Hunter's Bounty (Veller)

by Spoor, Garry

  “Yes sir.” She replied with a nodding bow.

  It was never a good sign when Councilmen Drain was happy.

  She stepped out into the hall, letting the door close behind her. Why did his office always feel like it was stuck in the middle of winter she wondered as she rubbed her arms?

  “So, how did it go?”

  “Not too good sir, I think he’s up to something.” Erin replied.

  “I know he’s up to something, I just don’t know what… yet.”

  Mathew Latherby stepped out of the shadows as he stared at the closed door.

  “I don’t think he has any intentions of brining Kile in… alive.”

  “I was afraid of that.” Latherby replied.

  The door opened as Grey stepped out. He didn’t look nearly as annoyed as he had when he first learned he would be working with Erin, which only meant that the personal matter that Drain needed to speak to him about, was something that set the Hunter’s mind at ease. It was either that or the fact that his bandaged nose made him look too comical to take seriously.

  “Who were you talking to?” Grey asked.

  Erin looked down the hall, but Latherby was gone.

  “Nobody, so, are you ready.”

  “I suppose.” He said as he fell in step behind her. “So, what now?”

  “Information, but first we get something to eat.” She added.

  ***

  The Iron Table was a small establishment just outside the ring of Guild buildings, which meant that most of the Hunter came there to eat, and today was no exception. The topic of conversation at each of the tables didn’t really come as a surprise to Erin as she walked to the back of the room with Grey in tow. It was all about the mass confusion throughout the streets of Littenbeck, even if most of the hunters didn’t really know what it was all about. Hearing the different takes on the events of last night was rather amusing as they covered everything from a rabid dog to an escape Wili.

  She found Daniel and Folkstaff sitting at one of the tables, tucked away in the back of the room, away from the crowds. Daniel stood up as Erin approached.

  “What’s he doing here?” He asked as he pointed a finger at Grey.

  “He’s going to help us.” She said, and as the words left her lips, she found them hard to believe.

  “The more the merrier I suppose.” Folkstaff replied in his casual way.

  “So, did you get in contact with him?” She asked a she took a seat opposite Folkstaff.

  “I found him.” Folkstaff replied. “And I told him you wished to speak with him. Whether he actually comes or not, well, you know how they can be.”

  “I suppose I do.”

  “And who are we suppose to be meeting here?” Grey asked.

  “I’m hoping someone who can give us a little more information on our target.”

  “Kile is not a target.” Daniel shouted.

  “Ease up boy, your scaring the civilians.” Folkstaff replied. “It’s just a figure of speech.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t like it.”

  “Maybe we should leave the… kid at home.” Grey added.

  “Kid! I’ll have you know that I’m the same age as Kile, and from where I’m sitting it looks like she kicked your ass pretty good.”

  “Is that what you think kid?” Gray asked as he pushed out his chair.

  “Oh come on. It’s like watching a pair of first years. We don’t have time, and I don’t have the patience.” Erin interrupted.

  Grey slowly sank back into his seat, his eyes never leaving Daniel as he addressed Erin. “So, who is this informant we’re supposed to meet.”

  “I’m assuming that would be me.” Morgan Vain replied as he appeared in the vacant seat beside Erin. He was a tall, slim balding man with narrow eyes and sunken cheeks, a pair of thin wired rimmed glasses perched on the end of a pointed nose. He wore the yellow robes of a scholar mystic. Daniel almost fell off his chair at the sudden appearance of his mystic arts instructor. Even Grey seemed unnerved by the old man, only Folkstaff showed no reaction.

  “I’m glad you could make time for us.” Erin said as she tried to hide the fact that even she had been startled by his sudden appearance.

  “Time… I do not make time, I use the time that is available to me.” Morgan said as he produced a cup of rosemary tea from the air in front of him.

  “And I’ll try not to take up any more of your time than necessary.” Erin replied. “I just have a few questions, what do you know of Emara Lon.”

  “Emara Lon. What does she have to do with finding Veller?” Grey demanded.

  “This is my investigation Grey. If you don’t like the way it’s going, you’re more than welcome to return to Councilmen Drain and ask him for another assignment.” Erin told him. Grey leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “Emara Lon is a very skilled mystic, or she would be if she would concentrate more on her studies.”

  “So she’s returned to the tower?” Daniel asked.

  “No, as far as I know she had not. She went missing over a week ago. We have yet to find her.”

  “She was taken by the fugitive Veller.” Grey replied. “She’s probably dead by now.”

  Morgan casually took a sip of his tea, before replying. “If you truly believe that, then you know very little of your subject.”

  “So you don’t think Kile could have done it?” Erin asked.

  “I’ve taught her for three years at the Academy. Not one of my best students when it came to the mystic arts, but definitely up there. If you believe that she killed, let alone kidnapped Emara Lon, then I’m afraid you’ll never find her.”

  “What’s that suppose to mean.”

  “It means… you’re obviously looking for the wrong girl. The Kile you’re looking for, does not exist.”

  “So you say.” Grey replied. “If you’re her mystic instructor, then what’s her edge?”

  “Even you should know that I cannot tell you that. The edge of a Hunter is known only by the Hunter and the mystic that teaches them.”

  “Her Hunter status has been revoked. She is no longer a hunter and therefore is no longer afforded the privilege of your silence. So, what is her edge?”

  “So, she has been tried already?”

  “Tried… well no, not yet.”

  “Not even in abstention.”

  “Um… no, not exactly.”

  “Then I’m afraid I can not tell you anything. Your council may have revoked her status as a hunter, but that does not mean I have. Until she is found guilty of the crimes you believe she has committed, she is still a hunter.”

  “Is there anything you could tell us about her, anything that might help?” Erin asked.

  Morgan set his cup down on the table, leaning forward as he stroked his beard the way most mystics did when they were thinking. He looked at Erin carefully, and when mystics look at anyone carefully, it was difficult to know what they were actually seeing, but what he saw did force him to hesitate.

  “I understand.” He said, nodding his head slowly, although Erin wasn’t sure what he understood. “I will tell you what you need to know, but only you.”

  “Doesn’t work that way mystic.” Grey replied. “We’re looking for Veller together, whatever you tell her, you tell me.”

  “Of course, I did not mean to be rude.” Morgan said as he leaned back in his chair, pushing his glasses back up his nose. “But not here, too many ears. There is a lovely spot just outside the city walls. I will meet you there, but I can’t stay long, there is so much for me to do.”

  “If we must. Shall we go then?” Grey asked as he pushed himself away from the table and got to his feet.

  “Of course, I will meet you there.” Morgan said as he held out one hand to Erin. “Do you require a lift my dear?”

  “A lift?”

  No sooner had the words left her mouth then she felt as if she was being pulled through a hole in space, only to find herself sitting in an overstu
ffed wing back chair in the middle of a field. Morgan sat across from her in a matching chair, his yellow robes pooled about him, the cup of tea still in his hand.

  “Such an obnoxious individual.” Morgan commented.

  “Where are we?” Erin asked as she looked around the clearing, but she couldn’t see anything that looked familiar, not that there was anything to look at, the only things around them were a few trees and a lot of grass.

  “Don’t worry. We’re still in Aru, the Setton province to be exact.” Morgan replied.

  “Setton… the Setton Province. You said a spot just outside the city walls.”

  “We are outside the city walls.”

  “We’re about a three day trek outside the city walls.” Erin exclaimed.

  “That would depend on what city you are referring to.” Morgan replied. “I never specified, now ask me your questions, and I will answer the best I can.”

  The problem when dealing with mystics was that they never did anything the easy way.

  “I need to know what Kile can do.”

  “You want to know her edge.” Morgan said with a grin as he waved his hand. The cup of rosemary tea disappeared. “How much do you think you know?”

  “It is an edge like nothing I’ve ever seen or heard of before.”

  “This is true.”

  “She’s a freak… isn’t she?”

  Morgan rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Such a harsh word for something we don’t yet understand. I prefer the word that Kile used, she is a… miscellaneous.”

  “Call it what you want, it still doesn’t fit the definition of the mystic arts that I was taught when I was at the academy.”

  “Not to put too fine a point on it dear, but what Hunters know about the mystic arts is about as much as a blade of grass in an open meadow.” He said as he stretched out his arms.

  “Fine, I’m not really here to discuss the merits of what the Hunters know. I need to know what Kile is capable of if I’m to bring her in.”

  “Regrettably, I cannot help you.”

  “Why not? You said you would.”

  “And I will, but I can not tell you what she is capable of, since I don’t know.”

  “But you’re her teacher.”

  “Please understand, yes I was her teacher, but as you have pointed out, she is… in your words… a freak. Her edge does not fall into the same categories as most hunters, she is unique, and because she is unique, I have no idea what she is capable of. What I do know, from my time with her at the academy, is that she has a strong connection with the natural realm, possibly a bit too strong, and that may be the problem.”

  “Problem? What do you mean?”

  “As I observed her during my time as her mystic arts instructor, I noticed a few qualities about her edge. To start with, she can communicate with animals, to such a degree that she can actually experience what they experience. She can see what they see, feel what they feel, it is a very unusual gift, one that I have not seen and have only read about in old books dealing with the alva. She also has the ability to command, or control animals when she puts her mind to it, an ability that affects her… quite deeply.”

  “Deeply? How deeply?”

  “I fear that it may strain her very psyche.”

  “Are you saying she could go… mad?”

  “It is possible. What you have to understand is that she walks the line between our world and the natural world. As long as she maintains that balancing act, she is fine.”

  “And if she doesn’t?”

  “There’s no telling what could happen. It is unprecedented in the mystic history. You must realize at this point that she identifies more with the natural world than she does with our world.”

  “Thank you Morgan.” Erin said as she got up, with a little difficulty, from the overstuffed wingback chair.

  “I hope that what I’ve told you will help.” The mystic replied. “But think on this, you are not hunting just a girl, nor are you hunting an animal, but some combination of both. At the moment, she is running and that makes her unpredictable, corner her, and that makes her dangerous.”

  “Thank you, I will keep that in mind.” Erin replied.

  “Then with that, I bid you good luck.” Morgan said as he got up from his own chair. “And please give my regards to your obnoxious friend. Tell him I just couldn’t wait any longer.”

  Before Erin could say anything more, the yellow mystic waved his hands and she felt herself being pulled back through reality to stand once again inside the Iron Table. Grey quickly jumped to his feet at her sudden appearance.

  “Where did you go? What did he tell you?” The Hunter demanded.

  “That’s not important.” Erin replied dismissively. “What is important is we have to find out where she’s going now.”

  “Last report from the guards that tried to pursue her was that she was heading south, and at a good clip too.” Folkstaff replied.

  “Then I guess that’s where we’re going.”

  ***~~~***

  13

  “This doesn’t make any sense what so ever.” Kile said as she flipped through the burnt pages of the book. “It’s just too damaged.”

  The girl was reclining on the back of the Mountain Pony, her head on his neck her feet propped up on his backside as Grim kept a steady pace going absolutely nowhere. Vesper rode between the Pony’s ears keeping a look out since the yarrow had proven that his eyesight was sharper than either of theirs. A simple squeak of a warning and the Mountain Pony would move off the road to avoid any unwanted attention.

  “Okay, what do you make of this one.” Kile said as she bent the book back and started to read. “What we did, we did for King and country, and the deeds that I have written within these pages may have just doomed us all, but if history cannot forgive us our sins, I can only pray that the gods may. It is…”

  -It is what?-

  Grim asked.

  “That's just it, I can’t make out anything more, the handwriting is too faded and half the page is missing. Didn’t this guy think to use decent ink?”

  -Why do you even care? Obviously the book is useless.-

  “Then why try to burn it?”

  -Because it’s boring… It was probably just burned in the fire.-

  “No, this was burned long before the fire. I think whatever was in this book. Brian Tally probably didn’t want anyone to read, so he tried to burn it.”

  -Sounds like a good idea to me.-

  “Yeah. But then why save it? Why hide it away?”

  -Why read it?-

  “There may be something important in this, something that will give me a clue as to why this Brian Tally was killed.”

  -Probably because he wrote a boring book.-

  “I’m guessing it’s something more than that.” She replied. “He’s saying that he did something that history may not forgive him for.”

  -Because he wrote a boring book.-

  “You’re not helping Grim.”

  -I’m a Mountain Pony, what do I know about literature.-

  “Not much, that’s for sure.”

  -Well old learned one. We are coming to a fork in the road. Which way now?-

  She looked up from the book, craning her neck to look behind her, or more precisely in the direction Grim was moving, but nothing looked familiar, not that she thought anything would. She had never been this far south before and had no idea where she should be going. At this point, until she had a better idea of what was going on, one place was as good as another, besides, if she didn’t know where she was going, how could the Hunter get there ahead of her.

  “I don’t know.” She replied dismissively as she turned her attentions back to the book, flipping through a few more pages. “You choose this time.”

  -I chose last time.-

  “Fine, just… keep going right.”

  -We keep going right and we’ll end up back where we started from.-

  Grim replied as he casually took the road t
o the right.

  -You’re missing one possible connection in your book.-

  “And what would that be?”

  -He said ‘what we did’, who are the ‘we’? Maybe your dead friend in the forest is part of that ‘we’-

  “What, you think David Draw helped Brian Tally do what ever it is that he did.”

  -And got himself killed for it.-

  “Then Arthur Linny was probably also a member of this group. So all we have to do is find out who the other members are. If we could get to them before the assassin does, then we can catch the assassin.”

  -That’s assuming that there are any more members left.-

  “Well…. yeah, I guess so. Otherwise all the members are dead and we’re back to where we started from. But then again there was another something in here that might help.” She replied as she quickly flipped through the book. She stopped on a particular bunt page and started to read. “Of the young Hunter, he has received his pay for the part that he has played in this dark conspiracy. If the king had truly known what this man’s part had been would he have understood? Would he have knighted this hunter? For my part, I do not believe so.”

  “What do you think? You think he meant a Hunter as in a Guild Hunter, one of us?”

  -You’re no longer a hunter.-

  “Thanks, like I needed you to rub that in.”

  -Just pointing out the obvious.-

  “If it’s actually a Guild Hunter, then not all the men in this dark conspiracy were assassinated, since none of the men were Hunters.”

  -Twenty one hunters have gone missing, eight more were found dead. How do you know that one of them wasn’t the hunter in the book.-

  “Where did you get those numbers from?”

  -Some of the other horses were talking.-

  “Well, I suppose it is possible, but giving the flair that the assassin went about carrying out these assassinations, and the general age of the three men that are already dead, I figured the hunter would be a lot older, and if he was killed, we would already know about it.”

  -The book did say it was a young hunter.-

  “Yeah, but the books old.” She said as she spun around and sat up on the Pony’s back. “This is what I got so far. A group of men needed a hunter to help them do something that they believed to be right, but was so bad that they all went into hiding. Now someone is seeking revenge for what they did, and is killing them off one by one.”