The Royal Hunter (6 page)

“G’day to you, too, Ms. Trahaern,” he said, tipping his fingers to his brow. Then the light disappeared from his eyes and the dark intensity returned. “I believe you know exactly what I want.”

“I thought lives were in danger. You certainly took long enough to come back.” Talia snapped her mouth shut. She’d sounded for all the world like she was whining that he’d left her alone so long. And maybe she was. Dealing with Archer and getting this over with had to be better than what she’d been putting herself through. She didn’t bother asking how he’d found her here.

“There were things to be taken care of first.”

Jimmy’s face flashed through her mind. She tried not to think about that. “Where is Baleweg?”

“I came alone.”

“Does he know you’re here?”

“He’s not my keeper.”

He was too defensive. Meaning the old man ran the show. Interesting. “Speaking of keepers, where is your dog?”

“My dog?” He looked at her blankly. “Oh, you mean Ringer. With Baleweg.”

Talia frowned. He’d forgotten he owned a dog? Maybe the little mutt had just been a prop of sorts, to get close to her. Her opinion of him lowered further.

“I assume you’ve thought about what we told you.”

I haven’t been thinking about anything else
, she wanted to shout. Instead she eyed him evenly. “Some.”

He propped both hands on his hips now. “And?”

Something about his attitude just jerked her chain. Despite the fact that she was out here alone with him, and he was capable of God knew what, she just couldn’t resist poking back at him. Maybe it was the blasted accent. She mimicked his posture. “And what? I’m just supposed to believe your fantastic tales and run off to the future with you? Save the queen, rescue the planet, and all that rot? Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m no superhero. You’ll have to find another solution to your problem.”

He stalked toward her. “We have no other solution.”

It took all of her willpower and courage to stand her ground. He stopped several feet in front of her, but what space was left between them fairly vibrated with the tension emanating from him. From them.

“You can’t honestly expect me to just up and walk away from my life here to go with you on some insane journey to—” She couldn’t say it out loud again.
To the future
. It was so absurd she should be laughing hysterically at the mere suggestion. Only when she looked into Archer’s eyes, she didn’t feel remotely like laughing. Somehow, looking into those dark eyes, the fantastic didn’t seem so impossible.

“It’s not forever. You would be able to return.”
He looked away, only for a second, but it was a telling break.

“When? Exactly how long do you think this is going to take?” She felt no satisfaction when he didn’t—or couldn’t—answer her. “You said I was some sort of healer. I can tell you right now that I have no healing powers whatsoever.”

He simply stared at her, in that aggravating Crocodile Dundee way of his.

She didn’t give any ground, either.

Finally he blew out a breath and said, “You’re an empath. I don’t know that much about them myself, but they’re common enough. Baleweg pegged you the moment he looked at you.” She arched an eyebrow, and he sighed. “You understand the feelings of others. You have certain skills. Don’t deny it.”

Talia wanted to, vehemently. But she was so taken aback by his simple summation of her abilities that she was caught off guard by his nonchalance. His gaze remained unwavering and she heard herself say out loud what she had never said to anyone, just to see how he’d react.

“So, yeah, maybe I’m a … a … I have some skills, okay?” He didn’t even blink. This both annoyed and entranced her. The very idea that someone was unfazed by what she could do stunned her. “But I’m no healer,” she was quick to add. “I know when animals are hurting, and where they are hurting. But that’s the extent of it. I call the vet out here to fix those hurts just like everyone else. I wouldn’t be of the slightest use to you.”

“Your mother was a healer.”

“So
you
say. I never saw any evidence of that. And it doesn’t matter, because anything my mother may or may not have known in that area she was never able to pass down to me. So even if I were willing—”

“Baleweg can help you learn.”

“
He’s
a healer? Then why can’t he save your ruler, your … whatever?”

“Queen. Catriona Dalwyn. She inherited the throne three years ago when King Cynan, her father, was assassinated. She’s fought a hard battle to keep her kingdom from chaos. Now she’s fighting a battle for her life. If she loses this one, the kingdom will fall apart.”

That stopped Talia. Just the way he said it. Not with reverence, but simply as fact. Perhaps it was the lack of reverence that caught her. He didn’t sound like a fanatic. He sounded like a man frustrated with his role in this crazy mission. Which brought up another question.

“You’re Australian, right?”

Now it was his turn to look wary. “I was born there.”

“How did you end up a British subject?”

“I am no one’s subject.”

Talia wholly understood that feeling and wasn’t at all keen that she shared something in common with the man. “Then what is in this for you?”

He didn’t answer her. Instead, he said, “Baleweg is not a healer. You’re the last in that line.”

“How can he help me learn, then?”

“I don’t know!” Archer exploded in frustration. “He can get inside your mind, help you discover the hidden talents you possess. Whatever.”

“But—”

“You have doubts, I understand that. I know this sounds ludicrous. I didn’t believe in time travel, either. Believe me, it’s not an everyday occurrence in my time. In fact, until a few days ago, I didn’t know it existed. But I trusted Baleweg to get me here and he did. He’ll get you there and back. It’s not so hard.” When she continued to stare at him, he
slapped at his thighs. “Why would I make something like this up?”

“I have no idea. I don’t know you.”

“If you’re concerned about the travel itself, I can assure you that it is quite simple. Baleweg does all the work.”

“What if I refuse to go? What happens then?”

He held her gaze for some time before finally saying, “I can’t force you. However,” he added quickly, “I’d like you to think long and hard about what is being asked of you. In the context of the rest of your life, the output for you is small. And yet the rewards for an entire kingdom of people will be immense.”

He made it sound like a quick jaunt. Save the world and be home by dinner. “What about the risks? You have no idea what might be required of me.” She couldn’t believe she was even having this conversation.

“The risks exist whether you return or not. That much must be obvious to you.”

Right at that moment, nothing was obvious to her, except this was too much to contemplate. “There is suffering all over the world. Always has been, always will be. I can’t take the weight of the world—present or future—on my shoulders. No one person could. Why is it so hard to comprehend that I might not be willing to put myself up to that task?”

“Because no one is asking you to save the world.”

“Sounds like it to me.”

“You say there will always be suffering in the world. You would be right. That does not change. However, for all the suffering in the world, many could be called upon to champion the cause of those other victims. In the case of the queen, there is only you.”

“No one else can help her?”

“All who could have helped have tried, and failed.”

“I find it odd that you keep going on about how your beloved queen is in mortal danger, yet you don’t seem to care overmuch for her.”

That took him aback. “How would you know what I feel?” His gaze narrowed. “I thought you said your empathy dealt only with animals.”

She couldn’t get used to the way he talked so easily about her gift. It unnerved her. “Just answer my question.”

“I am here at the queen’s request.”

“So this is what, a favor? A good deed? I asked you before what was in it for you and you didn’t answer. I want an answer.”

He looked her dead in the eye. “A pile of money.”

She swallowed. So, there was what amounted to a bounty on her head. And she was looking at what was probably the future’s best bounty hunter. Lovely, just lovely. “So you’re basically kidnapping me. And I’m supposed to go along with this willingly, to boot.”

“I am not a kidnapper.” He seemed honestly affronted by the notion. “I’m a businessman. Of sorts.”

“You’re a mercenary, you mean. A professional bully. Of sorts.”

He shrugged off the sarcasm, but there was an air of supreme confidence about him now. Okay, a bigger air than usual. “I don’t bully. But I do have special skills of my own. Available for a price.”

Talia wasn’t used to people jerking her chain, not in her quiet, safe little existence. But her chain had been jerked now and she found it impossible to remain passive. Maybe she was too far down the Yellow Brick Road now to have any perspective left. Whatever the cause, she found herself running her gaze
over him, documenting his serviceable clothing, his body’s latent powerful stance, the calculating look that met hers when she came back to his eyes. “Yes, I can imagine you do.”

His eyes widened a bit and for the first time a tiny spark of awareness shot into their dark depths. Sexual awareness.
Whoa
, she thought, backpedaling quickly.
We won’t be going there again
. His mercenary skills apparently extended beyond kidnapping for his queen to … other things. Things she had little experience with and no business fooling around with. Not with him anyway.

She glanced away and caught her reflection in the pond. Baggy overalls, a T-shirt that was almost as old as she was, and Beatrice’s fishing bonnet. Oh, yeah, she was just a seduction waiting to happen. She smiled wryly.

“I’m glad I amuse you,” he said shortly. The spark—if it ever really existed—had died, replaced by the cool competence and impatience that were more typical of him.

She didn’t tell him she was amused at herself, not him. She liked him better when he was on the defensive. He was still cocky and arrogant as hell, but he seemed more human somehow.

“You said there would always be risks, whether I went with you or not. What did you mean? Does it have something to do with Jimmy?”

“There are those who would like nothing better than for Wales to—”

She lifted her hand. “Hold up. Wales?”

“Of course. One of Britain’s three kingdoms.”

“Countries, you mean. Wales, Scotland, and England. But they are united under one monarchy.”

He stared at her for a long moment, then said, “That changes.”

“Oh.” Talia wanted to ask him more, and at the
same time she didn’t want to hear another damn thing. Right now she had goose bumps on her goose bumps. He was pretty damn good at this “I’m from the future” thing and she wasn’t liking it.

“Lord Chamberlain, our High Parliamentarian, would like nothing better than for Llanfair to lose its ruler and heir to the throne in one tragic death.”

She stilled.
Llanfair?
In her mother’s fairy tales King Cynan’s castle was set in the magical land of Llanfair. She’d thought it had been all make-believe. She desperately wanted to keep believing that. Then something else he’d said struck her. “Ruler
and
heir?”

“Queen Catriona is pregnant with a son. The heir to the throne.”

P
regnant. Talia’s stomach tightened. She wanted to believe this was indeed some sort of elaborate fairy tale, a bizarre dream that she might still wake up from. But the idea that there was an unborn child at the center of it all made everything that much harder.

Archer didn’t let up. “If she dies, and the heir with her, it will make those difficulties she inherited from her father look like a simple ripple of disturbance.”

“Does she have enemies?” Why was she talking about this person as if she really existed? Only, technically she didn’t actually exist. Not yet. Not for some unnamed number of years in the future. Talia’s head began to throb.

“On the surface, things seem in line, but there is an undercurrent of corruption that I know to be fact. Chamberlain has organized his opposition well. They are simply waiting for word of her death to overthrow what would remain of the monarchy.”

“And you know all this firsthand? High-level access for a businessman, wouldn’t you say?”

He didn’t so much as twitch a muscle. “There are all sorts of commodities one can broker in. Information being one of them.” He held her gaze. “Baleweg, it appears, isn’t the only one who has mastered
time travel. Chamberlain had Dideon sent here to stop you from returning.”

This was the part that Talia had the hardest time explaining away. Archer and Baleweg could be two flakes or con artists who happened to know her mother and somehow knew about her make-believe tales. However, Jimmy’s threat and assault, and the fact that he knew Archer … that one was a bit harder. Too many people seemed to know all about this. And believe it. “How did you recognize Jimmy?”

“Dideon. His name is Dideon. I knew he worked for Chamberlain. Or he did.”

Talia’s eyes widened. “What does that mean?”

“It means he’s no longer a threat to you.”

“You—” She couldn’t say it. All of a sudden this was no longer a joke or an elaborate charade. The man
was
a mercenary, after all. No matter what title he gave it. Didn’t mercenaries kill people? “Is he …?”

“Gone.”

Talia swallowed hard. So that was the business he’d been taking care of. A shudder crawled down her spine.

“But trust me,” Archer said, “there will be others. Better for you to come with us. We can get you to the queen, put you under her direct protection.”

“Wait a minute. If Jimmy wanted me dead, why am I still alive? He certainly had ample opportunity.” She thought of the long hours they’d spent alone in the kennels when she’d first trained him and shuddered again.

“We questioned him on that. Apparently, Dideon was originally sent here to observe you, find out if there was a way to subvert your powers, use them for their good against the queen. He was as much your warden as your hangman.”