Page 36

CHAPTER THIRTY

While Zepharos was moving fast, trying his best to make up for nearly a full day of immobility, Maria and her captors were making decent time, having put quite a bit of distance between themselves and the downed protector while he was incapacitated.

The elites had no idea that her mate was coming for her, but Maddix had a sneaking suspicion, though he couldn’t overtly slow their pace too much.

Of course, Maria was moving a bit slowly on her unsteady feet, the grogginess of her stun blast still slowing her roll, much to the annoyance of Flagro and his sister.

“Move faster!”

“You fucking shot me,” Maria sniped back. “My legs still feel like rubber, asshole, so you only have yourself to blame.”

Flagro had already struck her once, but Maddix stepped in, reminding him that his father wanted her back intact and unharmed.

“He’ll never know.”

Maddix shook his head. “That might bruise. And if you cause any lasting damage, he will know. You would be served well to remember that. This mission has a very specific goal. ”

“I’m well aware of that. And it was me who found her, not you. The mighty tracker would have missed her entirely.”

Maddix extinguished the desire to throttle the spoiled man as best he could. He didn’t succeed entirely, but at least he managed to reduce it to a simmering anger rather than outright open disdain. But that didn’t mean he would hold his tongue.

“Remind me, oh Great Hunter. Was it not you who so confidently decreed we should head the other direction? That we were heading the wrong way?” he asked with faux politeness.

Flagro shrugged, blowing off his own shortcoming with the ease of a man used to bluffing his way out of pretty much anything, his own utter unwillingness to ever admit he was wrong essentially steamrolling any disagreement otherwise.

“I changed my mind,” he said, confidently. “I knew where to go.”

“When I pointed out the trail,” Maddix noted.

“I said I knew which way to go. Do you dare question me, Maddix? Do you doubt my skills? My formidable abilities? You forget, I am Flagro Vinchi, son of Chancellor Vinchi and top-tier competitor in the Husken Games.”

“Of course. How could I forget? Especially when I can learn so much from your example.”

The elite sneered, oblivious to the sarcastic dig. “You do have some talent, Maddix. I’ll give you that. And you did participate in the games. Of course, that is why you are now in the situation you are in, is it not?”

“You know the answer to that.”

“You’re right, I do. And the answer is that while you did take part in the games, you lost. Can’t you see? One of your position will never live up to what a true elite such as Galla and I can achieve.”

“Foolish me for ever thinking otherwise,” the tracker quipped with an exhausted sigh. The fool loved the sound of his own voice. If only he had something useful to say.

“You move to slow. We should be back at the ship by now,” Galla grumbled. “My feet hurt, and I need a shower.”

Maddix shrugged and kept trudging along. “We will be back as soon as we can.”

“My sister is right, you move too slowly,” Flagro agreed.

Maddix once again felt his anger flare. And once more he kept it in check. “You forget, I was forced to carry her much of the way. You could have shared the load.”

“You are the help. It is your job,” the man shot back.

“And yet you were the one who used an absurdly high stun level.”

“So? What of it? It worked, didn’t it?”

“Sure, but you got lucky. What were you thinking? You had no idea how it would react to her physiology, not to mention you utterly sprayed the area in the process. You’re just lucky that you only hit her once, and that it only immobilized her for the better part of a day.”

“She’s fine. You worry too much.”

“And what if you’d killed her? What then? What would your father have to say about that ?”

“She is fine , and you will not speak of this any further. Not to me. Not to my father. Not to anyone . Is that understood? I am the leader. You follow me , not the other way around!”

Maddix caught Maria’s gaze as she shook her head slightly and realized he had gotten a little too heated. A bit carried away. He needed to ease off before this got ugly.

“Of course. You are right. I will follow your lead and keep my opinions to myself.”

And he did just that, falling back and staying close to the prisoner, letting Flagro take the lead.

He knew the way, their guidance devices were pointing the way back to the ship, after all.

Even a child could find it. But a child would, perhaps, have taken a bit more care with the environment, looking around more cautiously rather than charging ahead full of ego and bluster.

They walked in silence a while, and Maria’s legs seemed to be back to full functionality.

Maddix knew she wouldn’t run. She may have wanted to escape, but she wasn’t stupid.

Maddix might conveniently let her go, but the chancellor’s kids would likely open fire, and knowing their lack of control, they could use a deadly setting without realizing it until it was too late.

She stared ahead, focusing on the path Flagro was taking.

It was actually a game trail. Small, but more passable than trailblazing through the brush.

But he wasn’t paying attention, rather he walked ahead as if he hadn’t a care in the world.

But there was a snare up ahead. Even a beginner hunter could see it.

But Flagro did not seem to see the hazard.

Maddix glanced over at her, a little gleam of amusement in his eyes. He saw it too, she realized. Saw it, and wasn’t saying a word.

A few moments later the elite cried out in surprise, then pain, as his foot was violently yanked out from underneath him, his body slamming into the ground before being dragged up into the air.

“Get me down!” he shrieked, clawing at the cord around his ankle. “Get me down, damn it!”

Maddix hurried to his aid, cutting him free and letting him drop with a thud.

“Why did you do that, fool?”

“I did as you asked. You were very emphatic, so I thought speed was of the essence.”

He glanced at Maria, the amusement clear in his eyes, but quickly wiped away as he turned his attention back to the angry young man .

Flagro was fuming. He rolled over and rose to his feet to dust himself off—or, he tried to—but he fell over instead, clutching his leg. His sister rushed to crouch at his side.

“How bad is it?” she asked, gingerly touching his leg.

“It fucking hurts, Galla!”

“Of course it does. Is it broken?”

“How should I know?” he snapped.

Galla leaned back and fixed him with the sort of cold, unsettling stare only a sibling could level at someone to achieve that kind of reaction. She was judging him, and he knew it. Worse, she was his kin and would not be bullied.

Flagro sighed, then gently poked and squeezed his leg, testing the bruised skin first, then seeing if his bones made the horrid grinding sound he’d had the displeasure of enduring once in his youth.

“It hurts, but it doesn’t seem to be broken,” he reported.

“Good. Then we can continue on.” She turned to Maddix, anger in her eyes. “Why didn’t you warn him of the trap? This is your area of expertise, is it not?”

“It is, indeed. But, as you clearly heard, your brother stated that it was he who was leading the expedition. And from the rear, it is much harder to detect any hazards that might lay at the front. I’m sure your brother understands. He is the leader, after all.”

Flagro and Galla both stared daggers at him, but there was no way to talk around the fact that he was right. He was rubbing their noses in it, no doubt, but even so they could not fault his logic. And rather than admit they were wrong, the duo decided to double-down on their bluster.

Flagro straightened himself up, took a swig from what was quite likely not a water flask, and made as if surveying the terrain that lay ahead. “Very well, then we will continue. How far would you say the ship is? ”

“Another day’s walk, give or take,” Maddix replied.

“No, no. That’s not acceptable.”

“We made our approach on foot for a reason. The distance is what it is, I’m afraid.”

He did not like that answer. “No, that will not do. As leader of this group, I am ordering you to activate the ship’s auto-recall.”

“No.”

“No? You dare refuse me?”

“No, of course not. But I simply cannot.”

“Cannot, or will not,” Galla hissed, her eyes sparkling with venom.

“Cannot,” the hunter replied calmly. “You both hiked in just as I did. We were together the entire time, do you recall?”

“Of course, fool.”

“Then you also know as well as I do that the reason I cannot remotely summon the ship is because this terrain is not only hell to fly over, but the ground is also peppered with tall trees that obstruct access, and the rocks jutting around us only compound that obstacle. The ship simply cannot land here.”

Galla looked at the trees and rocky slopes around them. He was right, obviously, but she was a Vinchi, damn it, and she would bend the situation to her will.

“We have explosives, so blast a hole in the trees and make a landing site.”

Maddix actually laughed aloud at that, and utterly organically. He wasn’t messing with her. It was just the most suicidally idiotic idea she’d had yet, and that was saying something.

“Oh, I most definitely will not be doing that. And before you get bent out of shape over it, I would direct your attention to the terrain. Do you recall what I was describing to you both as we made our way here? ”

“You were blathering on about geology and rocks,” Flagro grumbled. “You are truly a bore, Maddix.”

“A bore, perhaps. But one who knows that detonations of that magnitude would make the rocks at our feet unstable. There are caverns and tunnels under these hills. Entire realms spoken of in the old days. And if you set off charges up here, we could cause a weakening of the ground that would surely swallow the ship whole if it set down upon it. And, as we are currently standing on said ground, such an incident might cause a sinkhole so large it might suck us down even without the ship’s weight, and I do not think either of you would wish for that to happen. ”

Flagro and Galla were both fuming, but their self-preservation instincts were stronger than their anger.

“Fine,” Flagro growled. “We hike out. Now get over here and help me. My leg is killing me.”

Maddix gave Maria the slightest of winks then headed to his boss. “Of course. It would be my honor.”

They continued on, moving a bit slower, though Flagro did eventually get over his injury and simply start walking normally again, his tantrum subsided in the interest of making better time.

The delay was substantial, and Maria was less worried about too much hostile attention being paid to her during the trek.

That part was good. But they’d not slowed so much that they wouldn’t still reach the ship the following day, and that meant her respite would be short-lived.

Once they were back in the chancellor’s realm? All bets would be off, and her fate hanging in the balance.