by Garry Spoor
Kile could spend all day, and longer, among the clouds, but someone was calling her name. It brought her crashing down to reality. She took a few minutes to get her bearings. It always took awhile to regain her identity after flying. Opening her eyes, she found herself surrounded by a flock of sparrows.
“I heard tales, but I did not believe,” Heaney commented from behind her.
Kile waited until the birds flew off before turning around.
William Heaney stood in the clearing, sword in hand. Daniel stood beside him and didn’t seem nearly as surprised.
“Is there a problem?” she asked, looking at the weapon. Heaney looked down at his sword as if only now realizing he still held it.
“There was an attack by a cougar last night,” he explained.
“Yes, I know,” Kile said.
“Nobody was seriously hurt, at least nothing I couldn’t handle,” Daniel added.
“Then it’s a good thing you were here. Are we leaving?” she asked, getting to her feet.
“Shortly,” Heaney answered. He looked at her curiously. “Are you all right, Hunter Veller?”
“I’m fine, but we should leave soon. The way is clear and there is a storm coming.”
“Don’t you even want to know who was attacked?” Daniel asked.
His question caught her off guard. She should have wanted to know, but the truth was, at the moment, she didn’t care.
“His name was Thompson,” Daniel said, watching her reaction. “He wasn’t hurt badly. It was a scratch really. Mostly it scared him.”
“He said there might have been a dozen of them, possibly more, and he barely got away,” Heaney said. The Hunter adjusted his grip on the sword and looked at the woods around them as if expecting to see the elusive herd of cougars coming for them at any moment.
“Since there were only three, I’d say he was exaggerating. And I wouldn’t worry,” she added, addressing Heaney. “They’re already gone.”
“Ya saw them?” Heaney asked.
“Actually, I spoke with them this morning,” she said, walking past them toward the barn.
Heaney was about to say something more, but Daniel stopped him.
“I wouldn’t even bother, sir. It won’t make any more sense the second time around,” he warned him.
~~~***~~~
Their departure from Midrest was uneventful, although the patrons of The Bloody Jackal did watch them go safely from behind their dirty windows. The reason for Thompson’s midnight stroll around the barn last night was never answered and Kile didn’t want to know. His reasons might have been benign, but something inside told her they were less than honorable. In the end, it didn’t matter. The cougars gained a bit more notoriety and the story of the Wild Hunter gained another chapter.
The night in the Jackal seemed to have improved the company’s disposition toward one another. For starters, they were actually traveling together. The soldiers of Durra squad were now riding alongside the Hunters. Only Kile was left out. But this time it was of her own choosing. She’d been isolated in the Tower the last three months. Now that she was out and back in the wild, she realized, this was where she belonged. After last night, she had come to the conclusion she could never go back. She couldn’t live among the vir. In a way, Master Boraro was right. She was more animal than human these days. Windfoil, Coopervill, Riverport, they were only places, stops along some long journey. Where that journey was taking her, she had no idea.
“Are you all right?” Daniel asked when he came up alongside her. He had been watching her all morning, and at first, it was kind of amusing, but as the day grew older, it was starting to annoy her. She wasn’t sure what he expected her to do if he expected her to do anything. Did he think she was going to have one of her episodes or maybe try to attack the Alva again? Every time she looked over at him, he was watching her. He always looked away, but he wasn’t very subtle about it. The only other reason she could think of for why he was watching her was what Grim had suggested: Daniel was jealous. He knew about the first kiss Roland surprised her with. During a conversation, she accidentally let it slip. It didn’t seem to upset him at the time, but she was a bit confused when it came to emotional responses and might have missed the telltale signs. She was sure, if Daniel were a dog or a cat, she might have picked up the cues more easily, but trying to understand the vir was nearly impossible. Of course, if Grim was correct and Daniel was jealous, it made things more awkward. Daniel was her closest friend, and she never considered him anything more.
“I’m fine,” she said as casually as she could.
“Are you sure? You seem a little out of it.”
“Just thinking.”
“Hey, Danny boy, you should hear this,” Eafer called out, waving for him to join them. Daniel seemed torn, which he often was when he was with Kile. He was sociable; she was not. He wanted to fit in; she gave up on that a long time ago.
“Just go,” she told him.
“No, it’s—”
“Danny, it’s okay. I’m fine, really.”
“Well, if you’re sure.”
Before she could answer him, he was already mingling with the group, laughing at what was probably an obscene joke.
-You isolate yourself more every day,- Grim commented as they plodded along behind the merry group of adventurers.
“Look who’s talking. You go out of your way to put as much distance between you and… well, everybody.”
-That may be, but mountain ponies are not known to be sociable—vir are.-
~~~***~~~
It was nearing the end of the evening hour when the company finally reached their destination. They were at the southernmost point of the realm, where the world ended, or at least it seemed that way to Kile. When they crested the hill, the first thing she saw was the ocean. A vast blue body of water, stretching all the way to the horizon and beyond. She had seen it before, but only through the eyes of the birds who flew its beaches. Now she was seeing it with her own eyes, and it surpassed anything she could have imagined. It was both wonderful and frightening. Her insane feral side wanted to know what lay beyond those waters. The sane side of her wanted nothing more than to keep her feet on dry land.
The small town of Salthaven was nestled below them, at the very foot of the hill, stretching along the rocky face. What set it apart from other towns were the long wooden docks, reaching dangerously out into the ocean. It was as if they were tempting fate, and if that wasn’t enough, the vir had gone and built half the town on them. Stores, warehouses, and homes were built upon these thin slabs of wooden real estate, with nothing beneath them but the cold waters.
As the company got closer, Kile noticed, in spite of the town’s size, it was fairly dead. There were hardly any people in the streets and most of the buildings looked empty. She had assumed, from all the talk, the town of Salthaven was a bustling seaport, with all manner of ships anchored off the coast either coming in with exotic cargo or heading out to places unknown. What she saw were three ships moored at the docks.
Heaney led them through the streets to the inn known as the Seagull’s Rest. It was quite a large establishment and nearly dominated the western end of town. It was nothing like the Jackal and reminded Kile of the Bird and Bay back in Coopervill, what with its stone walls and tiled roof. The one thing, she was glad to see was the inn was built on solid ground. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to spend the night hovering over the ocean with only a few planks of wood to keep her from getting wet. Their horses were left at the Seagull’s livery, and Kile begged Grim to behave himself before she followed the rest of the group into the inn.
It was clean, well-staffed, and empty, so there were more than enough rooms to accommodate everyone in the company comfortably. Kile’s room was on the second floor, at the front of the inn, where not only could she look down on the streets of Salthaven but out across the ocean. She spent the rest of the evening sitting beside her window, staring out at the water until the night settled in, and whe
n she could no longer see it, she listened to it. The gentle sounds of the waves lulled her to sleep.
The next morning when she awoke, she spent a few extra minutes staring out at the ocean. She didn’t think it was possible, but it looked even larger in the morning light. By afternoon, they would be out there, on that ocean, sailing off to… who knows where. Hopefully, the captain knew, because she surely didn’t. As she watched the ships rock back and forth on the incoming waves, she was starting to get nauseous. She had never been on a boat before, let alone a ship. The closest body of water to where she grew up was the mountain stream that ran down along the bottom land, through the town of Riverport. It created a small inlet, which most of the residents referred to as a lake. But forget about sailing on it. A person could walk from the east bank to the west bank without getting their hair wet.
“What do you think, Vesper? Take in some of the sights before everything gets complicated?” she asked the yarrow as he yawned himself awake.
-Food?- he said.
Kile laughed. “I think we should be able to find something.”
She washed up, dressed, brushed the tangles out of her hair, and was down on the streets before the first rays of the sun came over the hill. With the gentle sound of the ocean, the smell of salt in the air, it was an invigorating place, one she could get used to. Who knows, maybe this was the place she was looking for, a place where she could finally settle down. She almost believed it until she came closer to the docks. The pleasant smell of the sea air was replaced by the stench of dead fish. It may not have been all that bad or even that noticeable for most people, but with her sense of smell, it was downright nauseating. Her trip to the water’s edge would have to wait. She turned back to the center of town.
The marketplace was starting to wake up, and there were already a few vendors hawking their wares. She visited an elderly man, who stood beside an old wooden wagon filled with fruits and vegetables. The produce wasn’t the freshest she had seen, but it was still early in the year. Sorting through his inventory, she selected a bunch of carrots and a couple of apples before heading back to the livery.
“There you are,” Daniel called out as he came walking down the street toward her with Private Eafer in tow. “I knocked on your door for over half an hour until I found out you weren’t in there. I thought maybe you had second thoughts and headed home.”
“Don’t think I hadn’t considered it,” she said, offering him one of the carrots. He politely declined.
“Why are you up so early?” he asked.
“Spoken like a true academic Hunter. The day starts before noon, you know.”
“Yeah, well, that doesn’t mean you have to get up before the sun.”
“I wanted to see the place before it got too busy.”
Daniel quickly looked around and laughed. “I don’t think this place ever gets busy.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Danny,” Eafer said as he joined them. “This place will pick up once the fishermen return. Salthaven is the only port west of Efferon. Ships from all over will arrive in the coming months, loading up with supplies and crew, before heading out to the Starlett Sea.”
“What exactly is the Starlett Sea?” Kile asked.
“It’s what the fishermen call the waters from here to the Custodians,” Eafer answered.
“The Custodians. What are they?”
The soldier laughed. “You’re not from around these parts, are you?”
“I am as far from these parts as you can possibly get. I’m from Riverport, in the Shia Province.”
“The Custodians are a line of rock, rising out of the ocean. The sailors say they keep watch over the west. Only the bravest or craziest fishermen venture beyond the Custodians.”
“Will we get to see them?” Daniel asked.
“Oh, we’ll see them, all right,” Eafer said, and he didn’t look too pleased about it. “We’ll be passing right the way through the Starlett Sea, to the far side. Farther west than most of these men have ever traveled.”
“And that’s never been done?” Kile asked.
“Oh, it’s been done,” Eafer said. “A few ships have sailed past the Custodians, and fewer have returned. The king sent a fleet of five to seek out a way to the island. Only three came back.”
“But didn’t the Alva cross the Starlett Sea?”
“That’s what they claim. Personally, I’m not so sure. I don’t trust them.”
With everyone having their doubts about the Alva, Kile wondered why they were going through with this expedition in the first place.
“So, what is beyond the Custodians?” Daniel asked.
“Well, if you truly want to know that, you have to ask Captain Dotol. He’s been out there and back a few times, but I warn you, many hands on the docks say he’s not wrapped too tight.”
“Captain Dotol? I’ve heard that name before,” Kile interjected. She vaguely remembered Roland speaking to one of his advisers about a Captain Dotol, although she couldn’t remember what was said about him.
“You should. He’s the one who’s taking us to this island, if it even exists,” Eafer said, pointing down to the docks. “That’s his ship there, the Charlotte—the tallest mast on the right.”
Kile was surprised to see which boat Eafer was pointing at. Although it was the largest of the three currently docked, it was, in her opinion, too small to be sailing that far away from land. She was hoping for one of the larger military galleys, although none appeared available at the moment.
“Your Master Heaney and my Sergeant are already down there, probably working out some of the last-minute details. I was heading down there myself if you care to join me.”
“Yeah, sure,” Daniel said quickly.
Kile was a little more reluctant. She was in no hurry to get any closer to those ships, but she followed the two men down to the docks anyway.
The closer they got, the more activity there was. It wasn’t difficult to see where most of the people of Salthaven were employed. Everything in the town center involved taking care of ships, whether it meant loading them, unloading them, or repairing them. There may have only been three ships docked at that moment, but Salthaven was equipped with the space and the resources to handle many more.
The first two ships were simply local fishing vessels and had arrived that morning if the barrels of fresh fish were any sign. Kile was forced to hold her breath when she passed through the line of dockhands, who were unloading the odorous cargo. They were taking it up the hill to the line of warehouses that overlooked the docks. The smell was pungent, but it didn’t seem to bother either Daniel or Eafer. It was times like this, she envied their duller senses.
As she put the men, with their barrels of fish, behind her, she took her first good look at the ship that would carry them across the sea. It must have been sixty or seventy feet long and appeared to be arced in the water, with the front end nearly as high as the rear and the center remaining level with the docks. Three large masts grew from the deck, and each had a single branch strapped across it. One end of the branch rose higher than the tops of the masts, while the other end was nearly touching the deck. Sails were secured to these branches, waiting to be unfurled. All this was held together with thick ropes tied to every place imaginable, or so it would appear. Kile was already nervous about the ship, and seeing it up close didn’t help.
“There she is,” Eafer said with a sweeping gesture of his hand. “The Charlotte.”
“She’s quite a ship,” Daniel said.
Kile gave him a sideways glance. Daniel didn’t know any more about ships than she did.
Eafer led them up the hill to where four men stood, overseeing the ship’s preparations. Kile recognized Heaney, Jasa, and Elmac, which meant the fourth vir was Captain Dotol. He was a tall, lean man with a mess of unkempt silver hair and had a wild stare about him as if he was in a constant state of surprise. Yes, this man looked insane enough to set off on this expedition with them.
�
��What do we have here?” he shouted upon spotting them.
There was no reason to shout since the four men were standing so close together, but it appeared this was the captain’s normal volume.
“Captain, may I introduce ya to a few more members of the company,” Heaney said, waving for them to come closer. “This is Private Walter Eafer, and Hunters Leary and Veller.”
“Oy, what’s this? Are you daft now, Heaney? Ya said nothing about a lass on me ship.”
“Veller is a Certified Level Three Hunter and was chosen personally for this expedition.”
The captain’s eyes moved slowly over Kile as he examined every square inch of her. It was disconcerting.
He shook his head. “I don’t know, Heaney. A lass on me ship, that’s an ill omen indeed.”
At this point, Kile was all too willing to drop out of the expedition until she heard a familiar voice.
“That’s not what you said about me.”
Turning, she was surprised to see Erin Silvia approaching from the far side of the pier. The dockhands stopped their work to watch her pass. She had grace, and she had beauty, but most were wise enough to know not to mess with the Lady Hunter.
Although Kile knew Erin was in the area, she hadn’t expected to see her. She was both grateful and optimistic upon the Hunter’s appearance, and by the look on the captain’s face, so was he.
“So, Madam Silvia, you coming along on this fool’s voyage?” Dotol asked.
Erin shook her head. “Not this time, I’m afraid.”
So much for optimism, but she was still grateful.
“Master Heaney, it’s good to see you again. Garret told me you would be down here seeing to the ship.”
“Just some last-minute preparations,” Heaney said. “What news do ya have of the Uhyre?”
“Nothing,” she answered with a bit of annoyance. “It’s been quiet all winter. No activity along the front.”
