Guns of Mars 51
A Martian action-adventure by The Legend Chuck Dixon
CHAPTER 13.3
A deep, sepulchral voice came from the darkness at his back.
“You descended without breaking a limb.”
Kal said nothing.
“I watched you the whole time. The resourcefulness of the thark kind is not to be underestimated.”
“What do you want of me?” Kal asked, his grip tightening on the handle of his sword.
“First, I want you to toss that saber out of reach.”
The voice came from a different source now. The stranger had moved without making a sound. Kal imagined that big bore rifle or one of those pistols trained on his back. He cast the sword from him to land in the sand somewhere out in the dark.
“And now?” he asked.
“Do you know why I have taken you captive?” The voice was flat, without inflection and oddly accented.
“For the bounty on my head. You’d sell me for thirty thoats.”
There was a raspy cough. It might have been a stifled laugh. Something about it added a chill to the already frigid air.
“You are worth far more than that, Kal Keddaq. Ten thousand gold tenpi for your return unharmed.”
Kal almost turned at that. Instead he kept his face away, his lower hands scooping up fistfuls of sand. He thought if he could only momentarily blind the man. But the bastard had shifted his position once again. Kal had no idea where the man stood now.
“What has happened for my hide to increase in value like that?” He listened hard for a reply.
“Your hetman’s daughter is heavy with issue.” The stranger had moved again. In his concentration to determine the man’s position he failed to hear the man’s words.
“Tagas?” he said when the significance of the stranger’s statement dawned on him.
“You are to be a sire to a brood and thus the disposition of your new kin has changed toward you.”
Kal sank down from his crouch to sit in the sand. His fists opened, the sand sifted free through his fingers.
“I have not come this far to capture you, Kal Keddaq. Rather, I have come to retrieve you.”
“How am I to know this is not some subterfuge?” Kal said.
“You may retrieve your sword. Your father-in-law specifically requested its return.”
The stranger had not moved from his previous stance. Kal shifted about to study his new captor. Even in the guttering light of the fire, the man’s flesh was exceeding pale, almost bloodless. The hood was drawn back to reveal a head devoid of hair. The visor was gone, two large black eyes, wide set in a skull-like visage, returned Kal’s gaze. He’d never seen this brand of man before. He’d met white Barsoomians in his travels but none with this specimen’s cadaverous appearance. The stranger attempted a reassuring smile, revealing rows of pointy teeth and a gray, wormlike tongue. The effect was to make the man, if that was what he was, appear even more alien.
“Ten thousand tenpi for me then?” Kal rose to his feet now and the stranger’s hands did not stray toward the holstered arms that lay angled across his midriff.
“To be paid upon your safe return to the land of the western Warhoon.”
“Then you’d better take good care of me,” Kal said, stepping away and bending to retrieve his sword.
“I plan to, Kal Keddaq.”
“Is that thoat I smell roasting?”
“It is. Join me at the fire.”
Special Note: GUNS OF MARS is now available in a hardcover edition. It is available at Amazon and at NDM Express.
