“They’re a lot slower than alca-beasts,” Lanara announced, her thin lips pulling back in a vicious smile. “And less dangerous close up.” Her voice matched the rest of her, clear and sharp. Ronon wondered if she’d always been like this, or if becoming a Runner had stripped away any calmer emotions she might have possessed. He’d probably been just as brusque when he’d first arrived, but he’d still had some sense of humor buried deep inside. Of course, for him it had been three months since his capture. For her, assuming Nekai had found her as quickly, it had been only a few weeks. He couldn’t fault her for still being raw. He just wondered if that would ease with time.
“Have you been out since I left?” Nekai was asking Banje, and frowned when the Desedan shook his head. “Well, we need to fix that. I know we’re all still upset about Setien’s death, but sitting here doesn’t do her memory any honor. We need to remember her the way she’d want most, by laughing in the face of danger and killing as many Wraith as possible.”
“And eating fresh fruit whenever we find it,” Frayne muttered, which brought a smile to everyone’s faces. Everyone except Lanara and Turen, who were now busy glaring at each other.
Nekai had smiled along with the rest of them, but now that glimpse of humor vanished. “It’s time we got serious,” he informed them gravely. “We’ve been taking the fight to the Wraith when we can, yes — and sometimes even when we probably shouldn’t.” That last had been accompanied by a quick glance at Ronon, but he only grinned in reply. “But now we have to do more. We need to manufacture situations to draw them in, set bigger traps, lure more Wraith to their death. Ronon’s scheme with the dead shuttle worked beautifully, and took out an entire cruiser! We have to set more snares like that. Maybe even find a way to trap the ancestral rings themselves, so we can take out a Dart as it passes through.”
He was pacing now, and the others watched him intently, knowing there was more their leader wished to say. Lanara had been forced to back away to give him room as he moved, and Ronon didn’t miss the victorious smirk Turen sent her way. If Nekai thought the two women were going to bunk together, someone would have to disabuse him of that notion, and quickly. Otherwise Lanara wouldn’t last a week — she might be an excellent hunter, but up close no one could match Turen with a blade.
But Nekai was speaking again. “We also need to accept the fact that sometimes, the Wraith may not be our only targets.” That pronouncement met with stunned silence, and he stopped moving and looked at each of them in turn before nodding. “Yes, you heard me right. There are people out there, despicable people, who not only do not stand against the Wraith but who actively help them.”
Beside him, Lanara’s face twisted into an ugly scowl of pure hate. “My people fell,” she declared, “because one of our elders struck a deal with the Wraith. She gave up our patrol patterns and shut down our security grid in exchange for a guarantee of personal safety.” Her words emerged like blows, each one expelled by bitterness. “My whole world gone, just so she could save her own skin.”
Nekai nodded. “It’s people like that we may run up against from time to time,” he warned. “Especially since we’ve been making a mark on the Wraith. There’s a reason they changed their hunting patterns, and that’s because they’re scared. Of us.” He gave them a few seconds to appreciate that fact. “But that means they’ve put the word out as well. They don’t know much about us, since we don’t leave any of them alive to talk, but they must know by now that we’re a band of Runners and that we’re hunting them in turn. They’ll have warned every planet under their control, and there will be standing orders to bring us in if we’re found.” He frowned. “Some people would do so only to protect their own people, and I can’t entirely fault them for that. But others would turn us in to save themselves alone, or to curry favor with the Wraith.” He scowled. “And those people are no better than the Wraith themselves. Which means we must treat them the same way.”
“You want us to hunt them?” Adarr asked. “How?”
“No, not hunt them,” Nekai corrected. “We’re still hunting Wraith and Wraith alone. But if we run across those who willingly help the Wraith, we must treat them as enemies. And deal with them accordingly.”
Ronon nodded. This was war, after all. Anyone who chose to side with the enemy became the enemy. He knew that, and knew he’d have no problem pulling the trigger on such a person. Neither would Banje or, judging from her expression, Lanara. He wasn’t sure how Frayne or Adarr or Turen would handle such a situation.
With any luck, they wouldn’t ever have to find out.
They spent the next two weeks together in the dome, the V’rdai now back up to seven. Ostensibly they were waiting for Nekai to regain his bearings and work out a new plan of attack against the more alert and organized Wraith hunting parties, but everyone knew the truth — they were taking the time to get used to their newest member.
And Lanara definitely took some getting used to.
She was fine at sparring, fast and wiry with sharp reflexes and excellent balance. Her melee skills were solid, though Turen delighted in trouncing her new rival several times in a row, until Lanara acknowledged that she’d never be as good with blades. What she lacked in close-in fighting, however, she made up for at distance. It turned out that Lanara was phenomenal at ranged combat — she had the best aim Ronon had ever seen, and could place bullet, arrow, or knife perfectly on target time after time from a hundred paces, whether standing, running, or dodging and rolling. After watching her shoot and throw and after sparring with her several times in the ring, Ronon knew he wouldn’t have to worry about whether she could handle herself on a hunt.
The problem wasn’t with her skills. It was with her personality. Lanara, the rest of the V’rdai discovered, was not an easy woman to get along with. She was short-tempered and sharp-tongued, had a vicious sense of humor, thought very highly of herself, and expected people to jump every time she issued an order. Her possessive attitude toward Nekai had instantly earned her Turen’s dislike, and the two had survived as bunkmates less than a night before Turen kicked Lanara out and threatened to gut her if she ever returned. The fact that Lanara then stalked off to Nekai’s tent and spent the night there didn’t help matters. He and Banje cleared out one of the supply tents the next day, and gave the new space to Lanara, but the damage had already been done. Ronon knew Turen well enough by now to know that she would do what she was told, and that she would hunt and fight alongside Lanara when necessary. But the two women would never be friends, and if it ever came down to going the extra distance for the prickly Kadrean, Ronon suspected Turen would find an excuse to come up short.
Frayne didn’t like her much better. The short Yadonite didn’t take well to arrogance, and had tolerated Setien’s overconfidence only because her boasts were so amusing and so shameless. Lanara was just a little more conniving, a little more manipulative, a little more aware of her own behavior, and that put Frayne on edge.
Adarr was the most easy-going of the V’rdai, and he did his best to be friendly with Lanara. But she wasn’t much interested in friends, and all his attempts to entertain her or engage her in conversation fell flat. Eventually he just left her alone.
Ronon didn’t care for the newcomer much either. She was a poor substitute for Setien in every way except hunting, and they already had hunters. He was civil with her, but didn’t even bother trying to be her friend. That actually seemed to suit Lanara fine, and Ronon was surprised when Banje pointed out one night that he probably got along with her better than anyone else outside Nekai himself.
Banje, for his part, recognized Lanara as a potential rebel and was quick to squash that. On her second day he made it very clear to her, in his quiet way, that he was Nekai’s second-in-command and that she would follow his orders or leave at once. To her credit, Lanara agreed and abided by it. She never once refused a direct order, and never directly challenged Banje’s authority, though her arch comments and barbed remarks made it clear she thought she could do a better job.