Blue Fire. Janice Hardy

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СКАЧАТЬ helped me truss her up in the nets like a chicken on All Saints’ Day. The tracker’s screams turned to angry squeals and curses.

      The boy ran to his sister and dragged her out of the nook. Danello popped out from behind the traps. “More trackers are headed this way,” he said, pointing over his shoulder.

      We left, staying low and moving as fast as we dared.

      I slowed as we neared North-Dock Bridge, checking the crowded street for the guards the tracker claimed were on all the bridges. Dozens of haulers and day workers shuffled between the docks and the production district on the main isle, but none of them looked like guards.

      We crossed the bridge slowly, moving with refugees and workers. On the other side of the bridge, I angled to the canal side of the street so we wouldn’t draw attention from some soldiers hassling a family of squatters.

      “Danello, Aylin,” I said, “drop behind and check for anyone following.”

      “Got it.”

      Aylin vanished into the crowd, light on her feet as the wind, Danello less so, but he was getting better at it.

      A refugee jostled me. I turned, glad for the excuse to look behind us. A block away, two men walked side by side. Their clothes said poor, but they didn’t glance at the soldiers or shy away when anyone walked close. Their dark hair was neatly trimmed and neither wore a beard. People that nondescript were usually the ones you had to watch out for. Danello and Aylin were about twenty feet behind them, walking on opposite sides of the street.

      A burned smell drifted over the bridge as we crossed into what used to be a Baseeri-occupied neighbourhood. Most of it had been burned in the riots a few months ago, right after the old Luminary had claimed Geveg’s Healers were all dead. Well, that and me proving the Luminary had been lying and was really trying to steal the League’s pynvium. No one had been happy about that.

      They’d gone mad, attacking the League, burning down Baseeri-owned shops and homes, giving the Governor-General an excuse to send in his soldiers and a legitimate reason to hurt us.

      I looked at the Healers’ League, rising above the other buildings in the distance. The gaping hole where the Luminary’s office had been was a sharp reminder of why the trackers were after me.

       What’s done is done and I can’t change it none.

      “Nya?” Tali said, looking at me funny. “Why are we slowing down?”

      “Sorry.” I picked up the pace again.

      Three men rounded the corner in front of us, their gazes scanning the street. The tracker’s men? I turned around, heading back the way we’d come.

      The tracker woman stepped out of an alley.

      I froze. So did Aylin and Danello, now in front of me and on the other side of the tracker. Having her trapped between us didn’t make me feel any safer.

       A plan, I need a plan.

      The tracker smiled, but there was nothing friendly about her grin. She had a sword out this time and her knife in the other hand.

      “Found you before lunch,” she said. “Stewwig owes me ten oppas.”

      “You must have me confused with someone else,” I said, trying to hold her attention while Aylin and Danello crept up behind her.

      “I don’t think so.”

      Danello dived at the tracker, sending her flying forward and into a pain merchant’s window. The glass cracked, but didn’t break. Folks turned, their hands covering worried frowns.

      “Run!” I yelled. Two of the three men closing on us blocked my way. Another was coming up behind them. Huge, with thick arms, his sleeves rolled up like a man who was there to do a hard day’s work.

      I shoved Tali away from the approaching men. She stumbled a few steps then stopped, her expression waffling between fear and anger. The Taker and her brother fled for the canals.

      “Tali, go,” I cried.

      “Not without you!” She darted over and grabbed my hand, trying to pull me away. Aylin was running at us, her hand outstretched as if she planned to grab me too.

      The tracker was on her feet again. She whipped out another pynvium rod and aimed it at Tali and Aylin.

       Whoomp.

      A strange tingle ran down my arm. Aylin screamed and collapsed to the street. Tali didn’t, but she should have.

      We gaped at each other longer than was wise. She’d resisted the flash! She’d never done that before. I’d seen flashed pain hurt her. She wasn’t immune like I was. How had she done it?

      Two of the tracker’s men tackled us. I dropped and landed hard on the street next to an unconscious Aylin. I grabbed her ankles and drew.

      Tingling pain ran up my arm, not nearly as sharp as real pain would have been, and it wouldn’t last long. The tracker’s men grabbed me. I struggled to turn and grab their exposed flesh, but couldn’t reach them.

      Danello leaped on the big man from behind. He spun and punched Danello in the face. Danello snapped back and went down.

      I kicked the shins of one of the men holding me. He cried out and loosened his grip on my arm. I yanked hard, sliding my wrist out enough to get my hand on him.

      I pushed.

      He hissed and let go, shaking his arm like something had stung him. I reached for the man holding Tali a heartbeat before thick arms wrapped around my shoulders. I reached up, barely able to get my fingers on his forearm. I shifted the last of what I’d taken from Aylin into him. He grunted softly but didn’t let go.

      Tali’s arms were pinned now, and another man was tying her hands. She tried to bite him and he slapped her.

      “Hey!” I kicked out at him, but missed.

      A few fishermen scowled and started forward, but the tracker stepped up and held something out.

      “This is a legal bounty warrant on the Duke’s orders.” She smiled briefly, satisfied as a cat. “Any interference in this claim is punishable by conscription.”

      That stopped the fishermen. They might risk prison to help me, but no one wanted to fight for the Duke. The crowd that had gathered grumbled and moved away.

      “You’ve given us quite the chase,” she said.

      “Who are you?” I asked, shaking as a soldier bound my hands with rope. Aylin and Danello lay on the street, softly moaning.

      “Most call me Vyand.” She stepped forward and held the reward poster next to my face. “Good likeness, except for the hair. That was smart.” Vyand grinned at the big man. “Look at that, Stewwig, two Takers for the work of one. Not bad.”

      “Let her go!”

      Vyand stayed just out of kicking distance. “Merlaina СКАЧАТЬ