Page 62 of Defiance
“Novak?” the figure panted, easing out of his fighting stance.
Novak’s ear twitched, hiscolearapicking up a familiarchemiatrail, though he hadn’t sampled it fresh in years. Bjorek Dasin, the only other advenan serving in Ferulis’s covert fleet. He wore the standard black spec op tac, but a new chevron reflected the light at his neck. He was in training as a covert elite.
“Sorry, kral. I mistook you for the other one.” He jerked his head at Pioden, limp in the sand.
“I’m impressed. Headwinds are strong. How’d you find us?”
“The way everyone else does it.” The young agent smacked the air and hit an invisible hull with a metallickonk.“A needle with thermal optics.”
Bjorek grinned as he hoisted Novak to his feet. He used the knife stuck in the agent’s mangled plumes to cut his tail free. It fell limp to the ground, uncontrollable from the lack of circulation. Novak groaned from the tingling pain as Bjorek dragged Pioden closer for the biometric lock on the cuffs.
Once freed, he reached his weakened hands into the sand for Charlie’s medallion. He dragged it back to him. The chainwas broken, so he slid it into the pocket of his prison uniform. “Ferulis sent you?”
“Of course. Think your fingers work well enough to pop out an eye?”
“He’s not dead yet.”
Bjorek tasted the air with a glint in his eye.
“Then let’s fix that first, and I’ll tell you what I know.”
27
Pioden’s vitals were still strong an hour later, thanks to the pulse puck Novak and Bjorek had hardwired into his holotab. They’d taken an eye in a clear specimen cube, his dominant hand’s index finger and thumb, and then left him to the sand. His veins would collapse with livor mortis before the end of the day, though it was unpredictable how long they had. An hour? Five at most. Then Guei would know her brainwashed pet was walking Tailu.
Bjorek touched down in the central courtyard of their guest riad. The potted plants barely ruffled as the sleek machine hovered with its cockpit open. Just enough space for two grown men.
“I heard that this is the type of needle Commander Atarian used when he abducted Olivia,” Bjorek mused, hopping out first. Novak slinked out of the backseat looking like an escaped convict that had survived a stone washer. Technically, it wasn’t far from the truth. “Do you think she knows that?”
The agent stretched his spine, throwing off his prison clothes. He crouched naked in the courtyard next to a delicate fulgurite fountain set in the wall, using his tattered tunic to wash blood from his back. When he was done, he wrapped Charlie’s medallion around his wrist and hooked it into his hardened plumes.
“If she did, there would be retaliation. I’d bet half my cache we’d find him stuffed in the back with his spires poking the seat cushions.”
Bjorek hissed with amusement, but Novak’s eyes dilated, slashed pupils widening.
Charlie’schemiadraped their shared courtyard, but she hadn’t been there since the party. He climbed gracefully up onto the archways of the courtyard, looking over the city like a dragon surveying a kingdom. The wind buffeted his ears and lifted his plumes, ruffling the orange downy underneath. A bit of herchemiabled into hiscolearaand her magenta mist rose about the ancient stones and plaster.
It wasn’t hard to find her, though. She was at the tea house two blocks away, vibrant dark pink wisps of scent rising out of the stone lattice windows. Sath was with her, his bronze powders mingling with herchemiain the air.
Novak’s claws dug into the soft sandstone, but he held back his growl. Sath’s wide eyes and firm grip on Charlie’s shoulders flashed through his mind. The mob that overwhelmed his tail and rendered him ineffective. It could happen again if he ventured into the city.
“We should wait,” he rumbled, mesmerized by the call to Charlie. The calculating patience of a hunter settled over him, overwhelming his urgency and hunger. He licked his fangs back, swallowing venom, intent on catching his quarry no matter how long it took to do it safely.
“Did you—” The young advenan stopped short. Novak blinked down at him from his perch like a raven, his tail wrapped around the pillar to keep his balance. “You know.”
“Yes,” he said simply, then gave Bjorek a jackal’s smile in the bright pink morning light. “There’s nothing sweeter than the Hunt. Charlie is mine, now and forever.”
Bjorek’scolearaswelled, his plumes rising like hackles. He expelled his breath in sharp exhales, panting to keep his composure as his tail paced the courtyard, smacking this way and that, leaving scars in the pottery.
It took him a long time to settle while Novak leaned into the wind, watching with all his senses. He came down only long enough to put on clothes and choose his gear. Charlie moved throughout the day with Sath by her side. He didn’t need to follow them to know they visited a garden near the Canal, or stopped by HIXBS’s campus. If he did follow them, the hjarna wouldn’t survive.
Darkness was descending when Bjorek joined Novak among the arches. His green plume mail blended in with the marbled sandstone well enough. Both of them stilled like gargoyles on their perches, eyes unblinking and fixed on the riad gate.
Sath’s hesitant concern filtered up through the courtyard first. “Are you sure, yes, that you’re alright? Yesterday…”
“Pure shite, the whole thing,” Charlie huffed. She came into view and Novak leaned a little closer, locking up his plume mail so he couldn’t breath. Couldn’t move.
“Right, hm.” Sath’s eyes were dim, far away and deep in thought. “Are you sure, yes, that you are comfortable returning here, Charlie?”
