Hunter's Academy (Veller) (9 page)

-What matter-

“He locked me in.” She said as the realization of Eric’s full plan unfolded before her. She had underestimated his cleverness, what with the lunch tray, knowing that she would want to change before going to class. He wanted her to be late for the first day of horse training or maybe not show up at all. She went to the window and tried the shutters, but there was no exit there. Somehow he had managed to bar those as well, probably before she ever came into the room. How long had he planned this little stunt?  She was trapped in her own cell.

-Big bar across door-

Vesper told her.

“What?”

-Bar. See bar across door.-

This time his words carried the vision of what the outside of her door looked like at that moment.

“You saw it? Of course you did, you come and go with the door closed all the time.” She said, but knowing that and what the bar looked like didn’t help her much.

“Vesper, could you move the bar.”

-Bar too big, take many yarrow to move it. Can get many yarrow-

She could picture that, a sea of yarrow coming over the horizons, storming the dorm
s. That wouldn’t go unnoticed.

“What about the bar on the window, could you move that.”

-Don’t know, didn’t see.-

Vesper replied as he shot under the chest of drawers
and through a small hole in the wall. She waited for a while, and then tried the door again but whatever it was that he barred it with was solid enough. The door wouldn’t budge even a fraction of an inch. A sound at the shutters caught her attention.

“Vesper?” She called as she got close to the window.

It was the sound of something fanatically gnawing on the other side. She gave the shutter a gently push and this time it moved, enough that she could actually see out of. She peeked through the small opening and saw vesper sitting on the ledge.

-Metal-

The yarrow told her and the word carried with it a vision of a long knife wedged between the two handles of the window shutters. He had been chewing the wood around the outer edge of the window, loosening the end of the long knife.

“Very good Vesper.” She told the yarrow.

He started in on the wood again, but this was taking longer than she had. She could only hope that he had done enough.

“Get clear Vesper.” She called thought the crack, and then picking up the chair and using it as a ram she shoved it at the window with all her might. There was a satisfying crack, or it was until she realized it was from the chair and not the window.

“Perfect.” She said as she dropped the pieces of the chair on the floor. “Now what?”

She pried off one of the chair legs and worked it in between the shutters.
Grabbing the other end with both hands and bracing her feet against the wall she pulled as hard as she could. The shutter flew open and she flew backwards across the room, colliding with the far wall.

-Kile okay?-

Vesper asked from the now open window.

“I am now.” She grinned as she got up. “Thanks Vesper, I might actually make it to class on time.”

-Hunar here.-

“Hunar, what’s Hunar doing here?” She asked as she got up off the floor and leaned out the window.
Sure enough the large black Shinar mastiff was sitting under the window staring up at her from the ground. There was a rope around her neck and she was tied to the one of the trees.

“Hunar, what are you doing here?” She asked the dog.

- I think I’m supposed to keep you from getting out.-

Hunar replied, and those words carried a tone of embarrassment. She had somehow been tricked like Kile
, and Hunar was not very happy about it.

Kile dislodged the long knife from the other window and pushed open the shutters.

“Watch out, I’m coming down.” She warned the dog as she dropped from the window, landing softly on the grass below. “Who did this to you?”

-Tricked me, led me here, tied me up.-

“Who tied you up? Who led you here?” Kile asked as she tried to untie the knot. She should have brought the long knife down with her. It was strange that Eric would leave a long knife to bar the window when any old piece of metal would work, but if Eric used the knife there had to be a reason for it. Was he expecting her to use it on Hunar in order to escape? That seemed a little drastic, even for Eric.

- Don’t tell Gorum-

Kile had to smile at that one; Gorum was always lecturing Hunar on her being too rash and headstrong. If he found out that she was so easily tricked, she would never hear the end of it.

“Don’t worry, this will be our secret.”

With that reassurance, Hunar’s disposition changed. She was no longer embarrassed, now she was only fuming.

-Boys will pay.-

The dog growled, and Kile received a very vivid image of what Hunar was planning to do to the boys, one that sent a chill down her spine.

“Hunar you can’t.”

-Why?-

“Because, you don’t respond to a practical joke by disemboweling.”

-Why?-

“You just don’t okay. Promise me that if I release you, you won’t do anything rash.”

-Fine.-

“Thank you. Now, let me go back up and get the knife, I can’t
seem to untie this rope.”

“What’s going on here? Stay away from that dog, are you crazy?
What do you think you're doing with my dog?”

Kile spun around and looked up at the huge man that was racing across the field. She did not think that Oblum could run that fast. She didn’t think Oblum could run.

“That dog will tear you to shreds.”

Kile backed away from the rope as Oblum stood between her and Hunar. He glared down at her with his one good eye.

“You better have a damn good explanation.”

“Sir, she was tied up to this tree, I was
just trying to free her.”

“Free her?” He asked as he looked back at Hunar as if seeing the rope for the first time. “How do I know that
? You could have been tying her up.”

Good
point, she thought.

“I… I was on my way to class and I saw her tied up. I knew she shouldn’t be here so I was going to free her.”

Oblum looked suspiciously at Kile, then back and Hunar, then back at Kile. Hunar walked around her master and came to Kile’s side. She dropped her head under Kile’s right hand, and Kile scratched the mastiff behind her ear. Oblum seamed to be torn between what he wanted to believe and what he had to believe.

“Well… I guess if you DID tie Hunar up, she would have torn you apart by now.”
The headmaster replied. This was a reluctant way of saying he believed her and was sorry that he accused her. He pulled out his own long knife, bent down and started to cut the rope.

“Who did this to you girl?” He asked her, but unlike Kile he didn’t expect an answer. “If I find out who did this to you, I will personally kick them so far out of the academy that they won’t land until
they reach the sea.”

Oblum held onto the rope after he cut Hunar free, he didn’t want to risk Hunar seeking revenge.

“You better get back to class… cadet.” Oblum said as he led the rather embarrassed dog away.

***~~~***

4

Eric had succeeded in delaying Kile for nearly and hour, by now most of the good horses, if not all of the good horses, had already been taken. Hopefully that was all he had planned for her today. When she finally reached the western gates, she was grateful to see the other cadets in a large, wide open field just outside the walls. It meant that she was in the right place. There were only about forty cadets left in the second year and they were spread out over the field, each one standing beside their newly selected mounts. Daniel was right about one thing she thought as she slowed down and started to walk across the field to where Master Pike was waiting, the horses were top quality, but then she wasn’t an expert on horses. The only horse her family ever owned was an old gray nag, and she couldn’t compare that to these.

“Nice of you to make time for us cadet Veller.” Master Pike shouted while she was still halfway across the field. It was not meant for communicating, just to focus the attention of the class on her. She didn’t bother shouting back. Partially because she didn’t want to embarrass herself any further, but mostly due to the fact that she had just r
un across the compound and was so out of breath at the moment that, if she had tried to shout, she would have just squeaked and probably fallen over.

Master
Pike was a tall, lean man with long brown hair that he kept tied in a tail, and a bushy mustache that looked awkward on his long narrow face. He looked very much like the horses that he rode as he stood with his hands clasped behind his back. She had seen him around, often lurking behind Master Boraro and she wondered if he was as much a toady as Master West was.

“Sorry I’m late sir.”
Kile said as she got closer.

“I assume you have an excuse.” Not that he really wanted to hear one.

“I was doing something for Sir Oblum.” She replied with a simple smile.

“I see.” Master Pike said, but then he really didn’t and it wasn’t as if he was going to go running back to find out if she was telling the truth or not. “Very well then…” He added with a grin that made Kile uneasy. “You may… select your horse.” He finished with a sweep of his arm.

Kile turned around to see that the only horse left in the paddock could hardly be called a horse, although it did sort of resemble one. It was probably one of the most dreadful creatures she had ever had the misfortune of setting her eyes one. It was stockier then the normal horse, but even that was difficult to say for certain, since it was covered in a long, black, shaggy coat that draped around it like an old mop. Its legs were rather thick and ended in huge tufts of hair that covered hoofs the size of serving platters. Even its face was difficult to see since the hair that grew from its head fell down over its eyes. It stood there unapologetically looking at her, as if daring her to come closer.

“I’m afraid that is all that we have left, at least until we get a new shipment of horses in.” Master Pike replied unsympathetically, and although he said it with a straight face, she was sure he was laughing behind th
at facade.

“When will that be sir?” She dared to ask.

“Oh, by next month I should think, or possibly the month after that, don’t really know. Until then… he should suffice.”

“Yes sir.” Was all
she could say.

“Well, mount up.” He told her as he started to walk off. “We will be riding up the road a bit, and then through the
countryside to get better acquainted with our mounts. I’m sure one of your… friends… will be glad to hang back and tell you what you’ve missed.”

He didn’t wait to see if anyone did stay back, he just walked over to his own horse, a tall black mare, slipped on his riding gloves, grabbed hold of the
pommel and effortlessly threw himself into the saddle. He raised one hand to motion the riders to follow him and then set off down the road without looking back.

Kile watched as those that knew how to ride qui
ckly fell in behind Master Pike and those that didn’t had a little more trouble getting their mounts started, but once most of the horses began to move, the other soon followed in spite of the naiveté of their passengers. Hunters were suppose to be some of the finest horseman in all of Aru, and as she watched the cadets bobbing around on the backs of their mounts, she had a hard time believing that one year was going to make that possible.

When she was sure that Master Pike and the rest of the cadets were out of
earshot, she turned back to the shaggy black horse.

“Hello, my name is Kile.” She said, but there was no reply. The horse just stood there and stared at her.
At least she thought it stared at her, it was difficult to tell without being able to see his eyes.

“Do you have a name?” She asked, but there was still no reply. Could he even understand her? Could she even speak to horses? She had spoken to one in the stables last year,
surely it couldn’t be all that much different. Maybe he just didn’t understand her she though as she looked closer at the horse, or maybe he was just ignoring her.

“Where have you been?” Daniel asked as he rode up to her on a dappled
gray. “I tried to stall as long as I could but Master Pike wasn’t going for it.”

“Got a little side tracked.” She replied.

“Did it happen to have something to do with Eric and his gang?” Daniel asked as he dismounted. She could tell that he was one of those that already knew how to ride by the ease at which he dismounted.

“What makes you ask that?”

“He came back just before class started, and he seamed abnormally pleased with himself.” He said as he picked up Kile’s academy issued saddle. She looked from it to the horse and had her doubts that it was even going to fit.