Ki Book One (21 page)

Jackson’s skin chilled, a numb sensation
spilling through his chest. “How do you know all that?”

Max ticked his head to the side, that
infuriating, arrogant smile still twisting up his
cheeks
. “Who do you
think you’re dealing with? We know everything about you. Ki,” he
called out, voice deep and rumbling, “do you know Jackson Walker
here once stormed a Tarkan Monastery? His unit left nine dead. Now
what else? Oh yeah, you marched in the rallies against handing the
Torta Province back to the Tarkan Government. Those rallies
disabled the peace talks that led to the last war. Ki, do you know
who you’re dealing with here?”

Jackson barely stopped himself from snapping
forward and smashing the butt of his gun into Max’s smug face.

“
Are you just going to stand there and let
me drive a rift between you two?” Max laughed callously. “I thought
you knew what a good soldier was? Face it, you’re losing hold of
this situation already. Let me go, I’ll take Ki, and you’ll never
hear from us again. You won’t like your other options.”

“
Really? I kind of like the idea of gagging
you; I think that’s a great option. Ki, if you find anything in
there that can be used as a gag, bring it on out,” Jackson smiled,
twitching his top lip up until his teeth showed.

“
You have no idea what you’re doing—” the
soldier began.

“
But I’m still the guy holding the gun. So
unless you want me to knock you out again, I suggest you shut up.
Keep all your talk for the Ashkan Government.”

“
You want to make enemies of a superior
race who outstrips you technologically, physically, and
intellectually, go ahead. But shouldn’t you ask the rest of your
people first? You realize any war with my kind would be over in
less than a day? We’d black out your communications, shut down your
power stations, take out your highways, and disable your ships
within an hour. You would be worse than helpless; you’d be entirely
at our mercy. Think about who you are making enemies with here,
Jackson Walker.” Max straightened up, bracing his shoulders and
shifting his neck from side to side. His expression was one of
calm, smug superiority.

“
Ki, you almost done in there?” Jackson
deliberately did not react to Max’s taunts. Instead he shifted
back, leaning on one foot as he peered over into the open doorway
of the hut. He was sure to keep his attention split, half of it
focused on Max, half of it on her.

“
I’m almost done. I’ve found a pack,”
mumbling, voice muffled, she appeared at the doorway hefting an old
canvas bag. It was covered in dust, and as she dragged it along the
ground, it kicked up a cloud of it. Batting at it, coughing
heartily, she tugged it over to him.

It looked heavy. She’d obviously packed away
everything she’d found. One of his eyebrows twitching up, he
watched her uncomfortably as she tried to heft it up but
failed.

“
It’s kind of heavy,” she
admitted.

“
Yeah, he can carry it,” Jackson pointed at
Max.

“
You really are a good soldier. Letting
your enemy carry all your supplies. Tell me, how did you even make
it through the last war? Your fiancée didn’t, did she?” Max’s words
were slow and clear. He obviously wanted Jackson to hear every one
of them. “You couldn’t protect her from a Tarkan sniper, how are
you going to protect yourself from me?”

Before he could react, Ki dropped the pack
and ran in front of Max. Not close enough that the soldier could
snap forward and grab her, but near enough to Jackson’s gun that he
wouldn’t be able to get off a clean shot.

She put her hands up slowly. “Jackson,
he’s going to try everything he can to destabilize you. He’ll know
everything about you. They knew everything about me. Just don’t...
do anything stupid.”

His cheeks were burning red, his hands
slicked with sweat. All he wanted to do was dodge to her side and
tackle Max to the ground.

She held his gaze though, her hands still
reached out before her. “You want this guy alive,
remember?”

“
Gag him and tie his hands up now. If he
tries anything, paralyze him like you did last time.” Jackson stood
back, flicking his gun down to one of the lower settings. Then he
watched and waited as Ki followed his orders. His shoulders were so
tensed that the twinge in his back and side stabbed and
throbbed.

He ignored it, a bead of sweat dripping down
between his eyes as he stared along the scope of the gun at
Max.

Ki worked quickly. She fixed the straps of
the pack over Max’s shoulders, standing as far back from him as she
could, a thankfully wary look on her face. When it came time to tie
the guy’s hands, Jackson walked over and practically rested his gun
against Max’s head. If he tried anything, he wouldn’t have
long.

Max stared up at Ki as she worked, that
strange, awed expression back. From the reflected light of the gun,
Jackson could not see too much because it was set to one of its
lowest settings. He recognized that tight, expectant look
though.

Just why were these Zeneethians after Ki?
What could she do for them that they would risk so much to get her
back?

After she’d finished tying the man’s hands
with a strip of long, dusty leather, she bit into her lip and
scrunched her nose up.

She clearly did not want to gag him. As a
priestess, it was unlikely that kind of thing had ever come up
before.

“
It’s fine. Find a strip of fabric or
something. He’ll be okay,” Jackson assured her softly.

“
Nothing’s clean enough. They’re all
covered in grease or blood or decades of rock dust. Just don’t let
him get to you.”

“
Ki,” Jackson forced his teeth together,
the enamel grating loudly through his jaw, “I can’t put up with him
talking.”

“
Thanks for letting me know. Getting rid of
you is going to be easier than I thought,” Max chuckled.

Ki took a step back. She did not look happy,
but she leaned down to the backpack. Rummaging through it, she
produced a strip of fabric. Cleaning it against her robe
fastidiously, she tied it around Max’s mouth. Her movements were
slow and timid. Through it all, Max watched her closely.

That keen attention of his made Jackson want
to throw up. He doubted the man could fake the reverence smoothing
his brow and stiffening his jaw. It felt too organic to be an
act.

On edge, Jackson waited until Ki had
finished before he gave the order to move out. Despite the
manifestly heavy pack on Max’s shoulders, he stood easily. He
didn’t wobble to the side, neither did his knees crunch as he
forced them to pivot forward. He simply straightened as if the
weight were nothing more than a feather lightly touching his
shoulder.

With one last look back up the shaft,
Jackson turned. Without an operable scanner, he would have to chart
his path using nothing but the map he’d ripped from the hut’s wall.
He grabbed it out of his pocket periodically, propping up the
tattered back with his other hand as he tracked a scratched
fingertip over the path they’d have to take.

As they walked, he never let his guard
drop. He didn’t let the gun drop to his side either; he kept it
locked into his shoulder and only lowered it when he had to use
both hands to navigate through a narrower section of
tunnel.

They had to be very careful. Who knew how
many other Zeneethians were dotted through these tunnels. While he
hoped they had not penetrated this far, he had to be prepared for
anything.

They travelled in near silence. Their
footfall and the occasional drip of water were the only sounds to
filter around them.

At their current pace, it would take them
a little over 24 hours to make it to the other side. When and if
they did, the next stage of their journey would begin. If packs of
wolves, Zeneethian scout parties, and two near-death experiences
were bad, Jackson knew what would await them next could only be
worse.

Chapter
Twelve

Their trek through the mineshafts had been
long, dark, and arduous. Despite the fact she had only recently
been healed by the scanner, all too soon dehydration and hunger
descended. There was something uniquely hellish about being stuck
so far underground with no food, no water, and hardly any light.
She had spent most of the journey praying, simply to keep her mind
off the close, gloomy touch of the walls around her.

It had also helped her to ignore him. The
Zeneethian scout, Max as he called himself, could not keep his eyes
off her. Though Jackson made him walk between them, at every
opportunity the soldier turned to face her. With an unreadable
expression his gaze would dart all over her, as if he was
continually checking she was alive.

Every time he did it a quick and sharp
nausea would wash over her. She would have to clutch a hand firmly
onto her stomach to calm her nerves.

Jackson hardly let them stop. They rested
for only brief spurts, and though he let her sleep, he would never
allow himself a second to close his eyes.

After untold hours, she saw and felt a
change in the shafts. The dank, musty smell that had itched her
nose and throat since entering this cave system lifted. The tunnel
they were in started to rise too, subtly at first, soon it led to a
dramatic incline.

With an almost fresh breeze playing at her
cheeks and forehead, she smiled for the first time in days. After a
little less than an hour, their tunnel suddenly widened, and after
a sharp turn they walked into the light.

It spilled in from a large opening ahead.
Though she wanted to run out and embrace the sunshine beyond like a
long lost child returning home, Jackson hadn’t let her.

“
Keep down, stay low, keep quiet. We need
to ensure there’s no one around the entrance. The Zeneethians might
have left scouts there.” Jackson crouched, lodging the gun against
the side of a jagged rock as he peered around the wall.

Though she wanted to ignore him, she
followed his command and pushed her back up against the rock behind
her.

She doubted the exit was seething with
scouts; they hadn’t seen a single sign of them since Jackson had
found Max. She appreciated the need to be careful though.

Cautiously, Jackson had given the all-clear
after thoroughly assessing the cave mouth with the scope of his
rifle. In single file they’d moved forward, Jackson at the
lead.

They were not leaving through one of the
common exits. According to Jackson, who had studied the mine map
obsessively, this cave mouth had hardly been used. Though it would
not lead them straight onto an accessible Ashkan road they could
easily follow to the capital, at least it offered them less chance
of walking straight into the arms of a unit of Zeneethian
Scouts.

As soon as Jackson had given the all-clear
to exit the tunnel, Ki’s heart had soared. The oppressive,
smothering feel of being locked up underground burnt up in the
sunshine as it warmed her cheeks and face.

“
Stay low,” Jackson reminded her several
times as they walked out onto the side of a hill.

The sun was high in the sky, darkened by
only a scant number of fleeting white clouds. There was a glorious
light breeze pushing its way up the slope towards them, rushing
into the cave mouth behind.

While the other side of the mountain had
been nothing but scrubby foliage, pine trees, boulders, and scree,
the land opening up before her was lush and green. Grassy hills
rolled down to a town, a network of grey roads curling around it
and out of sight.

Turning behind her, she stared into the cave
mouth, almost wincing at the dark shadows within. Though she’d
hated every second of it, she could appreciate how far they’d
come.

“
It looks like there’s no one around,”
Jackson surveyed their surroundings with the scope of his rifle,
only letting it drop to his side after several sweeps of the hill
around them, “yet. We need to be very careful. Ki, I want you to
grab some fabric from the backpack and tie it around your hands.
There’s a town just at the foot of this hill, and we should reach
it within the hour.”

Ki did not ask questions; she knew fully
well why Jackson wanted her to hide her hands. They were artfully
covered in Tarkan sacred symbols. While the images were beautiful
and she loved them dearly, she appreciated they would reveal who
she was in an instant.

She was about to enter an Ashkan town. The
thought of it made her shiver, a quick and prickling chill drawing
up her back.

While she had trusted her life to Jackson in
the tunnels, everything was about to change. As soon as they set
foot in an Ashkan city, she would be at his complete mercy. With a
single word he could have her taken to jail, perhaps even shot. Not
to mention Max.

“
We have a couple of hours left of day
light, but I want to make it down there as quick as we can. We need
to arrange transport to the city, call the Guards, and, more
importantly, find some food,” Jackson patted his stomach, a kinked
smile fattening one of his cheeks.

“
What do you mean call the Guards?” her
boots crunched against the grit and stones that were littered
outside the cave mouth. Jackson had given her his shoes back in the
tunnels. No, he’d practically forced them onto her feet. Though
she’d tried to protest, secretly she’d been thankful. The thought
of going barefoot through those caves again had been
torture.