Betrayal by Jon Kiln

over backward into the man’s arm and body.
    As the man grunted in surprise, Nisero’s weight came down on the man’s back and head with the arm twisted up around Nisero’s side. He felt the shoulder socket of the man’s knife arm crack and shift unnaturally under him. The fingers folded open and the dagger fell away to the ground.
    Nisero rolled and twisted around still holding the man’s arm, driving the break further. He let out a shrill scream and bucked up, giving Nisero his back.
    “He’s going for the knife!” Arianne warned.
    As Nisero clutched the man’s broken arm and shoulder at an impossible angle behind his back, the man clawed at the ground beyond Nisero’s saddle with his good hand to try to retrieve the hilt of his dagger.
    Nisero wrapped his arm around under the man’s chin and bent his arm at the elbow, contracting the man’s airway and the arteries on both side of his neck. The man had a long, black beard that bunched up around Nisero’s arm as he choked the bounty hunter.
    The man still fought and reached for the dagger. Nisero locked the hand of his choke arm over the bicep of his other arm. He then hooked his other hand around the back of the man’s skull and pushed his head down into the choke. Nisero constricted and flexed, tightening his grip.
    The man brought his hand back from trying for the dagger and pulled at the triangle of Nisero’s arms trying to break the choke, but failed. Nisero leaned back, pulling the man to the ground on top of him as he squeezed tighter.
    The man tried to claw at Nisero’s face, but the lieutenant turned his head to guard his eyes. The man then tried to drive his head back to headbutt Nisero’s nose, but Nisero held him around the head and throat controlling his movement and prevented the attack.
    “Snap his neck and let’s away before someone finds us,” Arianne said in a panic.
    The man squirmed in response to Arianne’s threat. He hissed and spittle spewed out over his lips, beard, and Nisero’s forearm. The fight began to drain out of him as he was robbed of air.
    The man went limp in Nisero’s grip and he held tight for a few moments longer to be sure he was really out and it wasn’t a ploy.
    “Finish him off, Nisero.”
    Nisero rolled the bounty hunter’s unconscious body onto his belly in the grass before he got up. Nisero lumbered up to his feet as the horses raised their heads and stared.
    Arianne looked at the man on the ground with fear. “Nisero, are you going to let him live?”
    “He was following the law. We’ll be away before he awakes.”
    “He was following the law threatening to cut open my belly and put something in my mouth to silence me?” she asked. “This does not seem to be a law worth defending.”
    “Fair enough,” Nisero conceded. “Maybe he does deserve to die and I have broken his shoulder for his threats, but it will be far easier to defend my innocence for murder, if I actually refrain from murdering.”
    Nisero hauled his saddle and bags up onto his horse and strapped it in place. The animal snorted and tugged against Nisero’s efforts, but he patted its side and calmed it.
    He took Arianne’s hands and brought her up slowly to her feet again.
    “Are you good to ride, Arianne?”
    “I will be fine.” She brought her fingers up to his throat and touched two spots that stung, making him hiss. “You are cut.”
    He pulled away and felt the spots himself. “How bad is it?”
    “They look like nicks.” She took a cloth from Nisero’s saddlebags and dabbed at the cuts. “It could have been much worse.”
    “I’ll be fine.” He stepped away and took her saddle to prepare her horse to ride.
    As he strapped the saddle in place, she said, “You need to let me put water on it to treat it.”
    “I’ll be fine. We just need to get away.” He turned away from her horse and smiled. “But we need to not look like we are fleeing. We need to flee casually. You understand?”
    “Nisero, please, let me