Chapter 10: Road Queen's Tale
Adora had thought she was ready for any answer. However her mind had been leaning towards some kind of rare treasure, an ancient artifact, or just an extremely large sum of money. She had expected anything but this.
"Your brother?"
Road Queen sighed, "I made a special arrangement with Hordak, I deliver you to him and he delivers my brother to me."
"Do you honestly expect him to keep his word?" Adora snapped. "Once he has me he'll probably throw you into a Horde slave camp as well."
Road Queen shook her head. "No, he values my skills too much. To him one prisoner is a trivial price to pay to acquire you and retain my services."
Adora was appalled. "You mean you willingly work for a man who's imprisoned your brother?"
"I had to build up a reputation with him in order to make him willing to grant my demands."
Adora shook her head and sat down on a rock across from where Road Queen was laying. She relaxed her arm a bit but kept the gun pointed in the hunter's direction.
"Look, I think you'd better tell me everything. Start from the very beginning and don't leave out any details."
Road Queen pulled herself up slightly and leaned back against her bike. Adora let her move this much without incident because it was clear she was settling in for what would be a long story.
"I suppose it all started when I was still a baby. My parents were killed in a fire when I was barely a year old. I would have died too if not for my big brother. He was only four at the time, but he braved the flames and carried me to safety. He saved my life that night and from then on he was always taking care of me.
"We got put in an orphanage where we stayed for a few years. I was the smallest kid there and as such became the target for the other kids taunts and pranks. The staff wasn't any better. They were harsh, strict, and totally uncaring. They lived by a 'raise them with the rod' attitude."
Adora cringed at the thought. Suddenly she had a very good idea how Road Queen had gotten the marks on her back and why she didn't want to discuss it.
Road Queen continued. "No matter how bad things got though, I could always count on Speedy to get me out of trouble."
"Speedy?"
Road Queen chuckled lightly. "The nickname I gave my brother. He always loved anything that went fast. I guess that's where I got my need for speed. In fact, I know it is. He taught me almost everything I know."
Adora found herself becoming emerged in Road Queen's story. So much that she failed to notice her hand had relaxed and she was no longer pointing the gun towards her would be captor. However, if Road Queen noticed this herself she made no move to take advantage of it. A faint smile was forming on her face, as though she was enjoying these memories she was sharing.
"Go on," Adora prodded.
"Well, the years went by and no one adopted us. I hated that place but I was able to live with it because I had Speedy there to look after me. Then one day a family finally decided to adopt him. But they only wanted him; they either wouldn't or couldn't take me too. I don't know which and frankly I didn't and still don't care. My brother refused to go. He told them he would never leave me even if it meant spending the rest of his life in that hellhole."
Adora must have been smiling because Road Queen nodded towards her and said, "Yeah. Noble and heartwarming isn't it? But do you know what they told him? Those bastards said he had no say in the matter and he would be leaving without me whether he liked it or not!"
Adora's jaw dropped like a stone and she gasped in shock. As unbelievable as what she was hearing sounded, something in her head told her it was all true.
"So that's how you were separated from him?"
"Hell no!" Road Queen said quickly with a sense of pride in her voice. "The family left him there till the next day when they would be returning to fill out the papers and make the adoption final. But they would never see him again. That night Speedy woke me up, told me to pack whatever I could carry quickly and quietly, and we made our getaway. We stole the headmaster's cart and two of his horses and took off into the night. As I told you, my brother loved going fast, so he knew how to properly pace the animals to get the most speed out of them, while at the same time not wearing them out. We didn't stop to rest till dawn."
"Did anyone come after you?" Adora asked.
Road Queen shrugged. "To tell you the truth I don't know. I suppose they probably did try to find us at first, but if so we were always two steps ahead of them.
"It was rough going at first. We were still just kids out on our own in a hostile world. Trying to avoid not only the Horde, but also anyone who would put us back in the situation we had escaped from. Or anyone who would separate us. We spent years just wandering from town to town. Staying only until someone started asking questions about our past, then off we'd go again.
"It wasn't all bad though. We met plenty of good-hearted people and they taught us a lot. You can actually get a better education on the road then in some schools. We soon learned how to handle ourselves quite well. By the time I was twelve I was already a crack shot with a laser. Meanwhile my brother was learning all he could about engines and vehicles. Knowledge he later passed on to me."
Road Queen paused and smacked her lips. She started reaching to her side and Adora straightened up quickly causing the bounty hunter to back off. She gestured to a canteen lying nearby and Adora relaxed and nodded. After taking a small drink Road Queen continued with her story.
"Well by this time Speedy was old enough that we no longer had to worry about anyone shipping us off to an orphanage again so we settled down in a small village. He used the knowledge he'd picked up over the years to open his own vehicle repair shop. Despite his youth word spread quickly about his skill and business was good. We really made a small fortune though once he started selling fuels. You see, Speedy spent his free time drag racing and coming up with ways to make his bike go faster, including making his own fuel mixtures."
"Of course," Adora said. "The formula! Your brother's the one who discovered it isn't he?"
Road Queen nodded. "And naturally I was the only person he trusted with its secret. Things were going great. We finally had a home and we were happy and prosperous. I should have known it was too good to last."
Adora cringed. "The Horde?"
Road Queen sighed. "I still don't know why they chose our village. At first I thought they had come for the formula, but they didn't seem to be after anyone in particular. No, it was just a slave run. Picking up more unwilling workers to do Horde Prime's bidding. Everything was laid to waste. Many were killed and those that survived were taken away.
"I tried to fight back but I got injured. I can still see that Horde general staring down at me, ready to deliver the killing blow. But Speedy was there for me again. That soldier was so busy with me he never saw my brother's sword till it had run him through. Needless to say this drew attention. I didn't want to admit it at the time but I was in no condition to fight then. So once again my brother put his own life at risk to save mine. He hid me among some rubble then took off leading the Horde away so they wouldn't find me. I haven't seen him since."
Road Queen clenched her fists in anger as she recalled the events. "I'd lost everything and in my bitterness and hatred I soon turned to bounty hunting to sustain myself and also to serve as a vent for my rage. Well you meet a lot of lowlife scum in this business and I soon found out what had happened to my brother and that he was still alive. So I made an attempt to free him. I failed."
The young biker sighed and shrugged. "Zigged when I should have zagged, zagged when I should have zigged. Whatever the case I messed up. But Hordak decided to let me live. He had heard about my skills and offered to let me go if I ran a job for him. I took it and my success soon led to him calling me in for special assignments that his normal lackeys couldn't handle. I made him pay of course, I always charged a fortune, robbing him blind as I plotted my next attempt to free my brother."
Adora nodded in understanding. "I see now. 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer'. You were earning his trust while secretly plotting against him."
"Isn't that what I said before?" Road Queen smirked. "Try as I might though, I couldn't come up with anything and it didn't help matters that I lost track of where my brother was. But then you came along and provided me with the plan I needed."
Adora blinked in surprise. "Me?"
"I haven't completely lost my conscience you know," Road Queen said. "The idea of asking for my brother as my bounty fee had occurred to me long ago. But I knew anyone I brought in I'd more than likely be sending to their grave. I wasn't going to trade someone else's life for his. He'd never forgive me for that," she added softly.
"So how was I different?"
"Because for the first time Hordak placed a live only bounty. Hordak wanted you brought in but he was very adamant about the fact that he needed you alive."
"Why?"
Road Queen shrugged. "I'm not really sure."
"But you just told him…"
"I lied Adora. The whole thing was to scare Hordak into giving in to my demands. I don't really know what his plans for you are and I'm not going to hurt you if he tries anything. I was bluffing. You'll find I'm rather good at that."
Adora shot her a look. "You just admitted you're a great liar and then you ask me to believe what you say?"
"Touché," Road Queen sighed. "But I'll tell you this. One of the reason's I always wear my shades even at night is to hide when I'm lying. You can tell when someone's being honest or not by their eyes and that's the one thing I was never able to fake, so I did the only thing I could and hid them."
Here she leaned forward into the light coming from the fire. "Look into my eyes now Adora. I'm not lying."
Adora did look. She stared deep into the young biker's eyes. She looked into her very soul… and saw no deceit.
"So what exactly was your plan?" she said finally.
"Simple. I take you to Hordak. I walk away with my brother and the prize money. And I knew, you being who you are, that it wouldn't take you long to escape on your own or get rescued by your rebel friends. And what's more the bounty on your head would be gone. We both win. So what do you think?"
Adora shook her head. "I think it's a start but your plan is full of holes and relies too much on assumptions. It's riskier than you think."
Road Queen's face took on the look of seriousness that Adora had come to know well in it. "That may be but I will do anything to save my brother."
"But why didn't you come to me for help?" Adora sighed. "We could have come up with a plan to save your brother together. Didn't you realize that I'd resist you unless I knew the truth?"
"I've already told you, I couldn't take the risk. Not when I've come so close. I'm not going to let my brother slip away again. He's all I have. He's given up everything for me and I can do no less. I would wade through the pits of hell for him. I'd expect you to understand that Adora. You have a brother. I know how close you two are. If you were in my position would you do any different? Wouldn't you do anything you had to for him?"
That struck Adora hard. Though she said nothing Adora knew that if Adam were in danger she would stop at nothing to save him.
Road Queen stood up and walked over to Adora giving no hesitation at the gun in the princess' hand.
"I don't want to see you get hurt Adora. In fact, I'd like it if we could be friends. But I will do whatever I have to in order to save my brother. If you can't accept that, or if you don't believe a word I've said, well then, go ahead and kill me now."
The two stared at each other in silence. Seconds seemed to drag on for hours until finally Adora spoke.
"Like I said, your plan is full of holes." There was a pause then she smiled. "So let's see if we can fix that."
A huge grin spread across Road Queen's face as Adora turned the gun around and handed it back to her.
"Sorry about your glasses," Adora said picking up the shattered frame.
"Don't worry about it," Road Queen said pulling a small case out of her pocket. Inside were two extra pairs identical to the ones she had been wearing before.
"You said one of the reasons you wear those is so people can't study your eyes," Adora said.
"Yeah."
"So what's the other reason?"
Road Queen chuckled and slipped the new pair on her face. "They make me look cool."
