Author Topic: Rust 1  (Read 12457 times)

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Offline Daen

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Rust 1
« on: October 10, 2022, 05:03:29 AM »
Part 2: Rust

I wiped my blade as clean as I could on the dead Torgan’s tunic, but felt around the edge to make sure. The wind had changed slightly, but we were still downwind from the base camp. Irritated, I turned to face Esme. “Why did you have to say that to him? You heard him pause, right? He definitely knew something was up!”

“I’m sorry!” She responded curtly. “It just slipped out, ok? I’m not used to killing people like you are, remember?” She helped me drag the bodies off the road so that they wouldn’t be accidentally found. They’d start to stink in a few days, but by then we would both be long gone.

As for her words, they’d been true enough. Esme had only killed once before this, just after we’d first met. Before that, she had used her… bow, she called it, to hunt animals in the wilds of the Pino Isles. I’d been working with her for a long time now, and it still amazed me what she could do at a distance! Still, I tried not to show it too much. Those eyes of her were very keen at picking up my feelings. “From what I could tell, you did fine in the fight. You took down two soldiers yourself, and saved one victim, though I’m still not sure he was telling the truth about his water-carrying errand.”

“He wasn’t.”

I rounded on her. The boy hadn’t been gone more than a few minutes; we could still easily catch him and the cart. “Wait, what? How do you know?”

“I looked inside one of the pots before we approached the kid. Whatever that stuff was, it’s not water.”

“Damn. If he was a Torgan spy, and they were just keeping him prisoner as part of the ruse, he probably ditched the cart and is long gone by now.”

She put a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t think he is, Rust. I mean, who would there be to fool? Other Torgan soldiers? Besides, did you catch what he said about the Sanctuary story?”

“I did. You think it has to do with you?”

I could feel her shrug in response. “I’m the only sighted person I’ve ever even heard of, in hundreds of years. It could just be a myth like he said, but if it’s true, I want to investigate. I’ve come too far to just let it be now. If this Sanctuary is real, and it needs a sighted person to find it, then that’s my next goal.”

That could be a problem. I had a very specific task here with the Torgans. I could do it without her, as I had been for years now, but she would make it a lot easier. “Do you want to go after him before he gets too far away?”

“No, I’ll help you here, first. For all we know, the Torgans wanted him for a different reason, and we’ll find out what it is.”

I grinned. I had been good on my own, but together we were practically unstoppable! “You’re something else, you know that?” I leaned over and kissed her.

“All too well,” she said with that smile-tone to her voice, and responded in kind.
« Last Edit: October 10, 2022, 05:06:35 AM by Daen »