Arlo Pike lived in a small building not far from their office. He said it made it easier

  for him to keep an eye on the place.

  Jason thought it was because the landlord’s wife tended to wander, and the landlord

  needed them to find her. So it was easier to make sure she didn’t hurt herself if

  someone was there to keep an eye out.

  The monster hunter didn’t think she had long in this world. He had seen other cases

  over the years. The ancients wound up lost in their memories until they died.

  That wasn’t a concern at the moment. He needed to get his partner and they needed

  to track down their villain. After that, some type of justice would have to be

  dispensed.

  Hunting monsters was Jason’s life. Hunting monsters who made other monsters was

  just a wrinkle that he rarely encountered. It would be good to deal with the source of

  so many problems and cut that off at the root.

  The fact that the city was threatened just made the hunt all the more vital in his

  opinion. Exposing and killing the mastermind would allow them to find any other

  girls he had turned into wombs for his creations. Then they could do something about

  the girls they had already lost to this madness.

  The fact that Percy Macri’s madman and his wooden dog was on the scene made it

  possible the city could be turned into a crater at any moment.

  Anyone else would have doubted they were dealing with the same individual. Jason

  had looked the man in the eyes and had seen something. He didn’t know what it was,

  but it wasn’t human.

  And the wooden dog was unique enough to identify the man.

  Constructs of various types were common in Bern. The Rhiem and Alvas occupied

  the lands in the south. Machinists and summoners worked in the city proper. You

  could pick out one of the artificial creatures anywhere you went.

  None of them had the life Woody had. The dog had his own mind, and you could see

  that in the way he moved. And he was just as dangerous as his companion in blue.

  Jason assessed risks all the time. He knew a confrontation with the two would end

  badly if he were by himself. He might be able to chop the dog apart, but the magician

  would rip him up while he was doing it.

  His respect for the Konstantins grew if they had dealt with the man and walked away

  with all their limbs intact.

  Jason climbed the steps to Pike’s apartment. He knocked on the door. His partner was

  probably asleep in his chair. He had sorted everything for them and handled the

  search through the North Side. His skill took a lot to use.

  And they needed to put it to use once more if they wanted to stop their enemy in his

  tracks.

  The fact that he had kept an eye on the girls had not been lost on Jason. Either he was

  watching to make sure no one like Jason interfered, or he was watching to see which

  one would explode next.

  Did he know Sonya Konstantin? If he did, he knew the girls were close to someone

  who could help them. If he didn’t, did he have some way to trigger the process and

  kill all the girls at once?

  That was something that could be important if they couldn’t come up with a cure

  quickly.

  Jason knocked again and listened. He heard movement. He pictured Pike stumbling

  around in the dark, trying to get to the door. He put on a smile when the wooden

  barrier moved out of the way a few inches.

  “I thought we were meeting tomorrow,” said Pike. He held a poker in one hand to use

  as a club.

  “We have a development in the Rowena case,” said Jason. “I need your eyes.”

  “What kind of development?,” asked Pike. He leaned the poker against the door, and

  smoothed down his hair with his hand.

  “Rowena’s friends made a deal with the Alvas I told you about,” said Jason. “In

  exchange for fighting murdering witches, he turned them into potential murdering

  witches. We need to find him.”

  Jason watched the gears turn in his friend’s brain. Pike nodded as pieces fell into

  place.

  “All the missing people that wasn’t in the North Side are connected to this,” said

  Pike.

  “The missing school girls are most likely our culprits,” said Jason. “Their change

  happened and they set up their hunting grounds sideways to the city.”

  “Let me get dressed,” said Pike. “You can tell me what I need to know on the way.”

  Pike closed the door. He roamed his apartment for a few minutes. Then he opened the

  door in a fresh suit and his messenger bag. He pulled on his coat. He shut the place

  up as he waved for Jason to lead the way.

  “I need some coffee,” Pike said.

  “We’ll get it on the way back to the Konstantins’ neighborhood,” said Jason. “That’s

  where I last saw our quarry.”

  “How sure are you of all this?,” asked Pike. They clomped down the stairs of his

  building.

  “Reasonably sure,” said Jason. “We might have a bit of a time limit if the Konstantins

  and their guest can’t stop the changes from happening.”

  “Guest?,” asked Pike.

  “While we were discussing options, one of the Konstantins’ old friends showed up

  with his wooden dog,” said Jason. “He seems to be an expert in magic.”

  “Wooden dog?,” said Pike.

  “A living wooden dog,” said Jason. He smiled at Pike’s puzzlement. “You’ll see for

  yourself when we get there.”

  “What did this expert think?,” asked Pike.

  “That we have eight monsters loose in the city eating people and using the Alvas

  room magic as a spider web,” said Jason. “Which is what we thought when we started

  isolating the cases.”

  “Eight of them could be bad,” said Pike. “We’ll have to let the Guard know we might

  need one of their magicians to help us deal with it.”

  “I think our expert is all we need,” said Jason. “It seems he destroyed Mim’s Tower

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  by himself.”

  “You’re kidding,” said Pike.

  “I overheard them talking before I had to show the wooden dog to the parlor,” said

  Jason. “The Konstantins and their friend were there. And their friend destroyed

  Mim’s tower and ended the battle. He said he lost ten years doing that.”

  “The Alvas might come into the city looking for him if they know he is here,” said

  Pike.

  “I think most reasonable Alvas will be scared to confront someone who blew up part

  of their border by himself and walked away from it,” said Jason. “Whatever he is, I

  doubt he’s human enough to have to worry about any attempt they might make to get

  revenge for what he did.”

  “So we might possibly be dealing with a minor god,” said Pike. He rubbed his face

  with his hands. “I need some coffee.”

  “He’s friendly enough,” said Jason. “He reminded Tilda of the Crater Desert legend

  I told her. It might be the same man, or god if you prefer.”

  “You’re making this sound worse and worse as you go along,” said Pike. “Quit

  talking.”

  “Our part in this will be the easy part,” said Jason. “We’re going to have to hunt the

  Alvas down and take him so he can’t cause any more trouble. The Konstantins and

  the expert are going to have to do something about the monsters.”

  “So we’re getting the most dangerous part of things,” said Pike.

  “Would you have it any other way?,” asked Jason.

  “You know the answer is yes,” said Pike. “What kind of question is that? Of course,

  I would love to let someone else take on a magic using menace so I can stay way back

  out of the way. I find things, not fight things.”

  “That’s why we’re the perfect partners,” said Jason. “You find the things we need to

  kill, and I kill them. Make no mistake, this Alvas needs to be killed. He is sponsoring

  death across the city.”

  “He might be what the dead man is looking for,” said Pike. He broke off their line of

  travel and went into a place that just sold coffee for people heading into work and

  passing by.

  Jason waited for him on the sidewalk. The sky filled with stars as he waited. This

  close to the Rheim, and some of them danced in their positions before settling down.

  He considered the words and agreed with his partner. They had an agent of chaos in

  the city. The Underworld was reportedly against chaos since it fouled up their

  process. Sending a dead man to put a stop to the disruption would be the kind of thing

  they would do.

  The others slain could be targets of opportunity, or names on a list. Jason couldn’t

  decide which would fit better, but he could see both things happening, and if more

  than one problem was in the city, it explained why the dead man hadn’t moved on yet.

  He liked that other forces than him and his partner were looking for their menace, and

  wanted to do away with him.

  How many other enemies did the Alvas have?

  Pike returned with a cup of coffee in his hands. He gestured for Jason to lead on. He

  sipped at his coffee as they walked.

  Jason let the finder wander in his own mind. He knew his friend perceived

  connections that others didn’t. That was how he found things. Putting this Alvas

  down as the main cause of their problems in the city probably shone a light on a lot

  of other minor problems that had been in the files and the monster hunter had missed.

  And they would put him down. Jason assured himself of that. The city was done

  losing citizens to cursed girls.

  And Jason was done with having innocents victimized by their desire to help others.

  “I’m going to need a starting point,” said Pike as they headed back to the old

  neighborhood.

  “The last place I saw him was an alley down the street from the Konstantins,” said

  Jason. “Errant, the Konstantins’ friend, was also looking for him and missed him

  which means he moved when he sensed a greater power in the area.”

  “He is afraid of this Errant, but not of you, or the Konstantins?,” asked Pike.

  “That’s my reading,” said Jason. “If we have to deal with Errant, it would be a tough

  fight decided by how fast we are.”

  “He would murder us if he was ready,” said Pike.

  “I have no doubt in my mind that he is just as fast as a monster hunter, and prone to

  throwing lightning,” said Jason. “I doubt protective measures would stand up to what

  he can do.”

  “That’s unexpected of you,” said Pike.

  “It’s a realistic assessment of our capabilities matched against a perception of a

  legendary action,” said Jason. “If he is the same man that destroyed Mim’s tower, and

  created the Crater Desert, atop of what I saw, he could destroy part of the city with

  a wave of his hand.”

  “And if the Alvas saw him coming, it would be enough to make the Alvas flee,” said

  Pike.

  “If he assessed things the same way I did, without knowing the other things,” said

  Jason. “If he was at Mim’s tower with the Konstantins and Errant, he knows who and

  what he is dealing with, and knows he might have a small chance in an open duel.”

  “So he hides until Errant goes away, doubles down and makes more problems until

  he is caught, or runs,” said Pike.

  “I doubt he will run,” said Jason. “I don’t think that is an option. It’s more likely he

  will go after Errant and the Konstantins and think he can beat them while ignoring

  us.”

  “How likely?,” asked Pike.

  “I would give it good enough odds to bet on it,” said Jason.

  “A sure thing then,” said Pike.

  “He won’t survive the fight if he goes that way,” said Jason. “I expect some kind of

  hostage taking, or a trap to tilt the odds in his favor. It’s what I would do if I was a

  ruthless monster.”

  “I see where this is going, and I don’t like it,” said Pike.

  “We’re the best ones to be the designated hostages,” said Jason. “After all, we’re the

  only ones who can find him now that we know he’s responsible.”

  “Why not let Errant be the designated hostage?,” asked Pike.

  “Because our enemy would never let him get that close,” said Jason. “You don’t let

  a cannon point at your front door for long.”

  “I hate this plan,” said Pike. “And I think the only reason you came up with it is

  because you want to personally skewer this monster maker, instead of letting others

  do the job.”

  “Don’t forget it’s a reasonable risk for us to take,” said Jason. “He won’t be expecting

  us when he is on the lookout for the others.”

  “Tilda?,” asked Pike.

  “It’s too risky to have her along,” said Jason. “She’s marked by the Rhiem, and I

  doubt the Alvas will let us get close if he can see her coming a mile away. And he

  knows she is with me since he was following us while we were following his

  experimental subjects.”

  “I think it’s because you don’t want to get a girl killed,” said Pike.

  “It would be a blemish on my spotless record,” said Jason. “And I need to keep that

  as spotless as I can when I have my final reckoning with the Master.”

  “But I don’t count for your record?,” asked Pike.

  “You qualify as my assistant,” said Jason. “Theoretically, I could use you as bait and

  not have to worry about if you get killed other than our friendship.”

  “That’s nice to know,” said Pike.

  “I would never let one of my assistants die unless I had to,” said Jason.

  “That’s even nicer to know,” said Pike. “I think I should go home.”

  “We can’t do this without you,” said Jason. “The fate of the city rests in your hands.

  Errant believes our quarry wants to find the one girl he can use to destroy the city. We

  can’t let him do that.”

  “I guess we can’t let him do that,” said Pike.

  “Here’s the train station,” said Jason. “Let’s get over to the Konstatins and check in,

  and then we can get started. I have a feeling that if this Alvas has a lair, it will be

  sideways to the city.”

  “So we might have to find a door to get into his place so we can kill him,” said Pike.

  “He might have doors scattered across the city.”

  “I know,” said Jason. “It will be a lot easier if we can catch him in the open. Chasing

  him into his home can’t be a good move unless we’re desperate.”

  “Maybe we can get this Errant to shut down any doors in the city,” said Pike. “That

  might give us a chance either way.”

  “I see what you mean,” said Jason. “If we can trap him in his home, we can search a

  limited area for him. If we can trap him out of his home, he has a harder time hiding

  from us.”

  “It makes our job easier no matter how we look at it,” said Pike. “The hard part would

  be what happens when we do find him because I don’t see him giving up on his own.”

  “I agree with that,” said Jason. “He’s invested a lot of time in this scheme.”

  “Especially with the amount of missing and presumed dead people we have on our

  list,” said Pike.

  “We might have another problem,” said Jason. “I put it aside so we can talk about this

  primary problem that we’re dealing with first.”

  “Let’s hear this other problem,” said Pike. He watched the platform, noting the people

  to make sure no one was a threat.

  “We found a building that might not be involved in the Alvas’s planning,” said Jason.

  “I planned to check it when we were done with the Alvas.”

  “It looks bad?,” asked Pike.

  “It’s a hotel,” said Jason. “It seems threatening to me. I just planned to take a closer

  look to cross it off our planning.”

  “All right,” said Pike. “What attracted your attention?”

  “There’s a random circle around the hotel of bodies being found with bite marks,”

  said Jason. “It’s a possible monster using it as a lair of some kind. I didn’t have time

  to look at it closely before we followed the girls from Rowena’s school down to the

  Konstantin house.”

  “But we know it’s not the Alvas because bodies are being left behind,” said Pike.

  “Exactly,” said Jason. “Here comes our train.”