“Hello beautiful, what do we have here?” A shameless voice interrupted their work. The statue was nearly upright on its base. Nigel knew the gnolls used it frequently to patrol and would notice the statue immediately.

  Sage let go of the branch she’d been using to guide the statue into place and turned to face the self-important speaker.

  Six gnolls had approached without being noticed and two of them carried a bronze basin between them like a palanquin. A blue figure rose above the basin like a hologram and Fenton’s upper body was displayed with some degree of accuracy.

  “Am I right to assume you are Mr. Fenton?” Sage approached a step and a half and flinched as the statue fell into place. It was a little harder than intended, but it didn’t seem more damaged than when they’d found it.

  “Then you have the advantage over me, pretty lady. But who cares about names? You are on my land and I would like to know why.” Mr. Fenton smiled widely. The gnolls seemed relaxed enough and didn’t even have their weapons ready.

  “Well, um, we have been sent to negotiate with you from the Capital. We were told to gather valuables as a good faith offering to begin our negotiations.” Sage’s voice was a little higher than normal and she had a rather vapid smile on full display. She gestured with both hands to the statue.

  “I appreciate all the valuables” Fenton’s eyes flicked to Peyton and back to Sage. “How many people are with you? I only recall requesting two.”

  “The region is still very dangerous, so a large group is the only way to go. Our guide, Scout, and a traveling monk, Ryan. A soldier, Steve. And myself, a bard. My name is Sage.” Sage pointed out each person in turn.

  “And her, the last one?” Fenton asked despite Peyton’s efforts to hide behind the statue.

  “That is my sister, Peyton.” Sage’s positive tone wavered just a hair.

  “Oh your sister. I appreciate you being here even if you don’t know why you are here. So what is it you seek here in these so-called negotiations?” Fenton’s hologram smiled like a crocodile.

  “The Prime Minister is under the impression you are somehow holding various citizens and would like them released. We have every hope an arrangement can be made to smooth out this obvious misunderstanding.” Sage tipped her head a little more to one side and Fenton scrunched his face up in response.

  “I will gladly come to collect your statue with my gnolls. We should set a meal to begin our discussion. I will provide the food, but if you manage to hunt a hornless hart it would be a fine delicacy to share. Can you manage that?” Fenton shifted like he was making himself comfortable in an invisible chair.

  “Tomorrow, at lunch? That sounds wonderful.” Sage bounced on the balls of her feet and watched the gnolls return down the road to the grassy strip bordering the coast.

  “That went as well as we could hope.” Sage said to the others when the gnolls were out of sight.

  “Ugh, I didn’t think you still did the cheerleader voice.” Peyton looked like she was on the verge of shivering.

  “He already underestimates me and he’s coming out of his stronghold for us. We only need to figure out how to kill him.” Sage picked up her violin and adjusted her ponytail.

  “He did ask about a hornless hart, isn’t that British for antlerless buck?” Ryan asked.

  “Not the horns, but hart part is right.” Scout said quietly.

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  “That’s Nigel. When he turns into a deer, he has no antlers. He wants to eat Nigel?” Steve winced as he spoke.

  “We know this guy is a monster. It’s not like we’re going to kill him more. But we need ideas on how we are going to kill him.” Sage snapped irritably. She began walking into the woods and the rest followed at a safe distance

  “They spotted you? Right?” Nigel joined them in deer form and transformed back to human to walk with them.

  “Yeah, they spotted us last night and brought some hologram thing that let Fenton talk to us.” Sage kept shaking her hands and switching hands carrying her violin.

  “He really hates you.” Steve announced.

  “Well, one would hope he would move on. But, then again, it’s not surprising.” Nigel shrugged. “He asked you to kill me?”

  “He wants to eat you.” Ryan was surprised that Nigel wasn’t more surprised by that revelation.

  “It would help get him to let his guard down, it’s not a bad idea.” Nigel swayed a little as he let the thought roll around in his head.

  “We’re not feeding you to him.” Scout blurted out.

  “Not me. None of the deer here have antlers, he’ll never know it isn’t me. The gnolls think there’s no game in these woods because the deer smell them a kilometer away. They’ve never seen the deer, except for me.” Nigel laughed. He was the only one laughing, the rest were still recovering from Fenton’s gaze.

  “Great, point me to them.” Scout jumped at the chance to go into the woods alone. Nigel pointed her in the direction where the deer normally were at this time of day.

  “It’s going to be hard to get at Fenton even with his gnolls around him. Whatever cheats he’s using, it looks like he’s got strong magic himself.” Steve mused out loud.

  “And you still don’t have a sword.” Peyton commented.

  “Thank you, I had almost forgotten I was useless.” Steve snapped back.

  “Guys, we’re making this too hard. I think the gnolls have a serious flaw we can use.” Ryan spoke over the beginning argument.

  “What’s that?” Sage asked while Steve took a second to cool off.

  “The gnolls are very doggy. They pant with their tongue hanging out, they scratch behind their ears while talking to you, and I swear I’ve seen them sniff each other’s butts.” Ryan looked like he was ready to defend that last observation.

  “And? Are you suggesting we throw a tennis ball and pull something while they chase it?” Peyton asked with thick sarcasm.

  “No. I bet when the gnolls smell meat, they’re going to want to eat more than they want to chew.” Ryan said like he was revealing some big idea.

  “And?” Steve missed whatever it was Ryan hoped would be spectacular.

  “If we ‘accidentally’ leave some bones in the meat for the gnolls, like half of them will be busy choking while we deal with Fenton.” Ryan said with a smile.

  “Ryan, I say this as a friend. I know a therapist and I would like you to talk to him when this is all done.” Steve put a hand on Ryan’s shoulder.

  “It could help. Removing even a few of his gnoll guards is a big deal.” Peyton agreed.

  “Wait, just how are we going to deal with Fenton? You do not have handcuffs or a way to transport him to the Capitol. What does the Prime Minister want to happen?” Nigel asked.

  “It’s a little late to ask that.” Peyton murmured out of the side of her mouth.

  “We’re here to kill him. When he respawns, he won’t be able to hack the system. We have it on good authority that killing Fenton will…fix…the situation.” Steve answered.

  “It’s not just the Prime Minister. The ship AI is involved. It is concerned Fenton may delete his hostages if this drags out.” Sage traded quick glances with Peyton as she spoke.

  “This is far more serious than my own discomfort. If you keep the gnolls busy and I can find a place to hide, I might have a spell to help with him.” Nigel looked uncomfortably still.

  “Is it lightning? Lightning has been really useful.” Steve asked flippantly.

  “It’s sleep. I can put three gnolls to sleep consistently, but if there’s a fourth it won’t work. If the gnolls are out of the question, it should work on Fenton.” Nigel spoke quietly and nodded.

  “He had six gnolls with him today, we should expect at least that many. If even half don’t choke, we’re going to have trouble.” Steve’s mental math came out on his fingers.

  “Not if we can surprise them. They think we’re friendly now.” Peyton began cleaning the head of her axe like she did when she was nervous.

  “Let’s see what deer Scout brings back and we’ll see what we can cook up. We only have until tomorrow so we can’t get caught up in a convoluted plan. We might have to fall back on lightning and blades.” Sage sighed with relief as they came within sight of Nigel’s clearing.