Teer reloaded unconsciously, yanking the bolt back and grabbing a round from the bandolier as he watched the situation on the ground unfold. The bandits had started moving on Boulder’s order, but the bandit chief had hit the ground before most of them had finished drawing.
One had his gun out and just froze, staring at his boss for a long second—and then Kard shot the gun from his hand.
“Fuck!”
The bandit had his hands in the air a second later, the scene frozen. No one moved for a second. One bandit seemed to consider going for his gun again—and Doka seemed to materialize out of the darkness, her thunderbuss pressed against his back.
Teer couldn’t hear what she said to the bandit, but he slowly drew his gun with two fingers and tossed it on the ground in front of him.
“Guns on the ground,” Kard ordered. “It’s the end of the line for you all. You’re riding back to Carlon with me. The only question is if you’re riding on those horses back there or being carried in a sack.”
Another gun hit the ground. Then another. One by one, Boulder’s men tossed their weapons on the ground and raised their hands.
“Doka, tie them,” the bounty hunter ordered. He waved up to Teer. He didn’t shout anything, but his message was clear.
The youth reattached the bandolier to the Hunter and reslung the weapon. Time to go deal with their living bounties—and try not to think too hard about the man he’d just killed.
The seven bandits were lined up next to the fire by the time Teer made it down into the hollow, each of them seated cross-legged with both their hands and feet tied together. The position Doka had tied them into didn’t look comfortable, but Teer only had to look at the three women Kard was cutting free from the tree to purge any sympathy.
“You’re safe now, miss,” he heard Kard murmur to the eldest of the three women. “Who are you?”
“I’m…Kova; this is my sister Pote and my daughter Rala,” the woman managed to squeak out. “My…my husband was with the wagon. I didn’t see…”
“We were heading east to a homestead our husbands had saved up to buy,” Pote told Kard. “Our men. They’re dead, aren’t they?”
“There was one wagon left on the road,” Kard said. “Boulder’s men had stacked bodies in it and burned them. They…they wouldn’t be identifiable even if I took you back.”
The three women collapsed against each other.
“Some of these horses are yours?” the bounty hunter asked.
“Just two, I think,” Rala confirmed, holding her mother and aunt tight. “What happens to us now?”
“It’s your choice,” Kard told them. “But we’re heading to Carlon with these scum. If you ride with us, we’ll keep you safe the whole way.”
“What about coach?” Doka suggested. “They might not…be able to sit on horse.”
It took Teer more than a few seconds to grasp Doka’s meaning. The baleful glare he turned on the bound brigands when he did silenced the last muttering against the gags.
“We need to return the stagecoach to Iko,” Kard noted. “I’m sure they’ve got partners in Carlon, though. They won’t begrudge us using it, not so long as we return the cargo. Teer, check the cargo in the coach.”
Teer nodded and left his companions with the freed prisoners. He wasn’t overly familiar with the style of wagon, but it wasn’t exactly hard to find the cargo compartment. It was at the back of the coach, a separate box from the passenger compartment, and it was visibly damaged. Boulder or one of his men had taken an axe to the box and split it open.
The wrecked compartment was empty.
“They moved the contents,” Teer shouted back to Kard. “Coach is intact, but the cargo box is wrecked.”
“Well, it will work to carry the women,” Kard replied. “Are you okay to spend the night here?”
“I’m… No,” Rala admitted. “No, I don’t think we are.”
“Of course,” Kard told her. He glanced around the camp and met Teer’s gaze grimly. The bounty hunter gestured for him to hook some of the horses up to the coach.
“Doka will move you tonight in the coach,” Kard promised, waving for the guide to join Teer. “We’ll load some supplies in and we’ll meet on the road tomorrow. If you wish to travel with us to Carlon, that is?”
“That seems best,” Rala replied. The older women had spoken first, but the power of speech seemed to have fled them now as they clung to the young woman. Rala had the same nineteen turnings as Teer, at most.
Teer and Doka were already picking the best-looking horses from the small herd and getting them into the harnesses. The coach might be strange to Teer, but the harness was at least much what he expected. It was the work of a few minutes to get the horses hooked up and get some of the brigands’ supplies loaded in.
“Meet you on north road, one candlemark after dawn,” Doka told the two men as she carefully helped the women into the coach.
Neither of the men was touching the liberated prisoners. Teer was pretty sure he’d have figured that part out on his own even if he hadn’t been following Kard’s lead.
“Wait for us if you can,” Kard said. “I don’t trust this lot to be cooperative.”
“Shoot one. Rest will follow. Worked once, yes?”
Teer glanced over at the still form by the fire and shivered.
“We get paid better if we bring them in alive,” he pointed out.
“Get going, Doka,” Kard told the woman. “We’ll meet you tomorrow. Keep them safe. The world’s been cruel enough to these ladies.”
17
Grump followed the stagecoach out of the bandit camp and Teer studied the entire hollow again with a different eye.
“Do you think the coach’s cargo is here?” he asked Kard quietly. “You were figuring there was, what, a hundred stone worth of gold and raw redcrystal in the coach?”
“Around that, yeah,” the other man confirmed. “The exchanges make less money than
