Huntsman's Prey (10 page)

Spreading her fingers on her stomach, she frowned, feeling neither full nor empty. The waters of the pool shifted and now it wasn’t she looking at her, but reflection.

“
You should never yell at me, Chrysalis, I am your only friend,
” the face that was hers but not really hers said.

She shook her head. “Why must I kill the man? You do not make sense.” He’d asked her to stop. Told her there could be another way. Those were not the actions of a killer, surely.

The pretty face scowled, electric blue eyes glowed like unholy flame in the twilight. “
He is out there now, ready to devour you. Asleep, easy to take. You needn’t look, close your eyes, sweet, and I shall do it all for us. I can end our madness.”

“I do not want you to kill him.” Chrysalis traced reflection’s face. The reflection never traced back. “He let us walk away. I do not think he seeks to harm me.”

Fangs sprouted from reflection’s mouth as she snarled. “
Show me the item.
”

Reaching into the bodice of her tattered birthday dress, Chrysalis withdrew a pouch. His pouch. The one he’d dropped by the river’s bank.

“Open it.”

Untying it, she stuck her hand inside and pulled out one article. A swatch of netting, tracing its roughness with a finger she marveled at its coolness, something about the netting felt very different from any she’d ever beheld before. And then she noticed something she hadn’t noticed before, at the very heart of the net was a glow. A nebulous glimmer that drew her eye like a moth to flame, making her feel as though she were sliding, slipping into the beauty of that flickering sparkle.

“
Drop it at once!
” Reflection barked, frightening Chrysalis so that it slipped from suddenly nerveless fingers.

“What?” she snapped.

“You must burn it, that is the source of our destruction. Without it, he is helpless.”

But the light was so pretty. Reflection wouldn’t stop demanding, yammering on and on and on. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.

“Enough! I understand. Enough.” Getting up, Chrysalis dusted off her knees.

“The Moon’s Net must first be boiled in a bronze kettle, and then tossed into a volcanic hot spring, the heat must be high enough to strip the magic out, only then can it burn in flame. Every scrap of it must be consumed by flame. Do you understand?”

Was there fear in reflection’s eyes? Chrysalis squinted, noting what looked like a faint sheen of sweat glistening on reflection’s brows.

She squeezed the net in her fist.

“Understood, girl?”
Reflection’s voice boomed, causing droplets of water to splash upward from the spring and smack Chrysalis in the face.

“I understand,” she whispered, wiping the wet off her cheek. “But it is just a small bit of rope, what could it possibly do to us?”

Reflection’s laugh was sinister and low and made all the hairs on Chrysalis’ arms stand on edge.
“You are a fool to believe an object is only what it appears. What you hold, in the wrong hands, would utterly destroy and devour us. Beside the bandicoot’s burrow is a volcanic spring. You must take it there. Tonight. While the cover of darkness is strongest.”

Slipping the object back into the pouch, Chrysalis tucked it into her bodice once more. She didn’t say goodbye to reflection, she merely turned on her heel and marched toward the bandicoot’s home.

Reflection was very smart. She always helped Chrysalis, she was right. Right? She shoved a thick branch out of her way, stepping on every mushroom that came across her path, why she did it, she wasn’t sure, but it was a compulsion she’d never been able to resist.

The night was long, the clouds thick and heavy. The wind smelled of dew and earth, shadows crawled like malevolent entities along the trampled path of dirt and grass.

A hunter was following her. A big, strange man. A man her parents had sent to find her.

Why?

Why would they send such a strange, tall man?

A man with hair like rich soil and eyes like hottest flame?

A man who dressed in skins and dissolved into a thousand grains of sand?

A man who tried to talk to her first? Who tried to make her stop?

“Stop what?” She smashed a red mushroom, its meat squished between her toes. “What is going on? Who are you?”

“Stop talking nonsense,”
the voice inside snarled,
“your job is not to question, your job is to do. Only I will keep you safe. Only I ever could.”

Chrysalis stopped talking after that, because the voice heard and she wasn’t happy. Why was it wrong to question though?

Didn’t her parents love her once?

Sometimes she could remember the smell of cinnamon and sugar. Other times she remembered nothing but wisps of half formed images. Maybe lies. Her head lied a lot. There were too many thoughts.

Reflection told her most weren’t true. The good was bad and bad was good.

She believed reflection.

But it was just a scrap of fiber.

Why did reflection look so worried? Chrysalis shook her head, because the thoughts were hurting. She was a good girl. And good girls did what their friends asked.

Just as reflection had said there would be, Chrysalis spotted a bubbling, frothing pool beside a burrow. Yanking the rope out of its pouch she gazed at it again.

Reflection could hear, but reflection couldn’t see.

Deep down a thought began to bloom, a strange, silly, little thought. The thought that maybe reflection was keeping something from her. Friends shouldn’t keep secrets.

And yet…

Rather than drop the rope into the pool as reflection had commanded, Chrysalis tucked it gently back into her bodice and burned something else instead. When reflection asked her if it was over, she’d say yes.

But that night, when she returned to the man’s camp and she gazed out at him, and saw him sleeping so soundly, so peacefully she was determined to discover the truth.

The truth would set you free.

Chrysalis wasn’t sure where she’d heard that before, but in the deepest, most private part of her soul she knew it to be true. Still, the man could not be allowed to thwart them… she needed time and she needed distance.

Wiggling her fingers, she altered the land. “It must be done.” It was on the tip of her tongue to say she was sorry, but then reflection would hear, and right now she wasn’t so sure she could trust reflection as well as she once had.

“What’s done?”
Reflection stirred at the sound of her voice, and Chrysalis whispered of her deed. Reflection laughed and laughed and laughed, but tonight the sound chilled her to the very marrow.

Chrysalis watched as the land rumbled beneath him with a tight frown on her lips. The hunter had wounded her, might have killed her, she’d seen the decision in his eyes the moment he’d pulled the knife. And yet, all along she’d felt his restraint.

But just as she was slogging her way through all those muddied thoughts the voice in her head grew louder, and louder, and it hurt so bad she could hardly think anymore. Grabbing her skull she turned and walked back to the place she now called home. A small little den she’d hewn out of stone hidden behind a rainbow waterfall.

She never uttered an apology to him for what he’d find come morning, but she felt it all the same.

Aeric awoke to the sensation of being watched. In one swift movement he’d rolled over and had his twelve inch blade poised at the body that’d been hovering atop him just seconds ago.

An angry chatter of squirrel sounded before it’s big bushy tail scampered off, disappearing within a muddy sinkhole.

A sinkhole?

He frowned. How had he missed that last night? His heart thundered imagining what might have happened if he’d made camp atop or beside one. Many an unwary traveler had met their demise by those things.

But just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief he noticed his pack was gone, and a fire he’d made certain not to set last night was blazing only a few yards away.

The sun was creeping up over the horizon.

There were dark spots everywhere. All his tools, his wares, everything he’d brought with him was gone. Even the skins he’d covered himself with to ward off the chill of night was vanished.

The ghostly mirage of a smiling feline chuckled in his peripheral.

“It seems the creature has struck while you slept,” Cheshire’s drawl was thick and amused.

“What?” he snapped, rubbing his head as the direness of his situation struck. He’d erroneously assumed there was only one sink hole, but like a land full of hidden mines, the tell-tell dark spots peppered the forest floor.

“What the hell?” he snarled, “I did not make camp surrounded by trees. Lissa and I set up in a field.”

Cheshire’s tail swished back and forth. “Hum. Are you sure, hunter, for I am fairly certain as far, as I can be certain of a fair, that you’re in what I affectionately dub the home of shadows.”

“Lissa!” He bellowed. She’d set up camp within the earth, what had happened to her last night?

Cheshire tsked. “She is not here. In fact,” he tapped claw to furry chin, “you’re not here. Or rather, you’re not at her here. She is there and you are here.”

“You said I wasn’t here, so which am I? Here or there?” Huntsman growled, grabbing his head. It was much too early for riddles.

“Try to keep up, man, you’re not here and she’s not there. You’re exactly where you always were.”

Rubbing his throbbing brow ridge, Aeric tried to work out a plan on how to safely maneuver around the countless holes.

“She’s gone off to find the broker. I imagine,” Cheshire squinted at the bright sky, “she’ll be here in three… two…”

“Huntsman,” Lissa’s familiar voice caused Aeric to turn.

A shaft of sunlight dappled through leaves beside her, making her appear almost radiant in its morning glow. Her skin was nearly translucent, but instead of just bits of her, all of her was on display this morning. Her hair was a wild, silky mass tumbling across her breasts and back.

He swallowed hard.

“Where am I?” Aeric asked with a voice grown hoarse. She was still a good sixty yards away from him.

Today, just as yesterday, she wore no clothing. At some point she should definitely consider putting on clothes. The nudity was becoming a mild distraction. He shifted on the balls of his feet.

Her eyes were wide and she looked exhausted. Taking a step forward, he extended his arm to her. “Are you well?”

“Stop!” She held up her hand. “Don’t walk, don’t move. Last night the lands betrayed us.”

Realizing what he’d been about to do, Aeric jerked his arm back to his side. Had he really been about to walk out to her? What kind of fool was he becoming?

Shaking his head at his temporary insanity, he cleared his throat. “What is going on here? I wake up this morning to find a fire burning beside me, trees all around, and all my goods gone.”

She nodded. “I was burrowed inside the earth, had I seen her, heard her, I would have warned you. By the time I came to, it was already too late.”

He shook his head. Not understanding how he’d been moved so far. “What has she done with my things? How did she move me while asleep?”

Lissa wrung her hands in front of her. “She did not move us, huntsman, she rearranged us. You cannot make it out of there. Not without seriously harming yourself, each hole goes down for an eternity into the ground. You’d fall with no end.”

“How did you get out?”

She moistened her lips. “I don’t know. But when I awoke I was not within the circle of death. Rather just outside of it, I believe she did not know I was with you.”

He gnashed his teeth. “Then how am I to leave here? Do you have rope, or branch to toss me, to help guide me out of here should I fall?”

“No.” She shook her head vehemently. “That would never work. I’m not strong, nor substantial enough to hold you.”

She was probably right, he outweighed her by a good four stones, if not five. “Lissa, I cannot stay here.” Glancing around, looking for anything that might be of any help to him, and recognizing that there was absolutely nothing within reach, Aeric had to admit things were looking grim. Even though he appeared to be surrounded by a solid layer of dirt and grass, he recognized it for the illusion that it actually was. The ground around him was literally riddled with dark spots, all of which were sinkholes.

There was a very stiff breeze out this morning, ten yards ahead the long meadow grass was waving, but the grass all around him was completely still. There wasn’t even the barest flicker of movement to it.

Any trees he might have grabbed on to for support were well outside of reach; there was a hole in front of him, behind him, and to either side of him. Each one overlapping so that there wasn’t even a slight bit of land for him to step toe on.

Heart hammering, only just realizing that one wrong roll during the night would have sent him spiraling down to his doom, he forked his fingers through his hair. Turning to sand wouldn’t work either. Because to lose even one grain of himself down a hole could lead to catastrophe.

“If you’ve got any ideas, Lissa, now would be the time to share them.” He looked up at her.