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No rest for the weary; Corrie wanted to find the remaining prisoners before Lifeday, and they had five days left. Since they had no direct clues on where to search next, Corrie broke everyone up into two-man teams and sent them out to search. She put herself with Mando, mostly because Koda still had a habit of asking nosey, personal questions, and everyone else was afraid of him.
Cursehead and Patchy were still showing signs of exhaustion, so they’d borrowed Kend’s riding gurts. “Please bring them back in one piece,” he said with a smile. “I don’t have anymore.”
“Ain’t lost a gurt yet,” Corrie huffed as she mounted up. “‘Sides you know I’m good for it, if it comes to that.”
Kend nodded and petted his gray ewes. “Still rather not lose Slobber or Snot. They were twins, ya know.”
“I know.” Corrie leaned down to pat his shoulder as Mando settled in Snot’s saddle. “I remember.” Straightening, she started out of town, the bounty hunter and his bassinet following her. Brama had altered one of Raina’s old sets of snowgear, and today the little green child watched the world encased in wool and furs instead of closed away. He looked pleased about it, too.
“Man was really concerned about his ewes,” Mando noted after a while.
“They’re the last lambs out of his favorite ram, so he’s a little protective,” Corrie stated. “I’m sure you understand gettin’ attached to things.”
“I understand the concept,” he said, which made her roll her eyes. She knew better than to engage men further when they got like this, she just let it go.
They rode in silence after that, picking a path along the river that followed through the countryside and cut the wide valley in half. At the bridge, she said, “Okay, once we’re across this, we’re technically outside the Libu township area. But we have neighbors out this way, and I wanna check on them while we’re here. So we’ll be looping back and forth a bit, okay?”
“You’re the boss,” Mando said as the gunts’ wide hooves started to slap against the stone bridge.
Corrie shot him a look. “Never thought I’d hear something like that from a man like you.”
“You’ve hired me, paid me for the bounties I’ve helped bring in, and you direct my actions.” He shrugged and steered Snot around a branch on the bridge. “I believe that makes you the boss.”
“Fair.” She shot him a thoughtful glance, and he said, “That’s a loaded look.”
“You just surprise me sometimes.” She grinned. “Guess that just means I don’t know bounty hunters really well.”
“Am I the first you’ve dealt with?” he asked.
“First I’ve hired directly,” she said as the gurts reached the far side and she started the hunt for the Nix turnoff. “Dad and Uncle Vinor both hired them from time to time, but usually only for planet-jumpers. This arrangement has been unusual for us all around.”
“Your dad was sheriff, too? This a family occupation?” Mando asked curiously.
“Sorta. Being a deputy is a family occupation, and when a sheriff dies or retires, one of their deputies usually step up,” Corrie said. “This time, I was the one to step up.”
“Easier to get vengeance when you’re in charge.” He sounded approving, and she guessed hadn’t meant it as an insult, but she still scowled at him.
“It wasn’t about vengeance. It’s about a job that has to be done, that’ll probably shorten my life considerably.” She shook her head. “I know you think this is a quiet little backwater, but it’s dangerous, too. We get criminals hiding out here, raiders in the summer, and diggers.”
“I didn’t mean it--”
“I know,” she said, her voice softening. “I just--” She saw the turnoff for Nix’s place; thankfully, he’d shoveled his drive so the gurts didn’t have to fight through snow. Steering onto it, she said, “I wonder if I made the right decision all the time. I looked around that room, and I knew everyone was terrified to step up. To lead the hunt against these criminals. Kend coulda; he’s been deputy since my dad’s time and by rights, it shoulda been him. But he couldn’t. He looked up at me, and I saw his fear, and knew that in a few seconds, he’d step up anyway and that fear would lead our response against these things. So I’d said I’d do it, and you shoulda felt the relief in the room. No one said anything, not a single sound, but it was like a pressure was gone from it.”
“From the room, and right into you,” Mando said softly.
Corrie hadn’t expected him to understand so clearly. “Experienced accepting some responsibility that no one else wanted, huh?”
“The kid. Wasn’t quite the same, but when I took responsibility for him, it felt like the whole galaxy expected something from me,” he said quietly, glancing back at the child, who was leaning over the edge of his vehicle to watch its shadow.
“It did,” she told him with a smile, “but I promise it’s okay.”
He nodded and they rode on to the house, where Feja Nix said they were fine, and hadn’t seen any strangers, and yes, it’d be fine if they rode through their fields and bypass the road if they wanted. Corrie thanked her and promised to send word if they saw a problem on her land.
After the Nix’s, they rode on through the Autem’s and the Donnell’s lands, then on through to the other Nix’s, Feja’s brother-by-law. Everyone was fine, and no one had seen any strangers. “Hopefully,” Corrie said when they stopped so he could hide and eat, “the prisoners couldn’t figure out how to cross the river.”
“If it doesn’t freeze over, it’d be harder to do,” Mando said from behind several trees. His unmodulated voice was familiar and strange at the same time. “Unless they found the bridge.”
“Without gurts, moving around in the snow is hard. Their hooves are shaped to help them traverse deep snow,” Corrie remarked, straightening a little. Something was wrong here, and she couldn’t say what, only that she was suddenly nervous.
A flash of black in the woods caught her eye, and she pushed off the tree she’d been leaning on, peering through the branches and heaped snow. Slobber and Snot turned their heads at the same time, their ears pricking in the same direction as the movement. Snot bleated, and Corrie said, “Mando--”
She cut off as a tall Wookie stepped into view. Corrie had never seen one in person before, but the tall bipedal lifeform covered in thick black fur couldn’t be anything else. He wore a gurtskin over his shoulders, and had a massive bow and spears on his back.
“Maneater!” she barked and pulled her blaster. The monster roared and spun into the trees as she fired a shot at him. It went wide and she vaulted into Slobber’s saddle, kicking the gurt into a run.
“Corrie!” she heard Mando shout, but she wasn’t letting this gurt-kriffer get away from her. Her quick reaction meant that the Wookie wasn’t quite able to get completely out of her sight, and his black fur showed up like a stain on the white landscape. She heard the roar of Mando’s jetpack over the rush of her pursuit, hoping that the bounty hunter got ahead of the beast.
The Wookie went into the trees, swinging through them effortlessly and vaulting over an open space in the forest, only to drop down on the far side and look back at her. She didn’t understand the strange maneuver until Slobber slid to a stop and pitched Corrie over her head. She hit hard but rolled with it to come to her feet, only to freeze when she heard the ice creak under her. Maneater waved and wuffed in a Wookie chuckle, then disappeared into the snowy thicket.
Mando appeared above her and she pointed where he’s just been. “That way!” she screamed, fighting back rage. “Get ‘em!”
The ice gave way and she dropped into the water. The cold brought immediate pain, but she fought through that. She felt the current grab her and suck her away, and her grabbing hands found nothing to hold. Her boots and heavy woolens, so necessary for life in the cold, pulled her away from the surface and from life.