The Hunters by David Wragg

Author:David Wragg [Wragg, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction
Published: 2023-05-24T12:00:00+00:00

NINETEEN

Movos Guvuli was locked behind an old iron grate that must have once passed for either secure storage or a holding area. His hands and feet were bound in an attempt to discourage attempts at testing the residual strength of the bars, but the rope was ancient and the knots were loose. He was dirty and bloodied, flecks of something in the dark of his beard, but was snoring peacefully, propped against a pile of fallen stone.

Javani watched him for a moment, feeling as if she was intruding somehow, despite the fact that this man was her prisoner. A man who’d dismissed her, cheated her, belittled her, pursued her … And now he was at her mercy. The thought didn’t make her feel powerful at all.

Movos scratched his cheek with his two-fingered hand, then opened one eye. ‘You come to celebrate my incarceration, urchin, or did you just forget the way to the privy? Either way, I don’t care, just don’t make a mess too close.’

She was blushing, which made her suddenly furious. How dare he embarrass her, after how he’d behaved? She had nothing to be ashamed of.

‘It’s your own fault you’re rotting in a cell,’ she snapped. ‘You shouldn’t have been chasing me.’

He sat straighter against the rubble, fixed her with a dirty, jabbing finger. ‘You stole that wagon from me, and the treasures with it.’

‘You were going to cut me out of the job!’

‘I seem to remember a conspiracy to defraud, as concerns a hitherto-considered game of chance.’

Javani’s ire fizzled. ‘I feel like we can go back and forth a few times on this one.’

He sat back against the stone, bound hands behind his head. ‘Well, I don’t exactly have elsewhere to be, in present circumstances.’ He scratched at his beard again, eyes downcast as if overcome by a sudden melancholy. ‘Since our altercation I’ve had everything … taken away.’

‘A man shouldn’t risk what he can’t lose,’ Javani snapped, remembering the menacing of his brothers on poor useless Behrooz.

But he didn’t rise to it, just shook his head, eyes still on the drifts of blown sand before his boots. ‘Ain’t that the truth.’

Javani hovered, uncertain. Movos seemed lost in his own reverie, and while she wasn’t exactly rapt by the sparkle of his conversation, it seemed rude to press him, especially given what she was about to ask for.

‘You want something from me?’ He was looking up at her now, eyes red-rimmed, his voice raw. ‘Because if it’s all the same, I’d rather be—’

‘Yes.’

‘What’s that, now?’

‘Yes, I want something from you.’

‘And just what in all the hells makes you think—’

‘You had a foolproof escape, right? I mean, it would have to be, if it was going to work for you and your brothers—’

‘Hey, now!’

‘Sorry. But you said you knew how to escape in a way that nobody could chase you. I want you to tell me how.’

He paused, eyes narrowed, lips framing his next word, all thought diverted to attempting to discern her trap. ‘Not sure I know what you mean.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.