Hunter's Academy (Veller) (54 page)

She thought about it a moment, trying to figure out how to ask the question without giving too much away, not that she had much to give away in the first place. She was sure when she handed the small blue and white stone to Guild Master Latherby that night in the burnt out gallery, it actually glowed. She tried to convince herself
otherwise, that it had simply been a trick of the light, but the more she thought about it, the more it lingered on her mind, she was sure that the stone glowed. The Guild Master hadn’t noticed it, or if he did he hid it pretty well. He just shoved it into his pocket and told her not to worry about it.

“Are there such things as… magic artifacts?” She asked.

“Magic artifacts?” He said looking at her as if she had just asked if there were monsters under the bed or a man in the moon, then again, from what she had seen in the past three years she wouldn’t doubt those either.

“Well, something like a… magic… stone.”

“Magic stones?”

“I’m guessing that’s a no.”

She had the feeling she was getting nowhere as the Mystic looked at her in that strange way he had when he was studying something that confused him.

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly say no, but I wouldn’t say yes either.” Morgan replied, stroking his chin. “If you were to ask me about swords or rings or something like that, then I would have to say no, but a stone, that is something entirely different.”

“How so?”

“Well, to put it in simple terms. The mystic arts are a manipulation of the natural
world. Rings and swords in and of themselves cannot be enchanted. They’ve been processed by man from their raw form into something entirely different, something that is removed from the natural world, but a stone… a stone in its raw form is still very much a part of the natural world, so… yes, I suppose it could be enchanted and therefore considered… magic.”

“So there are things like magic stones?”

It sounded like something out of a fairy tale her mother would have told her when she was very young. The princess and the magic stone, the story seemed to write itself, or maybe it should be the hunter and the magic stone.

“Well… I wouldn’t go that far. I mean there are legends of the
alverie enchanting jewels such as rubies or emeralds and setting them into rings or swords to create a sort of magic artifact, but I can’t see the purpose of actually enchanting a stone. It would hold no value other than the enchantment, and if you set it down, how would you tell it from the other stones. It just doesn’t seem like a very practical idea.” Morgan said as he stared up at the ceilings, but Kile could see that his mind had not yet relinquished the idea of enchanted stones.

“Then again.” He suddenly added, still staring at the ceiling. “If you were to use the stone to build something, such as a house or a tower, would it transfer that enchantment to the entire structure? Think about the possibilities. If you could say, enchant a stone with fire, could you keep a building from burning.”

It wasn’t exactly what Kile had in mind, but had the Great Hall had such an enchantment placed upon it, it wouldn’t have suffered as much damage as it had. Although it probably wouldn’t protect the contents of the building and the displays would still have burned.

Great, now she was getting as bad as he was going off on tangents.

“An interesting idea, but I’m afraid, not very practical.” Morgan replied shaking his head. “No, you see, if you were to make fire resistant buildings, then what would the city fire brigade do for a living? We’ve had this trouble before you know.”

“What, with fire proof houses?”
She asked. She was having a hard time following his line of thinking. All she wanted to know about was the possibility of the existence of magic stones.

“
No, not the fire proofing of houses.” He said, shaking his head, “But the construction of them.”

“You can build houses?”

“Oh yes, there is very little that a mystic couldn’t do under the right circumstances and with the right influence. Why, a mystic who is influenced by both stone and air could easily build a house in a matter of hours, as opposed to days.”

“So, you could rebuild the stables or the Great Hall in a matter days?”

“What, me personally?” He asked “I suppose I could, yes, I believe I could.”

“Then why don’t you?” She asked. She had been watching the men working on the great hall for the last three
months, and they still have yet to place the roof back on. To her it appeared that the longer they worked and the more men they called in, the slower the progress was.

“Well,
that's just it. The mystic council has deemed it a violation of the conduct laws. Mystics are not allowed to build or rebuild structures regardless of how they were damaged.”

“Why not?”

“Simply the fear of legal retaliation. You see, years ago in Littenbeck, a merchant's shop burned to the ground. He approached the mystic council and made a deal to have his shop rebuilt. The mystics agreed and rebuilt his shop in less than a day. When others saw what the mystics had accomplished, they began to request work. Soon the Contractors Guild, the Carpenters Guild and the Masons Guild and what ever other guilds that could pull together, petition the court to put a stop to it. Ever since then the mystic council has deemed it a violation of the conduct law, so even if I wanted to rebuild the stables, I couldn’t.”

Kile had to think about that one for a moment. Everything seemed more complicated in the cities th
an back in Riverport. If a home or shop burned down in Riverport the entire community would gather together to rebuild it, it was just a given fact.

She quickly shook the thoughts out of her head. Morgan had gone off on one of his tangents and had dragged her along for the ride.
Needless to say he did answer her original question about magic stones. It was at least feasible that a magic or enchanted stone could exist. If that was the case, then what type of enchantment would you place on a small blue and white stone, and why would Eric go through all that trouble to find it? It seemed to raise more questions than answers.

Kile’s last three months at the academy were dull, and she welcomed that dullness. She spent her mornings training with Luke, even though he claimed he had nothing more to teach her. She had never told him about the gift of the Lann that Guild Master Latherby had given her, but then she had a feeling the old stable hand already knew. He seemed to know as much about what was going on at the academy as Mathew Latherby did, and she began to wonder if the two ever exchanged information, although she had never seen them together.

The afternoons were spent with the guys, trying to get Murphy through his cultural studies or Alex through his logistics lessons, and sparring with Carter from time to time, although Carter wasn’t all that enthusiastic. The more she sparred with him, the clumsier his style of fighting appeared, and on more th
an one occasion she actually had to let him win to spare his ego. She didn’t know if Carter ever figured it out, but Daniel knew, and he always thanked her for letting his friend win at least once in a while.  It was the least she could do for all the time he had thrown a sparring match for her sake.

As spring pushed into
summer, she officially became a fourth year cadet. She gave up her dingy ill fitting light green uniforms for the more stylish dingy ill fitting dark green uniforms, and like every year before that, she stood along the fence line and waited for the new first year cadets to arrive. She watched the looks on their young faces, their awed expressions of seeing the academy for the very first time, and thought about her first impressions of the place that she had called home for the last three years, well, maybe home was not the word she would have used.

There weren’t as many barbs or insults this year, probably because the academy just didn’t seem the same, it had lost something in the fire, a bit of
itself, a bit of its tradition. The Great Hall, although now nearly completed, just wasn’t the same Great Hall that she had tended classes in, and although the stables were now finished, they weren’t her stables. It was as Guild Master Latherby said; it might have been a blessing in disguise.

She even forced herself to sit through Oblum’s orientation, or stood as there were no seats, watching Gorum and Hunar play their part to perfection, and for the first time she really heard Oblum’s speech. The old headmaster had changed, or maybe it was just her perception of him, or maybe it was just her, but with all the changes the one thing that didn’t change was the new cadets.

There were those that bullied and those that got bullied and then there were those that just stood there and watched. She supposed it was all part of the learning process, and they would figure it out in time what it really means to be a hunter, and if they can’t learn, then there was always the eastern gate, and from the looks of some of the new cadets, she was sure they would be taking the walk before their first year was out. It wasn’t until she saw the small young boy being pushed down by a much larger cadet with greasy black hair that it brought back memories of her first day at the academy, and of Garret Treeman. Before she knew what she was doing she was half way across the list. One well place kick to the base of the leg and the larger boy toppled over backwards into the dirt. This got the other cadets laughing even harder and what made it more humiliating than just being knocked down and laughed at, was being knocked down by a girl and laughed at.

“First thing you’re gonna learn here is that Hunters look out for one another, if you can’t do that, maybe
you should be looking toward the eastern gate.” She said as she stood over the boy.

“Do you know who I am?
Do you know who my father is?” The kid cursed from the dirt.

“As a matter of fact… I do, but the second thing you're
gonna learn here is it doesn’t matter who or what you are, once you pass through those gates, you're just like everyone else. We’re all the same here. Rich, poor, beggar, prince or… princess, it doesn’t matter, we’re all the same. You should remember that.”

It was the same speech that Tree had told Eric on that day,
almost word for word. She was surprised she even remembered it as the memories came flooding back. The only difference was that Kile had no idea who the kid was or who his father was, and she really didn’t care. She had enough people who disliked her, what was one more.

The
boy got up, dusted himself off and looked around at his so called friends, the same friends that were laughing just as hard at him as they were at the boy he was picking on. He wasn’t sure what to do next and just glared at Kile who wasn’t much bigger than he was. Eventually he decided his best option was just getting out of sight for a while as he quietly followed the line of new cadets to the dorm. She turned to the boy that was still on the ground and extended a hand.

“What’s
your name?” She asked him as she helped him to his feet.

“Tommy. Tommy Lens.” The boy replied, not making eye contact.
She probably didn’t do the kid any favors, now he would doubtless be teased for being saved by a girl.

“I wouldn’t worry Tommy. If I can make it this far, you should have no problems.” She
told him. It brought a smile to the young boy’s face as he followed his fellow classmates to the dorm, and although she hoped what she said was true, she couldn’t help but believe that his name would be one that Oblum would read on some cold morning during roll call as yet another cadet that had taken the walk.

The next morning Kile was up early and out of the dorms to welcome the new day. There were only a few more of them until the graduation ceremony and she just couldn’t sleep as she strolled through the compound with Vesper riding on her shoulder all the way. The yarrow was a little annoyed about getting up so early, but if he was still set on traveling with her, he would have to get used to it.

She followed the familiar
route up to the stables. It’s new wood and clean stone made it stand out among the older buildings, and although some of the stones from the old structure were used to rebuild the foundation of the new building, most of it had been carted away. It wasn’t a bad place; it just wasn’t her place as she walked around the perimeter, although she had learned that it was the cutting edge in stable design, whatever that meant. It was wider now, to house more horses as well as a few classrooms for Master Pike, so the place that she had slept her summers and spared with her friends was now some twenty odd feet inside one of the new classrooms.

As she walked around the corner she saw Hunar
running across the open field. The mastiff jumped on something in the grass and picked up what appeared to be a stick, and then ran back the way she came. She followed the dog’s path to see Oblum standing outside in a short sleeved shirt and pants with Gorum lying by his side fast asleep. Hunar brought the stick to the headmaster and the two tugged with it for a while before Oblum pried it free and tossed it once again. Hunar was never able to explain the joys of fetch to Kile, but the dog loved the game all the same.

“You’re up early cadet.” Oblum said as he pulled the stick from Hunar once again.

She didn’t think the headmaster had noticed her as she stepped from the side of the stables. He appeared so relaxed and normal when he was with his dogs, not the gruff, overbearing Hunter that scared little kids.