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.
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