“You’ve missed the fighting, but you’re just in time for the clean-up,” I direct at Yells, but my gaze is fixed warningly on the Pathwalkers and Warriors who have frozen temporarily at the arrival of others. I suspect that at least some of them are wondering if they can use the distraction to make a run for it. Honestly, if I was in their position, that’s what I’d be thinking. “Keep moving slowly and putting your weapons down,” I instruct them, making sure that they realise I haven’t in the least forgotten about what they should be doing. “You too,” I instruct, my eyes flicking to the three local Warriors trailing behind my Pathwalkers. They look like they were debating between attacking and retreating, but my instruction and the hard looks my Pathwalkers give them are enough to send them shuffling forwards.

  A gust of wind slams into their backs and makes them double their speed to avoid being knocked down. As they get to the edge of their comrades, that same gust intensifies around their hands, ripping their weapons away, and then yanking them to the ground to join their fellow villagers.

  With Windy’s intervention, I see the last of hope leave my prisoners’ hearts, their spikes flickering with defeat and their shoulders slumping. If they couldn’t beat my party as it was before, they definitely wouldn’t be able to beat my party and an Enlightened samuran.

  Meanwhile, I quickly catch the Pathwalkers up to speed and share my suspicions. I feel fear and even the hints of panic begin among my samurans – the village is their family, and their duty is to protect it. Knowing that something is happening without them being there to prevent it is hard on them.

  The problem is that we don’t know what. But I know how to find out.

  “Earth-former, look at me,” I tell her. She keeps her eyes trained on the ground, fear rushing through her spikes. Does she know what’s going to come? It doesn’t matter; that she’s refusing my command just proves that this is even more necessary. I crouch down suddenly, trusting my Bound to watch my back, grab her muzzle with both hands and force her to look up at me.

  As soon as our eyes meet, I trigger Dominate, the command no longer needing to be vocalised since its rank up to Master. I’ve been wondering whether I could remove the requirement to make eye contact too, but I haven’t had much success in my few experiments.

  I don’t waste much time striding through the grey space. The pressure I feel against me is almost laughable, not even as much as I felt when trying to free the raptorcats. Then again, I suppose that this is a different situation. Earth-former has been defeated, her will half-broken already.

  I hesitate for a moment and pause at arm’s length away from the representation of the samuran. Should I speak to her now? If not, this will be the first time since Spike that I haven’t communicated in some way before Binding a creature.

  But what does extensive conversation do except waste time? I’m going to Bind her – I need the information. And ultimately, they attacked me. And given that Beast-tamer asked about whether it was true that I had Bound samurans, they clearly know at least vaguely what I’m capable of. Though how they know that is another question since they weren’t at the Festival.

  The point is that the members of this village decided to attack me for no apparent reason but groundless fear after they lured us here under false pretences. There have to be consequences for that. And if it turns out that whatever is happening to my village right now is also their fault, then those consequences will only get worse: I can’t have a village so close to mine which is willing to act against us like that. Asking for Earth-former’s ‘permission’ to do Bind her isn’t being reasonable or kind; it’s being indecisive. It’s not wanting to make the hard decisions myself.

  So I don’t ask her permission. But I do speak to her briefly.

  “You brought this upon yourself,” I say sternly. “Cooperate, give me the information I want, and perhaps you will be released – after a period of penance, of course. Depending on what you tell me of your crimes against me and my village, of course.”

  I feel the dismay emanating from her, overlying the terror which has been there since I entered the space. Reaching forwards, I touch the space between her eyes.

  The Bond snaps into place, though this definitely feels slightly different from the other Bonds I’ve made. Was I wrong in not seeking her understanding and acceptance? Well, if I was, I will have to live with the consequences. For now, there are more important things to consider.

  Standing up from my crouched position, I see that little has changed around me. Not that I was expecting it to – the Battle of Wills didn’t take very long.

  “Stand up,” I order my newest Bound with a hard note in my voice. She obeys slowly even without me needing to use the Bond. Her head is hanging low and she appears unwilling to make eye contact with any others from her village. “Why did you just attack us? Tell me the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” If it works in a court of law, it should work here. Especially when I can use the Bond to back up my command.

  We had to, she answers mournfully. And we hoped that in your reduced numbers we would be able to stop you.

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  “Why did you have to?” I demand, crossing my arms.

  You took far less time than you should have. You arrived here in half the time it should have taken you, and then on your first outing into the forest, you both found the Great beast and somehow managed to have discourse with it. And then, somehow, you discovered of the trouble back at your village. If we let you go now, it would all have been lost.

  “What would have been lost?” It’s hard to keep my patience but I hold onto it through a sheer force of will. This will take far longer than it should if I allow my temper free rein.

  The plan.

  “Explain the plan. What was it? Who made it? Who was involved?”

  Here Earth-former hesitates, fighting against the Bond which urges her to answer. I narrow my eyes and press a little more of my Willpower against her, forcing her to talk. Hisses of protest rise from several of the samurans sitting on the ground, but reprimanding grunts ringing out from my own Pathwalkers put a stop to audible forms of protest quickly enough.

  It was another village of our tribe, she says finally, her tone exhausted and completely defeated. Maybe she’s realised that she lost all ability to make a choice when she chose to fight us and lost.

  “Which one?”

  Of the twelfth lower mountain. I nod slowly. That figures. I had wondered if we hadn’t seen the last of them. Backed by two Pathwalkers from the lead village of our tribe.

  That makes my eyebrows rise slightly. Sympathetic Pathwalkers acting of their own accord, or an attempt of the lead village to damage an up-and-coming village of another tribe? Such tactics aren’t exactly unknown to me – the corporate world can be cutthroat at times.

  “Continue explaining about the plan,” I command.

  We were to be the distraction, one way or another, Earth-former tells me. We needed to lure you down here for a valid reason. Given your performance in the Hunt that our tribe-members described to us, we decided that a Great beast might be the best option to attract your attention. So that was how they’d known information which had been revealed at the Festival despite not being there themselves – these other samurans had told them. Beast-tamer suggested kidnapping the pack members of a Great beast whose protective nature is well known. This worked as intended.

  “And the members of your own village who died? Were those as intended? Or was that a lie too?” I ask, cold fury settling into my stomach. I feel a hint of remorse coming across the Bond from Earth-former’s side.

  Necessary sacrifices to make sure that you were fully convinced. By this point, it’s easy to see who was aware of the plan and who wasn’t; the admission that the Pathwalkers are ultimately at fault for the deaths which apparently were real has several Warriors staring at their lead Pathwalker with horror. Not all of them are surprised, though, and all of the Pathwalkers were clearly aware.

  The Unevolved, however, who have started gathering discreetly among the trees around us and between the huts, set up a susurration of discontentment. They clearly don’t like the idea that they’ve been fed to a meat-grinder as part of some big plot by those who are supposed to lead and protect them.

  I don’t blame them, though I wonder about why exactly it always comes down to the sacrificial play among the Evolved samurans. First the shaman of my village sacrificing the hatchlings and planning to sacrifice the Unevolved; now this one who considers the inevitable deaths of luring an angry Tier three into their area of the forest to be ‘necessary sacrifices’. Is there an actual cultural reason, or is it just that they consider the non-Evolved to be so replaceable that they don’t care? I have a nasty feeling it’s more likely to be the latter than the former.

  You were never supposed to know! Earth-former says frantically, clearly aware of the disapproval being directed her way. None of you were supposed to know! That’s why we did our best to convince you, even sending you two of our own to prove our desperation for your help. You were supposed to come, deal with the Great beast, and then leave, none the wiser. But you were too fast, too suspicious. You forced our hand!

  “Sucks to be you,” I growl. “And now we’re back onto the topic, why exactly did you need to lure me down here in the first place? And why did the length of time I stay here matter?”

  I don’t know, she answers. Narrowing my eyes at her, I touch the Bond between us, then huff in annoyance. She’s telling the truth. She doesn’t know. But…

  “You have suspicions, though, don’t you?”

  Earth-former hesitates, once more trying to resist the Bond which urges her to speak. This time, though, I don’t have to apply any additional pressure before she gives in.

  Pathwalker Flying-blade was angry, she confesses. Very angry. She said that you had cheated in the Hunt and that the rest of the leaders supported you because they wanted the red tribe to fail. I think that a simple attack to sow destruction but cause little permanent damage would be too tame for her. She wants you to hurt and she wants to destroy the threat of your village for a long time to come, without attracting the wrath of the other villages by killing too many Pathwalkers. She had some sort of object with her. I don’t know what it was, but she wouldn’t let it out of her sight. I…she hesitates again. I think that her plan centres around that object.

  I consider the information, but not for very long. It’s clearer than ever that my village is under threat and that we need to get back there as soon as we can to stop whatever dastardly plan Flying-blade intends to perpetrate in revenge for losing the Hunt fair and square.

  Please, she pleads with me, interrupting my thoughts. We had to do this. Flying-blade refused to hear any argument. She…she threatened that if we didn’t go along with her…she’d show us what she was going to do to your village firsthand.

  I want to say so much to that but I force my tongue to stillness. Perhaps the glare I send at the Pathwalker says enough – Earth-former takes one look and then shuts her jaws with a snap, averting her gaze from mine.

  I sigh. We’re on the clock here but we can’t leave a mess of vipers behind us like this or we’ll pay for it later.

  here!

  here!

  here