Page 49 of The Last Hunt
Aethon moves to step forward, his teeth bared in a snarl. “Let her go -”
“One step farther and Bladesbearer here will have a bit of a problem,” Cho replies. A line of blood trickles down Maeve’s throat from beneath Cho’s knife. Aethon freezes.
“Ah, thank you,” Cho says. He smiles toothily, his resemblance to a shark increasing. “I didn’t anticipate that you would find us at all, Trell - let alone before I’ve had my fill of fun.”
“Guess you miscalculated,” Aethon says. “Let her go and I won’t kill you.” His mind is racing. He looks down at Maeve, but she’s completely tied to the chair, her arms and legs immobilized. Maybe she could shove back against Cho, but -
“Kill me?” Cho says with a chuckle. “If you so much as take a step I’ll slit Bladesbearer’s throat.”
Panic builds in Aethon’s stomach. There has to be a way out of this. “Touch her and -”
“Besides,” Cho interrupts, his tone almost bored. “You were hardly inconspicuous. My other guards will be here any second.”
He’s right. And even if Aethon gets Maeve away from this sadistic asshole, they still have to make it back to the Archer.
Aethon’s gaze flicks down to Maeve again. She seems to be trying to tell him something with her eyes. She looks at his gun which he’s holding motionless at his side, and then over at the wall. Aethon makes a show of relaxing, nodding his head in affirmation to Cho’s words.
“I hear you,” he says. “But do you really want all the hunters from Two Roses breathing down your neck? Swarming your station? Because that’s what will happen if you kill Bladesbearer here.” He’s riffing, pulling words out of his ass, but he needs to buy them time and figure out what Maeve’s trying to tell him.
“I’m not afraid of the Guild of Two Roses,” Cho scoffs, rolling his eyes. Quickly, Aethon sneaks a glance over to where Maeve indicated. There’s a small square hole, about the size of his hand, in the wall. Aethon can see bundles of wires through the hole. He immediately understands what she wants. He looks back over at Maeve with the hardest stare he can muster. He sees her throat bob in a swallow, another line of blood trickling down from the knife’s edge.
“You might want to rethink that,” Aethon says with a shrug. “Two Roses hunters are some of the fiercest.”
Subtly, Maeve blinks at him. Once. Twice. Aethon realizes it’s a countdown. As she blinks for a third time, he moves as fast as lightning. Aethon raises his pulse gun and shoots at the wires in the hole in the wall. The wires flare with light, sparking brightly and crackling with electricity. Cho jolts away from the sparks in surprise and Maeve shoves backward with all her might, knocking the chair into Cho’s stomach, causing him to lose his balance and fall back. Aethon lunges for Maeve, and pulls her out of the way.
Cho is sprawled on the floor, the wind clearly knocked out of him. He sputters as Aethon raises his pulse gun and slams the butt of it into his head, knocking him out.
Aethon turns back to Maeve, his heartbeat in his ears. He tugs the gag off of her and holsters his gun before pulling a knife from his bandolier and cutting her free from the chair.
“Go - go - go -” Maeve chants. She’s free in a second, and she grabs her shirt and jacket from the ground and pulls them both on.
“Your weapons?” Aethon demands, scanning the room.
“Gone,” Maeve replies. “We’ve got to get out of here -” But she pauses and stares at the unconscious station commander. “Should I - should I kill him?”
Aethon wants to say yes. He wants to offer to do it himself. Instead, he takes Maeve’s hand and squeezes.
“No, Bladesy,” he says.
She nods sharply and pulls him by hand through the outer room and out into the hallway again. Aethon charges up to the railing and looks over at the floor where he started the brawl. The starbase guards have broken it up, but it looks like they’re still dealing with the aftermath of the fight. He starts to move toward the stairs, but Maeve stops him.
“C’mon!” she says, pulling at Aethon’s arm. “I know a faster way.”
He follows her, and she leads him down a hallway that zigzags so much he loses his sense of direction. After a minute, she stops in front of a rickety looking service elevator.
“This is how they brought me up here,” she says breathlessly, jamming her finger onto the call button. “I almost got away from them - but they cornered me. The station schematics aren’t accurate.”
The doors open and they rush in. Aethon hits the button for level fourteen where the Archer is. The doors close and Maeve slumps back against the wall, her chest rising and falling with deep breaths.
“Is the Archer fixed?” she asks, looking up at him. She looks exhausted. Blood drips off her fingers onto the floor, and she has a bruise blooming along one cheekbone. Aethon wants to crush her to him, so great is his relief that she’s ok. He settles for grabbing her hand again and squeezing it tightly. Maeve holds on like he’s her lifeline.
“It might be fixed enough to fly by now,” he replies. “I was watching the repairs so I know they didn’t fuck anything up.”
The elevator dings and the doors open on level fourteen. Maeve stumbles forward, and Aethon wraps his arm around her waist, supporting her as they make their way as quickly as they can through the crowds of people returning to the food court area. Maeve is stiff, her face set in a grimace as they walk through the people. Aethon wonders if Cho did more to hurt her than just what he’d seen - or perhaps her adrenaline is fading and she’s starting to go into shock.
Aethon leans down and whispers to her, “Don’t act like you’re hurting - you’ll just draw attention. Pretend like we’re a couple. Lean into me.”
She relaxes a little, and wraps her arm around his waist. She puts a smile on her face, and it passes for an actually happy one, though Aethon can tell it’s fake. In two minutes, they make their way back to the maintenance bay. There aren’t any techs on the Archer, but Aethon isn’t sure if that means it’s fixed or not.