Haley jerks back when she sees silver flash in Huntsgirl's hand, and she is too shocked that the blade slices through the bindings of the suffocating net instead of biting into her flesh to feel relieved.
Even once Huntsgirl wrenches the net free, pulling away weight that Haley didn't have the strength to lift, she is too wary to find any comfort in Huntsgirl's actions.
"Is it more fun for you if I run?" Haley asks quietly. She doesn't want that knife in her back, even if it might be quicker; she'd rather fight—try to fight—even if she isn't sure of success.
Huntsgirl reaches up and tears off her mask with her free hand. She is younger than Haley expects, especially given her reputation and skill. "I need you to tell me how you control your abilities. Your…dragon abilities."
Haley stares. Huntsgirl isn't trying to hide the desperation on her face or in her voice, but it doesn't…. "Why?" she asks. The Huntsclan already knows her abilities, and she'd thought they'd have been able to discern how she controlled them. Huntsgirl doesn't answer, so Haley adds, "Focus, mostly. Concentration, until it becomes second nature."
"Second nature," Huntsgirl repeats, and there is something in her tone that Haley can't pinpoint—not quite flatness, not quite disbelief. "But what about your training?"
"Practice, control, forms." Haley shrugs. "If it weren't for flying, it might not be terribly different from yours. More chores, maybe. Even common motions like scrubbing can help me to react faster in a fight later where I need to use that motion."
Huntsgirl frowns. "Show me. All the forms you can remember."
"But…why?"
"Just show me," growls Huntsgirl. The knife is still in her hand, and Haley is not convinced she won't use it to injure, so she starts to go through some of the forms.
She is halfway through, working her way up to the more strenuous ones, before it occurs to her that Huntsgirl may be trying to learn her fighting style. She might be trying to figure out what moves Haley will make and then determine how best to defend against them. She hesitates. Huntsgirl hasn't been mirroring her motions; she's been watching her with narrowed eyes, memorizing every minute movement.
Haley knows she doesn't have the strength to run, but it's unlikely that Huntsgirl knows how long it takes for her to recover from the sphinx hair, especially when it's in such close proximity. "I'm sorry," she says. "I'm getting tired. I need to rest."
"You don't have time to rest."
"I don't have the energy to do everything properly," Haley counters, and Huntsgirl's mouth thins.
"Fine," she spits. "Sit. Rest. We can talk instead."
Haley doesn't know what to expect when Huntsgirl begins asking questions. They seem too peculiar, too pointed, to be mere information gathering. For the most part, Haley answers as truthfully as she can, as truthfully as she dares. She's not sure how many questions Huntsgirl already knows the answers to, but there is no doubt she suspects most of what Haley says. The slight scowls or smiles or nods are more common than widened eyes.
Eventually, Huntsgirl tells her to continue her forms, that she should be rested enough.
Haley doesn't dare feign more weakness yet, so she obeys.
This time, Huntsgirl's questions continue, and Haley finds it more difficult to guard her words. Banter in battle has never been a strong suit of hers. Unless she is with others, she prefers to fight silently. She doesn't want to accidently give anything away to the enemy.
She thinks, given her current struggles, that she should ask Fu for lessons.
He is never shy for words.
It seems like hours pass before the sky gives any hint of lightening, though Haley knows it likely hasn't been that long. The moment the sky begins to turn a slightly lighter blue, a hint of teal with the barest touch of pink, Huntsgirl tugs the mask over her head again. She pulls a length of cloth out and gestures for Haley to come closer. She was expecting it to go over her wrists, perhaps even to tether them together, but it goes over her eyes.
Her heart sinks.
"Are…are you taking me back to the Huntsclan after all?" Her voice shakes, and she tries to squash down the rising panic. She'd dared to hope. She'd been so foolish. She—
"No." Huntsgirl's voice is quiet. "Your people captured my partner. I intend to make an exchange. But you will be stronger for the journey back, and I can't have you tracking every step that easily."
Haley licks her lips. "But this won't be a standard base for you. You wouldn't risk showing it to me if it were."
"It isn't," Huntsgirl agrees easily, "but I like it. The others don't know about it."
"Except your partner." Huntsgirl doesn't need to confirm it; Haley already knows that much is true, even if nothing else is. "Why is he so important? Is he the dragon handler?" She says the words flippantly, but she wonders if they're true. The dragon must have a contact, and she isn't convinced it would be someone with as high a profile as Huntsgirl. He would have known to be wary if it were. He would have been able to run before they ever got a hold on him that he didn't dare break.
Huntsgirl doesn't answer, but Haley doesn't really expect her to.
She had hoped, though, that Huntsgirl would leave the sphinx hair behind. Haley feels the cord even before Huntsgirl ties it around her wrist. It isn't much, but she can already feel it draining the energy she had. It isn't something she can fight for long, and she isn't in a state to try now. Her earlier pretense is long over.
She isn't gagged, and Huntsgirl doesn't warn her against screaming. Haley doesn't think it's a foolish oversight. She thinks it's a gesture of trust.
But she knows they must be too far away for anyone to hear her now, anyway.
Haley is grateful when Huntsgirl picks her up and carries her; it is better than stumbling blindly. She'd prefer that if she were being taken back to the Huntsclan headquarters, of course, wanting to stall as long as possible, but she believes Huntsgirl's words.
She wants to make an exchange.
Her partner is important, even if she won't say why.
Perhaps he is merely important to her, but Haley doubts it. He must have some connection to the dragon. Perhaps he is the one with the hold over the other dragon, not the Huntsclan at large. That may be why she is still alive.
It may also explain Huntsgirl's questions and the reason she waited so long to ask them, instead of simply demanding answers earlier. Haley would have refused to give them, of course, for as long as she could, but—
Huntsgirl stops, and Haley knows that are not remotely near the same place from which she was taken. She suspects the direction is different, but she knows the journey was shorter. "What's going on?" she whispers, half-afraid to ask, but Huntsgirl doesn't shush her.
Instead, she sits Haley on the ground and pulls off the blindfold. Haley squints. It takes longer than she cares to admit to recognize where they are.
"There's a phone booth over there," Huntsgirl says, pointing toward the street. "You're going to make a phone call. Tell the others where you are and that one of them is to bring my partner in exchange, or I will drive my spear through your heart."
Haley frowns, but she can't detect any hint of exaggeration.
"If I suspect any subterfuge, on their part or yours, I'll do so anyway. And if they've harmed my partner, they won't fare any better."
"I don't understand why you're doing this," Haley says as Huntsgirl walks her toward the phone at spearpoint. Haley doesn't know this area well, but she knows there are no cameras in this spot, and she knows anyone who did see them wouldn't interfere. Or call the police. Huntsgirl doesn't think she'll be caught.
Haley fears she is right.
"You don't have to understand," Huntsgirl says. She hands Haley some coins and readies her spear again.
Haley sighs, slips the coins into the slot, and guards the number pad as she dials.
The phone at the shop is picked up on the first ring, but no one answers until she speaks. It's her mother. Haley blinks back tears, but she keeps the conversation brief. She tells them Huntsgirl's terms and doesn't use their names.
Huntsgirl pulls them both back into the shadows to wait, but in what Haley assumes is a gesture of trust, she cuts away the sphinx hair that bound her. When Haley musters up the strength to change, she does. The spear she expects doesn't come. When Haley looks, Huntsgirl isn't surprised. It is like she expected this. She knows Haley won't willingly share her human identity with any others in the Huntsclan.
But she keeps the sphinx hair close by instead of burning it. Close enough to keep Haley too weak to fly, to fight, but not so weak that she cannot hold her form.
For someone who was asking so many questions about dragons, Huntsgirl already seems to know how to wield that particular weapon against them.
It is a long time before a car pulls up. Haley doesn't recognize it, but Susan gets out, her face hidden behind an old Halloween mask. She walks around to the passenger door, opens it, and helps a blindfolded figure to their feet. Huntsgirl's partner.
Huntsgirl nudges Haley forward without a word, and they walk to meet Susan on neutral ground—as much as a dirty stretch of sidewalk has ever been neutral ground. Huntsgirl's partner fidgets as he waits, perhaps as surprised by Huntsgirl's actions as Haley had been. Susan had removed his blindfold, but the dark eyes that stare at them betray nothing.
"99, report," Huntsgirl says, too quietly to be barked but her tone still stiff with command.
"Uninjured," he says sourly. "Drugs." Then, "You shouldn't be doing this. Rule 104."
Haley doesn't know if that's a real rule or some code word between them, but Huntsgirl hisses through her teeth and shoves Haley forward. Her free hand grabs 99, and they retreat into the shadows. Even watching with dragon eyes, they are difficult to pick out.
"They're gone," she finally whispers, and Susan drops to a crouch and embraces her.
"I was so worried," she breathes. "I thought I'd lost you."
Haley doesn't say anything. She just buries her head in her mother's shoulder, ignoring the tickle of false hair from her mother's disguise, and allows herself to cry again.