Kaola walked through the center of the town.Hykee and Lokee trailed just a few paces behind her. She didn't bother looking at the crooked buildings or the filth in the gutters.
Her focus was entirely on the pulse of the crowd. The twins were a silent weight at her back. Their identical faces provided a mask of cold indifference that made the residents pull their children into doorways as they passed.
The three of them moved like a single entity. They were a sharp blade cutting through the local traffic until Kaola came to a halt in front of a small pub.
She pushed inside without hesitation.The room was packed with people eating and drinking. The air was thick with the sound of low murmurs and the clinking of heavy mugs. As the door swung shut the noise died down.
Kaola stood in the center of the room.Her presence demanded an audience. Everyone inside turned to look. They didn't look like guards. They looked like the kind of trouble that didn't leave survivors.
Kaola walked straight to the bar. She ignored the dozens of eyes pinned to her back. The barkeep stopped cleaning a glass. His hand was frozen as she approached. She leaned forward. Her shadow stretched across the wood.
"I'm looking for a boy," Kaola said. Her voice was flat and devoid of any warmth. "He has white and black hair. He's traveling with a teenage girl just a little taller than he is. Have they passed through here?"
The barkeep didn't answer immediately. He looked at the twins and then back at Kaola. He swallowed hard. He shifted his weight before slowly raising a finger. He pointed toward the far wall where a series of notices were pinned. "The wall," he managed to mutter. Before Kaola could turn a man sitting at a nearby table spoke up.
He was nursing a drink. His eyes were bloodshot from a long night.
"I seen that boy," the man said. "Just two days ago he came through here with the girl you mentioned. I remember it well because he looked sick. Pale as a ghost and shaking like he was about to fall over right there in the sawdust. They didn't stay long."
Kaola didn't say a word to the man. She walked over to the wall and snatched a fresh piece of paper off the wood. The nail screeched as it was torn free. It was a bounty. In the center of the parchment was a drawing. The likeness was clear enough to make her jaw tighten.
WANTED KOTA SPEEDHARDT
2500 BLACK SHARDS OR 15 GOLD AELONS
She stared at the numbers. Her lip curled in a sneer of pure disgust. It was disrespectful. To think that a member of the Speedhardt line was worth such a pittance was an affront to their name.
A failure or not, he is our blood. This is an insult.
She thought of the black shards mentioned on the paper. They were dark diamond shaped stones.
They were smaller than any standard aelon but carried a dense value. Even if they were small enough to be held in a closed fist their worth was supposed to represent the danger of the mark.
To Kaola this price suggested that Kota was nothing more than a common thief. It was a slap in the face to every hour she'd spent training to hunt him down. She turned back to the room. She held the bounty up so everyone could see she was now the one holding the contract. The barkeep looked like he wanted to disappear behind his shelves.
"Triple the price of black shards and gold aelons," Kaola stated. Her voice carried to every corner of the pub.
"Triple what is written on this wall and I'll have that boy's head in three days. If anyone else thinks they're going to collect this reward they can try their luck. But they'll have to go through me first."
The room remained deathly silent. She didn't wait for a response. She turned and walked toward the door. The twins moved in perfect sync as they followed her back out into the street. Once they were clear of the pub Hykee stepped beside her. "Two days is a long lead," Hykee noted.
His voice was a low rasp. "If he's sick he might be moving faster than he looks trying to find a place to ground himself." "He's not moving fast," Kaola countered. Her eyes scanned the tracks in the dirt that most people wouldn't even notice. "If he looked that bad two days ago he's likely holed up somewhere nearby. He's desperate. Desperate people make mistakes. They leave scents. They leave stories for drunks in pubs to tell. And look at this reward. Twenty five hundred shards? They're treating him like a regular criminal. It's an insult."
Hykee looked back at the pub they'd just left. "The man said he looked sick. Does the sickness change the plan? Koma wanted him back but you just told that room you'd have his head." Lokee stepped forward.
She placed a hand on Kaola's shoulder. Her voice carried the soft weight of an elder sister. "Do we really need to kill him though? Kota was supposed to be dead.
If he's this sick he might not even be a threat anymore. Koma might want him alive to answer for how he managed to survive."
Kaola ripped her shoulder away. She spun to face Lokee with a sneer that disregarded years of birth order. "Don't try to mother me, Lokee," Kaola said. Her voice was sharp and cold as a winter wind. "I don't care if you were born first. Out here the only thing that matters is who has the spine to do what's necessary.
Kota is a stain. He's a ghost that should've stayed in the grave. Whether he's a threat or not is irrelevant. He's a Speedhardt who exists when he shouldn't and that's a debt that's paid in blood."
Kaola stepped closer. She forced Lokee to meet her gaze.
"If you can't handle the weight of the blade because of some misplaced sibling sentiment then stay out of my way. If you try to stop me from taking his head I'll treat you with the same lack of mercy I have for him."
Hykee stepped beside Kaola. His eyes were cold. In a sudden blur of movement he drove his fist into Kaola's midsection. The air left her lungs in a sharp gasp as she took the brunt of the punch. Hykee leaned in. His voice was a low dangerous rumble that struck fear into both of his sisters. "Settle down," Hykee commanded.
"The only person who has the right to harm Lokee is me. Mind your tongue when speaking to your older siblings, Kaola. Just because you're smart and listen to Koma doesn't mean you're stronger than me. We're the ones tracking your mark. Don't forget who makes this hunt possible."
Kaola backed up. She clutched her stomach. She didn't say anything. Her eyes remained locked on the ground as she recovered her breath. She didn't argue or strike back.
She simply straightened her posture and continued the mission.
"He's right. For now. But once Kota is dead the hierarchy will change." Kaola thought.
The twins shared a look. A silent communication passed between them that required no words. They'd been raised in the shadow of Koma and Kova. They learned early on that in the Speedhardt family utility was the only thing that kept you alive.
They were the trackers. They were the ones who handled the dirty work that required a specific kind of dual coordinated violence.