‘I’m to show you to the barracks, sir!’ he called to Munpo. ‘The town commander waits for you with the Citizen Prime.’
Munpo nodded, and the soldier led them into town. The main road was a wide dirt path lined by simple buildings of unpainted wood. Light came from the inn as they passed, but Bel heard nothing of laughter or song. The only sounds were hooves clomping and trees rustling in the forest outside. Even the draught horses penned in yards were strangely quiet. They passed many stacks of logs, timber being the town’s livelihood. The few townsfolk on the streets were burly and strong, and they saw no children. There was an air of disharmony, and the wind blowing in from the forest seemed to carry the smell of menace. Bel rode his horse past a porch where two old loggers sat watching, glowing pipes hanging from shadowy faces.
…there is fear here …
He froze, blood cold, then reined in his horse. Behind him, M’Meska had to rein in hers abruptly or else run into him. She grunted in irritation.
‘Why stop?’ she demanded. ‘Move on!’
‘Did you hear something?’ asked Bel. ‘A voice?’
‘No,’ said the Saurian. ‘Nothing but my stomach complaining, wanting not stand here chitty-chat. Move!’
Bel urged his horse on, glancing about uneasily. He could have sworn he’d heard words, soft yet unmistakable in the eerie quietness. They arrived at the barracks, where soldiers were waiting. The grounds were nothing but a field of dirt, the building itself tiny in comparison to the complex at the Open Halls. It looked as functional as it needed to be and nothing more. Munpo started talking to a tall, lean woman, while Gredda barked orders for them to dump their things and assemble immediately in the dining hall.
As Bel led his horse to the stables, Keit fell into step beside him. ‘I don’t care for those whispering trees,’ he said.
‘Would you prefer it if they spoke up?’ Bel answered, and Keit shot him a smile.
…simpleton soldier …
Bel spun this way and that, again seeking the origin of the voice. Still, there was nothing there.
The dining hall was full of draughts that stole the warmth from its iron fireplace. The soldiers sat at parallel tables, smells from the kitchen making their stomachs rumble. The town commander of Drel stood before them, flanked by Munpo and Pelar, the Citizen Prime.
The commander was an athletic man called Rokinin, who had stringy brown hair and deep-set eyes. ‘As I’ve told your troop leader,’ he informed them, ‘we don’t know how big the brood is, as we’ve only seen their hunting packs. You may know that hugger broods can vary significantly in size, so I can’t give you a total count …but with a large brood, which this looks like being, there may be over a hundred, which means up to forty male hunters. We suspect they were forced to move from deeper in the forest, for, some days before they arrived, we saw signs of a great fire at its heart.’
‘How many have you killed?’ asked Hunna. Gredda looked as if she might snap at him to be quiet.
Rokinin’s eyes darkened. ‘We don’t know,’ he replied, and raised a hand as muttering broke out. ‘Please, soldiers, I will answer your questions as best I can. Two weeks ago, my own soldiers numbered thirty, almost two full troops. The outer regions of the forest are not usually hazardous and in the past we have easily dealt with any of the problems that arose. But two weeks ago came the huggers’ first, and most successful, attack on Drel. Some of the trees had grown branches over the walls; foolishly, we thought nothing of it. One day, without warning, huggers dropped into our town. In the forest they stay in packs, but in this instance I think they were overcome by the amount of available prey. They spread to all parts of the town. There aren’t many here who didn’t lose a relative or friend.’
Bel remembered the grim faces he’d seen on their way down the road.
‘To make matters worse,’ continued Rokinin, ‘six of my blades were in the forest at the time, searching for a woodsman who’d gone missing. When we discovered there were huggers about, I immediately sent others to fetch them back in.’ He wet his lips. ‘Of those six all we found were the signs of a fight. I have no way of knowing how many huggers they killed before they were dragged off. We never found the woodsman, and several other forest-dwelling families are also missing. All the others are now within our walls.
‘The next day I took half my soldiers with me into the forest to find the nest. We were attacked a league in by some twenty, twenty-five males. It was too many, more than I’d expected. We must have been close to the nest, for there was a larger beast too, who looked to be the dominant male. We retreated. We killed some of them, but again, how many I cannot say.’ He glanced at Hunna as he said this, then sighed. ‘They got five of us that time, and the rest barely made it back alive. Perhaps I was foolish to take out so few soldiers, but I did not guess the size of the brood; nor did I wish to leave the town unguarded.
‘Since then a hunting pack has attacked the town again, though no more townsfolk have fallen. Unfortunately a group of woodsmen snuck out one morning, led by one who had lost his young daughter in the first attack. They were stupid and angry and brave, and we mourn their passing. Again, I do not know how many they killed before they were killed themselves.
‘Tomorrow I will lead you myself to where I believe the nest to be. I will bring four of my own soldiers, leaving only ten to defend the town, and that is not enough. I had hoped I’d conveyed the seriousness of our situation to the Halls so they might send more than one troop. That said, your troop leader assures me you are some of the best, and I am thankful indeed to have you.’
Bel wondered if it was unusual for a commander to be so forthcoming in a briefing. The man seemed to have been badly shaken by his experience here, though he was obviously trying to appear resolute. The actual effect, Bel thought, was that he seemed weak.
The Citizen Prime, Pelar, cleared her throat. ‘I’m just as concerned as Rokinin that an extra troop is not enough,’ she said. ‘It simply brings us back up to how many soldiers we had here in the first place.’
‘Before we were surprised and severely damaged, Pelar!’ snapped Rokinin. It became instantly apparent that relations were frayed within the Drel hierarchy. ‘I lost six blades before I even knew it!’
‘Citizen Pelar,’ said Munpo in his creaky voice, ‘Commander Rokinin is right. He was on the back foot from the start. But now we can go in force together to hunt these animals, who have also been weakened by many attacks. Even if there were forty male hunters originally, which, frankly, would surprise me, we’ll overcome them. I’ve some of the best archers in the Halls here, and experienced blades too. We’ll free you of this menace, wait and see.’
Bel stripped off his soldier’s garb, changing into trousers and a white cotton shirt. Keit and Hunna were going to the tavern, against Munpo’s warning that they should take their rest. They wouldn’t go for very long, and Bel knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway. Just a round of cards and an ale or two.
…drink won’t fill the void in here …
Bel stood very still, a sheen of moisture prickling his forehead. There was no one else in the room, and the door was shut. This time he couldn’t ignore what he had plainly heard.
‘Who’s there?’ he demanded.
No one answered.
‘I said, who’s there?!’
…interesting …
‘What?’ Bel almost shouted. He restrained himself, getting his breathing under control. ‘What’s “interesting”?’