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Conn morphed from a demon back into his human form. “It’s regenerating, Aran. The headless body is growing a new head. The severed head looks to be growing a new body. The giant snake is more than enchanted. It’s become a hydra capable of replicating itself.”

“How do we stop such a creature?” Rasmus asked.

I held out a hand and closed my eyes to better feel its energy. “It’s still mostly organic, which means we can kill it. Ash it with yer demon fire, Conn. That should do it.”

Conn nodded and morphed back into his demon form. He stomped to the snake’s head and bent to pick it up with one giant clawed hand. He growled out one of his power words and held on to the developing creature until it smoldered. Flames engulfed the entire head as it dropped to the ground. It burned until there was nothing left but a few ashes. The blood in the dirt had burned away as well.

Conn walked to the still-writhing snake body, which was trying to slither away. Behind me, I felt the wind rise as Rasmus released his feathered wings. He flew to the creature lifting it into the air by its tail to keep it from fleeing.

Conn’s hand on it looked small next to the roundness of the snake’s body. Was it still growing? I wondered if the shamanistic animal breeder could do that to every creature he bred or captured. It was a disturbing thought.

As Conn’s flames encompassed the snake’s still mostly headless body, I looked toward the entry to the troll’s lair. Had the giant snake eaten the other animals? I hated that possibility for Bo’s sake.

When the rest of the giant snake was nothing but ash, Rasmus waved a hand over what was left. “All energy has left the remains. You can return the ashes safely to the ground.”

Flapping his wings, Rasmus took the skies pulling the ashes up with him. They followed like a black cloud, which he let fall over the farmer’s field.

My sword hummed as I lifted it in front of me. “The troll got around Conn’s alarm somehow. I’m going in to drag him out of his lair.”

“I go too,” Mulan said, striking her staff on the ground to make it taller than her. “I will protect animals.”

I lifted an eyebrow. If she loved animals so much, why hadn’t she had a pet before the kitten? “Aren’t ya going in the troll lair to protect me?”

Mulan snorted. “Both goals work. Lucky you.”

I suppose she was right, given the deal I wanted to make with Bo.

Shaking my head, I marched toward the hole and inside. Tiger cats yowled loudly from their cages. Remnants of their dinner littered the floors under the cages. Our shamanistic animal breeder had returned to care for them after all. Where was the multi-talented troll now?

I tiptoed through the main room with my sword raised. The mutated fox creature stared quietly at me through the bars of the cage containing it. In its gaze, I saw recognition and what I hoped was relief. Maybe it remembered me from yesterday.

The door of the cage containing the snake was flung open, but the latch wasn’t broken. That meant the troll had turned the snake loose on us. Had he been the one to charm it into reaching its massive size? Had he turned it into a hydra? If he was a shaman as Ben’s report hinted at him being, how dangerous was his power?

“Hey, Mulan. Did ya ever go toe-to-toe with a shamanistic troll?”

Mulan, still busy cooing through the door of each troll cat’s cage, stopped cooing to stare at me. “How can troll be shaman? They cannot chant spells. That makes no sense.”

“I imagine he got his magickal training the same way we did. One of his kind taught him.”

Mulan made a disbelieving sound. “He might use staff for defense spells. I think someone else speaks for him.”

I agreed with that only because it took a lot of magick to create a hydra creature.

Mulan lifted both of her eyebrows. “Will you find and kill him?”

I grinned as I shook my head. “No, we need him alive. Ya get paid less for a dead body.”

“That is stupid rule for dangerous work.”

“Yes, I’ve often thought that myself,” I said, motioning to the way out with my head. “Why don’t ya carry out the troll cats while I look for him? Tell Conn to be ready if the guy gets by me.”

Mulan shook her head and sighed. “Sex makes you weak. You did not let female guardian get by you.”

“I may be a little tired, but I’m far from weak. Ya pouted like a child after ya slept with Conn and didn’t even go to work. Ya got no right to critique how I’m holding up.”

My voice rose at the end of my defense. I hated it when that happened. It made me sound as weak as Mulan accused me of being.

A low growl shook the walls of the lair as the troll charged out of one of the connecting tunnels and straight at me. Despite my armor, his massive size took me down with a single shove of his hand to my chest.