Page 43 of Warrioress

Laro squinted at her suspiciously. “Can we trust her? This female is concerning.”

“That’s just Katiera for you. She likes to play straitlaced when she is on duty, but she has multiple invaluable talents and is something of a danger junkie,” Uma assured him as the cell door clicked open and her friend stepped casually inside.

“Danger junkie,” Vrin muttered skeptically. “That sounds exactly like someone I wish to trust the welfare of my mate to.”

“I’m not your mate yet,” Uma cheerfully reminded him as she held out her manacled hands toward Katiera.

“Fucking straight,” Katiera agreed approvingly and pointed a dagger in Vrin’s direction. “And just you all remember that if you think you’re going to be calling the shots here.”

Sheathing the dagger at her waist, the guardswoman lifted the small rings of keys again and bent toward Uma’s manacles. Uma held her breath as she watched the key slide in, eager to get the hell out of there. The key turned and clicked uselessly.

Her gaze snapped up and met her friend’s eyes. “Uh, what is it?”

Katiera shook her head and immediately tried another key, and then another. “Fuck!” she hissed, tossing the keys across the room. “Why the hell would they have it on a separate key ring from the key for the cell?”

“Shh,” Vrin growled as he strained against his chains, his head tipped toward the door.

Katiera frowned but nodded as she slipped back out of the cell to flatten herself against the wall behind the door. The door squeaked open on its rusty hinges as a huntsman holding a small tray of food entered. The guardswoman swung around the door, bringing her leg up into his stomach. He immediately doubled over as he wheezed, and she fisted her hands together before bringing them down on his head, sending him to the ground in a heap. She bent down and ran her hands over his clothes, until she straightened again with a victorious smile and another ring of keys in hand. Her smile fell in the next moment, however, when two huntsmen rushed in, their swords ready. She spun out of the way, ducking below the sword that sliced the air where her head had been just moments earlier.

Vrin snarled and jerked forward violently against his chains. The guards ignored him as they swung their swords at Katiera, every wicked strike practically singing with their effort as the guardswoman ducked and dodged out of the way. She brought her own sword up to slap their blades away as she danced slowly across to the floor in the direction of the cell. The huntsmen rushed after her, their feet clearing the entrance to the cell just as the anchor holding Vrin’s chain broke free from the wall with the audible crack of breaking stone.

Everyone froze, even Vrin, who wore a faint look of shock on his face as he turned and looked at the sagging chain. Kam shook his head in disgust, however, and sighed heavily.

“Now you break it?”

Baring his teeth at his brother, Vrin leaped forward, taking down both huntsmen as Katiera danced out of the way and turned to rush for Uma.

“Hurry, hurry,” Uma urged, “before all of this ruckus brings the whole damn Order down on our heads.”

“Patience is a virtue,” Katiera replied as she tested one key after another.

“Right now it is not,” Kam countered with a frustrated growl as he tugged at his own chains. “We need to get our mate out of here.”

“Working on it, working on it—ah-ha!” she grinned triumphantly as the manacle opened and fell from Uma’s wrist and immediately turned to do the other one.

Uma rubbed her wrists and turned to Vrin to see if he needed any help only to find one huntsman dead at his feet and the other dangling from the length of chain Vrin had wrapped around his neck.

“Quit playing with the huntsmen,” she whispered. “It’s time to go.”

His ears flicked and he nodded as he gave a sharp yank of his arms. The crack of the huntsman’s neck breaking filled the silence of the cell, but Uma gave him a thumbs up and hurried out as Katiera hurried over to unlock his manacles too.

They filed out of the cell into the holding room, their steps light and quick. Katiera slipped over to the window and cupped her fingers over her mouth. The birdcall the guardswoman cooed was good enough to at least sound something like a bird. That had to be the signal. Uma waited patiently as Katiera rejoined them, but her friend raised her hand silently bidding them to wait a moment longer. Uma raised her eyebrows at the other woman, but Katiera merely smiled and touched a finger to her lips... and then she heard it.

The crash outside triggered a shout of alarm as the sound of chaos erupted outside. She glanced over at the guardswoman with concern, but Katiera merely smiled as she signaled for them to move forward. Uma followed with a shake of her head. Crazy-ass woman. She didn’t even want to know what kind of triad she got involved with.

They raced out in the hall, taking their lead from the guardswoman as she navigated the winding halls of the outpost without trouble until they ended up in the main hall. Katiera tipped her head toward a large set of doors at one end as she quickly shrugged off the sack loops over her back and passed it to Uma.

“That over there is the main entrance. I am going to go out and see if I can help with the diversion and make sure those males didn’t kill themselves with all that. The small door to the right leads to the armory. Good luck,” she whispered.

Uma nodded and squeezed the other woman’s arm briefly before peeling away in a light jog toward the armory doors. Her males fell behind her like shadows as they slipped inside. Uma was immediately impressed with what she found inside. The walls were lined with weapons on display, and then there were even more racks of weapons in front of the walls. It was only at the far end that her eyes finally fell on the boxes that Katiera mentioned. Whispering an order to her males to guard the door, Uma hurried toward the stack and threw open one box. Several long sticks as thick as her forearm and about the length from her wrist to her elbow filled the box in black casing. She ran a hand over one and lifted it tentatively to her nose.

That was it. Heat. The sickly scent made her gag, but she quickly stuffed several of them into the sack that Katiera had given her. She cast a worried glance over the remaining tubes and unopened boxes. There was nothing she could do about them. She didn’t have the means to transport them out of the outpost, and as much as she wanted to set the entire building on fire, she knew that would be a very good way to poison every Ragoru with Heat within breathing distance of the outpost.

“Shit. I’ll just report it and the citadel can send a team to collect it,” she grumbled.

“I don’t think that will be possible,” Drake growled as he entered the room from an antechamber that she hadn’t even realized was there and dusted off his hands. She studied his hands, taking in the remnant of powder on his fingers. Was there a hidden room back there with a lab? She made a mental note to have the team check into it as his eyes fell on her sack.

He smiled coldly. “You always took far too many risks for your own good, Uma. One would have thought you would have learned your lesson by now about playing the hero.”

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