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“And then?”

“Her fate will be known upon her return.”

“I’ll need to start tracking at once before the scent goes sour,” I told him.

“I know.”

I frowned and glanced away at the door where they had placed my uncle’s remains just outside in a sealed box. “My uncle—”

“Will be sent off with honors,” King Crencik concluded.

I didn’t do funerals. I hated them. No matter how badly my heart was twisting and turning right now, I’d much rather delve on living memories of my uncle in the way I wanted and when I was ready to grieve losing him.

“But if you like, we can place him on ice…” Crencik started.

“No. Send him off at once. His spirit should be resting with our ancestors, not here in this atrocity,” I said.

Crencik nodded.

I departed from the cabin, leaving the mess behind.

“Xaixek?” The King came up the path and I halted and turned around.

“Yes?”

“Use caution,” he said. “It’s Barb mating season.”

He only reminded me as a precaution, but the King had known me long enough to figure out that I wasn’t afraid of mindless beasts. Wherever he sent me, I went. There wasn’t mission I wouldn’t complete for him.

But this mission—catching my uncle’s murderer—was personal. And no Barb beast or other obstacle was going to stop me.