Chapter 18

  Hitasa’s catatonia hit like a freight train. One second her eyes were bright, if frightened, pondering the role of humans in her world and what it meant that Dalex stood in opposition to them. The next, it was like her mind clicked off, leaving just her skeleton and muscles to keep her standing.

  “Whoa, hold on, Hitasa,” Dalex said. “Don’t go there. It’s okay, forget I asked.”

  He took her by the shoulders and walked her away from the lodge, trying to get her to think about anything other than whatever had crossed her mind when he asked that question. He knew touching her without permission would bother her. If it helped snap her back to reality, he would accept a tongue lashing.

  “Very interesting,” Seventh said, following after them. “Observing her from the [stealth frigate], I experienced some difficulty determining what caused these episodes. I detected no change in her brain chemistry, and I still do not, but there is clearly some mechanism at work.”

  “Let’s head to the Cantering Colt,” Dalex suggested. “We’ll probably be early, but we can take our time and have another look around the city. Wow, it’s really beautiful here, isn’t it?”

  “Stop talking,” Hitasa said.

  Dalex shut up and let go of her shoulders. She stood still for a moment and then turned around. Some of the light had returned to her eyes. She still looked dazed, but he could tell she was focusing on him. Dalex opened his mouth to ask what had happened, but he worried that would make her catatonic again, so he just said, “Shall we go then?”

  Hitasa wordlessly nodded and walked under her own power toward the closest ramp down off the canyon wall. She didn’t even acknowledge that anything strange had happened. It was like she couldn’t remember her catatonic moments, but she also seemed aware of certain things Dalex said when she was out. Maybe it was an elf thing, though that certainly hadn’t made it into any of his fantasy stories from Earth.

  He and Seventh followed after her, neither sure what to make of this mysterious elf. Now that she was alert again, Dalex was mostly disappointed that he wouldn’t get an answer to his question. Why was she following him?

  ***

  A few hours later, when the sun was over the horizon, Dalex and his companions walked into the Cantering Colt. For a tavern after daylight hours, it was well lit and full of quiet patrons, hardly the kind of place Dalex expected for a clandestine meeting. A few pleasant conversations went on around the room and no one was uproariously drunk, yet. A staircase in the corner led up to a row of guest rooms.

  Dava and his fellow hunters already occupied a table near a corner of the tavern lounge. Oddly enough, the few people who looked up at Dalex’s arrival only nodded at him in acknowledgement and then went back to their drinks or meals. He got none of the typical overwhelming respect reserved for humans. Dalex wondered if Dava had primed the patrons for his arrival, letting them know they didn’t have to go overboard.

  Dava had left three seats open at his table and he and his party sat opposite the empty chairs. Dalex sat down in the middle chair and Seventh and Hitasa sat on his wings. Hitasa looked nervous, as if she felt she shouldn’t be there. Maybe she was right to feel that, but she obviously wasn’t going to tell him what she was thinking.

  They began with introductions. Dava went through his party, naming them and giving them a chance to explain a few details about their combat abilities. First was the other beastkin, Oyuun, a woman—or as Dalex learned that moment, a “damekin”—in her mid-twenties with ears like a deer. She told Dalex that her sword was publicized to “slash thrice” which sounded self-explanatory to him. She didn’t mention any publicized spells she might know, but Dava named her as the second in command of the party.

  Then came the two elves, a male and female Staja and Metsa. They looked the same age, in the mid-twenties like Oyuun. But as the conversation progressed, Dalex learned that Metsa was Staja’s mother.

  Staja used a sword and a spear and said he only knew one publicized word of power, which he staunchly refused to tell mixed company. His mother said she knew a few publicized spells useful for supporting the hunting party. She used a bow with enhanced draw strength and publicized arrows with a number of debilitating effects. Apparently, the arrows were not publicized themselves, but Metsa said she was publicly known to make her arrows perform useful tricks against her prey.

  Dava himself, a wolf beastkin in his late thirties, explained that he carried a war hammer into battle. According to him, his hammer “drives a nail,” which he explained to mean every blow implanted an iron bar into the flesh of his enemy. He knew a single publicized spell which created a dragon’s roar, the only sound that mutts feared.

  Dalex couldn’t wait to see these people in action.

  After the hunters made their introductions, they went right to business. Dava began by saying, “The mutt den is twenty miles north of the city. Local witnesses and the crews of a few passing ships report seeing two or three mutts in the area. I would err on the side or more, so assume four or five.”

  “Twenty miles seems close,” Dalex said. “And in a populated area? How are people and boats still getting close?”

  Dava and his party exchanged confused looks. At this point, Dalex recognized the problem.

  “Assume I don’t know anything about mutts,” he said. “You might have to explain some behaviors that most people should know.”

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  Dava frowned for a moment, and then said, “Unless you get to within a certain range, mutts ignore most living things. If you pass through that range, they’ll hunt you until they kill you, but otherwise, they leave people alone. Though once enough of them are concentrated in a region, they get aggressive, no matter what the range. If a pack grows larger than ten mutts, they start attacking towns and villages.”

  “I told you I don’t know anything about mutts,” Dalex said, “but actually I know a bit. We were attacked by a lone mutt on the way here. It made right for me and snatched me off the road almost before I knew it was there. After I killed it, there weren’t any others around.”

  Dava’s frown deepened. “It might not have been a mutt. Those who aren’t familiar with mutts sometimes get them confused with dire wolves and other canid beasts.”

  “It was a mutt,” Hitasa interjected. “I’ve seen them before, and this wasn’t a dire wolf.”

  Dava studied her for a moment, then looked back at Dalex. “And it snatched you up?”

  Dalex nodded. “Scooped me up like I was a big bone and trotted around the forest with me between its teeth.”

  The young elf snorted. The rest of his party gave him chastising looks, but seemed equally skeptical.

  After a moment, Dava said, “I must be honest with you, Ser Dalex. Though I proposed this partnership, I am a little uncertain about working with you. That you know little about mutts is concerning, and I know of no person of any race who has been caught in the jaws of a mutt and walked away whole. You demonstrated great power at the lodge. Lord Michel is well known as a skilled and aggressive duelist. I would not be able to defeat him, let alone handle him like a child in the way you did.”

  He took a deep breath and finished, “But I worry you are telling tall tales, and I only hunt with partners I trust to slay mutts. Perhaps now would be a good time to explain your own combat abilities. What publicized weapons do you use, and how deep is your lexicon?”

  Dalex sat back in his chair. “That’s a bit hard to explain.” My publicized weapon is the axe you saw earlier today, {Skull Anchor}. It’s extra sharp, essentially unbreakable, and hits like a truck– er, I mean, hits like a dragon’s claw.”

  He followed up {Skull Anchor} by adapting a few of his own spells into publicized descriptions. {Chaos Lightning} became “Chaos lightning calls volcanic thunder.” He had told Hitasa the truth about his power right away, but if he did the same here, he expected Dava wouldn’t believe him and might not trust him to hunt. Being honest with Hitasa had been easy because he didn’t have anything to lose from her disbelief.

  “But, according to Yesui, you have no mana,” Dava pressed.

  “You’ll just have to take my word that the testing stone didn’t work on me. I’ve got mana.”

  Telling that lie really hurt. He so desperately wanted it to be true.

  “And what about your two companions?”

  Seventh was quick with her answer. “I am capable of everything that Dalex is capable of.”

  Dalex raised an eyebrow. “Everything?”

  She gave him a surprisingly haughty look. “Naturally. Did you think I would join you on this planet without the tools to eliminate weapons of the unknown faction?”

  “I apologize,” Dava interrupted. “Are you three not originally from Gaia Eta?”

  Dalex froze, momentarily panicked that Seventh had hinted at the lie. “Um, no, we’re from Gaia…”

  Seventh swept in to save him. “We came here from Gaia Delta.”

  Dava’s eyes widened. “Gaia Delta? I had heard few humans lived there, and that the reptilkin eat elves on sight.”

  He looked pointedly at Hitasa, who quickly said, “I am from Gaia Eta.”

  Dalex nodded. “Seventh and I picked her up after we arrived. And living with the…” He trailed off, trying to remember exactly how Dava had said it. “Living with reptilkin is challenging, but these are the things we do for… duty.”

  He had never been good at lying. Hopefully, Dava needed his help enough to look past these inconsistencies.

  The beastkin kept his eyes fixed on Hitasa. “And you, young she-elf? You said you have seen mutts before. Do you have experience hunting them?”

  Now the entire table looked at her, Dalex and Seventh included. From observing her burial of her brother, Dalex knew Hitasa could perform some magic, but a spell that dribbled water into a grave and promoted plant growth wouldn’t serve well in slaying giant monsters.

  She was silent for a moment. Dalex worried that, under such scrutiny, she might be seized by another of her catatonic episodes.

  But, when she finally spoke, she said, “I have no publicized weapons, but I do know three elven words of ancient power. I have enough mana to use each of them twice.”

  At that announcement, the two elven hunters sat up straight, looking at Hitasa as if she had just pinched them awake. Dava’s ears twitched. He leaned back in his chair and stroked his chin thoughtfully.

  “I don’t suppose you would be willing to prove that here?” he asked.

  Hitasa shook her head. “I would not.”

  Dava sighed and leaned forward again, far enough that his forehead came close to touching the surface of the table. “I find all of this difficult to believe. Three people of such power and renown—two of them humans who know nothing about mutts and a elf who won’t tell us her power—want to become hunters.” He looked up at Dalex and his companions. “I have never met a human hunter. I know they exist, but they are exceedingly rare. You should be lord of some great estate on Gaia Beta, not bathing in Gaia Eta mud with the likes of us.

  Dalex sighed. “You don’t believe Seventh and I are from Gaia Delta, do you?”

  “No, I do not.” Dava clasped his hands together. “Humans don’t care about mutts unless they get too close to something a human owns.”

  “Dava,” Dalex said, laying his palms on top of the table. “Let me put it this way. If you show me where this mutt den is, tell me a few things I don’t already know about mutt behavior, and pay for a meal and a room for myself and my companions, I will have your back all the way. I will kill every mutt in that den, and I will probably do it before we are within a quarter mile of the place. How does that sound?”

  “Unbelievable,” Dava said quickly. He paused before adding, “But also, easy to prove before my party is close enough to be in danger.”

  “Then it’s a deal. I’ll have whatever the house special is tonight.”

  ***

  An hour later, when they had finished eating and Dava and his party had left with instructions on where to find them in the morning, Dalex, Seventh, and Hitasa still sat around the table. Seventh had not touched any of her meal, so Dalex now gnawed on one of the chicken legs from her plate. When it was just skin and bone, he set the leg down and wiped his fingers on a cloth napkin.

  “Three elven words of ancient power,” Dalex said. “Do you mind if I ask what that means?”

  “You may ask,” Hitasa said, “but I will not tell you.”

  “That’s fine, then.” His curiosity was disappointed, but he wouldn’t pressure her to reveal her secrets. “Before you mentioned those spells, I hadn’t been sure I would invite you on this hunt. I wasn’t confident it would be safe for you. We are planning on fighting some monsters, after all. Are you sure you want to come along?”

  “I am.”

  She left it at that. Dalex wanted to ask why. Why would she follow him out on a dangerous mutt hunt? Why wouldn’t she just leave him and go her own way in the city, now that she was so far from Castreier?

  But he didn’t want her to freeze up, and he felt confident he could protect her if things went south.

  “Then, the hunt begins tomorrow. We should get some rest.”

  She nodded and the three of them went up to the room Dava had rented for them before he left. Dalex had almost asked for two rooms, but he hadn’t wanted to press his luck. He, Hitasa, and Seventh would just have to deal with the close quarters.

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