Rilen and Roran leapt back over the fire and took on two of the pursuers each. Aiko walked slowly and threateningly around the fire with me and headed for two more of the men who had their own guns out—but they were our older guns and had only one shot each.
Of course, they were really bad at choosing when to fire those shots and wasted them right at the beginning.
At the same time, Aiko and I engaged them, and they were easy targets, having almost no training with swords. I kept half an eye to what everyone else was doing and tried not to run this terrible soldier through with my sword.
It was a good choice because all of the men managed to take down the others without a second thought to actually keeping one of them alive to question.
I had him on the ground in three easy moves and held the sword at his neck.
“What do you want?”
“Kill the interlopers.”
“Yes, I heard that already.”
“Mistress wishes you all dead.”
“There’s no way that your nutty mistress got word that we were here after just a day,” I snapped.
“The queen sees everything!”
“That’s bullshit.” I grinned. “Your queen is mad. She can’t see the future, and she certainly can’t scry. How did you find out we were here? Who in Lick betrayed us?”
“You’re not so important to be betrayed,” he growled as the others walked up and surrounded us. “You appeared in the town, from parts unknown, and dress differently. Our standing orders were to kill anyone who was not of East S’Kir and a vampire. So don’t think that you’re special.”
I tossed a look at Aiko, who shrugged. “It’s possible. She could have a blanket order out to go after anyone they want, and we’d be a pretty good target. Especially if someone, anyone, not just the cells, saw us come into town. There’s always someone who reports and thinks they are doing the right thing because the crown demands it.” He looked down at the man and grimaced. “Following blindly is what got my sister murdered.”
“There will be more of us soon enough. Queen Niniane has promised us that she will not stop us from taking the local towns as our own. You can kill me now. I expect it.”
I whipped the sword away from his neck and looked to the king standing there. “Hungry, Your Highness?”
“Starving.” He chuckled.
I turned and walked away and heard the man try to get to his feet. I walked toward the fire to find some cloth to wipe my sword with, and I heard the gargling scream that told me Belshazzar had spiked his fangs into the man’s throat with reckless abandon, leaving him writhing in pain as Bel enjoyed his meal.
Dorian rounded the fire again to reach me on the far side. “Kimber, I would like to speak with you.”
“Oh, you would, would you?” I swiped the sword clean with a rag I had in my pack. I’d have to dig out the oilcloth to clean it properly later. I handed him the rag. “Well, I wouldn’t like to speak to you.”
He took the rag, gingerly, and wiped his own sword blade clean. He took his time and eventually let out a sigh. “Kimber, I am not like other druids. I’m old. I’m stuck in my ways. I’m far less likely to trust than you are.”
“Funny, I thought I said I didn’t want to talk,” I answered, digging through my pack for the cloth.
I wasn’t going to make any of this easy for him at all.
“Are you going to be stubborn?”
“Just as stubborn as you always are,” I responded, finally pulling the oilcloth out.
“Kimber...”
I ignored him and carefully cleaned the sword that had been my father’s. Dorian stood over me watching for a few minutes.
“Kimber, will you—would you please talk to me?”
I looked up. “Was that really so hard? To ask to talk with me?”
“I just told you I’m old and stuck in my ways.”
