Hunted

by Paul Eslinger

The woman smiled. “You have been able to listen to others using magic since you were a small child, Trey. Your parents did not have those abilities.”

  Trey shook his head. “You are very accomplished at evading questions, so I’ll ask again. Is your name Sorcha?”

  “That’s correct,” the woman acknowledged.

  Trey clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles turned white. “Are you my grandmother?”

  Astonished, I stared at Trey and then at the woman, Sorcha. There was a look of sadness on her face but she didn’t rebuke Trey. Her voice was tender as she spoke, “That is a good guess, Trey, and one I’m proud of you for making, but it is not completely accurate. You see, I am your great-grandmother.”

  For a moment, Trey seemed to hesitate and then he plunged ahead. “You knew about me as a boy, but you never visited or helped us.” His voice grew hard, “Why not?”

  “There isn’t an easy answer,” she replied. “And this is not the time to discuss it.”

  “Most answers aren’t easy,” he shot back and then folded his arms. “However, I’m waiting for an answer.”

  She gave a long sigh but didn’t respond.

  Trey unfolded his arms and beckoned with both hands. “I’m still waiting.”

  “Okay,” she said with another sigh. “My body is strong and stable while I am in dragon form. It is not stable while I am in human form. After a day in this form, I will be an invalid and I would probably die within a week if I didn’t shift back to dragon form. Dragons are not welcome in this part of the kingdom.”

  Her answer had several interesting ideas in it, but one apparent fault, so I butted in before Trey could reply. “Some people can heal others using magic. Can’t they fix your human body?”

  She focused on me instead of Trey. “Some individuals are very skilled in healing, as you have suggested. Their abilities are the only reason I am still alive.”

  “But they didn’t heal you!” I protested.

  “You have met an Effigia,” she said with a fierce expression. “They were once human, but now they prey on humans. No human has ever escaped once they had them in their clutches.”

  “We escaped,” I protested, but inwardly I knew that even though it had come close, the Effigia hadn’t touched me or Trey. A sense of pride caused me to keep talking. “I threw magical fire at it and it left.”

  “You learned quickly,” she said, making it sound like a compliment.

  I enjoyed receiving compliments, but this one had a strange ring to it. “What do you mean?”

  “I gave you a magical hint to use the only technique that has been successful in fending off an Effigia. You used the hint and did the rest of it on your own. That is good because I couldn’t provide any additional help.”

  “Thank you,” I said, and really meant it as I thought back over that terrifying encounter. Then, other aspects of that night came back to mind. “Wait, wait. I was trying to hide. How did you give me a hint?”

  “You were trying to hide,” she agreed. “Your skills in that area are improving. However, the Effigia still found you, didn’t it?”

  “Right,” I muttered, once again feeling silly. Maybe I couldn’t hide very well, but at least I could heal others. “You didn’t explain why the others couldn’t heal you.”

  “Unlike the Effigia, we don’t know of any way to fight off a Vassago when it catches you. One caught me and left me for dead. Two skilled healers found me a few minutes later. They kept me alive, but they couldn’t break all of the strong magic the Vassago used on me.” She paused and looked at me. “A Vassago has been lurking around here and the mine area for most of your lifetime. It will eventually find another magical person and then it will strike.”

  I cocked my head and squinted at Sorcha. “If this Vassago has such strong magic, why hasn’t it already found me, or Trey, for that matter?”

  She held out both hands. “Did Zephyr tell you about the Effigia and the Vassago?”

  “Some,” I said. “She said it happened over two thousand years ago. Originally, they were groups of human magicians who turned on each other and fought a terrible war.”

  She nodded. “In general, that is correct. Neither group was able to hide from the other one once the war started. For a short time, they both concentrated their attacks on magically blinding the other group. They both succeeded to a large extent. The Effigia can see a little using magic and the Vassago are totally blind.”

  “That Effigia saw us from a long distance,” I protested.

  “Right,” she agreed. “But it retains very little of the skill it had in that area before the war.”

  Trey shivered beside me. “It still used strong magic, as Reuben calls it.”

  “Yes,” I agreed, still thinking about Sorcha’s warning. “Do we need to leave because the Vassago is getting close?”

  “That is one reason, but there is a different, more serious, reason.”

  “The Hunters?” I asked, simply taking a shot in the dark.

  “They are dangerous, but the people who send them out are worse. The Hunters are like worker bees, just doing what they are told. Far more dangerous beings give them their orders.”

  I thought about the woman I had just met in town. “Did I just meet one of those worse people? The new woman in town made me talk to her, but I held back.”

  “She is one of the magicians who keep the king in power. She is skilled in interrogations. Others of her group are more skilled in other aspects of dark magic. They seldom fail in a hunt. However, she is also not the one to be feared the most.”

  “She was like with my mother,” I said bitterly.

  “Like Mariam,” Sorcha said icily.

  “You knew her,” I challenged.

  “I knew her very well and I don’t want you to end up like her. Will you leave here as I ask?”

  “Where would I go?” I asked, thinking I already had a destination.

  She pointed at Trey as she talked to me. “You have already talked to Trey and know of the tavern named the Pig’s Ear. You should go there.”

  “Will I know anyone there?” I asked.

  Sorcha held up both hands, palms outward, and shook them back and forth. “You should decide quickly. Will you go?”

  “I will,” I replied, realizing she hadn’t answered my question but still hoping I would find answers to more of my questions if I did. “But I’m not going to leave Ara for the Hunters to find and kill.”

  Sorcha gave a long sigh. “I expected that answer. You must hurry because the woman and the Hunter are already asking questions that likely will lead them to her before nightfall.”

  Chapter 21 – Altercation

  I still had a lot of unanswered questions, but one of them rose to the top. A dragon flying overhead would be able to see many things hidden to someone moving on the ground. “Sorcha, can we talk to each other over long distances using magic, just as the wolves do?”

  Sorcha shrugged, before replying, “They are much more proficient at that activity than dragons or humans.”

  “Is it possible?” I demanded, suddenly impatient.

  “Very few humans can do that,” she said.

  Something about her expression made me believe she was telling the truth and I almost blurted out that Trey and I could talk to each other. Instead, I pursed my lips and said, “Oh.”

  Sorcha raised one arm and pointed in the direction of Aunt Yedda’s farm. “Where are you going?” she asked. “The farm or the Pig’s Ear?”

  “We’re going to both,” I said and hitched my pack into a more comfortable position. Trey kept close to my side as we walked across the small clearing.

  I looked back once when we got to the road. A dragon now stood in the open area watching us. She squatted, jumped vertically, and snapped her wings down. The first stroke pushed her ten of my paces into the air.
Four strokes later, she was above the tallest trees.

  Trey’s voice broke into my fascination with the dragon. “Did she tell us the truth?”

  “I think so,” I replied as I headed along the road. “The things she said about the woman with the Hunter matched with what I saw.”

  “True,” Trey responded, “but…”

  “But what?” I demanded.

  “She only talked about the woman after you told her essentially the same thing. She did add a few new details.”

  “You’re really devious,” I commented.

  Trey chuckled. “We need to change the way you think.”

  “In what way?” I asked.

  “Your initial response should be to expect every stranger, and some of the people you already know, to lie rather than tell the truth. You can figure out which of the things they say are true when you get more information.”

  I used magical mind speech to emphasize the next question. “Was she telling the truth about not knowing many humans who could talk to each other this way?”

  “You didn’t tell her we could do this,” he said with a hint of sarcasm, not answering my question.

  “Maybe I don’t actually believe everything others tell us,” I shot back.

  “Apparently not,” Trey said approvingly. “Remember, however, that she didn’t say dragons couldn’t speak to each other that way. But more importantly right now, what are you going to tell Ara?”

  I swallowed hard, surprised that my emotions had just surged enough to make it hard to talk. “I’ll tell her someone killed your parents.”

  “That happened up by the mine and she is down here. Is that enough information to get her to leave the farm and travel with us? I don’t think so.”

  An hour later, we approached the farm and I still didn’t have a good story to tell Ara. We stopped under the trees at the end of the lane and looked up at the stone farmhouse. It looked safe and solid because the individual blocks in the walls were waist high. Slate shingles topped the steep roof which covered the wide wrap-around porch. This was the second time I had gotten to the end of this lane in the last few days and I was apprehensive about continuing. No one was working in the surrounding oat, corn, or onion fields but a few cows grazed in a pasture on the far side of the large two-story barn.

  “No one is here,” Trey said.

  Sorcha had convinced me I couldn’t hide my use of magic nearly as well as I thought, even though Zephyr had been really impressed with my abilities. I relaxed my continuing efforts to hide and did a quick scan over the farm. I had expected to see five people, but there were six and one of them was decidedly unhappy.

  “They’re here,” I answered slowly. “One of them, not Ara, is very unhappy.”

  Trey shivered and gestured at the house. “It’s your family. I’ll come with you, but you can do the talking.”

  I settled my pack on my shoulders and started up the double-track lane towards the house, hoping I could think of something to say to convince Ara of the oncoming problem. We were halfway to the house, with the breeze at our backs, when a lean dog with long legs trotted around the end of the barn and loped in our direction.

  I expected the dog to bark even though we had met once before. Instead, he met us and wagged his tail so hard his entire body wiggled. “Good boy,” I said to the dog, patting his head, before looking over at Trey. “His name is Bolts.”

  The front door of the house was open and we could hear harsh words from a woman when Trey and I halted at the bottom of the three steps leading up on the porch. Her voice intensified to a scream, “Why won’t you help me get Tzadok back?”

  A male voice, probably Inigo, replied but the words were too soft for me to hear. The woman responded, “You’re a coward! I’m going to do something, and do it now!”

  Unsure how long the argument might last, and unwilling to simply stand and listen, I brought my cupped hands to my mouth and shouted, “Hello. Is anybody here?”

  There was a moment of silence and then steps sounded on the floor, coming closer to the door. Inigo appeared and looked at us with an astonished expression crossing his red face. “You,” he sputtered. “What are you doing back here?”

  Ara appeared in the doorway behind Inigo and her perplexed expression turned to astonishment. “Reuben!” she shrieked, ducked under Inigo’s arm, and raced across the porch. I barely had time to brace my legs when she leaped down the steps in a single bound and jumped toward me.

  I caught Ara, staggered, and then wrapped my arms around her. I looked over her shoulder at Inigo as more figures appeared behind him. “I came to have a talk with Ara,” I said.

  A woman who looked a lot like Ara’s mother, Maude, elbowed Inigo aside and stepped out on the porch. A few strands of grey showed in her black hair when she stopped and gave me a piercing look. Upon a closer examination, she was different than Maude, whom I had grown up calling mother. This woman’s face was pinched, her eyes glittered with suppressed feeling, and there weren’t any laugh lines around her eyes.

  She continued to look at me but directed her caustic words at Inigo. “I thought you said this … this person had gone away.”

  Ara’s face turned red as she let go of me and turned to face the woman. “That’s my brother you’re talking about, Nathania!” she snapped.

  “Really?” Nathania drawled, a look of pleasure coming over her face. “You don’t know anything, do you?”

  “That’s enough,” Inigo implored, reaching toward Nathania with a placating hand.

  “No, it’s not,” she replied, taking a quick step to avoid his hand. “Ara needs to know the truth.”

  “What truth?” Ara demanded. “Who’s been telling lies?”

  “Not now, Nathania,” Yedda pleaded with a suppressed sob as she stopped beside her husband.

  “Now seems like the perfect time,” Nathania responded, rubbing her hands together as if she were enjoying the heated exchange.

  I started to reach for Ara and then snatched my hand back as I thought about what was happening. She might be much more willing to go with me if her aunt made her really angry.

  “That’s right, Rueben. Keep your hands off of Ara,” Nathania said as she stepped to the front edge of the porch and looked back and forth between Ara and me as if we were bugs in her kitchen.

  Ara’s neck turned red and she drew a deep breath. Her shoulders trembled as she shouted, “Don’t talk about my brother like that!”

  Nathania smiled widely, revealing all of her teeth, several of them with dark cavities. “Do you know where your father came from?” she asked.

  For a moment, Ara stiffened and then she shook her head. She sounded troubled and her voice was softer than before, “He didn’t talk about his family.”

  “That’s right,” Nathania said briskly as if she had scored a big point. “The man you knew as your father, Romulus, showed up in Glendale one day with a six-month-old baby boy.” Her hand shot out as she pointed at me with a stiff finger. “That baby was Reuben!”

  Ara looked at me with a troubled expression and then at her Aunt Yedda. “Is that true?”

  “Yes, but–” Yedda answered.

  “Don’t accuse me of lying,” Nathania interrupted. “Maude felt sorry for the baby boy, so she started taking care of it. She married Romulus a few months later.” Her smile grew cruel. “She was so enchanted with his good looks that she didn’t care whether Romulus was already married or not. She refused to tell me anything about Reuben’s real mother.”

  I caught the emphasis Nathania put on the word enchanted and suddenly understood a little of her logic, if not her feelings. She thought my father had used magic to force Maude into marrying him. I didn’t think that was true… They had always seemed happy together.

  “Stop,” Yedda pleaded. “There’s no reason to say any more.”

  “Oh, b
ut there is, there is,” Nathania said. A look of delight and expectation crossed her face.

  I knew what was coming and my stomach clenched into a knot. Ara deserved to know the truth, but there were gentler ways to deliver it. Uncle Inigo had been kind enough to tell me in private, however, he seemed helpless in controlling his wife’s sister.

  “Maude and Romulus moved all the way up toward the mine and we helped them build a house.” Nathania stopped and wiped her brow with the back of one hand. “I also helped, but it was a waste of time and effort. Anyway, Maude and Romulus visited Glendale several times every summer. One day… One day, Maude went to the tavern while Romulus was busy selling furs and she ended up in bed with one of the local boys.”

  I realized what she was implying and my anger surged. “Stop!” I shouted, taking a step closer and clenching my fists. “She didn’t do it willingly!”

  “Oh, my,” Nathania exclaimed in mock horror. “You sound really excited. But you’re right. That man was always chasing women and he had his way even though Maude didn’t ask for it.”

  I reflexively started to defend my mother, for I still thought of her that way, and then stopped. Trey had said I believed things too easily. Had Inigo told me the truth or just part of the truth?

  Nathania shook one finger in Ara’s direction. “So, you see, Ara. Maude is your mother, but Romulus was not your father.”

  Ara’s voice grew shrill. “Who was my father?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Nathania continued in a sing-song tone. “Someone killed him six months before you were born.”

  “Who killed him?” Ara shrieked with her hands clenched tightly. “Who killed my father?”

  Nathania smirked, obviously enjoying herself. “Your other father,” she said.

  Yedda broke the sudden silence. “There isn’t any proof of that. No one knows who killed him. A lot of people had a reason to do it.”

  “Others don’t go around killing people they don’t like,” Nathania said smoothly. “Maude once let slip that Romulus took a two-day trip and he was gone at the time … the other man … was killed. There hasn’t been a murder since then.”