The Hunter's Gambit

by Nicholas McIntire

  It was how Aleksei’s mother died.

  And then there were Hunters, so few and far between that to have more than one in a generation was unheard of. They tracked their prey through pulse and feel, and once their target was in sight, they never missed.

  At the same time, they were infused with a deep sense of balance. A Hunter could look at a doe and know instinctively that her fawn would not survive if he shot her down. In such cases the Hunter would move on to prey that was less important to the balance of the Wood.

  Hunters were so highly prized that it offended Roux to think that his cousin might be one of the chosen few.

  Aleksei’s blood was only half Ri-Vhan, his father having come from a village on the eastern ranges of the Wood. It was an affront to have the Wood select an outsider and a half-blood as their Hunter.

  And it made him sick to hear how pleased the Wood was at having found Aleksei.

  Aleksei screwed his eyes shut as he passed through the strange world of light and shadows, then back into the Wood with a sickening lurch. Was it his imagination, or had that jump not been quite so painful?

  The forest floor was quiet and the men fanned silently outward, bows at the ready. Aleksei took a look around and breathed in deeply.

  Images tumbled through his mind faster than he could make sense of them. A pond surrounded by brilliant tiger lilies, a drop-off where the soil was too loose, one of thousands of myriad paths through the Wood, this one with a badger hole just off the road and sixteen paces to the east.

  He exhaled and opened his eyes.

  The men were gone, having left him in the center of the clearing. He smiled.

  So much the better.

  What? So much the better? What if he got lost? What if they didn’t come find him? Would he wander around all day with only four arrows and nothing to shoot?

  His next breath cleared his worries away, and he found himself pulling his boots off. They suddenly felt…cumbersome. Aleksei sighed, wishing he understood himself better of late.

  Something moved behind him and he turned slowly.

  It was a doe.

  Her face was white, her eyes serene. He caught her scent and understood. She was past her prime, yet not old. She had no fawns to care for and no bucks clashed in the Wood for a chance to mate with her.

  A gift, Hunter.

  Aleksei jumped. A voice, but this sounded nothing like the dream man’s insistent tone. Instead, it spoke with all the serenity and compassion of a very old woman. A mother. He knew immediately that it was the voice of the Wood.

  But a gift? What, the doe? Even now as she watched him, Aleksei felt a pang of sympathy for her. He understood. She was a sacrifice. And she knew this, yet it did not terrify her.

  Visions again filled his mind. He saw a young fawn vanish into the brush. A piercing cry rang through his mind and he cried out as well. The fawn did not return and Aleksei realized that he was seeing through her eyes. Something had taken her fawn and it was no Hunter’s arrow.

  She did not want to be taken like that.

  She was content to be offered a swift end. A kinder end.

  Tears filled Aleksei’s vision, clouding his sight before spilling down his cheeks. He reached over his shoulder and drew a single arrow.

  The doe stepped forward and raised her head proudly, exposing her breast. Yes, best to aim for the heart. It would be the fastest way.

  Aleksei drew the arrow back, closing his eyes so he didn’t have to watch.

  He released.

  Even before the arrow had left the string, he knew where it would strike. The sounds that immediately followed were less surprise than confirmation. Confirmation he didn’t need. He heard it strike the doe’s breast, felt it slide between the powerful muscles of her chest until it struck her gently beating heart.

  Aleksei opened his eyes, his own heart pounding painfully in his ears as he gazed down at the still form of the doe. Her eyes were already glassy with the embrace of death.

  He knelt down next to her still form, pulling his shirt open and dipping his fingers in her blood. With his left hand he streaked the blood across his bare chest, leaving four lines of livid crimson brilliantly outlined against the light tan of his skin.

  “Thank you for your sacrifice, friend doe.” he whispered, tears trickling down his cheeks and dripping from his chin.

  “Aleksei?” It was Luc’s voice.

  He sounded afraid.

  Aleksei rose to his feet and turned to face the Hunt Master, his face vacant of the emotions that coursed through him. “I have taken down a doe for you. Honor her sacrifice and return her bones to the Wood when you have taken what you need.”

  Luc nodded, speechless, eyes darting from the deep gold of Aleksei’s eyes to the four lines of blood streaked across the Hunter’s chest.

  Aleksei held his gaze for a long moment, then turned and vanished into the Wood.

  Luc waited until he could no longer see Aleksei, then knelt down next to the fallen doe, staring at the single arrow that protruded from her breast. It was perfect. As though she had offered her life to him.

  When the other men of the hunt returned, they found him sitting next to the doe, his eyes rimmed red. “Go find Aleksei.” he said softly. “Our Hunter will tell you where the three other deer lay.”

  Roux sat high in a yew tree, watching the hunting party drag a fourth deer into the clearing. Like the others, a single arrow protruded from its hide. Like the others, the shot was flawless.

  A gift. For my Hunter. The voice of the Wood rustled through his mind.

  Roux shuddered. He had certainly harbored suspicions, but the truth of the matter was beyond disconcerting.

  The Wood was pleased.

  He had spent only three seasons listening to Her voice, but in that time She had never sounded anything but calm, serene, and passive. Now he detected a hint of emotion in those deep, aeon-rich tones.

  For Aleksei. Not for Roux, the Chosen, the Ri-Hnon. No, for an arrogant half-blood who had happened into the Wood on accident. And now he received the favor of the forest while Roux could only absorb praise meant for another.

  He took a deep breath. Jealousy at his cousin’s fortune would not help him now; Aleksei would be gone soon enough. And then Roux would once more be the undisputed leader of his people, the Hunter just a fading memory of an age-old legend.

  On a whim, Roux Darted to the forest floor, surprising the men busily gathering the deer carcasses.

  “Ri-Hnon!” Luc said, falling to his knees.

  Roux raised a hand to forestall the others, “Continue with your work.”

  The men returned to cautiously to lifting the deer and making their jumps to the village.

  “Hunt Master, may I speak with you?” Roux said softly.

  Luc nodded and stepped a few paces away from the rest of the party, pausing under the shade of the yew. “Ri-Hnon?”

  “How is it, Hunt Master, that we’ve been blessed with four deer today when the best any party has ever managed before was two? Surely it had to be more than a desire to show off for my cousin.”

  “I don’t really know how to explain it myself, Ri-Hnon, except by what I saw. When you left us in the village center, I offered Aleksei as many arrows as he would take from my quiver. He asked me how many deer I wanted and took only as many arrows. I just thought he was brash, so the men and I spread out to hunt, leaving him on his own.

  “I started tracking a rabbit, but I found myself regretting my decision to leave him in the clearing so I doubled back to see if he might like some company after all.” Luc took a deep breath and Roux frowned. Obviously the experience had been more revealing than he’d first thought.

  “Ri-Hnon, I returned to find Aleksei a pace from where I’d left him, bent over the body of a doe. As I approached, he dipped his fingers in the doe’s blood and drew them across his chest.”

  “He marked himself?” Roux whispered.

 
; Luc indicated the arrow stem still protruding from one of the deer, “These shots are impossibly clean, Ri-Hnon. As if the deer offered him the best position possible. I can imagine no other way that he could have brought down four deer in only a few hours.”

  Roux thought a moment before speaking again, “And what do you make of it all, Hunt Master?”

  Luc shook his head, “I’ve never seen the like of it, but I know what I saw. Ri-Hnon, there is no doubt in my mind that your cousin is the first Hunter our people have seen in decades, if in not well over a century. Certainly in my lifetime.”

  “Unfortunate, then, that they’ll never know.”

  Luc looked up sharply, “What? You can’t mean to keep it from them! Ri-Hnon, the people deserve to know. Hunters give the Ri-Vhan hope. To deny them that….”

  “What hope is there,” Roux demanded, “in a half-blood Hunter, who will be gone by midday tomorrow? A Hunter who might never return? Is that the savior our people want?”

  Luc squared his shoulders, “Better to treat them honestly than leave them praying for a future they’ll never see. You know as well as I that there’s never been more than one Hunter at a time. Not for centuries. Why leave your people praying for a Hunter to appear when he already walks the world, even if he may not live among us?”

  Roux frowned, “What do you have to gain, Luc, from the Ri-Vhan knowing what Aleksei is? You would lose stature. The people would have a new hero, one you could never hope to equal.”

  Luc’s eyes flared, “Begging your pardon, Ri-Hnon, but people respect me because I put food on their tables, not because I pretend to be something I am not. Aleksei’s birthright as our Hunter does nothing to lessen me. Just as it does nothing to lessen you. No Ri-Vhan resents you for not being a Hunter, so what are you afraid of?”

  Roux suddenly realized that the tables had been turned. Somewhere during the conversation he had lost control of the situation. Damn Aleksei Drago for making him falter before his Hunt Master.

  He took a deep breath, “Where is he now?”

  Luc frowned, “I’m not sure as I know. Jaq found him and learned where the other kills were, but then he came back to get us. I admit we forgot about Aleksei, what with bringing in the meat.”

  Roux nodded, “Thank you. You may return to the village.” Luc turned to go but Roux reached out and caught his arm, “Luc, tell the people what you want. No doubt your men are already spreading the story. Give them their hope, and we shall see whether it’s misplaced.”

  Luc managed a stiff nod, then vanished.

  Roux glanced around the clearing before closing his eyes. Where is he?

  There was a faint breeze through the canopy and a frond of yew leaves fell, brushing against a dead limb covered in green and yellow lichen. Eastern edge, near the tiger lily pool.

  Roux took a step forward and the Wood melted around him, shifting into the writhing shades that inhabited the world between. And then he stood just outside a circle of larch trees, his eyes searching for his cousin.

  He caught movement on the opposite edge of the pool and stepped out into the sunlight where Aleksei could see him.

  Roux wasn’t entirely sure what sort of abilities might have awakened in his cousin, but he wanted Aleksei to know that he came peacefully, whatever his emotions may be at the moment.

  “Roux.”

  Roux jumped at the sound of Aleksei’s voice behind him, cursing himself for showing weakness. He turned to face his cousin and had to clench his jaw to keep it from dropping in shock.

  The Aleksei he had left in the village center that morning had been a simple farm boy clutching nervously at his borrowed bow, excited for the chance to stretch his legs a bit, even though he might not contribute anything to the cause.

  That boy was gone.

  It was still Aleksei, of that there was no question. His golden eyes still shone with a deep-seated goodness that experience could damage but never erase. Likewise there was still a definite innocence about him.

  But in his face, Roux saw a hardness that had never existed before. He was shirtless, his muscular chest streaked with overlapping lines of thick, dried blood.

  The Hunter’s Mark.

  His breeches were tattered and torn at the cuffs, and he was barefoot.

  He looked wild. Feral.

  “I see you’ve come into your heritage.” Roux said gently.

  Aleksei strode forward and Roux noticed that as he moved he made no sound. “The Wood has shown a small amount to me, yes.”

  Roux nodded, “And you recognize the significance of this?”

  “I know how rare it is,” Aleksei’s brilliant eyes darkened, “especially as a half-blood.”

  Roux winced. Gods, had the Wood told Aleksei of his conversation with Luc too? “Aleksei—”

  “Don’t worry, Roux.” A bitter edge had crept into his cousin’s voice, “I won’t be here much longer to steal your glory. I’m leaving within the hour.”

  Roux started to say something, then thought better of it. Certainly the same man, but harder. Much harder.

  “Won’t you say good-bye to your people before you leave?” he asked finally.

  Aleksei’s face softened, “I wouldn’t deny them the chance to acknowledge me.”

  Roux nodded, stepping forward and tentatively placing his hand on Aleksei’s shoulder, “May I take you back to the village?”

  His cousin nodded.

  The world around them faded for a heartbeat, then straightened back into the familiar form of the village center. Men and women were crowded around them in a circle, children clinging to their mother’s skirts, eyes wide in wonder.

  Roux glanced to his cousin’s face, but Aleksei merely smiled.

  A man stepped forward and bowed deeply, “Greetings, Hunter.”

  Behind him the crowd surged forth, each one bowing low and repeating the words. Aleksei spoke with each man and woman, listening to their fears, their hopes, their dreams.

  Roux marveled at the man’s easy way with people, and their willingness to confide in him things they would never have told Roux. Even the children came forward from behind their parents to just stare or ask a question.

  Aleksei remained in the village center until the Ri-Vhan were satisfied that they indeed had a Hunter, that he was a man they could place their hope in and not be disappointed.

  Roux had to fight to quash his own burning jealousy. Even when he’d been revealed as Ri-Hnon there had not been this sort of reaction. The Ri-Hnon was a fact of life. A Hunter was a figure stepping out of myth and into the daylight.

  As the last group of Ri-Vhan drifted away, Aleksei glanced at him and Roux realized that sympathy shone in his cousin’s eyes. Aleksei understood what Roux was going through and he empathized.

  “I’m sorry. I know this has to be trying.”

  “How magnanimous of you.” Roux whispered.

  Aleksei smiled, either ignoring Roux’s sarcasm or not having heard it, and walked away.

  CHAPTER 10

  A Shattered Seal

  ALEKSEI WANDERED AWAY from the Ri-Vhan, from the lives of a people he at once claimed as his, yet hardly knew. They were a part of him, certainly, but he could never be one of them. The gulf had grown too wide and now he recognized the feeling for what it was. He was a guest amongst them. No matter how they might beg him to remain, he could never be their hero. That position belonged to someone else.

  If only he would take it.

  Aleksei let his mind drift away. He had come back for a very specific purpose, but only now did he truly understand it. He had come to say good-bye. Not to people or places, but to memories. Good-bye to a life he had yearned for, without ever asking why.

  He stood at the edge of the great platform that suspended the village, staring out over the vast expanses of canopy that stretched before him, a hundred leagues of Wood in every direction. It was a marvelous place, and one he hated to leave. He would miss its beauty. And it
s serenity.

  But the Ri-Vhan were not his people.

  “Remembering?” Roux asked from behind him.

  Aleksei nodded, not bothering to turn.

  “Don’t go.” Roux said softly.

  Aleksei smiled, “I don’t belong here. Your people want a hero. But they don’t understand that they already have one.”

  Roux felt his jaw tighten. He wanted to hate Aleksei, to hate him for possessing the gift Roux coveted above all else. For the fact that the Ri-Vhan, his people, adored this man more than they’d ever cared for him. And for no other reason than the title they could ascribe him.

  Instead he stepped forward and embraced his cousin, letting his hurt flood away. Aleksei hugged him tightly and as Roux stepped back he saw that Aleksei’s face was once again as it had been the night before; save for the brilliant gold of his eyes, now the uncanny mirror to Roux’s own.

  Aleksei offered a shy smile, “I don’t suppose you have a shirt I could borrow?”

  Roux laughed at that, leading Aleksei back towards his house. Gods, but it felt like years, rather than hours, since there’d been anything to laugh about.

  Aleksei was quick about retrieving his pack and bidding his uncle good-bye.

  “You’re leaving already?” Theo wailed. “Dash it all, and here I’d been dreaming of conversation that didn’t center around hunting and the huckleberry harvest.”

  Aleksei smiled, “Another time, Uncle.”

  Theo nodded. It was a pleasant fiction nonetheless.

  When he was finally ready, Roux took Aleksei to the forest floor. There, by the Hunter’s Horn where Aleksei had left him, stood Dash. The draft horse had been brushed and the tack well oiled.

  “Gael was true to his word.” Aleksei said with a grin.

  Roux smiled at his cousin, “Don’t forget about us, Aleksei. If you ever find yourself in need, know that we will come to your aid.”