The Dowager's Largesse — Jefferson Smith

Karsten is a violent man at the end of a violent career, with no greater ambition than to retire to a well-earned life of ease. But a last drink with an old client goes off the rails and now the bounty hunter is left with an impossible choice: enter service to the Dowager Empress or lose a year of his remaining time for every day he resists. Some choice. But this time, his instinct to meet trouble with violence is tempered by an unlikely ally: the llama who carries his gear.