The Sylph Hunter (5 page)

Ocean Breeze hummed behind him, her winds keeping him cool as they had all day. He’d sung for her earlier, but right now he was comfortable. He’d watch the sun go down. When he became hungry, he’d get food. When he became tired, he’d sleep.

Will you sing to me again?
Ocean Breeze asked.

Of course, he thought, and did so, his tenor echoing across the deck, down to a few workmen still doing their duty and unloading an oceangoing ship. His father had taught him to sing many years ago, in order to bring a better price on the block. Kadmiel’s voice had been so high and sweet then, and so quickly lost when he reached puberty. His voice wouldn’t entertain the halls it once did, but Ocean Breeze liked it and he still remembered the old songs.

Lady alone, silent in solitude,

gown drained to white like the stone.

Shadow behind her, light in her eyes,

Her thoughts all inside and unknown.

Ocean Breeze sighed behind him and started to dance, swirling around the deck while he sat under her, his voice carrying across the wharf as he watched the sunset.

We question, we wonder,

what this lady does feel.

Within her soft skin

is she real?

Or just an illusion

before a bare wall.

A picture of beauty,

not a woman at all?

The harbor was quiet, the people he’d seen on the docks before the
Racing Dawn
gone now, though he hadn’t watched them leave. The sunset shone in his eyes, making afterimages like threads drift across his vision.

Lady alone, is she a person?

Someone who hates and who loves?

Free like a bird or trapped in a painting,

watching yet never involved.

The song ended, the last echoes lingering. Kadmiel heard Ocean Breeze sigh again, happy.

Then he heard her scream.

Her pain was there and gone in an instant, gone so fast he wasn’t sure he’d felt it. Her
absence
though was ongoing and he turned in shock, reeling from the realization that she was
dead
. How could she be dead so fast?

He couldn’t see her, not that he ever could, since she liked to be invisible most of the time. He saw a shimmering rain cross the deck instead, except this rain was more like dangling strings that flowed independently from each other, feeling across the wood toward him and so clear that he couldn’t even be sure he saw them at all.

Kadmiel ran in terror. It was a twenty-foot drop over the side to the wharf. He’d break his leg if he went that way and the tendrils hung there as well. He was in a forest of them, all of them next to invisible but still making the world beyond hazy and hard to see. He could see through them though, enough for him to bolt for the hatch down into the ship, his heart pounding from fear and from grief as well. Ocean Breeze…

Kadmiel reached the door, ducking around a dangling tendril and feeling it brush against his arm as he ran inside and slammed the door. He backed up, staring at the thick door, and stopped, not by choice. Something held him and he stared down at his arm. The skin was dimpled, something shimmering and nearly invisible lying across it. He gasped.

The tendril wrapped around his arm, something sharp biting deep, and it pulled. Kadmiel howled as he was yanked off of his feet. He struggled, but then he slammed into the door so hard that it shattered and, of course, Kadmiel shattered as well.

The tendril pulled him upward, dissolving him with unimaginable speed until he was just a pool of energy, the same way it had Ocean Breeze. His killer sucked him in and ate him slowly, relieved that it had reached the shore after all, and floated back toward the city, using its tendrils to pull itself forward when the wind threatened to push it the wrong way. It was hungry and heavy, hanging far lower than it would have liked, but there was plenty of food here, just waiting to stumble across it, as it always had.

Once known as battle sylph 417, he’d been assigned to patrol the streets of Meridal and keep the peace. Now called Yahe, he did the same thing, though now he did so properly. He soared over the city as a cloud filled with lightning, scanning the people below him for any sign of danger.

Yahe didn’t find any. No one was feeling the kind of malice that would have him diving down to destroy them before they threatened the hive. He felt a great deal of discontent though, which made no sense to him. They were free, they had no reason to be unhappy. He felt hunger and thirst as well, but didn’t bother to wonder why they didn’t just eat and drink something. Humans were strange creatures and only two of them had any real importance to him. Kiala, who was his master, and the queen.

He continued on his rounds, sweeping past other battlers following their own routes as he flew around the city toward the ocean. Where the battlers had all hated one another before, now they were hive mates and he dived around his brothers playfully, exchanging news of what they’d seen during their guard duty, or of how their masters were doing. Not all of them had female masters yet, but all were working toward it, and Yahe felt immensely grateful that he had Kiala. The thought that she might have chosen another battler, or even turned away from them entirely, wasn’t something he let himself dwell on. It was just too horrifying to contemplate. He was lucky; that was all he let himself know.

From the harbor area, he felt a sudden surge of terror, quickly gone. Yahe paused, stretching his senses out, but the fear didn’t return and after a moment, he continued on his way. Humans were like sylphs in that they felt brief little surges of terror from time to time, and he wasn’t going to waste his energy running to attack because someone saw a scorpion. He continued on his usual route and when he passed over the harbor a half hour later, there was no one there. It was late so he didn’t worry about that. Humans had homes, didn’t they?

He continued on.

Devon reached the harbor past dark, and after almost getting lost more than once. To his surprise, it had become quite cold once the sun went down and he hugged himself tightly as he walked. Airi wasn’t much help with cold, though she did keep any cool breezes away from him.

He was relieved to finally see the
Racing Dawn
still docked in her cradle. There weren’t any lights left on for him and in fact there weren’t any lights at the harbor at all. It was just more of a sign of how badly Meridal was falling apart, he thought grumpily. He hoped he wouldn’t wake Kadmiel. Right now, he just wanted to lie down and get some sleep. The queen could wait until tomorrow.

Maybe in the morning he’d get Kadmiel to take him home instead.

A vision of Leon’s and Solie’s disappointed faces filled his mind, along with Heyou’s snarl as the battler reminded Devon he had no home in the Valley, not if he wanted to keep all his limbs attached. Devon shuddered and climbed onto the ship, his boots echoing almost eerily on the gangplank and then even more eerily on the wooden deck. He still had to buy some sandals, but right now he was glad to be wearing the boots.

“The temperatures in this kingdom are insane,” he grumbled.

Are we going to stay here tonight?
Airi asked.
Ocean Breeze isn’t here.

Lovely, Devon thought, just lovely. So much for his great plan to have her take them to the queen.

“Well, do you have any idea where she went—” He stopped. Right before him was the doorway that led down into the interior of the ship. It wasn’t just open; the door had been broken out of its frame and the deck was covered in wooden shrapnel.

There’s blood in there,
Airi whimpered in a tiny voice.

Devon could smell it too: a copper scent that was unmistakable. He backed away, suddenly terrified, and felt Airi press against the back of his neck, not playing with his hair for once. Suddenly, Devon was aware of just how
silent
the harbor was. Slowly, he looked over his shoulder and across the dark length of the wharves to the darker color of the water. Nothing. No voices, no footsteps, not even the sound of birds.

This place is dead,
Airi whined.

That was more than enough for Devon. Turning, he pounded across the deck and down the gangplank, sprinting back across the stone toward the city he’d just left, Airi pressing fearfully against him. Not since that battler on the hill had Devon been this terrified. Instinct spurred him through and he ran, almost slipping several times on wet, filthy cobblestones. There were no people. He smelled the strong sea air, but in his mind, it turned to a copper reek and he felt Airi crying, as frightened as he was.

Attracted by his terror, a black cloud filled with lightning dropped down before him, looking at him with ball-lightning eyes. Devon screamed and ran in another direction, heart pounding. Another one cut him off and he darted another way, only to find a third there. There seemed to be hundreds of the creatures, but in reality there were only six. Six was more than enough to drive him into a sputtering panic.

Tell them!
Airi squealed.
Tell them what we saw!

Devon stumbled, crashing to the ground next to a building and cowering, his arms up over his head. “The harbor!” he screamed. “Blood at the harbor! There’s no one there! They’re all dead, we found blood!”

The battlers looked at each other, communicating in silence, and lifted away, vanishing into the night. Devon leaped to his feet and ran on. No one stopped him or Airi this time and he ran until he was exhausted.

Six battle sylphs swept over the harbor in close formation, looking for the threat. The human’s terror had been undeniable and they moved quickly, ready to destroy whatever had sent the man running.

The harbor was empty. With a quick, silent word, they spread out, searching, but there were no people there; no sylphs; there weren’t even any rats or cockroaches. Just crates of goods left sitting, some things spilled, and at one air ship, blood around a doorframe where the door had been torn completely out. That and blood randomly spread over the docks were the only signs of violence they found.

They gathered then above the harbor, massing into a single cloud while they discussed it.
What do you think happened here?
one of them asked.

The rest swirled.
I don’t know.

Should we hunt that human down and ask him more?