The apartment got loud after that.
Not all at once. South Mill walls never did anything cleanly. Sound came through the pipes first, then under the door, then through the boards. Neighbors talking too fast. Boots on the landing. Somebody downstairs arguing about whether House Vey men had really shown up armed or whether that part had been improved for the retelling.
Kael stayed at the table and let it wash around him.
Ash sat by his chair with one plated paw over the toe of Kael's boot. The smoke coming off him had thinned now. Every so often a dark ribbon curled up from his shoulders and vanished into the apartment air that already smelled like onion, wet plaster, and boiled cloth.
Three days, Kael's father said at last. That's not much.
It isn't meant to be, Serah Nahl answered.
The review officer stood by the window, looking down into the lane without leaning out. Talia was still at the door, far too comfortable in someone else's home. The Pit Master had somehow turned the kitchen corner into a guard post just by standing in it.
Deren rubbed both hands on his knees. How bad is the challenge, really.
The Pit Master scratched the scar at his jaw. Honest answer?
Kael nodded.
House Vey won't send a fool from the family yard. They'll send a licensed hunter-line contractor. Someone public. Someone who can beat you in front of witnesses and make it look like law instead of theft.
And if Kael wins, Deren asked.
Then House Vey looks weak in public, Serah said. Enough people saw the Hall and the stair attack that they have to pretend this is about rules now. If he wins inside those rules, their clean hand gets dirty.
Kael's aunt snorted. Men like that always have another hand.
Yes, Serah said. Which is why he needs to break the first one where everyone can see.
That shut the room up.
Ash's ear twitched.
The white panel still sat somewhere behind Kael's eyes, waiting. Second mark available. Name your prey. He had not told them about that part. Seemed smart.
His father asked the question Kael had been avoiding. What happens to us.
Serah turned from the window. The Hall can move immediate family into protected rooms until after the challenge.
My aunt laughed in her face. Protected. You mean rooms with city locks.
Rooms with walls and guards, Serah said, which your stairwell currently lacks.
Talia finally spoke. For what it's worth, ma'am, four men and a contract hound still made it to your door.
That landed.
Deren looked at Kael. I don't want to leave.
Nobody does, Kael said. But you're leaving.
His father nodded before anyone else could argue. Until the challenge.
My aunt swore, which was apparently agreement.
The move happened before sunset.
South Mill watched them pack. Curtains twitched. Doors opened. A woman across the lane swept the same patch of step for ten minutes straight. Deren packed badly — shirts, books, no socks. His aunt packed like she expected siege. The good knife, the better knife, beans, thread, herbs, one black pan. His father packed almost nothing besides his coat, boots, blanket, and the workshop pry bar.
You taking that too, Kael asked.
Worked once, his father said.
Fair enough.
Ash prowled the apartment while they moved around him. Not nervous. Just alert. He kept checking the door, then the window, then Deren whenever the kid drifted too near.
By the time the Hall wagon got them back under escort, the daylight had gone thin and gray. Northwatch looked better in that light than it did honestly.
The Hall quartered his family in two rooms off East Wing. Real beds. Thick walls. One lock on the inside. His aunt inspected the corners like she was preparing to fight the building.
At least these walls mean it, she said.
That sounded close to approval.
Kael did not stay long. The Pit Master found him in the corridor with a lantern in one hand.
Come on.
Where.
Training cell.
Kael looked at the lantern. It was full dark outside. Bit late.
Exactly.
The cells under East Hall were older than the Pit and meaner in a quieter way. No crowd. No betting. Just iron doors, ward lines burned into stone, and beast stink worked so deep into the floor it had become part of the walls.
The Pit Master unlocked the third cell. Sand. One broken pillar. One drain. That was the whole ring.
Talia was already there with her spear. Serah too, gloves back on now. On the far side of the ward line sat a cage under a tarp.
Kael stopped. What's in that.
Something educational, Talia said.
The Pit Master yanked the tarp away.
An ironback ferret crouched inside, long and mean and shoulder-high if it stretched. Bronze-collar capture. The metal ring at its neck had chew marks all over it.
Kael looked at the old man. You call this practice.
I call it something you can survive if you stop being stupid in time.
Serah folded her arms. We are not testing your challenge match. We're testing response. Your bond changed twice in public today. I want to know what it does before House Vey finds out first.
So do I, Kael said.
The cage was opened by chain release from outside the line. The ferret shot out low and ugly, claws scratching the sand, teeth already showing.
Ash met it before Kael moved.
They hit hard in the middle of the ring. The ferret had reach and the ugly flexibility of things born underground. It slipped Ash's first lunge and opened a line along his flank with one hooked claw.
Kael felt the sting in his own side.
Not deep. Still enough.
He reached for the bond.
No sync panel.
Ash circled. The ferret did too, shoulders rolling.
Mark of Prey, Kael thought.
Nothing.
The Pit Master was watching him instead of the ring. Not working.
Not like before, Kael said.
Ash darted in. The ferret turned quick and snapped at empty smoke. Ash cut away, testing.
Serah asked, Then what changed on the stair.
Kael kept his eyes on the fight. Hunter blood.
The room seemed to pull tighter.
Talia blinked. That sounds bad.
After the lane fight, Kael said, the panel said the second slot condition was met. Blood of a hunter.
And now, Serah said.
Now it wants me to name my prey.
No one spoke for a moment.
Then Talia let out a breath. That is a nasty sentence.
The ferret rushed again. Ash slipped under it and raked the belly, but the thing kicked free before he could turn the cut into anything worse.
The Pit Master swore softly. You're aiming too broad.
Who.
You. He pointed into the ring. If the trait is tied to hunter blood and chosen prey, quit poking at random beasts with it. Pick what it actually wants.
Kael looked at him. Then at Serah.
You know who challenged already.
Yes, she said.
Name.
Her mouth flattened. Davin Roke.
It meant nothing to Kael.
Talia saw that and grimaced. Bronze licensed. Hunter-line specialist. House Vey's cleanup man when they need a legal ending.
Inside the ring, the ferret lunged again. Ash caught it shoulder to shoulder. Both beasts slammed the broken pillar and rebounded.
Kael felt the waiting panel rise behind his eyes.
Davin Roke, he said.
The world tightened.
Not loudly. Just a hard inner click, like a lock turning somewhere under everything.
Ash froze in the ring.
Then slowly he turned his head toward the north wall, toward nothing Kael could see.
The panel came up bright and clean.
PREY NAMEDDAVIN ROKETRACKING ESTABLISHED
The ferret chose that exact breath to spring.
Ash met it once, clean and vicious, and tore out its throat before it landed.
The cell went very still.
Talia looked from the dead ferret to Kael. Well. That seems inconvenient.
Serah did not take her eyes off him. Where is Davin Roke.
Kael swallowed once.
I think, he said, Ash just found him.
Nobody moved.
Then the Pit Master muttered, I was afraid of something like that without knowing what I meant by it.
A fist hammered once on the outer cell door. One of the Hall runners pushed in before anyone answered, sweating hard enough to darken his collar.
Sir. Ma'am. There's a man at East Gate asking entry under challenge law.
Serah's eyes never left Kael. Name.
The runner swallowed. Davin Roke.
The room changed around that.
Talia's grip tightened on her spear. The Pit Master closed his lantern shutter halfway with one thumb. Even Ash seemed to gather himself, smoke slipping off his shoulders in two thin black ropes.
The runner kept going, because boys that age always did once they were afraid enough. He's not alone. Brought one hound. Says the second stays out of sight until challenge day. Says he only wants to see whether the rumors understate the beast or overstate the boy.
Kael stood very still in the center of the training cell while the dead ferret bled into the sand.
Three days, apparently, had just become tonight.
The panel flashed once more.
PREY WITHIN RANGE