Chapter 60

They dealt with the wolves and moved on.

Kelvin fell silent like a startled quail for the whole walk, until they neared the site and he could hold back no longer. “Master Letho, are all Witchers this strong?” he asked.

Letho did not answer. His silence only made the Dwarf more reverent.

They climbed another rise and came to Adrian’s place of death. The scene matched the clearing found at Mahakam’s foothills almost exactly.

Branches piled into sharp, towered heaps. Snow buried the ground. A faint tang of animal droppings hung in the air.

Letho’s eyes narrowed to slits.

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight dead,” Kelvin said. “All propped on branches, bellies split open.”

“I do not understand the killer’s purpose,” the Dwarf added, puzzled. “What meaning is there in this distinct way of killing?”

Letho did not answer the question directly. “According to your records, since the incident began three months ago, four victims at Spansol and four at Mount Carbon, eight in total...”

“No, it has been over four months. The first victim was a Mahakam Dwarf.” Kelvin corrected him.

“So that is roughly one death every half month?” Letho deduced.

Kelvin smoothed his beard. “If you count it out, the cadence is about every two weeks.”

Letho breathed out. “I suspect, then, that each new corpse appears shortly after a full moon.”

“If you put it like that, it does fit.” Kelvin’s voice held surprise and unease.

Letho’s tone grew heavy. “I can be nearly certain. This is an old ceremony, a foreign kind of sacrifice. The killer uses flesh as a lure to awaken primordial energy in the forest. Among eight victims, each full-moon corpse and one other corpse form a magical circuit. The killer exploits that circuit to build a totem, a lasting focus; each totem amplifies his strength.”