Call of the Herald (14 page)

"Well, did you find anything exciting?" he
asked.

"We found your raft," Chase announced with
pleasure. "It definitely needs some new rope to hold it together,
but I think it could still float."

"There really isn't much to see from what I
recall, but if we find the time, we could lash it back together
just for old time's sake," Benjin said then paused a moment before
addressing them in a more serious tone. "We may need to stay here
far longer than we are prepared for, and we need to get ready so we
have food during the winter," he said as he walked over to where he
had unpacked the bows and fishing rods.

"Catrin, you and Chase are both experienced
hunters, and I'd like you to see if you can bring down any game. We
can't afford to be picky. We're going to need as much meat as we
can get. I believe there's a stream to the north and east of here.
If you find it, look for a good fishing hole. I don't think there
are any fish in this lake, but you never know. On a rainy day, we
could try dropping a line." He handed Chase and Catrin each a bow,
string, and a quiver of arrows.

"Try to retrieve any arrows you loose. My
fletching skills are not what they used to be, and I was never very
good to begin with," he said.

Catrin and Chase strung their bows, and
Catrin was glad to have her familiar hunting tool in hand. After
drawing her belt knife, she cut off a length of rope and coiled it
around her belt. Chase seemed satisfied with Benjin's bow, and he
got some dried beef strips from their provisions so they would have
something to eat while they hunted.

"I want Strom and Osbourne to help me gather
wood so we can build a small smoke room inside the cavern. We can
also work on getting more water boiled, cooled, and into the
flasks," he continued. With the responsibilities assigned, they got
their gear and set off.

"Be back before dark," Benjin instructed.
"Stay quiet and always remain alert. If you need help, howl like
wolves."

Catrin and Chase made short work of their
descent and headed east. They saw a few game trails, and Chase
spotted a couple of buck rubs on the trunks of some nearby trees,
but they found no other signs of wildlife.

"We need to find water. If we find water,
we'll find game," Chase said.

They stood quietly, listening for the sound
of moving water, but they heard only leaves rustling in the light
breeze. Catrin checked the air for the scent of apples or berries,
knowing that those, too, would attract animals, but she didn't
detect anything. They turned toward the east since Benjin had
mentioned a stream somewhere in that direction. Walking in stealthy
silence, they were alert for any movements, large or small.

Chase stopped to wipe the sweat from his
eyes. "It may be hot now, but there's a storm coming. I can smell
it."

"I smell it too," Catrin said. "Let's hope it
waits till after nightfall to rain. We better get moving."

A moment later, though, Chase stopped and
stared, open mouthed, at a large eagle, which swooped in for a kill
just a short distance ahead. Catrin watched in awe as the
magnificent bird smashed into the ground and just as suddenly
propelled itself back into the air with a huge black snake in its
claws. The eagle had to work hard to gain the air, the weight of
the snake holding it down, but it pumped its powerful wings and
flew back into the treetops. They soon heard the screams of the
eaglets demanding their turn to be fed.

Catrin and Chase pressed on, hugging the
valley wall to keep from getting turned around in the cover of the
trees. Catrin froze when she heard a branch snap off to her right.
She and Chase nocked their arrows and took up positions behind
nearby trees, but nothing emerged from the woods. Catrin was about
to give up when Chase tapped her on the shoulder and pointed.

A little farther north from where the noise
had come, a medium-sized spike buck was following a pair of does
into a narrow clearing. Catrin took aim at the buck, the largest of
the three. Her arm trembled as she held the bowstring taut, waiting
for a clean shot. The buck suddenly flicked both ears forward and
snorted, and all three deer turned and fled, their fluffy white
tails standing up straight.

Taking hasty aim, Catrin loosed her arrow.
Her shot flew over the buck's head, but it didn't miss by much. The
sound of the arrow frightened him, and he turned aside, giving
Chase the broadside shot he'd been waiting for. Chase's arrow hit
just behind the buck's shoulder, and he reached the deer almost
before it hit the ground. Catrin held back a moment and allowed him
time to grant the animal a quick death. She understood the need to
hunt, but she didn't like to kill or see anything die. Chase would
take care of that part, and she was grateful. She tossed him a
length of rope with a sad smile, and he tied the buck's ankles.

"Nice shot," she said.

"Couldn't have done it without ya, Cat. If
you hadn't panicked and taken the bad shot, I might never have
gotten a good one. Your shot wasn't even close, you know," he said,
grinning.

"It was close enough to make him hesitate and
change his course, which gave you a sleeping bull for a target,"
she scolded and set off in the direction her arrow had gone. She
pushed her way farther into the underbrush, and caught a sudden
movement from the corner of her vision.

Stumbling backward, she found herself staring
down at a large boar. She let out a yelp as she met the boar's eyes
and knew immediately she had made a big mistake. The threatened
boar interpreted her direct eye contact as a challenge and dropped
its head as it charged. Catrin backpedaled as quickly as she could,
and she could hear Chase scrambling behind her, trying to come to
her aid. In a split second, she realized she could not possibly
outrun the boar and knew her best chance was to shoot it before it
gored her.

She spun gracefully, pulling an arrow from
her quiver as she turned. With practiced precision, she nocked the
arrow and drew, but in mid-draw she realized that she was not going
to be fast enough. The boar was going to reach her within an
instant of her firing. She leaped into the air as she loosed her
arrow, and she heard the air whistle as Chase's arrow whizzed by.
Both arrows struck the beast in the chest, but the boar's momentum
carried its enormous weight forward and sent it crashing into
Catrin's legs while she was still in midair. She felt a tusk stab
her in the shin as she was tossed higher into the air by the
impact.

Face-first, she landed on the flailing hooves
of the mortally wounded boar. Her landing knocked the wind out of
her, and she was kicked in the face several times before she could
get her breath and roll free. Fortunately, the boar was in its
death throes, and the kicks had little force behind them. Chase
quickly finished off the boar and turned to Catrin, who sat dazed
and winded.

Her vision clouded as her eye started to
swell shut, and blood poured freely from her nose and lips. The
boar's tusk hadn't penetrated her leather pants, but her leg felt
as if it were bruised to the bone. She sucked air through her teeth
as she pulled her pant leg up to expose the wound. Her leg was
swelling, and she soon had a large lump on her shin.

"I'll go back for help," Chase said just as a
light rain began to fall.

"I can walk," she said, but she winced when
she put weight on her wounded leg.

"Our kills weigh more than the two of us
combined. I'm going for help," Chase said firmly. He turned and
jogged back toward the cavern, occasionally howling like a wolf. He
and the others returned more quickly than Catrin would have thought
possible. She stood to greet them, and Benjin's face paled when he
saw her. Her wounds were not as bad as they appeared, but she made
a ghastly sight. The rain had streaked the dirt and blood on her
face, and the swelling was getting worse.

"Cripes, Cat. You were supposed to shoot the
game, not tackle it," Strom said. "It looks like he put up a pretty
good fight."

Benjin gave her a thorough looking over and
shook his head. "You got mighty lucky, li'l miss. Not many survive
facing a boar that size. I'd say you fared pretty good by the looks
of things. D'ya think you can walk?"

"Yes. It hurts a bit, but I don't think
anything is broken," she said through gritted teeth. She put some
weight on her leg and it held, but it throbbed painfully.

Benjin looked for a fallen branch but found
none that suited him. He cut down a nearby sapling, stripped it of
branches, and cut it to be as long as Catrin was tall. He handed
her the makeshift walking stick. "We all need a little help
sometimes. Lean on this."

Chase and Strom hacked at a couple of
saplings with their belt knives and stripped them of branches.
Benjin tied the animals' ankles then inspected the saplings. They
slid the smaller sapling under the ropes that tied the buck's
ankles and took the larger sapling to the boar.

Benjin helped them get the boar on the pole
then stood and wiped his hands on his pants. "Strom and I will take
the boar. Chase and Osbourne can carry the deer. Are you sure you
want to walk, li'l miss? We could come back for you."

"I can make it," she said, wiping blood from
her nose, but she leaned heavily on the walking stick. Benjin and
Strom each put a shoulder under the sapling and struggled to get
the boar off the ground.

"I know I said we couldn't afford to be
picky, but in the future, let's stick to game smaller than a
horse," he said between clenched teeth. With that, they began
lurching back toward the cavern.

Chase and Osbourne moved in behind them,
struggling a bit with the weight of the buck. Catrin limped along,
lost in thought as she struggled to keep up.

They reached the base of the rock pile where
the cavern was located, dropped the boar and buck to the ground,
and flopped down beside them. They lay there, exhausted. Catrin
leaned against a tree and tried to ignore the pain in her face and
leg.

"With these kills, you and Chase should be
able to sit back and relax. My stomach thanks you," Strom said with
a smirk and a quick bow. Benjin had rigged a harness to lift the
kills up to the cavern while Chase and Catrin had been out hunting.
After they raised the deer and the boar, Benjin gave her his
shoulder to lean on as she carefully put her injured leg into one
side of the harness he had crafted. She leaned heavily on him as
she gingerly lifted her other leg into the apparatus. "We'll take
it real slow. Just let us know if you need help or if you feel you
are in trouble," Benjin said.

As soon as her feet left the boulders, she
started spinning, and she had to catch herself on a nearby branch.
Chase did what he could to steady the rope from his perch in a tree
above her, but his movements shook the tree, showering her with
rainwater. He pushed the rope out away from a large branch, and she
passed well clear of it. When she finally cleared the ledge, they
looked at the boar then at the deer and finally at their small
smoke room.

"We're going to need a bigger smokehouse,"
Osbourne said.

Benjin attended to Catrin's wounds while the
others dressed the carcasses. She winced as he wiped the dried
blood from her face and nose. Her eye was nearly shut, and her nose
was sore, but those were barely noticeable compared with the
throbbing pain in her shin. She pulled back with a sharp intake of
breath when he lightly ran the damp cloth over it. He got his
wax-sealed herbal kit and another flask of clean water and told
Catrin to tilt her head back and open her mouth. She did so
reluctantly, knowing what was coming. He sprinkled a fair amount of
ground humrus root into her mouth and handed her the flask. She
gulped, and water splashed down the sides of her face as she
hurried to wash down the bitter-tasting herb. She took several more
large gulps before she would let Benjin take the flask from
her.

He put a bit more of the powder in his palm
and poured a small amount of water on it. He mixed it into a paste
and told Catrin to lie back and relax. She sprawled on her back but
could not relax; her leg was still throbbing, and she tensed in
anticipation of his touch on her swollen shin. He did it as quickly
and gently as he could, but she cried out in pain, and tears flowed
down her cheeks.

"It'll take a little while for the humrus
root to dull the pain, but it should help you sleep tonight," he
said. Soon, mercifully, the potion began to take effect. Her pain
was mostly dulled, and exhaustion overtook her. The herbs and the
rhythmic sound of the falling rain soon lulled her into a deep
sleep.

* * *

Though he had met with General Dempsy in the
past, Kern felt an ache in his stomach and his knees trembled. This
mission was different from all that had come before it, and the
general's mood had been ranging from seething to bitter. The men
had come to fear him more than ever as he lashed out in anger. His
judgments over disputes became increasingly harsh, often punishing
both the accused and the accuser. Most disputes were now handled
between the individuals for fear of General Dempsy's decisions.

Biting his lip, Kern rapped on the general's
cabin door.

"Come."

"Good afternoon, General Dempsy, sir."

"Overseer Kern. Report."

"We've covered the farmlands, sir. She's not
there. I've sent men into the mountains, but I've received no
reports yet. We'll find her, sir. You can depend on that."

"You'd better. Your men are supposed to be
the best. I suggest you prove it, or your next medal could be
posthumous."

"Yes, sir."

Chapter 8

The righteous are bound by duty to enlighten
the heathens and emancipate the souls of those beyond reform.