The Bowl of Souls: Book 01.5 - Hilt's Pride (9 page)

“What was it?” she asked.

“Evidently the rodents weren’t its only food source. Yntri says that there is another entrance to the cave on further down the mountain.” Yntri clicked some more. “Ah, more like a shaft, really. There is a tribe of orcs living there that worship the thing. Evidently they’ve been sacrificing to it. Yntri saw them throw a deer down the shaft on the way up here. It wasn’t until he reached the cave mouth that he realized what they were feeding.”

Beth slumped again. “Well good for you then, Sir Hilt. There is still a chance for you to exercise your pride in the future.”

Hilt forced himself not to respond. He had argued enough with the woman for one day. He didn’t understand why she was so quick to anger, but he couldn’t help but respect her fortitude. It suddenly struck him how brave of her it had been to climb to the top of the ridge and stand before the behemoth’s cave to call him out. She had been so shaken by her fear of trolls and yet had stood there with fire stick in hand, determined to save his life.

He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Thank you Beth for coming after me. I know it wasn’t an easy thing to do.”

Her eye brows rose in surprise and she gave him a tired smile. “How was I going to reach the top without you?”

Yntri called out to them and pointed.

“What is it?” Hilt looked over at him and nodded. “Well it seems he’s found us a place to camp for the evening.”

The elf had found a stand of trees that were butted up against a jutting rock shelf. The location provided a shelter from wind and a place where they could build a small
cookfire
that wouldn’t be easily seen. In addition, there were no signs of trolls or other monsters nearby that could provide a threat.

To Hilt’s surprise, someone had used this spot to camp before and not long ago. There was a small ring of blackened soil under the overhanging rock where someone had built a fire and the area had been swept mostly clear of pine needles. Gorcs and orcs tended to leave their camping spots in disarray, so it was likely the previous occupant had been a human.

It wasn’t a heavily wooded area, but he and Beth were able to go around to several nearby tree clusters and break off dead limbs and sticks, gathering dry wood for the
cookfire
. Hilt was getting hungry enough that even the thought of eating viper sounded good.

“So Hilt,” Beth
said,
her arms full of sticks and branches. “You haven’t told me why you and Yntri were out here in
Renuel
. Malaroo is quite a journey from here.”

“Oh, well Xedrion Bin
Leeths
, the current leader of the
Roo
-tan, wanted someone to talk his daughter into coming home. It was time for Yntri’s yearly pilgrimage and it had been years since I had seen the academy, so we agreed to go.” Hilt explained. “As you can see, we are returning empty handed.”

“Really?
A
Roo
-tan princess refused to come home and you just let her?”

Hilt laughed. “If you had met her you wouldn’t be surprised. Her name is Jhonate and she’s even more stubborn than you, if you can believe a woman like that exists. But she’s not a princess in the way you would think. She’s not an heir to the
Roo
-tan or anything. However, she is one of her father’s favorites and she wasn’t supposed to have left the country.”

Beth shook her head. “What was she doing in Reneul then?”

“Ah, well it is partially my fault to tell the truth. Her father had just opened up trade with Dremaldria and I was regaling the children with stories of the
Battle
Academy
. I bragged that it was the greatest warrior school in the known lands and I told Xedrion that his people could benefit by having a relationship with the academy. He agreed that it would be a good idea and the next day Jhonate disappeared. He received a note from her a week later saying that she was traveling to the academy as his representative.”

“He must have been furious,” Beth said in amusement.

“Extremely,” Hilt said. “He sent two trackers after her but they failed to bring her back. It was quite an embarrassing situation for him and his opponents in the kingdom got a good laugh out of it. Several months later, he received a letter from the academy thanking him for sending his envoy and saying that they had accepted her for entrance into the school and included a glowing review from
Faldon
the Fierce himself, praising her prowess.”

She raised her eyebrows.
“Really?
She got in that quickly?”

“Evidently she came to the gates of the school, gave them my name as reference, and presented herself as an official envoy of the
Roo
-tan sent to study at the academy. Usually applicants of the academy have to take training school for a year, but due to her diplomatic status and battle prowess they let her in right away. Xedrion was angry, but he couldn’t help but be proud of her accomplishment and his hands were tied since the academy had been so gracious. So he put up with it. But after a year went by, he changed his mind. He figured that he had left her there long enough to show the academy respect, so he sent us to retrieve her.”

They returned to the campsite with all the wood they could carry. Yntri wasn’t there and Hilt figured the elf had gone hunting. The sun had disappeared beyond the horizon and light was quickly fading so he got a fire started with his fire stick. They huddled around the small fire and enjoyed the warmth as they waited for Yntri’s return.

“So what happened when you got to Reneul?” Beth asked. “I mean, obviously the girl refused to return home, but why?”

“Jhonate was always an impetuous child much like Xedrion himself had been. It was one of the reasons he doted on her. But in Malaroo, no matter how much she excelled, she was always seen by the people as the least of her siblings and she found that unacceptable. At the academy, however, your order of birth doesn’t matter. Every student there is given all the respect they earn and that fits perfect with her sensibilities. She was happy there and Xedrion knew it. So when we left, he sent us with some heavy . . . incentives.”

“What was going to convince her?” Beth leaned in close to him as they talked and Hilt could tell she was getting cold. He took off his overcoat and slid it across her shoulders.

“Xedrion understood her reasons for leaving and had come up with a way to raise her esteem among her peers. I told you about Yntri’s bow earlier, how it is made of living Jharro wood. Well Jhonate already had one Jharro
weapon,
all the good warriors among her people have one. However Xedrion asked Yntri to make her another one. That is a rare honor among their people. Only
Xedrion’s
own elite force has two Jharro weapons and only her eldest brother was good enough to be counted among those elite.

“So Yntri made her a Jharro bow and her father included a golden dragon hair bowstring, a priceless prize in and of
itself
. If Jhonate returned to her people with two Jharro weapons, the golden bowstring, and the training of the
Battle
Academy
she would have all the respect she could ever want. Yntri was going to present the weapon to her himself and I came along to smooth things over with the academy and make sure that there were no hard feelings left behind. I was authorized to set up a warrior exchange program where the top students from the school would be allowed to come and train with the
Roo
-tan for a while, Xedrion had even agreed to open his kingdom to academy contracts.”

“And she refused all that?” Beth asked in amazement, clutching his coat close around her.

“Well, things didn’t go as planned. You see, she had been doing so well that
Faldon
the Fierce had offered her a one year contract, paying her to train his son, who was struggling to pass the tests necessary to enter the academy. She was all but ready to return with
us,
however the
Roo
-tan take contracts very seriously. Her year was almost up when we arrived and we decided to wait for her to complete it.

“But then she took Yntri to check out her student, who was struggling with the bow. He’s the other person Yntri met this year with talent like yours. The boy was just too stubborn to listen to his archery instructor. This is when things went wrong. The bow that Yntri had brought intending to give it to
Jhonate,
bonded to her student instead. And when a Jharro weapon bonds to someone it is permanent.”

“Oh my,” Beth said.

“It wasn’t supposed to be possible,” Hilt said as he fed a few more sticks to the fire. “There is usually a whole ceremony involved. Before a warrior is given a weapon, he spends a night sleeping in the boughs of the host tree before it gives up the wood. Jhonate had already done so as a child, but her student had never seen a Jharro tree.

“
Yhtri
thinks it was because he spent so much time in contact with
Jhonate’s
weapon. Since both came from the same tree, it recognized him. Regardless, we could no longer use it as an incentive to bring her home. Yntri gave Jhonate permission to give it to her student and she gave it to him on his birthday, golden string and all.

“At that point Yntri continued on his pilgrimage and I stayed behind, hoping that I could still convince her to return to her father. I worked out the details of
Xedrion’s
agreement with the academy and even helped Jhonate train her student. I must admit, he wasn’t a natural with the sword, but he impressed me with his determination.”

Hilt shrugged. “Anyway Yntri returned just a few days early from his pilgrimage with news of problems with the Jharro grove. Xedrion wanted us to return right away.”

“So she decided to stay behind?” Beth asked

“Most likely.”
Hilt said. “When we left, she was still unsure whether or not she was going to return, but I bet she stays. Yntri can still provide her a new weapon when she comes back and make good on her father’s offer, but her heart seems to be with the academy. She really wants to graduate and feels that by doing
so,
she will forge a stronger bond between the academy and the
Roo
-tan. I can’t really disagree with her there.”

There was a whistle from the trees and Yntri entered the campsite clicking happily. The elf held out two rock squirrels that he had shot. He was also dragging a sapling that he had cut down somewhere along the way.

“So we are adding squirrel to our meal tonight?” Beth asked with a smile.

Yntri clicked and Hilt chuckled, “He says they may not be the world’s largest, but they will have to do.”

“Good!” Beth said. “I was wondering how we were going to get by on one snake split three ways.”

Yntri held out Beth’s snake and asked a question, pointing at the head.

“He wants to know if he can keep the head,” Hilt said. “He has a use for the venom.”

“Uh, sure,” she said,
then
added with a hesitant smile, “And Hilt, what I said earlier about cooking the snake? I am a good cook, really I am, but don’t be too disappointed if it doesn’t come out like I promised. I don’t really have the means with me to cook it the way I usually do. I mean, I would bake it in my oven at home with garlic and butter, but I have none of that with me now.”

“Don’t worry,” Hilt said with a reassuring smile. “Yntri makes for a great travel companion. He holds his own in a fight, he’s not too talkative, he cleans up after himself, and he’s a pretty good cook as well, you’ll see.”

Yntri unstrung his bow, grabbed the smooth grey wood and twisted. A section of the bow came off and changed in his hands, taking the shape of a knife. He began gutting and skinning his catch. He laid the carcasses out on their skins, then carefully removed the viper’s head and skinned it as well.

 The elf opened his small pack and pulled out two pouches, one containing ground salt and the other filled with dried leaves. He rubbed both salt and herbs into the meat and skewered both squirrels on a sharpened stick. He then wrapped the viper meat around them and hung the laden skewer between two y-shaped sticks he had planted on either side of the rock circle. The elf squatted by his newly made spit and slowly turned the meat over the fire.  

Yntri looked at Beth and clicked a long question, curiosity in his ancient eyes.

“Good question,” Hilt said, echoing the elf’s expression with his own eyes. “Why are you on this mountain?”

“Because the prophet told me to.”

“We know that part,” Hilt said. “Would you mind telling us the rest?”