Mossi falls victim to this, but Tracker’s discovery of the enslaved children sparks a revolution, which heads to overthrow the Queen, even as the party heads to meet the monsters holding the boy. These children become slaves and work in the walls of the city. However, it also gives a powerful sorcerer, the King’s advisor, Aesi, their location, and he starts to attack the party’s minds.Įxiting the portal, Tracker directs them towards Dolingo, a city built in the trees, and Sogolon explains the boy is not a slaver’s son, but the son of the King’s sister, Lissisolo, and the rightful heir to the throne.ĭolingo conceals dark secrets: The inhabitants are sterile, and the Queen relies on foreigners for children. Tracker uses his special magic to open one of the Nine and Ten Doors (mystical portals scattered across the land) to escape, which gives Tracker the information he needs to find the monsters. The party winds through the wilderness, confronting monsters and magicians, until an undead monster knocks them out.

Tracker kills the minister who gave their patron the mission, Belekun the Big, and sets off, accompanied by a soldier named Mossi. Tracker investigates their patron, as well as the scene of the crime, and discovers only more mysteries, including a woman possessed by lightning, and evidence that monsters accompany the boy they are looking for. Many lies about the nature of the boy and the nature of the mission come up, but Tracker agrees, along with Sogolon, a witch Sadogo, a massive man and Leopard. Leopard finds him and asks for his help on a new mission: finding a boy stolen from an elder’s house. When the story picks up, Tracker is working as a mercenary with one wolf’s eye. Tracker’s friendship with Leopard makes his lover jealous, who then leads Tracker’s uncle’s men to kill the witch and children. In the wilderness, Tracker uses his nose to rescue children left to die, which endears him to an “Antiwitch” (xiii), Sangoma, and a shapeshifter named Leopard. Tracker’s father is abusive, so he flees to his uncle’s house, whom he discovers is no better. None of these stories answer the Inquisitor’s questions, so Tracker goes back to his childhood. He’s hired to steal the soul of a king from the land of the dead, and he does it, fleeing demons and curses the whole way. He receives a job to return a runaway wife to her abusive husband, but tells the wife how to poison him. Both of these come into play in his testimony. Tracker has a magical sense of smell, not limited by distance or time, and a set of magical protections that make him immune to witchcraft, metal weapons, and poison. An interrogation frames the story: Tracker, a mercenary, recounts his adventures to an unseen Inquisitor.

Black leopard red wolf by marlon james