“Drinks on the Hunter’s tab,” I call.
The villagers queue up, and the barman pulls drink after drink. He taps a second keg, and I am oddly proud that everyone waits patiently, then calls out “To the Hunter” or “To the Earl.” A chill comes over me as the memory of his death feels like it is summoned to the front of my mind like a persistent ghost.
As villagers cheer steadily one after the next at the bar, I sit with my small group of trusted souls. “The beast killed him. Here in the wood. Took his eye. Ripped open his belly.”
Polly pats my hand. Henry and Nolan both grimace.
Girard says, “Did you see it?”
“Not the attack. I felt the magic summon me, though, so I was with him at the end.” A few tears trickle from my eyes, as if my sorrow still overflows. “I need fresh opinions. Since you’re here ... if you don’t mind.”
James straightens his shoulders. “We need paper. Make notes. Sketches.”
Maria pulls out a stack of paper and passes it around, along with short stubby charcoal pieces. She adds another sheet with a tiny, printed list. “I have a list of injuries already.”
“Maps,” Henry says. “My hand’s still steady enough for drawing.”
Polly adds, “I have thoughts on who the other dead man might be.”
My throat feels like the rest of the tears I didn’t shed are caught there, making my voice shake as I say, “I don’t want anyone to go into the forest, not until we find the beast.”
“As you say, Hunter. Now, let’s start at the beginning,” Girard suggests quietly. “The soldiers here already know some, and Miss Maria does. Let us all support you.”
“The first body was Hugh ... and the last was my father,” I begin. “Three dead men. All with powerful blows ending their lives. In between were two attacks on me, and one—possibly—on a noblewoman in the city.”
Henry sketches the locations I tell him. The first, in Brimmond Wood near Maudite Castle, is easy to pinpoint. “That’s also where I was attacked, too, and where Father was killed.” I poke my finger toward the spot. “The second body was left in front of Fleuriste Manor.”
“Three attacks in one spot,” Henry muses, charcoal scratching on paper. “And in the city?”
I point at the location. “Here, along the river.”
“The one that flows to Maudite Castle?” Girard asks, and though he’s not accusing her directly, I hear the implication.
“Isabeau is not awake when the sun falls, and the last duke is dead.” I glare at him. “Don’t let jealousy cloud your common sense.”
“Don’t let lust cloud yours,” he counters.
“Children,” Maria says, and though we are both in possession of roughly three decades of living, she has more than twice that.
“You cannot trust her,” Girard mutters before he walks to the bar and returns with an envelope.
I look briefly at the seal, recognizing it as Maudite’s, before I stow it away in a pocket. All I say is, “The current duke is unconscious when the sun sleeps.”
“Was the last duke cursed?” Henry asks. “Don’t recall hearing it, but I don’t soiree with dukes.”
I flash him a smile for his attempt to lower the temperature at our table and echo, “Soiree with them?”
Henry winks at me.
“Who cursed the new duke? When? Why? No curses have been recorded in over a half century.” Maria fires out the questions without pause. “Magic is a strange thing. Are these attacks because she’s transgressed? Are they intended as a threat to the House of Maudite?”
To that, I have no answer. “The first death was before her curse. I was with Father when we visited the castle to tell Isaac, the last duke, about Hugh’s murder. I had not heard of a curse until after his death.”
“Is it an inherited curse? Did therecentduke anger a faery that cursed his progeny? Were there other cursed dukes in the Maudite line?” Maria asks each question with the calm she uses to ask me to catalog my injuries. “Or the queen. Maudite was her brother. The last one ... Is this a threat to the queen’s family?”
“To sons and daughters? Or just daughters?” Polly adds. “The queen has a son, no daughters.”
“But the queen is uncursed. I see her at night.” After a pause while they wait for my thoughts, I say in a low voice, “What do we know of the dowager duchess? Her family? Her history?”
