Lin grits her teeth, no doubt weighing her options, too. “He hides within the walls,” she answers, “or so I’m told. But believe me when I say you won’t find him.”
“Why not?”
“Because the Maskmaker doesn’t wish to be found. Not until he’s ready.”
My nostrils flare. Ready for what, exactly? She couldn’t have been less helpful even if she tried. There’s nothing left to do now other than return to the Jade Palace and deal with what may come.
I tighten my hands around her throat. This whole thing has been a terrible waste of time.
“Let me go,” the boar demon squeals. “Let me go!”
I never promised to do such a thing, and since her answer has proven less than satisfactory, I decide to feast. I bite through her hide and tear out her esophagus, black blood coating my lips. I wonder if I look terrifying, a human woman devouring flesh and sinew and bone. Lin’s body falls to the ground with athud, her legs still twitching as she slowly expires. I watch her eyes with morbid curiosity, wondering if this is how I’ll look in death one day. There’s no light to extinguish, no hint that anyone was even in there to begin with.
So much death. And to think we’ve only been here for an hour. As I inspect the carnage, I feel something sharp pressed up against my back. I turn slowly, my lip curling into a sneer when I see Wenbehind me, the tip of an arrow in his drawn bow ready to fire at my spine. Even a poor archer is sure to meet his mark at this close a distance.
“Don’t move,” Wen warns. “Cap’n, we need to kill it, too. Before it decides to turn on us.”
I shoot Sonam a withering glare. “We have a deal. Don’t do anything foolish.”
“You made a deal?” Wen asks, aghast.
“It was the only way,” Sonam replies. “Stand down for now. She may prove useful to us.”
“What if it eats us in our sleep? The moment our backs are turned—”
“If I wanted you dead,” I snarl, “I would have let this horde hack you to bits and saved myself the trouble.”
Sooah signs something with her hands, her movements nimble but sure.
“What did she say?” I ask.
“Let’s not fight among ourselves,” Sonam translates. “We have bigger problems to worry about.”
I force a grin to hide my unease. “Put your playthings away, children. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.”
Wen sneers. “You expect us to follow that thing, Cap’n?”
“Thatthingis our best shot at getting out of here alive,” Sonam says bitterly.
“And don’t you forget it,” I reply with a devilish grin, deliberately allowing the black blood coating my teeth to drip freely down my chin.
The ugly one shudders. Good. I want them to fear me. Because if they fear me, they will keep their distance. And if they keep their distance, they won’t be able to see how truly frightened of them I am.
12Yue
Hunting Log #377:
The way it fights is… not unimpressive, I suppose.
How did you two evenend up here?” Sonam asks his guards as we walk.
The Sleeping City is once again within sight, sitting upon the horizon of vast nothingness. Where once I found the glow of the Jade Palace foreboding, it now offers comfort amidst all the surrounding gloom.
Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Sooah signing something.
“You jumped in after me?” Sonam says, sounding almost flattered. “You really shouldn’t have done that.”
“Of course we should!” Wen replies with a boisterous laugh. “We swore an oath.”
