Kaola walked through the center of the town with Hykee and Lokee trailing just a few paces behind her. She did not bother looking at the crooked buildings or the filth in the gutters. Her focus was entirely on the pulse of the crowd. The twins were a silent weight at her back their identical faces providing a mask of cold indifference that made the local residents pull their children into doorways as they passed. The three of them moved like a single entity a sharp blade cutting through the local traffic until Kaola came to a halt in front of a small pub.

  She pushed inside without hesitation. The room was packed with people eating and drinking the air thick with the sound of low murmurs and the clinking of heavy mugs. As the door swung shut the noise died down. Kaola stood in the center of the room her presence demanding an audience. Everyone inside from the drunks in the corner to the travelers at the hearth turned to look. These three were not locals and they did not look like guards. They looked like the kind of trouble that did not leave survivors.

  Kaola walked straight to the bar ignoring the dozens of eyes pinned to her back. The barkeep stopped cleaning a glass his hand frozen as she approached. She leaned forward her shadow stretching across the wood. "I am looking for a boy" Kaola said her voice flat and devoid of any warmth. "He has white and black hair. He is traveling with a small teenage girl just a little bit taller than he is. Have they passed through here?"

  The barkeep did not answer immediately. He looked at the twins then back at Kaola. He swallowed hard and shifted his weight before slowly raising a finger. He pointed toward the far wall where a series of notices were pinned. "The wall" he managed to mutter.

  Before Kaola could turn a man sitting at a nearby table spoke up. He was nursing a drink his eyes bloodshot from a long night. "I seen that boy" the man said. "Just two days ago he came through here with the girl you mentioned. I remember it well because he looked sick. Pale as a ghost and shaking like he was about to fall over right there in the sawdust. They did not stay long."

  Kaola did not say a word to the man. She walked over to the wall and snatched a fresh piece of paper off the wood the nail screeching as it was torn free. It was a bounty. In the center of the parchment was a drawing of Kota. The likeness was clear enough to make her jaw tighten. She looked at the asking price 2500 black shards and 15 gold aelons.

  She stared at the numbers her lip curling in a sneer of pure disgust. It was disrespectful. To think that a member of the Speedhardt line even a failure like Kota was worth such a pittance was an affront to their name. She thought of the black shards mentioned on the paper the dark diamond shaped stones that were smaller than any standard aelon but carried a dense value. Even if they were small enough to be held easily in a closed fist their worth was supposed to represent the danger of the mark. To Kaola this price suggested that Kota was nothing more than a common thief or a low level runaway. It was a slap in the face to every hour she had spent training to hunt him down.

  She turned back to the room holding the bounty up so everyone could see she was now the one holding the contract. The barkeep looked like he wanted to disappear behind his shelves. "Triple the price of black shards and gold aelons" Kaola stated her voice carrying to every corner of the pub. "Triple what is written on this wall and I will have that boy"s head in three days. If anyone else thinks they are going to collect this reward they can try their luck. But they will have to go through me first."

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  The room remained deathly silent. She did not wait for a response. She turned and walked toward the door the twins moving in perfect sync as they followed her back out into the street. Once they were clear of the pub Hykee stepped beside her. "Two days is a long lead" Hykee noted his voice a low rasp. "If he is sick he might be moving faster than he looks trying to find a place to ground himself."

  "He is not moving fast" Kaola countered her eyes scanning the tracks in the dirt that most people would not even notice. "If he looked that bad two days ago he is likely holed up somewhere nearby or struggling to make it to the next settlement. He is desperate and desperate people make mistakes. They leave scents. They leave stories for drunks in pubs to tell. And look at this reward. Twenty five hundred shards? They are treating him like a regular criminal. It is an insult."

  Hykee looked back at the pub they had just left. "The man said he looked sick. Does the sickness change the plan? Koma wanted him back but you just told that room you would have his head."

  Lokee stepped forward placing a hand on Kaola"s shoulder her voice carrying the soft weight of an elder sister. "Do we really need to kill him though? Kota was supposed to be dead. He was a failure who should have died that night with the others. If he is this sick he might not even be a threat anymore. Koma might want him alive to answer for how he managed to survive."

  Kaola ripped her shoulder away spinning to face Lokee with a sneer that disregarded years of birth order. "Do not try to mother me Lokee" Kaola said her voice sharp and cold as a winter wind. "I do not care if you were born first. Out here the only thing that matters is who has the spine to do what is necessary. Kota is a stain. He is a ghost that should have stayed in the grave. Whether he is a threat or not is irrelevant. He is a Speedhardt who exists when he should not and that is a debt that is paid in blood."

  Kaola stepped closer forcing Lokee to meet her gaze. "If you cannot handle the weight of the blade because of some misplaced sibling sentiment then stay out of my way. If you try to stop me from taking his head I will treat you with the same lack of mercy I have for him."

  Hykee stepped beside Kaola his eyes cold. In a sudden blur of movement he drove his fist into Kaola"s midsection. The air left her lungs in a sharp gasp as she took the grunt of the punch. Hykee leaned in his voice a low dangerous rumble that struck fear into both of his sisters. "Settle down" Hykee commanded. "The only person who has the right to harm Lokee is me. Mind your tongue when speaking to your older siblings Kaola. Just because you are smart know your way around a bow and listen to Koma does not mean you are stronger than me. We are the ones tracking your mark. Do not forget who makes this hunt possible."

  Kaola backed up clutching her stomach. She did not say anything. Her eyes remained locked on the ground as she recovered her breath. She didn"t argue or strike back; she simply straightened her posture and continued the mission.

  The twins shared a look a silent communication passing between them that required no words. They had been raised in the shadow of Koma and Kova learning early on that in the Speedhardt family utility was the only thing that kept you alive. They were the trackers the ones who handled the dirty work that required a specific kind of dual coordinated violence.