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had modelled it from clay, squashing a sausage-shaped nose onto the middle and giving him oversized ears that stuck out from
the sides of his head like flaps. His features made him look simple and his manner did little to dispel that impression. However, underneath the comic features was a many-faceted character, who
could solve even the most difficult of puzzles.
    They had worked together for two years before joining Kasau’s party. As a team they had done well, but they had never known success on the scale they had enjoyed since joining the quiet
hunter. Kasau had instincts unlike anybody else. He did not need to hear rumour of rogue dragons terrorising villages. It was almost as if he knew where they would be before the dragons did. He did
not talk much, but when he did, everyone listened.
    Tembo was right. Kasau had found something. Husam watched the hunter stalk across to the nearby stand of trees and back again. The hairs on the back of Husam’s neck prickled, as they often
did when watching Kasau at work. Damn but the man is spooky, he thought as Kasau straightened and walked back towards the rest of the party. Even from some distance away, Husam could see his eyes.
It was hard to ignore them. They were both brown, but where the left was a dark, chocolate colour, the right was almost orange. Mismatched eyes were said to be a sign of the devil. Husam had not
yet seen any evidence of evil, but he felt something – an awkward sense of discomfort in Kasau’s presence that he could not shake.
    ‘She is close,’ Kasau reported in his soft voice. ‘If this hunt is successful, we will all be rich. I can now confirm she’s a dawn dragon.’
    ‘A dawn dragon! That’s fantastic, Kasau!’
    ‘She’s close, you say? In which direction?’
    ‘How big is she?’
    The questions arrowed in thick and fast. Husam noted that Kasau did not respond to any of them. Instead the dragonhunter held up a hand for silence.
    ‘There’s a problem,’ he said, his voice flat and cold. His eyes moved from one member of the party to another, settling briefly on each and then moving on. When his eyes met
Husam’s, his pause was a little longer. A shiver ran down Husam’s spine. For a moment he felt as if the strange hunter were looking into his soul. ‘The dragon has met her
rider,’ Kasau finished.
    Groans rippled through the party.
    Rogue dragons were the justification for dragon hunting. Killing those insane dragons was seen as a mercy to the dragon and a necessity to the communities the dragons terrorised. If
dragonhunters sometimes killed riderless dragons that were not true rogues, then the authorities tended to turn a blind eye – especially as the carcasses had properties that were beneficial
to the human communities. However, to kill a dragon that had a dragonrider was a serious offence. Aside from the penalties the authorities placed on such an act, there was also the danger that
other members of the dragonrider community might seek revenge. Dragonhunters who flouted this law did not have a great life expectancy.
    Kasau again raised his hand for silence.
    ‘Who here wants to get rich?’ he asked. His voice was soft, but the words carried a weight that lent its own volume.
    Is this the evil I feared? thought Husam, his heart racing. Could Kasau be an agent of the devil?
    ‘We can’t risk killing a dragon that has a rider,’ he said aloud in a firm voice. ‘It’s wrong. Besides, we’d not live to enjoy the rewards.’
    Where had that last sentence come from? Kasau stared at him unblinking. Try as he might, Husam could not break eye contact. It was as if Kasau was holding his head in an invisible vice. Had the
quiet hunter somehow transferred that thought into his brain?
    ‘Who would know?’ Kasau asked, continuing to hold Husam with his gaze. The dragonhunter’s soft voice seemed to echo inside Husam’s head. It was a strange sensation.
‘Listen – the dragon has just met her rider for the first