Hunter's War (Legend of the Wild Hunter Book 4) (66 page)

She paused for a moment, but didn’t look at him. She had thought the very same thing, but now she had her doubts. “I’ve been thinking about that,” she said. “I’m not sure he really did.”

“How can you say that? Didn’t he orchestrate this whole thing?”

That might have been an over-exaggeration. He may have had a hand in bringing her back to the wastelands, but surely, Daniel couldn’t blame him for setting the situation up. It’s not like Marcus started the war.

“He only did what any Hunter is supposed to do.” She said, finally looking at. “He had an assignment, and he saw it through by any means necessary. Isn’t that what they taught us back at the Academy? It doesn’t matter how a mission is completed, only that it’s completed successfully. About the only thing we could really take to the Guild is the fact that he used his Edge on Carter. Beyond that, I don’t think the Guild will do anything.”

“It doesn’t seem right.”

“I know what you mean, but that’s just the way of things,” she shrugged. “Besides, once it gets out he can’t be trusted and he betrayed his friends for a bit of gold, I think the popularity he craves so much will be harder to come by.”

“Do you really think people will find out?”

Kile laughed. “Are you kidding? Alex has probably already written the story of the White Haired Hunter’s betrayal. By this time next year, it will be told in every pub from the Fennel woods to Baxter’s Bay.”

“I hope you’re right.” Daniel replied as they continued to walk.

“Watch over Lore and Nova for me, and take Rose back with you, will you?” she asked.

“Rose?”

“Yeah, Marcus’s horse. Take her back to Forthbar, to the Guild house there. They’ll watch over her until Marcus finds his way back. Maybe a long walk out of the wastelands will teach him some humility.”

“You’ll be returning to Forthbar, when this is all over?” he asked.

“Of course,” she replied. “We’ll meet up at the Flatten Sparrow. You, me, Alex and Carter. I think we all have a few stories to share.”

“Sounds like a date.” Daniel replied. “Maybe we can invite Taugh and Ertgoth, I’m sure that will raise a few eyebrows.”

Kile laughed. “Can you image if we showed up with two Ogre.” She said. “Actually, they’ve already on their way back to Cabargbu to tell Sugorim everything that’s happened.”

“Already? I thought for sure they’d see us off.”

“I think seeing their god with their own eyes might have been too much for them,” she said. “Besides, Sugorim has to understand what he has in his possession.”

“You mean Umingoth’s egg. I wouldn’t want to be around when that thing hatches.”

“Yeah, who would?” she asked nervously.

They walked on a little further until they got closer to where Umingoth was waiting. The dragon seemed impatient and ready to go, unlike Alex, who appeared to be dreading every moment. The young Hunter sat nervously to one side, probably trying to psych himself up for the next flight. This one wasn’t going to be as easy as sailing across the wastelands.

“I guess this is my ride.” Kile said.

“Be careful, come back in one piece.”

“Hey, this is me you’re talking to,” she grinned. “Besides, I’ll have Alex watching my back.”

“Yeah, well, make sure he comes back in one piece as well.”

“If anything happens to him, I’m going to have one irate mystic on my ass,” she laughed.

Daniel eyed her suspiciously. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.

“Of course I am, why?”

“You seem a lot more… relaxed, since you came back with that dragon.”

“That’s probably because Umingoth broke something inside me,” she said, pointing to her head. “Everything’s a little off kilter at the moment.”

“What do you mean, broke something?”

“This is not the time, I have to get going.” She replied. “You ready Alex?”

“Of course not.” The young Hunter shouted back.

Turning to Daniel, she could see the concern on his face. “I’ll be fine,” she said, although she wasn’t sure if she believed it herself.

When she reached Umingoth, the dragon stretched his leg out for her to climb on and she took her place just below his shoulder blades. They had tied a bit of rope around his chest to give both her and Alex something to hold onto, as there was no suitable tack for a dragon in the vicinity. Umingoth didn’t seem too pleased at having a rope tied around him, but he eventually agreed after a bit of persuasion. Kile placed Vesper in the satchel before helping Alex on.

“See you in Forthbar.” Kile shouted to Daniel as Umingoth stood up and spread his wings.

He shouted something back, but she couldn’t hear him over the sound of the dragon taking flight. His wings pushed down great columns of air, throwing up sand in all directions. Daniel shielded his eyes and took cover behind the rocks as the dragon finally gained some altitude. Within moments the ground dropped away from them and once more, Kile was flying.

This was nothing like their short trips circling the desert. This time Umingoth put some distance between them and the earth. The clouds were now beneath them, and they were heading north. The jagged ice-covered peaks of the mountain were quickly coming into the view. This was the spine of the world, the natural barrier which divided the Kingdom of Aru from the Kingdom of Rojan.

Not even the red-shouldered hawk, which flew the mountains over Callor, could give Kile a view such as the one she was seeing with her own eyes. If only she could spread her own wings and take to the sky whenever she wanted to, and not be hindered by the earth.

Umingoth banked east and caught the updraft coming around the spire. Kile closed her eyes and spread her arms, feeling the wind blowing through her hair. Alex just got greener by the moment.

The distance was far, but they were making good time. They stopped only once on a small plateau, where no vir had ever set foot. There wasn’t much of a view as they were still above the cloud line. It was a landscape of fluffy cotton, which stretched out as far as the eye could see. After a quick meal, of which Alex ate very little, they set off once again.

-We should be reaching the point where the mountains of Kutharlug and the mountains of Kakgreac refuse to meet. It was once called the passage of Lutmorli, but I do not know what it is called now.-

Umingoth said.

“And you believe this is where the Rojan will try to enter Aru?” she asked.

-There is no other place. To try and enter the southern land over the mountain would be treacherous at best.-

As they pushed further east the clouds began to thin and Umingoth started to descend. Breaking through the haze of the clouds, the forest and fields finally came into view. They were over the great city of Azintar, and as mighty as it was, it was but a small black box on the landscape.

“Kile, look,” Alex shouted, pointing down to the fields north of the city.

“We need to go lower,” she told the dragon. Umingoth said nothing as they dropped even closer to the ground, but she could tell he was not very happy with the risk she was taking. She could only hope the fact that nobody would expect to see a dragon flying over the city, would be enough to keep them safe.

“What do you make of that?” Alex asked.

It was not good. Even if Larks did manage to get the message to Colonel Barshed sooner than they calculated, there was no way they should have amassed an army the size of the one that was now marching out of Azintar. Like a long black snake it slithered through the fields, heading north toward the Lutmorli pass.

“How are we supposed to stop that?” he asked.

She didn’t have an answer. She told Tullner she would think of something once she arrived, but now that she was here, nothing came to mind. Would it be worth landing and trying to speak to the commanding officer? Probably not, her experience with the military wasn’t very amicable. Even though she now knew Sergeant Wargner’s mind had been scrambled by Marcus prior to the mission into Denal, it still didn’t explain the thinking behind the decision to send them there in the first place. Besides, most of the officers believed her to be insane.

The ring, she thought, looking at the golden symbol on her finger. She had forgotten all about it. Would evoking the name of the King be enough to stop the advance? Probably not. Even if it did, it wouldn’t stop the Rojan.

“Umingoth, get us to the pass,”

-As you wish.-

He swooped down, turned north and flew back toward the mountains. Now that they were closer to the ground, she could gauge the speed of the dragon as the fields rolled away from under her. If the column kept its pace, the army would reach Lutmorli by the first light of day.

The mouth of the pass was enormous, and Umingoth’s description was quite accurate. The two mountain ranges didn’t meet. It was almost as if they had been placed side by side, they just didn’t line up. A strip of land ran between them with Kutharlug on the west side and Kakgreac on the east. It defiantly wasn’t a straight path since it meandered back and forth. In some places it was wider than the city of Azintar itself. An entire army could walk abreast. In other places it narrowed considerably, but it was still wide enough to hold a decent battle.

As they flew through the pass they could hear the sounds of the advancing army, that’s when Umingoth decided to ascend. It would not do to meet the Rojan in such tight quarters.

“Alex, you know what to do.” Kile said, as the dragon gained height.

It was a simple illusion, one that he had performed many times, but not on such a large target. Kile couldn’t tell if it actually worked, but she knew something was happening when the world began to ripple around her.

“Is that it?” she asked.

“I think so.” Alex replied.

If he was right, and the illusion worked, then Umingoth was invisible, if he was wrong, they would soon find out as they continued further down the pass. It wasn’t long before the found the northern army.

The Rojan were no less impressive than the King’s Command. They were large men on large horses and they looked to be prepared for a long, drawn out battle. This was not going to be some small skirmish, like they were dealing with at the edge of the wastelands, this was going to be a campaign.

They were moving at a fair pace, and would reach the end of the pass by nightfall, unless they could be slowed down, or stopped altogether. How do two Hunters go about stopping an advancing army? Kile hated riddles, but like all riddles, the answer was usually obvious, once you understood the question.

“Umingoth, can you bring down that mountain?” Kile asked, pointing to a section of the pass behind them. A section, the main body of the Rojan army was quickly approaching and the vanguard had already passed. It was the narrowest spot they had seen so far along the length of the Lutmorli, so narrow, a dozen horses might have been able to walk side by side, but only if the riders held their breaths.

-I can, if that is what you wish.-

The dragon replied, there was no hesitation in his voice. He would have no problem dropping the side of a mountain onto the advancing army. Alex wasn’t so willing.

“You can’t,” he shouted from behind her. “You said it yourself, they don’t want this battle.”

“They can’t fight a battle if they can’t reach it,” Kile replied. “We just have to turn them around.”

“How?” he asked.

“That’s where the plan gets a little sticky,” she explained. “We’ll have to get a lot closer.”

“How much closer?”

“Like, on the ground, closer.”

“I was afraid of that.” Alex replied. “Can’t Umingoth just scare them back to Rojan?” he asked.

“And let everyone know there are still dragons in the world,” she said. “I won’t expose Umingoth to that danger.”

Was it really the dragon’s safety she was worried about, or their contract? Umingoth could probably handle the Rojan army, but if he couldn’t, if something happened to him, then she became the proud parent of a bouncy baby dragon. She really wasn’t ready to take on that responsibility yet.

“So, what’s the plan?” Alex asked.

“It’s simple, you take care of the main army and I’ll take care of the vanguard.”

“Oh, is that all?”

The bend in the pass was the only place they could land without being spotted. The vanguard had just rounded the bend and was moving out of sight, the main force hadn’t even come into view yet. Umingoth set down gently in the narrow corridor.

“You’ll have to stay out of sight until the vanguard have been turned around.” Kile told the dragon as she dismounted.

-I still think your vir had the right idea.-

Umingoth replied.

-Allow me to take care of your enemies for you.-

“No, I want you to block the pass, and that’s all. Once that’s done, you should make yourself scarce, you should go back to the wastelands, before you’re spotted. Leave the vir alone.”

-If that is what you want.-

Umingoth replied, and his words were filled with a sense of irony she couldn’t understand. Something about the situation amused him, but she didn’t have time to figure it out. The vanguard was moving farther away and the main body was getting ever closer. When Alex finally dismounted, falling the last few feet onto his backside, the dragon stretched out his wings and took flight. It only took him a few moments to gain enough altitude to disappear over the lip of the cliffs, leaving Kile and Alex alone in the valley.

“He is coming back, right? I mean, he is going to block the pass?” Alex asked.

Kile didn’t answer because she wasn’t sure. They had a contract, and she had every intention of honoring her side of it, but she wasn’t sure about him. Grim had warned her not to enter into agreements with dragons, but then, she was sure people would have warned her about entering into agreements with mountain ponies. Either way, it was out of her hands now. She could only do what she could and leave the rest up to Umingoth.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

“I think so.” Alex replied. He seemed a little nervous, and she knew she was asking a lot of him. But if anyone could pull it off, she knew he could.

“What about you?” he asked. “Are you going to be all right?”