Merik as he studied the overall camp.
Fifteen horses were tied to the trees at the back of the hollow, near Teer. An intact stagecoach and a partly torn-up wagon sat next to the horse. Teer figured the wagon was from the homesteaders the brigands had attacked on the road, torn apart for firewood now since the brigands weren’t keeping anything from their loot.
He scanned the bushes around the camp, looking for Doka. He didn’t know what her role in this was going to be, but he figured Kard had a plan for the blue guide that wasn’t watching their prisoner. He couldn’t cover his companions without knowing where they were—but it was Kard who was going to make himself visible.
And there the bounty hunter was. There was an ominous lack of subtlety to Kard’s approach as he walked up out of the night with a quickshooter in each hand. Clack was presumably left somewhere behind him, the gelding trained to stay or come on command.
It took the bandits longer to respond to Kard’s approach than Teer would have expected. The El-Spehari was almost into their camp before anyone spotted him, the first brigand to do so falling back away from the fire with a startled shout.
“Boulder, I have a writ for your death or capture,” Kard proclaimed loudly, his voice carrying clearly to Teer’s ears from across the hollow. “No, don’t go for your gun.”
One of Kard’s guns was leveled on Boulder. The other now pointed at one of the other bandits—Teer figured the one who’d been going for his gun.
“You are a brave one, aren’t you?” Boulder asked, the big Merik rising from the fire with his hands spread clear. “Seven men on one and you just walk up.”
“You assume I’m alone,” Kard replied.
“You assume you can see all my men,” the brigand replied. “You’re already dead, bounty hunter. Brave but stupid.”
“And how many of you die before one of you succeeds in shooting me?” Kard asked levelly. “You first, Boulder.”
“I think not,” Boulder said calmly. “The sheer size of your balls amuses me, hunter, so I’ll make this offer once: walk away. You’re not as in control as you think you are.”
Teer realized Boulder was shouting, pitching his voice to carry up to the fort he was sitting in. Their quarry didn’t realize that his sniper had been neutralized. Exhaling, he focused through the scope, dropping the sights onto the bandit.
“Or are you the one who is no longer in control?” Kard asked. The second gun swapped to another bandit. “Do you want to be the first to die, son?”
The brigand raised his hands away from his pistol.
Boulder laughed.
“That’s not taking my offer. Cardan!” He bellowed.
Teer figured Cardan was the man who was supposed to be in the natural fort on top of the hill. Certainly, no one replied from the hills, and Boulder looked taken aback for several moments.
“Take him!”
Boulder was moving as he barked the order, his hands and feet a blur even to Teer as he sidestepped Kard’s aim and drew his own gun in the blink of an eye. He was faster than anyone Teer had ever seen, his gun drawn and rising before Kard even pulled the trigger.
He wasn’t faster than Teer’s trigger finger. The shot rang out unconsciously, Teer barely registering making the decision to shoot. Even with Boulder’s sideways dodge, Teer’s shot was perfect.
The bandit’s quickshooter fell from suddenly nerveless fingers as he collapsed to his knees, staring blankly forward
