3.31. The Hunters' Judgement I (Patreon)

Author's Note: I'm sorry, but writing schedule is all out of whack at the moment. I'm posting another partial chapter today, but I'll do my best to get more out during the week.

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A candle stone lit the inn room, picking out the ridges of the scar on Mumu’s face, the one she’d gotten from the kalihchi bear. Even with the stone’s warm glow, the scar was pale from the tension in her expression, from the fierceness in her eyes.

The hunters sat in a circle with her, like wolves gathered around their leader. The dolbecs stood guard outside the door, while Ikfael’s water barrier blocked the windows. The otter herself sat beside me, her warm body leaning against me.

Miri and Dura were there too, and they exchanged glances with the rest of us—worried about the precautions Mimi had requested, waiting like only hunters knew how to wait for Mumu to finish gathering her thoughts.

“I’ll start with worst news: the levy against our Hunter’s Lodge is six eistaak.”

We gasped, every one of us. The amount was triple our worst expectations, the equivalent of three hundred antaak. It was a ridiculous sum, and we reeled from the shock.

“Knight Ithia was... wrathful. That was how our grandmaster described her—incensed at the loss of a powerful magic-using family so close to the Long Dark. All the good Voorhei has done in the past was swept away, replaced by her desire for revenge.” Mumu’s fists clenched, then she forced them open. She patted her own knee, as if telling herself to calm down. “The land knight’s pronouncement shocked even her closest advisors, and it’s our Silasnei’s conjecture that there was a hidden arrangement between Knight Ithia and Thikilei’s family, something valuable enough that its loss incited her anger.”

I asked, “The grandmaster didn’t know what it could be?”

“Silasenei seemed... not as surprised as the others were described to be. That was all I could tell—all that she allowed me to see of her thoughts.”

“And she had no guidance for us?” Dura asked.

Mumu raised her hand in the sign for stop-danger-ahead. “There’s more.”

Fear crept onto the faces around me, and my own stomach sank at the prospect of more bad news.

Haol voiced our apprehension for us: “What else?”

“Originally, Knight Ithia also demanded ten hunters—” Mumu swallowed “—a full two hands to be pressed into service.’

We hung on her words, on one in particular. I asked the question we were all thinking. “Originally?”

“The lodges objected, and not just ours and our allies. Others complained too at the land knight’s overreach.”

It took a frustrating handful of seconds to put together the meaning of the last word. It was actually a phrase in diaksh, literally translating as ‘reaching past the food into the fire.’

Mumu continued: “The lodges argued that since we weren’t directly guilty of the crimes, enslavement shouldn’t be required as long as compensation was provided for the value of the lost lives.”

Oh, I thought, the lodges are afraid of setting a precedent. Aloud, I said, “They’re worried the land knight will do this again in order to raid their members.”

Light bulbs switched on around the circle, and the despair that’d gathered began to ease.

“That’s probably right,” Mumu said, “but Knight Ithia fought back, arguing that those responsible for Borba turning into a murderer must be removed from the lodge, for the safety of all.”

“But Inleio’s dead,” I said, stating the obvious.

“Yet there is a lodge master, and they must take responsibility.”

Haol jumped to his feet. Somehow, he’d also managed to grab his bow. That was when I realized I was standing too and my hand gripped the hilt of a knife.

“She wants to steal you,” Haol said.

“Not just me,” Mumu said, looking my way.

The lightning qi inside me crackled. My meridians had been tempered, so usually all that meant was a mild, ongoing irritability, but my vision went white with how suddenly my anger blazed.

“The stupid... I... just... how can she even justify—”

Ikfael slapped me across the back. That shocked me into looking at her, and I saw her fur standing on end. Teila on the other side me had backed away, but her hair was lifting up from the electricity in the air.

I grappled my anger down, and took a series of long, deep breaths. Cool down, cool down, flipping out won’t do any good.

I brought the air rune to mind, aspected some mana, and ran it through my meridians. Then, I did the same thing again, but with water mana. The combination worked together to relieve the scratchy, itchy feeling running through me.

My lightning qi was a huge benefit, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but I really did need to find a way to increase my tolerance to its side effects. I’d thought I’d eventually acclimate, that there was more I could do to temper my meridians, but maybe it was time to pursue a different angle on the problem. I couldn’t just keep wasting mana to lessen the strain.

Yuki and I had been experimenting off and on, trying to get access to air and/or water qi. They’d be amazing, since I’d be able to circulate them endlessly. I noted to myself to move those experiments up in priority.

But first: “You and I are to be sold into slavery?” I asked.

Mumu shook her head; blew out a breath. “No, we’re saved from that too. The lodges wouldn’t hear of it.”

“Thank the gods,” Haol muttered.

“But, in turn, Knight Ithia increased the punishment to eight eistaak.”

Dura said, “You could buy our whole village and all the land around it for that much.”

“Not just ours,” Miri said, stunned. “Voorhoos and Voorsowen too.”

Thirty years—if every taak earned from the sale of the eilesheile were devoted to paying, it would take almost that long, and that wasn’t taking into account any potential interest. The lodge would be crushed by the debt. We’d be forced into selling off members.

Mumu’s voice was bitter as she said, “Then the Healer’s Lodge, in all their kindness, offered to lessen the burden. According to Silasenei, they made a case that since Eight found both the Anesthetic and Healing Water spells, he was born a healer. Although, he has hunting talents, those talents are a twisting of his original path.”

“They want a valeisten,” I said.

“Oh, they do,” Mumu said, bitter “and offered three eistaak in exchange for you. And since you’d be a healer if we agreed, then control of your spells would fall under their lodge. The dispute between lodges would be resolved and life would become normal again.”

A fire ignited within Mumu eyes. Bits of silver glinted deep from within her, calling to the hunters. Previously, the hunters had been anxious, fearful even, but in that moment, their expressions turned dangerously dark. Instinctively, we leaned forward to listen more closely.

“Where normal is that we live and die based on whether we can afford to pay the healers,” Mumu said, her words laced with scorn. “Never, never, and never again! We are hunters—the knives and arrows, the eyes and ears of our people in the wilderness, and our path will not be bound.”

“We’re with you,” Haol said. “My bow is in your hands, but what do we do?”

“The forest is dark ahead, so we must find the path through. We have seen signs of it—the tournament, for example. There are also the bounties from the kalihchi bear and golden slumber, as well as the lodge’s funds and hopefully a loan from our allies.”

“We’ll find a way,” I said, my heart beating hard, caught up in the moment.

“That’s what hunters do,” Mumu replied. “We only have to trust in our path and in each other.”