Ramka, the former duelist and bounty hunter, once Sheriff of Murkburg, and always a damn fool in his own mind, gloried as the wind whipped past his hair. He loved flying; it was the whole reason he’d bonded Parri in the first place, so many years – no, make that decades ago. That was part of the reason he was a damn fool, of course. He’d trained dozens of handlers over the years, and he always taught them the same thing: bond a pet that’s got great affinity with you and that suits your needs, work with it until it does exactly what you want, and then add another, until you had a full complement. Don’t worry about ranking them up, just make them the best they could be, and they’ll rank up if and when you and they are both ready.
And what had he done? He’d bonded a windsnapper, a Greater wildwind type that was really just a six-foot reptile with wings and claws – and never added anything else. He could handle a dozen pets, easily, but instead, he’d focused on improving that one, ranking it to a galethrasher and finally a dracodile, a creature that – despite what that idiot Kamath had said – was incredibly rare and hard to find. And why? All because he wanted to fly, and dracodiles were big and strong enough to carry a body and shaped like a roadwalker, so getting a saddle wasn’t a huge chore.
He’d never once regretted it. Parri gave Ramka the one thing he’d always craved: freedom. His girl was fast enough that she could outrun the trains easily, and she was strong enough that aerial beasties gave her a wide berth. Plus, she was so damn scary that up-and-coming duelists looking to make names for themselves left him alone, which was really all he wanted.
Ramka had never wanted to be in charge of anything. He was sheriff because by being sheriff, he could make Murkburg a peaceful, safe, orderly place that most folks looking for trouble avoided. Oh, he had his share of hotheads to deal with, but nowhere near as many as most of his fellow sheriffs. Bandits, bounty hunters, and detectives all knew to stay the hell out of Murkburg or wind up in Parri’s belly, and he’d followed through on that threat plenty to make sure troublemakers took it seriously. Now, though, he was about to put himself in charge of not just Murkburg, but the whole, damn Gistal. At least, the towns along the Sonkhee – the countryside, he’d be leaving to his new partner, who sat behind him, clutching his waist with her head buried against his back.
Some folks, he guessed, just weren’t meant for flying.
“I hate this, old man!” Chomai screamed, her voice almost lost in the wind. “I fucking hate this!”
“Really, woman? I would never have been able to tell!” He shouted back as calmly as he could, knowing that his dry tone would piss her off to no end. He liked the young woman clinging to his back – she was smart, capable, strong-willed, and braver than hell. She’d followed him and Naasi along the Sonkhee to what they all suspected was their deaths just because it was the right thing to do. She’d been scared shitless the whole time, and her fear made her spit venom as often as not, but she’d forged ahead. Naasi had his pets, his talent, and all kinds of unfair advantages; Ramka himself had a ton of training and expertise that he trusted would see him through most situations, even without a pet. The girl – no, he corrected, the woman – didn’t have anything but sheer gumption and courage to see her through. He admired the hell out of her, and he was honestly looking forward to working with her, as well as doing all sorts of other things.
That didn’t mean it wasn’t fun annoying the shit out of her, though.
“I swear, old man, I will beat the shit out of you, right here on this monster!” she shouted back. “I only need one part of you to work, and there’s a lot of places other than that I can reach!”
“Would you rather ride on that damn eagle?” he asked, gesturing to the huge bird winging along a hundred feet or so to the left. That was another rule he’d broken; the bird was a skykiller, a mixture of air, predator, and lightning types, and he had no affinity for lightning. Still, when Naasi – he’d never be able to call the man anything else – disappeared walking out of the damn cage up in the Anpads, the bird had been freed of its bond. It was a one-of-a-kind creature as far as Ramka knew, a powerful Paragon at least as strong as Parri – no, he corrected, the bird was stronger – and he just couldn’t let it get away. He and Parri had caught it and brought it to the ground, and he’d bonded it. It made a powerful second pet for him, and it was already pretty well trained from serving Naasi for so long – and apparently, since the bond just kind of vanished instead of being broken, the bird was amenable enough to bonding again.
Plus, he felt like he owed it to the man to take care of what was obviously his favorite pet.
“That’s it! I am going to shoot you in the face when we land!” she shouted back. “Now that you’re a handler again, I might just do it twice!”
He chuckled but let the matter drop; he honestly wouldn’t put it past her to do exactly as she said, especially since she knew that it wouldn’t kill him now that he was bonded to Parri again. Being shot wasn’t dangerous to him anymore, but that didn’t mean he wanted it to happen. The bond protected him from harm but not from the pain of injuries, and getting shot in the face hurt like hell.
He glanced down at the ribbon of the Sonkhee racing below them. The river was dark blue from that height and snaked like a frostserpent through the grasslands of the Gistal. The afternoon sun sparkled and twinkled on the water and glowed on the white, covered wagons of a caravan winding south in the distance. A pack of plainstompers, Lesser prey types with shaggy bodies and huge, horned heads, ambled along to his left, while beyond, the dark wall of the Mahad Mountains was a wide smudge against the horizon. To his right, the tracks of the Western Line gleamed in the middle of their gravel bed, while the dark green blur of the Devada Forest loomed beyond. Taken together, it was like he was looking at the entirety of the Gistal at once, and it looked like home.
A familiar group of buildings appeared on the horizon, and he sent a mental command to Parri to bank to the left and come in wide. He liked to use whistles, snapping fingers, or even words to command the old girl, but those were all just for show. He didn’t need them to guide his pet any more than he had to whistle at his lips to tell them to spit. He’d had enough practice over the long years that controlling his pets was like controlling his own body; he wanted something done, and it just sort of happened. Chomai screamed as Parri dropped her left wing and pulled around in a banking turn, then switched and dropped her right one, swinging back around to swoop over the town. He swept overhead, far above the main street, and below, he saw people pointing in his direction. He made a complete circuit of the town, then ordered Parri to land. The skyhunter looped about once more to Chomai’s apparent dismay, then descended swiftly. The street below cleared for her, and she landed with only a minor bump, flaring her wings to slow herself and catching herself on her four rear legs. A moment later, the storm terror landed as well, practically drifting to a stop and fluttering its massive wings to reset its feathers.
“Get me the hell off here,” Chomai snapped, loosening her death grip on his middle and sliding down to the dirt street beneath them. As she landed, she looked around at the crowd swiftly gathering about them, and she nervously placed a hand on the pistol at her hip.
“It’s fine, woman,” he said easily as he scanned the crowd. “People are just excited. Don’t go shooting nobody on accident.”
“I never shoot anybody on accident, old man,” she said waspishly. “It’s always on purpose, trust me.”
He bit off a retort as a familiar figure pushed through the crowd. Her light blue hair was tucked up under a dark blue hat, and her young face looked older, more mature somehow. The arrogance he’d always seen in her eyes was gone, replaced with a bone-deep weariness that he understood all too well. She’d seen some things while he was gone, things that forced her to grow up. He was honestly shocked she was still there, and he was even more shocked at the gleaming brass star attached to her vest.
“Sheriff,” Paisley said, her voice filled with relief.
“Paisley,” Ramka said, sliding down from Parri and landing lightly on the ground. He’d regained most of his strength and vitality since re-bonding Parri, although it was still slowly coming back. He patted the old girl on her neck before turning to face a woman that seemed to have aged a decade in a few moons. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, she rushed forward and wrapped her arms around him, pressing her face against his chest. He stood there in surprise, his hands out to the side, staring down at the girl embracing him.
“Please tell me this ain’t what it looks like,” Chomai groaned, rubbing her face.
Ramka ignored the marshal and patted Paisley gently on the shoulder. “You okay, girl?” he asked softly.
“I am now,” she sighed, pulling back from him. “You’re back. Thank whatever damn gods there are.”
He felt a pang of guilt at what he had to tell her, but he endured it. He had plenty of guilt built up inside him. A little more didn’t mean anything.
“How’s the town?” he asked.
“Holding together,” she sighed. She looked around at the gathered crowd. “We should probably talk about this in private.” She took a deep breath. “Clear a space!” she yelled, and to his amazement, the people around them quickly backed off, revealing a pair of pets standing at the edge of the crowd. One he supposed he expected; Paisley had affinity with fire, and the man-sized, bright yellow firebelcher – basically a spine-covered, four-legged beast that constantly burned with a light blue flame – was exactly the sort of pet he’d expected her to get. The equally tall, graceful plainsdeer with its chestnut hide and long, curving antlers beside it, though, surprised him. It was a prey type, another of the girl’s affinities, but she’d never have willingly bonded it when he left.
“Those yours?” he asked, pointing at the pets.
“Yeah,” she sighed, rubbing her forehead. “You was right, Sheriff. My Din – he wasn’t suited for me. I didn’t even know it until I bonded Felly, my firebelcher.” She shook her head. “It was like night and day how much easier she was to control. After that, I took your advice and bonded a prey type.” The plainsdeer strode up to her, and she ran a hand affectionately along its back. “Vati, here is amazing. He don’t look as scary as Din, but he’s a whole lot stronger, and I can do a lot more with him.”
Ramka nodded. “It’s always best to stick to your affinities, girl. Glad you figured it out.”
“I had to.” She looked at the bird. “You got a new pet?”
“It was Naasi’s. I’m just keeping it safe for him.”
“Was? Is he…?” She let the thought trail off, but he shook his head.
“Nope. Last I saw, he was alive as you or me. He’s gone, though, and I don’t think he’ll ever be back.” He wasn’t about to share the boy’s secret, mostly because he didn’t think anyone would believe him. The boy had obviously come from a whole other world, and trying to explain that would get Ramka locked up in one of those asylums back east.
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“Damn shame. We could use him. He was a good handler.” She turned and whistled, and Ramka smiled as Boden appeared atop one of the buildings, holding a rifle in his hand with his toadspike standing beside him. “It’s really the Sheriff, Boden!” she called out to him. “Go fetch Miss Shina, and ask her to meet us in my office!”
“You got it, Sheriff!” he called back, disappearing behind the building.
“Looks like you two put aside your differences,” Ramka noted with a touch of amusement.
“Again, we sort of had to,” she said heavily as she turned and walked back toward the . “I couldn’t have held this town without Boden. My pets are stronger now, but so are the handlers that come through, and we can only take most of them working together.”
“Have things been that bad?” Chomai asked concernedly. Paisley gave her a suspicious look, no doubt noting her marshal’s black coat and hat.
“Paisley, this here’s Marshal Chomai,” he introduced the pair. “She’s one of the good ones, and you can trust her.”
Paisley’s suspicion eased but didn’t vanish from her eyes. “If you say so, Sheriff.” She took a deep breath. “Yeah, things have been rough. Ever since word got out that you lost Parri, handlers have been coming through on every train, hoping to catch you here. They don’t always believe it when I tell them you left, and a few try tearing up the town to get you to come out.” Her eyes hardened. “That’s when Boden and me step in.”
She stopped and opened the door to the sheriff’s office, leading the pair inside. Ramka felt a tension he hadn’t even noticed fade away the moment he walked through that door. The familiar sights, sounds, and even smell of the room soothed him deeply. Murkburg was his home, but this place was where he laid his head. At least, it used to be.
Paisley walked in and tossed her hat onto the lone desk in the room, then moved to sit at the chair behind it. She froze as she touched the chair and looked up at him. “Sorry, Sheriff,” she muttered. “This is your spot.”
“No, it’s yours, now,” he shook his head, dragging over a pair of the other chairs and pushing aside the wooden stool that usually stood before the desk. That stool was a pain to sit on, literally; he’d never had the seat sanded down, so sitting on it jammed splinters in a person’s ass. It was a good way to keep even handlers uncomfortable when dealing with him, and uncomfortable people were far easier to intimidate and manipulate.
He gestured to one of the seats and waited for Chomai to sit before he took the chair beside her. Paisley almost hesitantly sat behind the desk, looking decidedly unhappy about it. He ignored her discomfort and leaned back, tenting his fingers and resting his elbows on the chair’s arms.
“So, Paisley. You were talking about handlers.”
She nodded. “Yeah. Like I said, every so often, one comes through looking for trouble, and when that happens, me and Boden have to deal with it.” She grimaced. “It’s hard. I thought I was a strong handler, Sheriff, until I seen some of these duelists that come to town. Now, I know that I ain’t that strong at all.”
“You’re strong enough to deal with them,” Chomai suggested. “That’s all the strong you need to be, ain’t it?”
Paisley snorted a bit contemptuously. “That ain’t strength. Boden and me, we just don’t fight fair, is all. We don’t follow no rules; we do what we have to, to keep the town safe. If that means attacking handlers, or shooting cards out of someone’s hand, or flinging dirt in somebody’s eyes…” She shrugged. “Then that’s what it takes.”
“Damn right,” Chomai nodded. “Good for you, girl.”
Paisley looked surprised. “You don’t think that’s unfair?”
“I think that in a fight, there ain’t no such thing as fair.” She jerked her head sideways. “This old man – and a man called Naasi – taught me that. In a fight, all that matters is that you win, not how you do it.”
“Is that how you beat Gold Diamond?” Ramka chuckled. “I heard you drove them off.”
“That they did, and it was a sight to behold.” Ramka only half-turned as the office door opened, and Boden and another woman walked inside. Boden was short, but he was stocky and broad. The other woman could only be described as tiny. She stood less than five feet tall and had a thin waist and hips with practically no chest to speak of. Her light green hair streaked with gray looked more disarrayed than usual, and the lines in her face seemed to have deepened in the moons since he’d left. Her eyes held that same weariness as Paisley’s, and the guilt in him grew just a bit at the sight.
“Shina.” He tipped his hat toward her. “You’re looking well enough.”
“I look like hell, and we both know it,” she snorted. She looked him up and down, then glanced over to the woman at his side. “You look decent, though. Who’s this you brought with you?”
“I’m Chomai, ma’am,” the marshal said, standing and extending her hand. “I’m the new marshal around these parts.”
“Is that so?” Shina shook the woman’s hand, then looked over at Ramka, her eyes twinkling. “That must be quite the story. And where’s Nayek?”
“That’s an even better story,” Ramka chuckled. “You were telling me one, first, though. What happened with Gold Diamond?”
“About a week after you left, they showed up on one of their ships and sent a pair of handlers out, declaring the town their property. Paisley, here, met them and told them that, as acting sheriff, she couldn’t allow them into her town. They argued a bit, and Boden finally got tired of it and sent his toadspike leaping into the middle of their pets. It sprayed them with thorns, then hopped out before they knew what hit them.”
“Really?” Ramka asked, concealing his surprise. “Boden, you did that?”
The young man’s face reddened slightly. “I knew they were going to attack, Sheriff,” he said, not meeting the older man’s eyes. “I figured it was smarter for us to hit them first. I know it wasn’t quite legal, but…”
“Legal’s all well and good, boy, but sometimes, you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do,” Ramka cut the young handler off.
“I told him the same thing,” Shina nodded. “Anyway, that was when Paisley’s plainsdeer charged and knocked the two handlers clean into the river!” The tiny woman laughed. “You should’ve seen their faces! The handlers, they tried to get out of the mud and direct their pets, but Boden’s toadspike kept jumping into them and filling them with spikes, and when they tried to catch it, Paisley’s firebelcher sprayed them with fire, or her deer knocked them into the mud with their handlers. After they lost a few pets, they gave up and scrambled back aboard the ship. It steamed away, and we haven’t heard from them since.”
“That was nicely done,” Chomai said appreciatively. “It sounds like Murkburg’s been in good hands.”
“But now, it’s back in better,” Paisley sighed, reaching for the badge on her chest.
“Hold on a second, girl,” Ramka held up a hand. “You might want to leave that where it is.”
“You’re not staying.” Ramka looked at Shina as she spoke and saw the hurt in her eyes. “You’re done being sheriff?”
“Nope. I’m just expanding my territory.” Ramka sighed. “You wanted to know about Naasi – well, that’s all part of my story.” He quickly laid out the rough outline of what had happened the last few moons, how Kamath had gone up the Sonkhee Valley killing sheriffs, detectives, wardens, and any handlers he could, stealing their pets, and installing marshals in their place. He described how Kamath, the former Head Marshal, had developed an Epic rune that would call an Epic creature, and how it had destroyed Whitestone’s mines and nearly destroyed Shadewood. He told them how Naasi – John, he mentally corrected – had gathered more pets, ranked them up, used them to clear the marshals out of those towns, and even drove off Old Sena.
“Old Sena?” Shina asked. “I thought she was a legend!”
“So did I,” he admitted. “But she ain’t, and the boy got her to leave without destroying the town. After that, Kamath sent the rest of the marshals in the Sonkhee to deal with him, and he used dynamite to blow them to hell.
“Eventually, we found ourselves all the way up in the Anpads,” he finished. “Kamath was up there, and he was trying to do the same thing he did with Old Sena, except with a Mythic beastie.”
“Mythic?” Paisley echoed, her face going pale. “There’s a Mythic monster loose?”
“No, because John stopped Kamath,” Chomai sighed. “He also healed me and the old man of our severing – and made half the people in the Gistal handlers.”
“What?” Shina gasped. “How did he do that?”
“Woman’s exaggerating, Shina,” Ramka chuckled. “The boy slipped his Unsevering rune into Kamath’s Mythic one. That caused the rune to jump and fail, but it also triggered the Unsevering for everybody in its radius. Turns out, if you ain’t a handler, Unsevering makes it so you can at least bond something Simple. And it makes about five out of every hundred people strong enough to become duelists.”
“Damn,” the tiny woman whispered. “And you said it spread across the Gistal?”
“That’s where she was exaggerating.” He shrugged. “We been stopping at towns on the way south, and best we can figure, the rune reached out about a thousand miles. Course, that means it covered most of the Uttar, east out to Lake Badjhee, west to Magoor, and south to Shadewood.”
“So, only half the Gistal,” Chomai muttered.
“So, wait, everyone in the northern Gistal can be a handler, now?” Shina asked.
“That seems to be the case, although they don’t know it yet. We ain’t exactly been spreading the word.” He glared at Paisley and Boden. “And you shouldn’t, either. You can tell people about the Mythic beastie and Kamath trying to raise it, but nothing about people becoming handlers. It’ll get out eventually, but we need time to figure out how to handle it when it does.”
“Handle it?” Boden asked quizzically. “Sheriff, we can barely handle taking care of Murkburg! It ain’t our job to look out for other towns, too!”
“No, it ain’t. It ain’t nobody’s.” The old man sighed. “So, I’m making it mine.” Chomai cleared her throat, and he chuckled. “Sorry. Ours.”
“You’re taking over the Gistal?” Shina asked dubiously.
“No. We’re just gonna make sure that all the towns work together.” He shook his head. “Kamath could do what he did because the Gistal don’t stand together. Sheriffs don’t talk to one another, and nobody’s watching to make sure the sheriffs run their towns right.”
“Same for the marshals,” Chomai added. “Kamath picked us off one by one. If we’d been talking to each other, we’d have known what was happening, and maybe we could have stopped him.”
“So, we’re gonna fix that,” Ramka added. “I told you we’ve been stopping at towns on the way south; well, at each one, we picked someone to be sheriff.”
“Actually, the townsfolk did the picking,” Chomai corrected. “We Analyzed them to see who would be strong enough for it, then let the town pick the person it thought would do the best job.”
“Right. We helped them get a pet, trained them a bit, and then moved on. And we did that all down the line.” He looked at Paisley. “I think it’s clear that you belong as the sheriff here, though, right Shina?”
“Absolutely. She and Boden have been doing a hell of a job.”
Paisley wilted slightly as the pair spoke. “Sheriff, I appreciate it, but – we ain’t strong enough.”
“I can help you there, girl.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a card, holding it up. “This here’s, the Unsevering rune. I can use it on you, and not only will it make you immune to severing, it’ll make your stats higher and make handling easier.”
He leaned forward. “And there’s a lot more to handling – and being a sheriff – than strength, girl. Kamath walked a damn Epic path and was as strong as anyone’s ever been since Ujali herself, and Naasi took him down with a little buzzfly. Strength ain’t as important as how well you use that strength, and I can help you with that, too.” She still looked unconvinced, and he reached out and lifted her chin, so she looked him directly in the eye.
“It ain’t a question of can you do it, girl,” he said softly. “You know you can; you been doing it for moons, now. The question is, do you want to do it? Do you like protecting these people and keeping them safe? Do you like knowing that they’re counting on you, knowing that everyone in this town is trusting you for their safety?” He leaned back. “Cause if you don’t, then you ain’t never gonna be a good sheriff, no matter how good a handler you are.”
She looked down again, and when she spoke, her voice was quiet. “The first time I met Naasi, I told him that respect didn’t matter; only fear did. I told him that the people of this town feared you, and that was why they did what you told them to – and I wanted that.”
She lifted her eyes back up to look at him, and he saw the battles she’d fought, the injuries she’d suffered, and the pain she’d felt all reflected in them. “I reckon I was wrong about that,” she continued softly. “The people here – this ain’t just a job to me anymore. I take care of them because they need someone watching them, and me and Boden are the only ones that can do it. And in turn, they take care of us, not cause they have to, but cause they want to. It’s like…”
“It’s like family,” he said gently. “Ain’t it?”
“Yeah. Yeah, that’s what it’s like.”
“And that’s why you’ll make a damn fine sheriff, girl.” He looked at Boden. “Especially with a solid deputy.”
Ramka activated the Unsevering rune that young Naasi made up, boosting Paisley’s stats and handling ability and making it so she couldn’t be severed again. As he did, he silently thanked the young man who’d come into their world and changed so much – most of it for the better. Thanks to Naasi, the Gistal would be stronger for its losses, not weaker; the marshals and sheriffs would learn to work together, not as enemies; companies like Gold Diamond and Sinja Mining would come there as welcome guests, bringing money and civilization, not as conquerors.
Ramka wished that one day, he’d be able to thank the man for all that he’d done.