Hunter's Bounty (Veller)

by Spoor, Garry

  “Who was that?” She asked.

  “That, my dear, was the Hunter Samuel Gray.” Folkstaff answered as he came up behind her. “He is said to be one of the more… tenacious Hunters.”

  “I’ve heard of him. He’s Andrew Drain’s man.” She replied.

  If Drain’s man was here, then Kile must have been here too.

  She pushed open the door to the Hospital. It didn’t take her long to find Daniel as they almost collided in the doorway. He hadn’t seen her, but he did see Folkstaff as the big man blocked his exit.

  “What’s the rush son?” Folkstaff asked.

  “Rush? No rush.” Daniel replied as he tried to look over the Hunter’s shoulder. He may be tall, but he wasn't that tall.

  “If you're wondering, he didn’t get her.” Erin commented.

  Daniel turned around seeing Erin for the first time. “Ma’am… I’m not sure I know what you mean.” He stammered.

  “Sure you don’t.” Folkstaff replied. “Is it possible that you’ve been visited earlier today by an old friend?”

  “I’m sorry, I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about.”

  “Grey attempted to use his edge, some form of location art I would imagine, probably connected to the earth sphere.” Erin added. “He didn’t find who he was looking for. Why? I don’t know, but I don’t think it was because she wasn’t around. Now, why don’t you do her a favor and tell us what it was that she came here for.”

  “On one condition.” Daniel replied. “That you take me with you. Let me help you find her.”

  “Why would we do that?” Folkstaff asked.

  “Because I know where she’s going, and if you don’t I’ll just look for her myself. She is an open bounty after all.”

  “She has been labeled a Class A open bounty, level fives do not bring in class A open bounties.”

  “Why not, she did.”

  “If you’re refereeing to the apprehension of the Minotaur of Calder Falls, there is still some debate over the validity of that situation.”

  “You can come.” Erin finally said, although she had a feeling she may regret it.

  Folkstaff raised an eyebrow as he looked over at her. “Are you sure Erin?”

  “He’s known her for four years. Maybe it’s enough, maybe not, but help is help.”

  “Thank you.” Daniel replied. “I didn’t really do right by her when she needed me the most. I have to make it up to her. She came asking about Brian Tally.”

  ***

  Brian Tally’s house wasn’t exactly where Daniel said it would be, but then he wasn’t very specific about his directions. The north end of Littenbeck is just as large as the every other end of Littenbeck and Quinton Street runs right the way through it. Kile felt she walked the entire length, which was not an easy task. The north end of Littenbeck was not exactly the happiest place to be. It’s run down buildings and litter filled streets marked it as the seedier section of town. She felt eyes on her, from every shadowy corner of every darkened window. Most of it had to be her imagination, although how could she be that sure. The only fortunate part, if there truly was a fortunate part, was that once she saw the house, she knew it was Tally’s. It was the only one that had been burned down, or at least the only one that had been burned down in say the last few weeks. She only knew that by the scent that lingered on the charred wood.

  Remarkably the outer shell of the house remained intact, only the black soot from the burnt out windows showed any real sign of a fire, that and the fact that there was no roof, only a few brunt out rafters protruding up from the ashes.

  “Somehow I don’t think we have to knock.” She told Vesper as she pushed open the door.

  There was a strong odor, one that she had expected, but it still overpowered her. She coughed as she waved away the stench, not that it really helped, there was also the lingering sweetness of jasmine which seemed out of place in the middle of the city.

  -Bad place.-

  Vesper commented from the safety of the pouch.

  “Yeah, but hopefully we can find something of value here.”

  The fire had done its work, better than she could have imagined. The floors and walls were black, little charred lumps of what were once furniture were strewed across the floor, and the upstairs was now part of the downstairs as a bed laid across the remains of the dinning room table. How much of the damage was done by the fire and how much was done by the investigators was difficult to tell.

  Carefully she made her way across the floor to what she believed had once been a desk. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, she just hoped she knew what it was when she found it. She pulled open one of the drawers, the handle came off in her hand, the leg of the desk crumbled beneath its weight, collapsing to the ground, spilling the contents on the floor.

  “There’s nothing left here.” She said as she dropped the handle on the desk. “It was foolish to even come here. Anything that can help me is long gone, if there was anything here.”

  -Ask the mice-

  Vesper said as he showed her the vision of a mouse in the kitchen doorway.

  Kile turned around and was surprised to see just that, a mouse in the kitchen doorway. There couldn’t be any food left in the kitchen, or if there was it would be as burnt as the rest of the house, but still the mice came back.

  “Excuse me.” She said as she approached the small rodent.

  The mouse didn’t move as it looked up at her. It was more curious than scared.

  Now that she had its attention, what exactly was she going to ask it? Whether it knew why the owner had been assassinated. What would a mouse know of such things? Intrigue, deceit, assassinations, they just weren’t part of the natural world, and even if it had seen something, it wasn’t like she could bring him in to testify on her behalf.

  “I was wondering if you could help me.” She said as she crouched in front of the mouse, extending her hand. It climbed into her palm, cocking its head to one side as he scratched its ear.

  -How can I help?-

  He asked.

  He was a little more articulate than what she had anticipated, but then he did live in the city. It really all came down to the amount of contact that the animal had with the vir.

  “What do you know of the vir who lived here?”

  -Just a vir.-

  “Can you tell me anything about him?”

  -He ate well.-

  The mouse replied and filled Kile’s head with visions of cheeses, breads, pastries, cakes and all sorts of delicacy. It seemed odd that a man who could afford such fineries was living in the northern part of Littenbeck.

  “I was hoping you could tell me something about him? Who was he? What did he do?”

  -He did vir things.-

  The mouse replied, and filled Kile’s head with visions of a man, who she assumed was Brian Tally, doing just that, vir things. He was sitting in a chair reading a book, sitting at his desk writing notes, sitting at the table eating supper, pacing the floor, putting logs on the fire… no he wasn’t. He wasn’t putting logs on the fire, there was not fire in the hearth, but he was putting something in the hearth.

  She turned toward the fireplace. It didn’t look as if it had been disturbed, aside from the fire that burned down the rest of the house. Did the Hunters even check the fireplace? Why would they? She wouldn’t have.

  She carefully walked over to the fireplace. Setting the mouse down she wiped away the ashes within the hearth, what she found was a loose stone. Grabbing one of the andirons she managed to pry it up, revealing a small hideaway that was hiding away an even smaller box. Removing the box from its resting place she set it down on the floor. It was made out of copper and steel and even hidden under the stone hearth it didn’t escape the fury of the fire. There was no lock, nothing to keep her from opening it. Within she found only two things, a ring and a book.

  The book had seen better days, it was partially destroyed and the edges were burned, but it wasn’t burned in the same fi
re that had burned the house. A fire had been set to the pages of this book long ago, which was evident by the fact that only half of the book showed any sign of damage. Had the fire reached it, it would have been completely destroyed. Why someone had decided to save it? She didn’t know. As she flipped through the pages she could barely read the words. It was written in a thin spidery hand and what the fire hadn’t destroyed, time took care of. The writing was too faded to read.

  In contrast the ring was in excellent condition. Made of gold it bore an image that looked similar to that of the royal seal, but not exactly.

  A man of wealth living on the poor side of town hiding a book and ring, could this have some connection with David Draw? Even if there was a link, it didn’t get her any closer to understand why they were killed, or why she was being framed for their murders.

  “Were you here when the Vir died?” She asked the mouse.

  -Vir killed vir.-

  The mouse replied and with those words Kile was brought back to the night that Brian Tally died.

  She couldn’t really see what was happening very well, since she was seeing it through the eyes of the mouse, and he was seeing it from between the cracks of the baseboard molding. What she did see did frighten her, because she was able to see the assassin that killed Brian Tally, and she was that assassin.

  Although she couldn’t see the assassin’s face, he was about her height, her weight, with the same red hair, wearing her hat and her jacket, using her Lann. It was no wonder that people thought she was the killer, after seeing that, she started to believe she was the killer.

  “Why?” She asked.

  -Because vir are foolish.-

  The mouse replied as he scurried off to the kitchen to see what might have survived the fire.

  Kile sat on the floor beside the fireplace for a while thinking as she thumbed through the old burnt out pages of the book. Ravenshadow had gone through a lot of trouble to set her up, but that was only half of it. His goal was to eliminate these three men. He said it was for justice, but what justice warranted this?

  -You must go now.-

  A voice echoed in her head, but it wasn’t the mouse, the voice was too loud and the visions that it sent to her were strange. She wasn’t actually seeing as much as she was feeling or hearing the vir around her. She sniffed the air, and that was when the scent of tobacco and ginger told her that she had been there too long.

  ***

  Erin saw the two hunters on the far side of Quinton Street, they were standing in the shadows waiting as a third was deep in his edge. Being influenced by the sphere of air herself, she recognized the art he was using. He was listening for movements in the house. The rest of the street was vacant. Nobody would dare get involved with this many Hunters out at night.

  “You have no business here.”

  She turned to see Grey crossing the street toward them, his steel boots clanging on the cobbled stone sounded loud on the otherwise dead street. Two city guards stood a respectable distance behind him. Grey looked at Erin, and then cast his gaze over at Daniel.

  “It would appear that we found her without your help.” He told the young Hunter.

  “Finding her and catching her are two different things.” Daniel replied.

  “Oh, don’t worry. We will… catch her.” Grey smiled a cold smile as he turned to address Erin. “We don’t need any more help here, we have everything under control. You’ll only get in the way.”

  “It would appear so.” Erin said with a nod in Grey direction and then motioned for Folkstaff and Daniel to follow her.

  “You’re giving up?” Daniel asked.

  Folkstaff placed his arm around the younger Hunter and guided him off the street.

  “Nobody is giving up son, not yet anyway.” He told him as he pointed to Erin who was already well into her own edge.

  “He’s got the place surrounded.” She said as she opened her eyes. “She’s in there alone, but there are at least three more Hunters on the parallel street moving in.”

  “So we go up.” Folkstaff said pointing to the rooftops.

  “Yeah, I was afraid you were going to say that.” Erin replied as she looked up the side of the building. It didn’t look all that tall, but then it never did until you were on top looking down.

  “Silvia doesn’t have a head for heights.” Folkstaff told Daniel after seeing the boy’s rather confused look over Erin’s hesitation.

  “I’ll do it… Just give me a moment.”

  “She may not have a moment.” He reminded.

  The two Hunters that were in the shadows were now moving toward the house.

  “Fine.” She said as she closed her eyes again and fell back into her edge.

  Erin was influenced by the sphere of air, and even though she didn’t master one specific art, like most hunters she had a working grasp of a few. She took a deep breath and began to walk, but not so much in a straight line, as up. Each step she took raised her one step above the ground as if she was walking up a flight of stairs that only she could see. The wind walking art required an intense amount of concentration, loose the concentration and gravity takes over. As she continued her climb she had to change her direction, so as not to get too far away from the face of the building, only when she reached the top and took that last step onto the wooden roof peak was she able to release her hold on her edge.

  “Come on son.” Folkstaff said as he directed Daniel away from the building. “The only thing we can do now is try to keep an eye on Grey.”

  ***

  Kile ran to the window and looked out onto the Street. She could easily see the two Hunters approaching, even as they kept to the shadows. There was a third standing off to one side, but the smell of tobacco and ginger was getting even stronger. She didn’t have to check the back of the house; she already knew they were moving in from that direction too. She got careless and they surrounded her.

  -Come up… Come up to the roofs-

  She wasn’t sure where the voice was coming from, but she wasn’t going to question it. She had learned that those were the only voices that she could trust.

  She made for the stairs but before she could reach it a hand broke through the floorboards, grabbing her ankle, and she fell forward onto the steps. She kicked at it, but the fingers were as hard as stone as a body began to emerge from the earth beneath the house.

  “Not so fast.” The raspy voice laughed as the stone face gave way to flesh. “Did you really think you were going to get away that easily?”

  Grey’s face looked at her from the living statue that he had turned himself into. He must be influenced by the sphere of earth to be able to pull this stunt off, but that didn’t help her now.

  “I can’t let you leave here so soon.” He said as an evil grin crossed his lips.

  His hand began to tighten around her ankle and she knew he had no intention of simply bringing her in, at least not in one piece. She opened the pouch on her belt and Vesper climbed out. She didn’t have to tell the yarrow where to go. She only had to think it. He ran up her leg, over the stone hand, down the Hunter’s arm and leapt for the only place Grey left vulnerable. Hunter’s should never boast, otherwise a yarrow might bite their nose. It wasn’t taught at the Academy, but it should have been.

  Vesper clamped his teeth into the fleshy part of Grey’s nose. As a man of stone, the Hunter wasn’t able to move very fast as he slowly brought his hands up to his face, but by then the damage was done. Vesper leapt from the man’s face, onto his hand and then back onto the stairs as Kile quickly scooped him up.

  The sudden pain caused Grey to lose his concentration as he turned back to his normal self, which really wasn’t that much of an improvement. He clutched his nose cursing. The blood was seeping through his fingers. The smell of it was almost intoxicating, but Kile didn’t wait around to see how much damage Vesper had done, she made for the top of the stairs.

  The second floor was worse than the first, since the second floor no longer existed. O
nly a few floor joists and the main beam remained. She didn’t stop to think about falling or even look for a safer way around. She just ran the length of the wooden beam to the far side of the house where she leapt over the alley below and landed on the second floor of the abandoned house next door. Only then did she realize what she had done. Running the length of the beam was one thing, but the jump was easily a ten foot span. She should never have made it.

  -No time to rest, they still come.-

  The voice said even as it showed her the Hunters as well as the city guards closing in on her from all directions. They must have seen her make the jump as they were now converging on the abandoned house and were trying to break down the front door.

  -Climb higher.-

  She took the stairs up to the third floor…

  -We will help you, as we can.-

  …and she found herself standing in a room overflowing with bats. The entire ceiling was alive as they began to stir.

  -Come, the night is upon us.-

  They said in unsent as they awoke from their sleep.

  The bats began to fill the room, flying around her head in an almost silent whirlwind as they escaped the upstairs room through a hole in the side of the building. As unnerved as she had always been about bats, she did not fear them now, she was more afraid of the vir that had reached the second floor and were on their way up.

  She made for the opening that the bats were pouring out of and without thinking, leapt across to the building on the other side. The distance wasn’t as great as the first jump and the building was a bit shorter, but she still managed to land on her feet. She heard the curses and screams of the vir as they entered the bat’s room.

  She afforded herself a moment of mirth, but still hoped that none of her new friends had been injured helping her escape, but she hadn’t escaped yet. She still had to get Grim and get out of Littenbeck before the Hunter’s could get her. Unfortunately she didn’t get very far.