The first man was still on his feet and took a wild swing at Teer. The young Merik had half a head on the escaped prisoner and turned to catch the fist on his shoulder before taking a swing of his own.
He took several solid hits from the prisoner before he landed a solid blow to the side of the other man’s head, sending the bandit reeling to the ground. It was clear to Teer that neither of them was trained in unarmed combat, but the other man was down.
Then fire burned across his back as the second prisoner stabbed him with the knife. He turned with the blow, leading to the knife scoring across his entire back.
His gun was in his hand and he almost unconsciously rammed it into the bottom of the bandit’s chin. The man’s eyes widened in sudden terror and Teer snarled at him.
“Drop the fucking knife.”
They were frozen for several eternal-feeling moments—and then the knife fell to the ground with a soft thud. Teer stepped backward, the gun still trained on the prisoner. He detached Kard’s spare set of manacles from his belt and held them out to the man.
“Lock yourself in,” he ordered. “Do it!”
The bandit obeyed, the locks on the manacles clicking into place as terror gave way to resignation—and then a spark of anger.
"Behind you!" he snapped as Teer linked the manacles to the horse line.
Teer half-turned, keeping the gun on the manacled prisoner, to see that a third prisoner had either had the knife in between these two or had found a different way to escape their bonds. They weren’t bothering with the horses and had taken off into the trees.
That could be enough. Teer knew as well as anyone that a man could outlast a horse over a long distance—and outmaneuver one in rough terrain where the horse couldn’t get up to speed. Rough terrain like the forested hills the prisoner was running into.
“Kard!” he bellowed. “Runner!”
He was moving as he shouted. The first bandit would probably be unconscious for a while and the second was manacled and tied to the horse line. While he might be able to get free of that if left for long enough, he wasn’t going to get that long.
Teer hadn’t had time to try and train Star to come when called, so he lost critical seconds getting onto the horse. He needed her to catch the running man—and he needed the loop of rope tied to her saddle. Habit meant he kept the lasso ready to go, even if he wasn’t chasing calves and steers anymore.
Today, that lasso was going to save a man’s life, and he grimly touched his heels to Star’s flanks. She took off eagerly, picking up his anger and determination like the clever beast she was as he rode her into the woods.
He could still see the runner. The best answer was to shoot the man, but Teer didn’t want to try that first. He pushed Star forward, trusting the horse’s own wits to dodge around the trees as best she could.
The runner had a very good idea of what a horse could and couldn’t do, Teer realized. He was intentionally picking a path that Star was going to have trouble with—and headed toward steeper slopes and denser woods.
If Star didn’t get close enough, the man was going to get away—and Teer was not letting that happen.
“Go, girl,” he urged the horse, driving his heels in again to urge her to greater speed. He couldn’t ask this of her for long, not in the middle of the woods. He pulled slightly on the reins, dodging a patch of ground that looked too soft.
The distance was evaporating, but Teer was running out of time. He released the reins and pulled the lasso from the saddle. He had to trust Star…and he had to trust that he was everything Kard and Doka kept telling him he was.
The man was maybe inside the length of the rope. Maybe. Teer would never have tried this on the farm, but it was this or kill him.
He threw the lasso. It shouldn’t have been possible. No one could land a lasso at over forty feet—but he knew, in the moment he let go, that he had the man. The rope loop dropped around the bandit’s shoulder and Teer yanked. The loop snapped tight and the man’s feet kept going forward as his torso stopped.
Teer caught up with him a few moments later, bringing Star to a halt as he looked down at the prisoner.
“Going somewhere, my friend?” he asked. “Because it looks to me like you’re spending the rest of the day as cargo.”
The bandit was struggling back to his feet, but he couldn’t reach the lasso loop to undo it. Teer dismounted and caught a futile attempt to strike him in his hand.
“You were likely right to figure I’m easier to escape than the other two,” he told the man as he used the rope from the lasso to bind the bandit’s wrists together. “Easier, though, didn’t mean you were going to make it.
“Unity might let you live, but if you run again, I will shoot you,” he concluded as he tossed the now-trussed man onto Star’s back. “My mercy has practical limits.”
Teer rode back up to the horse line to find Kard waiting for him, busily tying the unconscious bandit back onto his horse.
“He’s been out a while,” the El-Spehari noted. “Might pay for that later, but you did good.”
Teer nodded silently, feeling weaker than he wanted to admit. He rode Star up next to Kard and slowly started to dismount. He made it most of the way to the ground before his legs collapsed underneath him and he fell on his face.
“Shit,” he heard Kard curse. “You should have said you were injured. Doka!”
Teer managed to lift his face off the ground to breathe clearly, but he couldn’t seem to find the strength to
