Hunter's Bounty (Veller) (23 page)

It was only the first half of the book that had been burned, after a certain number of pages, the second half, although
having nothing of any real importance written in it, had not sustained as much damage. That was about twenty-three pages into a book that contained nearly fifty. She opened the book to the twenty-third page and held it out in her hand as the man who had tried to destroy it must have done. What was on that page that Brian Tally wanted to watch burn? What was on that page that he had second thoughts about destroying? She turned the book around, looking at it from a different angle.

“Hold up Grim.” She called out to the Mountain Pony that stopped in the middle of the road. The light was beginning to fade as the sun was starting to set, but she was still able to make out the row of boxes and the funny lines at the bottom of the page.

“It’s a code.” She said as she turned the book around a few times. It was difficult to tell which side of the code was up. “It’s an old code. Master Adams taught us these back at the academy, one of the few things I stayed awake for.”

-So, what does it say?-

“I don’t know.”

-Oh, well
that's a big help.-

“I mean I don’t know right now. I think I can break it if I can remember the keys. Come on, we’ll set up here for the night.”

They moved off the road a ways, into the denser part of the wooded area until they found a small gully with high embankments. It was not well suited as a camp site since the ground was still pretty damp and would only get worse before the morning, but at least it would hide the light of the small fire that she needed to read the book by.  They foraged for food which amounted to a handful of berries and a few green leaves that the local rabbit population swore by, and the only blanket that she had to keep herself warm was the table cloth that Alisa had wrapped her supplies in.

Starting the fire was pretty simple, even without the
aid of a tinderbox. She had learned the technique from a crow, a very intelligent crow by the name of Kaza. What annoyed her most was that Kaza would probably know the keys to the code that she was trying to decipher.

A few tries and a few failures and a few words that she created that she couldn’t even pronounce, but she knew she was on the right track when she spelled out the name of David Draw.

“Grim you were right?” She exclaimed as she held the book up.

-Of course I was.-

The Mountain pony replied as he looked over at her still half asleep.

-What was I right about?-

“David Draw and Brian Tally were both in on it, and I’m guessing this name was Author Linny, but I don’t know who Garret B- is, the rest of his family name was destroyed as were the two names after his, all I know is one starts with an A and the other one with an E. But this name I do recognize, Rothershire.”

-Never
heard of him… good night.-

“There was an old man that lived just outside of Riverport by the name of Rothershire, William Rothershire. If nothing else, maybe he’s a relative.”

-Riverport… Home?-

Vesper asked from his sleeping place beside the fire.

“No. Not quite.” Kile replied as she closed the book and lay back on the table cloth. It wasn’t exactly home. It was just the place she grew up.

When the dawn came, the ground proved even damper than Kile had first anticipated, it even extinguished the fire. For breakfast they finished off the last of the berries and the green leaves, for which she would have to thank the rabbits for. They tasted a lot better than they smelled which really wasn’t saying much. She shook out her tablecloth and rolled what little supplies she still had inside before tying them to Grim.

-Oh come on, it’s still early.-

Grim complained as she checked the straps.

“I know
. I want to get an early start.”

She
said as she pulled herself up onto the back of the Mountain Pony. Once they got to the main road they headed north, she might not have known exactly where she was, but she knew that Riverport was far enough north that she was bound to stumble upon something she remembered from her maps if she headed in that direction.

They kept to the road for most of the morning, but as the day progressed, there appeared to be more and more traffic. With the increase in the number of merchants using the road, they were probably in the eastern trade routs by now, which meant the chance of them being recognized increased
. There just weren’t too many young red headed girls riding mountain ponies these days. Daytime travel was too dangerous so she steered Grim toward the open fields where they found a safe place to wait until nightfall. As she sat against one of the trees, she studied the old book, but found no more useful information. The odd code was just that, an oddity, and was not repeated on any of the other pages.

She managed to speak with a few of the local birds and got a pretty good sense of where she was from their descriptions and their visions of the surrounding area.
The nearest city was that of Noroton, a place that she was familiar with. At the age of fourteen, it was the first city she had seen outside of Riverport, not that Riverport could ever be called a city. She had arrived in the back of a merchant’s wagon. From there she purchased a carriage ticket to take her the rest of the way to Littenbeck where she took the entry examination for the Hunter’s Academy. That was nearly four years ago. In that short space of time she had not only taken and passed the examination, but she had also been admitted to and graduated from the Academy, became a Hunter, had her status as a hunter revoked and was now the most wanted criminal in all of Aru. Strange how things turned out.

-Fire.-

Vesper shouted in her head, bringing her back to reality. She didn’t have to actually see what the yarrow was seeing; the image that he attached to the word was enough to recognize it as a campfire.

“Hold up Grim.”

The Mountain Pony stopped in the middle of the field and it took them a few moments to see the light that the yarrow pointed out. It was still a good distance away, hidden among the trees. It was a single, open fire, not something the merchants would have set up. Their campsites tend to be larger as they circle their wagons and usually have three or four of them going at one time. A single fire usually meant a small group of travelers crossing through the wild, and if people were crossing through the wild, they usually hired a Hunter.

-We should avoid it.-

Grim replied as he started to move away from the fire.

“Hold a minute.”
She said as strained to see the campfire better. “I think this deserves a closer look.”

-Fine… whatever.-

She slid off the back of the Pony, falling lightly to the grass. Vesper jumped from his place between the horse’s ears to her shoulder.

“Stay here Grim.”

-Like I was even going to get any closer.-

She
ignored him as she slowly approached the camp, keeping as low and as quite as the surrounding grass allowed. She found it easy moving through the night. Oddly enough it wasn’t as dark as it used to be. Morgan had told her that she was channeling the night vision of Vesper when she tried to explain it to the mystic, but now she wasn’t so sure. Even when Vesper wasn’t with her she found she could see very well in even the darkest of nights.

Stopping well away from the campsite she crouched down in
the tall grass and sniffed at the air. The smells were familiar, as she had feared. It was difficult to actually describe a smell, but everyone’s scent was different, and she knew these smells. It was almost as if she knew who would be at the campsite before she even saw it.

The smell of lavender and leather meant that Erin Silvia was closer th
an she had thought. It wasn’t as if she had been trying to cover her tracks. She had anticipated at least a two day head start over the Hunter, but that no longer seemed to be the case. Of course she had spent most of that time wandering aimless looking for a direction to travel in, now that she had it, it took her back over her previous trail. The scent of mushrooms and earth better explained why they were able to follow her so quickly, that was Master Folkstaff’s scent. He was her survival instructor at the academy. If anyone could track anyone through anything, it was surely him.

There was also the smell of herbs and peppermint, the scent that she associated with Daniel Leary, but it couldn’t be him. Daniel was a healer at the
hospital. He didn’t have much field experience. If he was out here, he was a long way out of his element.

The scent that unnerved
her most was the strong odor of tobacco and ginger, which was the unknown hunter that had tried to kill her at the Tally house. Why was he traveling with Erin and the others? It could only mean one thing, that the encounter at the Tally house was a trap. They must have been in on it together. Did that mean that Daniel betrayed her? There was really no other explanation. It was a trap and she walked right into it, and Daniel was the one that baited it for them.

She
moved around the outer perimeter of the campsite as she approached the Hunters’ horses.

-Kile?-

A beautiful dapple grey mare turned her head toward the girl when she got closer.

“Hello Miliea.”
She whispered as she stroked the horse’s nose. “Is Daniel treating you well?”

-Yes, Daniel master.-

Miliea replied and with those words came the feelings of a very happy content horse.

It was great to see that the dapple grey was doing so well
. She was one yes away from becoming Kile’s, but sheer stubbornness prevented that. Kile couldn’t abandon Grim back then, even if the Mountain Pony wasn’t being very receptive.

“Hello Elemia, do you remember me?” Kile asked
the horse next to Miliea. She had only seen Elemia once and didn’t have the opportunity to speak with her, but the horse was only too happy to see the girl.

-Remember Kile.-

Elemia replied, and it was strange to see their first meeting through the eyes of the horse as she remembered it.

“And who do we have here?” Kile asked as she moved down the line.

-Pathfinder.-

The horse replied.

It wasn’t too difficult to figure out whose horse this was. Most hunters had a habit of overstating the obvious. Only one of the best trackers in the guild would have named their horse pathfinder.

“So, you belong to Master Folkstaff. What is your real name?”

-Belegar.-

Pathfinder replied.

“Belegar, I think that name suits you better.” Kile smiled.

Pathfinder
or Belegar shook out his mane and seemed genuinely pleased to hear his name spoken by a vir.

“And what about you, what do they call you?” Kile asked as she approached the black and grey stallion that was watching her closely.

-Storm Cloud.-

The horse replied reluctantly.

There it was again, a complete lack of originality on behalf of a hunter.

“What’s your real name?”
She asked as she stroked the stallion’s nose.

-
Kenara-

The horse replied.

“It’s nice to meet you Kenara. Could you tell me who your rider is?”

-Name is Grey…
Samuel Grey.-

As Kenara spoke the name, it carried with it visions of
a man doing things that Kile wished she had not seen. A very cruel, manipulative man that had only one agenda and that was to get ahead by any means necessary. At least now she knew who the greatest threat in the group was.

“So, where are you guys heading?” She asked.

-We follow Belegar.-

Elemia
replied.

“And where is Belegar going?”

-I go where master tells me to go.-

It
was always difficult to get a straight answer from a horse. They are usually completely devoted to their masters, even ones that they don’t like, and they care very little about the day to day problems. As long as they have food, water and a warm place to sleep, they were generally happy, but then that really went for most of the natural world, it was only vir that insist on placing obstacles in their paths.

“How long have you guys been on the road?”

-Two sleeps under sky.-

Kenara replied.

That was easy, two sleeps meant two days. They must have left the city of Littenbeck two days ago, which meant they were covering more ground than she was. In another day or two, at the rate she was going, they would have overtaken her.

“You couldn’t like, slow down or maybe go off course
?”

-Why do that?-

Belegar asked.

“Never mind.” Kile said, shaking her head.
It was no use trying to persuade them to go against their rider's wishes, it just wasn’t in the nature of horses, at least it wasn’t in the nature of normal horses. Grim was another case altogether.