The Last Witch

The same volunteer who Olive had just fired was standing by the door, and Asher thought about approaching to get a better read on the man, when he realised he was deep in conversation with another man. Before he could stop himself, he eased into the shadow of the doorway to listen in.

‘…it’s not my fault the captain is wound tighter than a minstrel’s panties,’ the volunteer said. ‘She’s been like that since the Commander went gone.’

‘Can’t blame her for that,’ the other man said. ‘Everything’s gone tits up with people vanishing.’

‘The Lieutenant came back,’ another said. ‘Maybe the others will too.’

‘I don’t get any of this,’ the volunteer said. ‘I thought the Lieutenant was supposed to be on our side anyway? Guy’s been an asshole since he got back.’

Asher froze.

‘My guess is that old ginger idiot took off before he could give the full picture,’ the second said. ‘Plus the Captain heard from Lord Barque that he ain’t all there in the head anymore.’

‘I heard the old fool made a pass at the Lieutenant,’ the third said. ‘Probably approached the whole thing dick first and scared everyone off.’

‘Fucking royals and their scandals,’ the volunteer said. ‘The Lieutenant is probably working with that Adalynn chick. Lord Tremboui’s daughter. She’s been a real bitch too.’

‘She’s definitely a liability,’ the second said. ‘Commander didn’t say anything about her.’

‘Commander didn’t know anything about her,’ the third said. ‘This whole thing has become an absolute mess.’

A hand clapped down on Asher’s shoulder, and he jumped violently, whirling around and crying out when he saw Penn standing right behind him. Penn didn’t so much as blink. He held a stray parchment in his fist, which he thrust towards Asher’s face.

It wasn’t a report or a file, but a crude drawing scratched in charcoal. It was a mass black shape that looked like it had been made by a child, a hunched thing with large pointed ears made of messy, disjointed lines scribbled in a frenzy. A red smear marked large eyes, and next to it was a tiny, neater shadow of a person in a long dress.

‘It’s a drawing,’ Asher said, feeling stupid.

‘A wolf,’ Penn said. ‘We need to find the wolf.’

‘This wolf in particular?’ Asher couldn’t think of a single worse thing to do, and a weight dropped in his stomach when Penn nodded. With all the animals attacking and the amount of wolves that lived in the northern woods, it would be near impossible to track down a single creature without calling in a small army. That didn’t include the more territorial creatures further in the mountains, or the fact that they were attacking people. ‘How exactly are we supposed to do that?’ he asked.

‘You’re the leader,’ Penn said. He thrust the paper at Asher again. ‘We have to find this one.’

Asher couldn’t imagine any world where he could walk up to someone like Norrah and ask for a legion of volunteers to find a single wolf because the strange magic man told him to. ‘That’s not how it works. If this is the animal that’s causing them all to —’

‘Not an animal,’ Penn’s voice was a low growl.

Asher paused. ‘Is it a monster, or one of your friends? Another Nakati?’

Penn nodded.

‘So is there a way to tell this wolf apart from the other wolves?’

Penn shrugged.

‘Is there a way to track it down specifically?’

Penn shrugged again.

Asher pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘I can ask around about where wolf territory is,’ he said. Though he didn’t know how that conversation would go. ‘And I can ask people to stop shooting at them, but there are other things we need to do.’

‘No,’ Penn said. ‘We need to find the wolf.’

‘If you can tell me how we find the wolf, then we’ll look for it,’ Asher said. He felt bad saying it. Penn was completely alone, now looking for the only other of his kind in this place, and as Asher held his gaze, all he saw was anger and desperation. Yet, to go traipsing out into the woods again, looking for a singular animal in a wilderness filled with more than just regular creatures, that frustration would only grow, and they would waste hours before they got anywhere.

Penn was glowering at him. Again, the memory of that creature flashed into his mind, the old, gnarled thing that had been Penn but also not filled his brain, and he shook it away. They were supposed to be on the same side. Asher couldn’t be afraid of him.

‘Look, we’ll ask around,’ Asher said. ‘We’ll look, but we need to be careful. We need to think about this. Trust me a little bit, okay?’

Penn stared for an uncomfortably long time, then nodded. Asher only hoped that he wouldn’t be made a liar to the only real ally he had in this.