A New Night
Chapter 18

Matchmaker for the Queen of Hunters

I felt frozen in time—in an inky terror that slowed my movement and thoughts. Inside and out, I felt cold and hollow. My chassis was … open. Romalla was entirely gone. I was at the bottom of an inescapable pit. The thought caused the chill I had just felt to be replaced by a sickly hotness of panic and stress. Then I heard his voice—that of the man with the gun.

Except … my brain was telling me something was different, something I now knew I hadn’t before.

It took me several moments. Part of me tried to return attention to the danger at hand, while another, quieter part begged me to think harder. It was important … it was … about him. But it was so difficult to remember through my terror and the inky darkness.

The darkness that came from hi—no. Of course, the terror had come from him since my nightmares in the pod. But this viscous, unnatural fear had never been a part of my dreams. It came from … the Hunters. This … wasn’t really him. I had experienced this trick before. I wouldn’t be shot in the back of the head if I tried to run.

Which meant … I had to get to Romalla.

This thought became the only one in my brain. I grasped it with all that I was and held tight as the terrors, both my own and the other, tried to tighten their grip on my mind. I braced my arm on a wall and balled my hand into a fist—which rattled against the stone as I strained for control over my body. Then, slowly, I began to feel my legs … which I hadn’t even realized had been numb to me.

“So you can fight us … I had begun to doubt,” said the presence behind me. Only this time, he did not speak with the voice of the man with the gun. Rather, his voice came out as a gruff hiss that was even closer to me than what the illusion had been. A Hunter—the one from before—was in the hole with me, speaking to me. “Still, you will have to do better if you want your bat returned to you.”

My body gave an involuntary and violent shudder at his words. But I did not lose control again. Instead, I forced my head to turn … to face him.

Again, there was no human, no military uniform, and no gun. In their place was a Hunter who looked only slightly like the much smaller Scraa. He was almost as tall as I was—with overt feline musculature that was intimidating in its own right. He seemed in no way malnourished. The mass of the muscles in his upper body seemed to cause him to hunch just a bit, like my vague mental image of a certain kind of bodybuilder. I had no doubt that he would be capable of doing me serious harm, even with my metal body. His fur was lightly speckled with white flecks on his otherwise solid black pattern.

The Hunter glared at me—through his yellow cat eyes. They seemed neither angry nor insecure in his strength. Like he didn’t need to try to intimidate me because he was already the epitome of intimidation in and of itself. “The Queen of our people is waiting outside this hole. She will command you to serve her if you wish to save your bat.”

I studied him as my mind continued to clear. I understood that he was implying something; otherwise, he would not be down here before presenting me to the Queen. I just didn’t understand what it was he wanted. Fortunately, I didn’t need to wait for an explanation.

The Hunter continued, “Know, however, that she will kill the bat as soon as you cease to be useful. So agree to her demands and then meet me outside the jungle. There, I will tell you what you must do if you ever truly want to get it back.” His lips were unmoving, but his voice was like a burly roar in my mind. It was the same voice that had hissed into my thoughts in the jungle.

“Won’t … she know that you told me all this?” I asked.

The Hunter hissed disdainfully. “I am no fool! Do you really think I would have spoken these things without knowing you could ward off my mind? Just keep her out of your thoughts, as you did with that cub. And fight off her fear like you are now if you ever want to see your bat again.” Then, without waiting for my agreement, he wrapped his tail around my waist and lifted me several feet in the air.

Before I could think to fight or struggle, two more tails wrapped around my wrists and pulled me even further up. They were … pulling me out!

Once out of the stone pit, I was dropped to the ground outside the hole and had to catch myself to keep from falling. The Hunters that had lifted me out and the one that had spoken to me lined up along several more of their kind. All stared at me with expressions that seemed on the edge between amusement and something more dangerous.

I stood before a female Hunter, the tallest I’d seen. Her body was muscular, though not as thick as the one I’d spoken to, and she was much taller. The most noticeable features about her were the exaggerated ears that looked like a thin lion’s mane or a halo that circled her head. Two white teeth poked out from her slight muzzle, almost like what I imagined a vampire would look like.

The Queen stood and looked at me with yellow eyes that were neither angry nor concerned, only ... studying. Then I noticed that wrapped in her tail, she held Romalla!

“Let Romalla go,” I said, and my voice cracked in a humiliating fashion. But I knew I couldn’t afford to drop the masquerade of toughness.

The thickly built Hunter from before took his place at her side. His eyes looked more amused than the others, and I wondered if this was some kind of act. However, I remembered what he said and began playing another annoying pop song in my head. As soon as the tune started to play, I gained an odd sense of calm. Then a wave of drowsiness as my body slumped and suddenly became steady and cold. It was … almost like a reboot. A smooth wave of electricity spread through me, and my machete blades extended from both arms.

“Lower your claws, or I will kill your fruit bat,” the Queen of Hunters said, unfazed. Her face curled into what looked vaguely like a smile. She brought Romalla closer and extended her retractable claw to her throat.

It took every bit of my will, but I somehow retracted my blades. “Don’t hurt her,” I said. I had meant it to sound threatening, but only after realizing it sounded like I was begging. Fortunately, I didn’t think the Hunters could understand voice fluctuations well enough to realize how humiliating this was.

“You are not a killer,” the Queen said with her toothy, white smile. Under usual circumstances, I would have agreed and thanked her for the vote of confidence. But her words had definitely been meant as an insult; she was calling my bluff. “Hopefully, you can change that and become at least as dangerous as a mother animal with her newborn.”

The words made me feel odd, and I had to fight a dizzy wave of confusion to stay focused on what was happening now. Unlike with the previous Hunter, however, her words did not even require the efficacy of her powers to make me feel overwhelmed with feelings I couldn’t pinpoint. “What do you want?” I asked, though I honestly preferred not to know what she desired.

“The mountain you were traveling to,” the Queen said. “It is ... desired territory for my kingdom. Close as it is to the city in the sky, it would provide us a place to discover a way to ascend.”

So the Hunters knew about the Sky City? I suppose it made sense; even the Night People recognized that the Wall could not be a thing of nature. What else could have been on a circular platform in the sky so tempting to try to reach?

“I won’t kill a village of people!” I said, shaking my head repeatedly. I would have risked any bit of myself to save Romalla, but I knew that becoming some kind of mass slaughterer for the Hunters was not something I could even pretend to do.

The Queen scoffed. “I am under no illusion that a soft creature like you would have the strength to destroy many of our kind. No, I only require you to deal with one being. He is a murderer who has piled the mountain with the bones of Hunters and Prey alike.”

“You want me to kill him?” I asked, the words coming out quietly.

“I want him off the mountain,” the Queen said, glaring at me with piercing eyes. “And then I will bring your bat to you. No more tasks and no harm to her.”

One person … and a killer at that. I wasn’t sure I could do that. And even though the Queen did not necessarily want me to kill him, I doubted that the Hunter she was describing would be the sort to be persuaded. Still, I told myself that I had to remember what the thickly built Hunter had said if I wanted to get Romalla back. Maybe … maybe he even had a plan. So I sighed and said, “Fine.”

“You are all lucky for Bassello’s mercy!” Romalla shouted—making the Hunters wince and her sudden and sharp screech. “Otherwise, he would smite you all. Disgusting, filthy demons! He would purge you from this accursed jungle and feed your souls to the serpent demons so you could not enter the spirit realm!”

I looked at her one last time—feeling a confusing jumble of surprise, guilt, and even a bit of empowerment from her faith in me. “I’ll be back for you, Romalla,” I said, waving at her, willing my arm and fingers not to shake.

“Don’t feel that you need to,” Romalla said, baring her teeth at the Queen. “I am a priest of the gods and of you, Bassello. I will break free of these demons and rejoin you upon the mountain. I would not allow myself to become a distraction from our mission!”

The Hunters laughed and sneered.

I looked at her, nodded, and then forced myself to turn away. The Hunters did not stop me as I began walking alone toward the mountain—now visually unobstructed by any canopy or pit walls.

The Hunters did watch, with a level of excitement they somehow made seem minimal at best. Again, I couldn’t help but imagine the pointed disinterest of a house cat.

Still, I tried my best to ignore the yellow eyes that reflected the sun from the rocky darkness. To do so, I tried to focus on my surroundings, the half-ancient city that would have captivated my attention at any other time. I noticed that a three-story stone tower stood at every barrier between the jungle and the city. At the top of each lounged a Hunter, hunched over the edge of the rocks and looking ready to fall upon any intruder and crush them.

These buildings hadn’t stood out to me before because I hadn’t seen the guards sitting on them. I wondered if there had been some coordinated effort to hide their presence from me, or if they were only around now because they’d heard about a robot walking their streets. And though I was their main point of mild attention, I could not help but feel tension from their occasional, threatening glances at one another. Like every other part of this city, their union seemed … oddly unnatural.

I then nearly stumbled on something I had not seen in front of me. It was a small Hunter that looked up at me and immediately hissed. I thought, for a moment, that it might have been Scraa. But this one was even more thin and female. Her hiss drew the attention of the closest tower guard. I met the other Hunter’s gaze, getting ready to explain or defend myself for nearly having stepped on one of their children.

But the Hunter guard only watched, with no more care than when I’d been walking casually out of the city. His lack of concern for the child nearly made me feel a wave of hot anger, but there was no time before the situation changed. What looked like a shadow seemed to float weightlessly up the side of the rock. It reached the top, let out a howl, and tussled viciously with the Hunter, who had been caught off-guard while watching me. The fight was horrible but fast, and the new Hunter threw the now-bloodied guard off the ledge. The guard hit the ground, roared, and then dashed into the jungle—as if it were afraid the new guard would chase it down and finish the job.

The Hunter child then ran on all four legs to the base of the tower and made a threatening roar. For a moment, there was no response. But then a chunk of meat the size of a small chicken fell from the top of the tower. The child took the meat, gave me a look, and then ran into the jungle. Several more children appeared from the jungle and stone buildings and began to chase her. All wore hungry expressions and visibly suffered from varying degrees of malnutrition.

“Quit wasting time,” the Hunter from the pit whispered into my thoughts, though I could not see him at first. Then, he stepped out of the shadows, seeming to care far less about any intimidating posturing.

“Fine, just tell me what you want me to do,” I said, agitated. Not wanting this Hunter or any other intruding upon my thoughts, I played the annoying music from before in my head.

“The Queen told you to get someone off the mountain,” the Hunter said. “What she didn’t tell you was that she has already tried. Neither the Queen nor any of her guard has been able to get rid of him. He has killed countless Hunters. You are merely an unexpected force for him to deal with, while her Hunters use the distraction for an ambush.”

“But you think I can?” I asked, unable to believe that this Hunter was voicing any kind of confidence in me.

“Your…” the Hunter said hesitantly. “… physical abilities give you an advantage of surprise that may throw him off-guard. And though I have little faith in your determination, I believe the bat’s life may be sufficient drive to motivate you. That if you have to choose between her life and that of the murderer on the mountain, it’s possible that you will defeat him.”

“I was just going to scare him off,” I said, remembering the two guards who had briefly struggled for control of the tower. Maybe there would be more of a tussle since this Hunter was bigger than the rest. But if I fired a few shots into the air and kept him out of my head, maybe it was possible. “The Queen even said that all I had to do was make him leave.”

“Don’t be willfully stupid,” the Hunter said. “He will die before he lets you take that mountain, and the Queen knows it. Fortunately for you, however, this is when our deal comes into play. If you manage to kill him, you must remove his head and bring it to me. In exchange, I will steal your bat-friend from the Queen and return her to you. This will relinquish you of the need to trust the Queen or me.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, not understanding how I wouldn’t need to trust him or how this new deal was any different than the previous one.

“I want credit for killing the Hunter of the Mountain,” the Hunter replied simply. “You want to save your bat friend and ensure we will not double-cross you. The problem for you is that there is no telling if the Queen will honor your arrangement. In fact, I assert that she will not. But by killing the Hunter of the Mountain for me, you would have the leverage to ensure I honor our agreement. If I were to kill your bat, you could take your retribution by telling the Queen that I had tried to deceive her. So I will not get the favor I desire, and my life will be in jeopardy.”

I thought for a moment. As little as I liked him for his blatant cruelty and deception, his trade seemed air-tight.

Seeming to sense this, the Hunter gave a chuckle. He then began walking away without verbally confirming that I agreed to his plan.

I huffed impatiently and started to walk away, but then a thought occurred to me. The words escaped my voice box before I could stop myself, “Wait, you … already look like you’re the Queen’s right hand. Why do you need to gain her favor? It seems like a lot of effort and risk for you?”

The jungle suddenly became darker, and the Hunter growled, “Ask more questions like that, and maybe I’ll decide it’s worth risking him, you, and your bat myself. Get the head or come back to your bat-friend being used as bait for prey actually worth eating.”

I stumbled backward and just watched as he returned to the shadows.