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It was very dusty along the road for a mile or two because of the army, and they kept to the grass beside itHer horse startled a rabbit and before she could even register the fact, Baerd had notched an arrow and shot, and the animal was deadThey traded it a short while later at a farmhouse for a pitcher of ale and some bread and cheese and then went on
Late in the day, by the time they had made their slow way back to the village, Catriana bad convinced herself that the incident had been unfortunate, but not really important after all
Eight days later they were in Tregea townThey had seen no other soldiers in the intervening week, their path having taken them far off the major roadsThey left the new cart and goods at their usual inn and walked down to the central marketIt was late in the afternoon, a warm day for springLooking north between the buildings toward the docks, Catriana could see the masts of the first ships to come up the river after the buy chloe paddington handbag winterSandre had stopped at a leather stall to have repairs done to the belt that held his swordAs she and Baerd moved through the crowded square, a Barbadian mercenary, older than most, moving with a limp, and probably drunk on spring wine, stumbled out of a tavern, saw her, and lurched over to grope clumsily at her breasts and between her legs
She shrieked, more startled than anything else
And a moment later wished with all her heart that she had not done soBaerd, just ahead of her, wheeled, saw the man, and with the same deadly, reflexive speed that had killed the rabbit, flattened the Barbadian with a colossal blow to the side of his head
And Catriana knew, knew in that moment with utter and absolute certainty, that he was striking out not just against a drunken reserve guard, but against the officer who had touched him with a sword by that grove in Certando a week before
There was a sudden, frightened silence around themAnd then an immediate babble of soundThey looked pasha de cartier at each other for a blurred, flashing second
"Run!" Baerd ordered harshly"Meet tonight by the place where you came up from the river last winterIf I am not there go on by yourselvesThere are only a handful leftEanna guard you all!"
Then he was gone, sprinting through the square the way they had come, as a cluster of mercenaries began fanning out quickly through the crowd toward themThe man on the ground had not movedCatriana didn't wait to see if he wouldShe cut off the other way as fast as she could runOut of the corner of her eye she saw Sandre at the leather stall watching them, his face loose with shockShe was careful, desperately careful, not to look at him, not to run that wayThat one of them, oh, Triad please be willing, one of them might make it from this place alive and free, with the names known and the dream still carried toward Midsummers's fires
She darted down a crowded street and then sharply left at the first crossing into the warren of fake cartier watches twisting lanes that made up the oldest quarter of Tregea near the riverOver her head the second stories of houses leaned crazily out towards each other, and what filtered through of the sunlight was completely blocked in places by the enclosed bridges that connected that ramshackle buildings on either side of the street
She looked back and saw four of the mercenaries following her, pounding loudly down the laneOne of them shouted a command to haltIf any of them had a bow, Catriana thought, she was quite likely to die in the next few secondsDodging from side to side she cut to her right down an alleyway and then quickly right again at the first crossing, doubling back the way she had come
There were three names on Baerd's list here in Tregea, and she knew where two of them might be found, but there was no way she could go to them for succor, not with the Barbadians so close behindShe would have to lose the pursuit herself, if she could, and leave it to Sandre to make women rolex watches the contactOr Baerd, if he survived
She ducked under the flapping ends of someone's wash hanging above the street, and knifed over to her left toward the waterThere were people milling about in the lanes, glancing up with mild curiosity as she went byTheir glances would change in a moment, she knew, when the Barbadians rumbled through after her
The streets were a hopelessly jumbled mazeShe wasn't certain where she was, only that the river was north of her; at fleeting intervals she could glimpse the topmost masts of the shipsThe waterfront would be dangerous though, much too open and exposedShe doubled back south again, her lungs sucking for airBehind her, she heard a crashing sound and then a cacophony of irate shouts and curses
She stumbled going around another corner to her rightEvery moment, every turning, she expected this chaos of lanes to lead her straight back into her pursuersIf they fanned out she was probably finishedA wheelwright's cart blocked the fake gucci handbags lane |
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