Hunted

by Paul Eslinger

  I held the familiar items up and stared at them. “Maybe not, but they helped me concentrate on what I needed to do.”

  Zephyr hadn’t said anything so I pointed at the fire while looking at her. My spine straightened, my shoulders moved back and my chest expanded with pride as I asked, “How many human magicians can start a fire like that?”

  “Right now?” she asked. “Two, maybe three, and the others are much older and more experienced than you.”

  “Why did you say right now?” I asked, ignoring the challenging edge on my voice.

  “The ancient human magicians were so accomplished that starting a fire was considered child’s play, one of the first skills they learned.”

  My satisfaction drained away as I stared down at the small fire. Concentrating a little heat was nothing compared to shifting between a human form and a wolf form. We had been lucky to survive the Effigia’s visit last night. Even if it had lost most of its power, it probably still knew vastly more about magic than I did. I needed to learn more about magic, and do it quickly, but who would teach me?

  Chapter 15 – Work Crew

  After we finished eating, Trey held up the pan we had used to cook camas roots and asked, “Can you clean out this pan? I’m too tired to do it myself.”

  “What?” I asked with a frown. “I wiped it out good last night.”

  “No, no,” he said, making a cutting gesture with his free hand. “Can you use magic to clean the pan? Can you also keep it from rusting?”

  I spun around and looked at Zephyr. “Is it possible? I mean, can I clean the pan that way?”

  “You’re acting like a pup again,” Zephyr replied. “Cleaning a pan is far simpler than healing a bad cut. Think about it.”

  “Oh.” I felt like a small child, but then, maybe I was acting like one. I thought back a couple of weeks to when I asked Father the same kind of question after learning he could use magic.

  “Magicians can improve on almost anything a person normally does,” he had said. “Some grow wonderful gardens, others make fabulous tools or wondrous swords or bows. Some sing so beautifully even the birds stop and listen. Others can heal people, start fires… you name it, they can use magic to do it better than other people. If it can be done in the regular world, a little magic will do it better.”

  I clamped my lips together and deliberately looked up at the orange-red moon in the sky, not wanting to make eye contact with anyone. I checked quickly and the wolves were still resting rather than moving closer. Badra crossed the sky four times a day, compared to twice for Lunetta and once for Celina. Unlike the smallest moon, Celina and Lunetta gave white light. I needed to remember what I had learned about magic, not hear it and forget it by the next day.

  If you could do anything using magic, then I needed to use it to improve my memory. I pulled in a little more power and starting thinking through all the things Father and Zephyr had told me about magic. The list was a lot longer than I had expected. I went back through the list, trying to remember and organize them as if I had written them out using a charcoal stick like Mother had made Ara and me do. Badra moved out of sight behind the next tree before I finished and looked around.

  Trey started to say something when I moved, but I held up my hand to stop him. I turned to where Zephyr was lying. “While we were in Glendale, a man shot an arrow at the dragon. The arrow splintered into kindling when it got close instead of hurting the dragon. Can you help me learn to do the same thing?”

  “That’s not one of my magical gifts,” Zephyr replied.

  I shrugged and continued, hoping she would pass along at least a clue. “Okay, but can you give me any pointers? I don’t know if it’s one of my gifts either. How do I figure it out?”

  “I don’t know,” Zephyr replied grumpily. Her emotions were a strange mix of wanting to help, fear, and revulsion at dealing with a human.

  The list of magical items I had just mentally reviewed marched through my mind in order and there was one thing I had quickly forgotten. Zephyr was much more helpful when we were behind strong magical protection.

  Moments later, my guardian squirrel and puma duo were standing watch. I pulled power through all four opals, erecting magical wards against sight, sound, and magical detections that were the strongest I had yet managed. The new opal was more powerful than the other three, even stronger than the combination of the two Trey and I carried. Our little side trip today to dig had been very useful.

  Trey glanced several directions with a strange look on his face before I faced Zephyr again. “Do you have any clues at all how the dragon protected itself?”

  Zephyr raised her head, looked around, and then focused on me. “You just set up more protections.”

  The right thing to say popped into my mind even though I wasn’t used to being devious. “I didn’t want anyone overhearing what we talk about.”

  “Strong protections,” Zephyr continued with a hint of congratulation in her mental voice. “Protections this strong might have hidden us from the Effigia. They hunt less often than the Vassago.”

  More information went on my mental list of magical topics before I persisted with my original question. “How did the dragon protect itself?”

  “When I was young, another wolf tried to show me how to use that magical skill. I wasn’t a very good pupil and I never figured out how to do it. You do remember how we met, don’t you?”

  I remembered the deep wound down her leg where a puma had clawed her. “Yes, I remember. This may sound silly, but can you explain what the other wolf tried to tell you?”

  Zephyr gave a big sigh and shifted her hind feet. “Water moves around your body when you stand in a pond, but you can walk on water when it freezes. You don’t freeze the air to protect yourself, but there is something you can do that makes the air stiff for a few moments, like frozen water. The highly gifted can make the air harder than stone or any metal. You still need to breathe, so you only do the hardening on a thin layer of air.”

  “That’s it?” I asked.

  “Those were the words he used. I didn’t understand his coaching prompts.”

  “Thanks,” I said and sat cross-legged beside my pack. I leaned back, closed my eyes and concentrated. Anyone living in the mountains was familiar with ice. After making fire, I had a glimmer of an idea of how to make ice. However, how did one make air stiffer than the best steel in a knife?

  “Well?” Trey prompted a short time later. “Have you figured it out yet?”

  Rough laughter spilled from my lips. “No. I haven’t even gotten started.”

  “I didn’t think so,” he replied cheerfully. “But I think you can figure it out. You’ve done everything you’ve tried so far.”

  “No, I haven’t.” I paused and tried to think clearly. My successes were fewer than my failures.

  Trey grimaced and waved his hands to get me to stop. “We don’t need to argue. I think you can do it, and I’m ready to help.”

  I was confused by the offer. “Help? How can you help? You haven’t even managed to touch the strong magic.”

  “Magic isn’t needed,” Trey said and held up a long dried bean pod from a locust tree.

  “What are the beans for?”

  He sat and pulled the clean pan close. “I’ll give you a head start while I shell out all of the beans. Then, I’ll toss one of the beans at you. I’ll slowly count to thirty and throw the next bean. I think you’ll solve the problem before I run out of beans.”

  The entire idea sounded stupid and I was getting ready to tell Trey that when he cracked the pod open and dropped the first bean in the pan. He was actually going to throw the beans at me. I closed my eyes again and concentrated, or so I thought until I realized I was counting the beans as Trey tossed them in the pan.

  I was actually concentrating on the real problem when Trey’s voice knocked my thoughts off the trail.
“I’m about ready to throw the first bean. You need to remember what you told me about healing people.”

  “What’s that?” I harrumphed.

  He chuckled. “I knew you’d say that. You don’t need to know how to make the air hard. You just picture what you want in your mind and let the magic figure out how to do it.”

  It was frustrating that he was right. I checked my mental list on magical topics. I could remember everything on the list in sharp detail, but the comment Trey had just made wasn’t there. I added the concept and then ran through the list in my mind, hoping I would find a clue. I was still thinking when something small bounced off my forehead. I opened my eyes and glared at Trey.

  “Told you I’d do it,” he said and reached into the pan sitting in his lap. “You’d better get busy.”

  I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to visualize a thin layer of air between me and him that was as stiff and hard as a board. Whoops, a board might be stiff, but I couldn’t see through it. Nothing unusual had happened in the air around the dragon. At least, nothing—the next bean hit my forehead and broke my concentration. A new bean proved I was wrong every time I thought I had the process figured out.

  Finally, Trey said, “One more bean.”

  Obscenities bubbled under the surface, but I didn’t speak them aloud. I was ready to give up. The magic could do what it wanted, but it wasn’t doing what I wanted. The next bean made a chink when it hit the others in my lap, but I didn’t feel it hit my face. I opened my eyes and stabbed one forefinger towards Trey. “Did you miss on purpose?”

  His smile was as bright as the morning sun as he held up both hands, palms facing towards each other, about a foot apart. “Nope. I threw it just like the others. It dropped into your lap before it got this close to your face.”

  I picked up one of the beans and tossed it to Trey. “Try that again.”

  He snatched it out of the air and immediately tossed it back. I tried to duplicate the previous magic but the bean hit me in the forehead before I was ready. “No fair,” I protested. “I wasn’t ready yet.”

  “Arrows don’t wait for you to get ready,” he replied without a hint of sympathy. “However, give me another bean and I’ll wait through a five-count before I throw it.”

  To my immense satisfaction, this time the bean dropped into my lap without touching my skin. “It worked,” I chortled. “I’m not ready for arrows yet, but I think this approach might work.”

  Zephyr’s gruff voice broke into the short celebration Trey and I were sharing. “No one threw beans at me.”

  Trey laughed and scrambled forward on his hands and knees. He picked up several beans and flicked one of them in Zephyr’s direction. The bean bounced off her nose.

  I gasped. I had traveled with and talked to the wolf, but the idea of playing jokes on her had never crossed my mind.

  “Count to thirty,” Zephyr said and closed her eyes.

  Trey and I looked at each other and shrugged at the same time. I had only counted to twenty-seven when he flicked another bean at Zephyr. It bounced off one of her ears.

  We alternated tossing beans at Zephyr. To my great astonishment, the tenth bean dropped to the ground before it reached her. Astonishment changed to disgust when I remembered her denial that she could shield herself. “Were you lying to us?” I demanded.

  The wolf shook her head so hard her ears flapped. “No, I didn’t lie. It’s easier to learn while we are inside your magical protection. Much easier than when I was a pup.”

  I resisted the urge to disagree and added her comment to my mental list. I was just starting to learn about the uses of magic and maybe there was something to what Zephyr had just said. I had started creating the list while inside the area of protection and I could remember everything on it, and even the order in which I added items. I should try to add learning to the desired list of capabilities.

  Twilight was deepening towards dark. Trey and I fixed sleeping areas in the cave before it got too dark to see. Then, we spent a while trying to teach Trey how to reach strong magic. Nothing worked and he finally wrapped up in a sleeping fur looking dejected.

  My magical guards were still attentive, but I hadn’t checked the region for potential problems since we finished eating. I lay back on a sleeping fur, tucked my hands behind my head and started looking. Except for a lone puma, a real one, in the next canyon, most of the wildlife had bedded down.

  Next, I looked north. Glendale was just beyond my reach, but I could still see the farm where Ara was staying. Her emotions seemed normal for a girl, so I looked toward the south. To my surprise, there were a large number of people where previously there had been fifteen. “There’s a large group of travelers at the next little village,” I said.

  “How many?” Zephyr asked.

  “Give me a moment to count,” I said. I brushed against each mind just hard enough to count them. There were as many emotions as there were people. Greed, anger, indifference, weariness, contempt and dread showed up more than once. The count had reach fifty when I touched a mind permeated in sadism. It was the Hunter! The one who I thought had gone back to Falkirk.

  I jerked back and lost contact with the rest of the minds. My sense of confidence that had been growing all evening faded as I hissed, “There are more than fifty and the Hunter who killed Trey’s parents is with them.”

  “Not good,” Zephyr said.

  Trey clenched his fists so tight I heard his knuckles pop.

  “Why should the Hunter be coming back now?” I asked, trying to make sense of what was happening. “I assumed he would go back to Falkirk.”

  “And do what?” Trey demanded hoarsely. “Tell the people who sent him that he failed? I’m beginning to think they will do anything, including killing a Hunter who fails.”

  I looked at Zephyr. “Would they do that? I mean, would the magicians who send out Hunters kill one of them?”

  Zephyr flicked her ears. “That has happened several times.”

  “Then, why did he leave?” I asked. “He ran like an Effigia was after him when he heard you howl.”

  Trey slammed one fist into the palm of his other hand. “That’s the reason. He thought wolves were after him, so he ran. The wolves didn’t follow him, so he is returning with another group.”

  My fingers closed around my bow case but I didn’t make any move to unlimber the weapon. Instead, I looked at Zephyr in the dim light. “You once told me wolves watched what the Hunters did, but they didn’t interfere. Yet, your own actions prove that isn’t the case—they occasionally interfere. Would it be more correct to say the wolves, and maybe even the dragons, sometimes interfere from the shadows, and even then, the human magicians occasionally figure out what happened?”

  “You have finally learned to think,” Zephyr commented. “There have been a few instances as you suggest.”

  I tried to think through the implications, but two things were so obvious I shared them aloud. “The Hunter knows he is on the right trail because you interfered, even if the interference was simply a howl to cause him to run. That means he will go back and use the same tactics.”

  “Oh,” Trey moaned. “That means he will find, and kill, Ara and her Aunt and Uncle.”

  Understanding and a sense of purpose swept over me. “I have to go back. I won’t let him kill Ara.”

  “You can’t,” Zephyr protested. “You can’t fight a trained killer who has been doing this kind of thing for more than twenty years.”

  My jaws clamped so tightly I could barely talk, but I wanted to say this aloud. “I’m going anyway.”

  “I’m with you,” Trey said. I could tell he was frightened, but his determination was stronger than the fear.

  I watched Zephyr’s emotions through the ensuing long pause. There was a part of her mind that wanted to maul the Hunter, but embarrassment and humiliation slowly gained ascendance. She turn
ed her head away. “I must go south.”

  “You could go north with us,” I added privately.

  “Not and live,” she replied.

  Chapter 16 – Threading the Needle

  Trey nudged me and motioned over his shoulder with his thumb. His determination didn’t seem as strong as a few moments earlier. “Will the wolves attack us if we go back north?”

  A shiver ran down my spine. “I don’t know.” I glanced at Zephyr, but she didn’t say anything. Finally, I sighed and shook my head. “I barely survived a visit by an Effigia. There’s no way I could fight four wolves, all of whom may be hundreds of years old and know a lot of magical tricks. We’ll have to hide.”

  “We could stay here and hide while Zephyr continues south,” Trey suggested.

  “That’s one possibility,” I said, “but that means we will fall behind the group staying over at the small village.”

  “Oh, right.” Trey tugged on one ear as he thought. “If those thugs in Glendale report to this Hunter, then he won’t need much time to find the rest of your family.”

  “We need to get there first,” I said and glanced around the small camp. I would keep the magical defenses up until we left and also work on ways to strengthen them tomorrow while we traveled. “Celina comes up two hours before daybreak tomorrow. We’ll leave when she rises.”

  Birds always begin making noise when it gets light, but none of them were awake when the pale light cast by Celina splashed on the ground outside the small cave. I had awakened every hour and checked for travelers, but the dim emotional glows indicated they were all asleep. Even the wolves were sleeping.

  Trey shifted when I sat up and he was sitting by the time I rose to my feet. A short time later, Trey joined me outside and I hoisted the combined packs on a magical tether. No one would see the packs floating behind us, at least not until the sun rose. I slung my bow over my shoulder and looked at Zephyr who was sitting beside the mouth of the cave. “Thank you for helping. Will we meet again?”