The sun was directly overhead by the time I left the lodge—so bright I had to block the light with my hands to give my eyes time to adjust. An elderly couple greeted me as they walked past, and I replied automatically. My mind was elsewhere, spinning in circles.
Ikfael may have been human once.
Also, Ghitha was right: the Hunter’s Lodge had worked to undermine his family’s influence. Not without good reason, but still, he should be allowed to fight back, shouldn’t he? They way he’d done it though—killing Bindeise—that was a crime.
Borba would have to pay too. And it didn’t matter that I saw some of myself in the hard-working hunter. Justice was justice… wasn’t it?
At least the tea’s effects had worn off. There was no danger of me blabbing my secrets to random passersby on my way to Bihei’s longhouse. Inleio’s instructions to me were clear: let him deal with Ghitha and Borba. Instead, I was to focus on preparing myself for the kalihchi bear’s hunt.
The rest of the afternoon was a blur. There was nothing left to do in the village other than train and wait for Billisha and Aluali to finish work so that I could say goodbye before heading back to the Glen.
Ikfael was practicing her water art in the moonlight—retelling the story of the Avenger, singular. Meaning John Steed was out of the picture, and Emma Peel had completely morphed into Knight Otter. I dragged myself out of the woods and plopped down beside her to watch. She sent a quick glance my way, but didn’t say anything, absorbed as she was in controlling the character’s movements.
The night was cool and felt good after the long journey to the Glen. The sound of the waterfall was constant, but beside it the cicadas also sang, accompanied by the rustling of leaves in the wind. Time passed, and the peace of the Glen worked its magic. It didn’t untangle the mess in my head, but I was able to lay my thoughts aside for a time. There was just me and Yuki and Ikfael watching the story play out.
“If I said the name Ikiira, would it mean anything to you?”
Ikfael’s paws slowed. Knight Otter was in the midst of confronting the story’s villain, her arms gesturing grandly. The movement stuttered, but only for a moment. Ikfael didn’t turn to look at me. Didn’t quirk her head. Didn’t pause to respond. But that stutter told its own story. I had my answer.
“I’m sorry about what happened to you. But I’m glad that you’re here now as Ikfael.” Careful not to jostle her movements, I got up and hugged her from behind.
The events that Inleio had recounted had happened a long time ago in Voorhei’s history. Still, she must’ve suffered. Life was hard enough without having to be responsible for a whole village’s survival and having to sacrifice yourself for the good of all.
And I was so very grateful for Ikfael’s presence in my life. Not just because of her utility either. Yes, I wouldn’t have survived without her, but just as importantly, she was a source of joy, even if she was sometimes snarky and demanding. The world was a better place for her in it.
Or maybe I’d been thinking too many dark thoughts about intrigue and murder, and needed to acknowledge something… holy. That was what love and sacrifice could be with the right intentions.
I must’ve caught Ikfael by surprise with my hug, because Knight Otter froze midway through a kick. The water hung motionless in the air, and Ikfael’s body in my arms was just as stiff. She didn’t shake me off, though, and the tension within her slowly eased, almost grudgingly so.
She glanced back at me. “You are so unfair,” she signed.
“I’m sorry,” I said, my face half-buried in her fur. “Can I stay like this for a while? It’s been a hard day.”
“Whatever.” She turned back around, and the story resumed where it left off: Knight Otter kicked the villain in the face.
The next day, I woke up to Yuki prodding my qi and urging me to meld consciousnesses.
Hurry, hurry. Or you’ll miss it.
“Wha—” I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.
While you slept in, Borba was summoned to the lodge’s ritual room. Mumu and Haol were there. Inleio too. They served him the same tea you drank, and Borba recognized it. The other hunters are currently watching as Inleio and Borba drink. No, not just watching—they have their knives drawn. Borba feels threatened. He listens with horror as Inleio—
I stumbled toward the waterfall to splash my face. The cold water shocked me awake, and Yuki’s words registered. Immediately, I dove into the land and into the portion of ourselves inside Borba.
The hunter was reeling, and his stomach felt like he was falling from a high cliff. The lodge knew about Grunthen’s murder. He’d done well to keep it a secret so far, but now everything was crashing down. His place in the village and his life were forfeit. “Was it Ghitha? Why would he reveal me? I did everything he asked.”
“I will not tell you how we know, but we know,” Inleio said.
An idea popped into Borba’s head. “It—it wasn’t Eight, was it? The other day, he asked me these strange questions—”
“Eight is a child,” Inleio said. “Uncanny, but a child nonetheless.”
Of course. How foolish. It couldn’t be Eight. The answer was probably a hunter with a hidden talent. Or someone representing Ithia the Land Knight. It didn’t matter, really. There was no way the village would let the death of a hunter as talented as Grunthen go. Once they’d begun suspecting he’d been murdered, they’d worked tirelessly to find the truth.
“All I ask is that my family be spared. For them to stay in Voorhei,” Borba said. “Our lives are better here than in Voorhoos.”
“Your crime is not their crime,” Inleio said. “You have my word that they will be treated fairly. As will you.”
“What will you have, then?”
“Tell us everything,” Inleio said.
And so Borba did. Under the effects of the truth-telling tea, he laid it all out—from being desperately in love with Kiertie to flying into a rage at Grunthen’s cowardice to Ghitha blackmailing him.
The man sobbed as he spoke. His world was ending, but there was relief too. The secret he’d kept had been heavy, and he was finally able to put it down. He also hated Ghitha, and it was a relief to be out from under his influence.
Inleio, Mumu, and Haol were backlit by the sconces behind them. None of them moved, not until Borba ran down and his story was fully told. Then, one of the watchers—based on the size, it was Mumu—walked to the edge of the room. There was the sound of a tapestry rustling, and her blob grew bigger as she approached Borba and placed something in front of him.
Whatever the object was, it filled Borba with dread. “This…”
“It is fair,” Inleio said.
“But—” Borba’s protest cut off when realization dawned. “You mean to use me in the hunt for the King of the Forest.”
Inleio must’ve nodded, because confirmation reverberated through Borba. He turned his attention towards opening the box containing… darklight. More darklight than Borba had ever seen in his life.
“You will become a mule,” Inleio said. “You will gain as many levels as possible before the hunt, then work with Moon, of the Albei team, to understand and learn to control the darklight’s rage.”
“I admit my crime, but why do this?” Borba asked. “I have served the village for so many years.”
“It is fair,” Inleio said. “To compensate for the loss of Grunthen’s talents, you will have to become as strong as him. To compensate for his life, you must give your own.”
We didn’t catch the rest. Once we understood that Borba was meant to start absorbing darklight immediately, we rushed to abandon his body. Fortunately, he was already in so much distress that he didn’t feel us escaping through the exposed back of his neck. Given the skilled hunters in the room though, we didn’t travel far. Just enough to hide under a rug.
When we heard Borba starting to choke and vomit, I left the land and rushed to dunk my head under the waterfall for the second time that morning. Yet again, the frigid water shocked me back into my body.
When I couldn’t hold my breath anymore, I pulled my head out and sat back with a thump. Gods, but the people of this world were brutal. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand, but Borba had been their friend long before I’d met the man. That they were willing to turn him into a monster for the village’s benefit was disturbing.
I didn’t know what to think.
Borba’s punishment was cruel and unusual. That was how my old world would’ve described it. But I wasn’t there, was I? I was in a new world, one with its own considerations. Things happened here that would have been impossible in my old world. And I had had a role in how they played out.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that either.
I admired Inleio—in many ways he reminded me of mi abuelo—but I hated the cruelty I’d just witnessed. Though in truth, that reminded me of my first family too. None of them had been all good or all bad. Instead, they’d been complicated mixtures of both—due to the places where they’d grown up, the people who’d raised them, and the things that had happened to them.
Right and wrong and shades in between, Yuki said, reading my thoughts.
I sighed. Yes.
If what the lodge is doing is wrong, do we rescue Borba?
Was the lodge wrong? It felt like it, but I had a different history than Inleio and the rest. This business of turning people into mules was a way to cope with a harsh and unforgiving world. Well, the circumstances were likely more complicated than that. No doubt it was the poor and disenfranchised who tended to become mules. I didn’t know that for sure, but I’d seen enough in my previous life to bet on it.
Everything was complicated. And I couldn’t escape from the whirlpool of my thoughts.
Yuki nudged me. Our question?
It’s not our place, I said finally. Borba brought this punishment upon himself, and until we know more about this world’s civics, politics, religions, and common sense, I’m not willing to intrude.
Not unless there are children in danger.
Yuki’s statement was meant as a clarification, but it stung, and I felt like a hypocrite. Things were fine as long as they didn’t touch my values or what was important to me. That stance used by others had made me angry in my previous life, and here I was replicating it.
I gritted my teeth. “There are some lines I’m not willing to cross. No matter anything else.”
And later? Once we know civics and politics, religions and common sense?
“Then we make the best decisions we can in whatever situations we find ourselves.”
That seemed to satisfy Yuki, and they retreated to think about things on their own.
I kept myself occupied. It was classic avoidance behavior on my part, but served a purpose: creating the mental and emotional space I needed until I was ready to think about what was happening in Voorhei again.
In addition to training, I surveyed the trees around the Glen. The family hired to build Ikfael’s shrine would need construction materials, and so did I. The metal tools I’d purchased from the village smith meant I was finally able to make proper furniture for the cave. How wonderful would it be to have a real bed, boxes for storage, and real walls.
I trained and measured and planned, and every so often I checked in on Ghitha and Otwei, but they were unaware of what was happening to Borba. As for the portion of Yuki stuck in the lodge’s ritual room, they found a way to escape through the ventilation holes into the rooms above. Over the course of two nights, they snuck toward Bihei’s longhouse and found a spot to hide on the ceiling.
Yuki was pleased to be in a position to watch over the kids and Bihei.
A day later, Ikfael went into hiding when Kesa’s team showed up in the Glen with the head of the family tasked with building the shrine.
Tusulei the Builder (Human) Talents: Timber-Sense, Measure Twice Cuss Once, Eye for Details |
She was a tall woman, with long salt-and-pepper hair tied back in a braid. Her eyes were clear and her clothes appropriate to the forest, if finely made. Something about the way she curiously examined the Glen made me think she was serious about her job. The smile lines around her eyes told me she also laughed easily.
Aunt Tulu—that was what the builder insisted I call her—examined the trees I’d selected. She approved of some, but not others, and then went to wander around the future site of the shrine. She kept a small bag at her side of maple candies, which she shared with me and with Kesa’s team as we followed behind her.
I tucked a couple away for Ikfael. I was sure she’d like the candies, and hopefully they’d make up for the disturbance to the Glen, at least a little bit.
The candies were apparently from Albei, which was where Aunt Tulu’s family resided. It was good to know that not everyone from the city was a conniving ass. I hoped to go one day myself, but not if everyone turned out to be like Banan and his crew.
Once Aunt Tulu looked like she’d be settling in to examine the site in detail, Kesa pulled me away and asked if it’d be all right if her team left for a couple of hours. She wanted to continue scouting for a suitable location for the upcoming hunt for the kalihchi bear.
She told me that the original plan had been for Borba’s team to escort the builder to the Glen, but he wasn’t feeling well. And with Mumu’s team occupied with some kind of secret project, that left Kesa’s team.
My stomach cramped hearing the deceptions coming out of the lodge, but what could I do? As for Aunt Tulu, I didn’t mind. She seemed engrossed in her own work and didn’t look like she would cause any trouble. Ikfael and Yuki would have to stay out of sight, but that would’ve been the case anyway. Plus, I could negotiate with the builder about purchasing lumber for myself.
Glad of the help, Kesa’s team prepared to leave. Before then, though, one of the team members gave her a nudge.
“Ah, one more thing, Eight. We found signs of a blynx near where the musk ox bulls were killed. Given your interest, we thought you would want to know.”
Ah, the first good news in days. “Thank you,” I said. “That helps. A lot.”
“Wait for your team,” Kesa said, starting to frown. “Do not let your impatience drive you toward reckless action.”
“I’ll make sure to take every precaution,” I said.
Kesa’s frown deepened. Clearly, she was old enough to recognize an evasion when she heard one. She didn’t call me out on it though, and just said: “Be careful. For everyone’s sake, be careful.” Then, she led her team into the forest.
