by Ila Mercer
He scrambled from his hiding place and scanned for any sign of the Hunter. There was no sign of him, but this did nothing to ease Ari’s fear. The Hunter could be hiding behind a rock or crouched near a bush. He could be anywhere. Ari stopped and listened but all he could hear were the chirrups of wrens flitting over the gorse.
Carefully, he made his way back down the hill and instead of crossing the meadow this time, he skirted around the edge of it, using the cover of trees and bushes. He was nearly back at the point where he had first laid the false trail when he heard the now recognizable slide of an arrow being drawn. Ari spun on his feet and saw an outline of a man standing under a pine tree. It was still too dark to see any detail, but Ari heard a twang as the Hunter released the arrow.
This time he was not fast enough. Though he dodged, the head of the arrow pierced his flesh with a soft thwack. Pain shot through Ari’s abdomen and radiated all the way to his chest and groin. He lurched and fell, managing to brace his fall slightly with the use of his right arm. He could not stifle the groan that escaped from his lips.
He had to find Katarin before the Hunter did.
Responsibilities
The stones skipped across the surface of the lake, defying the law of their nature. Plip – plip – plip - plip. And then on the fifth bounce they sank, succumbing to the pull of their weight. Yaron picked up another flat stone, wondering how far he could make this one go. He flicked his wrist and released. Again, the stone skimmed the surface of the lake bouncing four times until it sank too.
‘How’d you do that?’ Lita asked, settling onto the log beside him.
Yaron turned, he had not heard her approach he had been so absorbed in not thinking – just doing. Trying to avoid the dilemmas of his future. He had been alone until she came because Sal was off gathering berries, the Jims had returned to the Keep and Captain Wright and the Beasts were resting up for their journey. They would leave later that afternoon.
‘Shouldn’t you be resting too?’ Yaron asked.
Lita picked up a stone and tossed it from hand to hand. ‘I’m not going with them.’
‘You’re not?’
She shook her head.
‘You can’t go back to the Downs,’ he said, a little too sharply.
‘I know,’ she bit back. ‘I’m not a fool you know.’ She flicked some hair away from her eyes and sighed. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean it to sound that way. It’s just that Captain Wright went on and on, saying I should go with him. You know… before the Hunter comes after me. I think he was worried I’d take the map with me – so I said it was his for the keeping. I’ll manage without it. I only have to close my eyes and it’s all laid out before me.’
Yaron nodded. ‘The Captain has a way about him, that’s true.’ Yaron thought about his earlier conversation with the Captain that day and how it had made the bonds of duty tighten around his neck like a noose. It was why he was sitting by the lake, flicking stones across the water. ‘What do you plan to do then?’ he asked.
‘Find my mama.’
‘You mean the tinker?’
Lita recoiled with cynical laughter, and Yaron felt it did not suit her. ‘What gives you the idea she’s my mama?’ Before he could answer, she continued, ‘Still, she’s the only one who might know where my true mama is, so I’ll have to find her first.’
Yaron nodded. He knew what it meant to miss your mama. Even now, his dreams were peppered with visions of his mother and if she had still been alive he would have gone to the ends of the world to find her. As a little boy he thought it was his wickedness that had sent her away because, after she died, nobody spoke to him. Not even his father. At the time he hadn’t understood what it meant to be dead. He thought she would come back after a while and so he hadn’t known he should be sad. He carried on as he always had, chattering to anyone who would listen, laughing when the mood took him, climbing the apple trees and throwing stones from the wall walk. Then the grown ups had scolded him, telling him he should honour the dead. After a while, when he realised she wasn’t coming back, he decided it was because he’d been bothersome. And so, he made himself like his father. Silent and sad, outstripping the grief displayed by his father.
He sorted through the stones at his feet and found one that was thin and flat. ‘Here,’ he said, handing it to Lita. ‘You put your fingers around it like so… you pull your arm back and when you let go, you give your wrist a flick. Like that.’
Lita did as he instructed however the stone sank as soon as it hit the water. ‘Give me a skinnier one,’ she said.
‘I gave you the best I could find,’ he retorted. ‘You need to be faster and angle it, so it flies closer to the surface.’
She tried and failed again. ‘It’s impossible.’
Yaron picked up a round stone and flicked it over the water. Ripples radiated from each point where the stone kissed the water. Five times it skipped across the lake, startling a water fowl on its last bounce.
‘And what about you?’ Lita asked, as she picked up another stone. ‘Will you go back to the Keep?’
Yaron did not answer for a moment. He picked up a handful of pebbles and proceeded to flick them into the water, one at a time. ‘If I go back,’ he said. ‘I will need to reconcile my debts through marriage.’
Lita frowned. ‘I knew the Keep wasn’t wealthy, but I didn’t think things were that bad.’
He shrugged. It was Captain Wright who woke Yaron up to the limitations of his future. Stopping the young heir in his tracks when he shared his intention of joining them on their quest back to Baaran.
‘No,’ the Captain had said, with his usual force. ‘Your duty is to your Keep. What do you think will happen when the Hunter comes after you, finding you and the maiden missing? Your Keep will suffer, you can be sure, so as I see it, you have two choices. You convince him that Lita is no longer under your protection and pay him off for his silence, or you do your time in Lacnor’s dungeons.’
Yaron’s heart had sunk. Of course, the Captain was right, but the Keep could barely afford to pay its creditors let alone buy the silence of the Hunter. With self mocking he’d said, ‘Had I taken up Sia Fallengrove’s offer of marriage to Inelle, my captivity would, at the very least, profit my folk.’
‘What?’ Captain Wright had said, locking eyes with Yaron.
‘Sia Fallengrove wants to form an alliance with the Downs and said as much to my uncle. He’s been pressing me to give my answer.’
‘That is perfect. With Fallengrove’s wealth in your coffers, you’ll be of better service to me.’ It was in that moment Yaron came to understand that Wright did not care so much for individual folk or Beasts. It was ideas that compelled him to act, whereas Yaron felt the opposite. Nothing had spurred him into action until Lita was snatched by the Hunter. Knowing what would happen to her gave him the courage he needed to do what was right.
Yaron pitched another stone across the water. Suddenly he envied Lita her freedom – even if it meant a life on the run. At least she could choose where she went, and with whom she wished to associate. ‘On my return home I will be expected to marry.’
‘Oh,’ Lita replied. ‘Is it someone you care for?’
Yaron shrugged. ‘Nobles rarely have that luxury. No, I will marry to further the prospects of the Keep.’
‘Then it is not Madea?’
Yaron frowned and a puzzled smile played at the corners of his mouth. ‘Why would you think that?’
‘I don’t know. I think it was her wish, that is all.’
‘The Jims told me she’s left the Keep. Besides, my Uncle would never agree to such a match, even if my heart was set on it.’
‘Then you must wait until the right Sia comes along,’ Lita said.
Yaron sighed and smiled inwardly at her romanticism. Maybe other nobles had countless opportunities, but the Downs had a reputation of disgrace. He did not have the luxury of choice. Turning the conversation back to her he said, ‘So you’ll seek out your tinker. Where will you go fir
st?’
‘To shake the truth out of Tipple, the poacher who told the Hunter about me.’
‘I can send the Jims to fetch her and throw her in our dungeons. It’s better than she deserves.’
‘No. Don’t do that. I have a better idea,’ Lita said with a wicked glint in her eye.
‘And then?’
‘If she knows where MaKiki is, I’ll go find her, and when I do, I’ll make her tell me the truth too.’
‘What truth Lita?’
‘Why she lied about finding me by the side of the road when I was a babe. I know it can’t be. Coming to this cottage brought it all back. I know my mama brought me up here because I remember the door with the heart, the tree with the hole in it, and everything else that seems so familiar.’
‘Are you certain? Nobody has lived in this cottage for years – or else I would know. I came here with the Jims a number of times when I was a boy.’ He paused. A long-forgotten memory resurfaced. ‘Except for one time – there was a woman – Mika, I think. And the Jims made me swear I’d never tell anyone about her, but she didn’t have a child, for you can be sure I’d remember that. The next season when we came hunting, she was gone.’ He grinned. ‘See what you made me do? Telling you my sworn secrets?’
Lita kicked the pebbles underfoot with the toe of her boot.
‘Sometimes grown-ups tell falsehoods to protect you. Maybe your tinker did lie but I don’t believe this was your home.’ He could tell this was not what she wanted to hear. ‘Was she ever wicked or mean to you Lita?’
She shook her head.
‘Did she clothe you and feed you well?’
‘As well as she could,’ Lita replied grudgingly.
‘And she knew you were a Beast?’
‘She didn’t like that word. But yes, she knew I could Change. She was there when it first came on me.’
‘And she did not caste you out or turn you over to the authorities.’
‘Of course not,’ Lita said with more than a hint of indigence.
‘Then I think you must give her the benefit of doubt. No matter what lies you think she told.’
‘You’re right, I guess.’
‘Of course I am,’ Yaron replied. ‘I am the voice of reason.’ And, as he said it, he felt the world of impulse and caprice slip from his grasp. He was becoming the sort of man others required him to be.
Hope
Katarin knew something was wrong. Oh, why did she not insist on going with him? He’d been gone too long and –
Her thoughts were interrupted by a snap in the underbrush. She shrank deeper into her nest of ferns, pulling her cloak tightly around her body. Perhaps it was only a possum or a woodfowl sifting through the leaf litter. She had already been startled a couple of times by foraging animals. Once again, the hairs on the back of her neck bristled with dread. She glanced at the sky to the west, noting the faint halo of predawn rising above the hills. He would have changed to the form of a man by now.
Last night he had been unable to say where he was going, or why, but she knew he was leading the Hunter away, using his swift golden legs to carry his scent far from where Katarin rested. She resented the weakness in her body that made this necessary. She could not understand her tiredness, so overwhelming and inescapable the way it dragged her into a state of sleep. It was hardest to resist when she sat astride his back. The rhythm of his rolling gait lulled her within moments, and before long her sleep grew so deep she would loosen her hold and slip. Then, he would have to nudge her into wakefulness and bleary eyed they would set off until sleep overtook her again.
She was no stranger to late nights. Many times, she and her father had stayed up until dawn, pouring furiously over the ledgers, balancing accounts so that their ships could leave by their deadlines. Not once had she needed to take the draught that kept sleep at bay. But now that her life, his life, depended on vigilance, she could not stay awake. Without her, he would be far away by now. Perhaps at the Port of Kipping already. Twice, she had told him to leave her behind, but his mouth had set in a grim line and he asked if this was what she truly wanted. She could not lie, so they had carried on.
To her right, there was another snap and when she turned her head, she could see a dark form moving slowly through the trees. Was it Ari? She dared not call his name. Instead she listened and watched with her whole body and the form became as still as a tree trunk. Had she imagined it to be a man? Her unblinking eyes and the roof of her mouth both grew dry. She barely breathed.
The shadow moved, and she imagined she heard the whuffling of a hound, sniffing through the bracken.
She leapt from her hiding place, a gasp of terror rising from her lips. Where was Ari? Oh, why had she let him go? She dashed through the trees, unmindful of branches lashing her face and hands. The beat of her heart was like a drum in her ears and she could not tell if the trampled crashing was made by her or the Hunter. Then she heard her name being called as a low hissed command. She stopped at once.
Two arms caught her and pulled her close. ‘I’m here, I’m here,’ he said.
‘I thought-’ she sobbed.
‘I know, hush.’ He kissed her into silence. Behind them, came the bark of a hound.
‘This way,’ he said, pulling her along.
They dashed over fragrant pine needles, kicking up the scent with their heels. Then down a hill and into a pricklewood gully, with nasty burrs snatching and snaring the hem of her skirt. She noted that Ari ran oddly, favouring the right side of his body. Fleetingly she wondered why, but the yips of the hound banished the thought from her head.
‘There is a stream over the next hill.’ Ari urged her along.
‘I’m running out of breath,’ she gasped.
‘You can do it,’ he said, pulling her up the hill.
Behind them the sky bloomed in variegated stripes of pink and purple while ahead of them, shadows loomed like clawed creatures. They reached the summit, only to startle a flock of plovers from their nests. The birds shrieked and swooped at the lovers as they sprinted down the hillside. Less distant now, the hound barked.
They half slid, half stumbled down the hill. Ari’s strange gait was now more pronounced, and Katarin knew he’d been hurt but she did not have the time to question him.
At the base of the hill they splashed through the shallows of a stream. Now and then the stream deepened, and they fell into deep pools. Their clothes grew heavy and sodden and Katarin abandoned her cloak. The fabric of her skirt clung so tightly to her skin she struggled to run. ‘Stop,’ she gasped.
Ari did so, and once he realised what she was trying to do, helped her out of her wet overskirt. They buried the blanched white fabric under some rocks in the middle of the stream and hurried on.
After half a mile, they no longer heard the bark of the hound. They slowed and Katarin became aware that her feet were so cold she had lost all feeling in them. She knew they must soon leave the stream if they were to carry on.
‘What happened last night?’ she asked. It was the first they had spoken since he had caught her in the woods.
‘He was expecting me,’ Ari said through slightly clenched teeth.
‘What do you mean?’ She could see the tell-tale signs of pain etched into his features and ran her eyes over his body, but it was still too dark to see where he was wounded. ‘You’re hurt, aren’t you?’
He waved her concern aside and answered her first question instead. ‘I doubled back, meaning to confuse the hound. But the Hunter must have guessed what I was up to. On my way back, he shot at me.’
‘Did he hurt you?’ she cried.
He shook his head. ‘I’ve already bound it. And there is nothing to do but press on.’
‘How bad is it?’ she asked, her hands fluttering over his chest and stomach.
‘We need to keep moving,’ he said, glancing in the direction from which they had come.
She felt a small kernel of dread tighten in her chest. That he would not say meant it was worse than she
had first imagined. Yet he was right, they had no choice but to press on. If they stopped now it would only allow the Hunter to catch up with them and if the Hunter had shot once, he would shoot again.
When the stream split in two, Ari chose the wider branch. Before long the pebbled bed gave way to a chain of pools with deep green water. Ducks paddled warily out of their reach, and a family of water rats peered from their tangled nest as the couple swam past. Beside the stream, tangled briar grew thick on either side.
The Hunter and his hound would need to follow them upstream too if he wished to chase them, Katarin realised and she wondered if he knew how to swim. It was a skill she took for granted. She learned young. Her father had insisted on it before she was allowed to join him on seafaring adventures up the coast. She knew that Ari had learned young too, growing up beside the sea. This made her think about his folk, wondering, not for the first time, whether they would welcome a Dracodian into their clan. Ari had tried to reassure her on this count, but she felt a niggling thread of worry. If the roles had been reversed her father would not have allowed a marriage between them, even if Ari proved himself to be the smartest, richest and most honourable man in all of Dracodia. That her father need never know of his daughter’s secret love was both a sorrow and a blessing. She had adored her father, though she deplored his attitude towards the Beasts.
But would Ari’s folk be any wiser? Would they see beyond her lack of token, the trappings of her skin, her Dracodian heritage? Would it matter that she was not one of them? If she and Ari stayed in Dracodia they would always need to watch their backs for fear that the Hunter was after them or that Ari’s branding would be recognised. Worse yet – that his Change might be spied by traitorous eyes. No, they had to leave Dracodia’s shores far behind, if they ever hoped for a life of peace. But she knew she was getting ahead of herself. Here they were, being hunted like wild animals.
The river widened again and become shallow. To their right, the land flattened into meadow, and to the left it undulated all the way to nearby foothills. They scrambled up the left bank and rested for a moment.