Chapter Eighteen
It clicked in Zhor’s mind as he watched the conkerrie make off with Ah-na that this was the two bounty hunters his old friend had warned him about—this conkerrie and the zorph he had stolen Ah-na from were the two who had gone to the village searching for her. And she was in far more trouble than merely being stolen for a mate.
He did not know why he had not made the connection immediately except that he had been in a state of denial from the time Baden had told him her people wanted her dead.
And nearly getting his head bashed in had rattled his brains!
He shook the thoughts. It was pointless to waste time blaming himself for his failings. He had to take her back before the bastard could turn her over to her people.
Always assuming he did not mean to present them with a corpse.
He shook that thought, as well. If he had meant to kill her he could have done it already.
It was cold comfort, but he could not allow his mind to be tied up in useless speculation. He needed to keep his wits about him if Ah-na was to have any chance at all.
It was difficult to merely follow and resist the urge to catch up and challenge the conkerrie, but it did not take a great deal of thought to realize there would be no winners of such a contest. He would have to wait until the conkerrie settled somewhere otherwise even if he succeeded in killing the conkerrie, the chances were high that she would fall to her death. He might be able to pluck her from the conkerrie, but he did not feel very confident that he could.
And beyond that, he would be risking the chance of striking her when he struck at the conkerrie.
No. As little as he liked it, he would have to wait and hope that the conkerrie decided to make camp before reaching the outlanders.
He was in luck. Shortly before dusk, the conkerrie began to glide toward the ground. Keeping watch to make certain the conkerrie didn’t spot him, Zhor dropped to tree top level and kept flying until he was close enough to see where they’d landed. He scanned the terrain then to determine which direction would give him the maximum advantage for an attack and spotted something curious only a mile or so away.
Wondering if this was the conkerrie’s destination, he decided to check it out.
He’d gotten just close enough to determine that it was a compound of some sort—alien he was almost certain—when he slammed into something he couldn’t even see and rebounded, hitting the ground hard enough it rattled every tooth in his head.
He was too stunned and disoriented to move for several moments after he landed.
Raucous laughter penetrated his stupor, however, sending a tsunami of rage washing over him.
* * * *
Annika was still trying to get her ‘land legs’ when Zhor charged through the thick brush and into the small clearing where Ragnor the dragon man was crouched, trying to start a fire. The noise brought the dragon man instantly surging to his feet. He drew his sword from its scabbard as he straightened, meeting Zhor’s attack handily enough to defect the blow Zhor had swung at him.
Annika sucked in a frightened breath that transformed to joy when she realized it was Zhor and back to terror when she saw he was locked in a life or death battle with the dragon man—who was nearly a head taller and probably substantially heavier and with a longer reach.
“No!” she screamed before she considered it might distract Zhor.
The dragon man nearly took his head off when he whipped a look in her direction at the sound.
She clamped both hands over her mouth.
Fortunately, the scream had also distracted the dragon man. Both men managed to recover and counter.
The ringing of the blades of their swords was nearly deafening and the close quarters was almost as detrimental to Zhor as it was Ragnor. She expected any moment that one or the other would trip over her or a bush and go down and it would all be over.
Instead it seemed to go on and on—forever.
She could see Zhor was tiring faster than Ragnor—and no wonder when he’d been hurt by that bastard only a few days earlier.
She had to do something!
The dragon man was going to kill Zhor!
Struggling to get up, she cast around for some kind of weapon and finally found a broken limb that looked sturdy enough to use for a club.
Gripping it with both hands—no choice really when her wrists were still tied together!—she hopped (because her ankles were also still tied together) over until she was close enough to pound on the dragon man with it. Her efforts were too clumsy and too handicapped by her predicament to produce much damage, but she certainly distracted him!
He stumbled over a root and went down.
Unfortunately, he recovered too quickly for Zhor to take advantage.
Also unfortunate—he flattened her when he fell and she lost the grip on her stick. Undaunted, she inch wormed over to him and managed to get a grip on his ankle.
“No help!” Zhor bellowed at her. “Go away, Ah-na! You get hurt!”
He’d scarcely gotten the warning out of his mouth when the dragon man gave him a hefty shove that sent him reeling backwards several steps. He hung his heel on a root and sprawled out on his back.
Annika screamed and gripped the dragon man’s ankle tighter, sinking her teeth into his calf when it seemed he would launch himself at Zhor in spite of her grip on his ankle.
He let out a guttural bellow in response and reached down, grabbed a fist full of her hair and yanked her upright, catching her beneath her breasts and pinning her to one side.
“Unless you are willing to kill the woman yourself, you will stop now!” he snarled at Zhor.
Zhor had already bounded upright, but at that he stopped. It took no more than a glance to see that it would be nearly impossible to hit the bastard without risking striking Ah-na, as well. He dropped his sword. “If you harm her I will kill you slowly,” he growled, furious that he was helpless to do more than throw threats at the bastard.
The dragon man narrowed his eyes. “As it happens, I never intended to harm her.”
Zhor’s lips curled contemptuously. “You expect me to believe that?”
“I do not give a fuck what you believe. She is here because I want to know why her people want her dead. She is key to something and I believe that something will not be good for my people—or yours.”
Some of Zhor’s fury diminished at that. He could not say that trust arose from it. He was still deeply suspicious and deeply concerned about Ah-na. “She is my woman,” he snarled. “I will not allow you to use her for whatever you hope to gain.”
The dragon man studied him speculatively for a long moment and then turned his attention to Annika, who’d finally decided to rest since her struggle to free herself seemed fairly ineffectual. “He is your man? Dis bird man?”
Annika gaped up at the man. She could feel her face flooding with a blush of epic proportions while she struggled for a response. She glanced at Zhor, wondering if he’d just claimed her—or what it was that he’d said that had led the dragon man to ask that question.
The dragon man returned his attention to Zhor. “She does not seem convinced,” he said dryly.
Zhor ground his teeth. “Release her and we will talk.”
The dragon man grinned. “Now I wonder—does that mean you think I am stupid? Or is it that you are that stupid? I think I will hold her against your good will for a few moments more.”
“Explain to me how you think it will help you in any way to turn her over to them?”
The dragon man shrugged. “There is the reward they offered ....”
“And you trust them to hand it over?” Zhor asked sarcastically.
“As a matter of fact, I d not. That is why I captured her alive.” He turned his attention to Annika. “What do you know of it?”
Again, Annika gaped at him in shock. “Know of what?” she asked blankly.
“Why your people would offer a reward for your head?”
Horror washed over her. “They wouldn’t! Why would they do that? I’m just a surveyor—a landscape engineer. I’m not important in any way, really. I can’t believe there’s any reason they would’ve offered a reward like that! You must have heard them wrong!” And what about the zorph, she wondered abruptly, recalling they had also been under the impression that there was a reward for her death?
The dragon man frowned, glanced speculatively at Zhor and relaxed his grip on her. “What is dis? You do?”
“I study the terrain—the area of land—and see if it would be a good place to build a colony—a village. Make sure there are no hazards—or at least that the place is as safe as can be had. Make sure it’s a healthy area—nothing in the soil or air or water to make people sick—like escaping gases, maybe poisonous plants ... that sort of thing. It needs to be close to a good, safe water source—but not in a flood zone.”
The dragon man was thoughtful for some moments when she stopped. “Dere were oders wid you, dah?”
The question triggered an avalanche of emotion and questions. “Captain Stoddard and Navigations officer Phillips ... but they died in the crash as far as I know.”
“Dey thought you also died.”
Annika frowned, struggling with denial. “You mean to say they know I’m alive? How? How would they know? Why haven’t they contacted me? Tried to rescue me?”
Ragnor shrugged. “I no know. Dey know.”
Annika didn’t know how they would’ve found out either, or why they wouldn’t have tried to pick her up.
The reward had to be nonsense! It was certainly nonsensical to her! If they’d wanted her dead they could’ve just pretended to be rescuing her and killed her! And there was no sane reason to want her dead. She was a nobody! What could she possibly ...?
They’d done something. They thought she knew what or could know and they were trying to cover it up. Nothing else made any sense at all. The question was, what? What did she know? What had she found out?
That these people weren’t the primitives—barely more than animals—they’d been led to believe occupied this planet. The huge deposits of ore and minerals were no secret! That was why the planet was targeted.
But that would mean the company was behind it—or at least somebody high up in the company that expected to profit.
It was simple when one followed the money.
She glanced from Ragnor to Zhor. “If you’re right—well I don’t think it’s really about me. It’s about me being a witness to a crime—a monstrous one.”
She frowned thoughtfully, ignoring the startled looks they gave her. “Unfortunately, I can’t think of any way to find out, or get proof—or even blow the lid off of what I think is going on and demand an investigation—that wouldn’t get me killed.
“I thought I might find the evidence I needed in the city ... but I didn’t find anything they couldn’t explain away or dismiss.”
“Esplain,” Zhor said grimly.
Oh yeah! Explain to the victims that they were victims and it was her people that were determined to make them victims? Two victims that barely grasped her language? She shook her head.
“It’s politics and I’ve never really understood that myself—mostly it’s about lies and backstabbing.
“I do know that ground rules for dealing with aliens were established years and years ago at the Andromeda Convention. Something about—if there’s a species of higher intellect already occupying the target world, it has to be determined that they aren’t ... well just basically smart animals who can’t be considered ‘owners’. In that case, all a company has to do is to agree not to disturb the animals’ habitat in a way that could lead to extinction of the species—and/or agree that they’ll clean up their mess—depending upon what they’re after and what it takes to get it. They can claim the world, though, all of the land and they’re in control of the disposition of the land. Then it’s just a matter of laying claim to it and registering it with the convention as theirs.
“If the world is occupied by a well established, intelligent species—that has reached a point in development where they’ve even begun an actual civilization—then they are considered the ‘owners’ of their world. They’re considered intelligent enough to negotiate and to enter into a contract or treaty. If that is the case, then the company that’s interested has to arrange to compensate the owners—they have to buy it—and they can’t own anything the natives aren’t willing to allow them to own.
“It doesn’t matter if the company is the first to get there—if it’s already occupied.
“Honestly, though, that by itself sounds like ... total fiction! I mean, they couldn’t possibly expect to cover up something like this! There’s evidence all over the place, from what I can see—the ancient city along the cliff and the modern city we went to. There must be cities of all sizes left—and that doesn’t even begin to cover the villages that have sprung up since the disaster!”
“Dey destroy cities. Clean away. Bury.”
“What?” Annika demanded in shock. “Who?”
“Your people,” Ragnor responded grimly.