Page 12 of The Mountain King
She touched the thin line of blood on her arm, cursing that she’d taken her jacket off. The leather would have protected her.
“You come here to die, Adjrius?” she shouted.
He laughed, the sound ghostly. “No, indeed. Death isn’t profitable. I’d like an audience with your daughter, if I may. A permanent one, and then I and the twelve men surrounding your home with heavy ammunition and launchers will leave peacefully. Come—one little daughter is a small price to pay.”
Kailigh cursed, slammed the door shut, throwing the bolts home, and darted to her mudroom.
“Red alert!” she shouted, knowing the twins would hear her. The dart had been treated with tranquilizer—the fast-acting kind good enough to take down a rabid horse. She could already feel a creeping numbness spread.
The sound of feet at the back door whispering open told Kai the girls were taking positions, and silently. She’d never been one for all that talking and posturing.
Gritting her teeth against the spreading poison, she ran back into the living room and threw open the door, rolling to the ground. A stone retainer wall the height of a donkey guarded their cottage. Unless her enemies had climbed the trees beyond the clearing, there was no vantage point from where they could attack her or the girls from above.
Sere and Persia would be in their positions. Kailigh kicked out a pre-loosened stone from the wall and aimed her rifle.
Ruthus Adjrius stepped from the forest, one hand resting inside his scarlet brocade vest, streams of light winking off the gold-plated metal of his mechanical arm harness. That had been a nasty surprise. The upgrade from a simple leather sling meant he now had financial backing. Someone rich in a Dome with a taste for Outland female flesh, probably the younger the better. It would explain why after all these years he’d finally tried to nab Cinvarra. Anger boiled to the surface as Kailigh considered that her daughter had been ‘ordered.’ That he’d procured photos of Cin, a description of her temperament then presented them to some dissolute dandy and received the required bounty to net the fish.
“Come out, mistress,” he shouted. “Be reasonable about this.”
Probably didn’t want to risk damaging Cinvarra any more than he already had. Kai’s lip curled and she said nothing. Or he just wanted her to give away her position.
A shot ripped into the tree next to him, shards of bark shattering. He stumbled back, cursing, and Kai let out a small curse of her own. Persia—Serephone wouldn’t have missed.
“Kill the crone,” she heard him snarl. “Try to keep the fillies. If they can be broken, a trio will be worth even more than a single bud.”
* * *
Son of a bordello bitch.
The first whiz of a steam powered short range lobby gun sang in the air. Dirt sprayed, shredding her carefully tended perennials, creating a foot-deep crater in the bed. Kailigh returned fire, aiming in the direction of the enemy fire. She’d rather deal with a gunshot or knife wounds any day. Steam could literally flay the flesh down to the bone, and no one could survive those kinds of burns these days. The agony while a victim died was unbearable.
She heard the cry and thud as one of her bullets met flesh, and smiled, scrambling to another position. Suddenly a swarm of black bees headed from around the side of the cabin and into the forest, a whirring to their song that raised hairs on the back of Kai’s neck. Those were no ordinary bees—they were Sere’s mechanized insects, powered with a bit of her innate magic, with razor sharp wings and tiny feet that in numbers could scratch a man’s eyes out. Her daughter had deployed them only in demonstration, and Kai had sworn her to secrecy. If anyone with any power ever found out what Serephone could do… flesh traffickers would be the last of their worries.
Kailigh cursed as men emerged from the forest, swatting at their clothing. Others advanced behind them, weapons sighted, and fired. She shot until her ammunition was gone and then rose and ran, drawing her long knife, trusting the girls to cover her.
She engaged the first man, counting on his surprise to give her a small initial advantage. Men were always shocked how strong she was, especially when all they saw was a skirt with a decorative rifle. All women carried rifles these days—most knew how to use 'em too. But most females were still at a physical disadvantage in a hand to hand fight with a man. Kailigh wasn’t.
Dropping the first, the second stepped up. Black hair in the corner of her vision—the twins joining the fight. Kailigh stumbled, fell hard on one knee. Going with the motion of her body, she used it to her advantage and drew a knife, twisting at the last second and plunging it into the gut of an assailant.
He screamed, clutching her hand as she twisted the knife. His boot aimed for her but she already was on her feet, shaking off the tranquilizer. She clutched him around the neck, using his sinking body as a shield as she walked backwards.
“Retreat!” she yelled, and the twins backed up with her, expressions calm. When they reached the front door, Persia kicked it open and Kai dropped her body shield, dead bolted the door and whirled, running for Cinvarra’s room. Praying no one had snuck in the rear while she and the girls were occupied.
Gone.
Her heart stopped, and then Serephone entered as Kai heard the creak of the trap door to the basement safe room. The room she’d dug out onlyafterthe house was built, so no one would know it was there.
“She’s downstairs,” Sere said.
Kai exhaled, nodded. “Ammo?”
“Heading there now.”
Kailigh and Serephone reloaded, waited on Persia, and then the three left through the back. If they waited too long, the traffickers would try to storm the house, and there was no way they’d win a gun fight in close quarters, outnumbered. Their best chance was to carefully pick off the shooters one by one with patience and superior skill, counting on the fact that they didn’t want to kill them if it could be avoided.
The back door was disguised by hanging vines as if it were just a wall like the rest of the house. But she’d had enough visitors over the years that someone could have told Rufus about the hidden door.
She slipped out first, crouched lower than the wall, and took up position again. Kailigh cocked the rifle, waited until she had a clear shot, and fired at one of the re-emerging men. One down. Fired again. Another down. Shots on either side of her as the girls followed suit.
