Path of the Specialist

by Pedro Urvi

  Sigrid and Annika finished talking, and the leader of the Shelter turned to them.

  “This test was necessary, I hope you understand that. It’s nothing personal, but we have a murderer among us and I need to find him at all costs. The result has not been what I expected. We haven’t found the culprit. All the same, I know it’s one of you, and I’m going to find that person. We’ll be watching you day and night. The moment the culprit makes a mistake, we’ll fall on him. I give you my word, I’m going to find out who it is. Now you may go.”

  Lasgol and his friends exchanged a few comments, then started to go back. Astrid left, chatting with Ingrid and Erika. Lasgol lagged behind and turned toward the leader of the Shelter. There was a doubt in his mind which he needed to clarify.

  “Mother Specialist...”

  “Yes, Lasgol, what is it?”

  “Why didn’t you give Isgord the Truth Test?”

  “When I judged him over your attack?”

  “Yes...”

  Sigrid sighed. “For two reasons. In the first place, it would have been no use in a trial, as his mind would have been disturbed. Potions ought not to be, and must not be, used in trials. Or in situations which are crucial, since they’re not totally reliable, as you’ve just seen. They might indicate something wrong. They have their advantages and disadvantages. On most occasions they work well, which is why I use them in certain situations, but they must be thought out very carefully. Today I did it because the situation is very serious, and any path that gets us closer to the truth needs to be explored.”

  “Right...”

  “The second and most important reason is that I already knew it was him. I knew he was guilty.”

  Lasgol was taken aback. “But –” he managed to mutter.

  “I saw it in his eyes. Experience and the Path of the Specialist have taught me to get a glimpse into people’s true nature. I am rarely wrong. Some say I can read a person’s soul if I so wish. In Isgord’s there are fathomless depths of pain and rage which make him commit harmful acts. One day he’s going to pay very dearly for that soul of his, which is rotting away little by little because he doesn’t want to renounce the path of evil and does nothing to heal it.”

  “So why not put him on trial?”

  “There was no evidence. Without evidence you can’t judge anyone – even knowing their soul and their motives.”

  Lasgol breathed out heavily. “I understand...”

  “But I have my eye on him, as have the Elder Specialists. There won’t be any more incidents with you.”

  “Thank you, Mother Specialist.”

  “If I’d found the culprit today I wouldn’t have been able to judge him either, because of his or her mind being disturbed by magic, but it would have allowed me to search for evidence and then try that person on the basis of that.”

  “I understand...”

  “I will find the culprit, I can assure you.”

  “It wasn’t me.”

  Sigrid smiled. “I know. Don’t you worry.”

  “Thank you, Mother Specialist.”

  Chapter 29

  Lasgol focused on his training and tried not to be obsessed with what was happening. He went on visiting Ilsa and her cubs every day. Now he hunted with them, as if he were simply another cub. Gisli did not usually go with him, because he also had to instruct Erika, Luca and Axe. Today, however, he was going with him. It was always more interesting when the Elder did this, but when he went by himself he enjoyed being with the cubs so much that the time seemed to fly past. It amazed him to see Ilsa greeting Elder Gisli as if she were his kitten, a huge kitten capable of killing a man in the blink of an eye. The Elder would stroke her, and she would reply by rubbing herself against his body in a display of affection.

  That day they were in the mountains, following the trail of a female mountain goat they were hunting. Gisli was using the hunt to teach Lasgol to improve his skills as a tracker. Following a trail in an area as steep and rocky as that, where there was practically nothing to hold on to, was a complicated business. Mountain goats, on the other hand, were able to roam the area at ease. Their balance was outstanding, and they could go up almost vertical rock-faces.

  Lasgol was getting instruction in both specialties, Beast Whisperer and Tireless Tracker, which made him doubly happy. If it had been his own choice, he would have stayed with Elder Gisli for another whole year, but unfortunately, he knew that this was not possible. He needed to graduate as a Specialist and serve as a Ranger. The idea of failing, of not attaining the specialty, came into his mind, but he shook off the idea at once and stayed positive. He would manage it. He had to learn everything Gisli taught him and work as hard as possible.

  “To whisper to a beast, you need first to gain its acceptance, then its respect, then last but not least, its trust.” At the sight of his pupil’s awed expression, Gisli repeated this to Lasgol as if it were a dogma.

  “Yes, Master.” Lasgol had gained the acceptance of Ilsa and her cubs and was beginning to earn their respect. Or at least so he thought, though he was not completely sure about this, since the cats had their own ideas and humans did not impress them too much.

  “Today we’re going to work on respect,” Gisli said.

  Lasgol was enthusiastic and nervous at the same time. He did not want to fail and he knew that Ilsa might turn on him if he did not do things well. She was a big cat, and as such she was aggressive, territorial and full of strong character.

  They were going after the mountain goat in single file. Ilsa went first, moving with the stealth and grace of a great, lethal cat. The three cubs followed her, imitating everything their mother did. Ona came last and would look back now and then to see whether Lasgol and Gisli were following them. Ona’s two brothers were males, and they had decided to call them Igor and Hari. Gisli had suggested the names and Lasgol found them perfect. Somehow giving names to those beautiful wild animals felt strange. They did not belong to him, and so he felt he had no right to give them names. But Gisli had explained to him that humans, unlike animals, needed to give names to things to recognize them, to call them and also to become familiar with them. Animals did not need them. So that giving them names was only so that both would feel more linked to the family, and so that the cats would come when they were called. It did not mean any kind of possession. This left Lasgol feeling easier.

  The mountain goat went on climbing up through a very steep, rocky, snow-covered area. The icy wind blew in hissing gusts at that height. Lasgol was beginning to have trouble keeping his balance and his grip. Ilsa and her cubs on the other hand seemed to be having none at all. After rounding a rock, he skidded on the snow which covered the spot where he had put his support foot and almost fell. Luckily he was able to seize a hold with one hand and stay upright.

  “Be very careful,” Gisli warned him. “This area is very dangerous.”

  He was looking concerned. If Lasgol fell, the Elder would find it very hard to grab hold of him and they could both fall. Lasgol looked down and swallowed. They were very high up, and it was more than sixty feet to the rocky ground beneath. If he fell, he would break all the bones in his body.

  Ilsa stopped and stared at them. She did not look happy. She had not liked them making a noise, because the quarry might hear them and escape. Ona looked at Lasgol and opened her mouth in a fierce but soundless gesture. Igor and Hari did not even look at him. It was obvious that they were demanding silence for the hunt. Lasgol sighed; he was not going to gain the family’s respect this way.

  They went on with the chase into the distance, now in complete silence. Lasgol knew that with every footstep, every hold, he was staking his life. There was more snow the higher they went, and the rocks were shapeless and harder to negotiate. Seeing how easily Ilsa and the cubs climbed, he wished he could turn himself into a snow panther. Unfortunately, since he was not a shifter, this was utterly beyond his reach. He looked back and found that even the Elder was having trouble climbing, and this made him
distinctly uneasy.

  Suddenly Ilsa stopped and crouched, concealing herself behind a group of boulders partially covered in snow. The cubs followed her example. Lasgol realized that her fur blended with the grey and white around her, so that her pelt was perfectly adapted to that environment. He could barely see her himself, nor could her prey. Gisli gestured to him to flatten himself on the ground, and he did so at once. He watched carefully and saw that the goat had stopped to graze not far from them.

  Ilsa looked at them, and Lasgol knew it was the moment of the hunt.

  Gisli touched his shoulder and he turned his head. With two fingers he indicated Lasgol’s bow. Lasgol nodded and very carefully took the bow he carried slung at his back. The Elder signaled him to nock an arrow and aim at the she-goat. The order surprised him. Shouldn’t they let Ilsa be the one to get the prey? As there was no time for explanations and a Ranger always had to follow orders, he did what Gisli had indicated. He nocked an arrow and got ready to release, but did not raise his head to aim for fear the goat would see him and escape.

  Ilsa began to move with the stealth and skill of the great cats. She was a natural hunter, silent and lethal. She moved very slowly, and only when she was certain that her prey was not looking, measuring each step with extreme caution. Even her long tail was raised tautly to avoid brushing against the snow. The cubs waited in hiding, knowing what their mother was about to do. Lasgol realized that the panther was approaching the goat from behind with the wind in her face, so that it could not smell her. All it could do was hear her because as she was behind it, camouflaged among rocks and snow, it could not see her.

  Lasgol got ready. The moment was coming closer. With the cold and the altitude, the wind blew sharply and he had to half-close his eyes. He was also troubled by the whistling of the wind, which prevented him from hearing either Ilsa or the goat. He was looking through an opening between two high boulders, but did not have a good view. He prepared to release in case it was necessary, but watching Ilsa closing in on her prey from behind like a ghost of the snow, without the goat being aware of it, he did not think it would be necessary for him to step in.

  He was not mistaken.

  Suddenly Ilsa gave a tremendous leap. Supporting herself on her powerful hind legs and tail, she leapt an unthinkable distance and pounced on the goat, which had never at any moment been aware that it was in the slightest danger. The panther went for the throat and killed it in the blink of an eye, so that it never even had time to react. It all happened incredibly fast, in an absolute silence which was only broken by the goat’s bleat of fear a split second before it died.

  “The snow panther is a majestic predator,” Gisli whispered in his ear, “and in the snowy mountains she has no rival.”

  “That was amazing.”

  “Learn from her. There’s nobody better at following a trail and preparing an attack than her.”

  The three cubs began to approach their mother, who had the catch in her jaws and would not let it go. Lasgol marveled at how stealthy and lethal panthers were, particularly in this terrain. When the three cubs reached maturity and took over those domains to hunt on their own, they would be equally silent and lethal, because their mother was teaching them well. They still had some time left, as they needed to grow a lot more before they could leave the company of their mother and hunt alone. He wondered what Ona would be like when she grew up. Very like her mother, he had no doubt.

  He watched the three cubs coming up to their mother. Ona was last. Suddenly a huge pair of horns appeared behind a rock. Lasgol sensed danger and turned toward it.

  It was a male mountain goat: a big specimen, strong, with long, pointed horns that looked very dangerous. It was coming in response to the goat’s bleat. It charged against the panthers.

  Ilsa dropped her catch. In a different situation the panther would avoid combat with a male like this. The danger of being pierced by one of those horns, or ripped open, was not worth it, but she had to protect her cubs. Ona and her brothers were not yet aware of the attack and were moving slowly and calmly toward their mother.

  Lasgol reacted by pure instinct. He aimed at the big male and released. The arrow hit it near the heart, but did not manage to kill it. Even though it was mortally wounded, it continued its charge and went for Ona, who was the nearest target. Ilsa leapt to protect her cub. It was another prodigious leap, but it fell short of the male goat’s line of attack. It was on the point of killing Ona, who turned her head at that moment and realized the danger. She growled and held herself stiffly in a defensive stance.

  Gisli was nocking his bow, but as he did not have it ready, he would not manage to release in time. Lasgol was already nocking a second arrow. The male was going to attack Ona, then charge on at her brothers. Lasgol felt that in a single moment more it would all turn into an immense tragedy, and his heart skipped a beat. There was only one solution, and he did not hesitate. He aimed at the male goat’s heart and called upon his True Shot skill. There came the green flash of magic in action, and he released. When the big male goat was two steps away from Ona, the arrow pierced its heart and it died instantly. It fell to the ground, and its momentum carried it on to crash into Ona and her brothers, who leapt away to avoid it.

  Nobody was hurt.

  Lasgol gasped in relief.

  Gisli slapped him on the back. “Great shot!”

  Ilsa checked that her cubs were all right. She licked them, and they huddled around her without taking their eyes off the dead male goat.

  “Thank you, Master.”

  Gisli said, kneeling beside the dead male. “I thought we were going to have a tragedy on our hands. That specimen is magnificent.”

  Lasgol knelt beside the Elder and looked at it. He thanked the Ice Gods for his Gift. If not for it, Ona and one of her brothers would now be dead. He gasped once again in relief. Then he felt something brushing against his leg. It was Ona, who was rubbing herself against him lovingly. He stroked her head and chest.

  “That was scary, eh?” he said in a whisper.

  She looked at him and gave a gentle growl, more like that of a cat than that of a snow panther.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll look after you,” he said, and went on petting her.

  Suddenly Ilsa came up to him and looked steadily into his eyes. When he saw the big cat’s head on the same level as his own, two fingerbreadths away, he felt uneasy. He had just seen what Ilsa’s powerful jaws were capable of, not to mention her claws. Why was she staring at him? Just for safety, he stopped stroking Ona in case her mother did not approve. She had been on the point of losing her cub, and it was logical for her to be reluctant to let a human touch her. He began to feel nervous.

  “Easy, boy...” Gisli said, almost inaudibly.

  Lasgol tried to keep calm, but it was not easy with the jaws of a huge snow panther in front of his face. He could feel her hot breath, which did not help to make him feel any better. Suddenly the panther moved forward a little more and rubbed her head against his own. For a moment he did not know what to do, so he instinctively did the same and began to rub his own head against hers. It was a moment that was both unreal and wonderful.

  “Very good,” Gisli said encouragingly. “Keep going.”

  Lasgol let Ilsa rub against his body and braced himself against her shoves, which were strong enough to upset his balance. He had the impression that it was not so much that she wanted to push him over, rather that she was misjudging her own strength. Ona joined her mother, and both rubbed themselves against him.

  “They’re showing their gratitude,” Gisli said.

  “They are?” Lasgol replied in surprise.

  “Yes, that’s how they show their appreciation.”

  Suddenly Ilsa put her paws on his shoulders and gave him something like a hug. He put his arms around her body and they stayed like that, holding one another. Ilsa gave a long, gentle whistle.

  “And that means you’ve reached the second stage.”

  Lasgol was amazed
by what was happening. “The what, Master?”

  “You’ve earned their respect.”

  Chapter 30

  Lasgol was happy with his Wildlife training and the progress he was making with Ilsa and her family. A few days later, during a break, he went with Astrid to the lake of blue water where he had had that strange experience with his mother’s pendant. What with everything to do with Astrid’s poisoning and the intense training and practice, he had not had time to test the pendant beyond a couple of isolated moments, both without luck.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked.

  He nodded. “I have to, for my parents.”

  “I understand. I’m with you,”

  “Thanks, you’re the best.”

  “No, I’m not, but I love you and I’ll always help you. In everything.”

  Lasgol’s jaw dropped. He was surprised by the sudden admission. “I... love you too...”

  “I just had to tell you. I don’t do that often enough.”

  “Are you all right?”

  “Being so close to dying makes you realize all sorts of things. How much you appreciate life..., how much you love certain people... how much I love you.”

  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Yeah, it’ll pass. I’ve been thinking about what happened, about how lucky I am not to have died and to be left without any after-effects.”

  “You still have that memory loss?”

  “Yup, but I’m determined to get it back and find out who poisoned me and why.”

  “You can count on me.”

  “I know I can always count on you, and it really means a lot to me. Ingrid and Viggo told me you were insane with worry.”

  “I almost lost you...”

  “And me you.”

  “But we’re alive and together, despite everything.”

  Astrid threw herself on Lasgol and kissed him, hard and passionately. He was left breathless.