He struggled and fell backward, thrashing for a few moments before lying still.
“Hey!” the other guard shouted, pulling a thick baton from his belt and advancing.
I pulled a loaded blow gun from my boot, aimed, and let out a puff of air. The feathered dart flew through the space between usand stuck in the side of his neck, just barely puncturing his skin, but it was still enough.
He gagged, ripped it out, and ran at me. “You brat!” he howled, taking a swipe with the baton.
I pressed my thumb to my nose to taunt him, waggling the rest of my fingers, then ran around the back of the carriage. He followed, but within twenty seconds, he dropped to his knees and passed out.
My gaze turned to the driver, who had gotten down from his seat and was watching with wide eyes and an open mouth.
“Your turn,” I told him. “Do you want to do this the hard way or the easy way?”
His eyes darted down to my perfectly functional, uninjured legs. “What…?”
“Not everything is as it seems.” I pulled another dart out of my boot.
“But…but you’re just a boy,” the driver squeaked, backing away. “Why are you doing this?”
“It’s nothing personal,” I told him. “Just business.”
He turned and ran, but another quick puff of air sent a dart flying into his retreating back, through his thin tunic. Amused, I carefully put my dart gun away and watched him run until he staggered and dropped about two stone throws away.
“I’ll tend to you on the way out,” I said with a chuckle in his direction, then patted the horses. “And I’ll get you two going in just a minute here.”
I rolled the guards’ bodies off the road and covered them with a few branches. When I came back, the man inside was beginning to stir.
“Oh, good,” I told him as I knotted rope tightly around his hands and legs. “It’s always more interesting to talk to my targets before I hand them over.”
“Target? Who sent you?”
“My employer. You’ve had a price on your head for a while, Silas.”
“How do you know my name?”
I grinned. “I know more than that. You’ve been involved in the illegal slave trade with Ebora for some time now, haven’t you? About twenty-five years?”
His face went pale. “No.”
My tongue clicked the top of my mouth. “I shouldn’t be surprised you’re a liar as well. It seems that your mother didn’t teach you anything at all.” I clapped my hands together. “Now, I have a generous proposition for you and I want you to listen very closely. I’m about to ask you a question. If you can answer correctly, I’ll allow you to go free. If you can’t help me, you get taken to my employer and I collect your bounty. So either way, I win, but I promise that you will want the former option.”
Silas glowered.
“About fifteen years ago, a family in Ebora was captured and sold into slavery—a father, a mother, and a teenage girl named Nora. There was also a six-year-old girl who was left behind. Did you sell them? And if so, who did you sell them to?”
“That’s it? That’s all the information I get? That’s impossible to say; I can’t remember.”
“So you’re choosing to be handed over?”
“No, no. Just give me a minute to think.”
I tossed my knife into the air and caught it. “Want me to help you remember? I would gladly do so.”
Perspiration broke out on his forehead. “I remember, I remember! I picked up some families in Ebora, but I always split them up and sold the slaves separately. The adult women I usually sold to the slavers. They have a warehouse somewhere near the docks here in Berkway.”
“And the others?” I asked coldly. “What of the other family members?”
“The men I would usually sell to the work camp outside Ebora’s capital.”
