“Thanks, Doka,” he heard Kard say as the movement stopped, and Teer realized what he was hearing. Doka was moving through the camp in her normal quiet way, and his half-awake mind had thought she was farther away and a potential threat. If she was with Kard, she was only about fifteen feet that way.
He did, after all, know exactly where Kard was.
“You expect trouble?” Doka asked.
“Always,” Kard said. “Tonight, I figure they’ll stay quiet. Tomorrow, though…tomorrow will be trouble.”
“Halfway point,” she agreed.
Teer couldn’t see them and they were talking softly, but he could hear every word. He wasn’t sure, but he could have sworn his hearing was getting even better now that he’d realized it was sharper than he’d ever guessed.
“What do you figure?” the El-Spehari asked. “When we get going in the morning or on the road?”
“Doka figure road,” she suggested. “When just Teer. He still young, look weak.”
“Agreed.” There was a moment of silence. “I’ll warn him in the morning,” Kard said. “I’d rather bring them all in breathing, but if it’s between bringing in an extra body or letting one of these scum run…I need the kid to shoot them.”
“Will he?”
Teer shivered at the thought—and at the honest question in Doka’s voice. She really didn’t know if he could shoot a running man. To be fair, neither did Teer.
“He’s met Kova and the others,” Kard noted after a moment. “No one’s told him what happened to them, but he’s not dumb. It wasn’t just Boulder who hurt them.”
Another moment of silence as Teer’s partners considered him. Teer was pretty sure they didn’t know he was listening, and he wasn’t sure if he should let them know. For now, though, he eavesdropped.
“He’s no soldier and he’s no tracker, not yet at least,” Kard finally said. “He was watching you pretty closely. I’ll keep teaching him; he’ll make a good bounty hunter.” Kard chuckled softly. “Territories will be safer for him being out here.”
“He make something,” Doka said slowly. “You see deer?”
“Just the cuts and this stew,” the El-Spehari replied. “Why? He took it down with one shot, like he bet you he could.”
“One shot,” Doka agreed. “Through neck, severed spine. Clean kill. Same as Boulder.”
Her tone sent a chill down Teer’s spine, and he found he needed to adjust his position to remain comfortable on the bedroll. What did she mean?
“What do you mean?” Kard asked, probably unconsciously echoing his Bondservant’s thoughts.
“Teer fire two shots near Doka,” the guide noted. “Both perfect. Instant. Clean.” She paused. “He see in dark. Fast. Strong. Gentle, sensitive hands.”
The last was said in a tone that set Teer’s ears to burning again.
“You see in the dark,” Kard replied.
“So do you,” Doka said sharply. “Doka not dumb, Kard. Doka know you more than you say.”
“And I know you’re more than you say,” the El-Spehari snapped back.
“And Teer?” the guide demanded. “Doka not know what Kard is, but Teer not like Kard. Teer not Kotan, so not like Doka. What is he?”
“Merik,” Kard told her. “Beyond that, neither of us knows.” The bounty hunter sighed. “In ways I can’t tell you and for reasons I can’t tell you, Teer and I are bound together. He is my responsibility.
“He has a gift, but I don’t know its nature and neither does he. We’re working on it. We have to—he and I are stuck together.”
“Magic dead in Merik,” Doka said. “Spehari killed it.”
“The Spehari killed the Merik who had magic,” Kard agreed. “But that doesn’t mean their magic is gone. Teer has some of it. I think Boulder did too. You saw him move.”
“Doka did.” She was silent. “You know what you need do, Kard.”
“I do?”
“Tyrus.”
Teer figured that to be a name, but he had no idea who Tyrus was.
“I don’t know a—”
“Doka not dumb,” the Kotan guide interrupted Kard. “Doka and Tyrus talk afore Doka ever work for you. He thinks Doka fool, but he say Kard trustable.”
“Tyrus swore—”
“Tyrus betray no secrets,” Doka cut him off again. “All he say was you trustable. So, Doka trust.”
“Tyrus doesn’t know Merik magic,” Kard said quietly. “He only knows Kotan magic.”
“He teach Doka what little Doka knows,” she replied. “If Teer see, move—think—faster, Merik magic closer to Kotan than Spehari. Who else could you trust?”
Kard sighed.
“Tyrus might be able to teach Teer some things,” he admitted. “We’re a long way from his camps, though.”
“Head north, Kard,” Doka told him. “To edge of swamps. Doka’s people find you afore you find Tyrus.”
“Maybe,” Kard allowed. “We have other things to do first.”
“Like pay Doka?” the guide asked. “Doka ride with you to Carlon, for women’s sake, but still need payment. Doka friend, yes, but Doka not rich.”
“We made a deal and you’ve more than done your side,” Kard agreed. “Once I get paid, you’ll get paid. You have my word. Is that ‘trustable’ enough for you?”
“Always. Doka take watch now. Rest, Kard. Tomorrow bring new trouble.”
Teer lay on the ground as the overheard conversation slowed. He wasn’t really surprised that Doka had worked out that something was different about him. Unlike Kard, he’d made no real effort to conceal his abilities—he didn’t know what they were well enough to do so.
He hadn’t even realized he’d shot the deer in much the same way as he’d shot Boulder. His hunting involved making sure he was upwind of his prey and getting within a few hundred yards, close enough for a shot.
If he missed that shot, he either had to find more deer or go hungry. Missing wasn’t something he could afford, so he didn’t. He’d used the same skill to save Kard from Boulder. He hadn’t thought any of that was strange.
He was learning as he went, trying to work out how much of what he could do was his strange gift and how much was something anyone with his background could do. He’d assumed
