The meeting room of the town hall was much quieter without a crowd. Now there were only nine of them. Bernier, Captain Lian, Helga representing the Riverbenders, the merchant Celia, the chasers who weren’t too drunk to walk, and the Reaper. A crude map of the surrounding area laid on the table before them.

  “What do you think, Alex? Alex?”

  He turned toward the voice. Diana was looking at him. No, everyone was looking at him. His stomach twisted again. I’m way out of my depth. They’d been discussing their alternatives for the better part of the night. But whether he felt ready or not, he was one of the most powerful people currently in Holdenfor, which only spoke poorly of their situation.

  He sighed. “I think we don’t know what we’re talking about. We need more information.”

  The map showed a few communities around Holdenfor. Riverbend and Latchfield to their north. A place called Linville to the south, and a tiny unnamed hamlet to the east. Bernier had also made handwritten notes on the family farms he knew weren’t noted in the map.

  “You said they’ve burnt all the farms and hamlets to the south and east of the town. And when they attacked Riverbend, they came from the northwest.” Alex shook his head. They were flying blind here. “It’s like they’re everywhere. They know exactly where we are, and we have no idea where they’re hiding.”

  Helga reached over the table and pushed a finger against the map. “West of the Dunnser,” she said. “They took all the people they didn’t kill from Latchfield Mill across the river in those rafts we saw. They wouldn’t need to do that if they were anywhere east of the Dunnser.”

  “That’s if they’re keeping whoever they capture in the same place they are staying,” Diana pointed out. “For all we know, they could have camps all around this region.”

  “That’s not true.” Captain Lian had his arms crossed over his chest.

  Diana frowned. “What?”

  “What she said.” Lian nodded to Helga. “It’s not true. A man showed up at our gates the day before you all did. Said he’d been at the Mill when it was attacked. He was alone and not from around these parts, so we let him in.”

  “You’d let an outsider through your gates but not your neighbors?” Helga glared at him.

  “One mouth does not equal two hundred,” the councillor answered for the guard. “And you are inside now, are you not? But yes, I remember him. Strange fellow. Young, but also very… braggadocious.”

  For a moment, Alex didn’t make the connection. Then it clicked, and he looked to Diana, who looked to Daven, who looked back to him. “The explorer,” they said in unison.

  Captain Lian nodded. “Yes, that’s right. That’s what he called himself.”

  “He came up to Riverbend with us and the peddlers,” Daven said. “Smarmy little shit. Haven’t thought ‘bout him much, but I remember him saying something about leaving the Bedstone Inn the night before the attack.”

  That brought bitter memories to the front of Alex’s mind. He remembered exactly why the explorer had chosen to leave the inn and the village so late at night. The mere mention of the Second had infuriated Orson and most of the patrons. And here the real one was, hiding in plain sight.

  Helga stopped glaring at the Holdenfor duo to speak. “If he left Riverbend at night then he could’ve made it to Latchfield Mill hours before sunrise,” she said, and turned to Valerian. “That’s around the time you said they were attacked.”

  The paladin nodded. “I did not see any tracks leading to Holdenfor from the Mill, but it’s possible I may have missed something.”

  Captain Lian’s chair scraped on the ground as he suddenly stood. Making his way to the back door, he spoke softly to one of the two guards standing there. After a moment, the guard saluted and left.

  “We’ll hear what he has to say soon,” Lian said.

  As they waited, Bernier had food brought in, and it was the same gruel they had started feeding everyone since the rationing had tightened, which Alex could appreciate. He would’ve been pissed if the councillor tried to wine and dine them while the rest of the people went hungry.

  Daven tried to make small talk with everyone on the table, but Alex tuned him off and took the moment to try and piece things together.

  He’d been wrecking his brain since the flight from Riverbend, afraid that Lanna would wrongfully connect him to the Kruwal attack after they’d looked for similar monster raids in the village archives. That hadn’t come to pass. Lanna had completely shut herself off after Orson’s death.

  But he hadn’t thought of another possibility. What if she was right, in a way? Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that the Kruwal had showed up only a few days after his arrival. Maybe the coming of the Second into the world had sent a sort of beacon to those who could sense it, and now Alex was beaming out a ‘come and get me’ signal. Maybe they specifically came for him and just couldn’t identify which of the humans they wanted, which was why they were capturing all those people.

  He felt a headache forming behind his eyes. It didn’t make much sense, but what else did these days?

  At first, he’d wanted to leave because of the danger of being discovered as the much hated Second. One day a person in the crew would put two and two together and find out he could heal after killing enough monsters, or that his powers didn’t work quite the same way theirs did. Who knew if these were things considered as signs of being the Second?

  But what if it’s the other way around and I’m the one putting everyone in danger? The question rattled him for a second, but it sounded too much like an excuse to leave now that shit had hit the fan. Too much of a cop out.

  Sure, maybe it was true and the Kruwal were after him. Or it wasn’t, and he was just making things up so he could run away while everyone else was left behind to suffer. That will never be me.

  Alex blinked, trying to will his doubts away. None of that mattered anymore. He was stuck in Holdenfor with everyone else as much as they were with him. The only way through is forward. Only forward. He tried to keep the mantra in his mind.

  A knock at the door announced the return of the guard, and with him, grumbling and batting away the guard’s hands on his arm, came the explorer. He had the same shoulder-length blond hair and wiry frame Alex remembered, though he certainly looked healthier with some color back to him. The arrogance, however, hadn’t changed.

  “We’re here already,” the explorer said, pushing away the guard. “You can stop manhandling me now, you imbecile.”

  With a nod from Captain Lian, the guard let the explorer go and stepped outside. The blond man huffed and brushed down his dark gray tunic. He opened his mouth to speak—whine, most likely—when his eyes swept around the room and widened in recognition. His lips curled back.

  “Oh, it’s you people.”

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  Daven waved. “Hey Kookie.”

  “It’s Kavi,” the explorer said. “Kavi Longstride. And don’t you forget it.”

  Alex heard Diana mumble something along the lines of, “How I wished that I could,” under her breath, but he kept his eyes on the man.

  Captain Lian didn’t do small talk and went straight into what mattered. “You told us you were at Latchfield Mill at the time it was attacked when you came into this town.”

  Kavi turned from the crew to the Captain. “I was, yes. What of it?”

  “Were you the only survivor?”

  A thrill seemed to shoot through the explorer at the question, and his whole posture changed. “I should think so,” Kavi Longstride said. “It was carnage out there.”

  He approached and put one of his feet on the podium where the table sat. His movements were long and exaggerated as he leaned closer to them.

  “Picture the scene in your mind. It’s very early in the morning. This tiny hamlet is enveloped in silence, the quiet before daybreak. I was asleep too, deep in a peaceful dream when, suddenly, mayhem. Monsters emerged from the forest, nine feet tall, legs like bulls and arms like bear claws. The first scream that woke me up got cut short from what I can only imagine was the swipe of—”

  “Enough,” the Captain spoke loudly over him, distaste clear on his harsh face. “Enough, boy. We’re not asking for a show.”

  The explorer still had his arms up, imitating a beast with clawed hands. Clicking his tongue, he crossed his arms over his chest and sulked like a kid who just lost his toy.

  “You should be so lucky to get a private telling of one of my tales,” he said.

  Captain Lian ignored him. “These folks passed through the Mill on the way down from Riverbend, and they say there were more survivors, only that they were captured and taken by the Kruwal.”

  “Well if they were taken then they weren’t survivors, were they? Not like me, the lone survivor. Makes for a better story, that’s for sure.” He seemed to think for a moment, then nodded. “But, hmm yes, I do remember seeing some Kruwal herding those folks almost as if they were sheep.”

  Helga fumed. “And you didn’t try to help? To save them?”

  “Help?” Kavi gave her a look of disdain. “Against more than twenty well-armed Kruwal? I’m no fool. I kept hidden and bided my time until I made my daring escape.”

  Daven took objection to that. “What about the whole spiel about saving princesses and ending wars and what not?”

  “Even heroes know their limits.” Kavi shrugged. “There was nothing I could do.”

  As much of a dick Alex thought the guy was, he had to agree with him. What was one person supposed to do against a bunch of monsters like the Kruwal? He didn’t think he could deal with twenty of them himself, fire magic or not. Much less if he was just a normal guy, if one that told tall tales.

  “Where exactly in Latchfield Mill did you stay?” Valerian spoke up. “Which house?”

  The explorer scratched at his head. “Second to last one on the main road if you’re going down from Riverbend, I think. The one with a broken fishing skiff propped against the side.”

  “And how did you get to be there?”

  He shrugged again. “This woman let me stay the night in her house. Jane, or something. She got taken too. Screamed like a banshee, she did. Her voice had this terrible screech to it that really rings in the ear.” He shook his head as if he was hearing the ring now. “Her husband didn’t make it either. Tried to fight off a Kruwal warrior with a pitchfork, if you can imagine. Not the brightest fellow. I should know, I slept with his wife not ten feet from him in the next room and she screeched much the same.” The explorer had the biggest smile on his face like he’d just told the greatest joke of the century.

  Diana made a disgusted noise beside him, and Alex couldn’t fault her.

  “Oh so you’re not just a dick, you’re a piece of shit of a dick too,” Daven said, sneering at Kavi. The man pretended not to hear him.

  “I remember the house,” Valerian continued. “There were no tracks leading away from it. Not to the forest or to the road.”

  A smirk wormed its way onto Longstride’s face. “Just because I’m not registered with your Company of Chasers doesn’t mean I don’t have a few aces up my sleeves,” he said pompously. “A man’s got to have some secrets if he wants to survive as many adventures as I have.”

  “Did you hear or see anything that would point out where they were taking the people?” Helga asked. And she seemed to fight back against her disdain for the explorer to beg. “Please, anything that would tell us where they might be.”

  Kavi seemed uncomfortable with her earnestness. “Well,” he said. “They were making the villagers build some kind of boats when I escaped, so I imagine across the river if they didn’t float downstream this way.”

  Alex sat back in disappointment, and he heard Valerian let out a quiet sigh. That didn’t tell us anything they didn’t know beyond that this guy was a jerk. And we already knew that too.

  The Captain called back the guard and dismissed Kavi, but not before telling the other guard to get someone to keep an eye on the explorer. He hadn’t made the best impression to anyone, it seemed.

  On the other side of the table, Helga slumped on her chair. She had told them today that after finally getting a good headcount of all the Riverbenders in Holdenfor, they had found out that nearly thirty villagers were unaccounted for. Some were dead, of course, like the man Alex saw being decapitated when the Kruwal first broke into the village. But a lot of those who’d been caught on the wrong side of the bridge had certainly been taken by the Kruwal.

  “We do not know where they are,” Valerian started again, looking at Helga, “but I do believe the people that were taken from your village and from Latchfield Mill are still alive.”

  She nodded tiredly. “Thank you, chaser. I think so too. Why go to all the trouble of taking people if you just wanted to kill them?” The logic was solid, but it didn’t seem to bring her any reassurance

  Valerian seemed to wrestle with himself for a moment. “What I mean is…” he paused, then started again. “What I mean is that it is not uncommon for Kruwal to kidnap humans to work on their mines and farms.”

  Alex noticed how uncomfortable the paladin seemed with the topic. He spoke without meeting Helga’s eyes, and his leg fidgeted under the table.

  It was a strange sight for a guy who always looked calm and assured of himself, like a giant immovable rock. Though he did remember that one time in the dungeon when Valerian freaked out. Everyone has their stories and traumas, he reminded himself. Maybe a family member got taken by the Kruwal?

  “It’s true,” the Reaper, who’d been silent till now, spoke up. “Kruwal make a general nuisance of themselves to every single one of their neighbors. Weird thing is that they always return the people back after two years. They can never say where they were after they come back, but they’re usually healthy.”

  “Two years?” Helga let out a weak laugh. “Maybe they’re better off than us, then. I don’t think we have two years.”

  “I don’t think we have two days,” Alex whispered.

  Bernier must have heard him. “We have five days of food left, to be exact.”

  Oh that’s all good then, cheers, Alex wanted to snark, but only nodded back at the councillor. The man was paying him after all. Thirty silvers marks up front and thirty more if the town held on. I have to stop by that tailor so I can at least die fashionably.

  The meeting had a moment of stillness until a throat cleared. He looked at the source of the noise. Celia the merchant rose from her seat. She had also been quiet since they sat down, observing the back and forth around the table with keen brown eyes.

  Alex thought she must have been even more beautiful once, but the life of a travelling merchant had left her striking face spotted and weather-worn. One of her ears jingled with a dozen golden hoops and earrings, which she left uncovered by brushing her blonde-gray hair fully to the opposite side.

  “If you’ll permit me,” said Celia. “I believe I know where the Kruwal are.”

  “What?” Captain Lian said with some hostility. His tone betrayed his thoughts.

  She smiled. “No, Captain, I’m not conspiring with the enemy. Perhaps let me rephrase this. I believe we know where the Kruwal are. At least some of them.”

  “Explain.”

  Celia seemed happy to. “That fool Varis left yesterday, and only a few hours later one of his guards came back half-dead.” With a fingernail covered in blue lacquer, she pointed to a spot on the map. “That means some of them must be watching the west road, ready to ambush whoever’s coming.”

  “That doesn’t tell us anything,” Captain Lian said, frowning.

  Diana agreed with him. “They can have a group watching the road while another roams around the countryside killing and burning whoever and whatever they can find.”

  Someone else spoke, but Alex ignored it in favor of keeping his eyes on the merchant’s finger as it hovered somewhere along the road west of Holdenfor. Somewhere in that stretch of land some of the Kruwal were waiting for anyone who tried to make a run out of the town. They would know where their camp was, wouldn’t they?

  “Wait,” he said, and the voices stopped. “We agree we need more information, right?”

  There were nods around the table, and Alex felt himself grow more confident. The memory of Scarface speaking in human words jumped into his mind.

  “Then I say we make the Kruwal talk.”