“So he wasn’t with any of the packs.”
“No.”
“And we don’t know how he got into the castle?”
Her upper lip wrinkled. “No.”
Strangers or not, the assaults had to be coming from one of the three packs. Someone had made a bargain with the devil and now these creatures were walking among us disguised.
We came to a heavy steel door barred by a metal rod as thick as my arm. It had to weigh at least fifty pounds. Hibla casually lifted it with one hand and pushed the door open. We emerged into the courtyard and I made a beeline for the cage.
The prisoner saw me. The pile of rags shifted and a dirt-smeared hand reached between the bars toward me.
“Please . . .”
Next to me Derek grimaced. A moment later I caught it too, the stench of stale urine and feces. Hugh was a fucking bastard. “Your magnanimous Lord Megobari lets him sit in his own excrement.”
There was a small pause before Hibla answered. “It can’t be helped.”
Yes, it can. It definitely can.
We reached the cage. A man looked at me through the bars with feverish eyes. Not that old. It was hard to tell with all the dirt, but possibly twenties. Filthy dark blond hair. Scarce beard. His cheekbones stood out, sharp like blades on his gaunt face. Unless he was naturally emaciated, they were starving him.
“Please,” he whispered.
English. Fantastic.
“Beautiful lady, please, water.”
I pulled a canteen off my belt and passed it to him. He grabbed it and drank greedily, gulping the water.
“Easy. If you drink too much too fast, you’ll vomit.”
The man kept drinking. His hands shook. He barely looked human.
“How long has he been in the cage?”
“Two months,” Hibla said.
Dear God. “And the last time he had water?”
“He gets a cup of water and a cup of gruel every morning.”
This was torture. Hugh gave him just enough to keep him alive but not enough to end thirst and hunger. I’d done without water before. When you don’t have it, that’s all you can think about. I didn’t care what the man had stolen; putting him in a cage and letting him rot in his own filth was inhuman. “How can you follow a man who does this?”
Hibla squared her shoulders. “My father was a dispatcher at the Gagra railroad station. When the Shift happened, he turned into a jackal in the middle of the station. Once the magic wave was over, the railroad guards cornered him and shot him, and when he wouldn’t die, they threw him under the incoming train. And then they hunted down our family. Me, my mother, and my two brothers, we had to run into the mountains with nothing but the clothes on our backs. When I walk through the town now, people bow to me. You want to know why I follow Lord Megobari? I do it because I am not the one in the cage. You can be outraged all you want. It bothers me not at all.”
The prisoner clutched his stomach and vomited water onto himself.
Hibla sneered. “Abzamuk.”
The man shook his head, drank another desperate swallow, and hugged the canteen to him. “Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Christopher. Christopher. I am.”
“Why did they put you into the cage?” Derek asked.
“I stole. Very bad, very, very bad. Wrong. It was a book. I wanted the knowledge.” His gaze fixed on me. “Beautiful lady, kind lady. Thank you.”
Derek glanced at me. “He isn’t all there.”
No, he definitely wasn’t. Either he was nuts to begin with or sitting in the cage shook a few screws loose. Crazy or not, the desperation in his face was real. Hugh could let him die in this cage and it wouldn’t bother him at all. It bothered the hell out of me.
“Christopher, today a guard died on top of the tower,” I told him. “Did you see what happened?”
He looked at me with eyes that were luminescent with a mix of innocence and wonder. “I see everything. I see wonders.”
Right. Lights were on, but nobody was home. “Could you tell me what you saw?”
“A beast.” The man raised his hands, his fingers spread like claws. “Big, orange beast. Swooped down—whoosh—dead doggie.”
Dead doggie was right.
“It is the hunter of heavens. A celestial protector.”
Celestial protector. Chinese legends spoke of dragons that acted as celestial guardians, but none of them looked like cats with wings. “What do you mean by ‘celestial protector’?”
“A guardian who no longer guards. A predator of the sky.”
That didn’t help me any. “In what country would I look for this predator?”
“It doesn’t exist.” Christopher gave a sad smile. “Rocks and memories forgotten.”
“What happened after the beast killed the guard?”
“Then I died for a little while. I often die, but just for a minute or two. Death never stays. She only visits.”
“Christopher, focus. What did the beast do after he attacked the woman?”
“I will tell you. I will tell you all, but water.” Christopher held the canteen upside down, his face sad. “No more. All empty. Nothing left. Sonst nichts.”
That last bit sounded German.
“You give me more water and I will tell you. Everything.” Christopher nodded.
“You’ll tell her everything anyway,” Hibla growled. “Or—”
Or nothing. “Derek, please give me your canteen.”
Derek handed the canteen to me. I held it up. Christopher focused on the canteen.
“Tell me what you saw and it’s yours.”
“Water first.”
“No. Information first.”
Christopher licked his lips.
I moved the canteen toward Derek. I would go to hell for this.
“The beast took the woman. Off the wall. There!” Christopher pointed at the wall. “It bit her neck and carried her away.”
On the other side of the wall was a sheer cliff. Made sense. Tamara was a grown woman, at a minimum an extra hundred pounds of deadweight, probably more. To carry her off, the beast would have to start a glide somewhere high. Leaping off the wall with several hundred feet of clear air under you would be perfect and nobody could follow it. Our investigation just withered at the root and died.
“Did the beast speak? Did you see anything else?”
Christopher shook his head and reached for the water. We wouldn’t get anything else out of him. I gave him the canteen. He clutched it and hid it under his rags. Crazy, yes. Dumb, no.
We walked away.
“I shared with you,” Hibla said. “What are your thoughts?”
I had to be diplomatic. “I’m formally advising you to double the patrols.”
“We will,” Hibla said. Green rolled over her eyes. She’d asked for my advice, but she really didn’t like me telling her what to do.
Diplomatic. “Did you tell Lord Megobari about this?”
She raised her chin. “We provide security. It is our problem.”
Right. Someone in the castle was turning into a giant creature nobody had ever seen before and then making off with the guards, but let’s not tell the person in charge about it. Why, that would be ridiculous. In fact, let’s keep him in the dark as long as possible, so when he’s attacked, he will be caught completely off-guard. Kick-ass strategy.
“Glorious lady!” Christopher called from the cage. “You are so kind!”