“Afternoon, Miss Dupuis. Will you be leaving soon, I suppose?”
“No.”
Cedar gave her a look. “You’ll be staying here, then?”
“No. Or rather, I hope that isn’t the case. I was wishing to have a moment to speak with you, Mr. Hunt, but you have been a busy man.”
“Not doing anything now,” he said.
“Yes. Good. Would you be willing to take a short walk with me?”
Cedar glanced at the ship. The Swift was nearly ready to fly again in his estimation. Cedar and the others had been working since Captain Hink had roused everyone out of bed before daylight. The crew had put themselves to the task of repair with a single-minded determination.
Pounding rivets and hauling metal and timber had done Cedar’s temper some good. Enough to entertain a short walk.
He figured what little needed yet to be done on the ship was more suited to Captain Hink’s and the crew’s expertise.
“Of course.” Cedar motioned with his hand for her to walk with him, and started off down the path that led around the bend in the terrain.
“I’m afraid I haven’t been completely forthcoming with you, Mr. Hunt,” she said. “There was a very specific reason Captain Beaumont brought myself and my companions here through the teeth of a storm.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. We came here with great haste because you were here.”
Every nerve in Cedar’s body flashed cold and a rush of wariness swept through him.
“Oh?” he said again.
“We are of a joint acquaintance, you and I,” she said. “The Madder brothers. Perhaps you know them, yes?”
“We’ve met,” Cedar said.
“They informed me, all of us, that they were looking for you. With great need. I believe you owe them a favor.”
“Did you speak to them recently?” Cedar asked.
“Yes.”
“So they found their way safely out of Vicinity?”
“Yes. But they had to see to some repairs of their equipment and knew it would cause a delay. So they sent messages to locate you.”
It didn’t come as a great surprise that the brothers had found a way to send a message to people who had airships at their disposal. There seemed to be no pot the Madders wouldn’t stick their clever fingers into.
“Messages to whom?” he asked.
She paused, and stared out across the dark peaks of mountains that stood like fortress walls in the distance, cotton-topped with mist.
“We are here to see that the Strange do not take over this new world,” she said.
“You hunt the Strange?” Cedar asked.
She turned her gaze back him. “We search for them. Sometimes we find them, or find the people they have harmed. There are very few in this world who can see them. Fewer still who can hunt them.”
She slid a smile his way. “Theobald, myself, and Joonie can see them. You, however, can hunt them, or so I am told. That is a very rare gift. So rare that the Madders sent us to find you. Any of us who could travel quickly.”
“Find me? For what?” Cedar asked.
“A gift such as yours? You are our ears, our eyes, and our teeth. You can destroy the Strange where we simply try to control their spread, close their trails, break their weapons. You can find the Holder, as if it were a fresh blood trail, and keep it safe from Strange hands. You are one of us, Mr. Hunt. And we want you to join our cause.”
“I don’t know what you think you know of me, Miss Dupuis, but I am no one’s servant. I neither follow nor pledge to any man’s cause.”
“You carry upon you a curse from the gods of these lands,” she said with a nod. “I can see the beast within you, as can Mr. Theobald. You have given your pledge to find the Holder for the Madder brothers. Will you turn from that now?”
Cedar wondered if he already had. He’d promised Captain Hink he’d find the Holder, just as he’d promised the Madders he would find it. But the weapon could be given to only one man. And he didn’t know whom he should trust with it.
“That agreement is between me and the Madder brothers.”
“They are great men,” she said. “Steadfast in this fight. But these times have been…difficult. We have lost so many.”
She searched his face, perhaps looking for sympathy there. He had none to give her.
“The Madders may prefer secrets and riddles,” she said, “but I prefer to be clear. I am going to ask you plainly, Mr. Hunt. Will you join us? Become a protector of this great land, this great world and see that the rising tide of Strange is turned back?”
The wind rose, pushing at his back, and drawing Miss Dupuis’s carefully coifed hair into ribbons around her face. Far off, a hawk circled the shadows of trees, calling out once before it climbed higher.