Chapter 67 The Hunt Begins
"You want us to hunt Marcus? That is suicide!"
Luna slammed her fist on the council table. The emergency meeting had been going for an hour. Everyone was angry. Tired. Scared.
"We do not have a choice," Mara said. "If we wait for him to attack, we fight on his terms. But if we hunt him down first, we have the advantage."
"The advantage? He has dozens of enhanced warriors! We have an exhausted army!" Marcus—the council member, not Elara's son—shook his head. "We need time to recover. To rebuild. To heal."
"We do not have time. Every day we wait, Marcus gets stronger. Gathers more allies. Becomes more dangerous."
"Then let him! Let him gather his forces! Then we know exactly what we are fighting!"
"And by then it will be too late to win!"
"Enough!" Riven stood up. "Both of you are right. We need to recover. But we also need to act. So we do both. We split our forces. Half stay here. Rebuild. Protect the city. The other half goes hunting. Small teams. Fast. Efficient."
"Who leads the hunt?" Brutus asked. He was still recovering from his wounds but refused to rest.
"I do," Mara said.
"No!" Zevran grabbed her arm. "You just absorbed Oblivion's fragment! You need to rest! Let someone else lead!"
"There is no one else! Marcus knows me! He will respond to me! If anyone else leads, he will just hide! But if I am there, if I am hunting him, he will come out! He will try to kill me! And that is when we get him!"
"That is a terrible plan!"
"It is the only plan we have!"
Sera stood up. "I will go with you. Help you track him. I know how he thinks. How he fights. How to hurt him."
"Thank you. Anyone else?"
Riven raised his hand. "I go where my daughter goes."
"Me too," Luna said reluctantly. "Someone needs to keep you from getting killed."
One by one, volunteers stepped forward. By the end, Mara had fifty wolves willing to hunt. Fifty warriors ready to track down one of the most dangerous beings alive.
"We leave at dawn," Mara announced. "Pack light. Move fast. And stay alert. Marcus will set traps. Ambushes. He wants me dead. We need to use that against him."
The meeting ended. Everyone scattered to prepare.
Zevran cornered Mara in the hallway. "I am coming with you."
"No. You are staying here. Protecting Isla. She is still weak. Still vulnerable. She needs you."
"She needs both of us!"
"She needs one of us alive! And if we both go hunting Marcus, we both might die! At least this way, if I die, she still has you!"
"Stop talking about dying!"
"I have to talk about it! It is a real possibility! Marcus wants me dead! He will throw everything he has at me! And I might not survive!"
"Then do not go! Send someone else! Send Sera! She knows him better than anyone!"
"He will not fight Sera! She is his sister! He still loves her! He will only fight me!" Mara took his hands. "Please. Trust me. I know what I am doing."
"You always say that right before something terrible happens!"
"This time is different."
"How?"
"Because this time I am not fighting to save the world. I am fighting to protect my daughter. To give her a future without war. Without fear. That is worth any risk."
Zevran pulled her close. "I hate this. I hate letting you go into danger without me."
"I know. But you are doing the most important job. Keeping our daughter safe. That is what I need from you. Can you do that?"
"Yes. But if you die, I will bring you back just so I can kill you myself for being so reckless."
"Fair enough."
They held each other until the sun started to rise. Then Mara pulled away. "I have to go. The hunting party is waiting."
"Come back to me."
"Always."
She left before he could see the tears in her eyes.
The hunting party assembled at the city gates. Fifty wolves. All armed. All ready to die if necessary.
"We move fast," Mara instructed. "We travel in groups of five. Spread out. Cover more ground. If you find Marcus's trail, send a signal. Do not engage alone. Wait for backup."
"What kind of signal?" someone asked.
"Three howls. Short. Sharp. Distinctive. That means you found something. Everyone converges on that location."
"What if Marcus hears the signal?"
"Good. Let him hear it. Let him know we are coming. Let him feel hunted for once."
They split into groups. Mara's group had Sera, Riven, Luna, and a young scout named Kira.
"Where do we start?" Luna asked.
"The eastern forests," Sera said. "Marcus loved hunting there as a child. If he is hiding anywhere, it will be there."
They ran. For hours. Through forests and over rivers. Following trails that might be nothing. Checking every cave. Every abandoned building. Every possible hiding spot.
Nothing.
"He is not here," Luna said after the third day. "We are wasting time."
"He was here," Sera insisted. "I can smell him. Old scent but recent. Maybe a week old."
"A week is too long. He could be anywhere by now."
"Then we keep looking. We do not stop until we find him."
They pressed on. Days turned into weeks. The hunting party found nothing. No Marcus. No army. No evidence he even existed anymore.
"Maybe he left," Kira suggested. "Maybe he gave up on revenge and just disappeared."
"Marcus does not give up," Sera said. "He is planning something. Waiting for the right moment."
"Or he is dead. Died from his wounds after the battle."
"He was not that badly hurt. I saw him. He was bleeding but functional. No, he is alive. And he is out there. Watching. Learning. Preparing."
On the twenty-first day, they found something. A village. Completely destroyed. Every building burned. Every person dead.
"What happened here?" Mara walked through the ruins. Bodies everywhere. Burned. Torn apart. Mutilated.
"Marcus happened," Sera said quietly. She knelt beside a body. "This is his work. He did this. Killed these people."
"Why?"
"To send a message. To show you what he is capable of. To make you afraid."
"I am not afraid."
"You should be. This village had two hundred people. He killed them all. Alone. In one night. That is the kind of power you are hunting."
Mara felt sick. Two hundred innocent people. Dead because of her. Because Marcus wanted revenge.
"We find him. Today. Now. No more delays. No more searching. We track him from here and we do not stop until he is dead."
"How do we track him? He could have gone in any direction."
"We follow the destruction. He is not hiding anymore. He is making a statement. There will be more villages. More bodies. A trail of death leading right to him."