CHAPTER FIVE—TRACKER

Three months. It had been three months since the disgraced vizier Faridoon had hired the Black Cobra. As a top-tier adventurer he had demanded a hefty sum, one he thought Faridoon could barely afford.

The vizier’s money was well placed. The Black Cobra had set out without delay to collect information and to narrow the whereabouts of his target. Typically he wasn’t hired as a man hunter.

The Black Cobra was an adventurer. He had slain all manner of beasts and monsters and dungeon guardians.

Narrowing his search through bribes, making acquaintances and paying off men who fancied themselves information brokers—though who almost always turned out to be liars—the Black Cobra had narrowed his search to Shirizad.

Asking about after the strange foreigner, the Black Cobra had learned a shifty cat eye had followed him out of town along the main road to Darshuun.

Finding him was not difficult.

The cat eye was bound and gagged and put up on a rock as the Black Cobra prepared implements of persuasion out of various materials found in nature. He was no torturer, but the subtle technique of waging war of the mind was a powerful tool he used whenever appropriate.

And now it was appropriate.

He had asked the cat eye no questions. Having captured him, bound him and prepared him for what he thought would be a gruesome experience, the cat eye’s mind would conjure all manner horrifying possibilities.

By the time the Black Cobra was ready to speak with him, he would spill all that he knew without resistance, surely.

The wind was increasing, and with it a chill rain surely would follow. It mattered not. The weather was of no consequence.

His tools, wooden stakes that he could strap to the cat eyes face and slowly auger him with had been complete. Now all he had to do was let his captive see him put the green venomous juice of the Hardikufu fish onto the sharp points and his fear would envelope him to such a degree that he would spill all he knew without resistance.

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The Black Cobra looked up into the sky at the roiling black clouds. The strengthening winds were beginning to push the wheat fields as if a giant jinni were blowing on them from afar.

The fish was already prepared. He broke the venom sacks and spread the luminous liquid onto the augers. Afterward he approached the recoiling cat eye and put the contraption over his temples, two of the augers scraping through the red fur above his brows and aimed directly at his eyes.

Had he decided to use the contraption, the cat eye would not only be blinded, but suffer excruciating pain far worse than having his eyes punctured with the sharp ends of the sticks.

Removing the gag, the Black Cobra felt a tinge of impatience as the cat eye began to babble in his hissy accent.

“Silence,” he said.

The cat eye did as he was told.

The Black Cobra waited for only just a moment. And then he said, “You will tell me where the foreigner has gone.”

“I don’t know.”

He reached up toward the contraption and the cat eye recoiled. “Wait! Wait! I don’t know where he went, but I can find him for you—I can lead you to him!”

Yes, the cat eye could lead him to Shiro Takeda.

“And you will.”

“Yessss,” the cat eye said, his large yellow eyes wide with fear.

The Black Cobra had no need to tell the cat eye that if he tried to escape, he would suffer a horrible fate.

And so would vizier Faridoon should he attempt to cheat him out of his pay. A fortune by itself, his payment was all he cared about.

In the past, his hardness might have brought forward a question, but it had been a long time.

A long time since I lost Archaemenes.

Turning his thoughts back to the moment at hand, he realized he was curious about the item he was after. However, part of his agreement with the disgraced vizier was that he could not open whatever bag or sack Shiro had the item in.

He was not to know what the item was.

The Black Cobra could speculate, but in truth, whatever Faridoon was after could be anything. It could be something of sentimental value that he wanted to keep private, it could be a piece of legendary loot such as a weapon or a spell.

The Black Cobra was also supposed to keep Faridoon apprised of his whereabouts at all times. He would need to stop and find a courier soon.

Cutting the cat eyes bonds, he said, “Lead me to Shiro Takeda now.”

“But…” the cat eye said as he glanced about at the coming storm and rain. “What about the storm?”

“I will not ask you again, cat eye.”

And so Tarshiks the criminal adventurer began tracking Shiro Takeda.