Chapter 38: Then He Ordered Me to Leave.

They found four more workers before reaching the fifth terrace.

One was dead.

Three were still alive.

Two had minor injuries. The third had lost part of his calf and wasn’t going to walk without help.

Valeria left one of her guards with them.

Raven didn’t object.

Four fighters made more noise than three, and if the noble had enough men below, leaving someone behind to keep the workers from becoming bait again could prove useful.

The fifth terrace had something the others didn’t.

Order.

A temporary camp had been established beside an old mining structure.

Two awnings.

Tables.

Supply crates.

An iron cage holding three workers.

An alchemical circle painted across the stone.

Six armed men.

And a table with wine.

Raven stopped when he saw it.

"That’s offensive."

Valeria followed his gaze.

"The wine?"

"The table."

"Why?"

"We’ve spent half the day walking through a hole full of things trying to eat us, and he brought furniture."

Valeria smiled.

"We nobles have standards."

"I need to start killing poorer people."

"That sounded disturbingly natural."

"It was a logistical observation."

The first guards spotted them.

Swords came out.

One shouted:

"Stop!"

Raven kept walking.

Valeria didn’t slow down either.

The man shouted again.

"This area is under House Orbrecht claim!"

Valeria raised one hand slightly.

The guard finally recognized her, and his posture changed almost immediately.

"Lady von Nacht."

The others recognized her too.

They didn’t fully lower their weapons, but they stopped pointing them at her.

Raven was still included.

Interesting.

A man emerged from the main awning.

Cassian Orbrecht looked to be in his early thirties, with the kind of face that seemed designed for family portraits where nobody smiled.

Dark blond hair swept back.

Short beard.

Hunting clothes far too clean.

A gray-blue cloak fastened with a silver brooch.

He didn’t look like a monster.

That was normal too.

Most people Raven had known who were capable of horrible things looked disappointingly ordinary.

Cassian saw Valeria first.

He smiled.

"Lady von Nacht."

He bowed deeply enough to show respect and shallowly enough to remind everyone that he was a noble too.

"I wasn’t aware Blackthorn had attracted your attention."

"That explains why you ignored the hunting claim."

Cassian kept smiling.

"The claim concerned the Crimson Mirehorn. I haven’t claimed the creature."

Raven raised an eyebrow.

So did Valeria.

"You’re using Mirehorn blood to attract it."

"To locate it."

"With chained workers."

"Workers under contract."

Raven looked at the cage.

"The chain changes names depending on the budget."

Cassian finally looked at him.

His eyes moved over Raven’s clothing.

Strange vest.

Bandages.

Iron badge.

No noble insignia.

The classification happened immediately.

"And this is?"

Valeria answered:

"Raven Ashford."

Cassian looked back at her.

"I didn’t ask his name."

Raven nodded.

"Perfect. I didn’t ask yours either."

One of Cassian’s guards moved.

Valeria smiled.

Cassian didn’t.

"He’s your mercenary."

"No," Raven and Valeria answered at the same time.

They looked at each other.

Valeria added:

"I tried."

Raven:

"Several times."

"That didn’t need clarification."

Cassian looked between them.

"Then what is he doing here?"

"Hunting," Raven answered.

"This area is under House Orbrecht operation."

"Your employee already said that."

"Then you understand."

Raven looked around.

Camp.

Workers.

Blood.

Water several yards below.

"I understand you’re making a lot of noise."

Cassian stopped smiling.

"I suggest you watch your tone."

"I suggest you stop covering people in the blood of my target."

"Your target? The Crimson Mirehorn doesn’t belong to you."

Raven thought for a moment.

"Correct."

That seemed to throw Cassian off.

"Then leave."

"Just because it doesn’t belong to me doesn’t mean I’m leaving."

"You just admitted you have no claim."

"Neither do you."

Cassian stepped forward.

"House Orbrecht controls this operation."

Raven looked at Valeria.

"Is his family name written on the monster?"

She took a moment.

Then smiled.

"Not that I’ve seen."

Cassian looked at her in surprise.

"Lady Valeria."

"Don’t involve me. I also told him to stay out of my hunt."

Raven raised an eyebrow.

"Not exactly."

"The intent was there."

"The execution was poor."

Valeria gave him a look.

Cassian seemed increasingly uncertain about what kind of conversation he was witnessing.

"This is absurd."

Raven looked at the cage.

"On that, we agree."

A scream came from a tunnel farther below.

Everyone went silent.

Then a bell rang.

Twice.

One of Cassian’s hunters turned.

"Route Three."

Cassian’s expression changed immediately.

"Release the next pair."

A guard opened the cage.

Two workers backed away.

One was human.

The other was a woman with small curved horns and light gray skin.

"No," she said.

The guard grabbed the chain.

"Move."

"I’m not going out there."

Cassian didn’t even look at her.

"Breach clause."

The man at the table opened a ledger.

"Refusal of assigned labor doubles the principal debt and extends the family contract."

The woman froze.

Raven looked at Valeria.

"Family?"

Her expression had hardened.

"Some debts pass to dependent relatives."

"Convenient."

The guard pulled the chain.

The woman dropped to her knees.

Cassian pointed at the vial of blood.

"Route Three. I want ten minutes of movement. If the Mirehorn appears, run toward the blue signal."

The human worker was trembling.

"My lord, we saw what came out of the water."

"Then you’ll run faster."

Raven watched.

Cold.

Practical.

Not even sadistic.

Cassian wasn’t enjoying this.

That made it more familiar.

Voss hadn’t enjoyed ordering Raven’s death either.

It had been an operational decision.

People could do almost anything once they turned it into procedure first.

Valeria spoke.

"Enough. Release them."

Cassian turned.

"Excuse me?"

"They aren’t yours. Their debt belongs to your family’s mining company."

"The company is Orbrecht property."

"That doesn’t make the people part of the mine."

Cassian smiled faintly.

"Legally, their service contracts—"

Raven raised a hand.

"Before this becomes a legal lecture nobody asked for, I have a question."

Cassian looked at him with irritation.

"I’m not speaking to you."

"That improves the odds of getting a short answer."

He pointed toward the vials.

"How many did you fill?"

Cassian didn’t answer.

Raven looked at the man with the ledger.

"How many?"

The administrator glanced at his lord.

Mistake.

Raven followed the look.

"So he knows."

Cassian spoke.

"You have no right to—"

"Twenty-four," the administrator said, too nervous.

Cassian turned on him furiously.

Raven continued.

"How many have you released already?"

"Eleven."

"How many routes?"

"Four."

Raven looked over the terrain.

Four routes.

Blood from the same source.

That explained Valeria’s erratic tracking.

"You’re surrounding the Mirehorn with its own blood."

Cassian smiled.

"Finally, you understand."

"No. I finally understand why it’s running in circles."

The smile disappeared.

Raven pointed down into the quarry.

"It’s hemomantic. Valeria can track its blood from a distance. If you can use that blood to attract predators, the Mirehorn can probably sense it too."

Valeria understood immediately.

"It’s detecting multiple signals as injured members of its own species."

Cassian looked at her.

"Exactly. We’ll force it to defend its territory."

Valeria shook her head.

"It’s injured. It won’t defend anything."

Raven finished:

"It’s looking for a way out."

Silence.

Raven looked toward the tunnels.

"And you’re driving it deeper."

Cassian’s expression changed.

Only slightly.

But Raven saw it.

He hadn’t considered that.

That irritated Raven even more.

"My hunters know what they’re doing."

"Your hunters covered people in blood and waited."

"It’s worked before."

"Against an injured Mirehorn being hunted by a creature you haven’t even identified?"

Cassian’s jaw tightened.

"I know exactly what I’m doing."

Raven looked at the table.

Then the wine.

"Usually a bad sign when someone needs to say that out loud."

Valeria lightly covered her mouth.

Cassian saw her.

That was probably worse than the insult.

"Leave."

Raven looked at him.

"I’m not going anywhere."

"This time, I’m not advising you."

"People around here have a strange obsession with giving me orders."