Page 61 of Ties of Legacy

Elliot leaned over and seized his collar, pulling him up slightly. “Paid by who?”

Ty shrugged. “That I don’t know. Rene might know. Or he might not. I don’t ask for details. All I know is that we were supposed to stop the merchant woman from returning to Bolivere. I don’t even know which woman is the one we wanted.” He looked at Avery and Mattie, but his eyes didn’t hold much interest. Clearly he thought the trouble of the job had overtaken the pay.

“Bolivere!?” Avery looked apologetically at Mattie. “My apologies, it looks like we had it wrong. You’re the one who has suffered because of me.”

“How intriguing.” Mattie looked at Ty with disgust. “And what were you planning to do to us to prevent Avery returning to Bolivere?”

“No need to look like that,” Ty said, disgruntled. “We weren’t going to kill you or nothing. We could have done that just outside the capital, if that was our plan.” He shook his head. “I don’t hold with killing, and neither does Clyde.”

For a minute Avery wondered if she’d slightly misjudged him, and then he added, “Brings too much attention from the guards. No amount of pay is worth being locked up for the rest of our lives—what good would the money do then, hey?”

“No good at all,” Mattie said dryly.

Elliot stepped away from Ty, drawing the two women in for a quiet exchange out of earshot of their captive.

“We’re not near any villages or towns out here. We could try to take them with us, but three captives is a large number for only the three of us.”

“They’ve already lost their pay,” Mattie said decisively. “Leave their hands tied, and set their horses free—with their packs tied to their backs. They can get an experience of the discomfort they handed out to us.”

Elliot looked at Avery, clearly thinking that the two abducted women deserved the final say.

“Seems reasonable to me,” she said cheerfully.

Ty’s manner had been convincing, and if they weren’t setting the men free to go murdering their way across the kingdom, she didn’t want to be saddled with them any longer.

“Gut the lot of them!” Frank squawked, making Ty edge backward in the sand.

“He’s a very bloodthirsty parrot,” Elliot said with a frown at him. “But I’ll admit he earned his spot in your rescue. He was the one who packed the sachet of tea.”

“Well, color me surprised,” Mattie said. “I always thought he was a useless bag of feathers. It’s good to keep learning new things, though. Keeps you young.” She brushed her hands together, clearly done with the whole situation. “Shall we be on our way, then?”

Avery nodded quickly. “I have no desire to talk with either of the other two. Let’s leave before they wake up. If we head north, we’ll find the hamlet where my uncle and aunt now live. After what Ty said, I don’t want any more delays reaching Bolivere, so I don’t think we should backtrack to the capital and the river.” She sent Mattie an apologetic look. “But Uncle Ewan and Aunt Sylvia will be able to put you up comfortably and organize safe passage back to your home. They might even accompany you after what just happened. The roving merchants will want to look into how the abductors broke into the record-keeping hall so easily—and how they even knew I was there in the first place.”

“You’re not curious about either of those things?” Mattie asked, sounding as if she already knew the answer.

“Of course I am,” Avery said. “But I’m more concerned about Bolivere right now. My aunt and uncle will also be able to give me and Elliot fresh supplies, so we’ll all benefit from a visit to them.”

Elliot looked interested at the prospect of meeting her family, and Mattie expressed relief at getting to the closest roving merchant home as quickly as possible, so the three of them set to work.

Elliot and Mattie selected mounts from among the hobbled horses, keeping them to one side while they secured the abductors’ packs to the backs of the remaining horses before setting them free and driving them off in all directions.

Ty attempted to protest but was reminded by Frank—in grisly detail—of what his fate could still be instead. The list of possibilities effectively shut down any further protests.

The three of them were soon riding away from the beach together, Frank soaring overhead. Even keeping to a sedate pace, they made much better progress on horseback than they would have on foot and had soon left the abductors far behind.

Part of Avery felt concerned about leaving the men free, but Elliot had made a good point. It wouldn’t have been a simple matter for the three of them to handle three prisoners, and neither would her aunt and uncle’s hamlet be equipped to detain them.

The risk from leaving them free was worth it not to be delayed further. Knowing the men had been hired to keep her from reaching Bolivere only made her more anxious to get there, and their unplanned trip to the coast had taken them far off route.

Chapter 21

Elliot

Elliot should have hated finding himself back in the saddle so quickly. And certainly his muscles had something to say on the matter. But riding with Avery unharmed beside him made everything else fade into the background.

He only had to close his eyes, and he could feel her in his arms again, the reassuring solidness of her body telling him that she had survived the abduction.

It went against the grain to just leave the men to go free, but his concern for Avery and Mattie outweighed his desire for vengeance. If they had tried to keep the men prisoner, they might have ended up escaping or overpowering them, and Avery or Mattie could be hurt in the process.

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