Ellis thought it would be hard to track them. He didn’t sleep that night, or the next. He only focused on the footprints in the road and jogged after them like his feet weren’t screaming in pain. His legs wanted to collapse with every step, his forearms had deep gashes down them that had crusted over with blood, small cuts littered his body and yet his face was flat, like he didn’t feel the ache at all.

  He did, though. But they were his only distraction from grief, so they felt amazing to Ellis.

  The sun and moon passed over Ellis’s head with a swiftness he had never seen before. On the third day, when the sun was high in the sky, blinding Ellis whenever he glanced at it, he spotted two figures walking side by side in the distance.

  Ellis ran to the trees and hid behind the thickest one he could find. Then he moved to the next, taking a peak and seeing them continue at their dreary pace, unconcerned. He closed the distance between them by moving through the trees for the rest of the day, the agonizing slowness feeling worse than his wounds.

  The woman, Ameena, would check over her shoulder with practiced paranoia every ten minutes, scanning the treeline around her like she knew he was following them. But Ellis had learned how to sneak up on a rabbit and grab it by the time he was five. She would never notice him.

  Michael, on the other hand, never checked over his shoulder even once. His hair flickered with the slight breeze rustling the leaves above Ellis, his every step oozing with sheer confidence that made Ellis’s hands tremble, but he kept the rage down. He knew where they were. They would not escape him now.

  He was a hundred meters away from where they walked, close enough to hear snippets of conversation as the sun set in front of them, the golden glow extending their shadows to the tree he hid behind. He was confused as they split up, Ameena walking off the side of the road to set up their camp by herself, quite a ways into the trees so that no passerby would notice them sleeping there. It would be smart, if it wasn’t Rass territory. There had been three signs along the road telling people not to stop no matter what for at least a day’s walk. And yet she seemed completely unconcerned.

  Michael walked off into the distance, not a care in the world that he was travelling in a place that had made at least a dozen people go missing over the course of Ellis’s life. He contemplated following Michael into the forest, but was too tempted to stay by where he knew them to be camping.

  If he stayed, he knew Michael would come back here since this is where their camp was located. But following Michael would give him the advantage of knowing where the man would be at all times. Ellis could kill him by his lonesome, then come back to kill Ameena afterwards.

  But that wasn’t good enough for Ellis. He wanted at least one of them to watch. To hurt as he did, even if it was for but a moment. Then he would turn his mother’s knife onto himself, and follow them to hell. All so he could kill them again. There was nothing left for him up here anymore, anyway. So why not make those bastards suffer?

  The only danger to staying was if Michael happened to run into him… but Ellis could hear the man walking all the way from where he hid, so luck was on his side in that regard. But the single lesson his father had taught him about being a hunter was patience. With bated breath, he waited until Ameena had pitched a small tent.

  He hid behind a nearby tree and watched her, in case this was all a ruse and she had, by some miracle, seen him following her throughout the day at some point. After making a fire, she sat and stared at her hands, sometimes stoking the flames with a long stick. At one point, he thought he saw tears well up in the back of her eyes. But he knew that thing wasn’t capable of tears. It must have been another trick from Anwir.

  Michael’s loud footsteps returned after a time, the sun long since set. Ellis was now close enough to hear Ameena breathe a heavy sigh at her companion’s arrival, while he attempted to notch an arrow into his unslung bow. He glanced down at the pointed end, shook his head, and took out his knife instead.

  “There’s nothing here! I thought you said this place was dangerous!?” Michael complained, his deep voice sounding strange to Ellis with the whining that accompanied it.

  Ameena sounded like she was suppressing an eyeroll. “You were only gone for 2 hours. If you wanted to find something, you should have searched for longer.”

  She said it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which it was. So at least one of the murderers was stupid. He would kill that one first.

  With a huff, Michael sat down on a log. “That’s too much effort! So fuck this place. I want to pick up the pace tomorrow.” His eyes flashed, and he grinned in anticipation. “Killing the man who owns a city is bound to stir up something of interest, at least.”

  Ameena looked up from the fire for the first time since Michael arrived, looking at him as if he had said goats could fly. “We are going to kill the Archduke, yes, but that doesn’t mean we can just waltz into his palace and kill him.”

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  “Why not? Shouldn’t be too hard,” Michael said with a shrug, like it was that easy. Ameena’s eye twitched, before she went back to staring at the fire. The words out of her mouth sounded handpicked, the caution of every word hiding the contempt behind it.

  “The only man that would ‘stir up’ is the captain of The Albus Citadel’s guards, the man wearing the golden armour who rode past us after you— after your little stunt. His reputation as a man capable of killing ants has reached my ears half way through the continent, which means he is extremely dangerous and compe—”

  “So am I. It won’t be that hard to kill him,” Michael interrupted, turning towards her with a smile.

  Ameena held his gaze, the fire glinting off the steel in her eyes. “Killing him is close to an impossibility. Even if you could beat him, which I don’t think you will, he would slow you down enough for the hundreds if not thousands of guards in the city to kill you after. Not even you can fight an army, Michael.”

  “Well… We’ll see about that, won’t we?” He scoffed, turning to the fire.

  Ellis had closed the distance so that he stood in the treeline surrounding them, close enough to feel the soft warmth of the flames. He was maybe fifteen meters from Michael’s back, close enough for them to smell Ellis.

  But they wouldn’t, the smoke covered his scent more than the downwind, and he could stand still for a very long time. The wait was torturous. Listening to them talk was worse. Thankfully, they did not speak for almost ten minutes after their earlier moronic conversation.

  And when the fire was about to die, Ameena spoke up again. “Goodnight, I’m going to bed.”

  “Mind if I join you?” Michael asked. Ellis could hear the grin on his lips.

  Ameena didn’t even glance over her shoulder as she walked away. “Your joke isn’t funny, Michael. Goodnight.”

  The closing of the tent flap exemplified her point. Michael shrugged at the silent tent, then laid down on the floor like it was the most comfortable thing in the world, not bothering with a pillow, let alone a blanket. Ellis had wondered why there was only one tent, but assumed they would share. But no, the man was left outside beneath the stars with nothing but the clothes on his back.

  Ellis gritted his teeth. He had waited too long. Waiting until she emerged again in the morning was the smart play, the one his mind kept telling him to make, but he couldn’t take it any longer. He grabbed the necklace around his neck, sent up a prayer, then crept forward to slit that monster’s throat…

  A memory of Michael’s grip on his shoulder flashed through his mind. The man might thrash while dying, and if he grabbed Ellis, he might just drag him to hell sooner than he would like. Grinding his teeth, Ellis put the knife back in its scabbard, unslung his bow and notched an arrow with practiced hands. The string pulled back with effortless ease as the sound of a twig snapping filled the air.

  Ellis froze on the spot. Michael sat up and grinned, scanning the treeline. He was on his feet a second later.

  “Hello? Anyone there?” he asked. Ellis felt a bead of sweat run down his forehead, the arrow half drawn back while Michael unsheathed his sword, that same smile he had greeted Ellis with plastered on his face.

  “Come out! I promise not to hurt you! If you don’t I will assume you are a thief! I will find you if yo—”

  Right behind Michael, a thin Rass burst from the treeline, flying through the air towards the man’s back, its beak open as a triumphant squawk left its throat. It bit deep into Michael’s left shoulder, its huge front legs reaching out and wrapping the man in a giant hug, its two front claws raking away at Michael’s chest with a hungry fervour.

  Ellis almost stood, ready to fight the animal for his right to kill that bastard. Then he noticed Michael hadn’t even glanced at the Rass as it tore at his shoulder and chest. He just continued to scan the treeline while his grin faded.

  “That sucks. Only you tonight? Well, still. Ameena! We don’t have to hurry to the city anymore, I found what I was looking for,” he called out, before putting his sword back into its scabbard.

  “That’s nice,” a sleepy voice rose from the tent, unbothered by her companion being attacked by a predator Ellis had been told horror stories of since he was a child.

  Michael reached over his shoulder and grabbed the Rass by the scruff of its neck. With a simple squeeze, his fingers punctured the thick hide of the animal before he ripped its throat out, the Rass’s squawking turning into a sick gurgling sound. When the predator grew still, Michael tossed the creature to the ground like a piece of trash.

  He held up his shirt and tsked when he saw it had been torn through. But his chest only let loose a tiny droplet of blood, before he checked his shoulder. There was a slightly deeper scratch there, like a pigeon had attacked him instead of the dead animal at his feet.

  He seemed to think for a moment, then turned to the tent. “Hey Ameena! I have a boo-boo, mind making me feel better?”

  No answer greeted him. Michael rolled his eyes and sighed in response, pulled the animal closer before smoothing out its coat, then used the rotting carcass as a pillow as he once again laid down for the night.

  Ellis stood frozen still for a second longer, then took a tentative step backward. Michael sat bolt upright the moment Ellis twitched, and scanned the treeline with the hilt of his sword in hand.

  “Damn, could’ve sworn there was someone there…” he muttered, before he laid back down. He didn’t get up again.

  Ellis backed away as slow as he could, the same fear he had seen with the ants returning to him now in full force.

  Without a second thought, he turned and ran.