Page 5 of The Hunter

Keeping his back toward her den, he looked at the rest of Kaldarak. The central platform remained crowded, yet though the surrounding areas were quiet, they were not abandoned. Not everyone was able or willing to forgo their work to play a game.

And even from this vantage point, which stood higher than most of Kaldarak’s other platforms, he didn’t see Lacey.

Telok released a huff and tapped the tip of a foreleg on the floor.

His jaw clenched again, his mandibles twitched, and the flames within him burned with a new purpose. When he’d left his friends to look for Lacey, he hadn’t anticipated that he would be starting a hunt.

All the skill and knowledge he’d gained and honed over years of facing the Tangle’s countless dangers, earned through toil and torment, would now be turned toward tracking down a moody human. He might’ve chittered at the absurdity if not for his annoyance.

This could’ve been avoided had Lacey simply told someone that she would not be joining the gathering. And yet…some small part of him was glad not to be standing on the central platform watching everyone else enjoy themselves.

Telok navigated Kaldarak with long, swift strides, keeping his gaze in constant motion. He knew his prey; she hadn’t been in her den, so she must’ve been at one of her other regular hangouts. He checked Urkot and Callie’s den, where Lacey sometimes worked on new mixtures with Callie, then proceeded to Rekosh and Ahmya’s den, where Lacey regularly collected new plant samples to experiment with. Both dwellings were empty.

From there, he went to the long bridge leading to the temple that sat upon the rocky hill overlooking Kaldarak. Though the statues of the Eight perched atop the structure were mere stone, erected long ago by thornskull shapers, he felt their eightfold eyes upon him as he stalked across the bridge. The humans were fond of bathing in the pools within the temple, which were fed with hot water by underground springs.

She wasn’t there either, and the thornskulls bathing and relaxing in the tiered pools said they hadn’t seen her.

Worry clawed at Telok’s hearts as he exited the temple and climbed the path to the spot where the humans had made a small monument for Ella, the tribemate who hadn’t made it to Kaldarak. Many of them visited the memorial from time to time to show respect.

Lacey wasn’t there either.

Snarling, Telok looked out over Kaldarak again. Where else could she have gone? What else could she have been doing?

What if something happened to her?

His eyes dipped to the carved wooden monument, and strangling tendrils coiled around his hearts and squeezed. All he saw was a reminder of death, a reminder of how quickly life could be ended, of how delicate humans were.

How many such monuments would he see placed here? How many of his tribemates would he lose before his own end? How many more scars could his hearts bear?

Stuffing those troubling questions down as deep as he could, Telok hurried away from the spot. His focus needed to be on finding Lacey. Such dark, heavy thoughts were of no use to him now.

He returned to Kaldarak and expanded his search. More than once, he swore he picked up a hint of her scent, but he could never tell if it had been from the air, from the smell still lingering on his hide, or from his own imagination. That didn’t stop his hearts from quickening each time.

Telok asked the thornskulls he encountered if they’d spied the fire-haired human. None had. Not until he came across a young male with a red-orange hide who thought he’d seen her heading toward the stairs that linked Kaldarak to the jungle floor far below.

Fists clenched, Telok rushed in that direction. Questions stabbed at him like the countless thorns in a tangle of knifevines. Why would she have gone this way?

Surely, she would not have…

“Have you seen Lacey? The human with fire hair?” he asked the guards posted on the platform at the top of the stairs.

“She went below earlier,” one of the guards replied.

“Fuck,” Telok grated in English.

However safe Kaldarak seemed, it was surrounded by jungle. And the jungle didn’t stop being dangerous just because it was near a city.

He bounded down the steps, which wound around the massive trunk to which they were attached. The two thornskull warriors at the bottom, Okkor and Elharat, stared at him as he approached, undoubtedly surprised by the clamor of his hasty descent.

“Lacey?” Telok demanded.

Okkor pointed toward the hill. “That way.”

“You let her go alone?”

Elharat chittered. “She gave strong words, and⁠—”

With a snarl that tore straight out of his chest, Telok strode past the thornskulls in the direction they’d indicated.