“Do you know where we can find him?” I asked.
He frowned, and then his expression cleared with revelation. “It's you.”
“What's me?”
“Wisagatcak told me someone would come looking for him, but he didn't say it would be the Godhunter. If he had . . . well, I wouldn't have attacked you.”
“Did he give you a message for me?”
“He left a trunk for you. It's locked. He said you would know how to open it.” With that, Amisk went into his cabin. At the door, he looked back to say, “Come inside. I have coffee.”
Viper, Que, and Odin shifted into human forms. Or human-esque in the case of Odin, who went weredragon so he could cover his naughty bits with scales. Que had his loincloth, but Viper was nakey. And gave zero shits about it. When we went inside, Amisk handed Viper a blanket.
“Thanks, man,” Viper said. “Uh, awesome fighting, by the way.”
“Thank you,” Amisk said. “Would anyone like some coffee?”
I knew better than to demand the trunk instead of coffee. I was trying to make an enemy into an ally and he had just offered me an olive branch in the form of a warming beverage. I had to socialize. So I accepted a cup along with everyone else.
The inside of the cabin was more like a rustic palace. We passed many rooms full of marvelous things on the way to the kitchen (including the one with that stalker-wall but I was going to let that slide in the light of our new friendship). The kitchen was equipped with modern appliances, but the furniture looked hand-carved and old. Baskets hung from the ceiling along with dried bundles of herbs. Braided rugs covered the hardwood floor, and a twelve-foot-long table stood atop one of them within the nook of a massive bay window. The view from the window wasn't of swamp land but of a bubbling river complete with a beaver dam.
I went to sit at the table with most of the others while Odin, Trevor, and Viper helped Amisk with the coffee. He emptied the pot and started a fresh one.
“Sorry,” Amisk said as he brought the cream and sugar to the table. “I wasn't expecting company. It should only take a few minutes to brew more coffee. I have some fruit if you're hungry.”
“That's very kind of you,” I said. “But we're fine with waiting for the coffee. Why don't you sit down and tell us more about the beaver habitats that you're trying to save?”
Amisk's eyes widened. “Truly?”
“Yes, we're angry about this too. We want to protect all the wildlife, including your beavers. But it would help us to have a list to start with. If you can tell us where to look, we can do this faster.”
“I can make a list with names and sites for you.”
“Great. That will be perfect. And I promise to keep youupdated on our progress.”
Amisk stared at me for a few long moments, blinking back tears. “I went about this wrong and for that, I'm sorry. I had the wrong idea about you and your family.”
“It's all right. We can move past it now.”
“Uh, I'm sorry about your husband. I don't understand why he would be in a coma. He's a god. Even if he hit his head, he should have been fine.”
“He was using a new magic, and it backfired at the very moment of your attack,” I said. “But we're working on healing him.”
“I see. I'm glad it wasn't entirely my fault.” He pulled a notepad and a pen out of a drawer and sat down with us. “I'll make that list now.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Several minutes later, we had finished our coffee, and Amisk had finished his list. Ty was getting antsy. I knew he was nervous about Hermes finding the trickster before we did, but I didn't think he would. Coyote was willy. Oh. Yeah, that was unintended. But I guess that's how they came up with the cartoon character.
“Would you like your trunk now?” Amisk asked.
“Yes, please,” I said.
He got up and left the room. It didn't take him long to retrieve the trunk. It was more of a banded box. You hear the word trunk and you think of steamer trunks. This was long, granted—longer than I was tall, but it was also narrow, only about ten inches deep.
Amisk set it down on the table, and then handed me an envelope. “He left this for you as well.”
“He's always male?” Ty asked.
