Satsu pushed past Rinn, taking in the two people standing just outside the cave entrance. “What I believe my colleague means to say is, we weren’t expecting to find anyone else here.” She spoke the words with a smile. Meanwhile, she gave a subtle hand-signal to Max to check these people out.

Max jumped forward, looking for all the world like nothing more than a dog happy to be stretching his legs after a flight on a cramped ship, but he ran close enough to the strangers to get their scents. He turned back to Satsu, gave a wag of his tail, then kept bounding.

No smell of demon.

Which meant Satsu could give them a longer, closer look.

One was a tall, uniformed Wolf. High ranked, but no one Satsu had ever met before, which was strange. Like most of the pack these days, he had the look of a man who hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep in a long time. From the nima, she got flashes of concern, wariness, and a protective flare aimed at the person at his side.

If Satsu had been asked to put a wager on the least likely person she ever would have expected to find in the wilderness on Cradle, this person would be it. A Swan—maybe the swaniest Swan Satsu had ever seen. Xie was pretty, in that overly-perfect way the Swan had, despite xer bedraggled state. The other thing the Swan was, was quiet. Satsu’s cursory glance got no emotions off xer at all. An etheric, and a strong one.

“I’m lieutenant-colonel Kieta Tafari. We’re here in pursuit of an investigation.”

“Funny that, so are we.” Rinn said. Tension and mistrust radiated from both of them.

It was certainly suspicious. Here they were at the center of the disturbance that Rinn assured Satsu was tied inextricably with the breach Lord Faust had found, and these two people just happened to be in the same place, in the middle of what was otherwise unmarked wilderness. So either these two were following the same trail as Rinn and Satsu—which no one should be doing—or they were somehow involved.

Satsu wasn’t ready to commit to pulling a weapon on a fellow member of the pack. Not yet. But she wasn’t going to let her guard down either. “Max,” she said softly, “watch.”

Instantly Max’s demeanor transformed from playful to serious as he took a guard pose, staring at the strangers.

“I’m Empath First Class Varya Satsu.” She kept her voice pleasant. No need to be sharp. “This is Rinn. We’re here under the direct command of Lord Faust. I’m going to have to ask you both to stay with us. And I suggest you keep your hands where we can see them, and don’t make any sudden moves.”

“You cannot be serious,” the Swan said, all huffy indignation.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

“I am clan marshal Kosuri Valentin,” xie snapped, “and this is an insult to my authority and to my clan.”

“Take it up with Lord Faust,” Rinn responded.

Satsu maintained her pleasant smile. “Since I expect we’re all here to take a look at what’s inside, I suggest we go in. You first.”

Tafari and Valentin looked at each other, and Tafari gave a shrug. That made Valentin huff again, but xie pulled xer coat tighter around xerself and turned towards the cave entrance.

Max followed behind them. Then Satsu. Rinn took rearguard.

It was a tight fit. This really wasn’t much more than a crack in the rock. Satsu had to turn sideways a few times; in one of those, she heard a tearing sound and Valentin’s muttered curse. On the one hand, that was further argument in favor of Valentin and Tafari not being tied to whatever was in this cave. On the other hand, Satsu’s Serpent mind couldn’t let go of the fact that overdressed Swan was a perfect cover for just that reason.

Finally there came a waft of chill air from ahead—a sign the cave was opening up. Followed quickly by a “What the fuck?” from Tafari.

When Satsu got up to where she could see, she had to bite back the same words. What the fuck, indeed.

It was hard to get a coherent view, just swinging their lights around, which only made everything more horrific. There was blood everywhere. Lucky it was near freezing in here, or the smell would have been murderous. Satsu had been on ships demons had run through with less carnage.

Bodies. One, two, three, Satsu counted. All eviscerated. The blood hadn’t just spread from their injuries; it looked like it had been painted around. As Satsu moved past the horror of the room, she started looking closer at the patterns. Was the blood…had someone been writing with it?

“What is this?” Valentin asked. Xer voice was still cool, but clear disturbance was pulsing out; xer perfect control had fractured.

Tafari, too, was disturbed, although in a much more low key way. He was a Wolf, after all. Horror was an everyday occurrence. Even if, “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“I have,” Rinn said clearly from behind.

Everyone turned to look at her. Satsu couldn’t decide if her calm in the face of this was reassuring or alarming.

“Tafari,” Rinn said, stepping forward to shine her light on the messy circle in the center of the cave, “you’re a hikmaic?” At his nod, she pointed at the spot. “That’s where darkspace will have been torn into. That’s where the demon will have come through.”

“Demons can’t come through the wards,” Satsu said automatically, speaking in unison with Valentin. Xie looked over at Satsu, gave a wry little smile.

“Yeah, that’s what everybody thinks,” Rin answered. “Indulge me. Take a look.”

Tafari fell silent, his eyes taking on that unfocused, far-away look that meant he was looking into darkspace. He suddenly flinched, taking a step back, his hand moving towards his sword until Max’s growl made him blink and freeze.

He looked at Rinn. “It’s a mess. Darkspace. All churned up and ragged. If I didn’t know it was impossible, I would believe a demon came through here.”

“Granting for just a moment that what you say is possible,” Valentin said, xer jaw tight, xer words over-annunciated, “where do you think this demon went? I should think someone would have noticed a demon running around in the city.”

“Not if someone is keeping it under control.” Rinn’s gaze was skating all around in the cave, taking it all in. “Not if…” she slapped the wall next to her with an open palm. “Dammit.”

Satsu agreed with the sentiment. “Let’s get whatever we need from here, and then I suggest we retire back to my hotel. It has a very nice bar, and we could all use a drink. And then it’s time all four of us had a talk.”