Ben had been in his house at the edge of the village, enjoying the sound of the rain and making himself a cup of chamomile tea before bed, when Daivad had told him there would be an emergency meeting, so he was one of the last to make his way into the big building at the center of camp. The building was just one big room, and most recently it had served as a sort of bunkhouse while the houses for the newcomers were under construction, but now it was just filled with the usual wide assortment of wooden seating. And also most of the villagers, squeezed into benches or sitting on the floor, propped up against their neighbors’ legs.
In the very back of the room, tucked into a corner, stood Pait with her thin arms folded and her brown-and-white face trying hard to look unbothered as she looked out across the room. It was such a Daivad kind of pose that it made Ben smirk. There was a bit of open space next to her, so Ben shook as much of the rain off his cloak as he could before stepping through the doorway and picking his way through the room, careful not to knock his staff against anyone. Then, he fitted himself into the spot next to her.
He caught the surprise in her eyes before she could hide it with the nonchalant nod she sent him. Ben nearly snorted.
After a beat, he asked, “What’s this about?”
Pait shifted a little bit on the spot as she picked out her words. Without looking up at him, she replied with a stiff, “Someone might be missing.”
Ben’s face didn’t show much else besides a tiny furrow of his brow. “Who?”
“One of the Duxon group. Aleaza.”
Ben knew Aleaza. A big, strong guy who had shown up at the gardens more than once at odd hours, asking if there was anything he could help them with. He wasn’t one you could just overlook, so if no one could find him…
“Where’d Daivad go?” Ben asked.
“Just to call the meeting.”
“He told me about the meeting, then said he had to get something and went to the floor.”
“The floor?” The first real crack in her Daivad-facade appeared with a pitch-shift in her voice.
“The forest floor,” Ben explained.
Sharp, she said, “I’ve been in these branches long enough to know that. Why would he go to the floor?” After a beat, she suggested, “Maybe to tell the infirmary?”
Ben shook his head, making the tree charm that hung from his dreadlocks sway. “Sent Rux for that. Shouldn’t be anyone else but the Wolves on the floor this late.”
With a squeak in her voice, she asked, “He’s not running off again, is he?”
Again, the tree charm swayed with his head. “Why call the meeting, then?”
“He said he had to get something?” Pait began to chew on one of her pale lips, brows pinched. “What—?”
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The furious spitting and snarling that came through the doorway answered Pait’s unfinished question.
Daivad entered the room soaking wet, because he wore no cloak. He wore no cloak, because it was currently being used to swaddle the little patchwork beast into submission. It squirmed in its little cocoon, face split in a violent smile.
The room collectively recoiled.
Daivad used his one good boot to peel the one Kitten had chewed up earlier loose from his foot before kicking it up into the air. Kitten went still, his bright eyes wide as he watched the boot soar overhead. The beast caught the boot in his mouth and began to chew immediately.
With Kitten sufficiently occupied, Daivad was able to tuck the beast against his side with one arm and not get it torn to shreds. The same couldn’t be said for the boot.
Daivad did not look anyone in the eye, and indeed acted as if nothing strange had just happened at all.
Pait and Ben shared a smirk.
Once the last of the villagers, at least the ones who could make the trek into the trees, had arrived, Daivad began to speak, pretending he didn’t have a monster propped on his hip.
“Who can claim to have seen Aleaza today? Show hands.”
All of the Duxon group, Pait, and a handful of others raised their hands. “Which of you foraged with him?”
“I, sir,” chimed in a dark-skinned woman with an eyepatch—named Nashtal, Ben was pretty sure. The slightest tremor laced her words. “He was at my side up until we met with the others on our way home. I … I could swear he was with us when we saw the wagons returning.”
“Has anyone laid eyes on him since?” Daivad asked.
No hands were shown this time.
“Rux,” Daivad said while Kitten coughed up a piece of boot strap, “what did the infirmary say?”
“No one there could name his whereabouts either,” Rux said.
To the room at large, Daivad seemed calm. His tone was even, his expression controlled. But Ben saw the way Daivad’s free hand flexed, caught the way his icy eyes darkened. Ben knew the man well enough to know that he wouldn’t take this well.
When they had served in the army, it had been expected you would lose people. People you were responsible for. But even then, Daivad hadn’t been able to tolerate it.
“Edgar,” Daivad asked, “you brought his scent?”
With misery carved into every deep line of his face, Edgar held up a tunic.
Daivad nodded. “I’ll take the Wolves out as soon as we’re done here, but with the rain…” His jaw clenched.
“Now, listen,” he said, sharp enough that the entire room seemed to straighten up. “Has anyone seen anything strange in the forest lately?”
Everyone looked around, curious. For several moments, no one said anything.
“Anything strange,” Daivad pressed. “Even if you couldn’t name what you saw, or if you really saw it at all.”
After another few beats, a hand slowly raised. Pait couldn’t see the source of the voice that spoke up. “I wouldn’t say saw, but … past week or so we’ve gone out to forage I’ve felt … eyes on me. When I look, it’s only forest.”
Someone else added, “I thought that was just me.”
There was a murmur of agreement.
“But no sights or sounds to follow the feeling?” Daivad asked.
They shook their heads.
Daivad clenched his fist, veins popping. And ended the meeting by saying, “Guards are on double duty from this minute on. No one goes anywhere alone. I’ve never lost anyone to this forest before, and I won’t again.
“Ben, come with me.”