Hunter's Academy (Veller) (26 page)

“Kile.”
Daniel hissed in a harsh whisper as he looked over his shoulder to make sure that she hadn’t been heard. “You do not want to be saying that out loud.”

She hadn’t intended on saying
it at all, let alone out loud, but now that it was out there, there was no taking it back.

“That’s what I believe.” She said, defending herself.

“Look you’re not from the Callor province, you’re from the Shai Province, so you really don’t understand just how much trouble saying that could get you into, that would be like me accusing Lord Rolf of being a theft.”

Was that supposed to mean something
she wondered. She just stared at Daniel, waiting for him to clarify.

“Lord Rolf… the Lord of Shai… your province.”
He explained.

“I don’t know him, you can
accuse him of anything you want, why should I care. It’s not as if Riverport is the hub of political activity. As long as the Lords leave us alone, we don’t revolt.”

“It’s not a
joke Kile. Lord Rimes rules Callor, some say a bit too harshly, but he gets what he wants and if he wants his son to be a hunter, then his son will be a hunter.”

“Politics are over rated.”
She said dismissively. She could never follow the lineage of the royal families, who was next in line for which seat. It all seemed pointless, and as long as they didn’t come into Riverport with their lordly ways, what did she care.

“Unless you are absolutely positive, do not tell anyone what you think, and even then I would second guess myself.”

“Fine, let him have the stuff, what do I care.” She replied. “Maybe I’ll follow Grim’s suggestion instead.”

“What did he suggest?” Daniel asked nervously.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” She replied.

She
stretched out on Grim’s back and stared up at the clouds. As much as she said she didn’t care, the problem was, she did care. There was no reason she could think of that Eric would steal from the academy. She had no real proof that he stole the artifacts, she never really saw him steal the artifacts. Even when she saw him stealing them, she didn’t see him stealing them. He had only tried to jimmy the case, but never had a chance to actually steal them. Could she say for certain that if she hadn’t been there that he would have succeeded, and if he did steal them, why not take them all at the same time, why risk going back for the rest when he already got away with it once? The more she thought about it, the more it didn’t make sense. Maybe she was wrong, maybe he didn’t have anything to do with the missing artifacts, maybe it was someone else entirely, an outsider perhaps… no, he stole them.

“Hey, wish me luck.” Daniel said as he urged Miliea forward.

Kile sat up and watched as Daniel maneuvered his mare to the starting line where Master Pike stood waiting with a timing stick. She had never seen a timing stick before but she could figure out how it worked easily enough. It was a simple hourglass suspended in a metal hoop at the end of a four foot wooden staff. Master Pike waited until the sands completely ran through, and then motioned for Daniel to ride as he turned the hourglass over in its hoop.

As the sands began to fall, Daniel rode Miliea
to the first gate. It was a series of jumps. Each fence being slightly taller or slightly shorter than the next, there didn’t appear to be any pattern, just a bunch of wooden fences lined up across the long run. Daniel didn’t hesitate as he took Miliea over each jump one after the other. To Kile, his form and speed were perfect, but she really didn’t have much to compare it to. After the last jumps, Daniel turned Miliea around a flag at the end of the course and did a straight run thundering past the other cadets at a full gallop. When he finally crossed the finish line, Master Pike scribbled in his book, tapped the hour glass and waited until the sands ran out. He nodded to Daniel and mumbled something to him that she couldn’t hear.

“So, how d
id I do?” He asked as he got closer. Miliea was still a bit nervous around the larger mountain pony and didn’t want to get too close as she shied away, or it could have been Kile the horse was nervous around, what with the whole Maligar incident.

“Beautifully.” Kile replied.

-Foolishly.-

Grim added. Fortunately nobody heard that but
her.

Master Pike called the next name on his list, one that
she wasn’t familiar with, although she knew the horse’s name, Tandara, his Vir name was Thunder, and Kile thought it a bit odd that she could recall all the name of all the horses but none of the cadets. This time she was more interested in the run, if she wanted to know how well Daniel really did, she had to see how the other cadets fared, and it would give her an idea of what she was supposed to do. She watched as Tandara and his unknown rider ran the course as effortlessly as Daniel had. There didn’t appear to be any trick to it, just getting the horse over the gates and remembering to hold on.

“Cadet Alex Bartlow.” Master Pike called out as he tapped the hourglass to get the last of the sand to fall.

Alex moved Illusion up to the line. The smaller cadets looked nervous sitting upon the back of his mount, and he had every right to be. He was not a very good horseman, and he would be the first to admit it. Master Pike flipped the hourglass and motioned for them to go, but Illusion didn’t feel like it. The horse began to trot sideways and Kile knew Illusion was just showing off again. She would have to have another talk with him about his misbehaving.

Master
Pike rolled his eyes and gave the horse a good swat on the hind quarters, Illusion jumped forward as rider and horse headed for the first gate, unfortunately only the horse made it over. Alex had let go in mid jump, rolled off the back of illusion, bounced off the fence and landed face first in the mud. The line of Cadets gasped at first, and then broke into laughter.

“Keep going cadet.” Pike yelled as Alex got to his feet.

Kile noticed that the Horse Master never asked if he was okay, or if he needed help, that would have been a sign of humanity and Master Pike was above that.

Alex wasn’t going to let the mud stop him. He grabbed Illusion’s reins, remounted and preceded to the next jump.
She had to give the boy credit, she wasn’t sure what she would have done if that had happened to her, but Alex was Alex and he took everything in stride. Whether it was luck, or sheer determination, he managed to hang on through the next seven jumps, rounded the flag, and crossed the Finish line with a big grin on his mud covered face.

Master Pike just shook his head as he jotted something down in the book.

-This is foolish, what purpose does it serve?-

Grim asked.

“It’s to show that the cadets can handle their horses.” Kile whispered in the pony’s ear, making sure no one was watching her.

-It’s obvious that you vir have no control, nor respect for
the horses, not that the horses have much respect for themselves. To debase themselves in such… frivolous activities.-

This was not what
she wanted to hear. Her name was coming up on that list eventually and if Grim wasn’t going to cooperate, there was little she could do to persuade him.

“You are going to jump.” She told him.

-Mountain Ponies don’t jump.-

That was something else she didn’t want to hear.

“Keith Larks.” Master Pike called out.

Now that was a name she
had heard before, the only other Hunter to pass the survival exercise beside her and Carter. She watched as the tall blond haired boy rode up to the starting line and recognized him as the cadet that she had berated about his ill treatment toward Lionora. The mare looked a lot better now and was more accepting of her rider than she had been in the past. It was nice to see that he was treating her better. They ran through the course perfectly as Lionora cleared each jump with room to spare.

“That’s how you do it.’ She whispered to Grim.

-Mountain ponies don’t jump.-

Grim replied.

Kile watched as the other cadets ran the course; most of them making it look easy. Carter and Dirk made it through effortlessly, but that really didn’t surprise her. The two had formed some kind of bond and moved in perfect unison, she would have to say that they did better the Keith and Lionora, but then she was probably biased.

When Eric and
Midnight were called, the black stallion was a bit more temperamental than the other horses. He didn’t like Eric, he had made that clear during his conversations with her, and she couldn’t blame him. Although Midnight was usually docile, today was an exception. She watched in anticipation as they charged the first gate, but only Eric made it over as Midnight stopped just short of jumping and launched a rather startled greasy haired boy through the air. Eric came down hard in the mud on the opposite side, and lay there for several moments before pulling himself up. The cadets again broke out in laughter and Alex was among the loudest.

Eric was far from amused as he stood there, staring at the cadets and the laughter suddenly stopped. Kile was sure she could see the mud baking on him as he started to, quite literally, heat up.
Midnight, finding himself without a rider, decided to walk back to the stables. Master Pike was beside himself; she couldn’t help but wonder how the Horse Master would mark this down in his little book. Technically Eric failed since he never crossed the finish line, but if Master Pike was as weary of Eric’s family as everyone else appeared to be, what would that mark be?

Eric brushed off the dry flaking mud and went to retrieve his mount.
No sooner had he left the field then the laughter started again. Were all these people so frightened of him and his family? It didn’t seem possible that one name could generate so much fear.

“Kile.”

She turned to see Daniel pointed towards Master Pike who was looking in her direction, actually, he wasn’t just looking, he was glaring at her.

“Cadet Veller.” He shouted, and
she realized it was finally her turn.

“Don’t make me look like a fool.” She whispered to Grim and the pony started forward.

As she got up to the starting line, Master Pike actually took two steps back, away from Grim. He waited until the sand had completely run through and then turned the hourglass over.

“Go.” He yelled, but Grim didn’t move.

Master Pike rolled his eyes and even dared to take a step closer, but she didn’t think he would be brave enough to swat the mountain pony on the hind quarters, not if he valued his feet.

“Some time today Cadet Veller.” He said
again with as much bravado as he could, eyeing the hairy black pony cautiously.

She
tried to urge Grim forward, but the pony wouldn’t move. At least she was giving the cadets along the line something else to laugh about.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, which meant there was only one thing she could do
… bribe him.

“I’ll give you a piece of apple pie, if you run this course.” She whispered in Grim’s ear.

-Two-

He replied.

Great, now she was haggling with her horse.

“Fine…
two pieces.” She said, giving in.

-Then hold on.-

Grim lunged forward, breaking into a full gallop as his platter size hoofs slammed into the mud. He never slowed as he reached the first fence and Kile braced herself for the jump, but it never came. Grim barreled through the wooden fence without stopping, sending out splinters of wood in all directions.

“Grim, what are you…”

But before she could even finish that thought, he was through the second gate and she had to duck her head to avoided being struck by the debris.

He took out each gate without stopping, one after the other.
By now the Cadets on the line were having a wonderful time as they laughed at Grim’s run, but the Mountain pony wasn’t finished, far from it. He took out the last gate, then took the final turn around the flag wide as he headed for the finish line, coming dangerously close to the other horses who reared up to avoid being struck by the mad pony.  The cadets did all they could to keep their horses under control, some were not as fortunate as they found themselves looking up from the mud.

Grim came into the finish sideways, as his
backside slammed into  Master Pike, launching the man ten feet through the air, he hit the ground in a most undignified manner.

The Horse Master was furious as he picked himself
up off the ground.

“That beast should be
destroyed; he is a danger and a menace.” Pike shouted as he walked up to Kile waving his finger. Grim took offense to this description as he turned and snapped at the man. Master Pike barely managed to get out of range of the horse’s teeth.

“
That’s it, this horse hates me, I want him gone, do you hear me, gone.” He shouted.

“I’m sorry Master Pike. I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”
Kile replied, but she knew exactly what had gotten into Grim, he didn’t like to be made a fool of, and he knew who was responsible.