Hunter's Academy (Veller) (69 page)

“I was wondering if you could hold onto these for me until I return.” She said, handing them to Alisa.
“I don’t really know anyone in town, and if I lose them out in the wild, I can’t get back into my room, and I’m a little reluctant to let the proprietor of the Bird and Bay hold onto them.”

“What, you mean old Gus?”

“He doesn’t seem to like me very well.”

“It’s not you personally, it’s your Guild. It’s the Hunter.”

“The Hunters? Why should he dislike the Hunters?”

“Don’t you know? It’s because his son was one.”

“Prain, I don’t remember any Prain.” Kile replied, but she did. It took her a while to remember but she did know of a hunter by the name of Peter Prain, it was the name just above Tree’s on the list they posted on the board. Fourteen names were on that list, Tree’s was number three. Peter Prain was number two. If Rick was right, then it shouldn’t be the Hunter Guild that Gus was mad at, but Lord Rimes, who withdrew support from the western outposts and let fourteen hunters die, and who knows how many men, women and children.

“We don’t know what happen.” Alisa was saying. “Gus received news of his
son’s death about two years ago, but the details were rather vague.”

“I can imagine.’ Kile replied.

The guild was a nonpolitical organization, which simply meant they didn’t get involved with province disputes, even if they paid the cost, they would never openly accuse Lord Rimes, not the king's cousin, not if the sons of Terrabin had anything to say about it.

Carl led Grim across the yard toward them, and it looked as if the Mountain Pony was behaving himself. He looked to be in pretty good
spirits, which wasn’t always a good sign.

“Ready to go Grim?” She asked, patting the Mountain Pony’s side.

-Not really, but if I must.-

“A short, uneventful trip to Tobery and back.”

-We shall see.-

“Thanks for everything Alisa. I’ll see you when I get back.”
Kile said as she pulled herself up onto Grim’s back.

“His stall will be waiting for him.” Alisa replied with a wave
goodbye as Kile rode out of town on her first assignment.

***~~~***

25

The morning sun was forcing its way into Kile’s eyes as she tried to block it out, she wanted nothing more than to close the curtains and get a few more minutes of sleep, the only problem was that there were no curtains to close, actually there were no windows either. A foul smell was the last straw that forced her to open her eyes and found herself staring up the nostrils of a very large, very agitated, mountain pony.

“Wow Grim you have bad breath, what do they feed you at those stables?”
She grumbled as she rolled over, pulling her blanket over her head.

Grim was not in the mood. He grabbed the blanket with his teeth and in one fluid motion, spun the girl out of bed and half way down the hill. Vesper managed to jump c
lear and protested verbally as Kile sat, staring up at the horse, pulling grass out of her hair.

“What was that for?”

-Get up.-

Grim demanded.

“What is the matter with you Grim? In case you haven’t noticed we’re not in a big rush to get to Tobery, we can take our time.” She told the horse as she got to her feet and snatched the blanket from the ground.

They had traveled all day yesterday, stopping only once to eat the meal that Beth had put together for her. By the time they reached the river Kile was too tired to go on, even if Grim wasn’t. If she wasn’t afraid of falling off the back of the ho
rse, she would have let him continue, although, with her luck, she would have probably woken up in the middle of town sitting on a mountain pony with half the population gathered around her.

-Something’s wrong-

Grim said.

It was the first time since she had the misfortune of knowing him that
he appeared nervous. It wasn’t in the words that he used, but the feeling that he placed with them. Grim was scared.

“What’s wrong?” She asked as she quickly looked around, she couldn’t see anything that would have frightened the pony, but then Grim was not easily frightened.

The only time she had ever known Grim to be scared was before she ever met him. It was on the afternoon she lost her identity to him through the Maligar, and she relived the day he was captured, the day his herd was driven off the edge of the cliff by the mountain folk, but then he had a reason to be scared, or a reason that he could see.

She
fell into her edge and let it consume her as she stretched her consciousness through the wild. Something was wrong, she hadn’t noticed it before, because there wasn’t anything there to notice, and that was the problem, there wasn’t anything there. No birds, no animals, no voices in the woods, the whole world had gone quiet.

“Vesper… vesper wake up.”

The yarrow curled up and had gone back to sleep, after being so rudely awakened, it was the only other thing he enjoyed doing besides eating.

-What?-

He asked in a groggy tone.

“Get up, we’re going.”
She told him.

She pulled the Lann from her backpack and strapped them on, she still wasn’t comfortable wearing them in public, but she felt safer knowing she could get at them easily.
Erin’s jacket was too baggy and would only get in her way. She rolled it up with the blanket and stuffed them both into her pack before tying it onto Grim. She stuffed the satchel with the mail into her leather courier bag along with Vesper and quickly mounted up.

“Which way?”
She asked the horse.

-You
’re driving, you tell me.-

Grim replied, clearly as eager to get moving as she was.

Kile pulled the leather tube out of the pack and retrieved the map of the northwest quarter.  They had left the main road to follow the river, it was her choice and now she was starting to wonder if it was such a smart choice. It had nothing to do with time and everything to do with the scenery.

“We should probably get back to the road.” She said as she studied the map. “We’ll follow the road three or four miles until we can cross the river.”

Grim didn’t wait for the command, he was already moving when she returned the map to the tube.

What would quite an entire forest she wondered. It had to be something large, something
territorial, A bear maybe, but then a bear wouldn’t scare the birds right out of the trees, and a bear she would have felt in the forest, she was feeling nothing.

The only thing she could think of were the open scripts posted on the bulletin board back at the Guild house. They had reported something lurking in the woods outside of Shrop, of course Shrop was easily a three day
s ride west of her position. There was the dowger that was raiding farms, but a dowger wouldn’t scare off all the wildlife in the forest. The Ogre might, but he wasn’t terrorizing anyone lately, not with his head being paraded around the streets of Coopervill.

As soon as they hit the road, Grim began to pick up speed, his patter size hoofs thundering in Kile’s ears. Mountain Ponies don’t run when they don’t have to or don’t want to, either way the conclusion was the same, they were running. The problem was they didn’t know what they were running from, or worse, running towards.

She was suddenly hit with a cry for help, a feeling that stuck her so deeply that she knew someone was in trouble. She didn’t hear it, so it wasn’t a Vir, which only made it harder to figure out which way it was coming from.

“Grim hold up.” She called out to the pony.

-Like hell.-

The pony responded.

“I’m serous Grim, hold up, someone’s in trouble.”

Contrary to Grim’s selfish nature, he did slow down long enough for Kile to figure out in which direction the cry came from.

“The open field, over beside the tree line, head over there.” She told the horse.

Grim responded, although he made it clear he was not happy as they crossed out into the open, leaving the road behind. That’s when Kile saw her, a horse standing alone on the edge of the forest. Grim started to slow down before
she even told him to. He was thinking the same thing she was, that this could be a trap. What was it that Rick had said, that he felt that someone might be hunting hunters. It was a little egotistical to think that anyone would go through this much trouble to come after her, but then she did manage to make a few enemies at the academy.

The horse was a dappled gray mare and looked as nervous as Kile felt, and seemed to be caught on that fine line of wanting to run, but being forced to stay.

“You think it’s a trap?” She asked Grim.

-I can’t see anyone, and why use a horse as bait?-

He made a good point, why would someone use a horse as bait, unless they knew who, or what they were trying to catch.

-Blood.-

Vesper said as he popped his head out of the bag and sniffed the air.

“Where?” Kile asked.

-Water, Blood in the water.-

The images that Vesper’s words carried were just that, blood in the water, and didn’t give her any more information th
an she already had.

“Come on Grim, I think someone may be injured.” She said, spurring the horse forward.

The dapple gray mare was wild eyed and scared beyond reasoning, but she looked to be uninjured. Burdened with a saddle and saddle bags, she obliviously belonged to someone.

-Hurt, Master’s Hurt.-

She cried out over and over again, and the images the mare’s words carried were as confused and as disoriented as she was.

Kile slid off Grim
’s back. She tied the courier bag with the mail still in it to the rest of her supplies on the back of the mountain pony. If she had to move, she didn’t want that getting in the way. Vesper wasn’t going to be left behind as the yarrow climbed onto her shoulders. The yarrow may not be very good in a fight, but he had a calming effect on Kile, and she welcomed his closeness. She motioned for Grim to stay put as she carefully crossed the few yards to the dapple gray mare.

-Hurt, Master’s Hurt.-

“Please calm down, let me help you.” She said.

She held her hands out, away from her body as her brother had shown her when approaching spooked horses.
She didn’t know if it really worked, and one of these days she would have to ask a spooked horse if it made them feel safer.

As
she got closer she could see that the reins of the mare had looped around the branches of a fallen tree. The horse was pulling at it, trying to get free, but the more she pulled, the more the branches of the dead tree scratched at her legs.

“You have to calm down.”
She said as she reached for the reins, but the horse was nowhere near calming down, and even went as far as to snap on Kile.

-Hurt, Master’s Hurt.-

She knew she could easily command the horse to stop, although she still didn’t have as much control of that aspect of her edge as she would have liked, and the mare might not appreciate the intrusion into her psyche.

“Please, I want to help you.” Kile said as she held her hands out to the mare. There must be something in the gesture, since the horse began to calm down
long enough for her to pull the reins free. She didn’t let go of them for fear that the mare would run, and she didn’t want to chase the horse all around the forest when someone may be in need of help.

-Hurt, my master is hurt.-

“Calm down, who is your master? Where is he?”

-Hurt… Master… Hurt.-

Kile gripped the reins tighter and moved closer to the mare, reaching out she gently stroked the horse’s nose.

“It’s alright, you
’re safe.” She said in a calm voice. “What’s your name?”

-Rose-

Rose. That was an odd name for a dapple gray. She was expecting something along the lines of rain or cloud or even rain cloud.

“Okay Rose, where is your master?”

-Master Hurt, Master fall, Rose left Master.-

There was a tinge of guilt in the mare’s words at leaving her master behind. Whoever her master was, they must have a
really deep bond to instill such emotion. Kile sometimes thought that Grim would leave her at the drop of the hat, or an apple pie.

“Take me to your master Rose.” Kile said as she gripped the
reins and pulled herself up into the saddle. “Take me to your master.”

Rose
quickly spun and headed back into the forest at a full gallop. Kile had a firm grip on her reins. It was a lot easier than riding Grim bareback. She could hear the Mountain Pony closing in behind her and felt Vesper securing his grip on her shoulder. The mare had come far, but at least she knew her way back.  They came up, over the ridge and then down the hill as trees flew past Kile. She let Rose go where she had to and as fast as she needed to, until the mare came to a shallow stream, it was here that she slowed down. Kile had a feeling they had found their water.