They spent the night beside the river, having finally eaten a decent meal after four days. By morning the sun was completely out and the sky was a clear blue, it only added to the speed at which they traveled. They were close to the finish line and they knew it as things started to look familiar.

“I know this place.” Carter exclaimed as he ran ahead. “Right over there under that rock is where I spent the night during the survival examination. Just over that hill is the clearing where Master Folkstaff brought us.”

“Then we did it, we’re finally home.” Alex shouted falling to his knees. “We survived the five days and we’re finally home.”

“There’s still a half a day's walk to go.” Daniel said, bringing in a sober note of reality.

“Yeah, but what could possibly happen now.” Alex laughed.

As the words tripped out of his mouth, Kile suddenly had a bad feeling that everything was going to go terribly wrong, and in fact it had already started.

“Hang on you guys.” She said, calling a halt to the celebration.

“What is it?” Carter asked as he came closer. His hand instinctively went to the sword at his side. He was beginning to respect Kile’s hunches even if he didn’t want to know where they came from.

“We’re not alone.” She said as she looked across the field. She wasn’t sure if she was being overcautious, or if she actually sensed something, either way she had the feeling they were being watched.

They were just below the hill, over that hill and another ten minutes would have taken them back to Master Folkstaff’s clearing, a three hour walk would bring them back to the road and the field outside the western gate where they trained their horses, ten more minutes from there and they could be in the dining hall celebrating their victory. They were four hours from completing the exercise, would the Hunter’s guild throw something at them this late in the game.

The wind blew down around the hill, and upon it she picked up that same scent that she had been following the last couple of days.

“Where are you Eric?” She called out.

“Very good Veller.”

He rose from the far side of the hill, his hair matted down over his eyes, his clothes in a state of disarray, he looked more like a brigand than the son of a Lord, and it suited him better. “I have to admit, I really didn’t think you would get this far.” He said as he started down the hill.

Three more figures emerged behind him. Roger off to his left, Anthony on his right and a smaller kid who’s name Kile didn’t know stood in the back. That left one more she thought, one more member of his group was in hiding, but why?

“What do you want Eric?”

“Nothing from you.” He replied, pointing at Daniel. “What I want is from her. I want her to surrender, I want her to give me the orbs and give up.”

“And why would I do that?” She asked.

“Because if you don’t…” He said trailing off with a grin. “We’ll have to make you.”

There was a movement of his head, ever so slight that she may have missed it if she wasn’t expecting it. Whatever was going to happen just did.

He came at them from around the hill, down wind from her, which was foolish if he had known whom he was trying to sneak up on. The speed was incredible, but she was already in motion as the blur of what had to be the fifth member of Eric’s party flew out of the woods from behind one of the larger trees. She sidestepped him and stretching her leg out. He struck her at tremendous speed spinning her around and knocking her flat on her ass as he flipped over her outstretched foot landing face first in the dirt a good six yards away. The red headed boy lay motionless on the ground and Eric just sneered at his incompetence. It may have been an amusing and effective tactic, but the pain in her ankle was more than she was willing to pay.

“Then we’re doing this the hard way.” Eric said as he started down the hill at a run, his hands burst into flame. He pulled his arm back and whipped it forward, launching a ball of fire into her direction.

She tried to get to her feet but her ankle wasn’t going to cooperate. All she could do was close her eyes and wait for the impact. It was a fiery blast, but she never felt the heat. When she opened her eyes she saw Murphy standing between her and Eric, his body completely encased in stone, his tunic still smoking. Eric stopped a good ten feet away.

“Get out the way Murphy.” He ordered.

“Not this time.” Murphy replied.

“This is between her and me.”

“Not any more.”

“You’re going to side with her?”

“I don’t know you anymore Eric, I don’t understand you. I don’t understand why you even wanted to be a hunter in the first place. You have no idea what it means; she’s ten times the hunter you’ll ever be.”

That was probably not the right thing to say at that movement as Eric’s eyes just lit up, he had moved from mildly annoyed to incredible ticked off in less than a heartbeat.

“Then maybe we’ll have to remove that from the equation.” He said, and his hands bursting into flames once again.

This time he brought them together and a swirling ball of fire began to grow between his outstretched palms. Murphy launched himself across the open field, moving surprisingly fast for a man currently made of stone. One massive fist connected with Eric’s face as the ball of fire exploded between them, throwing them both backwards.

It was as if the explosion had set the chaos in motion. Daniel was running across the field to where Murphy had laid on the ground, but the big man was now flesh and blood and his tunic was smoking. Carter was suddenly knocked back as a wall of stone erupted from the ground around him, completely cutting him off from the rest of the group. Alex was trying to get to Carter but Robert and Anthony had managed to combine their edges and were now launching large projectiles of stone at the smaller boy who was forced to seek cover.

Kile was at a sudden loss as to who she should try to help. Movement was a bit difficult, as the pain in her ankle prevented her from putting too much weight on it. She had forgotten about the speedy fifth member of Eric’s group and was suddenly broadsided, finding herself once again on her back on the ground, minus the pack that held the three orbs. At first she thought she might have dropped it after the collision and quickly searched the grass around her, but unfortunately she wasn’t going to be that lucky.

“That was too easy.” The red headed cadets announced from the top of the hill as he held the pack high above his head. He must have forgotten his face plant earlier she thought as she struggled to get to her feet again. She had little chance of getting to him with his bursts of speed, probably a wind sphere thing she thought.

The red headed cadets grinned at her attempts to get closer as he reached into the pack, he suddenly let out a blood curdling scream. When he pulled back his hand, there was a yarrow clenched down on the skin between his thumb and his forefinger.

“Get it off! Get it off!” He continued to yell jumping up and down, swinging his hand with the yarrow tightly clamped on.

Vesper finally let go and went sailing through the air, landing in the grass not far from the pack and the orbs. He grabbed the strap and made a run for the forest. The red headed cadet cursed as he held his now bleeding hand closed to his chest.

“Where did that rat go?” He shouted, and it took him a while to locate the pack moving through the high grass.

Vesper moved pretty fast for a yarrow dragging a sack that was twice his size, but he couldn’t move fast enough. It took the cadet a few steps to build up his edge and focus his concentration. Kile quickly threw herself forward just as the cadet launched into his blinding speed. It was the third time they collided, and each time was like being struck by a blacksmith’s hammer as she felt the wind driven from her lungs. The cadet went head of heels again, landing in the forest, colliding with something solid.

Kile struggled to catch her breath as she looked around the field; this was not going well she thought. Carter had managed to escape his stone prison, or at least she had to assume he did since she could no longer see him on the field anymore. Murphy was up and back in stone form as he tried to protect Daniel from the balls of fire that Eric was tossing in their direction. It was too much to think that Eric would be down for the count. He had gone from trying to slow them down so they would fail the survival exercise, to eliminating them completely from the academy and probably from life itself. He wouldn’t be happy until they were all gone.

Murphy managed to close the gap and threw another punch in Eric’s direction but a wall of stone stopped it cold, rising from the ground between him and Eric, but Robert’s manipulation of stone didn’t stop there. He quickly gained control of Murphy’s stone form, and Murphy, although he tried not to, backhanded Daniel across the field. The big man was now in a tight spot. If he stayed in his stone form he couldn’t control his own movements, if he changed back to his flesh and blood, Eric would roast him as he built up another ball of fire. He didn’t get the opportunity to hurl it as he suddenly went down again, this time he was struck by an unseen hand, which meant Carter was still around.

The best they could hope for was a stand still, a draw. They had no intention of killing a fellow cadet, but it didn’t look as if the other side held the same feelings as Eric began to torch the ground around him in a vain attempt to find his unseen attacker.

Kile turned back toward the woods where Vesper had gone, she wasn’t going to be any good in a fight, not when she could barely stand on her ankle. Her only hope now was to secure the orbs; otherwise this would all be pointless. She grit her teeth as she got to her feet and started to hop toward the tree line, but she didn’t get very far as the red headed cadet came running out of the forest screaming, not at his blinding speed, but fast enough for a man with twelve squirrels biting every exposed surface of his body.

-Help Kile-

-Help Kile-

-Help Kile-

The battle cries came from the trees and more squirrels joined into the fray. They scattered across the field going after anyone and everyone, friend and foe alike. A smaller group of about twelve squirrels, lead by a yarrow, broke off from the main army and encircled Kile.

Reinforcements she thought, although she would have preferred a couple of bears or maybe a few dogs, something with a little more presence, but numbers can sometimes count for strength, although she didn’t want to see any of the squirrels hurt either.

She watched as the red headed cadet ran past her still trying to pick squirrels off his body, but for every one he removed another two leapt on. As he ran up and over the hill, Kile noticed the unknown boy still standing on the hillside. He had not joined the fight and so the squirrels saw no threat in him. Was it because he was ineffective in battle so Eric told him to stay out of it, or was it that  he didn’t believe in what Eric was doing, or was it the simple fact that he was loaded down with all the supplies. Seeing him standing there with the backpack that was almost twice his size, gave her an idea.

“Vesper, Tik.” She called out as the yarrow and one of the squirrels came forward. She didn’t have to tell them what she wanted, she could easily show them in a few words, the same way she had shown Tik who to bring the food to that night. It didn’t take long before the squad of squirrels understood the new mission.

They covered the ground in rapid time, not being distracted by any of the activity on the field. They circled the hill and ambushed the boy and his backpack from the concealment of the tall grass, catching him completely off guard. He screamed as the squirrels landed on him, and was running around frantically, waving his hands in the air. He came running down the hill knocking Roger over as he made for the forest, shedding his backpack and cloak in a vain attempt to rid himself of the rodents.

Kile quickly limped her way to the discarded pack, falling on it as she got there. She opened it up and dumped the contents out onto the field, rummaging around in the supplies until she found what she was looking for. A fiery explosion ignited next to her, throwing her backwards as the backpack burst into flames.

“Enough.” Eric shouted as both his arms were now engulfed in flame. As brave and as loyal as the squirrels were, they could not go up against fire and quickly fell back.

“Alright, everyone stop!” Kile shouted as she sat up. “You win, we surrender.”

There was a silent hush that fell across the field, even the squirrels stopped and watched, waiting to see what would happen next.

“Too late for that Veller.” Eric said as he started to get closer

“Look… you win.” She said, holding up the small ebony box. “Stop and we’ll give up.”

Eric paused for a moment, considering the proposal, but a grin crossed his face that she didn’t really like.

“I don’t think so.” He replied as he lifted his arms over his head, and another huge ball of swirling fire began to expand between his hands. She could feel the intensity of the heat as it grew.

“You have been a thorn in my side for too long.”

Kile opened the little ebony box.

There was a bone shuddering boom that slid her even further across the field. It wasn’t as violent as an explosion should have been; it was more like she had been pushed out of the way of Eric’s ball of fire which was hurling towards her, but instead of hitting her, it was engulfed in a shimmering blue orb of energy. The orb went from blue to red then to yellow as it slowly melted into the robes of a mystic.

Morgan Vain stood silently looking around the field and he was not pleased by what he saw. The fighting was over, for better or for worse, the cadets stood facing this new force of nature. The squirrels were the smarter group as they quickly high tailed it to the safety of the forest, and after seeing the look on Morgan’s face, Kile wished she could have joined them.

“Well, I guess it is over.” Eric said with a smile as he dusted himself off and got to his feet. It was not the victory that he wanted, but he would take it. “I guess I’ll see you back at the academy with the rest of the losers.” He said and waved for his group to join him.

“Not so fast.”

Morgan picked up the open box that lay at his feet.

“This is your box.” He said, facing Eric.

“No it’s not, it’s hers.” Eric said, pointing to Kile.

“I’m afraid not.” Morgan replied. “This is your box.” It was not a question, it was a statement.

“She opened it, she gave up.”

“And what proof do you have of this?” He asked.

“Proof? She opened it… we all saw her open it.”

“I’m afraid that isn’t good enough. This box was assigned to your group, and since it has been opened, it is your group that has forfeited.”

Eric’s face suddenly dropped as he looked around the field then his eyes fell on Kile, who couldn’t resist waving.

“No, that’s not right.” Eric shouted. “She gave up, she opened the box, her group forfeited.”

It was clear that Morgan had no intention of debating this matter any further as he lifted his arms and swirling blue ribbons of light began to encircle Eric and the members of his group.

“This isn’t right.” Eric continued to protest. “You’re going to pay for this Veller, you little…” And he was gone.

Morgan looked around the field again and then focused on Kile before his yellow robes swirled around him and reverting back to the shimmering blue globe of energy before he too was gone. The small ebony box dropped to the ground. She wasn’t sure if that last look was one of disappointment or not, but it meant she would probably hear about it later. Slowly getting to her feet, cringing at the pain in her ankle she reached down and picked up the small ebony box.

“Maybe I should start a collection of these.” She said as she turned it over in her hand.

“What just happened?” Carter asked as he walked toward her.

“I took a gamble.” She replied. “I figure if the keys and the orbs were individually tuned to our group, then the boxes had to be as well.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say the keys or the orbs were tuned to our group, the orbs are tuned to the keys but anyone could use the keys.” Daniel reasoned. “Remember the burning farm house.”

“Really?” She replied. She had forgotten that Murphy used three of the keys to recover the orbs from the farm house. “It’s a good thing you didn’t tell me that earlier.”

“It doesn’t matter, we still lost. Speedy got away with our orbs.” Alex added as he came running down the hill.

“I don’t think so.”

“Sure he did, I saw him with the pack myself. I almost had it but he disappeared, along with the rest of them.”

“Just because he had the pack, doesn’t mean he had the orbs. Does it Tik?”

-Help Kile?-

The voice, only she could hear, came from the tree just behind her. She turned to see a familiar squirrel sitting on one of the lower branches alongside a yarrow. His tail looked a little singed, but otherwise he was in good health. She limped over to them, holding her arm out so Vesper could get back onto her shoulder.

“Yes, you did, thank you Tik, you both helped.”

-Help Kile-

Tik said as he ran back up the tree, there was a moment of chattering in the higher branches, and then three red orbs fell to the ground followed by three blue ones.

 

Daniel was able to soothe the pain in Kile’s ankle, fortunately there was nothing broken, although that’s not what it felt like. It was still a little sore but she would be able to walk on it without help.

“That’s about as much as I can do at the moment.” He told her.

“It feels a lot better now, thanks.”

“What were you thinking, trying to trip him? You could have just stepped out of the way.”

“Yeah, but where’s the fun in that?” She grinned.

“Yeah, like when he did that awesome face plant.” Alex laughed.

“That was a bit wild.” Carter remarked as he helped her to her feet. “You could have given your little army some better information. I don’t know… like whose friend and whose foe.”

“Hey, I didn’t tell them to go after anyone, they did it by themselves.”

“I think it’s a little more than that.” Daniel replied. “Squirrels don’t tend to link up in platoons and attack people. It’s not exactly… normal.”

“Hey, what can I say, they were just looking out for me.”

It took them another three hours before they reached the road moving at a much slower pace. They could finally see the western gates of the Academy. The sun was already low in the sky that was now changing to a misty orange, but it was still a long way from setting so they had arrived with time to spare. As the Open field just outside the walls of the academy got closer, they noticed a group of cadets sitting on the side of the road. One of the cadets sat up as Kile and her group got closer and she recognized Keith Larks as he waved to her.

“What’s the matter?” She asked. Her first thought was that something had happened within the academy, something that she didn’t want to know about.

“Nothing.” Keith said, looking to the other members of his group. “We got tired, right guys.”

“That’s it, just taking a break.” Another member chimed in and lay back down on the grass as if to prove it.

It seemed like an odd place to get tired, just a couple of yards from the western gate, a couple of yards from the completion of the exercise. It was almost as if they didn’t want to come in first, well, two can play at that game.

“You know, I’m feeling a little tired too.” She replied, turning to the others.

“Yeah, I think we can all do with a little rest before we move on.” Daniel agreed.

“What? What are you talking about we’re almost home.” Alex started to complain until Carter slapped him upside the head.

“We’re going to rest here first squirt.” He told him as he followed Kile and Daniel to the side of the road.

Alex looked to Murphy who just shrugged and followed the others.

Kile took a place on the grass beside Keith.

“That was some exercise.” She said as she stared at the road.

“It sure was.” Keith replied.

“You guys the first here?”

“As far as we know.”

“How many groups do you think made it through?” Daniel asked.

“We were trying to figure that out.” Robby replied. “Laurence and his team never made it.”

“What happen?”

“Rock slide during all the rain. Caught them on the top of the hill, about three days back. Barry broke his leg so they couldn’t continue.”

“Is he alright?” Kile asked.

“Oh sure, the healers will have him fixed up in no time.”

“It’s a shame they didn’t have you with them Daniel.” Keith added. “With your skill they could have continued.”

“If I had known I would have been there.” Daniel said.

“So, out of the seven groups, that still leaves just the six.”

“Four.” Carter corrected. “We found a spent black box in the rooms under the hill, by the looks of things there, someone got themselves caught in a nice little trap and had to drop out.”

“Do you know whose group it was?” Keith asked.

“No way of telling.” Kile added. “They were long gone before we got there.”

“Well, that still leaves five.” Robby replied.

“Well, Eric’s group had to drop out unexpectedly.”

“Really?” Keith said, and his face lit up with a grin. “I know Jakk will be happy about that, they ran into Eric and his minions two days out, barely got away.”

“So, how long are we going to sit here?” Alex asked.

“Two more group out there, I say at least until the sun sets below the walls.” Kile replied and looked to Keith for verification. The blond haired boy nodded.

“Sounds like a good idea to me.”

They didn’t have long to wait as one of the cadets from Keith’s group stood up and pointed.

“That looks like Jakk and his group now.”

Kile looked up the road.

“I can’t see anything.” She said.

“Trust him.” Keith sighed. “If he says he sees something, he sees it. It gets rather annoying after a while.”

“Don’t blame me if you’re as blind as a bat.” The other cadet laughed.

It was about five minutes later before any movement could be seen on the road.

“Yeah, it’s Jakk.” The cadet said as he sat back down on the grass.

Jakk was a lean, dark haired boy with a narrow face and rather large ears. He stopped in the middle of the road when he saw the other Cadets.

“What's the matter, what’s going on?” He asked as he came over to Keith, his eyes briefly glanced over at Kile, but only for a moment.

“We’re waiting on you.” Keith replied, to where Jakk just looked more confused. “Come on, sit down, we still have some time.”

Jakk looked at the other cadets, and then looked at his own group. He could have made for the gate and been the first through, but it didn’t look as if he really cared all that much and neither did his group.

“Hey Jakk, you’ll be happy to know that Eric and his group dropped out.”

“No way, are you sure?” He asked as he sat down on Keith’s other side.

“Oh yeah, we’re sure.” Carter replied. “He didn’t want to drop out; the decision was kind of made for him.”

“As long as he’s out of it, that’s all I care about.” Jakk laughed.

“We were trying to figure out who still out there, it’s either Williams group or Troy’s.”

“Troy’s gone. His group didn’t last one day.”

“What happen?”

“Eric. He persuaded Troy to drop out early if you know what I mean. Tried to do it with us but… well… lets just say it didn’t turn out the way he had hoped.”

So, Eric had tried to remove other groups as well. In a way, Kile felt kind of disappointed, she was under the impression that Eric had a personal vendetta against her, but now it would appear that he was trying to stop everyone. In many ways it seemed a little pointless to have all the cadets fail the final exercise with the sole exception of his group, it would have looked a little suspicious.

“So that means William’s group was trapped.” Daniel concluded.

“What happened to William?” Jakk asked

“We think he got caught in a trap while going for one of the orbs.” Carter replied. “At least the trap was sprung when we got there and we did find one of the black boxes, it had already been opened.”

“You mean that trapped room in the cave, the one with the poisoned needle in the box?”

“That’s the place.”

“Yeah, we would have walked into that trap too if Tom here hadn’t noticed the Hunter symbols on the floor.” Jakk replied as he gripped the shoulder of a rather round cadet sitting next to him.

“Symbols, what symbols?” Carter asked.

“There were Hunter symbols on the floor just outside the room. At first I though it was a joke, something to mislead us, but as Tom said, Hunter symbols should be taken seriously. Figured it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious. James was able to get the orb, he set off the trap but… lets just say he has a way of getting out of a closed room.”

“We didn’t see any symbols?” Carter replied.

“I don’t see how you could have missed them, they were large enough.”

“How come we didn’t see it?”

“Because Kile wrote them after we left.” Daniel replied.

“Kile?”

“If Williams and Troy both dropped out of the exercise, then that leave just us.” Kile said, quickly changing the subject.

“Well, if that’s the case, there’s no use sitting around here.” Keith replied as he got to his feet. He even offered Kile a hand.

 

 

 

***~~~***

 

 

 

14

 

“Well, I guess congratulations are in order, at least for those fifteen cadets that passed the survival exam.” Master Adams said as he stepped into the room and walked to the front of the class.

Kile looked around the room at the faces of the cadets, some beamed with pride, and others looked down at their desks. It was either in shame or in anger of having to bail out of the exercise. Eric was the only one that looked in her direction, and there was no denying what he felt when he saw her, and surprisingly it didn’t bother her.

She looked out the window, out at the western wall, and she had mixed feelings, whether she liked it better in here or out there. The wild held so much more freedom, more than the stone walls that now surrounded her; of course the bath and the extra change of clothing were a welcome indulgence. Sleeping in her cot, in her cell or sleeping out under the stars, it was a hard choice to make.

“I see that you all managed to survive it well enough.” Master Adams remarked as he took his seat. “Although I am sure that you may have noticed that we’ve lost a few more cadets. Five took the walk.”

“Who?” One of the cadets yelled out from the back row.

“Their names are on the notice board if you care to check. I’m sure that you’ve heard by now that an incident occurred during the survival examination. Cadets used their edge against other cadets, this as you know is not tolerated by the guild, as a result two cadets have been forced to leave the academy and there may be more.”

Kile looked around the room again, searching for the faces she knew she should see. The members of her group were still here. Murphy was sitting next to Alex in the front row. Carter and Daniel were sitting right behind her. Were they the next to go? Were they the ones Master Adams alluded to? They had used their edge against other cadets, namely Eric and his group, but if Eric was still here, they couldn’t very well force her to leave.

“So, you have all made it to your third year.” Master Adam said, leaning back in his chair as he studied the faces of the cadets before him. “If you thought the second year was intense, your third year is only going to get harder. Your training is going to get harder, your studies are going to get harder and of course the academy will be expecting more from you. You may have gotten by the first two years on sheer luck or natural talent, but they will only take you so far, the survival examination should have proven that. It’s why we have it first, a sort of a wake up call to those that think they can coast into the Hunter’s guild.”

He leaned forward and clasped his hands together, looking at each cadet in turn.

“From this point on, you will each be considered individuals. Each one of you has your strong points and your weak points, and that is what the academy is going to focus on. For the next several months until you are either assigned to a hall, or pass through the gate of Pudora, we will expose your weaknesses and use them against you until they become your strengths. If you can’t ride a horse, you will be on that horse day and night until you can prove otherwise. If you can’t survive the wild, you will be left out there for weeks on end if necessary until you can. If you’re having problems controlling your edge, you will be seeing a lot more of Morgan than anyone actually should. There are no more easy courses. Those courses that you sailed through are gone now, for the next few months, it's going to be all those things you hated the most about the academy.”

There was a fiendish grin on Master Adam’s face that Kile didn’t like. Where were her weaknesses she wondered? That was a surprisingly easy and frightening answer, combat. That would mean she wouldn’t be let out of Master Boraro’s sight until she mastered the sword… or he killed her.

“Your assigned location for each day will be posted on the notice board. It is your responsibility to be where you are supposed to be, when you are supposed to be there, and to show that we at the academy are not evil… you may take the rest of the day off to recuperate from your survival exercise. That’s all have a nice day.”

Master Boraro everyday all day she thought as she slumped in her seat. Maybe she should seize this opportunity to reserve herself a bed in the halls of healing; since she had a feeling she was going to be visiting it a lot more frequently in the next few months.

She waited until the classroom emptied, mostly until she was sure Eric had left before she got up from her desk.

“So Kile, it doesn’t look as if I will be seeing much of you in the next few months.” Master Adams commented as he followed her to the door.

“Sir?”

“You’ve read just about every book I have in my library, I don’t think there is much more that I can teach you, and you will be happy to know that Master Voreing feels the same.”

“I’d take Master Voreing over Master Boraro any day.” She mumbled.

“Yes… a shame about that.” Master Adams replied. “Still, he is a good man, a little hard nosed at times but he knows what he’s doing, you can learn a lot from him.”

“You’ll visit me at the healers?” She asked.

“I don’t think it will be that bad.” Master Adams laughed. “In all my years here, I don’t think I ever heard of Master Boraro actually killing anyone.”

Somehow that wasn’t very comforting she thought as she followed Master Adams out into the hall. Maybe Master Boraro hadn’t killed anyone yet, since he hadn’t had to instruct anyone he disliked more than her.

“Oh, Kile, I almost forgot, Morgan wanted to see you after class.”

“Morgan?” She asked, now what did he want. He probably had something to say about the incident.

“Master Adams.” She called out, stopping the Hunter before he reached the stairs.

“What is it cadet?”

“The two boys that were forced to leave the academy.”

“What about them?”

“Did that have anything to do with…?”

“What occurred between Eric’s group and your group out in the wild two days ago?” He finished for her. All she could do was nod. “I’m afraid to say, yes, it had a lot to do with the fight in the field. A Hunter, whether he’s a full fledge Hunter or just a cadet is never allowed to use his edge against another Hunter. It’s right at the top of the Hunter’s code. Both Robert and Stephen knew that, and yet they chose to act against that code.”

“But sir… we all kind of used our edges at that time.”

“I’m sure you did, in your own ways, but to use your edge defensively to protect yourself or others against another is what a hunter does; to use your edge offensively to attack another hunter is a violation of the code.”

“But just those two, it doesn’t seem fair. What about Anthony… or Eric.”

Master Adams pulled Kile off to one side as he looked around the hall, making sure that they were not overheard.

“I understand what you are saying Kile, and believe me, I agree with you, but there are certain circumstances that have to be dealt with first. In Anthony’s case, it is not clear if his edge can be used offensively, and he may still find himself out of the academy if a further investigation finds that what he did, acted against the code.”

“And Eric?” She asked.

Master Adams sighed and shook his head. “Sometimes… the code can be paid for.”

“Because his father is Lord Rimes.”

“In Eric Rimes case, the evidence has to be more… substantial.”

“So, not until he does something that can’t be disputed, he can get away with it.”

“I’m afraid that how it goes, even in the guild.” Master Adams replied, and it was clear that he was as upset about it as she was. “Think of it this way Kile, the world is a big place. Once you’re a hunter and out there on your own, you’ll never have to deal with the likes of him again.”

Somehow that little bit of wisdom, wasn’t very encouraging.

She took the back way down the stairs and out the rear of the great hall to the small mystic towers. She knocked on Morgan’s door, and when no one answered, she went in.

Each time she visited Morgan, his room looked cleaner and more organized, and in a way it seemed pointless. In one more year the remaining hunters would be given their destination papers and be leaving the academy. By the time Morgan had everything where he wanted it; he would be packing it all up again and headed back to the Mystic’s Tower.

The two overstuffed wingback chairs were still sitting before the blue flame that was cooling the room. The shelves were stocked and the books were neatly aligned, even the little curiosities that littered the workspace now appeared to be in order. It was a far cry from the first time she had ventured into his tower that was nearly two years ago.

“There you are Miss Veller.” Morgan said when he entered the room behind her, his familiar yellow robes flowing about him.

“Yes sir.”

Morgan looked at her, studied her for a while and it was always difficult to tell what the old man was thinking. She was waiting to be berated for the misuse of her edge or something that she did during the incident in the field, but instead Morgan laughed.

“Fine work… fine work.” He said shaking his head. “Please, sit down, tell me about the exam.”

“I’m not sure where to start sir.” She said as she took her usual seat by the fire.

“Start… start at the beginning. I want to know how your edge worked in the wild.” He said handing her a cup a rosemary tea, minus the rum.

She still had no fondness for the tea, but she accepted it graciously and quickly set it aside as he sat down.

“Well… I guess the first time I had to use it was when I asked some birds to help us get our bearings… no wait… the first time was when Kaza warned me about the transport spell.”

“Oh, weren’t you aware of the effects of that?”

“No sir, we were never told.”

“Oh, I must have told somebody… I wonder who that must have been. Oh well, it doesn’t matter now anyway, please, how did you ask these birds and how did they help you.”

Kile went on to explain every incident that she could think of that may or may not have been the use of her edge. She even tried to tell him about the others and how effectively they used their edges like Murphy who was able to enter a burning building and Alex who recreated an illusion of the map that they lost, but Morgan would rush her past these points. He knew all too well the limitations of the boy’s skills, these were quite common and in his world, quite mundane. It was with her skills that he was most interested, and would listen carefully to everything she said, and even to things that she hadn’t said, often forcing her to repeat a part of the story once or twice just to make sure he understood.

He wanted to know how it felt when she used her edge and how it made her feel. What she was thinking? What the animals were thinking? Anything that had anything to do with her edge was fair game.

When she went through the story, at least twice he finally paused for lunch and filled two bowls with a soup that was somehow cooking on the cold fire. She made a mental note to remember which bowl was actually hers in case he wanted to try that little experiment again.

The one part of the story that had interested him the most was the battle in the field and the small army of squirrels that came to her aid. He was sure she had somehow used the Maligar either willingly or unwillingly and when she assured him that she had not, he was a little disappointed at first, but as he listened to the story the realization of what actually happened eclipsed even that.

“So, you are absolutely sure you don’t remember using the Maligar?” He asked again, and again she answered the same way.

“I’m positive I didn’t use it.” She replied.

“Not even by accident, like when you used in on your horse… Grime.”

“His name is Grim and no, it wasn’t even like that. When I was with Grim I was angry with him, I wanted him to listen to me. Out in the wild I wasn’t even thinking of Tik or the squirrels. All I knew was that I needed to do something to help Vesper, to help my friends.”

“Incredible… are you absolutely…”

“Yes.”

“Don’t you understand the significance of this?” He asked as he got up from his chair and began to pace the floor, tugging at his beard as he walked.

She hadn’t thought of any significance in any situation, only that the squirrels had come to help, although Daniel had alluded to the fact that it was quite an uncommon occurrence to see squirrels working in unison, but she really hadn’t looked at it that way.

“The squirrel recognized you, and protected you, as if you were one of them… no, not one of them. Squirrels don’t even go out of their way to help one another. This was something entirely different. They looked at you as if you… were their queen.”

Queen of the squirrels, she hoped that title didn’t get around.

“Don’t you see? We know Bees will go out of their way to protect the queen bee, it’s a hive mentality. Squirrels are more solitary creatures, but for them to go out of their way to protect you, they developed a kind of hive mentality with you as their queen.”

“I think they were just doing me a favor.” She replied. She was a little uncomfortable with where Morgan was taking this.

“But why, for what reasoned, what did they get out of it?” Morgan asked, and even she had to agree they were pretty good questions. “Have you seen any such loyalty in other animal?” He asked her.

“No… I can’t say that I…”

Another incident of unusual loyalty had occurred, one that she had failed to mention to Morgan. She hadn’t really thought of it at the time, passing it off as a minor event, but if the old mystic was placing such importance on it, then maybe it deserves a second thought.

“What… what. You have, haven’t you?” Morgan asked getting more excited as he grabbed his book and jotted down a few more notes.

“It was what Javoon told me.”

“Javoon? That was…” He looked through his notes until he found the right passage. “That was the guard dog at the third orb challenge. He agreed to help you by convincing the other dogs to ignore Carter. Well, that is unusual but hardly the same reasoning.”

“That’s just it. It was why he agreed to help. Gorum told him to.”

“Gorum?” The mystic searched through his notes again. “I don’t have him listed here, who was he again.”

“Gorum is one of Sir Oblum’s dogs.” She explained.

“Sir Oblum’s dogs, what do they have to do with anything, they weren’t involved with the test.”

“That’s just it. When the guards arrived at the academy to receive their orders from Sir Oblum, Gorum told the guard dogs to help me if they could. I never asked him to do it, I didn’t even know there were going to be dogs out there, or that they were going to wait at the academy.”

“Now that is interesting.” Morgan replied as he scribbled some more things down.

Great, now she was queen of the dogs, what did that make her? It wasn’t as if she hadn’t been called that before.

“It would appear that the connections you make with these animals are stronger than I had first thought, and a lot more complex. I was originally under the impression it was just a simple form of communication, but it seems to go far beyond that. It would appear that you’ve made lasting bonds, friendships if you will, with these animals, not just on an owner to pet level, but on an even level, a one to one level, a friendship between the mortal world and the natural world. It really is incredible.”

 

Kile left Morgan to figure out whatever it was that he felt he needed to figure out. There was an old saying her mother had told her on more than one occasion, usually when something actually worked out right even though it shouldn’t have. You never look a gift horse in the mouth. She was never sure what a gift horse actually was, or why anyone would look it in the mouth, but for some reason the sentiment fit this situation. She didn’t really care why the squirrels helped her, or why Gorum persuaded the dogs to lend her a hand or a paw, only that they did, and she was grateful for it.

She walked past the stables heading to the dorms. She knew the boys would be training today just like every other day. It seemed like that was all they did anymore. She knew she would have to get back into doing it too if she had any hope of passing her combat evaluation. The lessons with Luke were one thing, but she wasn’t sure if that style was going to get her past Master Boraro, but there was somebody else she wanted to see today, somebody that she had been thinking of for the past couple of days.

Kile opened the door to her cell and was greeted by Vesper who was sitting up on her bed. She walked over to the dresser where not one but four small ebony boxes sat in a row. Each one was intricately carved, although the patterns were a little different. The one from the Mystic tower was still more detailed than the ones from the Survival exercise. She opened up the box and removed the small key that was inside. She hadn’t seen the key since that day Mathew Latherby handed it to her.

“Come on Vesper.” She said as she grabbed the belt pouch from around the chair. Maybe she should stop in on the quartermaster and see if he had any more of those pouches that they used during the exam. It was a lot more comfortable and a lot more convenient than the belt pouch. Vesper climbed in and from the way he chattered, it was clear that he thought the same thing.

She headed back up across the compound, stopping only for a moment to watch the first years get their taste of Master Boraro. They were only one year behind her, but they looked so much younger than she felt, although most of them were bigger than she was. They had just moved from the wooden practice swords to the steel ones. Most of the first years could hold and wield a weapon better than she could, and she wondered if there was any hope for her. When Master Boraro glanced in her direction, she decided she didn’t really want to hang around there too long.

Entering the great hall through the front doors she stepped into the gallery. There weren’t that many people around, but then there seldom was. The only time the gallery was ever filled was when the third years showed the first years around; hopefully she wouldn’t have to do that next year. The first thing she noticed was that Quaineess Nyn’s display, although still missing, had finally been cleaned up. There was another display cabinet in its place, but it did a disservice to the Hunter whose artifacts were now long gone, and there was still no reason why Eric would steal them.

She knew it was Eric, but she no longer voiced that opinion out loud. It was not a favorable one. If he could remain in the academy after violating one of the oldest laws in the Hunter’s code, then there was little chance of him being prosecuted on her say so, whether he did it or not, and she knew he did it.

She walked to the door under the stairs, inserted the key and turned it, listening for the click as the tumblers fell into place. She made sure nobody was looking, opened the door a crack and slipped it. At first there was only darkness as she closed the door, but soon the room lit up.

The three women stared down at her from their places upon the wall, but unlike the godlike beings in the main gallery, they did not look upon her with disdain, but with respect, they did not question why she was there, only why it had taken her so long to come back. She admired all three of the female hunters for what they had accomplished, but it was the one on the far wall, it was Risa Ta’re that she had admired the most.

There was that ageless beauty, that peace that she felt when she looked upon alverian maiden sitting in the forest with the fawn by her side. She had not given much thought to the fawn when she first saw the painting, she had thought it no more than an artist’s interpretation, but now she wondered. Now that she had touched a fawn, spoken with a doe, how much more that painting meant to her. Did Risa Ta’re communicated with the natural world? She didn’t know, but she wanted it to be true.

-Who is she?-

Vesper asked from the pouch on her belt. She took the yarrow out and set him on the shelf beside her.

“She was Risa Ta’re, and she was a hunter.” Kile replied.

 

She searched for her name on the noticed board. She really wasn’t surprised when she saw Master Boraro’s name was beside it, in fact, his name was beside hers all the way down the list with the possible exception of a few afternoons with Master Pike and Master West. This was not going to be a fun summer she thought as she stepped back from the board and the crowd that had gathered. She had always wondered why the third year cadets were always hovering around the noticed board, and now she knew, it was the only way they could find out where they were suppose to be, and according to the board, she was suppose to be in the List… again.

It had been the same thing for the last two weeks, combat training with either Master Boraro or Master West. West seemed to be a little more lenient than the hard nosed Boraro, but not by that much, at least Master West didn’t go out of his way to make her life miserable. If she had known back then that they would be torturing her with the courses she was failing in her last year, she might not have been so good at the courses she was passing in her first year, or something like that.

She followed a few of the unfortunate cadets who, like herself, were assigned to Master Boraro classes. As they entered the field she turned to watch as the first year cadets were training under the watchful eye of Master Finds. They were technically second year cadets now; they just didn’t know it yet. They were occupying field three and were working on their moves as the Weapon’s master took them through their stances. It was nice to see just how far she hadn’t progressed. After two years of sword training she was sure that the first year cadets could easily take her down.

She walked over to the rack and set about selecting herself a sword. It wasn’t that difficult a task since she didn’t like any of them; it was a matter of choosing the one she disliked the least.

Master Boraro entered the field just as Kile nearly dropped the sword she had just drawn from the rack. The Weapons Master rolled his eyes as he passed and proceeded to walk among the cadets. Normally he would have balled her out for a slip such as that, but he had been keeping his temper the last couple of days. She was sure somebody spoke with somebody, maybe advising him to cut her some slack. It wasn’t that she was ungrateful if such a thing had happened, but it did smack of favoritism.

She walked over to where Alex and Jakk were going through their steps as Master West called out the numbers. Every swing had a number assigned to it, every step, every block, they were all numbered. The idea was that if a cadet could string the numbers together they could create a combination of moves, and then the only thing they had to do was find an enemy that worked with the same system so they wouldn’t be out of sync. The whole practice was pointless, but at least she wasn’t getting hammered on by Master Boraro.

After a few hours of playing swing that number they moved into some light sparring. They broke up into groups of three. Two would spar, one would watch and then they would rotate. She was glad that Jakk was so eager to join her and Alex; otherwise they would have to find another partner. Carter and Murphy were too good to take basic combat training anymore, most of their courses were academics and what weapons training they did take was far more advanced than what she was forced to endure. Daniel fell between the two sides; he didn’t excel in either the academic or the physical side, so he was only required to train a few days out of the week. That was usually the beginning of the week when Master Boraro introduced the new weapons. After she had seen every weapon she thought existed, he always managed to produce one more. In some ways she actually looked forward to it, but then the Hunter usually spoiled it by choosing a target to demonstrate his weapons prowess on. It was only a matter of time before her turn came up, and she feared for that day.

After a full day of training, it was supper in the dining hall, her chores in the stable and then more sparring behind the barn with the gang. This had been going on for two weeks straight and the only changes she had seen were in the calluses on her hands. She lowered her sword too soon and Carter moved in for the kill.

“Come on Kile, you’re not even trying.” He said as he stepped back to the starting point of the make shift circled.

“Sorry, I got a little distracted there.” She said as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. “Let’s take a break.”

“A break? If you’re in a combat situation against an enemy, are you going to ask him for a break?” Carter complained.

“Of course, he might need one too.” She said as she sat against the barn, the wood felt cool against her back and it was just nice to be in the shade. It was just too hot to be swinging a sword around; she would have to confine her fighting to the spring and autumn months.

“Fine, Alex, you’re next.” Carter said pointing his sword at the smaller cadet.

Alex was all too eager to have his brains beaten out on a hot day as he took the sword from Kile and faced off against Carter in the circle, but at least he was improving. After two weeks of training all day and training all night, Kile would almost say she was getting worse and yet somehow she still had to prove she could fight in order to pass her combat evaluation.

“Hey, Kile, since you're not fighting, could you help me with this.” Murphy asked as he showed her a parchment he had been working on. She looked it over and instantly found several mistakes, there were certain privileges that the best friend of the son of a lord wasn’t entitled to, and one of those would have been a decent education.

“Of course.” She said as she sat down in the grass with him and showed him where he had gone wrong.

“Hey guys, there on their way.” Daniel shouted as he came around the corner of the stable. His duties in the halls of healing were taking more and more time away from his study sessions.

“Who’s on their way?”

“The new first years, they’re finally here.” Daniel exclaimed.

It was definitely a boy’s thing as Carter and Alex dropped their swords and quickly followed Daniel back to the field. Even Murphy wasn’t immune to the excitement as he excused himself from Kile to follow the others.

“I really don’t see what the big deal is.” She said to herself as she got to her feet. She couldn’t practice alone and she had already read the book that Murphy was studying, so she stacked the books on top of one of the crates, set the swords back in their bin and reluctantly followed Murphy down to the fenced in area.

The carriages had pulled in by the time she took her place on the fence next to Daniel, and she watched as the young cadet fell out into the road. No girls among this group she noted, and wasn’t sure if she was disappointed or relieved, as for the boys, there were so many of them, but then there were quite a few in her class to start with, now they were down to a mere twenty eight. How many of these cadets with their dreams and their hopes would be standing where she was right now in only two years time? In many ways it was kind of sad. She looked at their faces as they stared in awe at their new surroundings and slowly moved to the main field to get their first look at Sir Oblum. The insults and the comments began to fly and that was all she could take. Let them have their little customs and their irrational tradition she thought as she pushed off the fence, she just couldn’t take any part in it. The rest of the boys headed to the field to continue badgering the first years, she headed back to the stables.

The coolness of the stables was a welcome relief from the heat of the summer, and the company was better as she greeted the horses one by one.

“You’re not down with the others?” Luke asked as he appeared from the shadows beside her.

“I don’t see the point.” She replied without looking up. She was getting used to him fading in and fading out, that it no longer fazed her.

“The point is tradition.”

“Been there, done that.” She said with a wave of her hand. “I’ve seen the orientation when I was on the receiving end, why would I want to listen to it again and again… and again?”

“Some people see it and understand it the first time they hear it, others don’t really understand until they’ve been here long enough.”

“So what you’re saying is that there is some cryptic message in Sir Oblum’s speech.”

“It’s not what he says, but what he means.” Luke replied.

“What he says is boring and what he means is to bore us.”

“Is that really what you think?”

“No… I understand what he’s trying to say but… it's not real. None of it is. I’ve been here for two years and his ideas about what a hunter is supposed to be… I just don’t see it. Most of the staff seems petty, jealous, vindictive, and those that have any real traits of being a hunter are just…”

“Just what?”

“I don’t know, I want to say meek, but I don’t think that’s the word I want to use. I mean, look at Master Adams. He’s intelligent, he’s eloquent, I don’t know how good he is in combat but in all other ways he appears to be everything a hunter is supposed to be.”

“And yet?”

“And yet if he sees something wrong, he looks the other way. Don’t get me wrong I like the man, I really do, and he’s helped me out quite a bit since I’ve been here but there are things that are just wrong, and to look the other way doesn’t make them look any better.”

“Master Adams was never really a field hunter.” Luke replied. “He preformed his missions adequately, but never really advanced above a class D assignment level.”

“Class D… I know that one, that’s mostly deliveries, and the occasional escorting of low priority figures.”

“Very good.”

“But if that’s true, how is it that he’s a certified level one hunter?”

“Masters Adams’s skills were better suited to the guild administration, he was advanced for his work there, so you see, he may not be as… confrontational as other level one hunters.”

“Like Master Boraro.” She concluded.

“Yes, like Master Boraro.”

“But I don’t see Master Boraro as… well… what a hunter should be. He seems too proud, too... full of himself. He doesn’t see people as people, he sees them as occupations as positions. To him the higher you are up on the social ladder the more important you are.”

“And you don’t think that's right?” Luke asked.

“No.” She replied. “In many ways he’s kind of like my father, they would get along great… then again maybe not. My father’s a farmer and Master Boraro has a tendency to look down on farmers, but they do think alike. My father wanted to marry me off to a troll of a boy in the hopes of getting bottom land. That’s where I would be right now if I hadn’t gotten into the academy. I would be married to Pordist Tallon, I’d be Kile Tallon.” She said with a grimace which made Luke laugh.

“But you did pass the entry examination and you did get into the academy, you made it this far.”

“I guess. I just don’t know if I can go the rest of the way, and then what? What if I don’t pass? What if I don’t graduate? I can’t go back home, I can’t go back to Riverport. I’m not welcome there anymore.”

“I’m sure you’ll always be welcome back home.” Luke assured her.

“You don’t know my father, he was not pleased with me wanted to become a hunter, told me so on numerous occasion. Nearly convinced me that I was just too incompetent to do anything; that I was useless, and now I’m here. I’ve been away for too long, I know it wasn’t me, I’m sure of it now.”

“What wasn’t you?” Luke asked.

“What… nothing, nothing. The point is that I still have to get through my third year here and I know Master Boraro will do everything and anything he can to prevent me from passing.”

“And what make you think that?”

“Simple, he’s already told me so.”

“When?”

“Oh… just every chance he’s gotten. ‘I won’t rest until you’re out of here.’, ‘why don’t you save yourself the trouble and go home now.’, ‘I’ll see you gone if it’s the last thing I do.” Kile mimicked in her best Boraro voice.

“He said all that.”

“Oh yeah, that and more… actually the last one about seeing me gone, I think that was Sir Oblum, I don’t remember. I should probably be getting back to my cell, it’s getting late” Kile said as she got to her feet. “Look, about what I said… you know about the staff and all… you’re not going to… to tell anyone are you, I mean…”

Luke smiled.

“There isn’t anyone here but us and the horse and I don’t plan to tell anyone.”

“You don’t know how unreassuring that is.” Kile replied. “I trust you. It’s the horses I’m not too sure about. Just keep an eye on Grim; he’s liable to tell anyone.” She said as she headed out the door.

 

 

 

***~~~***

 

 

 

15

 

“Kile, one moment please.” Master Adams called out as Kile was walking out of the dining hall.

She was on her way to the training field with the rest of the boys. On the first day of each week it was required that everyone show up for training, even those that are so gifted in combat like Carter who, otherwise, wouldn’t have to bother. On this day Master Boraro introduced a new weapon to torment the cadets with. The reasoning was simple, if unrealistic. The Guild believed that every cadet should be skilled in every weapon possible so that as a hunter, they would not find themselves lacking in time of need. The Academy was a little more practical, by introducing so many different weapons in the training process; each cadet should be able to find at least one that they could handle with enough skill to pass combat training. The problem was, with Kile, it would be just another weapon on a long list of weapons that she wouldn’t be any good with, so when Master Adams called out to her, she was actually grateful for the delay.

“What is it sir?”

As the Hunter approached, he looked first at the boys waiting with her before looking at her, and she could tell that she wasn’t going to like what it was he wanted to say.

“Sir Oblum wishes to see you in his office.”

The words were rather solemn and just hung in the air like a signpost pointing to the eastern gate. The first thing that she thought of was the incident during the survival exercise. Master Adams had alluded to the fact that other might be forced to pay for their actions that day, but that was almost three months ago. Did it take the council that long to figure out what had happened?

“What’s wrong sir, what's this about?” Daniel asked.

“Sir Oblum wishes to see Kile in his office, that’s… all I know.” Master Adams replied.

He was lying, she knew he was lying. There was something he wasn’t saying, something more that he knew and he wasn’t telling her, at least not here in front of the boys.

“Okay sir, I’ll… head right over.”

“Wait a moment.” Carter said, grabbing her wrist before she could turn. He looked at Master Adams. “Is she in trouble, if she is then maybe we should all go.”

“No.” Master Adams replied. “Just her.”

“It’s alright.” She said pulling Carter’s hand off her arm. “I’ll see you guys during training. I shouldn’t be too long, you go on without me.” She told them, and watched them as they reluctantly obeyed.

 

It was an ominous building, or that’s the way she saw it. Tall, dark, forbidding, the place that cadets go into, but they don’t come out. She had seen the inside of it on only one occasion and that was from a yarrow’s point of view, she assumed it would look a bit different from her vantage point.

She headed up the short flight of stairs, and passed under the archway of the open doors. The foyer was as dark and as gloomy as the exterior of the build promised. Stairs off to the right lead to the second floor where Oblum’s quarters would be, the door off to the left lead into his office.

She removed her hat, clutching it in both hands as she hesitated before she finally knocked on the door that was already ajar. The face that opened it was not Oblum’s, but Erin Silvia’s. She smiled, but it was a forced smile, a sad smile as she pulled the door open and stepped aside. Kile knew she was in trouble when Sir Oblum rose from his seat.

“Cadet Veller.” He acknowledged and then directed her to a chair opposite his desk. “Please, be seated.”

She didn’t really feel like sitting down, but knew he wouldn’t start until she did. The chair was low and hard, and she felt as though she had to look up to see the underside of his desk. Was this some psychological thing she wondered, a way to make him look more in command?

“Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble.” Erin said as she sat on the corner of the headmaster’s desk.

The office door opened again and Kile dared to steal a glance as Master Adams approached. He didn’t look at her; he looked first at Oblum, then at Erin. Something passed between them and Kile wished that they were horses; at least she could understand horses.

“We have just received news that… your father has passed away late last week.” Sir Oblum said, gripping his hands together and placing them on the desk. “I am sorry.”

She sat there in silence unsure of how to take the news. She knew how she was suppose to feel, she was supposed to feel sad, she was supposed to cry for her father. That was why Erin was there. Sir Oblum may have been able to console a sad young boy who had just lost his father, but he knew he would be out of his league with a sad young girl, and the fact that she wasn’t crying confused him even more.

“May I ask how he died sir?”

“Well.” He said looking at Erin wondering what he was supposed to do next. This clearly didn’t turn out how he had pictured it. “It would appear that he took ill some time during the winter and never really recovered.”

“I see sir.” She replied.

He was always a strong man, a stubborn man. For as long as she could recall she had never seen her father sick or if he was, he would never let it stop him, and now he was gone, and she wasn’t sad. He was never like a father, not like Daniel’s father, or Alex’s father, or even Murphy’s father who had given up everything to give his son a better life. Her father was a stranger, a man that lived in the same house she grew up in, a man who worked the fields from sun up to sun down, a man that never missed an opportunity to remind her of how useless she was, how much of a disappointment she was.

“If that is all sir, I better get back to class.” She said, rising from her chair.

“The Guild has authorized a leave of absence so that you can return to Riverport, for your… father’s funeral.”

“That won’t be necessary sir.” She replied.

“You’ll still be able to return.” Master Adams explains. “It’s only a temporary leave you understand. We would expect you to come back and finish your training to become a hunter… when you’re ready.”

“I’m not really needed there Sir.”

“Kile, it’s not a sign of weakness to grieve for a loved one.” Erin added.

If that were only the case she thought as she turned to face Oblum.

“Am I being ordered to go Sir?”

“No, no one is ordering you to go.”

“Then I should be getting back to class, Master Boraro is not one for tardiness, especially mine… sir.”

“Kile…” Erin was about to say something more but Oblum held up his hand to stop her.

“You’re dismissed Cadet.” He said.

“Thank you sir.” She replied as she turned and headed out the door.

She knew what they wanted to see, what they had expected to see. A young girl balling her eyes out over the loss of her father, but she just didn’t feel anything. They could have told her some peddler she never met just keeled over down the street and although she would have felt bad for the person, she wouldn’t have had any stronger feelings. She felt more for the loss of Tree, a boy she had known for a week, than for the loss of her own father, and that was the one thing that did bother her. If anything she was mad at him, mad at him for denying her to opportunity to prove to him that she wasn’t as useless as he had always led her to believe.

She stepped back out, onto the compound and was surprised on how hot it actually was, or was it that much colder in Oblum’s office. It was difficult to tell since she was sweating in both environments. She headed toward the List where the cadets were starting to gather and saw Alex tug on Daniel’s sleeve and point in her direction as she approached. When Daniel turned around, she knew by the look on his face and the way he stood, that Mater Adams must have told them why she had been summoned to Oblum’s office, and she knew the course that the next conversation was about to take.

Daniel stepped away from the other and started to approach her. What did they do, draw straws to see who was going to console her? As endearing as the sentiment was, it actually annoyed her. To think that she had been through so much with these boys that they still expected her to act like a little girl the minute she received bad news.

“You okay?” Daniel asked as he got closer.

“I’m fine, how are you?”

“You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t.” She replied.

“We know about your father, Master Adams’s told us.”

“And?”

“Kile, you don’t have to act brave around us, it's okay…”

“I’m not acting brave around anyone; I just don’t see what the big deal is.” She said as she pushed past him.

“Kile, he was your father.”

“Believe it or not, I’m well aware of who the man was.” She replied. “I’ve been around him nearly sixteen years, actually fourteen years since I’ve been here nearly three years.”

“Well, what did Oblum say?” Daniel asked.

“Oh, they want to give me a leave of absence to attend his funeral.”

“So, when are you leaving?”

“I’m not.”

“Kile?”

“Drop it Daniel, you don’t understand, and I don’t care to explain it.”

“Fine, but if you do.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.” She said.

It was the first time she was actually grateful to see Master Boraro enter the field, because it meant the conversation with Daniel, for better or for worse, was now at an end. He didn’t understand, he couldn’t’ understand. How could he? His father actually wanted him around, his father actually wanted him to succeed, his father brought him to the mystic tower so that he could take the entry examination, his father didn’t try to sell him off for bottom land or better water rights, how could he understand?

The Weapons Master stood before the cadets and waited for them to quiet down.

“Today we are going to start studying the complexity of the pole arm; this is not to be confused with the quarter staff which is a peasant’s weapon. The pole arm is much more versatile.” Mater Boraro announced from the front of the class as he held up an eight foot long staff weighted at both ends. One end had a bent looking hammer while the other had a simple ball for a counter balance. “Although there are many different pole arms, the techniques for using them are the same varied only slightly by the head of the pole.”

He went through the maneuvers; a few thrusting action and few swings and Kile couldn’t tell the difference between the use of a pole arm and the use of a quarter staff. To her they appeared to be the same thing, although she had to admit the added weight on the ends would make it more difficult to use. In fact she was beginning to see a pattern in most of Master Boraro’s techniques. They only vary based on the length of the weapon.

“For the next couple of weeks we will be working with some different pole arms, maybe some of you who are incapable of handling the intricacies of the sword will find these weapons simpler to your limited skills.” He finished, tossing the weapon to Master West.

She had a feeling that the last statement was made for her benefit since Master Boraro made it a point to look directly at her when he said it. He was not blind to the fact that her swordsmanship was sorely lacking.

“Pick up your weapons and break off into pairs for evaluation.” Master West called out.

She wasn’t looking forward to this as she grabbed one of the weapons from the barrels that had been brought in. She was right about one thing, the added weights on the staff’s ends did make it awkward to use. Heading towards her practice spot, one that was far enough away from the Weapons Master as not to attract too much attention, she found Daniel waiting for her.

She took her stance opposite him, gripping the pole arm with both hands.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Daniel asked her.

“No, I’m pretty sure I know how to do this.” She replied.

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

This was not the time or the place for such a discussion as she launched into her first attack. It was half hearted and ill prepared, but she just wanted Daniel to focus on the matter at hand and leave her private life alone. He easily blocked it and turned it aside and went for a weak counter attack. He was pulling his punches she realized, which only annoyed her more as she deflected the blow and came around with a strike of her own, unfortunately she misjudged the length of the staff and how much those weighted ends threw her balance off. She ended up dragging the end of the pole arm through the dirt which resulted in the sudden loss of her weapon. Daniel had already moved to block and counter the strike that never came, which resulted in his blow catching her on the back of the inside leg and ultimately knocking her flat on her back.

“Kile, I’m sorry.” Daniel said, dropping his weapon as he moved to her side. “Are you alright? I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“I’m fine.” She said, slapping his hand aside. The last thing she needed at this moment was to be made aware of how bad she actually was.

What made matters worse wasn’t the fact that he wasn’t even trying to win and she was, but that Master Boraro had to pick that moment to be standing right behind her.

“Pathetic.” The weapons master grumbled.

“I’m not pathetic.” She shot back as she grabbed her pole arm and got to her feet.

“You can’t even handle one of the simplest weapons in the armory, what would you call it other than pathetic. You’re useless, you’re a disgrace to the academy, your father would be ashamed of you.”

Whether he made that statement because he knew about her father or not didn’t matter.

“I… am… not… useless.” She said in a calm voice that even surprised her.

“Then prove it.” Master Boraro replied as he grabbed one of the pole arms from a cadet that was standing nearby.

When was she going to learn to keep her mouth shut? She silently scolded herself as she tightened her grip on her own weapon. This should be quick and quite painful, she thought, and wondered how long her stay in the halls was going to be this time.

He stood across from her in a defensive posture, a cocky grin on his face, there was no way he would lose this match, they both knew that, the only outcome she could hope for was one where she would be able to walk away from the list.

She threw herself into her attack, going low, of course he was nearly twice her height and close to three times her weight so most of her attacks were going to be low. He easily deflected it, but never followed up as the cocky grin on his face only grew. She went in again and again he knocked her aside, on her third try he drove the weighted ball of his pole arm into her stomach, and she went to her knees gasping for air.

“Useless.” He muttered again.

She got back to her feet, reestablishing her grip on the weapon and went at him again, but the ground was uncommonly slick and her attack was weak at best. The Weapon’s Master knocked her aside with little effort. By now she was making a fool of herself if she could gauge by the loudness of the laughter from the crowd that had gathered to watch the beating. She tried again and this time his block lead to a counter attack as he swung the hammer side of the pole around. She tried to block it by digging the end of her pole into the mud for better leverage, but the force of his blow was greater than the strength of the weapon as nearly two feet of her pole snapped under the impact of the Boraro’s swing. The hammer of his weapon caught her in the side, knocking her sliding sideways across the ground.

She was gasping for air as the intense pain in her ribs was hindering her breathing. Boraro wasn’t finished and came down with the hammer side again. Fortunately she was able to roll to one side to avoid the blow. The hammer impacted the ground, throwing up dirt and she knew that he meant to hurt her if not kill her.

“I think this is over.” Master West called out.

“Not by a long shot.” Boraro yelled as he spun the pole and swung with the opposite end of the staff, Kile rolled with the blow, catching most of it on her lower back.

“Master Boraro, I think that is enough.” She heard Master West yell, it was the first time he had ever raised his voice, aside from the day she shot him in the ass with a crossbow bolt.

She rolled to a crouching position as he came at her again, now she was sure he had no intention of stopping. The blow was a two handed over the head strike, a killing blow. She held what was left of her pole up to bock, but her weapon shattered under the impact, although she was able to divert most of the energy from its initial target, she took a good shot to the side of the head and the world began to spin out of control.

“You are a stupid, useless child.” Her father said through clenched teeth as he stood over her.

“I… am… not… useless.” She shouted back as she grabbed the two longest length of her weapon and slowly staggered to her feet.

“Kile, stay down.” Someone yelled from behind her.

It was probably Daniel, but she didn’t dare turn to see. She now held a piece of the broken pole arm in each hand. Each piece was nearly three feet in length and felt surprisingly comfortable, like the Lann.

“You just don’t know when to give up.” Boraro laughed

He moved into an attack stance, but she wasn’t watching him, she was watching his feet. His movements were very predictable, why it took a blow to the head to point this out to her, she wasn’t sure, but he came in hard and fast, and she easily spun into the attack, through his circle of defense, rolling along his outstretched pole and bring both pieces of her weapon around to make contact with his side. It may have been a weak shot for two sticks but had they been the Lann, it would have been killing blow. She followed through with her roll, ending up behind him, scoring yet another non fatal hit.

“You little…”

He swung again, but she knew it was coming as she ducked under his wild attack and again she broke through his circle of defense. She caught him on the backswing. Using the knee of his planted foot as her personal spring board she launched herself up with a spin and brought one of the wooden sticks down across the bridge of his nose. There was a sickening, yet satisfying crack. She hit the ground beside him, kicking his legs out from under him as he stumbled backward, falling like cut tree. She was on top of him before she even knew it, the splintered edge of her weapons poised against his throat.

“KILE!”

The name, her name, snapped her back to reality. She stopped, turning to look at the awestruck faces of the cadets as they stood in a large circle around them, staring at her.  She looked down at Master Boraro, and the hatred she had always seen in his eyes toward her was now tinged with fear.

What had just happened?

“Kile… Let him up.” Erin said in an unnaturally calm voice.

It took her a few moments to understand what Erin was asking her to do. She stepped back from Master Boraro and dropped the broken weapon. Master West moved past Erin, keeping a watchful eye on Kile as he helped the Weapon’s Master to his feet.

“Perhaps you should wait in your room.” Erin told her.

“Yes ma’am.”

Her first instinct was to run, to run as fast as she could back to her cell and lock the door behind her and forget that this day had ever happened, but she didn’t. She turned slowly and the sea of cadets parted before her as she walked across the now silent courtyard to the dorms.

 

“Classes are dismissed for today.” Erin said as she turned to face the cadets that still appeared to be in shock. “Please make yourself available for questioning.”

She walked passed the cadets into the headmaster’s office where Master Boraro was being treated by one of the healers, although not very willingly. His face looked a mess but it was mostly due to the broken noise, the rest he couldn’t very well blame on Kile.

“She’s out of here, that little bitch is out of here.” Boraro shouted as he pushed the healer away.

“And why is that?” Folkstaff asked. “Because she set you on your ass?” He laughed.

“She struck a staff member, that is grounds for dismissal, and I want her out of here.” Boraro yelled.

“Yes, it wouldn’t do for people to know that the Weapon’s Master of The Hunter’s Academy was bested… by a little girl.”

“Robert, please… this is serious.” Oblum remarked. “Why don’t you question some of the other students and see if you can’t get a clear line on what actually happened.”

“Yes sir.” Folkstaff replied.

“It doesn’t Matter, she’s out, she’s gone.” Boraro said, pushing the healer away for the third time. By now the healer had given up and was packing his supplies. “That's what you get for letting people like… like her into the academy. Orseen blooded, ill disciplined peasant child. She struck a staff member”

“That’s… not exactly true.” Master West spoke up.

“Explain Carl.” Oblum commanded.

“Master Boraro exceeded the limit of the training, and the skill of the student. He initiated the dual and connected with the first significant blow.”

“So you struck her first.” Oblum replied, turning to the Weapon’s Master.

“I was defending myself.”

“No sir, from what little I saw… it went beyond that.” West added.

The conversation paused as the door opened and Master Adams stepped into the office; the first thing he looked at was Boraro’s face. The man had a towel over his nose trying to stem the flow of blood.

“Folkstaff told me what happened.” Adams replied, and it was clear that he couldn’t quite believe it until now.

“We are attempting to ascertain who the responsible party was.” Oblum stated.

“Well sir, if I’ve gotten the story right, the injury occurred during training.”

“That is correct.”

“Well, according to the Hunter’s Code, there is no fault… on either side.”

“Explain.”

“During a training exercise, such as sparring, there is an understood risk of injury. Therefore neither party is held responsible for injury inflicted upon the other.”

“There you go.” Oblum said, throwing up his hands. “No need to drag this out any further.”

“Well sir.” Adams interrupted. “There is a stipulation that injuries upon a student at the hands of an instructor, could result in disciplinary action.”

“What’s that suppose to mean?” Boraro snapped.

“You could lose your job.” Erin replied.

“I don’t think that actually applies here.” Oblum added. “I think it would be best if we just… let the matter go.”

“Are you serious?” Boraro shouted. “Let it go. Look at me, that little peasant bitch broke my nose and you want to let it go. There was no way she could have defeated me that easily unless…”

“Unless what?” Oblum asked.

“Unless she used her edged, that's it, she used her edge against me somehow, that had to be it.”

“If that is true.” Master Adams replied. “Then that is a case for dismissal, and possible prosecution under the Guild Laws. No hunter may use their edge against another hunter for any reason.”

“Is it true Carl, did she use her edge?” Oblum asked Master West who now looked as confused as everyone else.

“Um… I… I just don’t know sir. I didn’t see the whole thing.” He replied.

“So you’re saying that she could have?”

“I suppose… well… yes I guess that is possible.”

“There you see.” Boraro said, pointing to West. “She used her edge, that’s why she bested me.”

“That’s not exactly what he said.” Erin added.

“I will send a cadet to fetch Morgan.” Master Adams replied as he headed for the door.

“What can you tell us about the fight? What exactly did she do that makes you think that she used her edge against you?”

“Well… I felt dizzy, and there was that one moment that I couldn’t see.”

“Was that before or after she broke your nose?” Erin asked.

“You’re not helping.” Oblum replied.

“Oh come on, let’s at least have a note of realism here. He got careless, picked on the wrong student, she kicked his ass and now he’s crying foul. If it had been any other student but Kile, this wouldn’t have even gotten this far.”

“Her movements.” Boraro exclaimed.

“What about her movements?” Oblum asked.

“They were fast, too fast to be normal, that’s her edge.”

“Oh come one, just because you’re old and slow doesn’t mean the cadet should be. Do we even know anything about her edge, whether she could even use it offensively?”

“I believe that question should be directed to me.” Morgan replied from his overstuffed wingback chair that had suddenly appeared in the corner of the headmaster’s room.

“Where the hell did you come from?” Oblum demanded. He was unaccustomed to people appearing in his office without using the front door.

“A cadet had informed me that there was an emergency meeting that I was to attend, I must admit that I was unaware of such a meeting and thought I should pop over to check on it myself.” Morgan replied as he set his cup or rosemary tea down on the side table “I do hope this is not going to take long, I still have so much work to do.”

“We want to know what cadet Veller’s edge is.” Boraro demanded.

Morgan brought his fingers together as he pressed them against his bottom lip.

“No.” He replied.

“No, what do you mean no?”

“No. I cannot divulge what a hunter’s edge is. It is clearly stated in your own code that the edge is known only between the hunter and the mystic that instructs him… or, in this particular case, her.”

“She’s not a hunter.” Boraro shouted.

“So, am I to believe that you have come to the decision to expel her from the academy?”

“No, no one is being expelled.” Oblum replied.

“Then I am afraid that I can not help you.”

“Perhaps you can answer a few questions about her edge, without telling us.” Erin suggested.

“That I could do.”

“Can her edge be used offensively?”

Morgan thought about it for a moment as a grin slowly crossed his face.

“I suppose, although not very subtlety” He replied. “For this particular situation, since you feel you need to ask… I would have to say no.”

“This is ridiculous.” Boraro replied.

“Not that ridiculous.” Master Adams said as he stepped into the room. “I was talking with Folkstaff outside and according to the cadets, there appears to be a mixed opinion about what happened, some are saying she used her edge, some are saying she didn’t, and most admit they don’t know one way or the other.”

“Cadet Veller’s edge is more… shall we say… for information gathering, not combat.” Morgan replied as he took a sip of his tea. “Although I would have to say, that under certain circumstances, she could use it for offense, but it would not go unnoticed.”

“So, it wouldn’t be in… say the sphere of water.” Adams suggested.

“Water, absolutely not.” Morgan replied.

“Why do you ask that?” Oblum asked Adams as he shifted a look toward Boraro.

“Folkstaff. He did a reading that indicated that arts dealing with the influence of water had been used recently within the list, although with all the cadets and activity in that area, he can not pin point the exact time or location. We haven’t had rain in the last eight or nine days, and what with the temperatures as hot as they have been, the ground is bone dry, except that small area where the incident took place is covered in mud.”

“Interesting.” Morgan added.

“Why would that be significant?” Oblum asked the Mystic.

“Because, if I am not mistaken, Master Boraro, you are influenced by the sphere of water, are you not?”

“How dare you.” Boraro shouted jumping to his feet. “You have no right to reveal my edge to others.”

“Oh please, I am not your mystic, so there is no pack between us.” Morgan said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

“Not to mention the fact that you made a big deal about your campaign against the black water prates.” Erin replied.

“Indeed.” Adams added. “If I recall the story you told, you said that you walked out to the boat, under the water where you waited until nightfall to climb aboard the ship.”

“Water breathing, water walking, It does not take a mystic to identify a hunter influenced by the sphere of water.” Morgan concluded.

“Master Boraro… Garret, did you use your edge to affect the outcome of the battle?” Oblum asked.

“If he did, he didn’t do a very good job at it.” Morgan added.

“Oh come on.” Boraro shouted as he turned and looked in each of their faces. Somehow he had lost control of the argument; this was getting away from him fast. “For what reason would I have to do that?”

“To humiliate a cadet.” Erin added.

“Is there some way to tell if an edge has been used and how it was used?” Adams asked the mystic.

“The amount of mystic energy that you hunter’s use, appear as little more than background energy. It is not very discernable from what naturally occurs. Therefore, since I was not looking for it, I would not see it.”

“But are there tests you can do, some type of spell or something.”

“Spell? Spell? You make me sound like a side show conjurer. It’s not as if I can… wave a magic wand over the spot and have it reveal its secrets. The process is rather lengthy and drawn out.”

“Then it is possible?”

“Yes, yes it is possible.” Morgan admitted.

There was a knock on the door that caused Adams to turn around, and he quickly stepped aside, Mathew Lathery entered, the man appeared to be in very good spirits.

“I do hope I’m not interrupting anything.” He said looking at the Hunters that had gathered in the headmaster’s office.

“Sir, we didn’t know you were at the academy today.” Oblum said as he rose from his seat.

“I was just in the area and thought I’d see how the cadets were faring.”

“Well sir, there seems to have been a slight incident.” Master Adams replied.

“But we have it under control sir.” Oblum added. “There's no need to trouble yourself.”

“Trouble myself? Nonsense. The welfare of the academy is paramount to the survival of the guild, perhaps I can lend a hand in solving this little… incident did you say?”

“There was an altercation between a staff member and a cadet.”

“Oh, you mean the fight that just occurred.”

“You saw it sir?” Erin asked with a note of surprised. Nobody had even mentioned that the Guild Master was present, and the fact that he may have been there and didn’t even try to stop it was even more confusing.

“Oh yes, I saw the whole thing, it was incredible.” Mathew laughed as he casually took the seat opposite Oblum’s desk. “The way that cadet fought, she’s going to make an excellent hunter… oh, and you did pretty good too Master Boraro, but you really need to learn to block those shots better, and not leave yourself so exposed.”

“It is Master Boraro’s request to bring charges against Cadet Veller for the use of her edge during the conflict.” Adams announced

“Really?” Mathew replied, although he didn’t appear to be as surprised as he sounded, he turned and focused on the Weapon’s Master. “Is this true Garret?”

“Um… yes sir… it is true.”

“I see, well, so be it. We can not have hunter’s using their edges against other hunters… it goes against… some law or something doesn’t it?”

“Yes sir, it's written in both the Guild Law and the Hunter’s Code.” Adams replied.

“Is it… well… I knew I read it somewhere.”

“The problem is. We don’t know if she actually used her edge.” Erin said. She always had a difficult time reading the Guild Master. It was hard to tell when he was playing and when he was being serious.

“Oh… I see. Well, I believe I witnessed the use of some type of mystic arts during the battle, a water edge if I’m not mistaken. If that is the case, I’m sorry to say that she will have to be expelled.”

“Kile is not influenced by water.” Erin replied.

“She’s not?” Mathew said, and again he wasn’t nearly as surprised as he sounded. “Then who is? I’m sure I saw the use of a water edge during the battle, of course… I could be mistaken.”

“Actually, Master Boraro is influenced by water.”

“Oh, it couldn’t be Garret.” Mathew replied, waving his hands in a dismissive gesture. “A hunter that uses his edge during battle… should at least win.”

“That was my thought exactly.” Erin replied, which received a glare from the Weapon’s Master.

“Well, then that’s settled.” Mathew said as he got up from his chair. “If water was the only edge used and the cadet is not influenced by water, then clearly the Cadet is not to blame for the incident.”

“That’s it? You’re going to let her get away with this?” Boraro asked as he pulled the towel from his face pointing to his blood stained nose.

“It isn’t like you didn’t ask for it.” Mathew replied with an impish grin. “But you’re right. We should do something to the cadet. Let’s see, how about this? As of tomorrow, she will no longer receive combat training… from Master Boraro. Instead of reporting to the List, she will report to the stables.”

“Are you sure sir?” Oblum asked. “She will need some form of combat training in order to pass the exam.”

“Since the exam is based upon how well a cadet can handle themselves in battle, and she was able to defeat the weapons master in a… somewhat fair duel, then I fail to see how she did not already pass it. Clearly if the student can defeat the teacher, there is not much more she can learn from him. It appears that she has found the weapon she excels in, besides Master Boraro, we have to keep you safe… don’t we?” Mathew said with a grin as he walked to the door. “Oh, and one more thing, only the cadet can bring charges against the instructor if she feels that he has used his edge inappropriately.”

 

The knocking on the door didn’t help her head much as the noise seemed to rattle inside her skull.

“I’m sleeping.” She yelled, and then instantly regretted yelling since that didn’t help her head either. She pressed the rag to her forehead again, fortunately the bleeding had slowed, but the buzzing still remained.

The door opened and Erin Silvia looked in.

“You do know that ruse only works if you don’t actually say it.” She commented.

“Sorry ma’am” Kile said as she started to get to her feet, but she couldn’t seem to find the end of the bed very well as it kept moving farther and farther away.

“Don’t move around so much.” Erin warned her. “You’ve taken a pretty good blow to the head.”

“If this is a good one I’d hate to feel what a bad one is.”

Erin pulled Kile’s hand away and brushed the hair from her forehead. She didn’t have to see the damage; she could tell by Erin’s expression that it didn’t look good.

“She should be taken to the healer.” Master Adams said from the hallway.

“She shouldn’t be walking around the compound either, send someone to fetch Bealer.”

“I guess they finally got what they wanted.” Kile said.

“Who did?”

“Master Boraro, Master West, Master Pike even Sir Oblum I suppose. None of them wanted me here, they were just looking for a way to get rid of me… and I gave it to them.”

“Do you want to go home?” Erin asked.

“No, but it’s not like I have much of a choice.”

“Well, we don’t expel people due to head injures, if we did that we wouldn’t have much of a staff left.”

Kile looked at Erin, although at the moment she was seeing two of her.

“So, I’m not being expelled?” She asked.

How was that even possible, she just broke the nose of an instructor, surely that is cause for dismissal?

“For the moment… no, you’re not being expelled. Although, there is talk about an edge having been used during the incident between you and Master Boraro.”

An incident. That must be the guild’s way of saying a fight to the death.

“I don’t… think I used my edge.” Kile replied as she ran what little she could remember about the fight. If she had used her edge, she wasn’t aware of it, and it would have to have been in a way she could not have predicted.

“You’re not sure?”

“I think if I did, it would kind of be noticeable.”

Like an entire army of squirrels descending on the academy, chasing Master Boraro down the road. The thought of it did make her smile, but she was sure that didn’t happen.

“Morgan did allude to the fact that that might be the case.”

“He told you my edge?”

“Don’t worry, he didn’t tell us anything.” Erin assured her.

“So?” Kile asked. “What happens now?”

“Well, that depends on you.” Adams replied as he finally stepped into the room holding a book tightly in his hands. “We have reason to believe that Master Boraro may have used his edge during the… incident. As you know it is a violation for a hunter to use his edge against another hunter. If you’re willing to press charges…”

“Charges? You want me to press charges against Master Boraro?” Kile asked.

“What he did was wrong.”

“I don’t care, I’m not pressing charges.”

“Kile. Master Boraro exceeded his authority and used his edge against another hunter. This has to be taken before the council.”

“Absolutely not.” She replied. “I might not like him, but he’s a certified level one Hunter. He’s a hero… not to me… but isn’t there some code in that book of yours that says, a Hunter doesn’t rat on another Hunter?”

“Well… no there isn’t.”

“Well there should be. I mean… he went through the entry examination and the academy right? He’s been a hunter since he was fourteen, he’s done a lot for the people of Aru. How could you ask me to throw away the man’s life like that, over a stupid mistake that was made in the heat of battle? It’s… it’s just… wrong.”

“Yes but… he wanted to do the same thing to you.”

“Well… so, that doesn’t make it right. My mother use to say, two wrongs don’t make a left… or was it two lefts… don’t make a wrong?”

“Where’s the healer?” Erin asked.

“It doesn’t matter.” Kile said, waving it off, “Just because he would, doesn’t mean I should.”

“I think I understand.” Master Adams replied with a hint of a smile. She wasn’t sure if that meant he was disappointed or pleased with her decision, but if she was to get Master Boraro kicked out of the guild, it would go a long way to ruining her standing with other guild members.

“I will inform Sir Oblum of your decision.”

“I’m sorry sir.” She apologized. “I know you’re just… two wrongs don’t make right, that's it.”

“The healers on his way.” Adams replied, “I’ll be in Oblum’s office.” He told Erin as he pulled the door closed.

“I’m babbling aren’t I?” She asked.

“Just a bit.” Erin replied.

“This day is just getting better and better.” She said as she fell back on her pillow and instantly regretted it as it only made her head start throbbing again. “First my father, and now this, if bad things happen in threes I can’t image what fate has in store for me tonight.”

“Well, if anything good came about your fight with Master Boraro, you no longer have him as an instructor.”

“How’s that?”

“Guild Master Latherby has arranged for you to have another instructor for your training.”

“Who?”

“That I don’t know, but you are to report to the stables instead of the List.”

The first person that came to mind was Luke, the stable hand. Would Mathew Latherby allow Luke to train Kile in combat? It seemed a little odd, even though he had been training her for the last couple of months, but nobody else knew about that.

“Kile, why don’t you want to go to your father’s funeral?” Erin asked.

She turned to face the wall.

“Because he wouldn’t come to mine.” She replied.

“I don’t understand.”

“You saw how he was the day I got lost in the woods. He was more angry than concerned. Angry because I ruined his day, angry because he had to take time out because of me. Useless, that’s what I was, Useless, a waste of space, a disappointment, but mostly just useless. Did you know I had two brothers?”

“I was only aware of one.”

“Leon. He was always my father’s favorite, and then there was Andrew, my father had great plans for Andrew. Leon, being the oldest would take over the family farm, but Andrew would carry the Veller’s name to glory, right to the top again, not that the Veller name was ever at the top before mind you, but my father always thought so. Andrew Veller was going to be something, he was going to be somebody and people would see him and say, there goes one of the Vellers. I never knew my brother Andrew. He was only four when he died. But that didn’t stop my father, and before long, Ma had me.

“Oh what a disappointment that was for my father, and he never let me forget it. My mother should never have had me, she was not that strong to begin with. She almost didn’t survive. After that the midwife told my mother that she couldn’t risk carrying another child, so that put a huge dent in my father's schemes on conquering the world and spreading the Veller name from the mountains to the sea.

“He eventually found a use for me though, as a bartering chip to gain land and water rights from our neighbors. He would marry me off to the neighbor’s little troll of boy Pordist, Pordist Tallon. I was only eight at the time but my father had it all planned out. It wasn’t as grand as his first attempt at greatness, but it was still all planned out. When I turned fourteen I would become Kile Tallon, and when I had my first child, my father-in-law Oric Tallon would give my father the bottom land that adjoined our family farm. Needless to say that my father wanted me turning out kids as soon as possible, not because he wanted to be a grandfather, but because he wanted that bottom land to expand our farm, sorry… his farm.”

“But you became a hunter.” Erin replied. “He must have believed in you at some time, he did give you a chance in the end.”

“Says who?”

“You, or at least your essay. The one that you wrote for the entry examination.”

“Well, that may not have been entirely true.” Kile said still staring at the wall. “I kind of wrote that because I was afraid that I wouldn’t be allowed to take the exam if the guild knew that I… ran away from home.

“The thing is he got so used to calling me useless, that he didn’t think I had a chance of passing. If I was going to become a hunter, I would have to do it alone.”

“But surely he had to be proud of what you’ve accomplished.”

“You think so?” Kile said. “Vesper, show Miss Silvia the letter.”

Erin was a little puzzled by this last remark, but when a yarrow popped out of the bottom draw of the dresser carrying a crumbled up piece of paper in his mouth, she was more stunned than puzzle. He came up to the foot of the bed where she sat and dropped the paper beside her. Erin slowly picked it up, watching the yarrow carefully. He didn’t shy away from her, but instead jumped up on the bed beside her and ran over to where Kile was lying, crawling up onto the girl’s shoulder and curling up around her neck. Kile absently stroked the yarrow. Erin watched the two for a while in complete amazement, she had never known anyone to have trained a yarrow, or even bothered to try.

The door opened as an elder man looked in.

“Miss Sylvia, you requested my assistance.” Bealer said as he stepped into the room. He looked at Kile lying on the bed, and then at the yarrow around her neck. “What is that discussing little creature doing here. Please have it removed immediately it is unsanitary.”

“You’ll be leaving this room faster than Vesper.” Kile remarked without turning around.

“Miss Veller, I must insist.”

“Please Bealer.” Erin pleaded.

The elderly man looked at Erin, then at Kile, then at the yarrow that was now staring back at him. Realizing he was going to be outvoted he gave in.

“Very well.” He sighed. “Let’s see what we can do.”

“I’ll leave you to it then.” Erin replied as she stepped out into the hall.

She flattened out the paper that the yarrow had given her and read it. It was written in a stiff, hard hand, and the writing had been smudged, but Erin could make out two words quite clearly, “Disowned” and “Useless.” She crushed the paper in her hand.

 

 

 

***~~~***

 

 

 

16

 

Kile didn’t attend classes for the next few days under Bealer’s orders, the only order she was willing to follow, the other being to get rid of the yarrow, although he didn’t try to enforce that one. In fact, after the first few visits to her room, Bealer was becoming rather attached to the yarrow, and Vesper was enjoying the healer’s company, especially since the old man started bringing him treats. She was sure that Vesper could worm his way into anyone’s good graces.

When she was finally able to leave her cell, many of the cadets were surprised to see her, most had thought that she had either taken the walk of shame or had been escorted out, even though nobody actually saw her leave. They either stared at her in awe or avoided any eye contact altogether, she was becoming known as the cadet that took down Weapon’s Master. By the time she had reached the Dinning hall for breakfast the tales of the fight had been blown so far out of proportion that it had become some kind of epic tale, a battle that lasted several days with neither side given in, where in fact the entire event took less than ten minutes. It reminded her of the legends that were told about the Great Hunters in the gallery, how many of those epic sagas only lasted ten minutes.

Of course, another reason that a lot of the cadets were staring could have been the yarrow perched on her shoulder. Normally Vesper would have stayed back in the room, but Kile really didn’t care what anyone thought anymore.

She loaded her tray down with fruits and vegetables and took it to her table in the back of the dinning hall. She ate off of one side of the tray, Vesper off the other.

Summer was coming to an end, and the leaves were already starting to change. One more winter, one more spring and Kile would be leaving the academy for her probationary year in… well, where every the guild was going to send her. Tree had once told her that she would call this place a lot of things, but eventually it would become her home, there were so many things that Tree was wrong about.

“How's the head?” Daniel asked as he set his tray on the table.

She was a little surprised to see him as he sat down in his seat beside her as if nothing had transpired between them. She had been a little curt, or downright rude to him, and he hadn’t come to visit during her week of confined recovery that she feared he might still be angry with her.

“It’s still attached.” She replied as she slid down a bit to give him room. “Look Danny, I’m sorry about…”

“Forget about it.” He said with that lopsided smile. “It’s like I told you before, if you can’t yell at your friends, who can you yell at?”

“Hey Kile Girl, you’re back.” Alex shouted as he dropped his tray on the table.

She had thought she was over the headache, only to have it return on two legs.

He sat down across from her in his usual seat, he never asked her about her head or the bandage or the fight, to Alex the events of the last month might never have happened. Not even the fact that Vesper was sitting on the dining table aroused any curiosity in the boy, he just took the sliced apple he had on his tray and handed it to the yarrow as if it was a daily routine. Vesper didn’t complain either as he took it over to the far side of the table, out of Kile’s reach.

“You should be eating your own fruit.” She told him. “Vesper’s doesn’t need any more food, he’s getting fat enough.”

-Fat.-

“Yes, you can hardly fit through that hole behind the dresser these days.”

“I just can’t get used to that.” Carter remarked as he took his seat at the head of the table.

“How are you doing Kile?” Murphy asked as he took a seat beside Alex.

“I’ve been better thank you.”

“I bet you can’t wait to get back to training.” Carter laughed. “Should be interesting to see how Master Boraro handles that.”

“You’ll have to tell me all about it.” She replied.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I’m not going back to Master Boraro. They set me up with someone else.”

“Probably for the best.” Daniel replied. “Otherwise it would be a matter of who tries to kill whom first.”

“No contest, Kile all the way.” Alex said in a voice that was a bit loud, louder than she would have liked.

“Will you keep it down?” Daniel said in a harsh whispered. “I’m sure Kile doesn’t want everyone to hear you.”

“Besides, I think it was more luck than anything else.” She added.

“Luck, come on girl you kicked his ass.” Alex shouted.

Daniel gave Alex a stern look. “Do we have to medicate you again?”

“Luck or not, you showed some real skill.” Carter commented. “You’re still joining us during practice, aren’t you?”

“Carter’s been dying to spar with you again.” The smaller cadet grinned.

“I have not. I’m… just interested in … her new style that's all.”

“Is that all you're interested in?” Alex asked. A question that was answered by a day old muffin as it bounced off his head.

“As fun as this is, I have to get to the stables.” Kile said as she grabbed her tray. Vesper ran up her arm and took his place on her shoulder, still carrying the last of the apple as Kile stepped away from the table. “I’ll meet you guys back here during the supper shift, good Luck with Master Boraro.”

 

The stables were as cool during the day as they were doing the night, but she was just glad to be out of sight for a while. The stares from the other cadets, the hushed whispers behind her back as she passed, it was just like the first days at the academy, only the reasons had changed. Back then it was all about her sex, the girl that wanted to be a hunter, now it was all about the fight, the girl that kicked the weapon master’s ass.

As she stood in the vacant section of the stables, she had the feeling she was being watched. Whether it was Vesper’s nose that detected the presence of someone in there with her, or just the hair that was standing up on the back of her neck, she was starting to take notice. The movement came from behind her, rushing from the shadows, he swung at her head but she was already dropping to the ground and rolled into a defensive stance. Vesper had been smart enough to leap off her before she hit the ground and took refuge under an old stool.

“Not bad.” Luke said as he leaned up against the center post, one of the practice blades in his hand. “You catch on pretty quick.”

“You could have killed me.” She said as she sat, or fell down on the stable floor.

“But I didn’t.” Luke replied with a shrug. “You were able to detect my movements and avoid my attack.”

“And what if I hadn’t?”

“What difference does it make, you did, and that’s all the matters.”

She would have liked to launch her own attack at him, and if she thought she could get up quick enough without falling over due to her spinning head, she would have tried. Bealer had warned her not to make too many sudden moves while recovering from a head injury.

“So, you’re my official instructor now?” She asked.

“It would appear that way.” Luke replied. “I have been requested to teach you how to fight with the Lann.”

“Well, can we go easy with it today?” She asked as she slowly got to her feet. “I don’t think my body is quite up to it.”

“Yes, you did take quite a beating at the hands of Master Boraro, didn’t you?”

“Hey, it wasn’t my idea.” She replied defensively.

“Don’t expect me to feel sorry for you. It might not have been your idea but you hardly tried to diffuse the situation. You could have yielded after the first time he knocked you down, there was no reason for you to get back up. Your pride may have been damaged but he would have walked away. You instigated the situation until you had no other option open to you but to fight.”

“I guess he just caught me on a bad day.”

“Clearly.” Luke said shaking his head. “But don’t take this victory too seriously. Master Boraro will not be that easily defeated a second time. You surprised him and he underestimated you, but he is a skilled warrior, and he will not make the same mistakes twice. He has seen how you fought, and he knows the style, and he knows how to counter it.”

“So the… touchy style isn’t better than… whatever it was he was teaching.”

“Tachiena.”

“That’s what I said.”

Luke sighed, shook his head and walked over to the benches along the wall. For some reason that was a common reaction she received from a lot of the instructors.

“No style is better or worse than another. The Tachiena style differs from the Casacure style that Master Boraro teaches. A master of one would not necessarily be better than a master of another. There are many other factors to be taken into consideration.”

“Such as?”

“The Casacure is a strong style, designed to take down your opponent as quickly and efficiently as possible, it requires great strength but cannot be kept up for very long. The Tachiena is designed to weaken your opponent over a period of time and relies on speed and agility. The Casacure needs to end the battle fast, because he knows that he cannot maintain his skill if the fight lingers. The longer the fight goes on, the more vulnerable he becomes. The Tachiena needs to prolong the fight because he knows that he cannot defeat his opponent when he is strong, it is the onset of the fight that is the most dangerous for the Tachiena since he will have difficulty defending himself from the strong attacks of the Casacure.”

“So the power shifts as the battle goes on.”

“Precisely.”

“But that’s not exactly what happened during my fight.” She remarked, although she couldn’t remember much of what happened during her fight.

“A battle can be won or lost on a single mistake; all it requires is for the opponent to see the mistake and to take advantage of it. You switched tactics in the middle of your battle with Master Boraro. You started to fight him using the Casacure style. That was what he taught you, that was what he had expected you to use, and that is what he defended himself against. It was only after you switched tactics that you gained the upper hand, if but briefly. He was unaware that you knew that style, and were more skilled in it than the Casacure. Had he known, he may have been ready for it, and the outcome may have been very different.”

Very different was an understatement. She had the feeling that, had she not gained the advantage for that brief period of time, she would not be around to talk about it.

“Now, with that settled, I assume you are well enough to at least go over the basics again.” Luke said as he held out the Lann.

“Yes sir.” She said as she took the blades from him.

 

“You weren’t at supper.” She heard Carter say before she even rounded the corner of the stables. She gripped the practice Lann tightly in her hand. Was he that eager to see her fight again? She wasn’t sure if she was that eager to fight.

“Sorry, training took a little longer than I thought, and then I had to catch up with a week’s worth of work that I missed in the stables.”

“Well, come on. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

“Oh, come on, give a sec.” She replied as she set the bundled Lann down and sat on the crate beside the wall that had become all too familiar. If there was any one place at the academy that she could call home, it was definitely the stables. “Why don’t you give Alex more time? I’ve seen him fight and he could use a little more training.”

“Oh what’s this?” Carter Laughed. “Chickening out, you fear the great Hausman” He gestured with a flourish of his sword.

“Yeah, that must be it. I also run from falling leaves when the wind blows.” She shot back, although she wasn’t sure if that was a substantial enough come back, but it was all she could think of on such short notice. She was sure she would think of five or six more scathing remarks latter on.

“Trash talk, this is something new.” Daniel replied as he watched Alex grab the second practice sword and faced off against Carter.

“Just allowing myself some time.” She remarked as she set Vesper down on the crates beside her. The Yarrow made a bee line toward Murphy who was sitting in the grass pouring over a few old books while eating grapes. He picked off a few and handed them to the yarrow without breaking his concentration.

“You know, a week confined to a bed with cracked ribs and a head injury, and it’s hard to get back into the swing of things.” She remarked.

“Are you in pain?” Daniel asked. “I can probably help you with that.”

“No, leave me my pain. It will remind me of how foolish I was.”

She had been foolish, even Luke said so. She should have just swallowed her pride and let Boraro think he had won and had put her in her place, but it wasn’t that easy. She was not useless. She knew that, at least she thought she knew that. Unfortunately the one person she wanted to prove that to was no longer around to see it.

Murphy groaned as he turned the pages in the book. Vesper took the opportunity to steal a few more grapes while he wasn’t looking.

“What’s Voreing got you studying now?” She asked.

“We’ve been revisiting some of the old hunter.” Daniel replied, rolling his eyes. “We’ve actually just finished covering one of your favorites.”

“My favorite?”

“Yeah, you know. Quaineess Nyn.”

“Quaineess Nyn? Why him all of a sudden? It wasn’t like he was one of the greats. His only claim to fame was killing one dragon.”

“Gator the Ash Creator, or as some experts believe, Gartor the Ash Creator.” Murphy replied without looking up from the pages of his book.

“There you go.” Daniel said. “Been studying him for the last two weeks.”

“There are better hunters to study than him, what brought this up all of a sudden?”

“Eric.” Daniel said and instantly Kile got a bad feeling about it. Any connection between Eric and Quaineess wouldn’t be good.

“He wanted to know about Quaineess Nyn?” She asked.

“Actually, no.” Daniel replied and then held his hand up before she could even comment. “I know what your thinking. You still want to link him and the disappearance of the artifacts from the gallery. But it’s just not there. Eric had no interest in Quaineess Nyn when Voreing was talking about him. I know. I watched his reactions, he couldn’t care less.”

That makes sense, she thought, he already stole all the artifacts from the display.

“It wasn’t so much Quaineess Nyn he was asking about.” Daniel answered her unasked question. “It was more Hunters and dragons in general. He wanted to know how many hunters actually had contact with dragons.”

So it wasn’t Quaineess Nyn. It was Gator that Eric was interested in? That would explain why he took the dragon scales, if they were actually dragon scales, but it doesn’t explain why he came back and took the long knife and the ring.

“So, who are you studying now?” She asked.

“Oh, some hunter called Sudire or something.”

“Sondire Berk.” She said, recalling the name she had read about in the history of hunters.

“You’ve heard of him?” Daniel asked, even Murphy looked up when she mentioned the name.

“Well sure.” She replied, as if it was common knowledge. “He was known for defeating a water serpent along the eastern coast. The problem was he went after a fire drake somewhere in the western flat lands, and never survived.”

“Not just any fire drake, but The Drake of the Western Flats, at least that's what Master Voreing says.” Murphy added.

The Drake of the Western Flats is one of the three remaining open scripts within the hunter’s guild. The three scripts that are revered by all hunters, yet never attempted. Was that what Eric had in mind, instant fame? Was he crazy enough to try his hand at one of the scripts, and not just any script, but The Drake of the Western Flats? It would explain his interest in Quaineess Nyn, since he was the only other Hunter besides Sondire that ever slew a dragon, but what makes Eric think he’s good enough? Could one of those artifacts he stole, be the secret to Quaineess Nyn’s success? It seemed a little far fetched but Eric was never one for deep thinking. The way Murphy had described him growing up. Eric sought only instant gratification at the expense of others. That was probably why he wanted Murphy to team up with him, to use Murphy and his skill with stone to protect him against the fires of the Drake, if that was even possible. It was more likely that he would use Murphy as a decoy or bait, and while the dragon was eating his friend, he would attack the dragon from behind or high tail it out of there. Kile wondered if Murphy knew what Eric had in mind from the start, and how lucky he was to break ties with the twisted kid before it went too far.

“Hey, Kile, you ready?” Carter called out, pulling her from her thoughts. She turned to see the young cadet, sword in hand, dripping with sweat and out of breath and knew that enough time had passed. This was going to be easier than she thought.

“I’ll be right there.” She called back and then turned to Daniel. “If you really want to tick off Voreing, why don’t you ask him to tell you about some of the other hunters? Like Alisa Isa or maybe Catherine Y’lew, I’m sure he would love to talk about them.” She grinned. She was going to throw in Risa Ta’re to complete the trio of female hunters in the small gallery, but couldn’t bear to part with the name. It would pain her to have Master Voreing think of Risa Ta’re for even a second, she was way outside that old man’s class.

She got up, stretched and grabbed the bundled Lann that rested on the crates beside her and walked past a panting Alex.

“Did you put up a good fight?” She asked him.

“Oh… yeah… I almost… had him.” The smaller cadet replied, gasping for breath.

She picked up the sword that was stuck in the ground and set it aside.

“Aren’t we confident, you plan on fighting me bare handed?” Carter asked with an impish grin.

“Not quite, I brought my own.” She said as she untied the bundled, grabbed the hilts of the two blades and let the cloth fall. She enjoyed the look on Carter’s face as he studied the new weapons. He wasn’t as confident as he had been just a few second ago. Was that a flicker of doubt she saw in his eyes as she took her place opposite him.

The longer the fight continued, the better it was for her, and he had already been fighting for the last twenty some odd minutes. Her weapons were lighter, she was more rested, and he had never seen the Tachiena style up close before, but if there was one thing she had learned, never underestimate your opponent. It only takes one mistake to lose a match, and Carter was no novice at exploiting an opponent’s mistakes.

“You really want to fight with… those?” He asked her, extending his arm and holding out his weapon as if to show her the length of his reach. He was actually measuring his circle of defense.

“What’s wrong with them?” She asked. They were considerable shorter than his weapon, almost half the length which means she would have to get up close to do any real damage, and he knew it.

Daniel and Murphy abandoned their studies to view the battle, Alex took a better position off to one side where he could watch and catch his breath. They had waited a week for this even if she hadn’t.

“If you’re ready.” Carter remarked as he saluted with his sword.

“Ready.” She replied, returning the salute.

Carter instantly opened with his two handed over the head attack, but switched it up at the last minute and came in on Kile’s left side, her weaker side, or the side he thought was weaker side. He had forgotten all those times she had fought left handed. She diverted his weapon with her left blade, rolled into his attack and came out behind him. This time it was she who withheld her strike, otherwise the match would have ended there as she stopped her right blade from landing a killing blow.

Carter realized his mistake as he quickly recovered. A mistake which he wasn’t likely to make again. This time he came at her with short fast attacks, moving from side to side as if looking for a weak point, but the larger weapon was too slow and she was easily able to set each thrust aside. She made no attempt at countering; she was just enjoying the matchup. It had been a long time since she could stand one on one with Carter, not since they abandoned the wooden practice sword.

She could read every one of his moves, she had always been able to read his moves, she was just never able to get the ungainly sword there fast enough to prevent his attacks, but the Lann made it too easy. She was able to divert his attacks on both sides without ever having to cross over herself, or leave a spot vulnerable, and she could do it without breaking a sweat.

Carter was already slowing down, but she couldn’t really blame him. She didn’t know how long he had been sparring before she arrived, and the twenty minutes with Alex probably felt like twenty hours as the hyperactive chipmunk danced all over the ring without any practical sense.

She threw a few fast weak attacks; just to keep him on his toes as they maneuvered each other around the circle. One thing that she had noticed, when sparing with the Casacure style, it was easier if you stay in one place, to create your defensive circle and strike out from there, so it was to her advantage to keep him moving.

He came in low; she drove his sword down and away with both Lann and spun up the weapon, landing a blow to the back of his leg before following her movement through to the other side.

“Nice shot.” Alex yelled from the sideline.

“Do you yield?” She asked Carter who hopped away, putting some distance between them as he rubbing the back of his leg. She thought he would be mad at her for that maneuver, but in fact that was far from the case.

“Not likely.” He said. “How about we take this up a notch?”

Before she was able to ask what he meant, he slowly faded from view. This was defiantly up a notch, a whole lot of notches, but for once she felt she was up to the challenge.

“That’s not exactly playing fair.” Daniel called out. “She’s gonna sick the dogs on ya if you’re not careful.”

That was an idea, she thought, but the dogs weren’t around during the day and although she knew Gorum would understand, Hunar would probably try to rip Carter apart before she could explain they were only playing. It didn’t really matter though, because she didn’t need the dogs, she knew where Carter was. It was odd, it was almost like she could see him, but not really see him. She figured she’d play it up a bit as she let him move behind her. Let him think he had the upper hand.

He came in low, she swung both Lann around and they connected with something that wasn’t there. She never liked the mystic arts, it was still unnatural, but at least she could deal with it now. He recovered from his attack and came in again and she repelled the second invisible blow, rolling into it and throwing her weight at him to knock him off balance. It wasn’t a move that Luke showed her, but she wasn’t going to stab him to prove a point, and it did work. There was a muffled curse as something hit the ground with a puff of dust and Carter reappeared sitting on his backside staring up at her.

“Okay, you got me.” He said. “I yield.”

She extended a hand to help him to his feet.

“It wasn’t exactly a fair fight.” She said as she tried to pull him up. “You had to deal with Alex first.”

“Hey.” Alex cried from the side line.

“Okay, I give, how could you see him?” Daniel asked.

“I’m not telling you.” She grinned. “That’s a trade secret.”

“So, you gonna teach me some of those moves.” Carter asked.

“Sure, why not.” She replied. “Although you’re not really built for it.” She laughed.

 

 

 

***~~~***

 

 

 

17

 

Kile lay in her bed, staring up at the ceiling of her cell as the questions of the day kept circling through her head. What was Eric up to, she wondered. Did he really think he could take on the Drake of the Flat Lands when so many other hunters had tried and failed, and even more wouldn’t even dare to try? The idea of it seemed ridiculous now, too far fetch, like most ideas were in the dark hours of the night. There was just something that she couldn’t get out of her mind, something she just couldn’t put her finger on. There was a missing piece to the puzzle. What would Risa Ta’re do, she wondered, not that she started calling upon the long past hunters for answers to her problems, but the thought of Eric breaking into Quaineess Nyn display and stealing his artifacts did give her pause for concern over the other displays, especially the ones he may not know about… yet.

She climbed out of bed and pushed open the shutters of the window to feel the cold autumn air on her face. Ever since they had returned from that survival exercise, she felt confined within her cell, and the thoughts that were now dancing through her head were not helping matters much. She stared up at the night sky when she saw something small fly across the face of the autumn moon.

Was that Kaza?

It couldn’t be the old crow. He and Morgan left for the tower with the other mystics three days ago and wouldn’t be back until sometime next week. It was probably just a bat, she had never had the opportunity to speak to a bat, not that she really wanted to try. They always made her a little nervous.

When she was seven, Leon dared her to enter old man Willis’s barn down by the creek, her dear brother had neglected to tell her that it was inhabited by bats. The minute she opened the barn doors they came flying out. There were so many that it was like a large black sheet covering the sky. She never forgave him for that.

Pulling on her tunic and grabbing her hat she opened the small ebony box that sat upon her dresser, fishing out the small brass key that was inside, turned to the open window, and had almost made her escape.

-Where Kile going?-

“Nowhere, go back to sleep.” She told the yarrow that was sitting on the end of her bed staring at her.

-Vesper come?-

“Oh… Okay come on then.”

Holding out her hand the yarrow scrambled up her arm and took his place on her shoulder.  She climbed out the window and lowered herself to the ground, dropping the last few feet. Keeping within the shadows of the building she stayed out of sight of the guard towers before cutting across the compound.

-Where are we going?-

Vesper asked, although he wasn’t all that concerned with their destination. He was just happy to go for a ride, and if there was food involved, all the better.

“To settle my mind.” She replied.

They crossed the compound and rounded the stables, heading for the great hall when she felt, heard, or maybe even smelled something approaching. This time she was ready when Hunar came stalking up behind her.

“I thought I heard you.” She said turning to the dog.

-It’s been a while.-

Hunar replied as she stepped from the shadows and advanced toward Kile. Even though Kile considered Hunar a friend, she was still a little intimidated by the large black dog.

“Sorry about that, but it’s hard to get out these days with so many people around.”

-Is that a snack?-

The dog asked, and at first Kile wasn’t sure what Hunar was referring to, but she was looking up at Kile’s shoulder and at Vesper who was trying to make himself as small as possible.

“Very funny.” She told the dog, although she wasn’t really sure Hunar was joking. “Where’s Gorum?”

-Where else, sleeping up by the bushes.-

Gorum wasn’t very active these days, especially in the colder weather, all he wanted to do was stay warm and sleep. She couldn’t really blame him, he had been patrolling these grounds for nearly fourteen years, or at least that was what she figured from talking to the older dog.

“I don’t want to disturb him. Just let him know I’m heading up to the Great Hall.” Kile said as she walked a little ways with Hunar. She wouldn’t want the old dog to pick up on her scent and sound the alarm before realizing who it was.

-What’s up there?-

Hunar asked.

“Peace of mind… I hope.” Kile replied. “You haven’t seen or heard anyone in that area… after dark before?”

-Your talking about the thief… Gorum patrolled that area, but claims he never saw or heard anything but a few ravens.-

“Ravens? I don’t think I’ve seen ravens around here before.”

Ravens were basically the same a crows, maybe it was a raven she saw flying around.