Hunter's Bounty (Veller) (41 page)

“Look, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference
. If anything you would have ended up in the cell next door.”

“Maybe.” Daniel replied. “We still have two days to find a way to get you out of this and
Erin is still searching for Emara. If we can find her, that will go a long way in proving your innocence. So, don’t give up hope yet.”

“Yeah, of course.”
She replied as she forced a smile, but in the back of her mind she wasn’t holding out much hope in the search for the illusive mystic. Emara was supposed to return to the tower soon after their parting, which was some time ago. With Emara’s sense of direction there was no telling where she could have transported to, that was assuming she even left the wastelands. She could have even been recaptured. There was just no way to know.

“I’ll let Vesper know you’re alright.” Daniel said as she reached for the cell door. “
I wanted to bring him but…”

“It’s alright. I understand.”
She said waving him off. Ever since the escape that wasn’t an escape sent the animals into chaotic frenzy, they had banned all pets from the building until further notice.

Daniel knocked twice on the door and waited until the guard let him out.

“I’ll try to come and see you tomorrow.” He said as the guard closed and barred the door again.

Kile just nodded, but she knew they wouldn’t let him in to see her again
. They weren’t letting anyone in to see her until the trial, or hearing, or whatever it was that they insisted on calling it. An inquisition was probably closer to the truth she thought as she laid back down on her bed and stared up at the ceiling.

***

She was flying, soaring across the sky with the wind in her hair and the sun on her face. The mountains loomed in the distance and the forest passed below her, she was free. She could smell the salt of the sea and hear the cry of the gulls as she passed over the cities and the town flying ever northward toward the pillars of black smoke that rose in the distance. As she got closer she crossed into the province of Denal where the smoke was the thickest and the smell of decay lingered in the air.

The small town Coopervill far below her, nestled among the trees, was not the quiet little town she had been
confined during her probationary year, the town she grudgingly called home. It was a town in ruin, burn to the ground, black smoke filled the air and the smell of ash and death assaulted her sense. It had been completely destroyed, every building, every house, The bird and bay, the old blacksmith’s shop, the guild house, even the Apple Blossom Livery was burnt to the ground,. The Western lands were all ablaze, but she didn’t care, as she flew past them over the wastelands where the uhyre were now on the move, pouring over the border as if the dam had broken. Nothing could stop them as they marched their way to Windfoil, and still she didn’t care as she continued to fly west, over the vast desert, chasing the setting sun as it descended among the lush green lands that called out to her, she could even smell it, the scent of a forest after a heavy rain.

That was a familiar smell Kile thought as she
quickly sat up in her cot and looked toward the cell door. It was a smell she should have known all along and yet had never truly trusted her senses, until now. The traveling mystic in Riverport, the young guard that had shown her the way to the mystic’s tower four years ago, the young cadet that questioned her about traditions during Oblum’s orientation, the stable hand that taught her how to defend herself, they all had the same smell.

“Hello Master Latherby.”

A haggard faced guard poked his head through the small window of her door.

“Sorry miss?”

“I said, hello Master Latherby.” She replied without looking at him.

“I’m afraid you have me mistaken miss, I ain’t no master to no one.”

“Yes… yes you are. I don’t know how you do it sir, but I know who you are.”

“And what make you think so?”

“Your smell, your scent, you may be able to hide your appearance, or even change it, but you can’t change who you really are.” She turned and looked at the rather confused man. “Who are you really?”

“Ma’am, my name is Thompson, Jack Thompson.”

“Please sir, who are you really?”

The old haggard face began to mellow, and then began to melt as it shifted and reformed into something, or someone she did know.

“Luke.” She said with a smile.

“
For all these years, nobody has ever found me out, I am impressed Miss Veller, and for the record, my real name is Moran, as in Moran Leafler.”

“Wait a moment, are you telling me you’re that Moran Leafler, the one that started the Hunter’s guild, what four hundred some odd years ago.”

“I see Master Adams was right, you do remember your history.”

“A lot of good it’s doing me now, but how is it that no one has ever found you out?”

“It’s because of my edge, like yourself Miss Veller, I am what the hunter’s refer to as a freak, or as you so eloquently stated, a miscellaneous.”

“That still doesn’t explain how you’re still around after four hundred years, unless… you’re not
vir are you? You’re an alva.”

“Very good Miss Veller, I am impressed. Yes, I am one of the last, or at least one of the few that remained behind. Back then I thought I could mend the rift between the
vir and the alva, but I was mistaken. As it is I was forced to change my appearances to look more like a Vir and less like an Alfa so that I was accepted among them and I created the hunters to pass on my knowledge, but it would appear that I have failed in that as well.”

“I’m sorry… I guess I wasn’t cut out to be a hunter after all.”

“No, no Kile, that’s not what I’m saying. You are one of the few vir that I have met that truly knows what it means to be a hunter. If anything, I have failed you. This travesty of justice should never have happened. I should have seen it coming. I suppose when you’ve been around as long as I have, you get rather complacent. I thought I understood Drain, I thought I could keep him and his sons of Terrabin under control. I was wrong, and now they are the ones in control.”

“What are you go
ing to do now sir?”

“At the moment, not much, but it is not the first time I had to regain control of the Hunter’s guild, and I fear it will not be the last.”

“What about now, what about me.”

“I’m afraid my hands are tied.” He said sadly as he shook his head.

She jumped from the cot and moved to the door.

“You don’t really believe what they are saying about me?”

“No, of course not… It’s just…”

“It’s just what? What are you trying to say, that I have to be sacrificed for the greater good? That this is bigger th
an me and I have to do my part as a hunter, because I’ve heard that before, I heard it at the Academy and I didn’t believe it then. Placing the guild above the individual, if that’s what being a hunter is all about, then you can count me out. I no longer wish to be one.”

“Kile please…”

“I will not go to Blackmore. Not for you, not for the guild, not for anyone or anything.” She said and her eyes flashed with that feral instinct that even the great Moran Leafler stepped back from the cell door. She turned her back on him.

“Kile, you have to understand.”

“No, no I don’t. Good by Master Latherby.”

He said nothing more as he moved away from the cell door. She wasn’t sure if he changed his appearance back to the old haggard guard or not, but she also didn’t care. She was becoming a pawn in a game with no sides and no rules, a game that she wasn’t even
allowed to play. She lay back down on the cot and stared up at the cracks in the ceilings and wondered how things had gone so very wrong.

***~~~***

32

They came for her the next evening. Two armed guards led Master Adams to her cell door. She wished they had given her a chance to bathe before they took her away to her trial, or even a wash cloth and some water or at the very least a brush to tame her hair. She would look a right state as they led her into the chamber with her wild hair and her dirty clothes. She would look like the wild animal they claimed she was. Maybe that would work to her advantage. Let them think she was less than human, she could play it out, she would wait for her opportunity.

“Are you ready Kile?” Master Adams asked as the guard opened the door and stepped back.

Was she ready? That was a foolish question to ask. Ready for what, this farce they called justice. In many ways she was starting to think that Ravenshadow had the right idea all along. Maybe she was destined to follow in his footsteps, to escape Blackmoore and seek vengeance, no, not just vengeance but justice, to seek justice for those who put her in this position.

Who was she kidding, she could never take that road, but if the opportunity presented itself, when it presented itself, she would put as much distance between the guild and herself as she could.

She rose from the cot and held her arms out as they placed the shackles on her wrists.

“Is that really necessary?” Master Adams asked the guard.

“Just following orders sir.” The guard replied.

Was there a note of regret in the guard’s voice?

“What now?” She asked.

“
Since the crown has dropped all changes against you, you will be taken to council chamber where the Master of Law will hear your case.”

“Wonderful.”

“Master Keel is a fair man Kile, he has already reviewed the evidence and he will listen to both sides of the case before he makes his decision.”

Has
he already made it she wondered?

S
he followed Master Adams down the hall through the double doors and back up the stairs that she had descended nearly a week ago. One would think that if they had wanted her so badly they wouldn’t have left her waiting in her cell for so long. They led her down a second hall and then a third as Master Adams rambled on about legal procedures and what to expect during the trial, but she only heard about half of it and the half she heard she understood little and cared nothing. Let them have their trial, let them feel as if they are in charge. She wasn’t planning on staying around much longer anyway.

They stopped when they reached a small door
. The guards took their place on either side as Master Adams reached for the handle.

“Are you ready?” He asked her
again.

“If I say no, c
an we go back to my cell?”

Master Adams forced a smile as he pulled open the door and ushered
her through.

The room was not what she thought it would be. When
he said they would hear the trail in the council chambers, she figured a small room with a single desk and an old man sitting behind it waiting to pass sentence. This wasn’t a chamber, this was an amphitheater.

It may have been dark, but she could feel the space
opening around her, wider and higher than she thought possible. Rows upon rows of seats that surrounded her were filled with eager whispering spectators. Before her a long table set above the floor with not one, but seven old men in black hooded robes waiting to pass judgment. A smaller table sat down on the main floor with two chairs, Master Adams directed her to one of them.

From her seat on the floor she felt as if she was at the bottom of a deep pit, the walls of which
were lined with eyes staring down at her. Before her the seven hooded men sat, but they were speaking with one another, as if her presences there meant nothing, and they were already discussing what to do with her. She could barely make out their faces under the hoods and the dim light of the glowing orbs that rested on the table didn’t help very much.

Whatever their
argument was about it had reached its boiling point as the black robed man sitting in the center of the group slammed a fist sized crystal globe down onto a hard wooden block. The sharp sound was heard above the noise as it echoed through the chamber and the room fell silent. He waited until the other men found their seats.

“This trial will now come to order.” The man
said as he set the globe aside, drew back his hood and picked up his papers. He looked old as he leaned forward into the light of the orb although his hair and his beard were as black as pitch and bore no sign of graying. It was in the tired lines around his eyes that told his age. He didn’t shout or raise his voice but she could hear every word he said as if he had been sitting right beside her.

“Will the accused stand?”

Master Adams motioned for her to stand up and although she really couldn’t see the point of it, she would play along for the time being as she got to her feet.

“As the members of this council are no doubt aware, the Crown has dropped all charges against the accused, although that does not clear her from those
charges that have been brought against her by the Guild and by the Tower.” He said addressing the spectators first before turning those tired eyes onto her.