Sicarius found one of the ropes and followed it to the log cabin.
They walked inside, and relief flooded over Amaranthe. She pushed back her hood and breathed in warm air that smelled of sawdust and burning coal.
A man slammed the shutters shut on the last of four windows and locked it with a thick bar. A cast-iron stove glowed in a corner. The open cabin was parceled into an office space, a tiny kitchen and table, and a sleeping loft. Kerosene lamps hung from the walls and rafters. Several people, including Merla and Sergeant Tollen, were already hunkered inside, and Amaranthe’s relief dwindled. Great, a night stuck together in a small space with two men who would be happy to kill each other. Add, for good measure, a woman who would be thrilled to collect the bounty on either her or Sicarius’s head.
Amaranthe forced a smile. “I guess the investigation waits until tomorrow.”
Sergeant Tollen glowered their direction.
“Any idea what that thing you shot at was?” Nelli asked.
“A mare-cat,” Sicarius said. “There are at least four of them out there.”
“Mare-cat, as in nightmare cat?” Amaranthe asked after a moment of puzzled silence. “I’ve heard of them, but they’re over eight hundred miles north of here, right? Across the Frontier Divide?”
“That’s their habitat, yes.”
“And they’re kind of a cross between a panther and a bear? Except with longer claws and fangs than either?” Amaranthe swallowed, suddenly very glad her shot had not missed. She doubted she seriously wounded the creature, but she had deterred the attack.
“I’ve never even seen a mare-cat.” Tollen folded his arms over his chest and raised skeptical eyebrows. “And I’ve seen a lot.”
“Where were you stationed?” Amaranthe asked.
“I spent most of my years on the southern borders, guarding against the Kendorians and the savages from the desert.”
“Then you’ve probably seen magic before?” she guessed.
Tollen hesitated before spitting the, “There’s no such thing as magic,” line expected from a soldier.
Amaranthe took that hesitation to mean yes. “Well, something otherwise unexplainable is drawing unlikely predators to your camp. I read
“The enforcers who came out yesterday said the same,” Nelli admitted. She looked at Sicarius. “I assume those creatures are deadly?”
“Very.”
“I’ve got to get the rest of my people in here then. Tents won’t deter a predator that size. It’ll be crowded, but better than the alternative.” Nelli nodded to her father. “Will you help me, Da?”
“We’ll come, too,” Amaranthe said.
“We don’t need your help,” Tollen growled, thrusting out a hand to stop her.
Tempted to go anyway, Amaranthe stopped when Nelli shook her head.
“We’ll be fine,” she said. “It’ll just take a moment.”
As soon as the duo left, Sicarius caught Amaranthe’s eye and jerked his chin toward the loft ladder. She followed him up, and they found a small table in the back.
“What is it?” Wind railed at the roof, and she eyed the split-log ceiling. “Something worse than mare- cats?”
“You should know-” Sicarius looked at her steadily, dark eyes holding hers, “-I remember killing a Corporal Tollen near the Kendorian border.”
Amaranthe winced. “Uncle Ordin?”
“I don’t know his first name. Tollen was on his fatigue jacket. His body is in a canebrake in Deadscar Ravine, south of Fort Erstden.”
She dropped her face into her hands and rubbed her forehead. She had bumped up against Sicarius’s past a number of times and couldn’t claim to be surprised. With a million ranmyas on his head, bounty hunters were frequent visitors, and every soldier and enforcer in the empire had orders to kill him on sight. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an unjustly placed bounty. Long before she had met him, he had assassinated Lords Generals, satrap governors, famous entrepreneurs, and various other Important People. If he weren’t now in her employ, she would have a much easier time clearing her name, but she owed him her life a dozen times over. More, she knew most of his secrets, and she wasn’t entirely sure he would let her walk away with them in her head for any torture-happy maniac to discover.
“All right.” She leaned back in the hard wooden chair. Melting snow trickled down her collar. “Let’s not share that information. I suspect that’d push Tollen over the edge, and you’d defend yourself, and-” she sighed, “-it’s not good for business to kill the client’s father.”
No hint of a smile or appreciation for her humor cracked Sicarius’s facade. By now, she was used to it.
“I followed the cougar tracks to the lake’s edge,” he said. “They disappeared.”
She knew he did not mean he had lost the trail. “What do you think is going on here?”
“There are numerous possibilities. I need more information to make a useful guess.”
He produced a weapons cleaning kit and started removing knives and daggers. Amaranthe pushed back her chair and stood.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“To get information.”
“Stay inside.”
“You don’t think I should interview the mare-cats, huh?” She smiled.
He didn’t.
Amaranthe shrugged, then descended the ladder. Her boots had barely touched down on the sawdust floor when a screech sounded above the wind. Shouts followed, and a cry of pain rose above it all. A pistol shot fired.
Sword in hand, she ran to the door. It burst open before she grabbed the latch. A mass of people tumbled through. A huge black form leaped inside, landing amongst them.
The creature spun and writhed like a cat, legs raking in every direction. Claws slashed people’s clothing and tore into flesh. Slavering fangs glinted with the reflection of lamplight before digging into a man’s shoulder. Screams of pain and desperation bounced from the timbers.
Amaranthe stabbed at the mare-cat’s hindquarters, but iron-hard muscle armored the creature. Her blade barely cut through the sleek fur. A long tail slapped her face. The fight rolled away before she could attack again.
“Close the door!” Tollen cried from the middle of the jumble.
Before obeying, Amaranthe glanced outside to make sure no more people were trying to get in. Two mare- cats leaped straight at her.
She slammed the door shut and lunged for the bar. It dropped into place just as the creatures crashed into the wood.
The impact flung her back a pace, and the timbers trembled. The door held-for the moment.
She whirled back toward the fight.
The mare-cat had its feet under it now and shook off attackers like a dog flinging water from its coat.
Nelli slipped in the blood-slick sawdust and pitched to the floor. The creature pinned her with one massive paw and raised the other to strike, dagger-like claws extended.
“No!” Tollen fired his second pistol.
The shot lodged in the creature’s shoulder, but it didn’t seem to notice.
A black figure dropped from the loft. Sicarius.
He landed on the mare-cat, arm wrapping under its great head. He pulled it back and slashed a dagger across the beast’s throat.
With blood spurting from the severed artery, the beast finally faltered. Men fell upon it with picks and axes. Even after it had stopped moving, they hacked, striking back at the fear that had haunted them the last couple days.
Tollen pulled his daughter back, but his gaze pinned Sicarius, who had backed away as soon as his part was
