When our mounts stopped again, I heard a door fling open.
“Pilar! Are you okay? What have they done to you?”
“I’m fine!” I reassured my twin. “What are you even doing here?”
“Get in here and I’ll explain. Hurry up, it’s too damned bright out there.”
I surrendered myself to Kelly’s strong arms, not protesting when he didn’t put me down, instead choosing to carry me the short distance across the platform and into the station.
“Go put our beasts in the shed,” he ordered.
“On it,” Richard replied.
“I’m setting you down now,” Kelly told me gruffly, placing me back on my feet. I whipped that annoying blanket off, grateful to no longer need it.
I found my twin looking at Kelly and me with a knowing look on his face.
“Looks like the Hand might have been right,” Miljack said, his voice laden with amusement. He sniffed. “Can’t say as I’m surprised, seeing as we share the same face and all.”
I looked at Kelly who by now was staring at my brother. “He’s like a taller, broader, deeper-voiced version of you,” he said.
Miljack gave him a cocky grin. “That’s because I’m an alpha.”
“You never answered my question. What are you doing here?” I asked, not wanting to play games until I knew what was up.
Miljack sighed. “They sent me two trains after you and asked me to lie low, in case anything happened.”
A frisson of unease went through me. “They doubted my abilities?”
“Of course not! But satellite imagery showed unusual activity along the river and some unpermitted clearings in the forest being used for some kind of agriculture. They thought there might be a second case to answer or worse, that this was too large an operation for a single Hunter, but one that required a team.”
I rubbed a hand down my face. That made sense, actually, though damn it, they should have apprised me of the full facts before I came left.
“Probably the piloris farms,” I admitted.
“So it would appear,” Miljack agreed. “I managed to get close enough to two of the fields without detection and collected samples for proof. I take it this does relate to your case, then?”
“Mind if we sit down? We were woken up from our sleep to run and he’s got to be mighty tired,” Kelly said.
I blushed as Miljack looked at me in amusement. “Sure, sure. I was roused when you broke the barrier I’d set up, so wouldn’t mind taking a load off, either.”
“Barrier?” Kelly asked. “I didn’t see any barrier.”
“Infrared,” I replied.
Kelly looked impressed. “Did you bring more tech? We might need it.”
He walked over to a chair leaned up against the wall and brought it over to me. I sank into it gratefully as he grabbed another chair that was folded up with some others and dragged it over. He unfolded it next to me and plopped down into it.
“So?” my brother prompted as Richard returned, quickly closing the door behind him.
I pulled my wrist to my mouth and bit down. Due to the closeness of our biology, this would be a far easier way to explain. I proffered my wrist and Miljack came to kneel down before me, taking my arm and quickly lapping at my blood.
“Lord have mercy,” Richard breathed.
“What are you doing?” Kelly hissed.
I held up my other hand to gesture that he needed to wait a moment. All would soon be made clear. I watched as Miljack’s eyes glazed over as he fell into my psyche, connected by the blood shared. He reared back a few swallows later, but not before licking my wound to seal it.
“I see,” he muttered. “That does complicate things.”
“You see what?” Richard asked, his eyes wide.
“Did he just read your mind?” Kelly asked, looking agog.
“I read his memories,” Miljack confirmed. “We share the same DNA and so the blood connects us on a deeper level, so it was as if I was there experiencing it all.”
“Holy shit,” Richard whistled. “And that took hardly any time at all, either.”
I shrugged. “It comes in useful,” I said noncommittally.
Miljack patted my knee. “Well stay here until tonight, then do a Summoning to take us to the edge of our territory.”
“A Summoning?”
From Kelly’s expression, he had a pretty good idea what it was my brother was proposing.
“Yep,” Miljack replied, giving him his biggest shit-eating grin, both upper and lower fangs on show. “You’re gonna fly like an Ilyirzi.”
Richard made a small sound tinged with the sourness of pure terror.
“It’ll be fine,” Kelly reassured his deputy with more bravado that the tremor in his hands and own faint tang of fear told me he had.
“We’ll make sure of it,” Miljack reassured him. Rubbing his hands together in anticipation of the fun he was going to find in that experience, he added, “You can ride with me while Pilar rides with his beau.”
Richard looked startled at this but broke out into laughter. “Yeah, you noticed that too, huh?”
I was surrounded by morons. Utterly mortified, I stood up and pushed past my twin to where a pallet was laid out. “Go on, laugh while you can. I’m going to get some sleep.” Miljack knew when he’d pushed me too far, so didn’t say another word while I took his bed.
* * *