Hunter's Academy (Veller) (47 page)

“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 make
s 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 you
r 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 div
erted 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 ha
t 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.