Hunter's Academy (Veller) (59 page)

Now if everyone moved like that Kile thought, they could have the entire ceremony over and be at the feast in less th
an ten minutes.

She
tried to listen and connect the names to the faces. She hated to admit it, but she really didn’t care all that much about these hunters, there were only a few that she called friends and even if the rest had come to accept her, she had not forgotten how they treated her, but, out there, in the wild, if she did come across them, it would be nice if she knew their names. They had it easy, she was the only girl that had graduated the Hunter’s Academy in the last twenty some odd years, they already knew her name.

She watched each cadet receive their papers, and even though she didn’t dislike them, she did feel a certain distance toward them, as if she was no longer a
part of the whole academy thing. She put it up to the excitement of graduating and getting out into the real world, but she couldn’t convince herself that that was the whole truth, that it wasn’t something else.

“Carter Roland Hausman.”

Carter rose straight up from his seat, tugging at the base of his tunic to straighten it before walking to the stage. With his back straight, chest out, and arms swinging, she wondered if he knew how foolish he looked. He should have enrolled in the military if he wanted to march. Carter’s second had to be his father, He wasn’t as tall as Carter but his broad chest and missive arm left no doubt that he was a blacksmith. He seemed awkward in this place, surrounded by so many people; he would be more at home standing in front of a forge swinging a hammer. People had to get up out of their chairs and give him room as he tried to maneuver between the rows, and he stepped on no fewer than three sets of toes, one belonging to Mr. Leary.

Carter’s
procession through the line of hands was considerably slower as he stopped before each member, and Kile was sure he was going to salute them, and when he stopped before Master Boraro, he did. As much as she liked Carter, she could easily see him falling in with the sons of Terrabin, they seem to share that military thinking. She felt sorry for his father thou, the man was clearly out of his element and every time his son stopped, prolonged his agony of standing in front of all these people. He even looked out into the audience with a nervous smile on his face. It definitely wasn’t the weight of the objects that had this man sweating, she was sure he could have just picked up the stage, people and all, and walked off with it, He just didn’t like crowds.

When Carter got back to his seat, his father wisely decided not to attempt to navigate the row of people and instead tried to blend in with other displays
around the Great Hall.

There were a few more names, a few more handshakes, a few more minutes that slipped by that Kile would never
recapture. What was the purpose of all these ceremonies, all these little rituals, all these traditions? The entire thing could have been handled in three minutes if they just gave them their papers and sent them on their way.

“Daniel Peter Leary”

Daniel went up on stage with is father in tow. She watched as he shook each hand, it didn’t matter who was attached to that hand, Daniel received it with a firm grip and a neutral smile, the peacemaker. If he hadn’t been blessed with the art of healing he would have made a decent politician, or even a negotiator, he never leaned one way or the other, weighting every matter before giving his opinion, which he seldom had. Even the speed at which he navigated the line was natural, it wasn’t as fast as Alex, but it wasn’t as slow as Carter, it was always down the middle. He reached the other side, slipped on his ring, shook the Guild master’s hand and nodded to Kile as he stepped off the stage. He was going to have an easy time in the Guild, spending all his days at the hospital, but it was what he wanted, and for that she was happy for him. The gods knew she could never do it. She leaned back to listen to the rest of the name.

“Kile Lucinda Veller.”

Somewhere between Daniels nod and her name she must have zoned out as she felt Rick jab her in the side.

“You want to graduate, don’t you?”  He said, motioning for her to get up.

She jumped out of her seat, knocking it over and felt every pair of eyes fall upon her. This was a good start she thought as she took a deep breath. She rested her hand upon the courier bag that she wore to make sure it was still closed and Vesper was still inside. The last thing she wanted to end the ceremony with was the image of Mrs. Leary running for the door screaming.

Kile walked to the stage with her head held high as she came before Sir Oblum.

“Congratulation Kile.” The old man said as he handed her the two tightly rolled scrolls, each one tied with green twine and bearing the Hunter’s Seal.

“Thank you sir.” She said, shaking his hand and handed the two scrolls to Rick.

Of the fourteen people in the line, eight of them she had never met before and didn’t even know, and probably would never see again. They were the members of the Guild Council, but what made it awkward was that they knew her, and a few of them didn’t hide the fact that they were not happy with the event that was about to transpire. The others were probably just better at hiding their disapproval, but each member did his job and shook her hand, congratulating her on a job well done, even if they didn’t know what that job was. Most of them wouldn’t even look her in the eye, and their handshakes were less than enthusiastic.

The first person that she did recognize was Master Voreing, but he shook Kile’s hand with as much interest as those of the council members as he presented her with the Hunter’s banner, at least he made eye contact. She handed the Banner to Rick and moved down the line to Erin Silvia.
Erin gripped Kile’s hand tightly and presented her with the Hunter’s badge.

“About time.” She whispered.

“Thank you.” Kile replied.

After
Erin there was Master Adams who was also eager to shake Kile’s hand. He didn’t have anything to give her but his friendship and a smile since he had already given her the code book. The next in line was Master Boraro. It was here that things got a little awkward. The weapon’s master never extended his hand to Kile, which was okay with her, since she never extended her hand to him. The two just stared at each other, a sort of mutual disrespect before Kile went on to Master West who presented her with the alumni long knife, something that Master Boraro was suppose to do, the change did not go unnoticed. There was a slight murmur in the crowd as peoples started whispering, but by that time she was already receiving her ring from the Guild Master.

“Congratulations Kile.” Mathew said, and instead of handing her the ring as he had done with the last thirty four cadets, he put it on her finger himself.

“Thank you sir.” She replied, gripping his hand.

As she stepped off the stage she wanted to keep walking, the open doors were right in front of her, she could be in the stables and on her way before anyone could stop her, well almost anyone.

“Seat.” Rick whispered in her ear as he directed her back to her chair.

“I was going.” She shot back.

“Tree said you had more guts than brains.”

Someone was kind enough to stand her chair up fo
r her while she was on stage, but she didn’t get a chance to sit down.

“Probationary Hunters will now come to attention.” Sir Oblum commanded from the podium. He waited until all the new hunters were standing.

“So, here we are.” He said as he looked at each one of them, much like he looked at them the first day at the academy. “In spite of all that I’ve done, all that has been thrown at you, you’re just too damn stubborn to get the hint. You’re still here.”

There was an uneasy murmur amongst the civilians, but the cadets understood where Oblum was coming from.

“Well, you finally did it, you finally graduated and now, I can’t call you cadets anymore, among the other things that I can’t call you anymore. I guess I’ll have to get used to calling you Hunters. Well, get out there hunters, you have a job to do.”

Those words marked the end of the graduation
ceremony as the old hunters, the new hunters and the civilians began to exit the Great hall for the feast that was awaiting them in the dinning hall just down the hill.

“So,” Rick said as he handed Kile her stuff. “What was that between you and Master Boraro?”

“Nothing.” She replied. She had to wake Vesper up so she could store a few things beside him in the courier bag. “We had a bit of a disagreement.”

“A disagreement, I’ve seen old soul puss when he’s being disagreeable, and that was not disagreeable, that was
downright loathing, so what did you do? Did you break his favorite weapon or something?” He said jokingly.

“No, just his nose.”

Rick stopped in his tracks and stared at her. “You broke the weapon’s master’s nose.” He exclaimed in disbelief. “Tree really was right; you do have more guts than brains.”

“It was a minor disagreement.”
She assured him.

“Minor, what would you do if you were really annoyed with him, break his neck?”

“Funny, real funny.”

“Well, I’m a getting a head start, after I visit the feast that is. I’ll see you around Kile.”

“Thanks for everything Rick.”

“That was uncalled for though.” Daniel said as he came up behind her. “What Boraro did was uncalled for.”

“Oh, I don’t care about him anymore; I don’t suppose I’ll be seeing him anytime soon.”

“Still, I thought he would have had a little more class th
an that. For all his talk of social status and social graces you would have thought he’d have some.”

“Not really.”
She replied.

“It really doesn’t bother you that he ignored you like that in front of everyone.”

“Everyone, come on Danny, the cadets, the council, half the staff, they all wanted me gone. If anything I earned that, if nothing else it showed that I got under his skin.”

“You’re as bad as your horse, you know that?
”

“Thanks,
I’ll take that as a compliment.” She grinned.

“Hey, come on guys, we want to find out where we’re going.” Alex shouted, waving his destination papers in the air. Carter and Murphy were standing beside a few of the displays off to one side. They had agreed that they would open their destination papers together, even though Carter had already broken the seal on his
papers; at least Murphy was still waiting.

“Who wants to go first?” Daniel said.

“Carter’s already got his open.” Alex said with a note of disapproval.

“Fine, if it’s that important to you, I’ll go last then.” Carter replied, and set his scroll down on
one of the display cases.

“Then Daniel should go first, since we already know where he’s going.” Murphy said.

Daniel shrugged a silent agreement, cracked the seal on his papers and slowly unrolled the parchment. He began to read.

“Oh no.” He said as he faced suddenly dropped. “They wouldn’t.”

“What… what did they do?” Alex asked, jumping up to read the paper that Daniel kept pulling away from me.

“They sent me to…
”

“To? To where?”

“To… to the Littenbeck Guild Hospital.” He laughed.

“Oh very funny.” Alex pouted.

“Okay, okay, Kile’s next.”

Kile took a deep breath and broke the seal on her papers. She unrolled it slowly and read out the destination.

“It says here I’m to report to Coopervill.”

They looked at one another and shrugged.

“Never heard of it.” Carter replied.

“Me neither.” Murphy added.

“Oh well, that’s one we’re gong to have to look up on a map.” She said as she rolled the paper back up and slipped it into her courier bag. She hadn’t expected anyplace grand, she had a feeling that the guild would want to place her as far away from the action as possible. Then again that could be the paranoia setting in and Coopervill could be a very active place, although she doubted it from the faces of the Guild Council.

Alex broke his seal next and the look on his face was one of utter amazement, it had to be someplace impressive since it almost left the little hunter speechless.

“Baxter’s Bay.”

Was the only thing he managed to squeak out, it was barely above a whisper, but Carter heard it loud and clear.

“Oh yeah right.” He said, grabbing the papers from Alex. He read the destination and then shoved them back into the smaller Hunter’s hand. “That’s it, I give up.” He said, throwing up his hands in defeat.

“He’s not really…” Daniel started as he grabbed the crumpled sheet from Alex.

“Oh yes he is, he’s been assigned to Baxter’s Bay.” Carter said in disbelief.

Kile wasn’t sure what the big deal was about Baxter’s Bay, having never been there herself, but she knew it was a prime destination, even Tree wanted to be assigned there and
Erin had spoken about taking some time off in Baxter’s Bay.

“Where are you going Murphy?”
She asked, noting that he had already unrolled his scroll.