by Spoor, Garry
At the bottom of the trunk, the last things she took out were the Lann that had been given to her by the Guild Master himself and they had once belonged to an alverian maiden. They were two thin, slightly curved blades nearly three feet long with worn cherry wooden grips wrapped in leather. Each one had a small bird’s beak protruding from the blade just above the guard and each was etched with a writing that she couldn’t read. Along with that was a long knife, bearing the same worn wooden handle and the same writing. This fastened to the back of her belt. The Lann strapped crossed her back in a crisscross fashion, although she had never really gotten used to them being back there. She was fine drawing them, and it actually looked pretty cool when she practiced in front of the mirror, but trying to put them back into their sheathes without looking awkward was difficult to do.
She grabbed the leather courier bag from the back of the chair and dropped the small Class D, high priority package in it, Vesper climbed in afterward. He didn’t like riding in the bag as much as he liked riding on her shoulder, but there were strict rules against pets in the Bird and Bay, not that Vesper actually thought of himself as a pet.
Guild Master Lathery had once told her that the only things that a Hunter really needed was a good head, a good heart, a good horse and a good weapon, everything else was just extra baggage, of course there was nothing wrong with a few extra comforts she thought as she slung her pack over her shoulder, now it was just a matter of getting her horse.
She locked the door to her room and took the stairs down to the main dinning area were Beth had a small bundle of supplies waiting for her at the counter.
“Finally got yourself an assignment?” Beth asked from behind the bar as she was setting up for the day. The Bird would be opening in about an hour’s time and the miners would be arriving in droves to have one last drink before they went down into the pits.
“Just another delivery.” Kile replied as she picked up the tightly wrapped bundle of food.
“Where to today?”
“Don’t really know. Some place off the main road. It’s a private delivery to a Mr. David Draw… ever heard of him.”
“Can’t say that I have love.” Beth replied as she wiped down the counter one last time. “You take it easy then.”
“See you when I get back.” Kile replied as she headed out the door.
The tink, tink, tink of the hammer was louder outside as she passed the forge. The blacksmith was hammering away at some piece of metal and looked as if he had a lot of unresolved anger issues to work out. She suddenly felt sorry for that small piece of metal, it wasn’t like it could have done anything to the blacksmith but he was sure taking out his frustration on it.
When she was far enough away from the Bird she opened the courier bag and Vesper quickly scurried up her arm to sit on her shoulder once again. She turned into the Apple Blossom Livery and wasn’t really surprised to see Alisa standing on the front stoop waiting for her arrival.
“I didn’t think it was possible, but you look worse than you did yesterday.” The young woman shouted as she came down the steps.
“Is fashion all you can think about?” Kile asked her.
“Fashion? You have no fashion.” Alisa said as she circled Kile a few times. “The pants, the jacket, the boots, all wrong, and I won’t tell you about that… that hat.”
“Thank you, how about getting my horse.”
“I’ve already set Carl on it, it may take him a while, Grim didn’t appear to be too cooperative this morning.”
Before Kile could even ask, there was a loud crash that came from the barn, followed by a few choice words from Carl and then the doors suddenly flew open. From within emerged an unsightly looking beast. It resembled a horse in shape only but was covered in long, thick shaggy black hair with a mane that hung down over its face, concealing his eyes. Huge tufts of matted hair covered his platter sized hoofs as it clopped its way across the yard toward her.
-About time you got here.-
It shouted at her in an unapologetic voice that only she could hear.
-I will not be cooped up within that… that cell any longer, especially with that little grubby pawed vir poking at me.-
“And good morning to you too Grim.” Kile replied.
-Some morning. Is this an actual assignment or are we just going to wander the countryside again?-
“No, this is an actual assignment.” Kile replied, and then looked over to where Alisa was staring at her. Do not talk to the horse in front of the civilians she reminded herself.
“You are going to have to tell me how you calm that horse down so quickly.” Alisa commented as Grim stopped beside Kile.
“It’s… nothing, really.”
“So, is it true, do you really have an assignment?”
“Personal delivery to a Mr. David Draw out in no man’s land.”
“Does that mean your guild is finally finished with their investigation?”
“Hardly. It means the package is important enough to risk my life for.”
Alisa’s eyes widened with excitement.
“Really, what is it?” She asked.
“I don’t know.” Kile replied with a shrug as she tied her pack onto Grim’s harness.
“What do you mean you don’t know? Surely they must have told you something.”
“It’s none of my business. I’m only supposed to deliver it.”
“But don’t you want to know. If it’s that important they should at least tell you.”
“That’s not the way it works. I deliver the package, he signs for it, and then I’m back to get my pay. It’s a simple as that.”
“I couldn’t do it. I’d have to see what was inside the package before I delivered it.”
“That’s why you’re entrusted with horses.” Kile said a she pulled herself up onto Grim’s back. “And I’m entrusted with super secret packages.”
“I suppose there’s some truth to that.” Alisa grinned.
Kile pulled the keys from her pocket. “Hold my keys while I’m gone?” She asked as she tossed them to Alisa.
“Always, just come back in one piece.”
“Always.” Kile replied as she turned Grim to the road and pointed him out of town. The Mountain Pony was eager to get moving.
***
“You know, I think I finally figured it out.” Kile said as she crushed the map in her hand. “I know where the entire missing Hunter’s are.”
-Do tell.-
“They’re not missing at all, they’re all out there in the wild, wandering around lost because the Guild is too cheap to hire a descent cartographer. These maps are useless.”
-You did remember to bring the other ones.-
“Of course I did, I don’t need my horse reminding me what I was supposed to pack.” She said as she reached back into her supplies and hoped that she actually did remember to bring her own maps. She was eternally grateful when she pulled out the hard leather tube.
Pulling the cap off Kile produced a set of five intricately drawn maps that had been given to her by Mr. Wollory at the dry goods store in Coopervill the first day she arrived. He called it an essential piece of Hunter equipment and she couldn’t have agreed more. The first map was a topographical map of the entire Kingdom of Aru, the other four where more detailed maps dividing the kingdom into four sections. Kile unrolled the North West quarter and slid the rest back into the hard leather tube.
“Okay, let’s see if we can figure this out.” She said as she laid the two maps side by side on Grim’s back as he proceeded down the road. Vesper had come down from his place between the large mountain pony’s ears to take a better look at the maps, not that he was able to understand them any better than she could.
“Okay, according to this map, we are right here.” She said as she pointed at the map. Vesper came over to investigate but only found her finger. “Here’s the river, here’s the bridge, here’s the… I don’t know what that is. Okay, I’ve got it.”
-So y
ou finally know where we are?-
“Of course I do, we’re lost.”
-Mountain Pony’s don’t get lost.-
“What do you say Vesper, you with me or Grim?”
-Vesper with Kile.-
“There you have it Grim, Vesper and I am lost, you’re just along for the ride.”
-Perhaps you should ask for directions.-
“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Kile replied as she reached into her pack and pulled out a small silver flute.
She wasn’t very good at playing it, not in a musical sense of the word, but she had managed to mimic most of the bird song in the general area, but then the birds were the ones that taught her how. She blew a quick little tune and then waited.
The yarrow enjoyed the sound of the flute, Grim only mumbled a complaint, but then the Mountain pony knew what to expect next.
She played the quick little tune again and this time she received an answer as a small sparrow landed on Grim’s right ear and repeated the tune back to her.
-Help?-
The sparrow asked in its high pitched melodic voice.
-Help?-
Replied a second sparrow as it landed behind her on Grim’s backside.
-Help?-
Came a third, then a fourth and a fifth, and before Kile knew it, she had nearly two dozen small sparrows hopping around on the back of the Mountain pony, looking for a place to perch.
“It would appear that I am lost.” She told the birds.
-Help-
-Show-
-Show-
-Help-
The birds began to chirp all at the same time before taking to the air. She had always preferred to speak with birds one at a time whenever possible. Flocks of them, with their high pitched melodic voices all speaking at once, and echoing in her head, often gave her a headache. Most birds were rather difficult to talk with. They usually kept their conversation short and simple. At first she had mistaken this as a primitive form of communications since most animals that had a limited contact with the Vir, had a limited knowledge of speech, but she later found out that it was more to do with the bird high strung nature. They just didn’t want to hang around any longer than they had to.
They had taken off in all directions, disappearing into the twilight of the evening sky. It was no less than five minutes before the first few returned.
-Show… show-
They shouted and soon her head was bombarded with images of the surrounding area from a bird's eye view. The more birds that returned, the more the mental map was filled in until she was able to visualize the entire countryside, and not only was she able to pinpoint her exact location on the map, but she was sure she had found the cottage that belonged to the elusive Mr. David Draw.
“I think I know where we are now, thanks for the help you guys.” She called out to the birds, but some of them weren’t as eager to leave as they perched on Grim’s ears to enjoy the ride. Grim, on the other hand, was eager for them to leave and suddenly shook himself off, not only discarding the birds but nearly tossing off Kile and Vesper at the same time.
“You could warn me the next time you try that.” She said as she repositioned herself on his back.
-Annoying little featherbrains-
“I am gong to assume you were referring to the birds.”
-Whatever-
They rode a little further as the night was getting closer and the shadows were getting longer, until they came to the path that birds had shown to her. It wound its way through the forest to a small dark cabin that looked in desperate need of repair. Kile dismounted and grab the leather courier bag with the high priority class D package inside. She opened the bag up, to make sure the package was actually still inside and cursed Alisa for her contagious curiosity. What was so important that it had to be delivered as a class D assignment? It was going to be just one of those things that a Hunter would never learn. She had been delivering mail for four months now between Tobery, Shrop, Noxton and Coopervill, before the Guild put a freeze on it all, and she had never once wondered what was in the mail that she was delivering. One package to an out of the way place, and now her mind was reeling with the possibilities.
“You stay here Vesper.” She told the yarrow as she placed him on the back of the mountain pony. She wasn’t sure how people who received high priority class D assigned packages would react to seeing a young girl with a rodent perched on her shoulder. “I’ll only be a minute and then we can break for camp a little ways down the road.”
-Don’t like.-
Vesper replied and Kile looked back down at the dark cabin in the woods.
“Yeah I know what you mean, it does look spooky, but it’s just a simple delivery. I’ll be right back.”
-Don’t go.-
Vesper was not an alarmist, he usually had very good instincts about such things and Kile normally would have heeded his warnings as she left him sitting on Grim’s back to follow the path up to the Cabin, but at the moment her mind was not completely on her work, it was on the small package that she had in the courier bag. What would somebody send to somebody that lived all the way out here, in the middle of nowhere and have it classified as high priority? It just didn’t make sense. If she was really lucky she may be able to catch a glimpse of the package when Mr. Draw opened it, or maybe she could just ask him. Of course it was against the Hunter’s Code to actually inquire about the contents of any package and could get her a one way ticket out of the Guild for good.
She reached the cabin and stood before the door, hesitating. There was a feeling in the air. The forest was not at ease. Something had happened here, something very bad and she could smell it on the wind. Was this what Vesper was worried about? The strongest smell was that of burnt wood. That could have been dismissed as a fire burning in the hearth, but the night was rather warm and there was not smoke coming from the chimney. Under that smell was something she couldn’t identify, something that was damp, musty, something that she had never smelled before, and never wished to smell again. It was all around her and it felt as if it was closing in on her, and beneath that, deep beneath that she could smell blood.
Kile took a step back away from the door, but by then it was too late. The forest had come alive. The door swung open to a familiar laugh.
“We were expecting you sooner.”
She dropped the courier bag and reached for the Lann, but she was wasn’t quick enough as everything suddenly went black.
***~~~***
3
“Miss Silvia, it’s nice to see you again. What brings you back to Littenbeck?” The stable hand asked as he took hold of her horse.
Erin dismounted and wiped the dust from her pants as she ran two gloved hands through her short black hair and tried to remember the name of the man that was now holding the reins of her horse. He was an average looking man in many ways, average height, average weight, even his face was nondescript. It was difficult being the only female Hunter, or should she say the only other female hunter. Everybody knew her on sight, even people she hadn’t met before and she was pretty sure she had never met this man before.
“Important business at the Guild Hall.” She replied casually. “Can’t really say much more than that.”
“I understand.” The man said as he led the horse away. “Top secret and all that.”
“Yeah, something like that.” She replied with a smile, but the truth was she couldn’t tell him any more because she didn’t know anymore. She had just received the summons yesterday afternoon by special courier and the only instruction she had was to come to the council chamber as quickly as possible.
She stepped out of the stables into the busy streets of Littenbeck. People going about their business paid her no mind as she crossed to the courtyard of the Guild Hall. She was just one of the masses here in the city, just another civilian. There was a strange sense of safety in that anonymity, but that same anonymity extended to those around her, and that wasn’t so confronting. With the disappearan
ce and deaths of so many Hunters recently, she would have liked to know who these people passing her were. Who was to say that any one of those couldn’t be responsible?
She walked up to the white marbled steps and stared up at the large imposing structure of the Hall. It was a three story tall stone façade construction lined with windows, and with a row of columns bracing the second floor over the door, it looked as ominous as the Mystic Tower. There was a time when the Guild Council met in a one room shack on the edge of town, how things have changed since those days. For one thing the power of the council has shifted, and although Mathew Latherby is still Guild Master, he is slowly loosing ground in the council power structure and everybody knew it.
In many ways it was his fault she thought as she pulled off her gloves and tucked them into her belt. Latherby never seemed to take the job seriously, not that he couldn’t be serious when it was required of him, he just couldn’t be serious all the time, and the council saw that as a fatal flaw.
She adjusted her sword at her side, straightened her jacket and proceeded up the steps one at a time. She wasn’t in a rush, and she had a bad feeling about the entire summons. It was not the way things were done, but then a lot of things that the council did these days were not the way things were done.
She hesitated a moment before reaching for the door. Even when her hand gripped the golden handle it took a force of will to pull it open. She took a deep breath and stepped inside. The heat of the late afternoon was nothing compared to the stifling, stillness of the place. She could feel the sweat as it ran down her back, and she wasn’t sure if it was the temperature, or what she knew she was in store for.
