Chapter 366: Attack Outside

They hiked until the pale towers vanished from sight.

The land opened up before them, pitted and rough, of dark stone and low ridges, and with winds that paid no heed to their arrival. For a long while the only sound was the swish of their own boots, and that should have been a comfort, but it was not.

"I keep waiting to hear someone calling our names from behind," Sera finally said.

"They will not," Istra said shortly.

Lucian kept his gaze on the ridges ahead. "How far to the city?"

"If we keep to this pace, and do not waste time on diversions, we should see the outer markers before nightfall," Istra said. "If we get sidetracked, forget it."

Sera adjusted her cloak. "You think that we already have diversions."

"I think that the houses have already taken notice that we were willing to leave them be, and that they would rather have the claim quietly," Istra said.

Lucian agreed. Neutral ground had prevented open confrontations - as well as direct claims - but walking away had been a humiliation to the interested parties. Some might have taken it with a shrug, but few houses ever accepted an insult to their potential earnings without a fight.

They picked up a narrow gorge between two low ridges and the wind changed, was funneled down the passage, and made strange sounds. Lucian stiffened, came to a halt, and the others stopped just as quickly.

"Stop." Istra tensed, and barely kept from running into her own nose as she turned to glare at Lucian’s back. "What?"

"There are people ahead," Lucian said after a moment. "On the ridgelines. To the right."

The first figure came out to meet them from the mouth of the gorge, and was clearly waiting for them to enter it. Another came alongside him, and then four more on the slope to the right. All in dark, worn cloth, and with weapons that were not Authority gray, nor those of the neutral houses.

Veyrn colors ran muted along the folds of their sleeves.

The apparent leader raised a hand, palm out. "Lucian. Now, now, now. We would rather not make this difficult. You walk away with us, the girls go free, and no one gets hurt on the road."

Sera exhaled sharply, "You people certainly have a dramatic flair, do you not?"

The leader’s eyes flicked to her. "You are not the prize, so do not think to be." He turned back to Lucian. "Your people have interfered with our recovery twice, now. You are past the claim range of neutral ground. Neutral ground stayed the claim, but now he walks out."

"Neutral ground ended when he walked out," Lucian said, taking a step forward. "Now you have a Free anomaly on your borders, and Veyrn is prepared to secure him for the higher authorities."

The leader shrugged. "If you want to make a case for ownership, be my guest, but do it after you’ve been secured. This can still be a clean recovery."

Lucian stared at the figures on the ridge, at the way they were blocking their path, and the ones waiting behind them. Clean was not a word he wanted to use at the moment.

"Sera. Stay behind me." he said, and she moved without comment, but he caught the muttered, "I was hoping as much."

Istra was already bringing a short rod from her belt. "If you start this, there will not be enough time for polite posturings from house command."

The leader shrugged. "Then he should not have made polite posturings impossible."

He snapped his fingers, and the first line moved.

Lucian did not wait until they got closer. He drove into the nearest attacker, dumping him on his backside against the ridge. The next man brought a binding rod to his side, but Lucian caught his arm, twisted it back, and sent him flying into the side of a third. Istra’s rod flashed with pale light and one of the men on the flanks went down, landing on his backside on the rock.

Sera kept close to Lucian, and kept moving with him, using him as cover, but not stopping. One of the Veyrn men tried to come around the back, but Lucian shot a burst of power at the ground between them, and the kick sent the attacker skidding back hard enough for his weapon to fly from his hands.

"Alive! Take him ALIVE!" the leader called, and that was all the confirmation Lucian needed that he wanted the prize intact.

Two men came for him with linked binding devices, but Lucian let them get close enough to commit before shoving hard, and sending both of them and their equipment flying. The jolt of energy from his own rod smarted at his skin, but he had not put nearly so much into the attack, and the men were left gasping on the ground before Istra’s next blow sent one of them flying into the rocks.

The last two attackers hesitated, and the leader’s expression darkened. "You are only making matters worse."

"No," Lucian said, eyes on the man’s chest. "I think that this is getting far too chatty."

He surged forward and the fight was over in a matter of moments, although the leader was clearly the best of his men, faster, stronger - but he had not faced Lucian in any sort of combat before. Lucian drove into the man’s side, and sent him skidding on his backside across the stone, blood tricking from his lip. The last two Veyrn men looked up at their fallen comrade, then stopped advancing.

Istra raised her rod. "Leave. Or be carried."

They managed to drag their unconscious friends away, and retreated back up the ridge, no longer speaking. One of them cast a lingering glare at Lucian over his shoulder, before vanishing over the far edge.

It took a moment for the sounds of battle to fade entirely, and Sera stood there, fists clenched, breathing unevenly. "That was not a conversation."

"No," Lucian agreed.

"That was a bag-and-take."

"Yes."

She looked up at him, eyes dark. "So now what? Because if that was not the soft version, I dread the hard one."

Istra lowered her rod, looking back down the path. "Now the houses cease to be so diplomatic. Authority will also cease to be diplomatic when it comes to your recovery file. You have just made your open recovery exceptionally expensive."

Lucian stared down at his hands. Nothing overly broken, but signs that he had pushed himself beyond simple dockyard work. "Good."

Sera stared at him. "Good?"

"If they come as enemies, I do not have to waste time on their lies," Lucian said.

Istra gave a sharp nod. "Walk on. That company will not be the only one on the east road. Next time they may not be so concerned with ’alive.’"

Sera pulled her cloak around her shoulders more tightly, and shook her head.

"Rent debts do not hunt anomalies down alleys," Lucian said.

"Indeed."

They left the gorge, and the wide plains stretched before them once more, but ahead, the mid-plane city was waiting. With its people, and the knowledge of his face. And behind them, the broken remnants of Veyrn and all their pretty lies.

Lucian did not look back for long. There would be no polite conversations on open ground anymore, and this was a price he was willing to pay.