Later that night, while the kids wove their baskets and Bihei worked at her loom, our body sat in apparent meditation as we listened to the village’s leadership hashing things out with Ghitha.
His main demand was for the Hunter’s Lodge to kill the King of the Forest. And to our surprise, Inleio wasn’t entirely opposed. His counter-proposal, though, was to delay the bear’s hunt. The lodge needed more time to prepare for it—time to practice the Healing Water spell and get used to working with the Albei team. He argued that the hunt for the musk oxen bulls would be a good first step and a test of their coordination together.
Otwei observed the proceedings with amusement, impatience, and greedy glee. The Albei team would likely stay in Voorhei for another three or four weeks as a result of the negotiations, and that meant a steady flow of gold into their pouches. The downside, though, was that there wasn’t anything to do in this backwater village. At least she got to see her employer Ghitha squirm.
We couldn’t observe him ourselves—the best we were able to manage from her optic nerves were variations of light and dark—but we felt her satisfaction about the beads of sweat accumulating on Ghitha’s forehead. There’d been speculation among her teammates about the depth of his wealth. Another four weeks might be his limit, especially with the additional expenses from the Alchemist and Soldier Lodges.
Banan had demanded elixirs for his whole team to protect them from lightning qi, in addition to two ballistae and their crews. Delivery of those large weapons would now need to be rescheduled, and a hefty penalty would come with that.
All of the expenses related to the kalihchi bear’s hunt were significant. But then the reward was supposedly something special indeed—a chamber full of eilesheile. Or at least that was what had been promised to Ghitha, and he believed in that promise. It had come from his beloved brother after all—the man who could chew any rock, unless it was made of kalihchi bear.
Otwei snickered and had to pretend to cough. The room was tense from the discussions, and she didn’t like all those serious eyes turned on her. She wondered if she could slip out unnoticed. They didn’t need her, so maybe she could make some mischief around the village while everyone slept. It would help pass the time.
Otwei felt Banan’s gaze, warning her not to make trouble, and she sighed. This village was so boring. At least there were the musk oxen to look forward to tomorrow.
The hunters left Voorhei the next morning. Each of them traveled in their respective teams moving through the forest in circle formation. The people from Albei took the lead and scouted ahead. I figured my team would also be near the circle’s leading edge, but Mumu had us lag so that we were behind everyone else. The pattern was the same as the one used in smaller groupings of hunters—the strongest were always at the head and tail. The formation was just being replicated at a larger scale.
There’d been a light rain early in the morning, just shy of sunrise, but the sky was clear with only a few tufts of cloud left over. It made for muddy patches in places, but no one stepped in them. These were all experienced hunters, even the apprentices, so they stuck to where the forest’s detritus was thickest to avoid leaving tracks.
About every half mile, a hunter from one of the adjacent teams swung by to check on us. Each time, Tegen signaled, “All clear.”
The day was starting to warm and steam had begun rising from the ground where the sun filtered through the trees, when we reached the granite outcropping where the giant eagle had attacked us the day before. A hunter—I recognized him from Borba’s team—came out of the trees and loped toward us.
“Change of direction,” he signed and pointed toward a ridge southwest of us.
“We hear you,” Tegen signed, but the hunter had already started on his way back.
Tegen whistled a songbird’s melody, and that pulled Mumu and Haol in from their positions at the head and tail. He pointed off in the new direction, and that was enough to get the hunters oriented.
I had Yuki check on Otwei’s position, and yes, she was over by the ridge. Nervous anticipation ran through her, the feeling sparking in her mind but watery in her belly. It was a strange mix of sensations.
Tegen tapped me on the shoulder. “Focus,” his eyes said.
I nodded, then followed him into the trees.
We were on our bellies on top of the ridge while down below, among a stand of pine trees, the tail of a musk ox swung. The rest of him was blocked from view, as was the rest of the small herd.
According to Otwei’s report, they were all adolescent bulls, and this one was somewhere between five and six hundred pounds. I checked him out with my Status camera:
Musk Ox (Animal) Talents: Sullen, Competitive |
“What do your eyes tell you?” Mumu asked. She kept her hands low so that the signs didn’t spook our prey.
“I don’t sense any darklight in this one,” I said.
Mumu nodded, then signaled to the adjacent hunter teams. To our right was the team from Albei; to our left was Kesa and her team. The rest were strung along the ridge like pearls on a necklace. The signal came back for scouts to move out.
Mumu grinned and faded from my attention. I had to really focus to keep track of her as she snuck down the hillside. I spotted Otwei moving in parallel, and then caught sight of the other scouts as well, seven in total.
They moved carefully down the hillside, edging toward the trees. The whole line stopped when the adolescent musk ox stepped into the open and gazed up at the ridge. Not a single hunter moved.
A grunt from deeper among the trees turned the adolescent around and lured him out of view. The scouts started moving again, slipping between the tall grass and easing through bushes until they too disappeared into the trees.
Twenty long minutes later, Mumu reappeared at the tree line and made her way back up toward the ridge. She signaled a meeting for the team leaders, and they congregated nearby, close enough for me to see the map she drew in the dirt. The other leaders squatted on their haunches around her.
“Trees for fifty yards. A stream at the edge here.” Mumu pointed at the map. “This hill slopes; the ground is pebbly. This is a fallen oak, good for cover, as are the bushes along this path. Good forage here and here. This is where the musk oxen are gathered. There are six. At least two have strayed. Maybe one more, but the scouts are in disagreement.”
Strayed… that’s what they call those who’ve absorbed enough darklight to mutate. If I can get a look at them with my camera, I might be able to tell how.
“Do we know the nature of those that strayed?” Kesa asked.
“Their leader is bigger than the rest and has iron fur and sharp horns,” Mumu signed. “The other, I don’t know. He is smaller, but has purplish fur and his horns point forward like a javelina’s tusks.”
Banan spoke up for the first time: “My team will take the two strays. If you all can keep the rest of the herd occupied, we can make sure these musk oxen will never trouble the village.” His gestures were confident, yet the other team leaders didn’t seem to take it well.
They showed it in different ways. Borba’s brows rose in surprise; Mumu’s eyes narrowed; and Kesa’s face was bland, not giving anything away for free. I would’ve hated playing poker with that one. I was a decent player, but I tended to be too expressive. She would’ve eaten me alive.
“That is a—” Mumu struggled to find the right word. “That is an interesting plan.”
Beside me, Tegen nodded in agreement.
“But let me propose a different approach,” Mumu continued. “We will draw the herd to the ridgeline. When they are in view, we will shoot at them with our bows. If the leader charges, Banan’s team will respond. If the purple one attacks, that will be my team’s responsibility. Kesa and Borba’s teams can handle the one we’re uncertain about. Dura, Tobin, and Susu’s teams will deal with the remaining ordinary oxen.”
Kesa grinned. “Borba’s father and I used to hunt together often. It will be like those old days.”
“The trick will be getting them all out into the open,” Borba said.
The other hunters nodded along and began to discuss the plan’s details. A frown flitted across Banan’s face, but he banished it quickly. “Our team has a way to bring the oxen out into the open. You can trust us to do it.” He turned his professional smile on and aimed it at Mumu. “I can see why Voorhei’s lodge master places so much trust in you. This is a good plan—we will make it work.”
Afterward, while the plan was spread to the other hunter teams, I took Mumu aside. “I’d like to get a look at the musk oxen before we start. There might be something for me to learn about them using my spirit eyes.”
Mumu frowned in thought. I wasn’t sure what factors she was balancing in her head, but she gave a quick nod at the end of her calculations. “Very well. Follow me.”
She slipped into the long grass and down toward the trees. I followed suit, joining with Yuki in the process. Behind us, we saw hunters starting to work along the hillside. They planted stakes into the ground. The defenses would reinforce our position at the top of the ridge.
Mumu led the way through the trees, which were a mixture of eastern oak, red cedar, and a tree called saswei by the villagers. The bark smelled like cinnamon and was supposed to be good for the heart. This particular tree had a strong spirit, shining among the rest, and we made a note of its location. Cinnamon would be delicious on our donuts.
Focus. The thought arose, and we smiled.
There was a musk ox only thirty yards from the tree line, but nothing stood out about him. His talents were Irascible and Opportunistic.
While Mumu signaled to the other scouts to withdraw, we edged around the area, moving carefully. The trees kept us from being seen by the herd, but there was nothing wrong with the musk oxen’s hearing. We stuck to where the footing was most sure.
Our small body proved helpful when we slipped under a bush to crawl forward. A view opened onto the other oxen gathered near the stream. We found Sullen and Competitive, the first musk ox we’d originally spotted. The others were: Surly and Bulky, Grouchy and Charger, and finally Fierce-Tempered and Stronger Than He Looks.
Their leader stood in between them, twice the size of the others. His fur was especially thick, and his horns gleamed a pure white instead of grayish-whitish-brown.
Musk Ox Alpha (Animal) Talents: Angry, Sharp-Horned, Iron-Furred, Charger |
We also caught sight of a purple-furred ox browsing among the bushes. He wasn’t quite as tall as the others, and as Mumu mentioned his horns faced forward instead of to the sides. The purple extended into the horns, becoming so dark at the tips that they were nearly black.
Musk Ox Alpha (Animal) Talents: Haughty, Nimble, Nothin’ Better Than Blood, Burster |
We took a long breath and eased out from under cover slowly. Frustration arose that our Status camera wasn’t more descriptive. Applying our attention to the talents told us nothing about the abilities underlying them. Maybe this last bull had a taste for blood? Or was it secretly the musk ox equivalent of a vampire?
“Well?” Mumu signed.
“Angry, sharp, iron, charge,” we signed back. “That’s what we saw in the leader’s spirit. Another is hiding his strength. The purple one is complicated. Something about blood and bursting.”
“I don’t know what that could be.” Mumu’s expression was sober when she gestured for us to withdraw.
We ran into Otwei on the way back. She gave a smirking nod in passing and signed, “They’re waiting for you.” The feeling inside her was nervous anticipation. She expected there to be fun ahead, but first she’d need to lure the oxen out into the open.
Two lines of stakes greeted Mumu and me at the hillside leading up to the ridge. The sharpened points were stained brown with poison; the scent was pungent and bitter. Hunters tested them to make sure they were solidly in the ground.
I settled in next to Tegen while Mumu went to report on what we’d found. Haol sat in meditation, his arrows across his knees. Teila bit her upper lip as she watched the tree line.
“Well?” Tegen signed.
“Two strays confirmed,” I said. “One similar to what we expected, the other unknown. There is a third that is strong-ish, but it was hard to tell by how much.”
“That’ll mean a change of plans, then,” he said.
And sure enough, he was right. Mumu came back and let us know that Kesa’s team was joining us in fighting the purple musk ox.
“Banan’s team will go first to draw the charge,” she said. “Then us, and then Kesa. Borba’s team will handle the one we’re unsure about.”
After that, it was just a matter of waiting for Otwei to do her job and lure the oxen into our trap. Yuki kept tabs on her and let me know when she was approaching the tree line. She had an almost fiendish excitement for the mayhem about to happen.
All along the ridge, the hunters were ready.
“Close now,” I said.
Haol drew his bow, and like a wave the others followed suit. Not every hunter could use magic, but there were enough that the qi swirled among them, caressing the arrows in anticipation of the many uses of Spiral Pierce.
I didn’t have the strength to hold my stickbow at full draw, but I was ready too, all my arrowheads coated with chishiaxpe poison. Strangely, the minty scent helped steady my nerves.
Otwei shot from the trees. She was Camouflaged, but I saw the colors blur and the grass part as she ran through them. The ground vibrated when a combined four thousand pounds of angry musk oxen charged after her.
The hunters waited until all of the animals had cleared the tree line. The air hummed with power and cracked with their release of the Spiral Pierce spells. A heartbeat later, a choir of twangs followed as the mundane arrows were shot, my own included.
I pulled a second arrow from my quiver, Dog’s Agility working to speed my hands and fingers. My eyes never left my target as I sent a second and third arrow downrange.
The oxen faltered. The enchanted arrows thunked into them, but the ordinary shots were a disappointment—the animals’ fur was thick enough to act like natural armor. Fortunately, there’d been enough poison to go around, the same stuff that’d been applied to the stakes.
The herd split. Three retreated, wobbling into the trees with their heads already drooping. The others followed the larger of the two alphas. He charged at us, his hooves thumping and his fur glowing with an iron light. He carved a path up the hill. The ground split, and the earth, the rocks, and the poisoned stakes were all shoved aside to clear a path for him.
“In,” Banan yelled, and the dolbecs on his team ran to take positions just below the ridge, directly in line with the alpha’s charge.
“In,” Mumu yelled, and our team followed as she ran toward where the purple one would breach the ridge. The hunters near our target withdrew to make room for us.
Behind me, I heard Kesa yell, “In.” Then, Borba shouted as his team moved into position.
The alpha’s charge hit the dolbecs’ shields, and the air shook. Metal crumpled, like the terrible sound of a car accident. The dolbecs crouched and angled their shields to deflect the alpha up and away. His hooves left the ground, and he fell on his side. Banan and Kuros were ready. They plunged their spears into him.
I lost sight of their fight when Mumu leapt in a blur to stab at the purple musk ox. The animal danced aside; it wasn’t enough to dodge the attack, but the resulting injury was light. Tegen swung an overhand blow and struck the ground with a bam. The ox had been too fast for him.
Haol was out of qi, so he switched to normal arrows. He aimed at the ox’s eyes and face to distract him and help Tegen and Mumu land their blows. Teila contributed arrows too, but everything was blurring around me too quickly to see where she’d hidden herself.
Dog’s Agility pumped through me, and the air rushed past as I stabbed at the purple one’s neck. He bucked away, his body spinning to kick back at me. I ducked and slipped aside. The ground was loose, though, and I lost my footing.
Careful!
The warning from Yuki came almost too late. The ox had swung around again, a bead of purple light between his horns. He shot it at me, and I rolled like a little kid down the hillside to avoid getting hit by it.
The purple bead struck the third musk ox below me. Borba’s team nearly had him down. They were just about to go for the kill, but then the musk ox started to expand. His face shriveled and his legs too, but the skin around his torso grew more and more taut the rounder and rounder he became. When the pressure became too much, he burst like a water balloon, except it was blood—a fountain covering everything for almost a dozen yards.
The blood was hot, and my nose and mouth filled with the taste of it. I looked back in horror at the purple musk ox, but he’d been distracted away by Kesa’s crew. They were taking turns dashing in and out to keep him occupied and lure him into the trees.
My team wasn’t visible, except for Tegen. He’d run ahead and was banging on a tree trunk with his spear to add to the distraction. I spotted Haol nearby, sending arrows at the purple musk ox. Both Mumu and Kesa’s teams were doing their best to keep the ox from facing the other hunters in case he shot a bead in their direction.
But where was Mumu? I glanced around and caught sight of her rising out of stealth to ambush the ox. I stood up and ran to join my team.
Arrows coated in Spiral Pierce shot past me. It was unnerving, but I was glad to see them; they meant the hunters who’d killed their targets had begun joining the fight against the two alphas.
I joined the circle harassing the purple one. Arrows, spears, and—holy hells—a spark of electricity arced from a hunter, causing the musk ox to stumble long enough for a couple of spears to jab at him and draw blood.
The purple ox spun and kicked. His beads flickered and shot out, but everyone dodged and trees shattered in our place. The trunks burst, sending splinters flying. The first one caught a hunter in the arm, but we all knew to avoid the wooden shrapnel after that.
Eventually, the beads stopped, and the ox’s movements slowed. We heard him panting. To be fair, we were struggling to breathe too, but we’d outlasted him. The honor of finishing him off was given to Mumu and Kesa. They stabbed him, one in the heart and the other in the neck at the same time.
By the time we got back to the ridge, the larger alpha had been downed as well. A quick consultation confirmed that all the musk oxen were dead, including those that had tried to flee earlier. The poison had done its job.
A first-aid station was set up, and I worked alongside those treating the injured: a twisted ankle, broken ribs, a wooden splinter the length of a dagger, a case of accidental poisoning, and the worst cases of all—the dolbecs who’d suffered from multiple broken bones trying to withstand the alpha’s charge. Apparently, those bones breaking had sounded like Spiral Pierce spells, which was how I’d missed them during the fighting.
The dolbecs were stoic about the pain. Moon didn’t even groan as he was being moved for treatment. He thanked me afterward, though, in Signed Diaksh. The whole time I’d known him, I’d never heard him speak. Not once.
Mumu had been keeping an eye on the Albei team during their stay in Voorhei, and she’d told me that Moon was likely their mule, eating the darklight that would otherwise go to waste. She assumed it was that straying from the Path that probably affected his ability to talk. The Hunter’s Lodge in Voorhei frowned on the practice—none of them were willing to stray—but desperation caused people to do all sorts of things.
Agath was more demonstrative than Moon. She wrapped me up in a huge hug once she could move again. And ruffled the hair on my head.
Afterward, I snuck in among the hunters dressing and quartering the animals, but the pulses of qi I sent through the carcasses didn’t reveal any obvious runes. Knowing glances were exchanged above my head; the hunters seemed amused by their Little Pot of Questions.
The silverlight was collected and held in safekeeping by Mumu for later distribution. The rest of the animals were put on travois for transportation back to the village. I worried about all the poison used, but the hunters explained that there was an alchemical solution to the problem. If so, our hunt meant we’d have plenty of meat to eat.
I made a point to ask for some of the qiviut—the musk oxen’s inner wool. The stuff was supposed to be an incredible insulator, eight times warmer than wool. I was sure Bihei would be able to make something super cozy and useful for the winter from it.
Finally, I joined Tegen in examining the remains of the musk ox hit by the purple bead. What was left of his face, his skin, his muscles, and organs were all dry and papery, like the water had been sucked from their cells and used to make the blood that caused the body to burst.
“Have you ever seen anything like that before?” I asked.
Tegen shook his head. “Blood powers are not unusual, but this is new to our lodge. It’s what makes animals that stray in random directions so dangerous.”
“That’s why we brought the whole lodge, then.”
“Yes,” Tegen said. “A hunter is always prepared.”
Fortunately, our preparations had been enough. It’d been a harrowing hunt, but we hadn’t lost anyone, a success by any measure.
