“If Boulder had ’em for more than a day, I know the story,” the Wardkeeper agreed. The cheerfulness was replaced with a grim expression. “Jenny, Lota!” she barked.
Two hard-bitten women in gray leathers with Wardwatch repeaters materialized from the building.
“We got three kidnappees in the coach,” the Keeper told them. “Help ’em out; get ’em fed and clean. We’ll need to put them up somewhere away from men for a bit while we sort ’em out.”
“Our house will do,” one of the two women said with a glance at the other. “Ain’t no men living with us.”
“Wasn’t gonna ask; glad you volunteered,” the Wardkeeper said. “Carry on.”
She turned back to Kard as the two Wardwatches stepped onto the coach to take over the homesteaders.
“I’m Wardkeeper Ashan,” she told him. “I think we’ve met before?”
“Brought a bounty in last turning,” he agreed. “Smaller, just the one man.”
Ashan snorted.
“I’ll truthstone this lot and check our books,” she told him. “The coach yours?”
“Belongs to the Odar Exchange. The horses are the passengers’, as I said,” Kard replied. “I have other items for the exchange, but if you could see to the coach?”
“Of course. And I’ll have my Watches take the bounties off you,” Ashan told him. “Horses are yours; this lot won’t need them.”
Kard bowed his head as more gray-leather-clad Wardwatches emerged from the stone building without waiting for the Keeper to call for them. Ashan gave sharp orders and they started hauling the prisoners down.
“How far did you have to bring ’em?” she asked.
“Three days’ ride up from the forests around Odar,” Kard said. “Boulder caught himself the coach and was fixing to rob the exchange in the mining town.”
“Good thing you got there,” Ashan replied. “Most of the other hunters started here.”
She shook her head.
“’Course, that means I’m short of hunters for anything else, so swing on by in the morn and we’ll talk writs and rewards,” she said. “Give me a quarter-candlemark ’fore you ride on, Hunter Kard. I’ll have your stones.”
According to the clock tower on top of the stone Wardkeeper’s office, it took the three of them most of that quarter-candlemark to reorganize their now-unburdened collection of thirteen horses. The two Wardwatches took the homesteaders’ two horses with them as they moved the coach and the rescued prisoners to safety.
Both of Teer’s companions kept a careful eye on him as he worked. He was honestly feeling fine now. Doka’s poultice was still on his back, but it had worked wonders.
Almost as soon as they finished tying the last of the horses together and choosing which ones would keep their gear, Wardkeeper Ashan emerged from her office again. This time, she held a small leather purse that she offered to Kard.
“Boulder delivered dead, seven brigands delivered alive,” she said. “There’s a signed receipt in the bag and I kept the writ. I rounded up,” she concluded. “There’s twenty-five stone in the bag, Hunter Kard. Ten in stones, fifteen in paper. You’re welcome to count it.”
Kard opened the purse, looking inside quickly before closing it and tucking it into an inside pocket of his long gray duster.
“It looks right and I know where to find you,” he told her. “Thank you, Wardkeeper.”
“Thank you, Hunter Kard. That murderer filled too many graves in Carlon alone, let alone the rest of the Territories. Unity’s far better served with him dead.”
Kard rejoined Doka and Teer as the Wardkeeper returned to her chair on the front steps of her office. That was apparently her main working space, making her available to the folks of her town.
“I didn’t think even this big a wardtown would be this loud,” Teer admitted grimly as Kard opened the purse again.
“Almost twenty times the size of Alvid,” the bounty hunter reminded him. “It’s a different world.”
“Too much for Doka. Doka stay to watch you, but must go soon,” she said. “Doka get paid?”
“You did far more than I asked or contracted,” Kard told her. “I believe I owe you a stone and a half. Here’s three.”
Doka raised an eyebrow, but she took the stamped crystals without comment.
“I know what those poultices cost, if a non-Kotan can even find them,” the bounty hunter murmured, softly enough that Teer barely heard him. He then gestured Teer over. “And your share, Teer.”
To Teer’s shock, Kard poured six stones into his hands.
“A quarter for you, the rest for me,” the bounty hunter said. “Welcome to junior partnerhood.”
Kard grinned widely.
“Now, I’m going to take the coach and Boulder’s magical saddlebags over to a place I know does business with Iko. If I can impose for two more favors, Doka?”
Her stones had already vanished somewhere, but they were clearly on her mind as she smiled brilliantly at Kard.
“Whatchu need?” she asked.
“Can you go with Teer to sell the horses? I want to hang onto two as pack animals. Between the pair of you, I figure you can judge that. Once you’ve sold them, take the kid to that tailor. That shirt’s a wreck and he’s brought in a bounty now.”
Kard flicked the long gray duster he wore, setting it to fluttering in the wind.
“There are traditions to uphold. He needs a longcoat.”
“Chull can do that,” Doka confirmed. “Doka help, then check wounds. What hotel?”
“Anristo’s,” Kard said. “I’ll meet you there by sundown.”
24
The stables, of course, paid far less to buy the horses from Teer than he’d have paid to buy similar horses from them. The bandits’ horses were decently trained and healthy animals, easily worth seventy or eighty shards apiece.
In the end, Teer and Doka got five stone out of the stablemaster for all eleven of the beasts. He gave the animals one last pat each and then led the two pack horses they were keeping out to join Doka.
“He make good stones off us,” Doka grumbled. “Robbery.”
“The stable has to feed them and take care of
