Hunter's Bounty (Veller) (45 page)

She had danced this dance with Carter back at the academy more times than she cared to remember, and even if Carter’s invisibility was limited, it
didn’t change the fact that he couldn’t hide from her, and neither could Drain.

She backed
away, giving the old man some room as he began to circle her. The idea was not to follow him with her eyes, but with her other senses. She could smell him, a pungent smell of coal oil and pork. She could hear him, his heavy rasping breath as he gasped for air. She could feel him, his heavy footsteps vibrating on the floor. She was just glad she couldn’t taste him.

He moved around behind her and came in with a low thrust. She spun, knocking the blade aside and carrying through with
the momentum she brought the broom handle down across the back of his head. It snapped on impact as Andrew Drain fell forward and reappeared sprawled out on the ground. She kicked the sword out of reach but it didn’t look as if he was getting up anytime soon.

People were approaching now, better late than never she thought as she pulled up one of the chairs and sat down. There was no place she could run and she could only hope that this all counted for something.

The first one to get through one of the obstructed doors was Samuel Grey, he looked at her and then at Andrew Drain who was still laid sprawled out on the floor. She wasn’t sure what the hunter was going to do, or what he had planned to do as two more hunters came in behind him. Another door was pushed in by a fourth hunter she didn’t recognize, but the last door gave way to Master Folkstaff followed close by Erin Silvia, at least those were some friendly faces.

Erin
was the only one to approach.

“
You alright?” She asked.

“I suppose.”
Kile replied playing with the end of the broom handle, and then suddenly remembering she had left her friends fighting a group of Uhyre. “Master Adams needs help.”

“No he doesn’t.” Master Adams said as he came in through the kitchen
door, stepping over the debris. He was a bit ruffled with his hair out of place and his shirt untucked, but no worse for a back alley brawl. He pulled his glasses from his top pocket and wiped them with the tail of his shirt before putting them back on.

“What about Emara and Alex.”

“They’re just helping the other hunters clear away the ruffians.” He assured her. “You handled yourself pretty well out there… and in here too it seems.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t have much of a choice.” She said as she got to her feet, but then she never seemed to be given any choices. “Am I still under arrest?”

“Well, technically yes.” Folkstaff answered as he watched two guards drag Drain away. “Only the Law Master can reverse that decision but I don’t see that as being a problem.”

“So, Master Keel is alright?” She asked.

“Daniel was seeing to him when I left.” Erin replied. “But he should be alright.”

“I have no doubt that you will receive a full pardon as well as be reinstated into the guild.” Master Adams added. “I would even go as far as to say that a fourth level certification could be in your near future.”

“You can keep it, I’m finished.” She heard herself reply.  She wasn’t sure where that had come from but once she said it felt so right.

“What are you saying Kile?” Master Adams asked.

“I don’t want it. I don’t want anything more to do with the guild, I’m through, I quit. I joined because I thought that being a part of something like the hunter would mean something, well it does, it means back stabbing, corruption, distrust, greed, politics, it means turning a blind eye to people in need because they’re not of the proper social status or they can’t afford the ridiculous fees. If that’s what being a hunter is all about, I don’t want any part of it.”

“But Kile”

“No, all I wanted was to do at least some good in this world, to prove to myself and to others that I wasn’t as useless as they all thought I was and where did it get me. I don’t belong here anymore than I belonged at the academy or back home. I quit.”

She dropped the broken broom handle, turned and head back out through the kitchen, back out to the alley and back to the streets of Littenbeck.

***

“There you are.” Master Adams said as he entered the
Guild Hospital.

Kile had been sitting up in one of the hospital beds read a first aide manual with Vesper curled up in her lap. It was strongly advised that she not leave the city until everything was squared away, so she tracked Daniel down to retrieve the yarrow. With nothing else to do and no place else to go, this was as good as anything.

She briefly looked up from her book.

“You will be happy to know that all the charges have been dropped and that you have been officially reinstated as a Hunter.”

“Wonderful.” She said with little enthusiasm as she turned back to her book.

“You are also to report to the guild council at your earliest convenience.”
Adams added.

“Why?”

“If you truly wish to leave the guild, you will have to give them an explanation.”

“More forms to fill out I suppose.” She said as she closed the book and set it on the side table.

“So it's true, you really are leaving?” Daniel asked as he came down the aisle. He was dressed in his white hospital robes and looked very at home in this setting. He had been busy all afternoon tending the injuries that had occurred during Kile’s trial the day before, and had little time to speak with her, or as she figured, to talk her out of leaving.

“As soon as I can.” She replied.

“I guess I’m not really surprised.” He said with a shrug.

“Will they let me keep Grim?” She asked.

“You’ll have to make a formal request, but I can’t see why they wouldn’t. It’s not like anyone else wants him.”

She slid off the side of the bed and came face to face with Daniel.

“I’ll wait for you outside.” Master Adams added as he made a discreet exit.

“Why aren’t you surprised that I’m leaving?” She asked Daniel once Master Adams was out of the ward.

“It’s what I’ve been saying all along, what I tried to tell you the night of our graduation. You’ve changed Kile, and I’m not sure if it’s for the better. You’ve been walking a fine line between two worlds. Maybe you’ve finally stepped over that line.”

Stepped over or tipped over, she wasn’t really sure.

“What? So you’re saying I’m more of a wild animal than a vir?”

“No, I wouldn’t go that far, but you seem to be more in tuned with the natural world than with ours.”

“And is that such a bad thing?”

“I don’t know.” Daniel said, shaking his head. “I guess you’re going to have to find out on your own.”

“You could always come with me.” She added.

“What?”

“Sure, think about it, we can travel to the mountains or the seas, or better yet, there are these lush green lands beyond the wasteland. We can go there. You and I. See places that no one else has ever seen before. Think about it, it would be wonderful.”

“I can’t leave.”
He said shaking his head again. “They need me here, they need you here.”

“They don’t need me. They’ve been trying to get rid of me since the entry examination.”

“Things have changed Kile. The last couple of months has really shaken up the Hunter’s Guild, what with the deaths and disappearances there has been a mass exodus. Quite a few hunters have abandoned their posts.”

“It can’t be that many.”

“According to the last figures that I’ve heard, not to mention the fact that there has been a reduction in the number of new cadets. If this keeps up, there may not be a guild left in a couple of months.”

Crippled
, the word came back to her. Andrew Drain had done just that, he had crippled the Hunter’s Guild, but he never did get around to telling her why.

“Well, then I guess my leaving isn’t going to make all that much of a difference.” She said grabbing the
courier bag from where it hung on the end of the bed. Vesper quickly jumped in as she slung it over her shoulder. “I suppose I’ll be seeing you around then.”

“Take care Kile.”

She crossed the room and exited the Hospital, stepping once again into the streets of Littenbeck. Four years ago she had come here all the way from Riverport, ran away from home to join the Hunters. From the day that nine year old girl was found sitting on a rock she had wanted to become a hunter, now she was back in Littenbeck and all she wanted was to leave the guild. Funny how the one thing she always wanted was now the one thing she wanted no part of.

“So, what are you planning on doing once you leave the guild?” Master Adams asked as he got up from the bench beside the door. She had almost walked right past him.

“Haven’t really given it much thought.” She replied.

“Well, there are a lot of opportunities out there. I suppose you could always go back home, back to Riverport.”

“Doubt it.” She told him. “I’m not really wanted there anymore than I’m wanted anywhere else. I suppose I’ll to go back to Coopervill, I have a few debts that I have to pay off first, maybe I’ll wait out the winter there before I…”

Before she what, before she attempts to cross the wastelands
, was that what she was going to say, was that what she was really planning on doing. Crossing that stretch of dessert was not something to be taken lightly, no one has ever succeeded, but then again if someone had crossed she seriously doubted they would risk crossing it again to tell everyone.

“You never told me how you managed to take out that big
uhyre in the alley.” She said, changing the subject.

“Why so surprised, I am a hunter after all.”
Adams replied.

“Well, yeah I know, but as you said, you’re not a field hunter. I just assumed that…”

“That I couldn’t take care of myself in the wild, that’s why I returned to the academy to teach.”

“Well… yeah, something likes that.”

“As a matter of fact I was a field Hunter at one time, right after I got out of the academy, spent nearly six years in the field and achieved my level four certification.”

“What happened?” She asked. There was a long pause before he finally answered.

“I guess you can say… I lost my edge.” He laughed.

“Lost your edge?”

“Well, more like I lost control of my edge. You see, I’m influenced by the sphere of earth and my edge allows me to… well it’s hard to explain but I can generate bursts of strength when I need to. I got into an altercation which… resulted in the death of another hunter.”

“I’m sorry.”

“There was a trial and I was cleared of the charges. It was later deemed an accident, but it shouldn’t have happened. I’ve not used my edge since, well, since the fight in the alley. I have to say it was… kind of fun to be out there again.”

“There was something that Morgan told me once, that power that you don’t learn to control is uncontrollable.
Have you ever thought about returning to your mystic for a refresher course.”

“I haven’t really thought about it much.”

“So, there’s no plan on ditching the teaching gig and getting back on the road.”

“No plan at all.” He said with a grin. “I enjoy teaching, watching the next group of hunters come up through the ranks to make their mark.”

“I guess I’m a disappointment then.”

Master Adams stopped walking.

“Do you really think that?” He asked.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know what to think anymore.”

“You know Kile, you’ve put up with a lot of abuse from a lot of people since I’ve known you, and from what I’ve seen, the worst of them… was you.”

“What?”

“You’ve spent so much time trying to prove to everyone that you aren’t useless that you’ve failed to see it yourself.”

He said nothing more as he led her up
the front steps of the Guild Hall. They entered through the golden doors and down the hall to the council room where Master Adams stopped.

“You have to go in alone.” He
said pushing the door open.

“Thank-you sir, for everything.”

The room was dark, but then most of the places she had associated with the guild had been dark, it was almost like they only existed in the shadows. She could still make out the council’s bench and the chairs but there was nobody occupying them. Was this some kind of a trick she wondered, but then she picked up that familiar scent.

“Hello sir.” She said. “I’m not really sure what name I’m supposed to use, is it Morgan, Luke, Mathew, or something else entirely.”

The shadows appeared to move as a shape emerged. He looked very much like he had the first time she had seen him in the stables nearly four years ago. She was fourteen at the time and Garret Treeman was showing them around the compound as his last official duty as a cadet at the academy. He was dressed in the same ill fitted threadbare jacket and knee high boots. His long hair, now blonde, was tied back in a tail.