Once I finished up my squirrel, I set out to follow Vaozey’s tracks again and figure out what happened to her. The chances that she was captured were fairly high in my estimation, but I doubted that she would be killed. The bandits hadn’t seemed interested in killing us, only delivering us to someone in Towrkah, and powerful as the archers’ arrows were they wouldn’t have been enough to kill someone with healing magic unless they struck the brain. Plus, they didn’t send anyone who could use that railgun-like attack, I thought, that alone says that either they weren’t trying to kill us or something else is going on here.

As I followed her heavy footfalls, Vaozey’s lack of finesse in navigating the environment became quite a boon. She didn’t even try to avoid breaking branches on trees or trampling small plants, probably not realizing that those were things that trackers would look for when following her. I found other sets of tracks as well, better hidden, that were from three pursuers. Well, maybe three, I thought, there are three sizes of boot but… one only has left prints and one only has right. Maybe one of them was just wearing two different sizes?

The first change of direction Vaozey made was to run almost due east. It was shaky, as though she hesitated a few times, so I suspected it wasn’t intentional. The woods weren’t overly dense in the daytime and I could see at least fifty meters, but in the darkness of night, they would be quite difficult to navigate for an amateur. The trees would have blocked much of the moonlight, and the underbrush had enough thickness to obscure the terrain. The differences in spacing between Vaozey’s footprints suggested that she stopped running several times, only to break into a sprint a few seconds later.

Not long after her direction change, I found the site of the first kill: A small clearing, maybe ten meters in diameter in total, set between three large trees. The fairly straight trails of footprints turned into chaos, stomping all over in no discernible pattern, and just a meter from the center of the clearing was a large discolored section of dirt that was soaked in blood. No body, I thought as I knelt down to examine it, bits of bone though, and I think that’s a tooth over there. Too much blood for the victim to have survived, and too localized for it to have come from more than one person. Though the nature of the kill told me what I needed, had I not figured that Vaozey was the victor the trail of her footprints leading away from the scene would have informed me.

After killing one of the Rehvites, Vaozey headed west-northwest. Again, her trail wavered so I wasn’t sure if the direction was intentional, but assuming she hadn’t gotten totally turned around in the fight it meant that she was likely trying to get to Towrkah, or back to the campsite. Sadly, if her goal was the latter she wasn’t moving northward enough. After half a kilometer she seemed to realize that fact, and her direction changed to almost due north. There was a second fight, less chaotic than the first and with less blood left behind, then she kept moving in the same direction as before.

The trail came out of the woods at a low angle to the circle of cleared area around Towrkah, about three-quarters of a kilometer from the road. Sadly, because the area only had thick grass covering it, Vaozey’s footprints became far harder to follow. I also didn’t want to get too close to the battlements in case someone was looking out for me, so I stepped back to the tree line and thought about what my next course of action should be.

Firstly, I should probably get this off, I thought, pulling the filthy dark cloth from my body. I was still half covered in soot and blood, but after a good wipe and a check of my reflection using my sword, I judged that I looked more like I was dirty from travel than combat. This burgundy gambeson was a good choice, I thought, I’ll have to see if they have another one in this color since mine has a hole in it now. Once again, I looked out along the probable path that Vaozey followed, then sighed. I guess I’ll just try to stay far enough away that I can’t be visually identified, I thought.

There was a small creek that flowed into an aqueduct on the northeast side of Towrkah’s wall, as I found out while slowly circling the city and looking for tracks. It wasn’t enough to really wash myself off in, but I wiped my hands and face regardless, then gulped down about a liter of water to sate my thirst. I wonder what those idiots on the battlements are doing, I thought, glancing at the lazily-moving guard outlines out of the corner of my eye, if I had a water-soluble nerve agent I could kill half the population they’re charged to protect, probably.

“Ey, wut’r’yah doin’ ther’?” someone called out from my left, and I turned to see a group of three humans heading in my direction. Filthy, was the first thought in my mind as I registered their appearances. The human in front was a tall, skinny male with oily brown hair and brown eyes. Behind him stood a short fair-skinned woman wearing a coif of some kind and a second smaller male with a shaven face and clothing that was full of holes. All three looked as though they hadn’t bathed in weeks, and the two men were armed with battered-looking swords.

“Nothing,” I replied. They’re clearly not guards, I thought, probably just locals.

“Looks like sumthin’,” the lead male replied. What is that accent? I wondered, taking longer than usual to piece together the man’s words. He sounded like he had a chunk of tongue missing, but healing magic would have fixed such a problem, so I wasn’t sure what was happening.

“I’m looking for a woman,” I replied.

“Ain’t we all,” the man sneered. “Yeh kin git on out’a here befur’ somethin’ yeh don’ like ‘appens teh yah.” Maybe it was because I was tired, but the man’s accent annoyed me, and I felt a bit of anger rising in my chest.

“Can you please speak properly?” I asked pointedly. “I can barely understand you.”

“Seytoydh doymztoyl,” the man swore. “Don’chu be tellin’ me how teh speak. Git gone.”

“Did you see a woman around here last night?” I asked, trying to direct my question to the other two humans behind the leader. “She had black hair and yellow eyes, was wearing metal armor, and carried a mace. I’m looking for her, and I know she went towards the city last night. Give me any information you have, and I’ll gladly leave.”

“He’s talking abou-” the woman whispered.

“Shut it!” the leader snapped at her, before scowling at me. “Leave now an’ I won’ make yeh even uglier than yeh are already!” In a gesture that was probably supposed to be intimidating, the leader drew his weapon and ran his left hand along the blade, drawing a small amount of blood and smearing it along the sword’s edges. I glanced up at the battlements again, looking for any sign that the guards considered this activity unusual, and saw nothing. We’re only about three hundred meters from them, I thought, there’s no way they can’t see this.

“You saw her,” I said to the leader. “Just tell me where she went. Did she get into the city?” While speaking, I was charging up an electric shock in my left hand. The leader is definitely going to attack, but the other two don’t look so sure, and the woman almost certainly saw Vaozey, I thought.

As predicted, the leader jumped at me a moment later, swinging his sword about as skillfully as I did the first time I held one. I could have just let him fall to the ground from putting his weight too far forward, but instead, I stepped out of the way and caught his face with my left hand, then shocked him. My fingers went numb even through their insulation, and the man’s entire body snapped to attention for a moment before going slack and collapsing. The other two humans, who had been looking skittish the whole time, froze and stared with wide eyes.

“You saw her, didn’t you?” I asked, locking my eyes on the short woman.

“Is Taof dead?” the smaller man asked.

“He will be if you don’t tell me what I want to know,” I replied. Again, I quickly glanced at the battlements, and though a guard appeared to be looking in our direction his posture suggested he wasn’t bothered by the combat. “From what I can tell, those guards won’t care if I cut you to bits. I’d prefer not to be covered in filth again, however, so you can make this easier on both of us by just telling me what I want to know.”

“‘Course they won’t care,” the woman muttered.

“You really ain’t with them?” the small man asked.

“Who?” I asked back.

“Rehvites,” the small man replied. “You’ve got the same kind’a sword as they got. Taof thought you were just a bandit but I tried to warn ’im.”

“No I’m not a Rehvite,” I replied. “They don’t take people like me. Foreigners aren’t allowed to join. Only Uwrish Luwahriy.”

“Seytoydh told you,” the woman scoffed quietly, and the smaller man looked at the ground. “We saw her, but we ain’t gonna tell you nothin’ unless Taof wakes up.”

“I can wait,” I said, looking down at Taof’s unconscious body.

“Well we ain’t waitin’ out here,” the woman said. “Pick him up and bring ‘em back to our place, then we can talk.”

“If this is a trap-” I started.

“Listen here mehvnguh,” the woman sighed. “Taof might have dirt between the ears but I ain’t lookin’ to be killed today. I figure if you can knock a man out by touchin’ him you can probably twist my head off like I’m a damned squirrel. I ain’t stupid enough to seyt around with that, no sir.”

“Still, if it is a trap, you should know I’ll make sure you two don’t leave alive,” I finished. “Give me what I want, and we can all leave peacefully.”

Not too far from the creek, there was a hole in the ground that looked like the entrance to an animal den. The woman went in first, followed by the man, and when he reached an arm out to gesture for the still-unconscious body of his friend I realized the inside of the burrow must have been much larger than it appeared. I pushed Taof’s body in head-first, then squeezed in after him, finding myself in a dirt tunnel that gradually sloped downward and expanded to just below my height. At the end of the hallway was a wooden door, partially ajar, that divided the dirt area from an underground room.

Inside the room, a single hanging lantern provided just enough light to allow adequate visibility. There wasn’t any furniture, but there were some rough beds along the back wall and a few boxes of jerky. Tools were also strewn about randomly, mostly confined to the areas near walls. The entire place wasn’t much larger than Vaozey’s “house” in Owsahlk, but looked larger due to the amount of unobstructed floor space. The ceiling was lower though, and I had to perpetually slouch my shoulders and bend my neck to keep my head from scraping on the ceiling.

“Taof is gonna be pissed when he wakes up,” the short woman said to the smaller man as they sat down on the cleared portion of the floor after setting their unconscious friend in a bed.

“I told ’im!” the short man protested. “Is he even gonna wake up?” The question directed their attention at me, and though they expected me to sit I remained standing.

“In a few hours,” I replied. Might be a day or more, depending on just how much brain damage that shock caused, I thought, I should probably do some tests to make sure I don’t kill someone with it accidentally next time. If the shock went through the wrong section of brain, it might even disable healing. “Now, the woman, where is she?” I asked, looking between the pair of humans.

“She met up with Awveyray’s boys,” the short woman said. “She came running up last night, poundin’ around makin’ noise like she was a jhaayjh earthquake, and nearly got herself filled with bolts. Thankfully for her, Awveyray was movin’ some product and saw her, and he brought her back with him. Not sure what happened after that.”

“Who is Awveyray?” I asked. Once again the two humans looked at each other, then back at me, and I got the feeling that my question was a bad one.

“Who are you, more like?” the gangly man asked. “You ain’t from around here, that’s for sure, and you say you ain’t a Rehvite, but I ain’t helpin’ you until I know who I’m helpin’.”

“Yeah,” the woman frowned. “How do we know you ain’t tryin’ to hurt her?”

“I’m her… companion,” I said, finally sitting down. “We were traveling together and got separated during the night. She doesn’t know how to navigate in the wild, so she ended up getting lost. I’m just trying to find her.” No need to mention the guards, I thought.

“Ah, she’s your kaaweyl,” the woman laughed. “You’ve got some choice in women, she was a fiery one for sure.” Kaaweyl literally meant “wagon”, but I had heard it used as a euphemism for a mating partner in conversation before.

“You have the wrong impression,” I replied.

“She too ugly for you?” the short man jabbed. “Lookin’ like you do, you might need lower standards, buddy.”

“Could be his sister,” the woman suggested, drawing the man’s attention. “Half-sister, maybe. She was pretty tall, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah, and dark hair too,” the man replied, squinting back at me.

“Can you two please focus on the topic at hand?” I snapped. “Who is Awveyray, and where is Vaozey? Two simple answers. Stop getting distracted, or I will make you focus.” The two humans exchanged exasperated glances, then the woman rolled her eyes and the man leaned forward.

“That bandolier you got there,” the man said, pointing to the Rehvite’s vials, “gimme that, then we’ll tell you.” Do they know what the chemicals are for? I wondered, He must have some idea, he didn't even try to ask for money.

“Tell me first,” I countered. “Then I’ll give you the vials.”

“Give me that one,” the man said, pointing to one of the repellent vials. “I’ll tell you, then if you’re satisfied you gimme the rest. Deal?” Though I had no problem with the deal, I tried my best to look reluctant as I pulled out the requested vial and handed it to the man. To my surprise, he uncorked it immediately, then stuck his thumb partially on top of the opening and began shaking the vial up and down, spraying the whole room with its contents.

“What are you-” I began to shout, trying not to get any in my mouth.

“Definitely haven’t been livin’ around here long,” the woman laughed. “Seytoydh idiot, you’re lucky you found us.”

“If you’re plannin’ to go meet Awveyray, you’ll need this,” the man explained. “You’d get caught in a flash without repellent on you. Normally you’d have to soak yourself in it a bit, but this is good stuff, the real genuine deal, not somethin’ hacked together out here in the woods. Just a few drops of this’ll last you a day, maybe more if you stay outta water.”

“So he dislikes ants?” I asked.

“Seyt me,” the man sighed, and the woman laughed again.

“What?” I snapped.

“The ants, they’re like a… pack beast kind’a thing,” the man explained, gesturing strangely with his hands. “Now I ain’t sure how, but them Rehvites use the ants to keep a watch on things. I mean, sort’a. We ain’t sure what they see and don’t see exactly, but everybody in these parts knows ants are a bad omen if you ain’t on Rehvites’ good side.” Oh, I thought, piecing together information from the night before, That explains… almost everything, I thought, But if they’re using the ants, how are they doing it? They have no genetic engineering technology, and the ants aren’t drones, so it shouldn’t be possible. Insects aren’t intelligent enough for this application.

“Is it all ants?” I asked. “All species, or a just specific one?” My question drew two blank stares, and there was silence for a few seconds.

“You know that word Jhaozhihl?” the man asked, looking back at his female companion.

“Means ‘kind’ I think,” she replied.

“Then why didn’t you just say that?” the man chortled, looking back at me and shaking his head. “It’s the ones about this long-” he gestured a distance of around one and a half centimeters with his fingers, “-that’re all black and have no stingers and tiny jaws, mostly. They'll bite you if they get on your skin, it just don’t do much. You seen any of those ones lately? Maybe when you swiped those tubes off a guard?” The same kind from the tree, and the same ones that were biting me, I thought.

“I’m inclined to keep the other two repellent vials I have here if what you’re saying is true,” I replied.

“You got five,” the man countered.

“Three are attractant,” I said. The man’s brow furrowed for a moment, then recognition and fear washed over his face as he figured out what the word I used meant.

“Seytoydh zeyleyreyshehp!” he shouted, jumping to his feet and scrambling away from me. “Jhaayoym! You need to get gone, now! Get out!”

“Calm down Zhoyyn,” the woman cried out. “What’s gotten into you!”

“He’s got three tubes of bait on ’im!” the man shouted, pointing at me frantically as I got to my feet and backed up. “If he even seytoydh moves the wrong way…” The woman, now also looking terrified, quickly tried to put as much distance between herself and me as possible. Oh, this is very good, actually, I thought with a smile. Slowly, so they could see me, I pulled out one of the attractant vials.

“Let’s all relax,” I said. “Now, new deal: You take me to see Awveyray, and I don’t open this vial and throw its contents all over you and your home.”

“Seyt you!” the man snapped. “How do I know you’re not lyin’ about what’s in there!?”

“Do you want to find out?” I asked back, pulling at the cork and smiling again.