Page 42 of His Human Believer

“You could’ve told me.”

I make myself keep my voice down. “Do you know what happens when somebody says a name out loud based upon a guess? It ends a being’s entire career. I don’t accuse anyone without evidence.”

We move quietly around as we wait for our backups to appear. And strung across the gap in the canopy above is a lot of cabling. Anchor points are driven into four separate trunks, lines running out and up into the dark, and heavy restraints are folded and tensioned across the whole span.

“That is a capture rig,” Vidar explains. “That is not a kill system. He does not want the creature he captures dead in the field. A specimen is worth more intact. This has taken weeks to place, possibly longer. Every one of those anchors is set in living wood and the tension is even.”

“So he’s not a hunter,” I remark. “He is a broker and has a buyer.”

And in the middle of the open ground, standing exactly where he’s been told to stand, is Dagr Hellstone. There’s no rope or any type of restraint holding him. He’s just standing there, in that same costume as before, with the hood down and his face still chalk-white.

Vail is at the edge of the clearing with a trigger unit in one hand and a sidearm at his hip. And a limp he did not have four nights ago.

Skylo must’ve got him and some petty, vicious part of me is thrilled for the beast.

Vail says something I can’t hear.

And Dagr flash flames.

A fourteen-year-old, alone in the middle of a clearing, producing fire on command because a male with a sidearm told him to. Once. Then a pause. Then again.

He’s been doing this for four hours.

That’s the lure. That’s the whole reason the boy is out here, because the accounts say the Skyggjar comes to a young Hyrrokin’s first flame during an alignment. Vail has one night and he needed a child, and Dagr is the only child on this planet that thing has already approached and not run from.

“Margaret.” Vidar’s claw closes on my shoulder. “Listen.”

And underneath the flame, low, ragged, from a throat that has been doing it for four hours straight, he’s still humming. Dagr is exhausted and terrified. He’s standing in the open with an armed being behind him and no help coming that he knows about.

And he is still trying to warn it off.

“He has not stopped,” Vidar says, very quietly.

Bergelmir’s voice comes through comms, low and even. “Cap to all units. Hold position.”

They’re here and the team debates, trying to figure out a sniper shot which they think will be the most elegant way of dropping the poacher, without harming Dagr.

Vidar, says into his comm, “Cap. If we wait, the poacher will get what he came for.”

“Repeat.”

“The boy is producing a lure,” Vidar warns. “Deliberate or otherwise. If we hold position, something else is going to walk into that clearing before we do. And maybe we should wait and see what it does first before we treat it like our enemy. It might be our ally instead.”

Dagr stops humming. Mid-note. He goes completely rigid in the middle of that clearing and his head comes up, and he looks at the canopy.

“Vidar,” I hiss. “Too late, it’s already here.”

The Skyggjar is surprisingly enormous. It comes down the trunks on the north side of the clearing headfirst, unhurried, moving hand over hand down through branches that should not hold. It reaches the ground and stands up. A head and a half taller than a Hyrrokin male I’ve met.

It doesn’t crash or roar. It moves the way something enormous moves when it does not want to break anything. And then it opens its golden eyes.

And it does not go anywhere near Vail.

It goes straight to Dagr. It crosses the clearing at an unhurried pace with the whole world still lit silver-pink. Dagr does not run. And then it stops and puts itself between Dagr Hellstone and the male with the sidearm. Not aggressively. It doesn’t rear or display or make a sound. It just moves its body into a specific position and stands there as guardian.

And then everything happens at once.

Vail realizes what’s just happened and shouts out a few choice curse words. And then he’s yelling at Dagr. “Hurry, move back into position, I’ve got to get him quick. Six paces to your left. Now.”