She was a young girl of sixteen, long read hair that she kept tided in a pony tail

Hunter’s Bounty

Garry T. Spoor

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Kile Veller sat alone, on the top of the hill, under the shade of an old oak tree as she watched the people go about their seemingly busy lives. A young girl of seventeen, long red hair that she keeps tied in a pony tail. An average girl with an average face, though some would say attractive, although she never liked her nose. It was her father’s nose and she had issues with her father. She was small, compared with most, slender, almost frail looking, but then why had she chosen to become a Hunter. The life of a Hunter was not something to be taken lightly. It was a life of solitude, a life of danger. She could handle the solitude, she liked the solitude… it was the danger that she had a problem with.

She casually stroked the purring cat that sat on her lap as she looked over the town that stretched out before her. She had found the spot on top of the hill, under the old oak tree about a month after arriving in Coopervill. It was quiet, it gave her a great view of the town, and nobody ever came up here. That was probably the most important aspect of the old tree, that nobody ever came to visit it. She had been living in Coopervill for eight months now and she still couldn’t really call it home. The people hadn’t really accepted her. They greeted her, they were kind to her, but she still didn’t feel a part of the town, and so, whenever she could, she would come to the hill, sit under the oak tree and watch the town as it played out before her like a spectator watching a show.

Unfortunately this was the same show she had seen yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. Each day blending into the next and if it wasn’t for the fact that the sun set at night, she wouldn’t know when one day ended and the next began. It had been that way for the last couple of weeks, ever since the Guild put a freeze of class E deliveries.

“I suppose we should be getting you back to your mistress.” Kile told the old sleepy cat.

-Home?-

The cat asked.

To anyone else the cat’s replied would have been a simple purr, but to Kile it was a single word, and a word that held images and feelings that the cat had attached to it, because that was Kile’s edge. A unique ability unlike any other hunter that had every passed through the Academy. Kile could communicate with that natural world, or simply put, she could speak with animals.

“Yes, home.” She said as she set the reluctant cat aside. She was sure that the feline would have stayed on her lap the entire afternoon if she had let it. “I don’t suppose you know where your home is?”

-No.-

The cat had been lost, the notice was posted on the Guild House board of jobs that weren’t important enough to be assigned, but since deliveries were put on hold until the Guild could investigate the loss of seventeen Hunters, Kile had to do something.

Now that she was no longer on probation and was a certified level five Hunter, it meant she was responsible for paying her own way. The guild would no longer cover the expenses of her room, board or stable fees, and those added up pretty quickly. The small jobs did provide a bit of coin which she dearly needed since most of the bounty, from the capture of the Minotaur, was sent to her brother back in Riverport.

“Well, I don’t want to drop you off at the Guild House. I don’t think old Kane would appreciate it much. Do you remember anything about your home?”

-Home.-

The cat replied, and the word carried with it a place of comfort, a soft rug by the fireplace, a bowl of cream in a kitchen, a basket in the corner of a bedroom, the kind face of a caring mistress, all surrounded by a small stone house with a thatched roof and a garden in the yard. She would hate to tell the cat that it had just described over half the houses in Coopervill.

“Maybe Alisa will know.” She said with a smile to reassure the cat.

She came down from the hill and walked through the center of town with the cat cradled in her arms as she headed for the Apple Blossom Livery. People stopped and stared, a few greeted her with half-hearted enthusiasm, but most whispered behind her back as she passed. There were words like “odd” or “unusual”, “Strange” was another common word but Kile had become at ease with it all. She could no more become a part of their world and their lives as they could become a part of hers. When Guild Master Latherby told them that the Hunter lives apart from the people, she was not sure that this was what he meant.

Coopervill was just another place on a long list of places that she felt isolated from, but she was getting used to that feeling, to not fitting in, not being wanted. Her father never wanted her, she was not welcome at the Academy, and the Hunter’s guild was just looking for a way to get rid of her.

She was sure that they would have seized their opportunity with the whole Minotaur incident last year, but so far they let it slide and Kile had managed to keep her head down since then, but keeping a low profile in a small town in the middle of nowhere wasn’t very difficult to do. It wasn’t as if anything ever happened in Coopervill that warranted the attention of the Hunter’s Guild and for that she was grateful. There were members of the Guild that never want her to become a hunter, it was nothing personal, and they didn’t even know her. It was simply due to the fact that she was a farmer’s daughter or, it could be due to the fact that she had Orceen blood.

She had never known what an Orceen was, until Master Adams at the academy had explained it to her, and now she understood why some people would shun her for it, but only if it was true. The Orceen were a nomadic people and in some way, kin to the Ogres. She had grown up in Riverport, a small farming community far off to the east, an entire kingdom away if truth be told. Her father was born and raised there. Her mother was born in the neighboring village of Littletree and neither one had ever mentioned anything about the Orceen, and she doubted if they even knew what they were. Although if her father had known, he would have done his very best to keep it secret, and if he did know, he took it to his grave.

If it was true, and she would never admit that it was, she could now see why certain members of the Guild would hold it against her.

These members, these so called Son’s of Terrabin, were gaining in popularity, and they had a new direction for the Hunter’s Guild, one that did not tolerate the lower social classes, one that did not open itself up to female hunters, not that there were that many female hunters. Currently there were only two. What it came down to was a simple fact, if you did not measure up to what they consisted to be the perfect Hunter, then you were one step closer to the door, one step closer to being out of the Hunter’s Guild for good.

How they would manage that was anyone’s guess, but rumors were plentiful. As of the beginning of the year, five hunters have gone missing, and twelve more have turned up dead on routine missions. No one would actually say that the Son’s of Terrabin had anything to do with it but that didn’t stop them from thinking it, and Kile was one of them. She was told last year that someone may be hunting Hunters, but if it was true that Hunters were hunting Hunters, then things only became more complicated, and it was best if she remained as far away from the hostility as she could, and what better place than Coopervill.

She walked past the Bird and Bay inn, usually a central hub of activity for the small town, but it was still early in the day and the only activity that the Bird saw were two old men sitting outside on the bench smelling of rum. They pointed up at the sky, at the people, at the road, and talking about the good old days. On the second floor of the Inn, the north wing, she had a room that overlooked the main street and awoke each morning to the blacksmith’s hammer, whether she wanted to or not. Now that she was actually paying for her room, she had often thought to complain about its location, but she was afraid of what old Gus would give her in exchange. As it was, she had the entire second floor north wing to herself, which meant the public bathroom for that area was now a private bathroom for her alone, and she would tolerate the inconvenience of the blacksmith’s hammer for the added privacy.

Gus Prain, who owned and ran the Bird didn’t have much use for Hunters, especially young Hunters, but then Peter Prain, Gus’s only son, was a Hunter. Kile never knew Peter, he had graduated the Academy long before she ever joined, and then he lost his life in the Battle of Grover’s Den nearly two years ago, so Kile learned to watch her step around the old man.

The Battle of Grover’s Den, that’s what they were calling it now. The Hunter’s Guild took two years to decide, but they finally agreed on what to call it. Somehow it made it seem more distant, more historical and therefore less real, but it was all too real for Kile. She had lost a friend in that battle. Why didn’t they just call it what it really was? The Massacre at Grover’s Den. One thousand uhyre came over the border, the Callor armies pulled out a day earlier, leaving fourteen Hunters and a few platoons of Denal soldiers to defend the evacuation of the border towns, but it wasn’t enough, it wasn’t anywhere near enough. Over two hundred men women and children were slaughtered that day for no reason, and when it was over, the uhyre just returned to the Waste Lands leaving three burnt out towns behind them.

The western border had been quiet since then, and that was the problem, because nobody knows if it will happen again, when it will happen again, and why it happened the first time. The Provinces of Denal, Fennel and Blackmoore stand in the front line of another invasion, leaving their eastern borders virtually defenseless against the might of the Callor Province, although King Roland son of Jusen has decreed a non-hostility pact along the borders with the Callor Province, it really came down to what Lord Byron Rimes of Callor does.

The entire political atmosphere was just too much for Kile to comprehend, she only really understood about half of it, and the half that she did understand she wasn’t sure she had it right, but she knew one thing. She did not trust Lord Rimes. She had the misfortune of attending the Academy with Lord Rime’s son, Eric, and if Eric was anything like his father, it was a foregone conclusion that things were going to go from bad to worse at any moment. Lord Rimes has his eyes set on the Denal province, and although Hunters were supposed to remain politically neutral, it’s difficult to do, especially when she was assigned to a guild house in Coopervill which was sitting on the eastern border of the Denal province less than a day's ride from Callor.

Kile approached the Apple Blossom Livery where a young dark haired girl in a flowing blue and white dress was setting pies out to cool on the windowsill. She never thought anyone actually did that, it was just too story book like, but then Alisa Reaba seemed to live in her own little world, and Kile only had the opportunity to visit it once in a while, not that she would have wanted to stay there. Alisa’s world was a bit too happy for Kile, too sunny, too perfect. When she saw Kile at the edge of the road she waved, rather dramatically, before disappearing back into her kitchen. A few minutes later the door to the small farmhouse opened with a bang and out came Alisa down the front steps, wiping her hands on her apron.

She was an attractive young girl, about a year or two older than Kile and she ran the Apple Blossom Livery by herself, although she did have about five or six people working under her.

“Why aren’t you wearing that dress that we bought?” She asked as she crossed the yard.

It might not have been so much a question as it was an accusation.

“Because I’m working.” Kile replied. “I can’t very well go about the countryside in a dress.”

“And why not? You’re a lady first and a Hunter second.”

“That’s not the way I see it.”

Alisa sighed and shook her head. “You’re going to be single for the rest of your life if you keep that attitude.”

“That’s fine with me.” Kile replied. “I don’t exactly see men laying siege to this place.”

“I’m not without my suitors.” Alisa said with that familiar smile and Kile knew that she was getting into territory that she knew as much about as politics.

“I need your help.” Kile said, changing the subject.

“What about? Men? Clothes? Men without clothes?”

Maybe she didn’t change the subject far enough.

“Nothing of the sort, It’s about her.” Kile said as she brought the cat up for Alisa to see. If anyone knew anything about anything around town, it was Alisa Reaba. There wasn’t a rumor that could be started without Alisa knowing all the details, whether they were true or not.

“Oh, who’s your new friend.” She asked as she reached out and scratched the cat behind the ear. It purred in contentment.

“I think her name is Moppin, if you can believe that.”

“Moppin? Didn’t Mrs. Miller lose a cat by the name of Moppin?”

“I don’t know that’s why I came here. The notice on the board was a bit vague, only a description of the cat and it was posted by a Rebecca.”

“That would be Rebecca Miller. Oh. She will be delighted that you found her cat. She’s really the only family Rebecca has left in Coopervill.”

“I can drop her off if you tell me where she lives.”

“Oh, it’s not far from here, just up the road really. I’ll come with you. I need a break from the baking.” Alisa said as she untied her apron and slung it over the clothes line beside the fence.

“So, where’s Vesper? I didn’t think you went anywhere without him.”

“Under the circumstances…” Kile said holding the cat up again. “I thought it would be best if I left him back in my room. I wouldn’t want… Moppin… to get the wrong idea.”

“Smart thinking… so, still no assignments from your Guild?”

“Not a one.”

“I haven’t seen any other Hunters around, what about Marcus Taylor and that… Copper guy.”

“Steele, his name is James Steele.”

“Oh, Steel, Copper, it’s all the same.”

Kile couldn’t help but notices that Alisa remembered Marcus’s name, but then most of the women in Coopervill could.

“Steele’s on an escort assignment to Azintar and as for Marcus, well, the last I heard he went up north in search of the Beast of Spine Mountain.”

“The beast of Spine mountain?”

“Yeah, one of the last two Class A open scripts.”

“Oh he is so brave isn’t he? You don’t think he’ll have any problems… do you?”

“Hard to say, since no ones seen the Beast in the last century, he’s not even sure what he’s looking for, so I don’t know how he’ll know when if finds it.”

“Oh, of course he’ll find it.” Alisa replied with a dismissive wave of her hand, and Kile noticed the star struck look in the young girl’s eyes. It was not uncommon when people spoke about the Great Marcus Taylor that they had that look. The Hunter could bring back a half-starved mountain cats and convince the civilians that it was a ferocious beast, because that was Marcus’s edge.

“Here we are.” Alisa said as she stopped in front of a small farm house that looked surprisingly familiar. It was just as Moppin had vision it, but then so was the house beside it and the one across the road. That was one of the things that Kile hadn’t gotten used to, the different ways that animals see their surroundings and how they interpret them.

Alisa was already knocking on the front door by the time Kile caught up to her. The door opened and a short elderly woman with silver white hair peered out from within. If she was as old as she looked, Kile would have guessed somewhere in the neighborhood of two hundred, but she knew that wasn’t possible.

“Can I help you?” The woman asked in a rather raspy thin voice.

“Hello Mrs. Miller, it’s me, Alisa from down the road.”

The old woman smiled as she pulled the door open wider. “Alisa my dear, it’s been ages… and who is this with you?”

“This is a friend of mine, Kile Veller. She’s one of the new Hunter’s in town.”

By now the cat knew it was home, she either recognized the smell, or the voice of the old woman as she struggled to get free of Kile, who was doing all she could to keep from loosing the cat again.

“I think this is yours ma’am.” Kile said finally released the cat, almost throwing it at the old woman. She was surprisingly fast for her age as she caught the cat that leapt into her arms.

“Moppin, my Moppin.” The old woman cried as she hugged the cat that purred in return. “Thank you my dear… thank you. Please come in.”

Kile was happy enough to make her delivery and run, the Hunter that disappeared after a completed mission, it added to the whole mystery of the Guild, but Alisa wasn’t going to let Kile get away so fast. She grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the house.

The room was dimly lit, but then most of the places in Coopervill seemed to be dimly lit. It was either the small windows in the buildings or there was a shortage of candles or lamp oil. Maybe the fact that Coopervill was a mining community, they all got used to the dark Kile thought as she looked around the small room. It was just as Moppin had described it, better than the outside, with the rug by the fireplace and a basket in the corner of the bedroom. For a cat, Kile was sure you couldn’t do any better. There were an awful lot of knitted things lying around the small room, everything from hats and scarves to huge bedspreads and blankets. It would appear that Mrs. Miller liked to knit.

Alisa poked Kile sharply in the ribs. She turned to see Mrs. Miller setting out a bowl of something for Moppin.

“She asked you a question.” Alisa whispered.

“I’m sorry… I was just admiring your… knitting.” Kile quickly replied.

“Oh, do you like to knit?” The old woman asked.

“I… don’t… really know how to ma’am.”

Her mother had tried to teach her to knit once, but that was just one of those things that Kile never managed to pick up. Her fingers always seemed to get in the way. The only thing she managed to finish was a vest with no arm holes.

“Every young lady should know how to knit.” Mrs. Miller replied as she headed for her knitting supplies and Kile was afraid that she was going to start giving lessons on the spot.

“I’m afraid I don’t really have the time.”

“The young are always in such a rush.”

Yeah, like right now Kile thought as she took a step toward the door.

The old woman dug into her knitting supplies and picked up a rather emaciated purse.

“So, how much do I owe you dear?” She asked as her trembling fingers toiled at the knot.

“Owe?” Kile replied. She hadn’t really thought about that. That was what the Guild house took care of. She should have dropped the Cat off at the Guild house and then Mrs. Miller would have paid Kane and then Kane would have paid her, but looking at the state of Mrs. Miller’s purse, not to mention her house, it didn’t really look as if she could afford the Hunter’s fee. Was that one of the reasons that Kane never handed the assignment out, because he knew the financial status of the old woman.

“Forget about it ma’am.” Kile heard herself say as she approached Mrs. Miller and closed the old woman’s fingers around the small purse. “I did it on my day off.”

“But you returned my Moppin. I have to give you something.” Mrs. Miller replied as she slowly put the purse away. She looked around the room and finally picked up a red knitted scarf that hung over the back of the chair. “At least take this.”

Kile draped the scarf around her neck. “Thank-you ma’am.” She replied.

-Kile.-

Moppin bushed up against her legs, getting the young Hunter’s attention. Kile knew she couldn’t talk to the cat directly, not with people watching, they already thought she was strange. Those rumors didn’t need any more fuel. She knelt down to stroke the cat.

-Come… visit?-

“As long as you don’t go wandering out of the yard again. I don’t want to have to go looking for you.”

-I won’t-

The cat replied with a purr.

“I think we’d better get going.”

“Come by any time dear, the least I can do to thank you for finding Moppin is to teach you how to knit.”

The way the current situation within the Guild was, she might have been tempted to take Mrs. Miller up on her offer. At least it would give her something to occupy her time.

She stepped out the front door and onto the footpath that led down to the road. It was still early, too early for supper, so her next stop would have to be the Guild House. Maybe there was another assignment that she could finish before heading back to the Bird.

Alisa burst out laughing.

“A fine business person you would make.” She said.

“What’s that suppose to mean?” Kile asked defensively.

“How much would that… what do you call them… bounties?”

“It’s not exactly a bounty, it was just a script.”

“Okay, script, how much was that script worth to the Guild?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t take much notice it in.”

“Sure you did, how much?”

“Well… somewhere around fifty.”

“Fifty? No wonder the guild isn’t doing much business with prices like that.”

“The Guild has more than enough business. They just cut back on deliveries until the Council can determine the connection of these recent deaths.”

“Well… maybe, but you just did that job for what, about half a coin?”

Kile pulled the scarf tighter around her neck. “I like my pay.” She told Alisa who just laughed again.

“Yeah, and aren’t you suppose to give a certain percentage of that pay to the Guild house. What are you going to do, cut a couple of inches off the end?”

Kile left Alisa at the Apple Blossom Livery to tend to her pies as she headed off to the Guild House. The walk took her back through the center of town, over the bridge, past Lester’s place and down the river road to where the old stone building stood. The green banner blowing in the breeze that displayed the Hunter’s coat of arms marked the location of the Guild house as she turned off the road and headed up toward the front door. The house itself was nothing special and could have easily been mistaken for any other farm house along the street, but it did bear a carved wooden sign over the door that simply read Hunter Guild House Local Chapter 42.

Kile pushed the door open and stepped into the stifling gloom. The only light in the room was that which filtered in through the closed shutters. How could anyone live in such deplorable condition she wondered as she dragged one finger over the back of the chair, leaving a line in the thick dust. She turned and looked at the billboard that hung on the wall closest to the door. There was more paper than there was board. Each piece of paper was an assignment, an assignment that wasn’t important enough to be assigned to a hunter. Some of those pieces of paper were older than Kile as she pulled another one off.

It was faded and difficult to read but had something to do with a lost book, the date on the script read 1232. Kile was sure whoever lost the book fifty years ago would have found it by now if they were still alive, but she pocketed the script just in case. At least now she could see the back of the board, even if it was just one small corner. She pulled off another script. This one was a little newer. It was only thirty years old. The script was a request for a guide to lead someone to the town of Shrop. If they hadn’t gone in the last thirty years, they’ll probably never go. She slipped the paper into her pocket as well and looked back to the board for something a little more recent.

“So, found Mrs. Miller’s cat.”

She spun around to see old Kane standing behind the reception window, his tufts of gray hair sticking out over his ears, his thin wired rimmed glasses perched on the end of his rather large bulbous nose.

“How did you know?” She asked. She knew Hunter’s were renowned for their ability to gather information, but she had only just dropped the cat off. Kane said nothing as he pointed to his neck and Kile remembered the red scarf.

“Was that your payment?” The old man asked.

It was difficult to tell if Samuel Kane was mad or not since he always spoke in the same monotone voice. It never fluctuated. It never rose or fell it just stayed at that same level, as if he didn’t really care one way or the other… about anything.

“You do realize that the Guild requires a ten percent finder’s fee on the completion of all open scripts.”

“Well… yeah I know, but she wouldn’t have been able to afford the fee.”

“You will find many people who request the services of the Hunters are unable to afford the fees, which is why there are so many open scripts on the board.”

“But does that mean we should just ignore them? They ask for our help, how can we just turn our backs on them?”

“That is what the guild expects us to do.” Kane replied. “It is not for us to question the regulations of the council, only to see them through.”

“But that's just not right. I thought we were supposed to help all the people, not just the wealthy… or the powerful.”

“And we try.”

“Then what about this?” She asked, pulling the small piece of paper out of her pocket. “A book, all this guy wanted was help to find a missing book, and his request has been posted on the board for the last fifty years.”

Kane took the paper from Kile’s hand and had to adjust his glasses a few times in order to read the script.

“This was posted by a Mr. Kraght.” He said as he looked over the rims of his glasses at Kile.

“Is he still looking for his book?” She asked.

“I doubt it.” Kane replied as he crumbled the small piece of paper in his hand and tossed it in the general direction of his waist paper basket. It never made it. “Mr. Kraght has been dead these past twelve years.”

“What about this one, a request for an escort to Shrop.”

“From a Mrs. Atkins.” Kane replied without even looking at the paper.

“Well?” She asked when he didn’t say anything more.

“She didn’t succeed.”

Kile didn’t have to ask what she didn’t succeed at. Mrs. Atkins, most likely, tried to get to Shrop by herself, without the aide of a Hunter to guide her. Whether she got lost or worse, Kile didn’t want to know.

“Then why are we here?” She asked. “If it’s not to help the average person, why are we here?”

“I am here to run this guild house, you are here to carry out assignments evaluated and posted by the Guild.”

“Well, it doesn’t look as if I’m doing much in that area.”

“On the contrary, we have just received a request for a delivery.”

“But I thought the Guild put a freeze on all deliveries until they got to the bottom of the disappearances.”

“On all Class E deliveries, this is a Class D.”

A class D delivery was defined as a high priority package or the delivery of standard mail through hostile territories. Since the territories around Coopervill have not yet been classified as hostile yet, then the package must be of the high priority variety. High priority packages were delivered directly to the customer and didn’t go through the Guild houses.

“That is if you are interested.” Kane said as he looked over the rim of his glasses at her.

“Am I qualified to take a Class D assignment?”

“Under the circumstances I don’t have much of a choice with Steele on assignment and Taylor is off to… who knows where.”

A class D assignment was just one level higher than what she usually received, but it was a step in the right direction. It was an opportunity for advancement. If she could prove that she was capable of completing Class D assignments then would her level four certificate be that far behind, and it did mean getting out of Coopervill, if just for a few days.

“I’ll take it.” She replied.

Kane said nothing as he turned and disappeared into the back room.

As she waited for the old man to return, she walked over to the far wall, the one where the second billboard hung. This was the board that held the open bounties. Criminals, thieves, or people just wanted for questioning by the authority hung upon the board awaiting capture. The faces of so many vir staring out at her made her feel uneasy, but the one that really drew her attention, was that of a black haired gentleman with dark eyes. Beneath his picture, that really didn’t do him justice, was the name of Eric Rimes, wanted for crimes against the Hunter’s Guild, he had a substantial bounty upon his head.

She was nowhere near good enough to go after open bounties, but the eyes of Eric Rimes always stared at her from the billboard each time she came in, and even if his face was hidden behind other parchments, another wanted vir, she could still feel those eyes staring at her. She was partially responsible for him being on that board, for him being wanted. If she hadn’t been in the Great Hall when he tried to steal those artifacts from the display case of Sir Jameson Flint, he might have gotten away with them. She still didn’t know what he wanted with those two stones, but now she figured she would never know.

“Here it is.” Kane called out from behind the window.

Kile turned to see the old man holding up a small package. He set it on the sill and began to fill out the required forms.

“Since this is your first Class D delivery, let me explain. You will not be delivering this to a Guild House; you will be delivering this to a Mr. David Draw personally. His place is marked on the map. Before he takes possession of the package, you are to have him sign for it. If he doesn’t sign for the package, you don’t get paid, do you understand?”

“Yes sir.” She replied as she carefully lifted the package from the sill.

It was a small box, although she couldn’t say much more than that since it was wrapped in brown paper and sealed with wax. It was surprisingly light, and she wondered if this was just another test to see if she was ready to take on more responsibility, but test or not she would deliver the package.

“If he is unavailable to sign for the package, you bring the package and the paper back here, do you understand?”

“Yes sir.” She replied as she took the paper from Kane and slipped it into her pocket.

“If you open the box for any reason, don’t bother coming back.”

“Yes sir.”

The privacy of the package was always paramount to the delivery, something she learned even before the Academy, back when she took the entry examination at the mystic’s tower. She tucked the box under her arm and left the Guild house.

It was starting to get late, an early supper, maybe a bath before bed, and she would get an early start in the morning.

***~~~***

Kile awoke to the steady tink, tink, tink of the blacksmiths hammer as it rang through her morning. The man mustn’t require much sleep if he can work well into the night and still wake up early enough to disturb any attempt at sleeping in. She tried to pull the blankets over her head, but it was no use, the sound wasn’t going to be dissuaded that easily. Throwing her legs out from under the covers she sat on the edge of her bed as a small white rodent ran up her arm and perched himself on her shoulder.

-Morning.-

Vesper’s voice rang inside her head almost as loud as the tink, tink, tink of the blacksmith’s hammer.

“Is it morning already?” She asked as she got to her feet and headed for the door. “And where were you all night?”

-Around.-

Around usually meant he was visiting the pantry in the kitchen on his never ending quest to find food, and it had not gone unnoticed. She heard Beth complaining about something getting into the pantry just the other night.

Crossing the hall she entered the public bathroom that had now become her private bathroom that was until Gus rented out another room on her wing, which he wasn’t likely to do. There weren’t too many paying patrons that would or could put up with the blacksmith so early in the morning, but if it let her have a bathroom all to herself, she wasn’t going to complain.

She washed her face in the sink, combed back the wild strands of her hair and fastening it into a pony tail with a length of leather cording. She stared at herself in the mirror and a tired young girl stared back.

Kile looked over at the beckoning bathtub. A bath would be wonderful this early in the morning, but that would require her to stoke the fire in the kitchen to heat up the water and carry up the stairs to the tub. It was not something she looked forward to doing and usually paid little Toby to do it for her, but money was tight these days. Maybe she would treat herself to a long hot bath after the assignment was over.

Of course little Toby wasn’t all that little. He was almost as tall as she was, but he was only ten or eleven years of age. He did odd jobs around the Bird and Bay for extra money but for Kile he would have done it for free. Toby had a bit of a crush on her, but she wasn’t going down that road. He was way too young for her and she was sure it was more to do with the whole Hunter mystique than anything else. In three or four more years he would be eligible to take the entry examination at the mystic’s tower, but that was if he really wanted to.

She wasn’t sure if she would recommend it or not. She had mixed feelings about her time at the Academy, most of it was a living hell, but there were a few good times and a few good friends, and the fact that he was a boy would definitely go in his favor. The thing was she really didn’t want to get his hopes up. For all the times she had watched him do his chores, he had never once showed any sign of having any influence in any of the mystic arts.

It was common knowledge, or it was common knowledge to most people, she didn’t know when she entered the examination that every Hunter had to have some acquaintance with the mystic arts. This was known as the Hunter’s edge. It was that rare ability, that special skill that sets them above and apart from the common mercenary. Daniel Leary, her best friend back at the academy, had the ability to actually heal wounds. It was an incredible skill, one that helped Kile out quite a bit back then. Then there was Carter who could turn invisible and Alex who created the most realistic illusions that she had ever seen, not that she had seen many illusions before, and of course there was Murphy, who could turn his body to living stone. Most of the time a Hunter’s edge was grounded in one of the four basic spheres of influence but every so often, a hunter came along that had something so rare, something so different that it defied the categories and confused the mystics, and Kile was one of those rare Hunters.

That wasn’t to say that Toby had no chance in becoming a Hunter if he put his mind to it. The boy could be filled with the mystic arts, what did she know? She didn’t understand her Hunter’s Edge until her first year at the Academy.

She threw her pack on the bed and pulled on her boots. If Toby was really interested in becoming a Hunter as much as he was interested in Hunters, then she probably would try to encourage him, but he would still need a sponsor. She was sure that if she tried to sponsor him, it would only do him more harm than good. She wasn’t even sure that she could sponsor him, what with her only being a level five.

She took the key from its hiding place in one of the small ebony boxes that sat on the shelf and unlocked the trunk at the foot of her bed. She didn’t keep much in the truck, since she didn’t have anything of real value, or at least what other people would consider to be valuable.

There was an old leather jacket, threadbare and worn with age. It had belonged to another Hunter, but she had it taken in by a tailor so that it would fit. Pinned to the collar was a small golden tree, a final gift from another old friend. A wide rimmed hat was the next thing that came out of the trunk, and it too had seen better days. It was her brother’s and he had placed it on her head when she was fourteen, the day she left to take the entry examination, that was almost four years ago, and she hadn’t seen him since.

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 you 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-

-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.

***~~~***

“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 disappearance 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.

This was not what the Hunters were about. The main foyer was filled with paintings, the same grotesquely exaggerated paintings that hung in the Great Hall back at the academy, but these weren’t just hunters, these were paintings of the members of the council and not only of the ones that had passed, but the ones that were currently sitting. When had the council members become so egotistical that they required eight foot tall, life sized paintings of themselves framed in a golden décor? She diverted her eyes from the painting and looked instead at the set of closed doors that awaited her at the end of the hall. Beyond those doors the council sat. Why had they summoned her?

The Guild was changing and there just wasn’t any place in it for someone like her. It was mainly because she was a her. Female hunters were not going to be tolerated in the new regime, and although she thought her eighteen years of service meant something, she was now having her doubts. Maybe it was for the better, maybe she had dodged disaster one too many times. Maybe it was time for her to pack it in and let the younger generations take over, to get out while she still could, while she was still alive.

Erin slowly walked to the closed doors of the council room when someone suddenly redirected her toward the stairs.

“I don’t think you really want to go in there.” He said as he guided her up the flight to the second floor.

She turned to the gentleman with the light brown hair, neatly trimmed beard and startling gray eyes.

“Sir?” She said with surprise as he started up the stairs ahead of her. “What’s going on here?” She called out.

“Patience.” Guild Master Latherby replied as he took the steps two at a time. Erin had to run to catch up.

He moved with surprising ease down the hall, almost fluid like, never making a noise. She, on the other hand, sounded like a horse with her boots on the cold marble floor. Latherby stopped at one of the doors and ushered her in before closing it behind him. The room was empty, an old office now unused, except for storage. There were chairs, desks, boxes on the shelves and just about anything else that nobody wanted but nobody wanted to be the one to throw it away.

“Does anyone know you’re coming here?” He asked her as he directed her to take a seat.

“I was summoned sir.”

“Yes, I know. I was the one that summoned you.”

“You sir? I don’t understand. I thought it was from the council.”

“Well, contrary to popular beliefs, I still am council, but I know what you mean, and I am sorry for the deception. I needed you here as quickly as possible without raising too much suspicion.” Lathery said as he started to pace the floor.

Something was bothering the man, she could clearly see that. He was tense, and he kept one eye on the door expecting someone to come barging in at any moment. This was not the carefree Mathew Latherby that she had come to know.

“For what sir?”

He paused for a moment, almost as if he had second thoughts, and then pulled out a rolled up parchment that looked as if it had seen better days. He handed it to her without a word. She didn’t have to ask what it was, she could tell by the edging of the paper and by the broken seal on the parchment that it was an open bounty, but who’s open bounty. She slowly unrolled the document, still watching him watching the door.

She had almost expected to see a picture of herself with her name written across the top, what with all the secrecy involved with this summons, but she never expected to read what she did.

“Is this a joke?” She asked.

“I’m afraid not. It was newly posted yesterday afternoon.” Latherby replied as he dropped back into one of the chairs. “By tomorrow morning it will be hanging in every Guild House across the kingdom.”

“This is ridicules sir, this is a death sentence. It can’t be real. How did they move so fast?”

“Fear.” He replied.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Unfortunately I am. The Council is running scared. You probably already know about the twelve hunters that have turned up dead, and the five still unaccounted for.”

“Well… yes sir, of course sir.”

“That was only the beginning. As of today, the death toll has been raised to twenty one, and there are now seven unaccounted for.”

“When did this happen? How come I haven’t heard anything about it?”

“Nobody has, not outside the council. Since the beginning of this year twenty two hunters have left their posts, deserted the Guild, and those that have stayed… well, it’s been hard enough to get Hunters to do routine assignments with what they know, post these numbers and it will be a mass desertion.”

“Has it really come to that?”

“As it stands we have lost nearly fifteen percent of our members.” Latherby said as he shook his head.

He felt responsible for every missing Hunter, every death, ever desertion. It wasn’t happening to the Guild, it was happening to him, but then, as he had said before, he was the council, and therefore he was the Guild.

“Do you believe the Sons of Terrabin are behind this?” Erin asked the question which was on her mind from the start, but she wasn’t the only one. There were a lot of Hunters that thought along the same lines.

“As much as I would love to say yes, I can’t. They are as lost in the dark as the rest of us, but as lost as they are, they have still managed to seize the opportunity to convince enough members of the council that the old ways are not longer the best ways, and that’s just proof that things are changing too fast.” He replied as he indicated the bounty that Erin was absent-mindedly crushing in her hand.

“What, they’re holding her responsible for the death of twenty one hunters?”

“No, fortunately not, at least not yet. They are only holding her responsible for one death that they know of, a Mr. David Draw.”

“Who?”

“Mr. David Draw, the only thing I have on him is a short file with his name and address, little is known about him, but whoever he was, he must have been someone at some time. Andrew Drain of the council has met with the King’s advisor on the matter and has personally assured him that Kile Veller will be brought to justice.”

“But an open bounty, isn’t that a bit rash. Every Hunter in every house will be looking for her. It’s like painting a target on her head. Has she even been warned?”

“That's just it, she’s gone.”

“Gone, what do you mean gone?”

“Three days ago Kile’s horse arrived back at Coopervill alone. Samuel Kane, the House Master, sent word to the council that another Hunter was missing. An investigation team was rerouted to her last location. She was making a delivery to a Mr. David Draw.”

“Who they found dead.” Erin finished for him. She was sure she knew where the rest of this story was going, and she knew she wouldn’t like the ending.

“Stabbed in the back with a long knife.”

“But that doesn’t mean she did it.”

“It was her long knife.”

“How can they be so sure, I mean, it could be anyone’s knife.”

“It was hers. They have a very good witness that saw her in possession of the knife.”

“Who?”

“Me.”

“You sir… but…”

“I gave her that long knife when she graduated the Academy. Believe me, I would know it anywhere.”

“But… you don’t believe…”

“What, that she did it. No, of course not, but it was enough evidence for Andrew to turn the council against me. He’s managed to… limit, my influence within the council, but not outside the council. That’s why I want you to find Kile Veller first. I am assigning this bounty to you.” Latherby said as he handed Kile the few files that he had with him. “I’d go myself, but I have to stay here. I have to convince the council before all this goes too far, and you are the only one that I can trust.”

“Thank-you sir.” Erin replied as she got to her feet. “I’ll try not to let you down sir.”

“You’ve got to find her before another hunter does. She’s only been a level five Hunter for a few months, it won’t take them long to catch up with her. You have to bring her in Erin, by any means you can.”

“I’m going to need some help sir. I’m going to need Robert. He’s the best tracker and if Kile is on the run, I’ll need all the help I can get.”

“I’ve already informed Master Folkstaff that he is to be assigned to you for this bounty. He’s already here. He arrived early yesterday. You should find him down by the stables waiting for you. I haven’t told him anything more than the fact that you are hunting a bounty, you’ll have to choose how much you wish to fill him in on.”

“Thank you sir, I’ll leave right away.”

“And Erin… I don’t know how much time you’re going to have. It won’t take the council long before they realize that you’ve been assigned the bounty. They may try to take it away from you, they may even try to stop you, I don’t know… what I do know is that you better be careful. Don’t trust anyone. We don’t know how far their influence has spread.”

Guild Master Latherby pulled open the door and looked out into the hall before he left the room, leaving Erin to absorb all the information that he had dropped on her. It was a bit too much for her to comprehend all at once. She had known Kile Veller, knew her when she was nine years old the day she had found her lost in the woods outside of Riverport. She even sponsored her for the entry examination and spoke with her on a few occasions while she was at the Academy, but if she really added up all the time she spent with Kile, it would have amounted to no more than a couple of weeks. How much did she actually know about the girl? Could Kile have done what the Council is claiming that she did? And for what reason? As much as she would like to say she was positive that Kile Veller was not an assassin, she just didn’t know.

Erin tucked the files into her jacket and stepped out into the hall, making her way back to the stairs. She hesitated a moment when she heard voices, but they were moving away from her, was Latherby really serious when he told her to trust no one. Did he really think that the Sons of Terrabin were that dangerous? When she was sure that the foyer was empty she made for the front doors and down the steps, crossing the streets of Littenbeck and heading toward the stables.

“Not a very long visit was it?”

Erin spun around to see the average looking man step out from the side of the building. Had he been watching her, waiting for her? Was she being overly cautious?

“Sorry?”

“Your business… with the council, didn’t take very long did it?”

“No, not very long.” She replied. “I’ll be heading out now. If you could get my horse ready.”

“Sure thing ma’am.” The man replied.

Erin watched him as he disappeared into the darkness of the stables. Maybe he was a bit too average. They say that the most successful assassins are the ones that look the most average, the most non-descript.

“So Silvia, what are you up to?”

Her hand instinctively went to her sword as she turned around, fortunately she never drew it as a tall man with a long braided beard and tattered looking clothing stood before her. He was wearing a wide brimmed hat that concealed his eyes, but not his mouth as the slightest hint of a smile began to form.

“You never let me get that close before.” He said as he tipped back his hat and rubbed his chin. “You seem a little preoccupied. Would it be this bounty we are supposed to track down?”

Her hand fell from the grip of her sword. “Sorry Robert, it’s just that Guild Master Lathery has me a little spooked.”

“No need to say anything more.” Folkstaff replied. “But it is good to see you again. It’s been a while.”

“I’ve been busy… so to speak.”

“I can imagine. The Council has you running all over Aru. Keeping you busy so you don’t make waves.”

“Something like that.” She replied as she looked toward the stables.

“So, who is this all important bounty that I am to help you track down?” Folkstaff asked, but Erin silenced him as the average looking stable hand led her horse out into the yard.

The man first looked at Erin, then at Folkstaff as if weighing something in his mind. Had he planned on doing something, Erin wondered, or had Latherby managed to infuse her with a sense of paranoia.

“She weren’t here long enough for a good cleaning, but she has been fed and watered.” The stable hand finally said as he handed her the reins.

“Thank-you sir.”

Since the Guild House owned the stables there was no fee, but she still handed the man a few coins as she mounted up. He said something more to her, it might have been a thank-you, could have been something else, but she wasn’t paying any attention as she rode from the yard into the streets. She was no longer comfortable in the city. There were too many people now, too many places where they could hide. She wouldn’t feel safe until she was out in the wild again, it must be a Hunter thing. Folkstaff mounted his dapple gray mare and followed her into the streets of Littenbeck. They said nothing as they quickly navigated through the busy roads, and Erin didn’t slow down until she had crossed under the northern gates of the city. Once she was out on the open road, once the city walls were no longer closing in on her, she slowed her horse down to a more even pace and let Folkstaff finally catch up.

“I suppose now you can explain what’s going on?” He asked, after they had put some distance between them and Littenbeck, or was it just the Guild Hall.

“Sorry Robert.” She said. “I guess I’m still a little jumpy”

“I’ve seen rabbits that were less jumpy. What’s gotten into you, you aren’t usually like this?”

“A few days ago I got myself into a little trouble down south, nothing I couldn’t handle mind you. At the time I thought it was just a group of brigands that had chosen the wrong target, but now… I’m not so sure.”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you aware that the count is now up to twenty one, with seven Hunters still missing… eight if you count the bounty we’re after?”

“I figured it was about that high. I’ve been doing my own calculations when the Council’s investigators arrived at the Academy asking all sorts of questions. I figured the number was higher than what they’ve been letting on. So, the bounty we’re tracking is a Hunter… anyone I know?”

She pulled the files from her jacket and handed them to him. He began to read through them as his horse kept a steady pace. No one could train a horse better than Folkstaff, not even Horse Master Pike.

“Things are making a bit more sense.” He finally said as he closed the files.

“Well?” She asked.

It was difficult to tell what Folkstaff was thinking. He was the most laid back individual that Erin had ever gotten to know. Nothing ever bothered the big man, he just took everything in stride, reasoned it out and went with what he believed to be the best possible solution, regardless of what others thought.

“Well what?” He asked.

“Come on Robert, you know damn well what. Do you think she did it?”

“Erin, you should know me by now. Without any evidence, it is difficult to say one way or the other. If I am not misreading our assignment, we are to bring Kile Veller in, not discern her guilt or innocence that is for the council to decide.”

“I think the council has decided. They’ve already posted an open bounty on her, which means they’ve already revoked her Hunter status.”

“I see, I suppose that is understandable from the council’s point of view.”

“What? Are you insane? How can you say that?”

“Think about it Erin, you know as well as I that her evaluation from the entry examination wasn’t entirely spectacular, not to mention here time at the Academy. She has been deemed irrational, unpredictable, and hot headed. Her psych evaluation is still in questions, and from what her files have to say, she has a complete disregard for authority and has shown signs of being emotionally distant from fellow students as well as colleagues.”

“That's not fair. You don’t know what it’s like to go through the Academy as the only girl, constantly being ridiculed and picked on.”

“You’re right, I wouldn’t know.” He replied. “I’m sure, in that situation, it would change a person, but in what ways?”

“So… what your saying is… you think she did it.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Yes you did, you just got through telling me why you thought she did it.”

“No, I just got through telling you why the council could think she did it. As for myself, without the evidence, I cannot say one way or the other.”

“But how do you feel?”

“I had the opportunity to sit with her once, during the first wilderness survival exercise, when I tested the cadets on their survival techniques.”

“How did you do that?”

“Do you remember Master Shimrock and his so called ultimate survival test?”

“How could I forget?”

“I sent them all out into the wild to survive a single night with nothing more than what they brought with them to class that day.”

“And… what happened?”

“Out of the fifty some odd cadets that I had at that time, only three managed to spend the entire night in the wild, and only one of them did it without complaining.”

“Kile.” Erin replied. It wasn’t that difficult to guess, it had to be Kile otherwise Folkstaff wouldn’t be telling her the story.

“The next morning, when I came to tell her that the assignment was over, she was making breakfast under a tree that she had fashioned into a lean-to. She was cooking fried potatoes with onions and cheese. To this day I don’t know where she got those ingredients, but she asked me to sit down and share her breakfast with her.”

“And?”

“As a survivalist, she has skills, as a cook… not so much.”

“That still doesn’t answer my question about whether or not you think she could have assassinated the man.”

“Only if he died of food poisoning.”

“So you don’t think she killed him?”

“If there is one thing that these files do say in their obscure way, is that Kile Veller just doesn’t have the killing instinct.”

“What about the incident with Master Boraro?”

“She didn’t kill him.”

“She might have, I often wondered if she would have if no one stopped her.”

“It would appear that you are not so sure of her innocence.”

“I don’t know what to think. If she didn’t kill this Mr. Draw, then where is she?”

“Only when we find her, will we know the answers. So where do we start?”

“Well, since Mr. Draw’s house is on the way to Coopervill, I thought we’d go there first.”

“To see what we can see.”

***~~~***

Kile opened her eyes again, but the view hadn’t changed in her cell. She had laid there in the dark for five days, on a damp bed of straw, shackled to the wall with thick chains. If it wasn’t for Reginald and his family, she would have surely starved, or worse. As long as they brought her food, she didn’t have to eat what the guards tossed in at her. She could feign her sedation for only so long, but to what end she wasn’t sure. She knew that as long as they thought she was harmless, that she was incapacitated, there was no reason for them to do… well, to do whatever it was they were planning on doing to her.

Each morning she would try the chains, pulling them from the wall, but it was no use. They were as secured to the wall as they were around her wrists, keeping her arms stretched apart so that she couldn’t even brush the hair from her eyes or scratch the end of her nose. Why was it that her nose never itched until she was unable to scratch it?

From what she had learned from Reginald she was imprisoned in a cell, in a dungeon, in the deepest part of either a Keep or a Stronghold, she wasn’t sure what the difference was between the two, but the images that Reginald showed her were limited at best.

The door to the dungeon opened as the squeak of the rusted hinges echoed off the empty walls and filled the air, a dry wind blew in from somewhere, it was a welcome relief it if only for a moment. The door closed and the sound of bare feet on cold stone got closer. She slumped down against her chains. Her only defense was to keep faking her condition, at least until she could find a way out. The shackles bit into her wrist but she knew it was better than the alternative.

Someone or something jingled a set of keys that opened the door to her cell, but she was in no condition to take advantage of the situation. They tossed in a bowl of what their idea of food was, along with a few choice words before locking the door again. The bowl landed, not far from her feet, tipping to one side and releasing a thick gray slug onto the floor. Even if she was hungry enough to eat it, she had no way of actually reaching it. She couldn’t identify what was in the bowl or even understand what her jailer had said to her each day for the last five days, but each time he said it, he seemed more determined and she knew that her time was running out. She would have to find a way to escape, but escape wasn’t going to be easy. The cell door shouldn’t be a problem if she could get the keys away from her jailer, she would need Reginald’s help with that, and finding her way out of the stronghold, or was it a keep, would be tricky at best, but she had a firm idea of the layout even if it was from a skewed point of view. All she had to do was find a way to get out of the shackles, and that was where her master plan met its demise.

The shackles had been welded closed, sealed around her wrist. There was no key to unlock them since there was no lock. Who ever had chained her to the wall had no intention of letting her leave any time soon.

The last thing she could remember was knocking on Mr. Draw’s door, and the horrid smell that filled the air. She couldn’t identify it at that time, but she knew it now. It was the scent, or should that be the stench, of the uhyre. If that was true, and the guttural sounds of the guard’s voice seemed to support that scenario, then she must be somewhere in the wastelands, the only thing she didn’t know was why.

She had played over the various scenarios in her head, trying to make each piece of the puzzle fit and then filling in the blank spaces with simple speculation. She knew whoever was behind this was not of the uhyre, but a vir. The man that opened the door of the cabin had spoken to her in the Royal tongue, as far as she knew, none of the uhyre spoke the king’s language, or at least not that clearly. He also knew something about Hunters, since he must have been the one to send the message, knowing that a higher priority package would supersede the temporary freeze on common deliveries. Then there was the fact that her food had been tainted. She was able to detect that the first night she was here simply by the smell. They were trying to keep her sedated, more than likely out of fear of what her edge could do. Even in keeping her hands apart, they showed some knowledge of the mystic arts, since more complicated skills need the use of special hand movements. The only glimmer of hope that she had, was in their attempts to prevent her from using her edge they proved that they had no idea what her edge was. That, at least, gave her some advantage.

A sudden sound caught her attention from the far corner of the room as something moved out from underneath the pile of straw. She couldn’t make out what it was at first until it moved into the thin shaft of light that came through the small window of her cell door. It was a large brown rat, larger than what she was used to seeing back home. It was nearly six inches from end to end, and that was not including the tail which was easily another ten inches. He came out from the shadows, cautiously sniffing the gray slop that had spilled from the bowl.

“You wouldn’t happen to know what that is, would you?” She asked it.

-Not a chance.-

The rat replied as it slowly backed away.

-I heard the valrik eat something known as Shrool, but I don’t know if that’s what it is.-

“Just though I asked.”

The rat retreated back into the pile of straw and reappeared with something round in its mouth. As it got closer, Kile identified it as a potato.

-I’m afraid this is all I can bring you today.-

He said as he climbed the wall with it in his mouth, walked along the thick chains, onto her arm and all the way up to her shoulder in order to get it near enough to her mouth so that she could take a bite. Raw potato would not have been her first choice of a meal, but it was better than nothing, and definitely better than the gray slop that was now congealing on the cell floor. It would be at least another six or seven hours before the guard came in to remove the bowl.

-It has been difficult to get into the kitchen with so many vir.-

To think that men were working alongside the uhyre. Of course she had no way of knowing if they were doing it voluntarily.

“They’re preparing for something.” She replied a bit nervously. She was just hoping that whatever it was that they were preparing for didn’t include her.

-There is talk of a visitor coming today, someone important, someone the black robed man wants to make comfortable. Someone he needs.-

“Needs? Needs for what?”

-His plan.-

“I don’t suppose you know what his plan is?”

-Don’t know. He never speaks of it, not even to the little cruel one.-

She finished the last bit of her potato as the rat climbed back down to the cell floor.

-Try to find Kile better food tomorrow-

He said as he headed toward the corner of the room, to where a small hole in the stone wall was located.

“Thank you Reginald.” She called after, but the rat was long gone.

From what she had learned from Reginald’s visits she now knew that the keep or stronghold was populated by the uhyre, except for the kitchen staff which seemed to be made up of mostly vir. That wasn’t really surprising since there appeared to be at least two vir in charge, and she figured they wouldn’t want to eat the gray slop either.

One of the vir the rats called the black robed man, for what she could only assume was because he wore a black robe and the other was referred to as the little cruel one. She had not seen either man since she had been imprisoned, but that was probably because they thought she had not regained consciousness. It was also clear that the black robed man was in charge, since according to Reginald, he had often bossed the little cruel one around.

The knowledge didn’t really help her situation, but then as Master Adams back at the Academy always said, information was power. It was the job of all good Hunters to gather as much information as they could, and that was all that she could do at the moment, gather information, but if the situation didn’t improve, what good was the information.

She closed her eyes and her mind and melted into the silence of the cell, it was only a matter of time before whatever was going to happen happened and she had to be ready for it. She must have dozed off since she was awakened by the sound of the dungeon doors opening again. Was it meal time already? It was difficult to tell time in the darkness of the cell, she had no way of telling night from day. Maybe they were just coming for the bowl, or maybe they were coming for her this time.

“Unhand me.” She heard a young woman scream. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”

It was the first time she had heard real words spoken in the darkness, most of the time it was just the guttural speech of the uhyre. She risked looking up toward the small window of the door, but she couldn’t see anything from her place on the floor.

“Put her in with the hunter, they can keep each other company.”

The second voice was that of a man, who sounded strangely familiar, and the way he spit out the word Hunter showed a strong hatred towards the Guild.

“I will not be handled like this. Do you hear me? Do you know who I am?”

The door to the cell opened rather abruptly as it swung into the wall with a loud bang, probably because the valrik who was handling the young woman pushed her through it. She landed hard on the cold stone floor, knocking over the rest of the gray slop that Kile had come to call Shrool, even if it might not have been. Her hand and her feet had been bound, and she wiggled across the room toward the door that was closed and locked behind her.

“Don’t! Don’t lock me in here.” She cried out.

“You will stay in there until you are ready to cooperate.” The man said.

Kile knew she had heard that voice before, and she even dared to look up toward the small window of the door to catch a glimpse of her captor, but all she could see was the dark silhouette of the man's head, blocking out the only light that she had. From the silhouette she couldn’t tell if it was the black robed man or the little cruel one. If she had to guess she would say it was the little cruel one, why have minions working for you if not to do all the dirty work.

“Wait… come back… please.” The young girl pleaded, but the man just made a dismissive sound and disappeared from the window.

Kile waited until she heard the dungeon doors close again, leaving her in the dark, but not alone this time.

“Are you alright?” She asked the shadows.

“Stay away from me. Don’t come any closer.” The young girl shouted as she started to wiggle her way across the room. She didn’t stop until she reached the corner and had nowhere else to go. “Just… Just stay away from me.”

“Well, I’m hardly in any position to get any closer.” Kile replied as she shook her arms the best she could in order to get the chains rattling.

She couldn’t see the young girl on the other side of the room, not in the darkness of the cell. Where was that exceptional eye sight now that she needed it, she wondered? That was the problem with certain aspects of her edge. They seem to come and go at the worst possible moment.

“You’re… you’re a prisoner here too?”

No Kile thought, I’m just here for the spa treatment. She was not the brightest person to be locked up in a cell with.

“It would appear that way. The name is Kile… Kile Veller. What’s yours?”

“Emara Lon.” The young girl replied.

She seemed a little calmer now, now that she knew that Kile wasn’t some creature locked in the small room with her. Emara? She had heard that name before but she wasn’t sure where.

“Why are you here Emara?”

“Because I was captured.”

“I mean, why were you captured?”

“Oh… I don’t know… I mean I know… but… I don’t know.”

Yes, definitely not one of the brightest people to be locked up with.

“What is it that you do?”

“Me? I… I’m just a student. I’m studying the Mystic Arts.”

“You’re a mystic?”

“Well… yeah, sort of. I’ve only been studying there for a couple of years. I’m not really a full mystic… not yet.”

“But you know the arts… don’t you?”

“I’m one of the few people who are influenced by all eight spheres, so they say.” She announced proudly.

Kile knew very little about the mystic arts, and trusted them even less. She only knew what her instructor back at the Academy had told her, and that wasn’t very informative.

“Can you manipulate metal?” She asked.

“Metal? I’m afraid I’m not all that good with metal. Funny… that’s what Ravenshadow asked me.”

“Ravenshadow?”

“Yeah, that old man in the long dark robes, he calls himself Ravenshadow. Said I was free to go if I did some metal manipulations for him. I told him to go jump in a lake and then they threw me in here. Not exactly the most hospitable person, but then anyone that hangs around with valrik can’t be all that nice.”

“So you can’t manipulate metal.” Kile replied as her hopes started to die.

“Well… I don’t really know.”

“You don’t know how, or you don’t know if you can.”

“Well, my instructors say I can, but I haven’t had very much luck with it to tell you the truth.”

“Could you try on these shackles? Make them larger. If you can free my hands maybe we can try to get out of here.”

Kile had seen some wondrous things done through the mystic arts, she had seen her instructor create a figure of a rabbit out of a lump of stone, but even he couldn’t manipulate metal.

“I can’t.” Emara replied.

“But you could try.”

“No, I mean… I can’t, not with my hands tied. I haven’t learned how to work the arts without moving my hands.”

“How are your hands tied?” Kile asked, straining her eyes to see the young girl through the darkness, but all she could make out was a faint shape pressed up against the far wall.

“Together.” Emara replied.

“I meant, what are they tied with, is it just a rope?”

“Yeah, I think so… why?”

“I might be able to get your hands free.”

She closed her eyes and reached out with her edge. It was a new trick she had been practicing since leaving the Academy. Not only could she detect the presence of the natural world, but she had learned how to call to it. She wasn’t really sure how it worked, it was kind of hit or miss and the range was limited, but she could connect with certain animals at certain times. It didn’t take her long before she found Reginald, he wasn’t that far away. She hadn’t really figured out how to tell him what she needed him for, just that she needed him, and she knew in her mind that he understood.

Within moments she heard the familiar sound in the damp straw on the far side of the cell.

“What… what was that?” Emara asked.

She had heard the sound as well.

-Kile?-

“Reginald.”

“Reginald? Who are you talking to Kile? Is there someone else in the cell?”

“Reginald, do you think you can gnaw through Emara’s ropes?”

-Gnaw through ropes. Well, it wouldn’t be my first choice but of course I will.-

Reginald and four of his family members ran across the cell toward Emara. Kile only then realized she should have warned Emara when she heard the young girl scream.

“RATS!”

Her high shrill scream echoed through the dungeon as Emara tried in vain to get away from the rodents. Hopefully the guards would enjoy the thought of the young girl being savaged by rats rather than come to her aide.

“Emara, calm down please.”

“There are rats in here.”

“Yes, I know, they only want to help.”

“Help? Help who?”

“Just calm down, they’re not going to harm you.”

“I don’t like rats.” Emara shouted.

“Do you want to get out of here or not?” Kile asked calmly. She wanted to shout as well but feared that if the guards hear two voices they may get suspicious and come to investigate. As far as they knew, Kile was still sedated.

“I don’t like rats.” Emara shouted again.

“You can’t see the rats.”

“I know they’re there.”

“Think of them as kittens, little furry kittens, you like kittens… don’t you?”

-No, not really.-

“You’re not helping Reg.”

“Kittens… little furry kittens.” Emara repeated over and over to herself. With her new mantra well rehearsed Reginald and his family of little furry rat kittens went to work on the ropes that bound the young mystic hands.

It took them longer than Kile would have thought to gnaw through the ropes, but she knew when they were done when Emara jumped to her feet screaming.

“Get them off, get them off.”

So much for the little furry kittens.

-Well… she’s free, for all the good it will do you.-

Reginald replied as he and his family sought refuge beside Kile to get away from the flailing Emara.

“Thanks guys. That’s another one I owe you.”

-Kile is family and family doesn’t owe family.-

It was a nice sentiment, although a little strange to be considered a member of a rat’s family.

“If you’re finished jumping around, you might want to lend a hand here.”

“But they were on me. Those icky dirty rats were all over me.” Emara whined.

-You're welcome-

Reginald shouted, but then Emara wouldn’t have understood him anyhow.

“Well, they’re not anymore, so if you can please try to get these shackles off, I would be eternally grateful.”

As Emara got closer, Kile was able to get a better look at the young mystic. She was about the same age, although she didn’t act it. She was slim and pale, with a round face and wild bright pink hair, the tips of which were even touched with a hint of blue.

“By the arts are you alright?” She asked as she got a closer look at Kile.

The gentle touch of the young mystic hand on her wrist seemed more painful than the steel shackles as she winced.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I’ll get you out of those, I promise.” Emara replied as she set her hands on the shackles and began to chant.

Something was starting to happen. She could smell the charge in the air as it engulfed her. She could feel it building in the shackles around her wrist as they started to get warmer… and warmer… and warmer.

“Hot. Hot! HOT!” Kile cried a she pulled at the shackles that were now burning her wrist but she couldn’t get her hand out of them.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Emara panicked. “That’s the wrong art.”

“No kidding.” She shouted. She didn’t really care who heard her now.

“Sorry, I sometimes get my arts confused.” Emara confessed. “Now, let me see, that was the fire sphere, this must be the metal sphere.”

Emara fell into her mystic arts again as she placed her hands upon the shackles. The smell that engulfed the room was different than before, it was more metallic in nature. Kile was never sure if the smell was a real byproduct of the magic. As far as she knew, no one else had ever mentioned that the mystic arts had any odor. She didn’t have time to ponder it as the shackle began to squeeze into her wrist.

“It’s a little tight Emara.” Kile told her, trying to remain calm.

Emara kept mumbling the words over the shackles.

“It’s getting even tighter.” Kile warned her.

Emara kept mumbling.

“I can no longer feel my fingers.”

“What? OH, I’m sorry.” Emara exclaimed as she backed away from the shackle that was now half the size that it was before and was cutting off the circulation to Kile’s fingers. She could feel her hand growing numb.

“Um… Um… Okay… ah let me see, let me try… this one.” The young mystic stammered as she set her hand back on the shackle and began to mumble a few new words. The scent of the magic changed again and this time it smelled of wet earth.

“Emara… are you using an earth art?”

“No… oh… oh yeah, I guess that was. Sorry about that.”

“Just calm down, take a deep breath and relax. I know you can do this.” Kile told her, although the burn on her wrist and her numb fingers were saying otherwise.

“I don’t know Kile. It’s just… really hard. The metal sphere is just too hard to manipulate. I was never really good at it to begin with. I can’t tell you the number of swords I ruined by turning them to dust.”

“Dust? You can turn a sword to dust?”

“Well sure, that’s easy. You just have to accelerate the rusting of the metal. Chaos spells are easier than order spells and a lot more fun.”

“Then can’t you just turn it to dust?”

“Well, yeah, of course I could, but I thought you wanted them larger so you could pull your hand out.”

“But if they were dust, I wouldn’t have to worry about that, would I?”

“Oh… no I… I guess wouldn’t, would you?”

Kile rolled her eyes, now she remembered why she never liked the mystic arts, or was it just the mystics she had problems with.

Emara set her hands back on the shackles and Kile braced herself for the worst, but the air filled with the same metallic scent as it had before as the young mystic began to mumble her words of corrosion. Within moments the retrains on Kile’s wrist were gone, and all that was left were a few flakes of rust. She could feel her fingers now as she shook out her hand, and then scratched her nose.

“You did it Emara.”

“I did, didn’t I?”

“Now try the other one.”

Sure enough, once she had gotten started, the shackles on her other wrist crumbled beneath Emara’s hands. Kile felt relieved to have the use of her hands again, not to mention being able to move once more, but that relief was short lived.

“What do you mean you didn’t go check on her?” The man’s voice echoed through the dungeon as the outer door opened again. “If you let anything happen to that girl, Ravenshadow will have your ass.”

The answer was a bit guttural, and she couldn’t understand the valrik’s reply, but it was all too obvious what they were discussing. Kile quickly stumbled to her feet, trying to regain her balance as she moved to the dark corner of the cell. The keys were jingled again, and the cell door swung open.

“Are you ready to cooperate, Miss. Lon?” The man asked as he stepped into the cell, but his attention was quickly drawn to the chains that hung empty on the far wall. “What? What’s going on here, where did she go?”

He may have been taller than she was, he was definitely stronger, but Kile had the advantage as she swept his legs out from under him the minute he turned around. The man went down hard as Kile grabbed Emara arm and pulled her out of the cell.

“I should have killed you when I had the chance.” He shouted and his hand burst into flames.

“ERIC.” Kile exclaimed.

The room lit up with a ball of fire, but before he could hurl it toward her, she pulled the cell door closed. A fiery explosion ignited on the other side as Kile backed away. Fortunately the door was thick enough to withstand the impact of Eric’s edge. Unfortunately the valrik that had unlocked the door in the first place was in the hall with Kile and Emara. He appeared startled at first to find that the prisoners were on this side of the cell door and his master was on the other.

He started to shout something in his harsh tongue that Kile could only image was going to be a cry for help, but he never got a chance as he suddenly disappeared with a flash of light, leaving behind his helmet, keys, sword and clothing.

“By the arts it worked.” Emara whispered as she stood there looking surprised.

“What did you just do?”

“I think I transported him.”

“Where?”

“I… don’t know... somewhere.”

“Without his clothes?”

“I was rushed. I don’t function very well when I’m rushed.”

Kile grabbed the Goblin’s spent clothing and began to put them on. They were little more than rags, they smelled bad and it made her skin crawl to be wearing them, but they were better than nothing.

“You’re going to wear those?” Emara asked with a note of disgust in her voice.

“Well, I’m not running around naked.” Kile replied as she grabbed the fallen sword and quickly pulled Emara to the end of the hall. It wouldn’t take Eric long before he managed to burn down the cell door and Kile wanted to be as far away from the dungeon when that happened.

She only had a vague idea of where to go next. It was just a matter of seeing thing from a rat’s point of view. Reginald had given her a very detailed layout of the stronghold just as Vesper use to do. The problem was that things looked rather different from the ground looking up.

As she got to the end of the hall she pulled open the dungeon door and found herself staring into a room filled with the uhyre, she quickly closed it again, hoping that none of them had noticed. Taking a firm grip on her sword she waited for the alarm to sound, but it never did. A loud bag and a flash of light only reminded her that Eric hadn’t given up trying to burn the cell door down yet. It was a shame that Emara couldn’t have transported him to some unknown place.

“What’s the matter?” Emara asked.

“We can’t get out this way.” Kile told her, although she wasn’t sure of any other way to get out. Dungeons were not well known for having back doors and another flash of fire from the way they came only heightened the urgency of finding one.

Her only choice now was to give Emara a head start, and hope that the young mystic could find her own way out of the stronghold before getting recaptured. If this Ravenshadow wanted her so badly, then it was another reason for Kile to keep her from him.

She balanced the sword in her hand. It was still a clumsy weapon, not like her Lann, of course those were long gone, as with everything else she owned.

“When the fighting starts, I want you to get out, no matter what. Don’t wait for me.” She told Emara as she tightened the grip on her sword and reached for the door handle. It was the job of all Hunters to protect the civilians on any mission, and even if this wasn’t a true mission, she was still a Hunter.

She pulled open the door, but Emara slammed it shut. If the valrik on the other side didn’t know something was wrong, they knew it now.

“Emara, what are you doing?”

“There might be another way.” The young mystic told her. “Another skill… oh if I can only remember how it goes.”

A flash of fire down the end of the hall, followed by the sound of splintered wood being tossed about proved that the dungeon door wasn’t really all that study.

“Guards.”

Eric’s voice barked up the hallways as his fiery form began to move in their direction.

The door behind her flew open as one of the valrik poked its head out. It turned and looked directly at Kile with its yellow eyes piercing the darkness, it’s strange disfigured face with its oversized drooping nose and skin the color of wet stone. She gripped her sword and was about to strike it, when it suddenly looked the other way.

“Where are they? Did you find them?” Eric shouted as he came within inches of the two girls. She could feel the heat emanating from Eric’s hands, even the valrik took a step or two back.

The guard replied with some gibberish that she still couldn’t understand, but it appeared that Eric had.

“What do you mean they didn’t come this way, what other way is there?” He shouted as he struck the guard with his flaming right hand, knocking him back into the room amongst a shower of cinders. “You useless sack of flesh, find them, they couldn’t have gotten far.”

The uhyre fled the room as Eric entered. He kicked over a few chairs, knocked a pot of… probably Shrool, off the table and shattered a few pieces of crockery before heading out through one of the doors on the far side of the room. When the door closed, Kile was able to breathe again.

“What just happened?” She asked as she stepped into the now empty room. “He was just a foot from us and he didn’t see us.”

“It worked, Ha… take that Master Tallo, and he said I would never be able to master that one.” Emara said with a grin.

“What happened? What did you do?”

“Limited invisibility, its part of the air sphere. Something to do with bending vision around you. I never really understood how it worked but it’s really fun to do.”

Invisibility, she should have guessed. She had a friend back at the Academy that was able to turn himself invisible, so to speak. It was his Hunter’s edge, but it was a rather taxing endeavor and he couldn’t maintain it for long. It didn’t look as if Emara suffered any ill effects. To her it was as simple as blowing out a candle. That was the difference between Mystics and Hunters, it was all in the way they use their skills.

“How long can you keep that up?” Kile asked.

“How long do you need me to?”

“Until we can get out of here.”

The problem with the limited invisibility skill was just that, it was limited. It was like holding up a bed sheet and hiding behind it. As long as the sheet was between the mystic and whoever she was hiding from, she would appear invisible. This meant Emara had to go first, with Kile following as closely behind her as she could and hoped that nobody came up behind them. In this way they slowly navigated the dark halls of the stronghold, looking for anything that might have looked familiar from a rat’s point of view. Kile was sure she could find the way out, but once they had gotten into the twist and turns of the hallways, it was clear that she had somehow gotten turned around. Instead of finding the exit, they entered a large gallery through the second floor balcony.

The place was enormous with its huge arched ceilings and thick wooden beams. There were tapestries, banners and shields with coats of arms that she had never seen before, hanging from the rafters and mounted on the walls. Far below them were old tables and chairs that had been pushed to the side and discarded, leaving the cold marble floor bare, save for a few stray bits of debris. A raised platform with a large wooden throne was displayed on the far side of the room, and upon that throne sat a man in black robes. This must be Ravenshadow.

The tattered black robes concealed every part of his body, from his feet to his head with a large heavy hood that hung down over his face. The only parts of him that weren’t covered were his hands. Thin, bone white hands that floated in a sea of black cloth.

The two girls began to move slowly to the other side of the balcony, to the hall on the opposite end, and hopefully to the exit. Emara had to face the black robed man as they walked, with Kile between her and the wall, in order to keep the illusion of invisibility. They were half way across the balcony when the doors just below them opened, and a rather irate Eric stormed into the room. He walked across the marble floor toward the black robed man known as Ravenshadow. This was the first time that Kile was able to get a good look at the young man that had tried to kill her during their time at the Academy, and she was surprised at how little he changed, of course that was only two years ago.

He was a tall, slim man with greasy black hair that was matted to his head, narrow eyes and a sharp hawk like nose. He was dressed in dark hardened leather, wore knee high boots and a black tattered cape, not unlike the robes of Ravenshadow. All in all, he looked ridiculous, but it wasn’t what he looked like that surprised her, it was what he did next. He knelt before the dark robed man as a servant would before his king.

“My Lord, I fear that the prisoners have escaped.”

“Escaped?”

There was no anger in Ravenshadow’s voice, or surprise. It was almost as if he had expected the events to happen.

“Yes my lord.”

“And how did they manage to do this?” He asked calmly.

“I’m not entirely sure my lord. All I know is that the Mystic must have somehow rusted the shackles of the Hunter, since they were no more than dust.”

The black robed man leaned back in his throne. Clasping his bone white hands together he brought them up to where his chin must have been under the hood. He held them there for a few minutes, as if to ponder what his servant had told him.

“Bring me… this dust.” He finally said.

“My Lord?”

“The dust from the shackles. I want it.”

“But my Lord, the prisoners are loose.”

“They are of little use to us now. Let the uhyre handle the prisoners. Bring me the dust.”

“My Lord, if Veller gets back to Aru…”

“What? She cannot stop what has begun. My plan is now in motion. There is no stopping it now.”

“Yes my lord, of course, but I was only thinking about…”

“He will have to mind for himself, won’t he? If he can’t handle one little girl, then maybe he’s not the ally I require in these times. Now, do as I say, bring me the dust from the shackles, let the uhyre deal with the prisoners.”

“Yes my lord.” Eric reluctantly replied as he slowly backed away from the black robed man before turning around and heading for the door. He stopped in the middle of the floor and looked up at the balcony, directly at Kile as if he could see her, and then she realized that Eric could see her since Emara was hiding behind her.

“Emara… what are you doing?” Kile asked not taking her eyes off of Eric.

“I don’t want that Ravenshadow guy to see me.” Emara replied.

“Great. But now… he can see me.”

“Oh… yeah… sorry about that.” The young mystic apologized.

Ravenshadow slowly rose from his wooden throne and stepped down from the raised platform. He walked up behind Eric, his black robes sliding along the floor behind him silently like a massive shadow. He turned his head up to her and even though Kile couldn’t see his face within the folds of his hood, she knew he was smiling.

“So, you are Kile Veller. Eric has told me all about you.” He stated in a low calm voice.

“And you are Ravenshadow.” Kile replied, keeping her voice equally as calm. “And I’m afraid I’ve never heard of you before.”

“Oh, you will my dear… you will, but maybe that’s a bit premature, since your use to me is… well… shall we say… at an end.”

“Well, if that is so, then I do have one question.” Kile said as she leaned over the balcony railings.

“Only one… I am surprised.”

“Oh, well… let’s be honest. I have a lot of questions to ask, but I’m sure you wouldn’t answer any of them. From what I’ve heard you won’t even tell you toady your plans, so why would you even think about telling them to me.”

There was a momentary break in Ravenshadow’s calm exterior as he turned and looked at Eric, but it was only brief and he soon turned his full attention back to her.

“My plans are not that secret, all I seek is justice. Surly as a true hunter, you can understand that.”

“True… true, but the whole… kidnapping, bondage thing, that I don’t get.”

“It was only to keep you safe, for the time being.”

“Safe… safe from who? You? The uhyre? Funny, I thought I was safe before you brought me here.”

By now Emara was pulling on Kile’s arm and she knew that the uhyre were on their way, if they hadn’t already arrived.

“Was that your question?” The black robed man asked.

“No, not really, all I really wanted to know was… why Ravenshadow. What? Were all the good names taken? I mean it's a bit cliché, sort of like a villain in an old fairy tale. I mean, come on, this was the best you could come up with.”

“Oh, I think the name suits me just fine.” He laughed as he raised his arms and his black tattered robes fell around him. She had to admit that at that moment, he did kind of look like a large raven’s shadow.

“Um… Kile?” Emara whispered, pulling on her arm again. “I think we have more trouble.”

The young mystic was pointing up at the rafters this time, and Kile could see why. The wooden beams were now occupied by hundreds of ravens, each one of them staring at the girls with their little black eyes.

“I’m afraid this discussion is at an end.” Ravenshadow said, and as he brought down his arms, folding his tattered black robes about him, the ravens took flight heading directly at the two girls.

***~~~***

Of all the parts of her edge that Kile had learned and was still learning, there was one part, one skill, that she despised above all else. The reason she disliked it was simple. It went against what she had come to believe to be nature, in a way it was an abomination of the order of things. She hated the way it made her feel, she hated the fact that it came so easily to her, she hated what it did to the animals around her and worse of all, deep down, somewhere in the dark recesses of her psyche, the one thing she hated the most about it, was that some part of her actually enjoyed it.

The Maligar was a power that she swore she would never use again, but as it consumed her, as its thick black stands reached out from her mind and sought out those of the raven’s, she felt empowered. Her psyche merged with those of the black birds, and there was nothing they could do to stop it. Within a matter of moments, not one, not a dozen, but hundreds of the ravens had fallen within her control and turned on their former master.

She could see everything that was happening, not from her own eyes, but from the small black eyes of the ravens. She saw what they saw. She knew what they knew. She felt what they felt. She lived a hundred lives all at one time. She hatched one hundred times. She learned to fly one hundred times. She saw every place from the black seas of southern coast to the Spine Mountains, all in a matter of seconds. She heard the curses. She heard the shouts as the ravens attacked that black robed man and his cruel little toady. She felt herself clawing at them with her talons, pecking at them with her beaks, until the touch of one hand brought her back to her senses.

“Kile?”

Emara stared at her with a looked of fear.

She was back in her body, but only just, she still had control of the ravens. Her mind was torn between two worlds and she was holding on by a thin thread of sanity. She turned the ravens down the hallway against the uhyre that threaten their escape. Emara grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the now vacant halls, but the girl wasn’t going in the right direction, she was taking the wrong turns. She was heading up instead of down to the main gate. Kile knew the way but she couldn’t speak. Each time she tried it came out as a chorus of caws all around her.

Emara pulled her toward the stairs, spiraling further up as the valrik closed in behind them. The guttural cries and the clashing of crude weapons were getting closer as they exited the tower door onto the battlements under the warm night sky. Kile suddenly lost the connection with the ravens. Snapping back into her own mind one hundred times left her dazed and confused as she fell to her knees on the cold stone. She could only watch as Emara worked her arts over the door.

“That should hold them for a little while.” The young mystic said as she stepped back “Assuming that was the right spell.”

There was a loud crash on the opposite side of the door, followed by some verbal exchange between the valrik. They had no idea what was said, only that it was followed by an eerie silence. Whether it was just a strong door or Emara had worked the right art, it looked as if it was holding.

“We’ve got to get out of here.” Emara said as she came to Kile’s side and helped her to her feet.

She could say nothing as Emara started her chants, and she suddenly felt herself being pulled out of reality, spiraling down a deep hole and suddenly hitting the ground, and then everything went black.

When Kile finally opened her eyes she was staring at a vast wasteland of cracked earth as far as she could see. The sky was a hazy gray in color, but there were no clouds, only the dim yellow sun that hung low on the horizon. She tried to get to her feet, but for some reason her legs wouldn’t hold her weight and she figured sitting would be to her advantage.

“Thank the arts you’re back to normal.” Emara said from somewhere off to Kile’s side.

“Normal? I don’t think I would use that word.”

“How about just conscious. You gave me a right good scare there.” The mystic replied as she dropped a pile of what could only be described as plant leaves on the ground.

“I must have… over exerted myself.”

“What did you do? One moment there’s these birds flying right at us, the next moment they’re attacking everyone in sight. Then they go and clear a way for us to escape.”

“It’s… difficult to explain.”

“They’ve been teaching me every skill in every sphere at the Tower, but none of my instructors taught me anything about controlling birds.”

“Well… it’s not exactly a common… skill.”

“I’ll say. They way you controlled those rats, and then the birds. It was incredible.”

“I didn’t control the rats.” Kile replied.

“What? What do you mean?”

“The rats. I didn’t control the rats… I asked them for their help.”

“Same thing, what difference does it make.”

“It makes a lot of difference.” Kile shouted, and then regretted how the words came out as she saw the startled look in Emara’s eyes, and it didn’t help her head much as it pounded every word back at her. “I’m… I’m sorry. I… I didn’t mean to snap. It’s just that Reginald’s family helped because they wanted to… the raven’s had not choice. I didn’t give them a choice.”

“No, I’m sorry. I should have realized how taxing the arts are, if it was actually an art.”

“What do you mean if it was actually an art?”

“Well… I’m not an expert in the mystic arts, and a lot of my instructors would agree, but I do know a thing or two about the way they work, and what you did back there, that didn’t seem like an art to me, it seemed more like… well… a natural skill.”

“I don’t think I understand.”

“Well… the arts are more like manipulating the strings of reality, placing them in the proper order to make things happen. If you know the order to place them, you’ve basically cast a… well… a spell. If you place them in the wrong order, and believe me I’ve done that enough times, nothing really happens. At least you hope nothing happens. It’s better than the alternative. I once tried to shape a stone and… well… lets just say the outcome was a bit embarrassing.”

“I thought all you had to do was just think it to happen.”

“The simple spells, yeah, like… lighting a candle. It’s like one or two strings to get it to work. You can’t really screw up two strings of reality.”

“I wouldn’t put it past me.” Kile replied “But then I… don’t remember any… strings.”

“That’s just it. A spell, like the one you used back there on those birds. That would have been very complicated. Anything that deals with changing a person’s perception or controlling his will is really hard. There aren’t too many mystics at the tower that can do it, and you did it without thinking… and with multiple subjects. That should have been impossible.”

“Then how can I do it?”

“That's what I’m saying. It’s more like a natural skill, like a bird flying or a skunk spraying, or a fish swimming, they don’t have to work at it, it just happens, it’s what they are. Maybe this is what you are.”

“A freak.”

“I didn’t say that.” Emara replied as she sat down across from Kile and picked up one of the leaves. She began peeling the outer skin off.

“What are you going to do with those?” Kile asked.

“I was going to try to get water from them… Isn’t this how it’s done?”

“Not from those, they’re poisonous.” She replied.

Emara quickly dropped the leaf back on the pile. “Are you sure? How do you know?”

“Me and my freak nose could smell them from here.” Kile said as she slowly got to her feet. “Come on, I’ll show you the ones that are safe to eat.”

After a quick survey of the surrounding area, Kile began to wonder why anyone, the uhyre included, would want to stay in the wastelands. Aside from a few reptiles, which Kile refused to even entertain the thought of eating, regardless of what Emara suggested, there wasn’t much in the way of life. The few leaves that Emara had picked earlier came from a tainted tree beside an equally tainted water hole. It was as if everything in the flatlands was either dead, dying or trying to kill you.

They traveled during the night, not so much because of the heat of the sun, but simply due to the fact that they did not wish to be seen. They weren’t sure how far Emara was able to send them with her arts, and Kile was half expecting to see the hidden stronghold over the next hill with the black robed Ravenshadow standing in the doorway waiting for them.

As the first light of dawn slowly rose over the horizon, they sought a place of safety in the shadows of a rocky outcrop. It didn’t take Emara long too succumbed to the strenuous activity of walking, as she pulled the tattered remains of her robes around her and fell asleep. Kile, on the other hand, couldn’t sleep. The events of the last week just added to the questions that she already had on her mind. For starters she reluctantly discarded her belief in the Sons of Terrabin being behind the disappearance and death of her fellow hunters. If, what happened to her was any indication, then this Ravenshadow was behind it all, but he wasn’t alone. Who was this guy he was working with, and what was his part in this master plan? Ravenshadow said he wanted justice, but justice for whom, and how did Eric fit into all of this? Then there were the scattered memories of the ravens that still lingered in her head. Or was it just that one memory that they all shared. It was of a stronghold in the middle of a swamp. For some reason this meant something to the birds, or did it mean something to Ravenshadow?

She tore off a piece of the tattered clothing she was wearing and rapped it around her foot. It was a shame that the uhyre didn’t wear shoes, walking across the flatlands was not meant to be done with bare feet. She leaned back and stared up at the sun moving slowly across the sky. They were heading in the right direction, which was one good thing, the problem was they had no idea of how far away from the boarder they were. It could be tomorrow, it could be days from now, either way without food or water they weren’t going to get very far.

She got to her feet and limped out onto the flats. The first thing one does in a situation such as this was to get to higher ground to get a bearing on one’s surroundings, too bad there wasn’t any higher ground to get to. There wasn’t even a decent tree, and the only rocks they could climb were those that they were using as shelter and that would only get her three or four feet higher at the most, which wasn’t anywhere near enough. So, if she couldn’t get higher, she would have to find someone who could.

There was only one bird that she could think of, that would thrive in an environment such as this, and that was the one that fed off the dead and the dying as she watched them circle in the distance. She thought about waking Emara but didn’t really want an audience and the young mystic needed her sleep, so she headed off into the direction of the birds.

When she reached the vultures they were picking at the carcass of what appeared to be a valrik. It had been out on the flats for some time as what was left of its stone gray skin was now ash white and pulled tight over its bones. Two empty eye sockets stare in her direction as she approached. On one level she was kind of glad, she wasn’t sure how she was going to be able to carry on a conversation with the birds if they were tearing apart some poor animal, but to see them tearing apart something that was manlike was a bit disturbing.

“Excuse me.” She called out from a safe distance.

It always surprised her that they never fled when she was around. Normally the sight of a vir would send most animals running, but for her they usually stayed around long enough to see what she wanted. Was this something to do with her edge?

-Food?-

-Food… Is it food?-

-Can’t be food… it talks… it walks.-

-For now.-

The vultures were huge, sinister looking birds with a wingspan that was as wide as she was tall. She was sure that they could carry her off with little effort as she tried to keep her distance from them. They hopped around her, craning their bald heads this way and that as if sizing her up.

“I’m sorry to disturb your… lunch. But I was wondering if you could help me out.”

-Vir asked for help?-

-New this is-

-Strange this is-

-What help could we do a Vir?-

Kile was beginning to think that this was not such a good idea after all.

“My friend and I are lost you see, and we need some directions. If you could just… fly around and… show me the layout… of the area. I would greatly a… appreciate it.”

She didn’t really feel that the vultures were paying much attention to her as they started to slowly close in around her.

-Why?-

One of them asked, as he stood before her, spreading out his great wings. If he was trying to be intimidating, he was doing a very good job at it. He was nearly as tall as she was when he stretched out his neck and stared at her. His two yellow eyes were almost as disturbing as the empty sockets of the valrik that lay in the dirt.

-Why?-

He repeated.

“I… I don’t think I understand. Are you asking why I need your help… or why should you help me.”

-Why?-

-Why should we?-

-Why should we help you?-

“Because we need to get back home, at least back to the border.”

-Why?-

“If we don’t… we… won’t survive.”

She wasn’t sure if it was true or not. She had been trained in wilderness survival at the academy, even if that training never covered the flat lands, at least not in the practical sense, only in theory. She was hoping that if the vultures knew how desperate she was, they would be more willing to help. She was kind of wrong.

-Good.-

The vulture in front of her replied as it tucked in its wings and looked her over again. The image that it attached to that one word was so vivid, so disturbing that Kile actually stepped back from the larger bird. He didn’t want to help her for the simple fact that if she died on the flat lands, he would feast on her flesh. There was no malice in the image, only the natural order of things.

“Okay… then I better be going.” She said as she started to back away.

-Wait vir.-

Kile looked up to see a pair of enormous wings momentarily blocked out the sun as another, even larger vulture descended among them. It landed on the valrik’s head, her great talons gripping into the dead eye sockets as she pulled her wings close to her body and looked at each of the smaller vultures in turn. There was respect for this one, as the smaller birds moved aside.

Kile stepped forward to present herself before this matriarch.

-I am Lindear.-

The vulture said, and her name carried with it a strange sense of familiarity, but whether Kile was supposed to be familiar with her, or she with Kile, it was difficult to tell.

“Kile, Kile Veller.”

-I know who you are child of vir.-

“You do? How?”

-This is neither the time, nor the place. See what I see and know the dangers these lands hold for you.-

Kile closed her eyes and she felt as if she was flying as Lindear showed her the world as she saw it, high over the Flat Lands. She could see everything from the cold snow peaks of the spine all the way down to the dark waters of the black sea, but what called out to her was the west farther beyond the Flat lands, farther beyond the Great dessert, farther than any Vir had ever traveled. There Kile could see the lush green lands of the west that beckoned her, but for some reason she knew she couldn’t go there, not yet. Her fate was in the east, and so toward the east she looked, and it was there that she saw the danger that Lindear had warned her about, for all along the border of Aru the uhyre armies were camped. Not the thousands that had crossed the border two years ago, but the tens of thousands, the hundreds of thousands that sat and waited for some sign, some signal. The Kingdom of Aru was at war, the only problem was, they didn’t know it yet.

“What does this mean?” Kile asked as she opened her eyes.

-The meaning is not for me to know. Only that war is soon upon you. Return to your land with caution, you will not receive the welcome you expect.-

Lindear stretched out her wings and took to the sky. The other vultures followed, leaving Kile alone to stare into the empty eye sockets of the valrik, or was it the valrik staring up at her.

“Come on, we have to get moving.” Kile said as she kicked Emara, then regretted is since she didn’t have any shoes on.

“Wake me up in an hour or so.” Emara replied as she pulled her robes about her and turned over.

“No time. We have to find a way past the uhyre army.”

“The what?”

That woke the mystic up as she brushed the blue tipped pink strands of hair from her face. Kile had meant to ask her about her choice of color but at the moment it didn’t seem all that important.

“There is a huge uhyre army between us and the border, and if we’re going to sneak by it, we’re going to have to get a better look at it. So come on.”

“Why sneak by it, I can just transport us past it.” Emara replied as she got up and dusted the flat lands from the clothes.

“You can do that?”

“Of course I can. I got us here didn’t I?”

Somehow that was not very encouraging as Kile looked around at the here that Emara landed them in. The young mystic must have seen the doubt on Kile’s face.

“Hey, it’s not my fault we ended up in the middle of nowhere. I was rushed… I can’t work when I’m rushed.”

“So, you’re saying you can get us home.”

“Of course I can. Transporting is easy.”

“Then why didn’t you just do that before.”

“I told you. I was rushed. I got… confused.”

Confused was not a word that Kile wanted to hear associated with the mystic arts. Mystics were not supposed to be confused about the arts. Only non-mystics like Kile were allowed that luxury.

“Maybe we can still get past the uhyre if we try at night.”

Emara stamped her foot on the ground and folded her arms across her chest. “You don’t trust me?” She pouted.

“It's not that I don’t trust you, I… just thought it would be… easier.”

“Easier? I can put you in the middle of any town in the blink of an eye and you think it would be easier to try and sneak past an army of valrik.”

“Okay, okay, maybe easier is not the right word. How about… safer.”

“Safer?”

“Fine.” Kile said with a nervous sigh. “Are you sure you can do this? Absolutely sure?”

“Tell me where you want to go, and I’ll put you in the center of town.”

Kile looked down at the rags she was wearing. Popping up in the center of town, dressed as she was, wasn’t going to improve the town’s opinion of her, but if Emara could pull it off, it was better than walking.

“I have to be in Coopervill.”

Emara rolled up the sleeves of her robes. “Okay, Coopervill it is.” She said as she began to chant. Kile closed her eyes and braced for the worse. Transporting was not her idea of safe traveling.

“Um… Kile?”

She opened her eyes and found that she was still on the flats.

“Did anything happen?” She asked.

“Well… no, not really. I… don’t know where Coopervill is. You see… I have to know where the place is in order to send you there. I’ve never been to Coopervill, so… I don’t know where it is.”

“It’s in the Denal province.”

“Denal. I know where the city of Denal is. Will that be close enough?”

“Well… yeah, I suppose so.”

“Then I’ll send you to Denal.”

“Wait a minute. Aren’t you coming?”

“No.” Emara replied with a confused look. “Why would I want to go to Denal? I’ll send myself to the Mystic Tower.”

Before Kile could say another word she felt the ground being sucked out from under her and she lost all sense of reality and time, until she suddenly found herself six feet above a lake. The cold water was a sudden reminder of why she hated the mystic arts. She swam to the far side of the lake, crawled out onto the bank and collapsed in the mud. Transporting was something she would never get used to, nor would she want to.

***~~~***

“Are you sure this is the right way?” Folkstaff asked as he pulled his hat lower against the light of the setting sun. They had been up and down the road for the last few hours and they were now fighting against time as the light was beginning to fade.

Erin unrolled the map again. She even went as far as to consult the files.

“It has to be around here somewhere.” She replied as she took another look at her surroundings. “There doesn’t appear to be anywhere else to go.”

“Fine pair of Hunters we are, we can’t even find a house in the forest.”

“It’s not like this map is the best in the world. If I didn’t know better I would think that somebody doesn’t want us to find the house.”

“That may not be far from the truth.” Folkstaff replied as he dismounted his horse Pathfinder and walked a little ways down the road. He crouched down and took a hand full of dirt, letting it slowly run through his fingers. “Well.” He said as he slapped his hands together. “There has been some activity on the road as of late, but whether it was the Guild investigators or just civilians, there’s no way of telling.”

“I don’t think many civilians would come this way. There’s nothing else around here.”

Folkstaff said nothing as he opened his pack and pulled out an old spyglass. He adjusted the lens and looked to the sky.

“Do you really think they would try to hinder our search?” Erin asked. It was something that she hadn’t considered. She knew it was a race, but she thought it was going to be a fair race.

“I think they would try just about anything they could to see you fail.”

“So you’ve heard the rumors.”

“That the Sons of Terrabin are somehow behind the disappearances, that they are slowly gaining control of the council one member at a time, that they have plans to move the Hunter’s Guild in a new direction? I may spend most of my time in the wild, but I don’t spend it with my head in the clouds.”

“Sorry, it’s just that… well… you don’t…”

“Get involved in the political arena?”

“Something like that.”

“My dear, there are Dragons that you slay, and Dragons that you run away from. The Hunter that knows the differences between the two has a long and happy life ahead of them. I plan to have a long and happy life.”

“Unfortunately I don’t have that luxury.” Erin replied as she opened the file again, looking for something she might have missed.

“We all have challenges that we must face before we part from this world.” Folkstaff replied as he leveled the spyglass toward the horizon. “Some of our challenges come looking for us, other’s we have to go out of our way to find… such as a house in the middle of the forest.”

“And how do we find such a house.”

The old tracker collapsed the spyglass and slipped it back into his pack. “Fifty yards up, take a left down a long path and we should be right at the front door.”

“Really now, and you can tell that how, by a hand full of dirt and a view of the heavens?”

“No, I can see it from here.” Folkstaff replied as he pulled himself back on his horse. “Sometimes the answers are obvious, when you know where to look.”

They had used up their two day head start just to get to the Denal Province. By now the open bounty on Kile Veller’s head will be posted in every Guild House and public house across Aru. There will be no place she could run. No place she could hide where a Hunter will not recognize her. She was officially a wanted fugitive. It was just a matter of time before she was captured, and that was only if she was lucky. By now the Guild would have posted Hunters in all the key locations, any place that she has some connection with. As far as Erin knew, that was only Riverport and Coopervill. They would also seek out any friends, associates or family members that she might try to contact. In a matter of a single day, this had turned from an open script on a missing person to a full blown manhunt.

Folkstaff stopped his horse in the middle of the road and Erin came alongside him. He was staring off into the woods, but what he was looking at, she couldn’t see.

“So, where is this house?” She asked him.

“Just because you don’t see something, doesn’t mean it’s not there. Just as if you see something, is not proof that is exists” Folkstaff replied, and he turned Pathfinder toward the forest, leading the horse off the road, and actually walked through one of the trees before disappearing completely.

“Robert?”

Erin dismounted Elemia and cautiously approached the tree that had somehow swallowed her companion. Although she had expected it, it still seemed strange that her hand passed through the trunk as if it wasn’t there. What she hadn’t expected was someone grabbing her hand from the other side.

“It’s an illusion.” Folkstaff told her as he pulled her through.

She stood upon a narrow path that cut through the forest all the way to a small cabin nestled among the trees. When she turned around she could still see her horse standing on the road waiting for her, although it was as if she was looking through a sheet of water as it rippled before her. She reached out to touch it, and again her hand passed through without any resistance. Although it was there, it wasn’t there.

“An illusion?”

If this was an illusion, it went far beyond what she understood of the mystic arts.

“Pretty impressive actually.” Folkstaff replied as he crouched beside the path and searched through the grass.

“Impressive isn’t the word for it. How did you know?”

“As I said, you can’t believe everything you see.”

“Imagine going through all that trouble, just to hide out in the woods.” She said as she looked down the path toward the small dark cabin that now seemed more foreboding.

“Oh I don’t think our Mr. Draw had anything to do with it.” Folkstaff replied.

He wrapped his fingers around a small stone beside the path. There was nothing unusual about it, nothing that would have set it apart from any other stone, at least not to the average person. But Folkstaff was a certified level one Hunter with an edge in the sphere of earth, and the unique properties of this stone just sang out to him. It was like a beacon in the night. When he picked it up, the illusionary wall disappeared.

“Very impressive indeed.” Folkstaff remarked as he turned the stone over in his hand.

“If you don’t think Mr. Draw placed the illusion, then who did?” Erin asked.

He tossed her the stone. “That my dear, is a very good question.” He answered, “But if this Mr. Draw was trying to hide, just disguising the path would not be enough. No, this was place afterward.”

“A delaying tactic?”

“Quite possibly, maybe just a simple means of buying some time.”

“To kill Mr. Draw?”

“If that were the case, then there should have been something in the files by the previous investigators. It’s hardly something that would have gone unnoticed.”

“Unless it was one of the investigators that set it up. But why?”

She opened the files again and reread what the lead investigator had written. If what Folkstaff said was true, there should be something, an illusionary wall of this nature would not have gone unreported.

“We could debate that all day, or we can try to find out what it was that they were trying to hide.” Folkstaff remarked as he lead Pathfinder down the road. Erin closed the case file and followed with Elemia.

It was a simple dirt path that followed a random course through the trees to the clearing where the cabin sat. The cabin itself was small, a simple one room structure with a chimney, flower boxes under the windows and a small yard out front. It was not the type of place one goes to hide, but to escape, a place completely isolated from the world around.

Erin hitched her mare to one of the smaller trees and walked across the clearing to stand in front of the cabin. She fell into her edge and opened her mind, listening to the sounds of the forest. When she was sure that there was no one else around and that they were completely alone, she stepped onto the porch, and pushed open the front door.

There was nothing to hinder the door's motion as it swung open, and a breath of stale air was released from within. The interior was just as modest as the rest of the house. There was a single cot in the far corner, a chair by the fireplace, a small table set up beside the door. All in all, it was not an inhospitable place, but it was definitely a place of escape from something. What was it that David Draw was trying to escape from?

She stepped inside and took a quick look around, but the only things she could say were out of place was a chair, that had fallen over, and a few books that lay scattered carelessly about. Her eyes fell upon the suspicious looking stain on the floor where the files said the body of David Draw was found, beyond that it looked as if anything of any importance had already been taken. She stepped back out into the yard and opened the file once again.

“Okay, it says here that the Guild Investigators found the body of David Draw lying face down on the floor in the middle of the cabin with a long knife still in his back. The long knife has been positively identified as belonging to Certified level five Hunter Kile Veller. There were no signs of a struggle or of a forced entry. The door was open when they arrived.”

“Who conducted the investigation?” Folkstaff asked as he started to search the surrounding area.

“Let’s see… oh, you’re going to like this. The lead investigator was Craig Morse.”

“Morse? Are you kidding me? The man couldn’t find water in a rain storm.”

“That may be so, but it was signed off by Andrew Drain himself.”

“That figures.” Folkstaff scoffed. “Just from a quick look I can tell there’s been quite a bit of activity in the yard, all around the house for that matter.”

“Well, according to Morse’s theory. Kile Veller arrived, delivering a package. Mr. Draw let her in. He must have turned his back on her for whatever reason, and she stabbed him, case closed.”

“Seems pretty cut and dry to me.” Folkstaff replied.

“And what, she fled into the forest, leaving her horse and supplies behind, never to be heard from again? And what about motive? Why would she want to kill this Mr. Draw anyway? If she was really an assassin, she wasn’t a very good one. How many assassins do you know leave something that can be so easily identified behind as a murder weapon? And why such a quick turn around, why rush this case through the system?” Erin closed the file and looked around the yard, but Folkstaff was gone.

“Robert, are you even listening to me?” She called out.

“You might want to see this.” Came the reply

She headed into the forest a few yards behind the old cabin where she found Folkstaff crouched down, brushing pine needles away from something on the ground.

“This is a little far away from our crime scene.” She remarked.

“Yes, but I found something.”

“And how is this going to help us?”

“You tell me.” He said as he pointed to the indentation in the ground.

“Is that a… footprint? Well even if it is, I can’t see how that has any bearing on our case.”

“Don’t you? Look closely.”

She crouched down beside Folkstaff and brushed away a few more of the pine needles. It was clearly a footprint, or part of one, that was easy enough to see. She could make out the toes as well as the arch, and that was when she realized that, what she was looking at was indeed a footprint and not a boot print.

“What runs through the forest with bare feet?” Folkstaff asked.

“Uhyre? Are you saying that this is the footprint of a valrik?”

“Given the overall size and definition, I would have to say yes, and not just one, I’ve noticed a few of them in the front of the house as well. Now, whether or not that has anything to do with this case, it does bare keeping in mind. If the uhyre are involved, this might not be as simple as you led me to believe.”

“Do you have a timeline?”

“Unfortunately not. It would appear that Morse, along with his investigators, left enough prints of their own to confuse the situation, as for this one; there really isn’t any way of telling for certain if it has any connection with what happen to Mr. David Draw or Hunter Veller. All I can say for sure is that it was made about a week ago, and it was heading west, at a good pace.”

“That's about the time Draw died and Kile went missing.”

“I’m not one to believe in coincidences.” Folkstaff replied as he tipped his hat back. “Should we follow it?”

“As you say, we can’t be sure of a connection. Our primary concern at the moment is finding Veller, which mean we should get to Coopervill, see if we can dig up any more answers there first. I’d hate to be chasing a wild valrik into the flatlands.”

***~~~***

When Kile opened her eyes she was staring up at the trees, beautiful green trees, unfortunately she didn’t know where those trees were. She could be just outside of the City of Denal or she could be half way across the country. She might even be closer to Riverport than Coopervill. She could even be in those lush green lands that called out to her from beyond the Great Desert, if only that were the case. As she got to her feet, it didn’t take her long to get her bearings. For the last eight months she had been traveling the roads between Tobery and Coopervill to know exactly where she was. The mining town of Coopervill was only a day’s ride from the lake, which meant, although Emara missed her mark by quite a few miles, she did manage to get Kile closer to home. Now all she had to do was start walking.

The first thing she needed to do when she reached Coopervill was to report to the Guild house. She was sure that Kane would have more paperwork for her to fill out since she had been missing for the last five or six days and she never did get the packaged delivered. One of the things she learned about the Hunter’s Guild was that they had a form for just about anything. She would also have to tell someone of the armies camped out on the other side of the border although she wasn’t sure who or what channels to go through with that information.

Actually, all that could wait until she got a change of clothing. She didn’t want to spend any more times in the valrik’s rags than she absolutely had to. Then there was the matter of Grim and Vesper. She had no idea where they could have gotten off to. The only good fortune she had was in the knowledge that they hadn’t been captured with her. She had Reginald and his family searched every corner of the stronghold for the Mountain pony and the yarrow, and they came up empty. They either managed to escape when she was taken outside of Mr. Draw’s cabin or… well… the alternative was not something she wanted to ponder.

She sat down at the end of the open field, or maybe she collapsed, it was difficult to tell. She was tired, hungry, her feet hurt and she smelled like a dead valrik. She lay back on the grass and stared up at the clouds passing over her head. How had she gotten herself into a situation like this? She was a long way from home, a long way from that small farm on the outer edge of Riverport. Where was that simple young girl of fourteen who thought she could become a Hunter and see the world?

She must have fallen asleep, since the next thing she felt was a tongue licking her face. She quickly woke up and stared into the eyes of a doe, which suddenly backed away.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you.” She apologized as she sat up.

Looking around the field, she found that she was actually surrounded by deer. There had to be about seven or eight of them feasting on the grass around her. The sun had already started to set as a damp dusk settled over the land.

“What time is it?” She asked no one in particular.

-Time?-

The doe replied.

Kile always envied, what she came to refer to as the natural world, they didn’t have clocks or schedules, and they didn’t have places they had to be. There was a simple simplicity about their lives. One just followed the natural order of things. It was what Gorum, the headmaster’s dog back at the academy, had tried to explain to her that night. She hadn’t really understood it back then, but the more time she spent in the wild, the more time she spent in the natural world, she was starting to see what he meant. Only the vir place obstacles in their paths, and then complain when they can get around them.

She slowly got to her feet, cringing all the way. It was still a good distance to travel and the sooner she got started, the sooner it would all be over.

-You okay?-

The doe asked her, and there was a genuine sense of concern in the words that the doe used.

That was another thing she envied about the natural world, animals didn’t lie. They didn’t hide what they felt or practice deception, they were what they were.

“Not really.” Kile replied, although she wasn’t sure what complaining to the doe was going to get her. She felt she needed to be as honest with them as they were with her.

-Wait here.-

The doe told her as she set off across the field, leaving her to ponder what, exactly was she waiting for. She tried to take a step, but traveling across the flatlands and then through the forest had finally paid their toll on her bare feet. They were cut, they were bleeding and they were really starting to hurt. She knew she shouldn’t have stopped in the field. If she had kept going she might have been able to walk through the pain, as it was starting off, after a rest, the pain only felt that much greater.

She sat back down, tearing off another strip of the uhyre rags. If this kept up, she wouldn’t have much more to wear. She started another layer of wrapping on her feet.

-Vir hoofs are not made for walking in the woods.-

“Tell me something I don’t know.” She said as she tied off the rag and then looked up, and even further up at one of the largest bucks she had ever seen. He towered over her, staring down at her, his massive antlers stretched out over his head as they pointed towards her. He was a sight larger than the ones she was used to seeing back in Riverport, but then she had only seen them from a great distance, not standing two feet in front of her.

“Sorry sir.” She replied, getting unsteadily to her feet. For some unknown reason she felt she had to stand in his presence.

He looked her over, sniffed up one side of her and down the other, and she could tell that he didn’t like what he smelled.

-Uhyre?-

“No sir, just the clothes. Not exactly my first choice either… but then I didn’t have much of a choice.”

-You are Kile.-

It wasn’t a question, it was a statement and it wasn’t so much the fact that this buck knew her name, or that he was willing to say it, but it was the way he said it. The word carried with it a note of admiration.

“Yes sir… I’m Kile Veller.” She replied.

He walked around her slowly, eyeing her carefully. She stood still. She could see the other does move around the clearing as they got closer, watching the exchange.

-I see you as no threat.-

He finally said as he came around to stand in front of her again.

“Thank you sir.” She replied, although she wasn’t sure why she was thanking him. She could have told him she wasn’t a threat.

-And have you finally separated from that horrible beast you ride.-

“Grim… you know Grim?”

-Is that what you called it? An appropriate name for the beast.-

“I haven’t really separated from him… well not permanently, I mean we did kind of get separated and I am still looking for him.”

-I saw him.-

One of the does stepped forward.

“You did? Where?”

The doe looked to the buck first as if asking for permission to speak. The buck stepped back, bowing his head as the young doe came closer.

-That was… many mornings ago. He was heading toward the vir settlement.-

“Then he did manage to get away.”

That was at least some good news, although it didn’t mean that Grim was at Coopervill, he was only heading in that direction. Knowing the Mountain Pony the way she did, she wouldn’t be surprised if he kept on going, right past Coopervill back to the mountains. She wouldn’t have blamed him if he did, of course that didn’t help her find Vesper and she was sure that the doe wouldn’t have noticed a small white rodent on the Mountain Pony’s head. Most of the inhabitants prefer to stay clear of Grim, both vir and animal alike.

“I have to go. I have to get to Coopervill. I have to find them.” Kile said

-Vir hoofs are not meant to travel these grounds.-

The buck stated again.

“It’s not as if I have much of a choice sir. I’m not going to find boots out here.” She replied. “It’s not all that far to go, only about a… day… or two.”

-Come Vir. I will take you as far as your… Coopervill?-

He slowly lowered himself to the ground. Kile stared in amazement, this was kind of out of character for a buck, but then so was talking to a Vir.

“Are you sure?” She asked.

Bucks have always been proud animals, more so than the does who Kile frequently visited when she had the chance. The bucks usually kept their distance, watching her from afar. For one of them to speak to a Vir, let alone carry one was a huge honor for Kile.

-I am sure.-

The buck replied, and Kile could feel the strain in his words. There was a calming tone, but a cautious undertone. He was taking a huge risk in letting a vir get this close to him, but in the same sense, there was a trust between them.

She wasn’t going to ask him again for fear of him changing his mind and she could really use a ride. She pulled herself up onto his back and held on the best she could as he rose to his feet.

-Hold on tight.-

The buck said, but before she had a chance to ask what she was supposed to hold onto, he was off.

She had often thought riding a deer would be the same as riding a horse, but that wasn’t the case. The deer moved with a swift gait, narrowly avoiding trees and rocks as it covered the ground in huge leaps. It was like riding the wind, a very rough wind as he made his way across the landscape. Unlike horses, deer were not used to having riders, and therefore were not accustomed to going around low branches. She quickly learned to keep her head down.

They traveled at a good pace over the fields of Denal, and although the trip took them well into the night, it felt as if only moments past before things became very familiar as the trees of the Apple Blossom Livery came into view.

The buck slowed down and finally stopped just along the outer fence. What had taken him two hours to travel would have probably taken her two days. She slipped off his back, using the fence as a ladder. It was a shame it wasn't later in the season, otherwise she would have offered him a fresh apple for his help, of course the fact that he knew exactly where to go, probably meant he would have his share of fresh apples come harvest time, whether they were offered or not.

“I’m sorry. I don’t have anything to offer you for your help.”

-I seek nothing in return. There will be a time when I may require the aid of a vir. You may return the favor then.-

“Of course. Anything that I can do to help. Just let me know.” She replied, although she couldn’t think of anything that a deer would need her help with.

-Until then.-

He said as he moved off into the woods with the rest of his family. Waiting until they disappeared into the tree she turned her attention to the orchard. Her feet were sore, her clothes smelled worse than before, if that was even possible, and every muscle in her body ached, but she was now only ten minutes away from home, or the closest thing she knew as home. She was surprised at how much energy she had left, now that she knew the whole ordeal was over. She would talk to Kane in the morning, tell him about the Uhyre army and let him deal with it. It was no longer her problem. She would speak to Grim, assuming that he was there, and find out what happen to Vesper, and if he left the yarrow back at the cabin she would hand deliver him to the mountain folk personally.

She was half way across the field when she heard someone running in her direction.

“Vesper… Vesper where are you?” A young woman called out. Her voice was on the very edge of panic.

Kile started to pick up speed, running to the sound of the voice, but something small, white and furry leapt from one of the lower branches of an apple tree and landing on her head. She spun around, tripped and fell to the ground, grabbing at the rodent.

-KILE-

The yarrow shouted in her head, and the words were filled with so much emotion that she even started to cry.

“Vesper! I thought I lost you.”

-Kile smell-

Well, so much for sentiment.

“Vesper… Vesper where are you?” Alisa called as she came around one of the apple trees. When she saw Kile she stopped cold.

“Kile?”

“Sorry I’m late… I got…”

But before she could say anything more, Alisa quickly silenced her. She looked around the field as if expecting someone to pop out of the trees at any moment. When no one did, she beckoned for Kile to remain quiet and follow her.

As Kile got to her feet, Vesper took his place on her shoulder. It was surprising how empty her shoulder felt without the yarrow riding on it. She followed Alisa across the orchard and into the farmhouse through the back door. Alisa said nothing as she moved to the windows and quickly pulled the curtain closed.

She suddenly turned around and faced Kile. She couldn’t tell if she was annoyed or scared. “Where in all of Aru have you been?” She asked in a harsh whisper.

“Well, as a matter of fact I wasn’t in Aru.” Kile said as she set Vesper down on the table and took a seat on the armchair by the fireplace. It was nice to sit on something soft for a change.

“This is no joking matter Kile. Hunter’s have come here looking for you.”

“Well they should… I mean I was missing for… a few days.” She replied, although she wasn’t sure how many days she was actually missing. She tried to figure it out, but it got a little confusing when she was down in the dungeon. Without any windows it was difficult to tell.

“I don’t think they were looking for you to look for you, I think they were looking for you to arrest you.”

“Arrest me? Arrest me for what?”

“I’m not sure. I think it was for killing a man in Littenbeck.”

“Littenbeck, I haven’t even been to Littenbeck.”

“All I know is a pair of Hunters came by here three days ago looking for you and they weren’t exactly the kind of people that I would want to be found by. I think they’re watching the house, as well as your room in town. You can’t go back there.”

“I have to go back there. I have to change out of these… clothes. I smell like a dead valrik.”

“Yeah… you do at that.” Alisa commented as she moved to the window. She peeked out through the side of the curtain. “You can take a bath upstairs and I’ll lend you some of my clothes.”

“No offense Alisa but, we don’t exactly have the same taste in clothing and we’re not exactly the same size.”

“I still have some of my old clothes from when I was younger.” She said as she motioned Kile to the stairs. “My bath is already set up in my room.”

She wasn’t going to turn down a free bath, no matter how strange her friend was acting. As she got out of the chair, Vesper jumped up on her arm and perched himself back on her shoulder. It would appear that the yarrow wasn’t going to let her out of his sight any time soon. She headed upstairs to Alisa’s bedroom where, sure enough, a bath was already laid out. The water was a bit tepid, which meant Alisa probably already took her bath. Kile set Vesper down on the chair, peeled off the uhyre rags and set them aside, as far away from the water as she could. If it was possible she would have burned them right then and there. Removing the bandages from her feet she slowly stepped into the water and sank down into the tub. It was amazing how a bath could rejuvenate a person.

She was just starting to lather up when Alisa came through the door with a pile of clothing in her arms, dropping them on the bed, moved to the window, pulling the curtains closed.

“Are we being a little over reactive?” Kile asked.

“Where were you… seriously?”

“Let’s just say I met an old acquaintance and I couldn’t get away.”

She watched Alisa, and could tell that her friend was suddenly filled with doubts and a touch of suspicion.

“Yes, but where were you?” Alisa asked.

“What does it matter where I was, I’m back.” She replied.

“Were you in Littenbeck?”

“I told you, I haven’t been to Littenbeck in nearly four years. Look, if I knew I was going to get interrogated, I would have gone back to my room first.”

Of course that threat wasn’t even possible since Alisa kept her room keys while she was out on assignments so she wouldn’t have been able to get into her room, but it did make Alisa pause, although it didn’t remove her suspicion.

“Who is this guy in Littenbeck?” Kile asked.

“I don’t know.” Alisa replied as she sat down on the edge of the bed. “Look… when your horse came back without you I waited a day before I sent word to the Guild House. That evening Steele arrived to look Grim over, when he left I figured he was going to go look for you. He came back without you and started asking me questions about a Mr. David Draw, and what we talked about before you left. He told me it was nothing important, but I could tell he was worried about something. About three days ago he came back here again, only this time he’s accompanied by two men dressed in green. I figured they were Hunters. One of them starts asking me questions about you. When was the last time you were in Littenbeck? Did you usually go traveling alone? Did you know some mystic by the name of Emara? I told them that I didn’t really know all that much about you and that you only stabled your horse here. I don’t think they bought it, and I wouldn’t be surprised it they’re watching the house right now.”

“What did they say about Emara?” Kile asked.

“Well, they didn’t really say anything about her, only asked if you knew about her or mentioned her name. I found out later that she had been abducted, and that some man had been assassinated in Littenbeck.”

“Oh come on, you don’t really think they think that I had something to do with it? It’s probably just routine questioning.” Kile said. Although why would they question her about it in the first place?

Alisa got up from the bed and crossed the room to the dresser where she pulled out a rolled up parchment.

“It gets worse.” She said as she handed it to Kile. “These were posted at the Bird and Bay two days ago.”

She didn’t have to unroll it to know what it was. She could tell by the green edging that it was an open bounty. She had seen enough of those posted on the Guild House walls, but she had to see whose face was on it. As she unrolled it, there was a crude image of her staring back at her. It wasn’t a very flattering image and kind of depicted her as some crazed young woman with wild hair. The information that they had was rather vague. Except for her general description they didn’t know anything about her, including her edge. Under the details it only stated that she was wanted for crimes against the Guild, crimes against the Crown, crimes against the community and Crimes against the Tower. That pretty much covered just about anybody that she could have had crimes against. What startled her most was that the price on her head was over double that of Eric Rimes, and he stole from the Guild and burned down half the Academy to get away, not to mention the fact that it took the council nearly six months before they posted an open bounty on him. How had this gotten so far out of control so fast?

“Where were you Kile?” Alisa asked.

“You don’t really think I had anything to do with this?”

“Why would they post a bounty on you so fast, unless they had a reason?”

“Because they want to get rid of me, they wanted to get rid of me from day one. They want to get rid of anyone that stands in the way of changes, and they don’t even realize they’re doing exactly what he wants them to do.”

“Who’s doing this?”

“The sons of Terrabin and some… some madman by the name of Ravenshadow.” She said as she tossed the bounty to the floor. Somehow the bath was less relaxing than it had been a few moments ago. She looked over at Alisa and could still see the doubt in her eyes.

“This.” Kile shouted as she held out her arms, exposing her wrist for Alisa to see. She still had the bruises and cuts not to mention a few burn marks. “This is where I was okay. Shackled to a damn wall for several days where my only friend was a rat. Not exactly my proudest moment so you can forgive me if I don’t want to talk about it.”

Alisa looked scared as she stared at Kile’s wrists.

“I’m…. I’m Sorry.” She said as she hastily turned to the door. “You’re probably hungry… I’ll… I’ll go find you something to eat.”

She quickly closed the door behind her, leaving Kile alone in the room once again.

-Kile mad?-