Guns of Mars 14
A Martian action-adventure by The Legend Chuck Dixon
CHAPTER 4.3
“For riding or for eating?” the big man said, dark eyes narrowed at the stranger. They’d been days riding and dark hairs had grown on the bronze man’s face along his jaws and upper lip. The beginnings of a beard and the deep-water shade of his eyes made this stranger an even more unusual sight than he appeared at first glance.
“Riding. And robust enough to carry him.” The bronze man nodded toward Kal. “And a second animal to carry goods. A sturdy pair. We’re traveling a ways.”
“I have what you’ll need if you care to inspect my stock,” the big man said, eyeing the thark with a withering sneer.
“In the morning. Until then, I need my mount cared for and a place to hold my captive.”
“Him?” the big man spat and someone in the watching crowd tittered. “What’s he worth to you anyway?
“Enough for me to pay top price for two mounts to see us to where we want to go.”
The big man considered that, tapping a finger to his lips.
“I can secure him for you. But not in my stalls. The stink of a thark would put my beasts off their feed,” the big man said with a snort.
“I don’t care where you hold him,” the bounty man said with a shrug. “As long as I get a night’s sleep with both eyes closed.”
Kal fixed his captor with a look of pure malice as the man walked by him to cross the street toward a hostel. He whirled then as the big man approached with a long prod. Two more livery men walked out to either side toward Kal’s flanks. They also held prods that sparked and hummed where a wavering arc of energy danced between two studs.
The thark dug his feet into the dust of the street. He dropped to a crouch, meaning to ram any of the men who came close. The one on his right jabbed at him, Kal fell for the feint and turned to back away as a second pod dug into his lowest set of ribs. His vision went white for a second, a searing pain making his legs go numb. He fell with a dry gasp to the ground, his eyes swimming his head, the smell of his own scorched flesh reaching his nostrils.
He made to rise on one knee only to feel the tormenting fire of two prods strike him at once. Through a haze of pain, Kal could hear some in the crowd laughing and jeering. Sheer, deep-seated hatred that matched the heat of the prods’ touch burned through him like a raging fever. He made one last effort to rise to his feet, roaring his defiance in a rising Warhoon battle cry intended to chill to the marrow all who heard it. Every man there bearing witness knew that warbling yell was the last sound many heard in this life, the victims of untold millennia of war between man and thark.
Special Note: GUNS OF MARS is now available in a hardcover edition. It is available at Amazon and at NDM Express.
