He swallowed the remaining contents of the bottle and stood up, dusting himself off. “Beeta sa feezi,” the creature said with a chuckle. Suddenly he dropped the empty bottle and froze, his gaze fixed behind Eva Nine.

“Daff effu Cærulean?” whispered a low guttural voice. A large silhouette crept from the undergrowth and covered Eva in shadow. As she stifled a gasp, she recognized the familiar burly shape of last night’s dark intruder towering over her. Its humming weapon was pointed at the other creature’s narrow blue head. With a low woom sound a short blast of vibration blew the lanky creature backward, where he landed on the ground, unmoving.

CHAPTER 9: SLICE

Eva opened her eyes. She felt like her head was going to explode. Even her lungs were having a hard time keeping enough air in them. Her right foot was worse. She couldn’t feel it, or much of her right leg for that matter. She knew that when—or if—she got out of this, she was going to be sore for a long time. Her mind fuzzy, she tried to recall how she’d gotten into this predicament. . . .

With weapon in hand, the intruder had forced Eva back to its camp deep in the forest. She had hardly been able to take in the menagerie of creatures trapped there, when the brute had indicated that she should remove her satchel and jackvest. It had then thrown them onto a mountainous heap of loot.

After flopping the lanky blue creature off its shoulder and onto the ground, the intruder had tied a noose around Eva’s right foot and yanked her up into a tree, so that she was hanging upside down. As she’d swayed from a high bough, Eva’s fingertips had dangled a meter off the forest floor. The swinging had slowed, and then she’d watched the intruder string up the other creature. Then, dizzy, she’d blacked out. . . .

Now conscious, she took in details of the camp from her flipped perspective.

The large campsite was set in a tree-lined glade, its perimeter ringed with tall poles, each with a variety of unlit lanterns. The long afternoon shadows pointed to the center of camp, where the pilfered loot was heaped. Parked next to the stolen goods was some sort of wavy-winged glider—large enough to carry the intruder.

A cacophony started as Eva scanned the area. The sounds came from the collection of animals and mobile plants that were trapped in all manner of ways around the camp. Large clear containers, very similar to the bins in her Sanctuary that had stored nutriment capsules, held a diverse assortment of bizarre insects. A pair of grounded birds flapped their finlike wings, trying to flee; like Eva, they were snared with a noose tight around their feet.

He is a huntsman, thought Eva. These animals are his game. I am his game.