‘Your plan?’
‘His desires must be changed to suit ours.’
‘It is possible.’
‘He feels love,’ said Blair again, and raising his voice enough only to get her attention, he called out to Tarsha. ‘Woman!’
Tarsha jerked her head up in surprise, confused at the sudden break in silence. Realising then that she had been called, she stood and walked to the two Daijuar.
‘My name is Tarsha, Sentinel.’
Blair bowed slightly, and then inclining his head toward Jaden and the girl he asked, ‘Who is she?’
‘She is a girl from his village,’ said Tarsha.
‘His partner?’
‘I don’t know. I haven’t spent much time with them, but I think so.’
Blair seemed pleased. ‘She will accompany us to Ceahlin,’ he said. ‘You will need to take care of her while we see to training.’
‘What has been planned?’ asked Tarsha.
Blair turned to Adonis, then back to Tarsha. ‘It is time for rest, Tarsha, we have a long way to travel after next wake.’
Tarsha eyed Blair suspiciously, and was about to protest, but then thought better of it. She was accustomed to the secretive ways of the Daijuar and knew she would not be able to draw an answer out of them, no matter what trick or method she employed.
‘Then I will bid you both a pleasant night,’ she said, and returned to camp where she made a fuss of finding the most comfortable piece of dirt, as if only to show that if they were not going to humour her or bring her into their secretive loop, she would at least be treated well by something this night.
Chapter Seventeen
They do not kill or maim, they deceive to use another’s name.
January 23, 997 R.E.
In the crisp hours of dawn, a lone man strode across the dew-coated grass. All was quiet, the silence broken only by the occasional song of a nearby bird, or a slight breath of wind rustling the leaves above. The lone man approached the two fallen men in the clearing, studying the bullet wounds of the first, making sure he was deceased, before making his way to the one dressed in the same uniform as he wore himself. There were no bullet wounds on this man’s body, only an injury to his right ear that was now encrusted in dark dried blood. The lone man kicked the foot, trying to wake him. After several more kicks, there was movement. The man on the ground stirred, his head tilting from left to right before his eyes opened. After a moment he seemed to recall where he was.
‘Failure to report sighting, loss of target, awareness given to enemy—the Alliance does not look favourably upon such things,’ said the lone man with a wolfish grin, revealing two missing teeth on the left side. He straightened his gloves as he spoke with casual authority and then withdrew a gun from his pocket.
The man on the ground looked up in terror and tried to jump forward to tackle his accuser, but collapsed before he had made it, a single shot to the head causing him to fall lifeless onto the ground at the other man’s feet.
Calmly, the lone man took out a black communicator and spoke slowly into it. ‘General Scout Infantry Nineteen reporting; target’s tracks located moving northeast to Corsec, accompanied by three or more.’
‘Do you have visual?’
‘Negative. Target has moved before morning. GSI17 has been deceased for twelve hours.’
There was a slight pause on the communicator as the information was taken in. ‘Acknowledged. Proceed as planned.’
‘Received,’ said the scout, and continued in the direction the tracks led him.
Kobin Guyde was standing on the fort’s wall in Callibra when the soldier approached him.
‘Sir.’
Kobin looked over his shoulder.
‘We have word from GSI19, he has located the target.’
‘Is he alone?’
‘No, sir. He travels with at least three others.’
Kobin said nothing, gathering his thoughts. Jaden was still alive, and now several others accompanied him. They could have been survivors from the village, others who had made it out, but so far into the wilderness, the chances of meeting with them would have been slim. It was more likely he had met with the Daijuar, a travelling band perhaps. The Daijuar must have travelled together, in small groups, with more than Kobin had expected. He had assumed they would travel in pairs, but now it seemed they were in threes or even fours. More interesting was that between here and a few days’ travel north on foot, there had been Daijuar. They must have had a place of hiding in this land. There was hope. He could yet deliver what he had promised. The search would go on.
He would need help from the Alliance to make his search easier. It would take years, if not decades alone. But he would need authorisation from General Alkon Zaccarah first, and it would be no easy task to get it. The general wanted Jaden dead. To use Jaden travelling with the Daijuar as reason for a search would be signing over his life, and even then, there was no guarantee the general would permit using his equipment to locate the Daijuarn lair. Jaden’s existence had to remain secret.