Kaia the Bloodclaw burned with vitality. She was on the hunt, where she belonged, and her prey was none other than the disgraced Heir of Darkness. She'd already dealt the fatal blow, and as he continued his futile flight like a limping deer, she needed only to be present for his inevitable collapse.

Whether he lived or died was immaterial. It was all about the thrill of the chase, the mind games, the melodrama. The stronger the quarry, the more delicious the hunt, and there was none stronger than a Blessed One. Would Rava remain resolute until the very end, leaving his guilt-ridden bar boy to attend to a corpse? Would he spurn his pride, driven to desperation as the specter of death drew ever closer, and beg her for the antidote? Or, best yet, would they attempt to somehow trick her out of the antidote without submitting to captivity at all? His final days drew near, and Kaia could hardly wait to see what they'd amount to.

The faint trail forged by their stolen steed's iron shoes led past Anastir and toward a small, lone dwelling atop a hill. Kaia felt a discomforting sense of familiarity encroach upon her flesh as she approached. It was a visceral, instinctive feeling, of the same nature as the forbidden affinity within her.

Rava and his bar boy had stopped here, at the home of a terramancer. Kaia's lip curled, her elation suddenly extinguished, and she wrenched her steed--another of Theodore's prized beasts--to a halt at the foot of the hill.

Before she could resume her hunt, there was a conversation to be had.

*

The cottage's bordering wall had been smeared with a thick ochre paste; its burning tendrils jammed themselves down Kaia's nose and throat like ghostly fingers. She staggered and retched as the urge to vomit nearly bested her.

She pawed at a pouch tied to her belt, refusing to retreat even one step back down the hill, and found the appropriate vial tucked within. She downed its contents, barely a mouthful's worth.

The bright violet liquid hit her tongue and the vicious assault ceased. Her sense of smell had been deadened, a side effect of a formula meant for pain relief. Kaia mildly regretted being forced to waste one against its intended purpose, but being free of the stench was worth it.

She cleared her throat, wiped her formerly streaming eyes, and passed through the gap in the wall. Sparing barely a glance at the wild garden of riches around her, she crossed the short path to the front door and forced it open with a hard, unyielding shove.

Had her sense of smell not been temporarily impaired, the sheer density and variety of the odors within would have captured her usual focus for at least a half-second. Instead, Kaia merely sensed a weak haze of colors and impressions, too distant to make any sense of. That suited her fine. She'd need all her wits to deal with another of her kind.

The terramancer, an unremarkable old crone, sat calmly at a long worktable overflowing with half-chopped plants, herbs, and roots. She made no show of surprise or fear at the forceful intrusion of a tall, armed knight.

"I suppose the concept of knocking somehow eluded you in your formative years, little miss," she said in a sharp, undaunted tone. Her dark eyes shone.

"No need to put on a show," Kaia said. "You tried and failed to deter a knight of the Crimson Blade with a lowly witch's ploy. But I'll overlook such insolence if you answer a question or two about my quarry.

The woman rolled her eyes. "You're not the first hard-case I've encountered, not even the hundredth. So why don't you pretend you have some inkling of what manners are and share tea with me instead? Woman to woman."

"And here I thought I was a 'little miss,'" Kaia said.

"If I forgive your barging into my home, will you forgive my ongoing rudeness?"

Kaia smiled despite herself. There were plenty of things she could do to make the old bat beg for death, but a bit of verbal sparring after days of solitary riding would suffice.

They sat on the ground, which was swept impressively clean despite the hanging landscape of flora above them. Once the terramancer's kettle boiled, she dropped in a handful of various dried plants.

Kaia didn't fret over the contents of their tea. Even with her sense of smell dulled, her tongue would easily detect anything nefarious planted in her cup. As far as she knew, it was impossible to trick a terramancer into ingesting something unwanted. She supposed she was fortunate that the late Lord Caelum hadn't been graced with the Sense, though his life would have been extinguished regardless.

The terramancer set the kettle down beside them to brew, and regarded Kaia with piercing intensity.

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Kaia waited, content to let the silence stretch on. Her opponent always broke it eventually.

The old woman chuckled. "I'm sure this strategy works well on the inexperienced and the stupid."

"If there's any other sort of folk, I've yet to encounter them."

"Tell me, Siress, how many lives have you taken within the last week?"

Kaia cocked her head. "Three. An Enforcer, a town drunk, a servant girl."

"Did they deserve to die?"

Kaia raised an eyebrow. "They each committed a crime."

"You're a most devoted Blade indeed, enforcing the laws of the kingdom with such ruthlessness." She poured the tea into two wooden cups.

Kaia held the first sip on her tongue and found no trace of poison, sedatives, or paralytics. She swallowed and took another. It was quite good, refreshing and woody.

"Certainly. I devote myself entirely to the rule of the Divine Heirs." She couldn't quite keep the dryness out of her tone, the inevitable symptom of an endlessly repeated lie. But what did the old terramancer's regard matter?

She nodded as if she believed every word. "Of course. That must be why you ride alone, because none but yourself are capable of capturing the Heir of Darkness alive and delivering him to his kin." She sipped her own tea, holding her gaze all the while.

Kaia ignored the transparent attempt to unbalance her. "I am a lone hunter, heretic. That is who I am, to my innermost core."

"You use 'heretic' as an epithet, yet you yourself practice the old ways of the earth."

She smiled humorlessly. "I clawed my way up to nobility whereas you squat alone in a filthy hut, selling petty liniments to desperate commoners. The Sense is all the similarity we share."

The old woman's eyes were strangely sad, almost pitying. She put aside her empty cup. "What a tragic life you must have led, to come to regard everyone as either enemy or prey."

Kaia stiffened. Her fingers tightened around her cup.

"I was much the same, until I eventually outgrew it. You're no fearsome hunter, you're a girl who has never known love, never encountered a reason to give or receive it. The sole joy you know is that which flourishes in the ashes of others' misery, terror, and death. You think that this is all you'll ever need, to exert dominance and cruelty so that none will dare do the same to you. For all your beauty, strength, talent, and cleverness, your core self is not worth much of anything at all. Such a waste."

Kaia was already supposed to have leapt forward and strangled the insolent hag until blood flooded her bulging eyes. But she hadn't moved. She was still sitting cross-legged, clutching her teacup, utterly incapable of finding the will and drive to attack.

"What did you do?" Kaia whispered. She let the cup fall with a clatter, spilling its contents across the floor.

"You were searching for something that would harm or incapacitate you, but you never considered that I would target your aggression." The terramancer poured herself another cup. "Don't worry, you're still capable of defending yourself. But initiating violence, no luck."

Kaia's rage struggled to ignite, like a flame that kept getting pinched out as soon as it was struck. She knew what her unfettered self would do, what she'd do to the house and garden for good measure, but it was cold, detached knowledge, not desire. Some vital part of her had been scooped out, like a steel spoon through soft butter.

"No use dwelling on an old woman's harmless tricks, dear girl. Come, ask the questions you need to ask."

The questions. She'd completely forgotten. "Rava and his bar boy stopped by your cottage yesterday. What did you do for them?"

The terramancer set her jaw. "Aye, two boys came to me for an antidote. A wound inflicted by a poisoned weapon. Cruel, brilliant terramancy."

Kaia smirked. Her self-satisfaction remained intact, it seemed. "And did you manage to counteract it?"

"That was beyond my ability. Not a common occurrence, you know."

"Of course not, given your usual brand of trade." She looked around disdainfully, then rose to her feet. "I have my answer, no need for me to trouble you further. I would thank you for the tea, but…"

The old woman didn't move, merely gazed up at her with a kind of patronizing pity that would have usually earned her a knife in the chest.

But even in her forced docility, Kaia knew that she'd be dissatisfied afterwards if she didn't deliver some form of reprisal. She reached up, grabbed a handful of the hanging plants, and tugged hard.

A large clump came away in her grip. She dropped it onto the floor and started pulling down another.

The terramancer flinched.

"By all means, try to stop me," Kaia said. "I'd be more than happy to defend myself."

"I drank the same brew that you did." She held her head high, though there was a stiffness to that dignified posture.

Kaia pulled again and again until a patchy carpet of green and brown obscured the floor. The rafters were stripped bare, like an exposed skeleton after scavenging animals had picked it clean. She took care to trample over the fallen vegetation as she crossed over to the work table and swept the glass vials and implements onto the ground. Some landed on soft leaves and remained intact. Others splintered into glittering shards with faint, musical clinks.

The terramancer hadn't moved a muscle, but Kaia thoroughly enjoyed what she saw in the old woman's eyes. That helpless anguish, too potent to be concealed, was utterly exquisite.

"Perhaps I'll simply make myself comfortable while your brew wears off," she said, inspecting her toxin-coated claws.

"Surely you wouldn't delay your pursuit for the sake of a harmless old fool like me."

"You've already misjudged me once," Kaia said. But then she studied the carnage in her wake and felt a rare surge of magnanimity. "Though you're right, I do have a Divine Heir to track down. Take heart, some of this may be salvageable." She inclined her head on her way out. "By your leave, heretic."

The rickety wooden door clacked shut behind her.

*

Oleanna roughly swept up the mess with a scraggly broom. Her most vital goal had been met: avoiding a terrible death or lifelong imprisonment at the hands of a Blade. Still, as she gathered the remnants of her life's work in the grim anticipation of starting over from scratch, she found that her regard of Cedric and Adrian was not particularly favorable at the moment.

You two pudding-heads had better be worth it, she thought, muttering a low string of expletives under her breath.