Hunter

by Joanna White

  “Oh.” Dalex rubbed his eyes with a shiver and hung his head. “Well, we could go there just to stay a night, leave two people on watch while the rest of us sleep, then switch off and start heading somewhere else.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Sine said.

  “How is that any different from camping out in the woods and sleeping in rounds?” Lehlax asked. When we all stared at him, he continued. “It’s not. So, why walk all that way, just to stay one night? We’ve already been walking for days and it’s another five more days away,” he continued.

  “It will throw the Hunters off. As long as we keep moving they won’t know where to expect us with us changing directions so much.” Dalex sucked in a deep breath as his body trembled again from the cold, wet rain.

  “Maybe.” But Lehlax didn’t look convinced. His thoughts weren’t, either. I was inclined to agree with him, but I kept my mouth shut for the moment.

  “For now, let’s just go there and see what happens.” Sine shrugged, but his teeth continued chattering.

  “Okay,” Lehlax reluctantly agreed.

  I nodded. Mostly because I didn’t care where we went. After another hour we stopped for food. Thanks to the rain we had plenty of water. We only had a few more berries left, so we split the rest of them among us.

  “You want me to look at your shoulder?” I asked Dalex.

  “Uh, no. I—I already checked it earlier. It’s fine,” he replied, stuttering. He wouldn’t meet my gaze.

  I slowly nodded once in response without answering him. Why wouldn’t he let someone check it? Wexx had been in a hurry to sew it, so chances were he didn’t do it well enough. Not to mention Dalex, having only one arm, wouldn’t be able to do a good enough job either. I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t let anyone touch it. Anyone but Wexx, anyway. He was hiding something.

  With a deep inhale, I stretched out with my mind. Flashes of fear emitted from him, but they were mere flickers—nothing I could sense for certain. As I gazed at him, I tried prying away at his thoughts. He stared at the trees very intensely, as if he was trying to force himself to look at something other than me. “What are you afraid of?” I murmured.

  He looked at me and asked, “What?”

  “You’re afraid.”. It wasn’t a question.

  “We’re prisoners trapped inside a large prison with these crazy men with powers after us that we have no chance of fighting or escaping from. So, of course, I’m scared!” His voice rose in pitch, reminding me just how young he was and his hands slapped the sides of his legs in exasperation.

  “You’re getting defensive.” I didn’t phrase it like a question.

  He narrowed his eyes. “Quit telling me what I feel. I feel it, not you!” he shouted, walking faster to get ahead of me. He looked back at me as he was walking, “And I am not defensive!”

  Not even I could stop the smirk that slid onto my features. I didn’t need powers to tell me he was defensive.

  I froze, sensing movement up above us in the trees. There was a Hunter there, in a tree behind me and slightly to the right, about thirty feet up. The bigger problem was that just up ahead of us was another Hunter hiding in the shadows. He would be completely invisible to Dalex.

  “Dalex! Down!” My warning came just in time. Dalex fell face-first to the ground, just as Gurnarch shot fire out of his hands. I dove down just as Gurnarch’s flames sailed directly above Dalex and I.

  Better watch out, Jared, Gurnarch snarled at me in his thoughts.

  You too, I snapped back at him.

  That was exactly the reason why I stayed away from him if I could help it. As a Hunter, I usually had preferred to work alone, but if I had to work with someone, it was typically Malik because he stayed quiet, got the job done quickly, and didn’t mess around. That was, unless Hindah ordered me to work with someone, which happened fairly often.

  Gurnarch was a lot like Hindah, but more power-hungry. Not to mention he and I would kill each other if Hindah ever allowed us to. I had considered accidentally stabbing him with my Inquiri blade on more than one occasion.

  I rolled to the right to avoid more flames. As I moved, I landed on top of Dalex, protecting him from the flames as well.

  “Roll,” I hissed in his ear. We rolled over to the right, and crawled behind a tree, just as more flames came our way.

  “Really? Now they have one that shoots fire?” Dalex asked sarcastically.

  I smiled.

  “Apparently,” I said, just for effect.

  “Great.” Dalex smacked his thigh.

  The Hunter that was in the trees jumped from branch to branch until he was in the next tree across from us. It was Becx.

  “Where’s Sine and Lehlax?”

  Gurnarch shot another ball of fire at us as Dalex spoke. It slammed against the tree we were hiding behind, and in an instant, flames licked up the bark as I searched the trees for them. Sine and Lehlax both crouched behind two trees that had formed together ten yards ahead of us.

  “Up head,” I told Dalex as I eyed Becx. He was getting ready to make his move.

  Ready for some fun? Becx asked me in our thoughts.

  “Run,” I murmured in Dalex’s ear so only he could hear. He darted off to the left of us, just as Becx blinked his eyes and made the earth underneath me rise. Dalex had gotten out of the way in time, but I had been too close. I had to hold on to the side of the earth as he raised a section of it high above the ground. When I looked down, I counted and guessed I was about forty feet up.

  Thanks, I muttered to Becx. He smiled and searched for Dalex.

  I need to find him and the others before Becx or Gurnarch do, I thought to myself. He had stopped and was hiding behind a tree about ten feet from where I was at. He hid fairly well, but it wouldn’t take Becx long to find him.

  I was almost at the top, but I needed a better view to see how I could help Dalex and the others. Just above my head, a rock stuck out of the side, so I grabbed it with my left hand and then slid my right hand over the top.

  Just as I was about to stick my head over it, Gurnarch shot fire out at me. The flames covered the top of the cliff and caught the top of the tree on fire as well. Now the entire tree was burning.

  There goes that plan, I thought to myself.

  I stretched out with my senses, trying to figure out what everyone else was going to do. Becx was about five feet away from Dalex now, only he was still up in the trees. Dalex would never see him.

  Lehlax did, though. He grabbed his bow and shot at Becx. It barely grazed his shoulder, but it was enough to get Becx to focus on Lehlax and Sine. Now, I had to figure out a way down. Gurnarch was looking around for Dalex. He came around to the other side and now faced me. I could feel his eyes on my back, as he raised his hands at me.

  I should make it look real, right Jared? he sarcastically asked me.

  Yeah, I’m sure you’re only doing this for show. I would have rolled my eyes had he not aggravated me enough to want to kill him. Reaching up for the top of the cliff again, I cursed. The fire was still raging above me, burning the grass and spreading from the tree.

  Just as Gurnarch was about to shoot out more fire, he was tackled to the ground, which sent the fire flying toward another tree, just behind Sine and Lehlax, who ducked in time to avoid the flames.

  Gurnarch threw Dalex off him. Dalex slammed into a tree with a groan. When Gurnarch shot out flames toward me again, I had no choice but to drop down.

  My head slammed into the ground hard enough to make my teeth rattle. I was slightly disoriented, and I would need water before my head would stop pounding. I grabbed my dagger and threw it at Gurnarch, slicing his left thigh. He grabbed his leg and growled in anger. Dalex had gotten up and jumped on Gurnarch’s back, with a dagger in his hand, about to stab him in the back. I was seeing double, and it was hard to focus. Just as I sensed it, I yelled trying to warn Dalex, but I wasn’t fast enough.

  Gurnarch heated his skin. Dalex cried out and dropped off him.

>   I tackled him before he could go after Dalex again. We rolled on the ground in a heap of arms and legs. I punched him in the jaw, just as he tried to slam my head into a tree. I moved out of the way in just enough time. Instead of hitting the top of my head against the tree, it grazed the side of my head, just above my right ear. With a growl, I grabbed his thigh, digging the dagger in deeper, and twisted it.

  He cursed at me and I watched his eyes turn bright yellow. Before I could react, his hands heated up and flames slammed into my chest, knocking me back until I slammed into a tree. I heard someone yell in the distance and it took me a while to realize it was Dalex. I didn’t feel any pain, though my body wouldn’t move as fast as I wanted. I heard Gurnarch grunt again and then I saw Dalex above me.

  “Jared, come on we gotta go!” he yelled at me. He grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet.

  “Look out!” someone yelled at us and, before I knew it, we slammed into the ground, with Dalex on top of me.

  I felt the heat and saw bright orange flames shoot right past us.

  “Go.” Dalex grabbed my arm and didn’t even wait for me to stand up completely before we took off in a sprint.

  I growled in anger.

  “Jared?”

  “Chest burns,” I muttered as an excuse.

  “You guys okay?” a voice shouted. It was either Sine or Lehlax, coming in from our left.

  “I think so.” Dalex gasped, but none of us slowed down. “We can’t outrun them, can we?”

  “Not unless we can find a way to slow them down.” Lehlax and Sine finally caught up to us but didn’t stop as Lehlax spoke.

  “Well, the fire Hunter won’t be going anywhere soon. Jared stabbed him in the leg and I got him in the shoulder,” Dalex said.

  Unless he heals, I thought to myself.

  “We need to turn and go a different way, so they won’t be expecting it.” Lehlax gazed to the left and the right, through the thick trees.

  “This way.” Sine shoved at Dalex to the right, so we veered that way. I leapt over a log and tried to keep my pace slow, to match theirs.

  Dalex muttered a curse, so I stopped and glanced back at him just in time to see him jerk his arm free. “Thorns.” Footsteps crunched on leaves and branches behind us, so we sprinted forward as fast as we could—or, rather, as fast as they could.

  Finally, the footsteps stopped. Sine doubled over, placing his hands on his knees, while Lehlax shook out his hands. Dalex wheezed, grabbing his shoulder wound. I was tempted to look through his shirt to see how bad it was, but before I could, Hindah’s mental voice shouted at us in synch—enough to make my head pound.

  Gurnarch!

  Thanks for burning me, by the way. I mentally nudged Gurnarch in response.

  I sensed Gurnarch’s anger, but he didn’t say anything else. After that, everything went completely silent. When I made the comment to Gurnarch, it made Hindah aware that I was listening. So, he left me out of the loop. With a deep frown, I stretched out to try to sense something more specific, but we were too far away. It made me want to curse, but I bit it back.

  What was so important that they would keep me in the dark?

  “I think we can stop for a minute,” Sine said, panting. We stopped in a circle of trees. “I’ll make some salve.” He walked off and knelt in front of a bush at the base of a thick trunk.

  I looked down to see my chest red in two spots, one on either side of my rib cage. My shirt was burned into the skin, and the spots were each the size of a fist. Gurnarch’s.

  “Here,” Dalex said, handing me a canteen. I drank some water, savoring it as it slid down my throat. Instantly, I felt stronger, but I stayed where I was on the ground. I was tempted to just pour the water over the wounds to heal them, but that would certainly be suspicious, so I decided to let them fix my wounds their way.

  “Jared, you’ve hit your head, so you probably have a concussion,” Lehlax said. He tore his sleeve off and poured some water on it. He put it up to my right ear, where my head had grazed the tree.

  I narrowed my eyes, hoping that he wouldn’t notice that the water had already healed the wound.

  “I found some verei leaves,” Sine said jogging up to where we were. He handed them to Lehlax, who squeezed them until some sap came out into his hands.

  “Dalex, you’re gonna have to peel his shirt off. Make sure you get the parts that are in the burns.” Lehlax glanced at him, and then back at the burns. “Sine, hold Jared down. Soon as his shirt is gone, I’ll rub this on the burns. Jared, bite on this.”

  Sine handed me a stick to bite on. I wouldn’t need it. I fought the urge to roll my eyes but bit down on it anyway. Sine shoved me to the ground as Dalex got out a knife.

  “I—" he started.

  “No time for a weak stomach. Just do it, Dalex,” Lehlax snapped.

  Dalex nodded and cut most of my shirt off. The only parts that were left were the parts that had melted into my skin. “This is the part that’s going to hurt,” Lehlax warned.

  I nodded and tried to act as if I cared. Sine put his hands on my shoulders and pressed down, just as Dalex took the knife and started slicing deep enough into my skin, to get the melted cloth off. Although, it was annoying, I knew they expected me to thrash or scream, so I gritted my teeth and groaned, and then slightly jerked against Sine’s hands. Lehlax rubbed the sap on the left side, as Dalex dug the knife on the right side, trying to cut away the melted shirt. Internally, I rolled my eyes, but I played the part of hurt prisoner until they finished and Lehlax rubbed the sap on the right side. I let my muscles relax and then sighed in relief, prying into their thoughts. Lehlax and Sine thought I handled the pain well, but most of their thoughts were on where we would go now. Lehlax wondered if anyone else was injured and his mind was focused on fixing wounds quickly, so we could get out of here as soon as possible. From Dalex, I caught flashes of queasiness, but nothing more. They all believed my act.

  “All done,” Lehlax said.

  I sat up and leaned against a tree.

  “Drink,” Sine said, handing me more water. He didn’t have to tell me twice.

  “Anyone else hurt?” Lehlax asked, glancing at Sine and Dalex.

  “Nothing bad enough to stop for,” Dalex replied.

  Lehlax nodded. “We need to move. It won’t take them long to heal Hothead’s wounds.” He frowned.

  They moved to help me stand, but I stood up on my own, and I was no longer in the mood to continue the wounded act. I threw the cloth that had been on my head to the ground, and though there was dried blood, I had felt the wound heal seconds after the cloth had been there. I pried deeper into their minds, but neither Sine nor Lehlax noticed.

  We kept moving and jogged as much as we could. We didn’t bother to stop to sleep or eat for another day and a half. It wasn’t until the sun rose and set again that we stopped to sleep for about an hour a piece. Sine and Lehlax kept first watch, then we switched. Luckily, nothing stopped us. I wondered how far behind us Becx and Gurnarch were. The only reason they hadn’t caught us was because of Hindah. For whatever reason, he was angry at something Gurnarch did. I couldn’t figure out why they didn’t want me to know what it was that Gurnarch had done wrong. I shook off the thought; it wasn’t important.

  After about an hour had passed, Dalex and I woke Lehlax and Sine and we started off again. We didn’t run into the Hunters again for two more days.

  We were walking slowly when I began to sense Hunters following us. They weren’t close enough to know where we were, though. At least not yet.

  “Stop,” I murmured. Dalex, Sine, and Lehlax all looked at me. “There are Hunters following us.” I kept my voice at a whisper to keep the Hunters from hearing.

  We all stopped and stood behind three trees to listen.

  “I don’t hear anything,” Sine murmured.

  “They’re there,” I told him as I looked through the trees. Sixty feet ahead, Becx, Novarch, and Kehlarch were walking on foot. Malik was just above them, soari
ng high in the sky above the forest.

  “How do you know?” Sine shot me a narrowed look.

  “I just do.” My tone was final.

  Lehlax nodded slowly. “I hear them. The wind is carrying their voices.”

  “There’s one in the air, too.” Dalex pointed up to the sky.

  “If they don’t find us, he will. What do we do?” Sine asked.

  I looked at them, debating. If we ran and they saw, Becx and Kehlarch could stop them easily enough. Either with ice or earth, neither of which would be pleasant. If Malik caught us, they couldn’t fight easily up in the air, where he would keep them. And if Novarch caught up with us, they wouldn’t have any hope against his strength.

  However, if we hid and they found us anyway…They would all be dead men.

  “We run. Only we sneak. Stay behind trees and stay covered if you can,” Lehlax directed.

  We all nodded in silence and started stepping backward to the trees behind us. It allowed us to face the direction the Hunters were in, while moving away from them as fast as we dared. Sine and Dalex cowered behind a tree to my left; Lehlax reached one directly behind me. A single, long step allowed me to reach Lehlax’s tree, just as he shuffled to one backward and diagonally left. Sine reached Lehlax’s tree, followed by Dalex. We all kept moving this way, in random patterns to try to get away from the Hunters. As we moved, so did the Hunters. It wasn’t long before I realized we weren’t making any progress.

  “We’re still the same distance away from them.” I kept my voice in a low whisper.

  “We need something to distract them.” Sine’s eyes darted all around us.

  I looked up, thinking. If I moved too quickly and drew their attention, or somehow did anything that would alert them, they would be able to sense me immediately. Quickly and quietly, I darted backward until I was sure I was at least seventy feet away from them. I picked up a small stone and threw it as hard and as far as I could to the right. As soon as it hit the ground with a soft thud, all the Hunters turned their attention to it.

  Malik, can you see anything? Becx asked.

  Not yet.

  Jared, you want to be nice and tell us if you’re out here close? Kehlarch asked sarcastically.