Hunter's Bounty (Veller) (25 page)

“By Kile?”

“That's what I think.”

“You can’t be sure.” He said, turning the book over in his hand. “It could have been left out here for quite some time.
It doesn’t look to be in the best of conditions.”

“Yes, it’s possible, but my horse wouldn’t stop pointing to it.”

“Your horse pointed to the book?”

“Well… in a way he did. If Kile put it there, which I believe she did, I don’t know why, and I’m not sure where she even got the book, but I think she wanted me to read it. A few of the passages have been marked.”

“Why would someone trying to escape give us help finding her?”

“Her pattern is definitely not one of an escaping
bounty. She’s looking for something, or someone.”

“That’s still speculation.” Folkstaff replied as he approached his own horse. “We don’t really know if she left the book here in the first place, or if she was even here. Maybe we’re giving her too much credit.”

“You could be right.” Erin said as she closed the book and returned it to the pouch on her belt.

“Or I could be wrong.” Folkstaff said as he held up a small piece of paper that had been
placed between Pathfinders ears. He read the note that had been written and shook his head in confusion.

“What
does it say? Is it a note from Kile?”

“If it is, it doesn’t make any sense.”
He replied as he handed the paper to Erin.

She
read it and found it equally confusing.

“All it says is ‘his real name is Belegar’”

When Pathfinder heard his name spoken out loud, he stomped his hoof and shook out his mane. Folkstaff looked at his horse, then back at Erin, she just handed him back the paper.

“I guess
you're going to have to start calling him Belegar from now on.” She told him.

***~~~***

15

Kile was jolted awake as Grim came to a stop on the hill overlooking the small town of Riverport. The sun was up. In fact it was already a couple hours past noon. They had been traveling for the better part of two days, stopping only for a quick meal and maybe a little rest before starting off again. They had kept up the pace in an attempt to put as much distance between them and Erin Silvia as possible. Kile only hoped that her little visit to Erin’s campsite had bought her at least a few more hours if not a few more days, if nothing else it did provide her with some needed supplies.

Guild Master Latherby once told her that the Hunter’s Guild had, at one time, entertained the thought of using Mountain Ponies as mounts for their members due to the
horse's strength and nearly endless energy, and it was true. Even after two days and two nights of walking across the countryside, over hills and through the thicker parts of the forest, Grim wasn’t even winded. If it wasn’t for the fact that Mountain Ponies had a rather bad disposition, and were nearly impossible to train, they would have made great mounts.

She
slid off Grim’s back, landing on her feet and nearly falling on the ground as she dismounted. The horse may be able to go two days without rest, but she was exhausted and she wasn’t even walking. She stretched out her legs, then her back as she walked around in circled to get her circulation started again. Her butt had fallen asleep some time during the night and it had yet to wake up.

Vesper jumped from his place between Grim’s ears, landing on her shoulder.

-So, this is where you came from?-

Grim asked as he looked down over the field that was now thick with spring flowers.

-Place nice.-

Vesper added.

“Let’s not get too sentimental.” She replied as she stepped up alongside her horse, but it was easier said than done. Across the field, through the narrow band of trees, over the river and on the other side of town was the Veller farm. She hadn’t seen it in over four years, and was beginning to wonder if it still looked the same now that her father was no longer alive, but it wasn’t something that she was eager to find out.

“We are here to find William Rothershire. He used to live just outside of town.”

-And you think he knows something about these assassinations?-

“Well… maybe not the assassinations, but he might know something about this so called dark conspiracy since the Rothershire’s name was in the book.”
She said as she reached for her pouch before she remembered that she had left the book with Erin. Whether that was the right thing to do or not, only time will tell. Erin had more connections, she’s been doing this type of work a lot longer than Kile, hopefully she can make more sense of the book, maybe find something that she missed. Of course it could just lead Erin right to where Kile was now, but she had to take that chance.

“Come on, the sooner we find this Rothershire and learn what we can, the faster we can get out of this place.”

-Fine by me. Hop on.-

“No, I think I’ll walk a little ways if it’s all the same.”
She said as she started down the hill toward the small town of Riverport.

They had crossed the field and followed the tree line around the outer edge of town. It would have been faster to cut through the center, but the less she saw of the old place, the better she thought she’d be. As it was, Rothershire’s farm was where it had always been, on the very edge of the town, along the eastern side, but she knew, before it even came into view, that she wasn’t going to find any answers there.

The Rothershire farm had been burned to the ground.

It was now only a few charred sticks protruding from the earth, and the fields had gone wild. How long ago had this happened she wondered?

She pushed open the gate to the fence that surrounded the small farm, and walked the dirt road between the weed covered fields up to the remains of the old man’s home. There was nothing left of it but an empty foundation and a few stone steps leading up to nowhere.

“I think we’re too late.”

-Doesn’t look as if anyone’s been here for quite some time.-

She
sniffed at the air, but there were no odors that she could detect, only the smell of the natural world reclaiming what had been taken from it and the distant smell of jasmine. There wasn’t even a decent section of the fireplace left she thought, as she kicked in the stones of the hearth. There was no chance of finding any lost hiding places here; there would be no secrets that had survived this fire.

“I’m afraid that’s it.” She said as she sat down on the stone steps. “We’re at a dead end. I don’t know where to go from here.”

-We don’t know if he’s dead.-

There was some truth to that, although it was a thin truth. From what
she had seen of Talley’s house, she was sure that Rothershire would have been found in much the same condition as the others. Of course that did mean that she was on the right track. This had to be the Rothershire that had been mentioned in the Talley book, but that didn’t help her much at this moment.

“Garth.” She said as she got to her feet.

-Garth? What is a Garth?-

“Not a what
. A who. Garth is the gravedigger. If anyone died here, he would know.”

-Then you are planning on going into town.-

“I don’t have much of a choice. If Rothershire is dead, Garth would know.”

-You go into town you run the chance of being seen.-

“Why Grim, that sounds almost as if you care.”

-If you get caught, I get shipped back to the northlands, where I’ll end up on someone’s plate. That is not an outcome I’m willing to accept.-

“Fair enough, I just won’t get caught. Anyway, I’ve been away for four years, I doubt if anyone will recognize me.” She said as she climbed up on Grim’s back. She set Vesper down between his ears.

-You forget
. Your face has been posted in every Guild House in Aru.-

Grim reminded her.

“Well… yeah, but Riverport doesn’t have a Guild House, we didn’t even know about Hunter’s until one came through.”

-This does not bode well.-

Grim mumbled his protest as he started back up the dirt path, away from the remains of the Rothershire farm and toward the small town of Riverport.

***

The town looked very much as it always had, which shouldn’t have surprised her, since nothing ever changed in Riverport. It was a small town, nestled in the far northeastern part of Aru with the mountains closing in on three sides. It was as typical a town as one would see anywhere in the kingdom, the only novelty that Riverport possessed was its name. That was the one thing about the town that she could never understand. The closest river was the Shai, which marked the border between the Shai Province and that of Fennel, and that was nearly a hundred leagues south of Riverport. The closest thing to a river in Riverport would have to be the small ice streams that ran down from the mountains, providing the water for the farmlands. Not only were there no ports on the so called rivers, but they weren’t even deep enough to float a boat on.

The cemetery was located on the western part of town, away from the center, which only made sense since
nobody wanted to live beside it, and most of the towns people never even thought about it unless they had need of it.

She
dismounted and led Grim up past the stone walls that marked the outer edge of the cemetery, although a few tombstones were on the wrong side of the wall since the wall had been built long after the cemetery had been started. The lone tombstones bore no markings or dates and nobody knew if anyone was actually buried beneath them, but no one was willing to risk the ire of the dead by moving them to the other side of the wall.

She
had never been to the cemetery, although she had seen it from a distance on those rare occasions when they went into town, and she remembered looking upon it with a mixture of sadness and fear. Sadness for the loss that all the stones marked, and fear because her brother told her that if she squealed on him again, the dead would come and drag her back to the cemetery. Needless to say she had nightmares about it until she was ten. Now that she walked among those stones, the only thing she felt was lonely.

-Are you sure this is wise?-

Grim asked as he followed silently behind her with Vesper sitting on his head.

“I’m telling you, nobody is going to recognize me.”

“Kile… Kile Veller.”

“Except possibly Keith
Wints.” She said, gritting her teeth and turning around with a forced smile.

He stood beside one of the graves, a shovel in his hands and a goofy smile on his face. “By the Gods it is you.” He said as he came forward.

Keith Wints was Leon Veller’s best friends. The two did everything together, including making Kile’s life miserable when she was younger. Even though the young boy had teased her relentlessly, she had a secret crush on him back then, now… not so much. He was still good looking in that farm boy fashion, with his pale blond hair that was almost white and icy blue eyes, but he had that goofy smile that often made him look simple. The connection just wasn’t there anymore. It could be due to the fact that, at the moment, she was a wanted felon and had more things on her mind than finding him attractive, or it could simply be that she was no longer the naive farm girl that didn’t have anything to compare him to.

“It is you? Isn’t it?” He said as he stuck the shovel in the ground.

“How are you doing Keith?” She asked, although she didn’t really care one way or the other.

“I knew it was you. I would recognize that red pony tail anywhere.”

Of course he would, he yanked on it enough times.

“What are you doing here?” She asked.

“I work here.”

“You’re the new gravedigger?”

“Well, not exactly, Garth still holds that title, I guess I’m more like his assistant.”

Assistant to the gravedigger, now there was something to aspire to.

“So… is Garth around, I kind of needed to ask him something?”

“I can show you where they’re resting if you want, i
t's just up the hill a ways.”

“What? Where who are resting?”

“Why… your parents, that was who you came to see… wasn’t it?”

“My parents?”

“Oh no… you didn’t know about your mother… did you?”

“When did it happen?”

“It was only a couple of months ago, she passed quietly in her sleep. Leon and Jenny were with her.” Keith said, appearing a little uncomfortable as he started up the hill.

She
reluctantly followed.

She knew her mother was ill, she had always been ill although some days were better th
an others, but the last letter she had received from Leon told her that their mother was doing better, and that she was getting stronger. Kile always thought that once their father was gone, their mother's health would improve. It wasn’t that he was an abusive man, just a very demanding one, and she was just too frail to handle his demands.