Hunter's Bounty (Veller) (10 page)

After a quick survey of the surrounding area, Kile began to wonder why anyone,
the uhyre included, would want to stay in the wastelands. Aside from a few reptiles, which Kile refused to even entertain the thought of eating, regardless of what Emara suggested, there wasn’t much in the way of life. The few leaves that Emara had picked earlier came from a tainted tree beside an equally tainted water hole. It was as if everything in the flatlands was either dead, dying or trying to kill you.

They traveled during the night, not so much because of the heat of the sun, but simply
due to the fact that they did not wish to be seen. They weren’t sure how far Emara was able to send them with her arts, and Kile was half expecting to see the hidden stronghold over the next hill with the black robed Ravenshadow standing in the doorway waiting for them.

As the first light of dawn slowly rose over the horizon, they sought a place of safety in the shadows of a rocky outcrop.  It didn’t take Emara long too succumbed to the strenuous activity of walking, as she pulled the tattered remains of her robes around her and fell asleep. Kile, on the other hand, couldn’t sleep. The events of the last week just added to the questions that she already had on her mind. For starters she reluctantly discarded her belief in the Sons of Terrabin being behind the disappearance and death of her fellow hunters. If, what happened to her was any indication, then this Ravenshadow was behind it all, but he wasn’t alone. Who was this guy he was working with, and what was his part in this master plan?
Ravenshadow said he wanted justice, but justice for whom, and how did Eric fit into all of this? Then there were the scattered memories of the ravens that still lingered in her head. Or was it just that one memory that they all shared. It was of a stronghold in the middle of a swamp. For some reason this meant something to the birds, or did it mean something to Ravenshadow?

She
tore off a piece of the tattered clothing she was wearing and rapped it around her foot. It was a shame that the uhyre didn’t wear shoes, walking across the flatlands was not meant to be done with bare feet. She leaned back and stared up at the sun moving slowly across the sky. They were heading in the right direction, which was one good thing, the problem was they had no idea of how far away from the boarder they were. It could be tomorrow, it could be days from now, either way without food or water they weren’t going to get very far.

She
got to her feet and limped out onto the flats. The first thing one does in a situation such as this was to get to higher ground to get a bearing on one’s surroundings, too bad there wasn’t any higher ground to get to. There wasn’t even a decent tree, and the only rocks they could climb were those that they were using as shelter and that would only get her three or four feet higher at the most, which wasn’t anywhere near enough. So, if she couldn’t get higher, she would have to find someone who could.

There was only one bird that she could think of, that would thrive in an environment such as this, and that was the one that fed off the dead and the dying as she watched them circle in the distance.
She thought about waking Emara but didn’t really want an audience and the young mystic needed her sleep, so she headed off into the direction of the birds.

When she reached the vultures they
were picking at the carcass of what appeared to be a valrik. It had been out on the flats for some time as what was left of its stone gray skin was now ash white and pulled tight over its bones. Two empty eye sockets stare in her direction as she approached. On one level she was kind of glad, she wasn’t sure how she was going to be able to carry on a conversation with the birds if they were tearing apart some poor animal, but to see them tearing apart something that was manlike was a bit disturbing.

“Excuse me.” She called out from a safe distance.

It always surprised her that they never fled when she was around. Normally the sight of a vir would send most animals running, but for her they usually stayed around long enough to see what she wanted. Was this something to do with her edge?

-Food?-

-Food… Is it food?-

-Can’t be food… it talks… it walks.-

-For now.-

The vultures were huge, sinister looking birds with a
wingspan that was as wide as she was tall. She was sure that they could carry her off with little effort as she tried to keep her distance from them. They hopped around her, craning their bald heads this way and that as if sizing her up.

“I’m sorry to disturb your… lunch. But I was wondering if you could help me out.”

-Vir asked for help?-

-New this is-

-Strange this is-

-What help could we do a Vir?-

Kile was beginning to think that this was not such a good idea after all.

“My friend and I are lost you see, and we need some directions. If you could just… fly around and… show me the layout… of the area. I would greatly a… appreciate it.”

She didn’t really feel that the vultures were paying much attention to her as they started to slowly close in around her.

-Why?-

One of them asked, as he stood before her, spreading out his great wings. If he was trying to be intimidating, he was doing a very good job at it. He was nearly as tall as she was when he stretched out his neck and stared at her. His two yellow eyes were almost as disturbing as the empty sockets of the valrik that lay in the dirt.

-Why?-

He repeated.

“I… I don’t think I understand. Are you asking why I need your help… or why should you help me.”

-Why?-

-Why should we?-

-Why should we help you?-

“Because we need to get back home, at least back to the border.”

-Why?-

“If we don’t… we… won’t survive.”

She wasn’t sure if it was true or not. She had been trained in wilderness survival at the academy, even if that training never covered the flat lands, at least not in the practical sense, only in theory. She was hoping that if the vultures knew how desperate she was, they would be more willing to help. She was kind of wrong.

-Good.-

The vulture in front of her replied as it tucked in its wings and looked her over again. The image that it attached to that one word was so vivid, so disturbing that Kile actually stepped back from the larger bird. He didn’t want to help her for the simple fact that if she died on the flat lands, he would feast on her flesh. There was no malice in the image, only the natural order of things.

“Okay… then I better be going.” She said as she started to back away.

-Wait vir.-

Kile looked up to see a pair of enormous wings momentarily blocked out the sun as another, even larger vulture descended among them.
It landed on the valrik’s head, her great talons gripping into the dead eye sockets as she pulled her wings close to her body and looked at each of the smaller vultures in turn. There was respect for this one, as the smaller birds moved aside.

Kile stepped forward to present herself before this matriarch.

-I am Lindear.-

The vulture said, and her name carried with it a strange sense of familiarity, but whether Kile was
supposed to be familiar with her, or she with Kile, it was difficult to tell.

“Kile, Kile Veller.”

-I know who you are child of vir.-

“You do? How?”

-This is neither the time, nor the place. See what I see and know the dangers these lands hold for you.-

Kile closed her eyes and she felt as if she was flying as
Lindear showed her the world as she saw it, high over the Flat Lands. She could see everything from the cold snow peaks of the spine all the way  down to the dark waters of the black sea, but what called out to her was the west farther beyond the Flat lands, farther beyond the Great dessert, farther than any Vir had ever traveled. There Kile could see the lush green lands of the west that beckoned her, but for some reason she knew she couldn’t go there, not yet. Her fate was in the east, and so toward the east she looked, and it was there that she saw the danger that Lindear had warned her about, for all along the border of Aru the uhyre armies were camped. Not the thousands that had crossed the border two years ago, but the tens of thousands, the hundreds of thousands that sat and waited for some sign, some signal. The Kingdom of Aru was at war, the only problem was, they didn’t know it yet.

“What does this mean?” Kile asked as she opened her eyes.

-The meaning is not for me to know. Only that war is soon upon you. Return to your land with caution, you will not receive the welcome you expect.-

Lindear stretched out her wings and took to the sky. The other vultures followed, leaving Kile
alone to stare into the empty eye sockets of the valrik, or was it the valrik staring up at her.

“Come on, we have to get moving.” Kile said as she kicked Emara, then regretted is since she didn’t have any shoes on.

“Wake me up in an hour or so.” Emara replied as she pulled her robes about her and turned over.

“No time. We have to find a way past the
uhyre army.”

“The what?”

That woke the mystic up as she brushed the blue tipped pink strands of hair from her face. Kile had meant to ask her about her choice of color but at the moment it didn’t seem all that important.

“There is a huge
uhyre army between us and the border, and if we’re going to sneak by it, we’re going to have to get a better look at it. So come on.”

“Why sneak by it, I can just transport us
past it.” Emara replied as she got up and dusted the flat lands from the clothes.

“You can do that?”

“Of course I can. I got us here didn’t I?”

Somehow that was not very encouraging as Kile looked around at the here that Emara landed them in. The young mystic must have seen the doubt on Kile’s face.

“Hey, it’s not my fault we ended up in the middle of nowhere. I was rushed… I can’t work when I’m rushed.”

“So, you’re saying you can get us home.”

“Of course I can. Transporting is easy.”

“Then why didn’t you just do that before.”

“I told you. I was rushed. I got… confused.”

Confused was not a word that Kile wanted to hear associated with the mystic arts. Mystics were not supposed to be confused about the
arts. Only non-mystics like Kile were allowed that luxury.

“Maybe we can still get past the
uhyre if we try at night.”

Emara stamped her foot on the ground and folded her arms across her chest. “You don’t trust me?”
She pouted.

“
It's not that I don’t trust you, I… just thought it would be… easier.”

“Easier? I can put you in the middle of any town in the blink of an eye and you think it would be easier to try and sneak past an army of
valrik.”

“Okay, okay, maybe easier is not the right word. How about… safer.”

“Safer?”

“Fine.” Kile said with a nervous sigh. “Are you sure you can do this? Absolutely sure?”

“Tell me where you want to go, and I’ll put you in the center of town.”

Kile looked down at the rags she was wearing. Popping up in the center of town, dressed as she was, wasn’t going to improve the town’s opinion of her, but if Emara could pull it off, it was better th
an walking.

“I have to be in Coopervill.”

Emara rolled up the sleeves of her robes. “Okay, Coopervill it is.” She said as she began to chant. Kile closed her eyes and braced for the worse. Transporting was not her idea of safe traveling.

“
Um… Kile?”

She
opened her eyes and found that she was still on the flats.

“Did anything happen?” She asked.

“Well… no, not really. I… don’t know where Coopervill is. You see… I have to know where the place is in order to send you there. I’ve never been to Coopervill, so… I don’t know where it is.”

“It’s in the Denal province.”

“Denal. I know where the city of Denal is. Will that be close enough?”

“Well… yeah, I suppose so.”

“Then I’ll send you to Denal.”

“Wait a minute. Aren’t you coming?”

“No.” Emara replied with a confused look. “Why would I want to go to Denal? I’ll send myself to the Mystic Tower.”

Before Kile could say another word she felt the ground being sucked out from under her and she lost all sense of reality and time, until she suddenly found herself six feet above a lake. The cold water was a sudden reminder of why she hated the mystic arts. She swam to the far side of the lake, crawled out onto the bank and collapsed in the mud. Transporting was something she would never get
used to, nor would she want to.

***~~~***

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