"You had me fooled there for a bit," said Brock.
"I'm not usually that good at lying, to be honest," said I.
"So who are you, really?"
"Oh, I'm Hero. But I'm with your brother, not the Smokers."
"Figures," he said. "But then, you tied me up so poorly that it was child's play to loose myself." He stood and the rope fell at his feet.
We could hear the hoofbeats of Sasha's horse. "Over here, Sasha!" I yelled. Brock looked at me, lit by the campfire. "Still have me outnumbered, and me without my gun."
"That's the shape of it." My grin was unmistakable.
"You know he'll kill me if you bring me back, right?"
"I'm supposed to care? I mean, you're all illegal organizations doing illegal things. If you're dead as a Kinden or as a Smoker, what's the difference to me?"
"Good point," he nodded.
Sasha's horse came to a stop and she dismounted. She always cut an imposing figure in her armor, but half hidden in darkness and half glistening by firelight, it was a really impressive look. She looked at Brock. "This our man?"
He raised his hands in the universal gesture of "Don't hurt me" and said, "Brock Kinden, your captive."
Sasha looked at me. "Why's he not tied up?"
I bent over and picked up the rope. "Don't start, Sasha. I've a bone to pick with you and we have incoming in a couple of minutes, so it'll have to wait."
"Incoming in a couple of minutes?"
"Smokers," and probably armed. I doubt we can get the chickensaurs to cooperate again."
"That was you?" both of them said at once, glancing at each other.
"Me 'n' Raven, yeah. Her idea, mostly, but I played a heroic role." I beamed with deserved pride.
Sasha regarded me with newfound respect. "Good work. Those birds butchered the Kinden men. Whoever isn't dead wishes they were."
Time was not on our side. "Okay, enough chatter. Take this guy and get back to the Kinden compound. I'll hitch a ride with Raven. We've got to get the townsfolk back to town."
Sasha took some much smaller rope from a saddle bag and bound Brock's hands together properly. "Right. You're riding in front of me. Go."
To his credit, Brock didn't argue. Or even put up a struggle. He obediently climbed aboard and Sasha followed, leaving at a fast pace. I called Anti-grav and arranged to meet at the edge of the woods. I deliberately avoided going through the camp, for two reasons, only one of which was that I had already seen enough dead bodies for one day.
As I flew at the end of a rope suspended from a glider over the treetops, I wondered what the Smokers would think when they came upon that camp. Hopefully, they'd take whatever treasure was in those chests that I had deliberately not stayed behind to plunder and consider their trip worth it. It seemed unlikely they would come all the way to Northwatch--it'd probably be their funeral if they did.
Still, as we floated over the trees, I looked back at the light from the campfire and the torches of the Smokers and thanked the stars we escaped what would have otherwise been a very ugly affair.
