David wasn’t sure if Lane and he had started the rumour, but the day after they spoke to the woman at the circus, suddenly everybody seemed to talk about how the navvies were reaching the city in a few days.

“You’re not here about those werewolves working on the railway, are you?” a baker asked him, while David looked at his wares the next morning. “Only, I heard they’ll come into the city soon.”

“We work with the railway,” David said.

“How does that work?”

David looked the man in his white apron up and down. His first instinct was to tell him to mind his own business, but he thought better of it. They still needed to find more werewolves, and the further they managed to spread the word that it was safe for them to come out of hiding, the better.

“The railway needs as many reliable werewolves as possible,” he said. “It’s our job to find them and bring them in alive while keeping the public safe from those who – are not reliable.”

“Oh,” the man said. “What do you do if a werewolf doesn’t want to work for the railway?”

David shrugged. “Can’t force them,” he said.

“Course you can, with that crossbow,” a customer piped in. A young woman in a servant’s attire, probably working for some rich family in the city. She turned beet-red when David turned to her.

“There are new laws, Miss,” he said. “Prohibiting the killing of sane werewolves. Which makes the crossbow a rather empty threat, Miss.”

“What about criminal werewolves?” another woman asked. “I heard they are turning thieves and thugs into werewolves down at Deva, you cannot tell me that they all repent from their nefarious ways just like that!”

“That’s what the watch are there for, right?” the baker said before David could say anything.

“The watch?” the woman asked in a shrill voice. “They are barely more than thugs themselves! They can barely keep honest people safe from normal criminals! Just last week someone set fire to a house on Elmenstreet!”

“I heard that was an accidental fire,” a new customer got involved.

David quickly ducked out of the little shop without buying anything.

“I thought you wanted to get some bread for us,” Lane asked when he came out, shaking his head. “Are you all right?”

David couldn’t stop himself from grimacing in annoyance. “The baker wanted to know if I’m here to kill the werewolves with the railway when they come to the city, and when I told him that we work with the railway, an argument started between the other customers, and I decided to get out.”

“Maybe we should leave the crossbows at the hotel,” Lane suggested.

“Maybe,” David said. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it, and Lane made no move either, though the hotel was just down the street. “Anyway, let’s try and find some breakfast.”

When they returned to the hotel for lunch, they were accosted by a journalist waiting in the foyer for them. Lane sighed to herself and then put on her best fake smile. David looked like he was about to reach for his crossbow when the young man in the cheap suit nearly ran them over, waving his notepad. Lane had to put a hand onto his shoulder to hold him back.

“Countess deLande, will you answer some questions for me?” the reporter asked excitedly. “I’m Patterson, with the True Tribune, based here in Mannin, people are excited to learn what brought you here? Perhaps we can talk right here at the pub?”

Lane nodded graciously before David could say anything. “Please, lead the way.”

“Have you never talked to the press before?” she whispered to David when they trailed after the reporter.

“No,” David said, quite brusquely. “Father usually took care of it,” he added. “Or Andrew.”

“All right, I’ll do the talking,” Lane muttered. “Just try not to glare so much.”

David smiled at that, though the smile was really no better than the glare.

“Thank you for taking the time,” Patterson started, once they had sat down. He looked from Lane to David. “Countess deLande, Lord Feleke.”

“It’s no trouble,” Lane assured him. That much at least was true, it wasn’t like they had anything to do the rest of the day.

“May I be cheeky and ask if there’s a wedding date set yet?” Patterson went on.

“Nothing is set yet,” Lane said and managed to keep the smile on her face, though it was probably starting to look forced. “Imminent war does not seem like an appropriate time for such festivities.”

“Well, of course,” Patterson agreed quickly. “What brings you up to our fine city?” he went on. “You have not graced us with your presence before, or am I mistaken?”

“No, it’s my first visit,” Lane said. “We were accompanying the railway crew that is on the last push to clear-felling the proposed course to Mannin. They’ll reach the city soon. We decided to ride ahead and see if we could find more werewolves.”

Patterson of course wanted to know how she liked the city. She at length complimented the brave people of Mannin and their fair city, which seemed to go over well. Eventually, of course, Patterson came back to the topic of werewolves.

“How are you going to find more of them?” he wanted to know.

“Well, part of it is talking to you right now,” Lane said. She had found her way back to her court-smile. “We want people to know about what’s going on, and we want werewolves to know that it’s safe for them to come out of hiding. The Lackland Company is looking to hire them.”

“And yet you still carry the crossbow?”

“Of course,” David piped in. “And we would like to assuage the fears of those people who worry that werewolves will be allowed to run rampant through their cities. That is not going to happen.”

“I’m sure many people will be glad to hear that,” Patterson said and made a note.

Lane wasn’t sure why David had gone that direction, but she couldn’t take it back now. “Werewolves who do commit crimes will of course have to face justice,” she said. “But the general warrant on them is revoked. Being a werewolf is no longer a crime in itself.”

“So – basically you are both, right now? Recruiter and executioner?” Patterson asked.

“No werewolf will be executed without a crown warrant,” Lane replied.

“Yes, yes, we heard about that,” Patterson said. “Very exciting, especially since Duke George Louis is not yet crowned king. But how did you come into this very difficult position? Why – I’m not doubting your skills, but why you? How does a famous werewolf hunter become a werewolf recruiter?”

Lane and David exchanged a long, long look. Lane had absolutely no intention of telling the press what had happened between her and the Morgulon. She was just about to give Patterson some blather when David said: “My youngest brother was bitten in Fevrier last year.”

Patterson clearly had not expected that answer. Neither had Lane, for that matter. She wished she had known he was planning on revealing that secret, though – at the very least, they should have demanded to see what Patterson was going to write before he published his article in exchange for giving him such a story.

“Greg had to leave Deva once he realized what had happened,” David added. “He decided to join a crew of navvies, right after his first full moon, to take himself deep into the forests around Sheaf. Just as he meant to leave the crew, there was a huge thunderstorm, and the Rot attacked them. That was the first time he – or anyone else, really –realized that a werewolf can fight the Rot. He protected his crew all the way to Sheaf, and is still working with the railway.”

Patterson was scribbling wildly, as David was talking.

“You say that your brother found out that he had been bitten? I would have assumed that it’s impossible not to notice a werewolf biting someone.”

“You would think so, wouldn’t you,” David said.

And then he told the story about the big hunt that had started all this, a lifetime ago as it seemed to Lane. Eight werewolves in one pack, it was still hard to believe. And Greg scratching his knuckles at the mad werewolf’s teeth...

Where would she be, right now, if Greg had been left unscathed?

Still hunting Morgulon, probably. Certainly not courting David, even if it was just for show. Alone.

Patterson’s eyes were gleaming in excitement. “You have never told this story before, have you?” he asked when David finished.

“No,” David said.

“Why tell it now?”

“A lot of what I did in the past months I did to protect my brother,” David said calmly. “But the situation has changed now. Secrecy is no longer our best option. There’s a war coming, and if we want to win it, we need as many werewolves as we can possibly find. So that’s why we’re here. That’s why we are trying to bring as many werewolves in, alive, as we can.”

“Is your brother the first Feleke to be bitten?”

“The first to survive it,” David said. “An uncle of mine was killed by a werewolf. Years back.”

“But shouldn’t you have killed him, once you found out?”

“According to the law of the Valoise, yes,” David said. “Which is part of why Greg left Deva on his own. By the time we caught up with him, he had helped build the line to Sheaf, and it was becoming clear just how vital werewolves would be to the future of Loegrion.”

“If it had been different, would you have followed the law?” Patterson asked.

“No,” David said flatly. “There was no way I would have hurt my own brother, unless he had turned out truly feral. In which case I’m fairly sure he would have wanted us to stop him.

Luckily, the question never arose. As soon as the line to Sheaf was finished, Duke George Louis asked us to find more werewolves, and then, just a few months later, Duke Desmarais told us the same. And here we are. Werewolf hunters looking for living werewolves.”