AARYN

"Scent levels were low?" Tarkyn asked Tobe. "Are you certain it wasn't multiple humans for a short period, some time ago? It seems like if she'd been in one camp for a while her scent should have been solid."

"I'm aware," Tobe said and Aaryn blinked at the aggravation in the male's tone. Tobe had always been strong, but even when he was younger he'd been very steady. In his older years he was implacable. Even when he'd brought the petition against Aaryn—which Aaryn was still convinced he'd only done as the Alpha of his herd, not because he wanted to—he'd remained calm. Never flustered or angry, unlike the males that came with him.

So what had happened to put him so off balance? Or was this all about anger towards Hholdyn? Aaryn wanted to groan.

Tarkyn, apparently taken aback by Tobe's tone, stared at the male a moment, then gestured for him to continue speaking.

"I can't explain it to you," Tobe said, teeth gritted and hands clenched. "The camp was clearly well used, and for some time. The saplings near the main thoroughfare to the water source showed several broken twigs and branches over time—including those fresh enough to have happened yesterday.

"So, the scent?"

Tobe shook his head. "The entire camp was… damp. As if it had been doused in water—though it hasn't rained in over a week. And the places that were large enough and flat enough to have been sleeping quarters or tents, there was almost no scent at all. Absolutely none of this made sense!"

Tarkyn gaped. "And you all scented this?" he said, looking at Raichyl and Despyna to bring them into he conversation.

The two females nodded. Raichyl spoke up. "I don't know how to explain it, but the place felt like it had been prepared for us," she said quietly and looked at Aaryn. He nodded his encouragement. Raichyl's instincts were razor sharp. She'd saved other disformed from danger or bad situations more than once just by following them. "I know that sounds crazy, but I couldn't escape the feeling that we were seeing what we were supposed to see."

Aaryn frowned. Tarkyn did too. But Tobe nodded. "It was almost eerie. As if someone knew we were coming and prepared the place for us. Some of the signs of habitation were… overt. Yet I caught scents in nearby corners that looked like no one had been there at all."

"Which direction did they travel in? Do we know?"

"That's the thing," Tobe said, his anger bleeding through again. "When we circled the spot looking for a trail away, there was only one and it moved away from the City. But it was incredibly faint. We followed it a mile or two to a clearing. Then it was as if it just… disappeared."

His face reddened at the memory—with anger or disgust, Aaryn couldn't tell. Then Tobe turned to face him, as if he were the sole Anima responsible and pointed a finger at Aaryn's chest. "Hholdyn was convinced he could continue to follow the trail. Despite my twenty years experience, he refused to hear me when I spoke of being unable to follow any further. First he fought for all of us to continue—with him in the lead—then when I made it an order, he outright refused to follow. He is back there, likely sullying up what little evidence we still have with his own scent as he tries to follow an invisible trail. And against orders!"

Aaryn knew the discipline in the ranks of the guards was legendary—especially at the higher levels. For Raichyl and Despyna to have been chosen to go on this mission was a statement about their level of skill. But as Reth had trained with Elreth and Aaryn himself, he knew that Tarkyn and Tobe kept all the guards on a sharp leash. There was no room for any member of a fist or battalion to act alone. It placed everyone in jeopardy.

Arguing with a commander—especially one with the rank and age of Tobe, who was so highly respected? It was as if Hholdyn was looking for ways to alienate people. Aaryn wasn't impressed. "I'll speak with him when he returns."

"With all due respect, Sire, you need to do more than speak," Tarkyn growled. "That male accompanied an official mission, potentially thwarted it if his presence had anything to do with the human determining that they were being watched and needed to leave. With why things were prepared for us to find.

"But even if he didn't contribute to that, he defied orders, inserted himself, wasted time, and is now potentially in danger himself, or going to trip our mission up if he happens on the human and handles it incorrectly. This is an absolute shitshow!"

Aaryn agreed, but he only nodded. When others were angry he'd learned a long time ago to keep his own input marginal—non-existent if possible. His goal was to soothe, not escalate.

"So, we have an encampment with no human, a human with no scent trail, and a soldier with no leadership," Tarkyn muttered. "The only upside to all of this is we know where to send further teams to explore and see if they can find anything else. Perhaps this is a camp where the human returns? Perhaps if we watch it—"

"Don't get ahead of me, Tarkyn," Elreth said firmly. The men all blinked as if they'd forgotten she was there. Aaryn wanted to growl. "We have confirmation of a human on Anima, correct? And on the wrong side of the City from the portal region. So they have travelled—somehow, without leaving enough scent to be identified or followed—all the way around the City?"

"I can't think of another explanation," Tarkyn said, shaking his head. "I wish that I could. But I would assume they are far more aware of us than we have been of them. What we need to figure out is how they're managing to travel without laying a scent trail. And how to we catch them without it?"

Elreth scanned all the males on the Council, waiting to see if any had an idea. But they all seemed as confused as Aaryn was.

"Well, in that case," Elreth said dryly a minute later when no one had offered a theory, "it becomes all the more crucial that we identify and capture this human. Tobe, what do we need?"

"That's just the thing," he said, his voice softer suddenly. "I don't know.. I've never hit anything like this before."