You know, I really pictured the life of the guildmaster’s shadow to be more glamorous.

“And I told ol’ Marne, if this keeps up, we’re goin’ to have problems, and sooner rather than later,” the merchant chattered away. Pol, he’d told me his name was. The two of us strode up Linead’s central street toward the looming gates ahead. I eyed him sidelong, a bit taken aback as the steady flood of words continued pouring out the man’s mouth. Nella lay across my shoulders, half-tucked under my armor with her ear plumes low. I swallowed a smile. I know, girl. I don’t want to listen to it either.

“But no, he said, that can’t be true. Ain’t no such thing as a herd of fiends, he said. And yon missy holding your gold seemed to agree with him, didn’t she? Only, I saw what I saw, and-”

“Yes,” I said, forcing my face back to polite as we approached the gatehouse. “I’m sure. That must have been frustrating. We’ll..We’ll get to the bottom of this soon, right?”

As I approached, I waved to the guards, flagging one over. I dug my tag out from under my cuirass, flashing it for them to read.

Trellin

Chitin 4, Hunter’s Guild

Linead Headquarters

Protector

Aura Limit: 193

As the guard nodded, heading inside to fetch my gear, I eyed the numbers with bemused happiness, ignoring the merchant as he blathered on. The adventures of the last few months had given me a solid boost. Avira had even said she’d allow me a few new marks, soon. I just needed a little more, and I’d be off again.

It was her fault I was here. The merchant’s guild had come pounding on our door, screaming and crying about hordes of fiends out in the forests around Linead. A herd of issachi, they’d said, all milling about and charging at any who came close.

She’d nodded and smiled, of course, perfectly polite. Avira had gotten pretty good at that. I was glad, considering the alternative was her strangling every idiot who came through her door with a stupid request. Which, considering that was a solid half of them, would have left us with quite the problem cleaning up after her.

Like this. Issachi didn’t gather in herds. They were too territorial for that—and there just weren’t enough fiends out there for them to gather like their mundane counterparts. And they were plains fiends besides, not normally found in the mountains and forests around Linead. The whole story just didn’t add up, which was why Avira had hesitated to allow the contract to be placed. We didn’t have the hunters to spare chasing after ghosts.

That’s where I came in. She’d decided that as her shadow, it would be my job to go run all the errands she needed, which included following up on suspicious requests. I don’t know quite what I expected to do as her shadow, but escorting chattering, whining merchants through the wilderness hadn’t been it.

The guards emerged from their building, though, handing me my sword and shield. Nella perked up as I strapped them on. A wave of excitement rippled through our bond. She knew what that meant—when I kitted up, we were leaving the city. And when we were leaving the city, she got to play.

Pol raised a badge hanging around his neck for the guards to see. His merchant’s guild ID, showing which post he worked out of—no aura required, for them, and none to be found regardless.

The guard eyed it for a moment, then looked back to me, visibly disinterested. “Right. Good enough. Look after him, hunter.”

“Not a problem,” I said, my voice light. “Be back soon.” Nella twisted around, leaning toward the guard, and he took a fearful step back. I smothered a sigh, stepping away, and ignored the instinct to reprimand her. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She’d just wanted to greet the man. But Linead’s citizens…hadn’t really taken to my young charge. We were working on it.

I stepped through the gates instead, waving for Pol to follow. “Come on, then.”

“Oh, I’m coming.” The man hurried up alongside me, pulling his cloak tighter about him. Summer was fading, the air carrying a sharp chill as fall set in. “D’you know how much time this herd has cost us? Why, I’ve had to change three routes to avoid this branch of the road.”

“I’m sure it’s been difficult,” I said, gritting my teeth as the cobblestones turned to hard-packed dirt. The river lay before us, the familiar bridges crossing its shallow run. “But…we’ll get it sorted out for you soon. One way or another.”

“Oh, don’t lie to me,” Pol muttered. “You don’t believe me either, do you?”

Not really, no. I bit it back, though. Our relationship with the Merchant’s Guild was important, Avira had impressed on me. We were the ones who kept the roads safe—but they were the ones who used them the most. They supplied nearly half of our contracts, and when new fiends appeared, they were often the first ones to spot them and report back. This particular request might be a bit nonsensical, but we needed them all the same.

Nella bumped her head against mine, chirping, and I shook my head, bringing myself back to present.

“Right now, we just don’t have enough information,” I said, instead of everything else I wanted to give voice to. “It’s true that this would be…weird. Really weird. But…” I shrugged, reaching up to scritch at her ridges. “There have been a number of odd things happening with the fiends, lately. So it’s abnormal, but we’re not ruling it out, either.” I offered him what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “That’s why we’re here.”

“I suppose,” Pol said, sniffing mightily. “If only you had responded more quickly. I was forced to turn down a shipment only yesterday. The finest fabric you’ve ever seen, straight from the docks of Ysrana. But if I can’t move the product safely, I can’t keep the contract, and-”

He continued on, seemingly unbothered by my lack of input, so I tuned him out, trudging on my way. The merchants had no aura, which meant no longwalking, which meant I was kept to a plodding, mundane speed.

The problem was, we had seen other oddities from the fiends of late. We’d expected a customarily quiet season after the Festival of Knives ended, with Aradhen’s monsters culled down to a more reasonable level.

We hadn’t gotten it. If anything, sightings had spiked since I returned from my venture with the Wardens, rising far above even a baseline. We were stretched thin—but we couldn’t afford to ignore a report like this, even if it seemed unlikely.

So on we walked. I laced my fingers behind my head as we moved deeper and deeper into the woods, eyeing the trees around us. Nonchalantly, of course. It wouldn’t do to spook the merchant. But even if this was a reasonably large thoroughfare, you never knew when you might run into a fiend, and I couldn’t afford to totally let down my guard.

Nothing. Just the gentle sounds of the forest’s ordinary animals flitting about, lulling my mind into a quiet, easy haze. Avira might not have meant this task as a boon, but hey. All things considered, getting to spend the day out in the forests here, enjoying the daylight and not staying hunched over a logbook was probably a win for me.

And so wrapped up in enjoying the moment was I, that I didn’t realize Pol had stopped in the road until I almost ran into him.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, steadying him as I skittered away. “Didn’t see you. Is something wrong? Shouldn’t you be-”

“Down there,” Pol said, pointing off into the trees—and down a narrow animal track that split away from the road. “I saw ‘em run that way, when they ambushed my caravan.”

Ambush was probably a strong word. His wagons had been fine. But I eyed the trail all the same, taking a step forward.

And…I pursed my lips, my heart sinking. Nella dropped to the ground beneath me, squawking at the sky.

“She good?” Pol said. From the corner of my eye I saw him take a step back, watching her.

“She’s fine,” I said, reaching out to drop a hand onto her head. She squealed in protest, shimmying under my grasp, but didn’t try to pull away. My expression darkened. “There…are issachi tracks here.”

“That’s what I told you!” Pol crowed, bouncing on his heels. “I told you they came this way! And they-”

“Quiet,” I said, eyeing him sidelong. “If there are fiends around-”

“Sorry, sorry,” he mumbled, shrinking back. He glanced at the trees again, and this time, he didn’t look so happy. “Um…You don’t think they’re close, do you?”

I gave the tracks another look. They were definitely issachi hoofprints, that was for sure. I’d studied them a lot back in Mersali, before I tried my ill-advised stunt hunting one down. But they weren’t fresh. The edges were worn down, and a few had been swept away almost entirely.

“Probably not,” I murmured. I stood with a groan. “I don’t think we’re in imminent danger,” I said. “But-”

“G-Glad to hear it,” Pol said. He took a step away. “Then, I’ll just leave it to you, shall I?” He gestured back up the road toward Linead. “You can handle it from here.”

I frowned. “We really should confirm the herd is here before-”

“You’ve got it under control!” He was already a stone’s throw away, creeping down the road. “I’ll just go- I’ll report in to the guildwarden. Looking forward to the contract getting handled!”

I opened my mouth, ready to stop him, but gave up. He didn’t need to be here—and I’d be all the happier if I didn’t need to babysit him. So I just waved at him, hiding my grimace. “Okay. I guess. Be careful.”

As if that was all he’d been waiting for, Pol tore off in the other direction, hurrying back into town.

Fine. Whatever. He was a merchant, and they were allowed to be out here. He’d be safe enough between here and Linead. Shaking my head, I looked down to Nella. “Well, girl. Let’s go take a look, eh?”

Her golden eyes gleamed. Even her scales seemed to brighten, her wings lifting. Before I could so much as take a step, she exploded into motion, ripping across the grassy hills and between trees. Every time she bounced off a mound, her wings caught the wind, shooting her into the air until the ground rose to meet her again.

I laughed, pressing a hand to my face for a moment, and just…watched her tear around the forest. “Burn up a little of that energy,” I whispered. A baby krytir like her was just full of it, and…well, she probably needed a bit more exercise than I could give her every day. I’d have to talk to Avira about it. Maybe as Nella got older, I could take more of the regular contracts, get out a little. Let her stretch her wings somewhere she was allowed to, instead of being stuck in the headquarters with me all the time.

Shaking my head, I bent over the tracks again. I had my finder’s charm, which would lead me right to the issachi that’d left the prints—but the charm was expensive, and had limited charges, and the tracks were imprinted in the soil plain as day. Might as well save the coin.

Whistling for Nella to follow, I slipped down the trail, one hand resting against my sword.

As soon as I was off the road, my senses came alert. We’d been on well-traveled paths before. Sure, there was a chance that we’d run into a fiend, but it wasn’t likely. Out here…Out here, all bets were off.

The sound of crashing branches split the quiet. I glanced back—in time to see Nella racing after something small and furry, something that-

She caught it. With a crunch. I winced, cringing back. “G-Good girl,” I mumbled, looking away as she came to a stop, her prey hanging from her jaws. “Guess I don’t need to find you dinner.”

I continued on, and this time, Nella followed. Apparently, with her meal secured, she was a lot more content to let me lead. Fantastic.

With every step I took, another sign marked the way. A bared tree, the bark ripped off any part of it within arm’s reach. A broken branch where the path wound too close to the foliage. And most of all, the hoof marks, tearing the hard-packed soil into sandy rivulets.

Creatures had passed this way. A lot of creatures. My heart sank. This…was starting to look like the merchants were right. But if that was the case-

I heard it, then. An airy whuff, like air forced from too-large nostrils. I froze, then put a hand out to one side, radiating calm as best I could. Nella’s mind was right there, her excitement at the kill burning against my self-control. I kept myself steady and calm, pushing those feelings toward her. If she spooked a herd of issachi, well…She could fly. I couldn’t. And issachi had steel hooves.

The path cleared ahead, leading to an overlook. Slowly, taking every step with care, I crept forward, dropping to my stomach to wriggle the last few feet. And there, peering over the edge, I saw them.

A clearing opened below me, nestled into a valley among Linead’s foothills. A valley that teemed with four-legged, steel-antlered bodies. Everywhere I looked, I saw more of them, isolated in pairs around the clearing’s edges. It’ll be mating season soon, my thoughts whispered. Maybe they’re pairing off.

But then, I’d expect to see them rutting—and I’d never known another fiend to procreate in the traditional manner. None but the krytir, on distant Deldynne. And it was only a thing there because the population of the krytir was totally out of the guild hall’s ability to control. For there to be this many fiends within spitting distance of the capital?

This wasn’t good. I wet my lips, my unease building, and just…started to count. With every pair my eyes settled on, the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach grew.

Eighteen. There were eighteen issachi nesting in the valley. Were there more, just out of sight or off foraging?

My fingers clenched around my sword’s hilt, but I didn’t bother drawing it. This wasn’t like Mersali. I might be a proper chitin-rank hunter now, and I could handle an issachi on its own—but this wasn’t just one issachi. I couldn’t handle eighteen at once. We’d need a proper contract for this, with a team of hunters. Some with bows, hopefully, and a good few protectors for the front lines.

Inwardly, I groaned. We needed a team of hunters, when we had precious few to spare at all. Avira was not going to like this.

But if we left them alone, the problem would only worsen. We’d…We’d find a way to manage. We had to.

Wriggling away from the outcropping, I eased myself back onto the path, standing. Nella lay a few feet away, still gnawing on the leppit she’d killed. “Come on, then,” I murmured. She didn’t move. I rolled my eyes. “Nella.”

She still didn’t move, so I picked her up. She growled through her meal, jerking her head away like I was going to steal it from her, but when I didn’t, she subsided, still clinging to the furry critter.

Fine. So be it. Settling her between my shoulders and my shield, I turned back toward Linead. We…had a problem. Another problem. Avira wouldn’t be happy, but she needed to know about it.

And all I could do was pray to the Broken that our problems didn’t get worse.

With one last glance toward the issachi’s nest, I started to run.