“So,” Alun continued, “now you’re here, in our home, with a watch that wouldn’t take to fixin’. Not even for Bryn.” Alun shook his head, and Bryn fingered one of the lenses down over his right eye: snick, his eye was orange. Then another: amber. Another: gold. Snick, snick, snick, until his eye peered bloodred through the lens.
“You come asking favors,” Alun said. “And for our help in hunting Strange things. Even know the specific tools for tracking: silver and song. Things a common man should not know. Why do you suppose that is, brother Cadoc?”
Cadoc stepped out of the shadows behind his brothers, and into the lantern light. His hands were tucked in the pockets of his overcoat. He was silent for such a long time, staring at Cedar, that Cedar thought the youngest Madder had lost his wits. But his brothers waited. And so did Cedar.
Far off, Cedar thought he heard rocks falling, a deep-earth mumble, as if the stones had rolled in their resting place and spoken of their dreams.
“He carries a curse,” Cadoc finally said. “Not the old ways. Not our ways. But some way. Some way of this land has cursed him.”
“Do you see the mark of the Strange on him?” Alun asked.
Cadoc stared, silent again. Finally, “No. Not so much as.”
Alun nodded and rubbed his chin whiskers, giving Cedar a measuring look. “You know about this curse, Mr. Uncommon Hunt?”
“Untie me.”
“Do you know the manner of this curse?” Alun asked, like a man calling bluff on a bet.
“I know my own business. And how to keep it,” Cedar said.
“Then I reckon you know when keeping your own business won’t put your boots on the road. I am powerful curious about that curse, Mr. Hunt. It’s a curiosity that you could snuff with a word or two. Tell me, what do you know about your curse?”
Cedar could feel the beast pushing from within him. He was sure he’d blacked out for a bit after the brothers had dropped him in the chair. He didn’t know what time it was. Since they were asking him about the curse, the moon must not have pulled up into the sky. It must still be the day he’d come here, maybe even still daylight.
Changing into the wolf would assure he’d get free of these ropes, maybe even free of this hill, so long as the brothers weren’t too fast on the draw. But there was no mind of a man left to him when he fell on all fours. There was nothing but hunt, kill, feed.
If he became a beast, he’d not be able to operate the wheels to open the doors.
Still, the idea of letting the beast take over his mind and end this situation was sore tempting.
Cedar took a deep breath, trying to push away the killing thoughts. He was still a man. Best solve this before that was no longer true.
“There is a boy out there who might be alive,” he said calmly.
“But he’s on short time seeing as how he’s been gone more than a night. I have the tools to hunt for him, and I have paid the price you asked for those tools. That is my business. And that is all. Untie me.”
Bryn was still clicking lenses into place, staring at him through his right eye that had gone from gold to red to emerald and was now drenched in indigo.
“Moon,” Bryn said. “And blood.” He leaned forward and his brothers mimicked him, leaning in as if they too could see through the lenses over his eye.
“Blaidd gwaed,” Cadoc whispered.
“Blood wolf,” Alun agreed.
They all leaned back, as if pulled by the same string.
Alun scratched at his beard. “Shape-shifter, eh? Do you remember much the day after the change?”
Cedar blinked. He didn’t know what to say. Anger, fear, or disbelief he expected, not casual curiosity.
“It’s only for a night, I reckon? Or say a few nights around the full moon?” Alun pressed.
“Three,” Cedar said. “Three nights. Beginning with the waxing full moon.”
“Your sudden need to be rushing out of here makes a mite more sense.” Alun stared up at the ceiling while Bryn pulled a pair of scissors that looked like a tiny brass heron, and a small leather satchel, out of a pocket.
He ambled over next to Cedar and snipped off a bit of his hair.
Cedar jerked and glared at Bryn. “Keep your hands to yourself, or I will break them joint by joint.”
Bryn grinned, and waggled his fingers at him as Cedar flexed his arms, pulling against the straps that held strong.
“Do you remember, Mr. Hunt?” Alun asked again.
“About?” Cedar glared at Bryn, who wisely backed away and sat back down.
“Being a man, being a wolf.” The eldest brother pulled his gaze off the ceiling. “Do you carry the thoughts from one skin to the other?”
“No.”
The far-off rumbling of stones rattled a trickle of dust down one wall.
Cadoc, who still stood behind the brothers, exhaled a breath he’d been holding far too long.
“Well then, might be we could do you a favor, Mr. Hunt,” Alun said, the gleam of negotiation back in his clever, dark eyes.
Cedar pushed against the ropes, but they did not loosen.
“We’ll return your coin, return the favor owed for the silver tuning fork, if you’d do a job for us.”
“What job?”
“Hunt for us.”
Cedar laughed. “Are your ears full of wool? I told you, I’m hunting the boy. Until I find him, living or dead, I will hunt nothing else. For anyone.”
Alun looked over at Bryn, who shrugged and smiled.
“Say we give you something to make it worth your while,” Alun said.
“Say we give you something to cage the wolf,” Bryn said.
“Say we give you something to keep the man’s mind in the wolf’s clothing,” Cadoc said.
“Say you untie me, boys, and let’s be done with this,” Cedar said.
Bryn chuckled and walked off into the shadows behind his brother Cadoc. He passed through the door where both Mae’s gun and the tuning forks had been kept. Cadoc took Bryn’s seat and stared at Cedar.
“We have a need for you,” Cadoc said careful and slow. “Other-ways, we’d not ask it of you. Not ask it of any man.”
“That’s truth, Mr. Hunt,” Alun said. “Our word on it.”
“But,” Cadoc said, “a man who can hear the Strange, a man with the wolf in his bones and his eyes in all the worlds . . . well, that’s the sort of thing that might suit our needs. Something we will pay handsomely for. No price too high to pay if you’ll find our Holder.”
“The Holder,” Alun explained, “is a device that’s been taken, piece by piece, from many a land. A device we have spent all these long years searching for. We believe the Holder is here, in these hills, maybe even in this town.” He leaned forward, thick arms crossed over his chest. “We want you to find the Holder for us, Mr. Hunt.”
Bryn walked back into the light, carrying a short length of chain. It was black, the links thin as a stalk of wheat. The links were worked loop through loop and a spiral of thin silver snaked through it. At the join point was a clasp shaped in a crescent moon, and on the opposite side, a small brass arrow that would pierce the moon and hold the chain together.
“Don’t know the ways to keep the moon from calling you,” Bryn said as he walked over to stand behind Cedar. “Don’t know the ways to keep the wolf away. But this should break the thrall so you’ll have a clear mind. Even after you’ve gone beast.”
“Think of it,” Alun said. “You will have all the instincts and keen senses of the wolf, so too your reasoning. Finding the boy, if he can be found, will be swift. After that task is put to fallow, you will look for our Holder.”
Cedar’s stomach tightened, his chest hot with anger. The whiskey-heavy heat of the moon was stirring him even through a mountain of stone. The moon must be near its rise. He could feel it in his bones, calling, calling. His thoughts were already slipping, shifting, his ears filling with the rush of his own blood pumping hard. His hands opened and closed. He needed the heavy chain around his neck—not this collar the Madders offered, but the links that would hold him trapped against the stones of his hearth. Links that would keep him from killing the very child he intended to hunt.