Account of the Lion Tamer

Dear Director,

Auothor report from the messengers, who have procured additional accounts of our book thieves. Attached are transcripts from interviews with members of Lady Carmine’s Traveling Show, which had been attacked by bandits in the Delienean Heartland when Sefia and the boy showed up. Looks like they’ve been busy since they turned in the impressors & trackers. Will keep an ear to the ground.

Ever your Apprentice, A.D.

Yeah, I saw them. They saved us—Lady Carmine and the rest of the Traveling Show—the ones the bandits hadn’t already killed, anyway.

I don’t think I would’ve believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. The storytellers are already fixing to add it to their repertoire—you should talk to them if you haven’t already—to let people know what’s out there . . . You ever been to a bloodletter, friend? A butcher, maybe? If you have, you can imagine what it was like that day.

They were fast, ruthless—one second, the bandits are threatening to remove the sharpshooter’s fingers if anyone else tries to be a hero, and the next, these kids are all around us—shooting, fighting, gutting these men, these rugged, rough-and-tumble criminals, like they’re sheep at slaughter. It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes before the whole mess was over, and we got a good look at the kids that had saved us.

Boys, most of them, maybe a couple girls. They had those burns you were asking about, like collars. And their leader, he had these golden eyes. Like this cat I saw once, huge, scarred in dozens of places. Maybe someone else had tried to capture him when he was a cub, but that cat was a man-eater waiting to happen. I could see it in his eyes. Put a cat like that in a cage and one day he’ll get loose, and then he’ll kill you . . . and anybody else in his way.

Best leave a cat like that alone, if you know what’s good for you.