by Spoor, Garry
The rain didn’t let up, but at least the world around them was alive. She hadn’t realized how much she felt abandoned when the Minotaur was running loose, when there was no birds in the trees, or creatures on the ground. She may not have been able to see them, or hear them, but she felt their presence and that was enough for her to feel connected.
The first sign of civilization was a farmhouse that sat on a large field of corn. It took her thoughts to Riverport, all the way back to the Veller farm. What kind of harvest would her brother have this year? Would they manage to make enough to see them through another season? As much as she hated the place, it was also hard not being there, not being able to help.
The single farmhouse turned into more farm houses that eventually lead to shops and stores and found herself in the middle of what she hoped was the town of Tobery. It was a large sprawling town, much like Coopervill, and was difficult to gauge the overall size. These types of farm towns could actually stretch their borders for miles, which usually led to disputes on which farms belonged to which towns. The farmers didn’t care so much as they had a place to sell their crops, and some of them found themselves moving from town to town without ever leaving their homes as the town border lines were constantly being redrawn. Disputes of this nature were usually handled in the Province’s High Court, it only got tricky when it stopped being a farm and became a disagreement over the ownership of an iron mine or water rights, something that provided serious revenue to the township. Now, to take it one step further, and make it even worse, if that second town that was claiming ownership over the mines or the water rights was in a different province all together, there was bound to be violence.
Wars erupted between provinces on a daily basis, the Province lines were also constantly shifting, but it wasn’t as painless. Disputes of this nature could be taken before the Royal High Court of Aru, but seldom were. It was just too much of a hassle and was easier to settle it on the battle field. Conflicts between provinces could linger on for years and nobody seemed to care. The crown received their coin no matter which province held the land, and as long as the area was considered hostile, the Hunters were paid extra to transport goods and civilians from one point to the other.
The politics of Aru were shaky at best, each province pushing against their neighbors, neither one giving any ground, and through it all, the Hunter remained completely neutral.
The town of Tobery of the Denal province was no more than a day's ride from the outpost of Moran in the Callor province, and by tomorrow, it was possible that, Tobery could also be in the Callor province, there was just no way of telling. Kile would hate to see that happen, although as a Hunter she was supposed to remain natural, she disliked the Callor province, or to be more accurate, the ruler of the Callor province, Lord Rimes.
The streets of Tobery weren’t as busy as Coopervill, but then the weather was probably keeping the people inside. Only those that had no choice were stuck in the rain, and they tried to keep that to a bare minimum as they ran through the streets darting from one building to another.
She rode down the center of the street, and wasn’t sure if it was the old feelings of paranoia returning, but she felt every window was watching her. In their defense, she was probably quite a sight, a young redheaded girl riding on the back of a very large, very wet mountain pony. She couldn’t imagine that the people of Tobery saw such things every day.
She was about to ask someone for direction, if she could have found someone or slowed someone down long enough to ask, but the sight of the green banner flapping in the wind outside a small building on the edge of town gave her the information she needed. From the outside, the Hunter’s Guild House, looked very much like the one back in Coopervill, with its banner and symbol by the door. It even had the hand carved sign over the entrance that marked it as “Local Guild House Chapter 73”
She dismounted, grabbed the leather satchel that held the mail and headed for the door. If the exterior held a resemblance to the one in Coopervill, then the interior was identical, right down to the over papered bulletin boards. She knew that the Guild lacked any originality, but this was taking things too far. The room had the same atmosphere, the same smell, the same dim lighting, she half expected to see Kane on the other side of the reception window requesting his mail in that monotone voice he spoke with, but instead she found a much younger, thinner man. He looked up when she entered and gave her a friendly smile.
“Can I help you?” He asked.
“Mail.” She said as she shook herself off beside the door. There was no need in getting the floor wet; it didn’t look as if it had seen a mop in a few decades.
“You wish to send something?”
“No sir, delivering something.”
She set the leather bag on the counter. The young man looked at it, then at her.
“You must be Kile Veller.” He said with a big grin.
Wow, news travels fast, was Captain Jax already looking for her?
“How did you…?”
“Know who you were? There’s been only one female to graduate the Hunter’s Academy in the last twenty years, I have to assume you’re her.” He said with a grin. “The name is Justin, Justin Poros.”
“Kile, Kile Veller.” She said as she shook the young man’s hand. “But then you already knew that.”
“So, you have something for me to sign don’t you.”
“Oh, yes sir.” She replied as she pulled out a rather crumpled piece of paper from her pocket. “I’m afraid it got a little wrinkled.”
“It’s to be expected.” He smiled as he straightened it out on the counter and signed his name along the bottom. “So, how was your first assignment? It was your first assignment wasn’t it?”
“Yes sir. It wasn’t exactly what I had expected.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” He grinned. “I felt the same way during my first assignment. I was ready to go when I got out of the academy, arrived in Tobery and the first assignment I get is a message to deliver, not even a descent stack of letters, but a single message. You’re eager to find excitement, and all you get is another boring trip.” He said shaking his head as he pulled the leather satchel closer and began to sort through the contents.
“Yeah, it was something like that.” She replied.
“I guess you’re eager to get back to Coopervill then, get started on your next assignment.”
“You might say that.”
“Yeah, sure you are, but don’t worry. A few more of these routine deliveries and you’ll be moving up in the ranks in no time, then that’s where the real excitement begins.” He laughed. “Actually, if you are heading back, maybe you can take a few things to Noxton, it would only be a day out of the way. My regular Hunter isn’t back from his last trip yet.”
“Can I do that sir?” She asked. She wasn’t exactly sure how this whole assigned Guild House thing worked, another thing they forgot to explain at the academy. “I’m assigned to Coopervill.”
“Oh sure, it’s known as a reverse script.” Justin explained as he pulled out another form from under the window. “You see, I sign these orders, and then you make the delivery to Noxton. Since Noxton doesn’t have a Guild house, you’ll have to drop it off at the Meeting Hall, have the secretary there sign for it, and then cash the script at Coopervill. It’s on your way and it means a few extra coins in your purse.”
“Well then, I guess so.”
“Excellent, let me get it together, it shouldn’t take more than a tic.” The man said as he disappeared into the back room.
How long was a tic she wondered as she looked around the Guild House? She had already seen the place, or that was what it felt like as her eyes caught the open script board hanging on the far wall. The same familiar Vir faces stared back at her, but this time it was the non-Vir scripts she took an interest in, and one in particular, the one outlining the details of the Minotaur of Calder Falls. She had to admit, the picture on the sheet didn’t really do the beast justice
. It looked more like a thin man wearing a cow’s head, it was clear that whoever wrote up the script had never seen the Minotaur. The description was rather vague. Height unknown, weight unknown, temperament, possible hostile, yeah, there was an understatement. The only thing that was probably accurate was the casualties listed along the bottom of the sheet, the names of all the hunters who had tried and failed to bring in the Minotaur. It was no wonder that so many Hunter’s died in the attempt with such inaccuracies. For an organization that prided themselves on the retrieval of information for others, it was a shame they never did any information gathering for themselves.
“Open scripts huh?” Justin said from behind the window. “Already looking for that next adventure.”
“Not quite sir.” She replied.
“Here, while you over there, you mind hanging this one up as well. It’s been sitting on my desk for the last two days, I keep forgetting to post it.” He said as he held out a sheet of paper.
“Yeah, no problem.” She replied as she took it from him. A new script to be posted to the board, that was something interesting, she thought, but what she read sent a shiver down her spine. It was an open script for one Eric Douglas Rimes.
“Eric Rimes.” She exclaimed rather loudly.
“Yeah, can you image?” Justin replied from somewhere behind the window. “They say he’s the son of Lord Rimes of the Callor Province, he even tried to become a hunter. I wonder what he did to upset the Guild so much to place that kind of a bounty on him.”
The information they listed under the heading ‘wanted for’ simple read ‘Crimes against the Guild.’ It too was rather vague, although most of the trivial information on his description, his temperament, even his known associates appeared to be accurate, but there was one minor error.
“This is wrong.” She said, returning the script to the window.
“Hey, the guild thinks he’s guilty, who am I to say otherwise.”
“No, not that. This.” She said, pointing to the section under known abilities. It clearly reads that he was influenced by the sphere of water.
“What? He was trying to become a hunter, and he did get as far as the academy so he had to have some type of Hunter’s Edge, you should know that.”
“Well yeah, I know that, but he wasn’t influenced by water, he was influenced by fire.”
Justin took the script from Kile and reread it.
“Are you sure?” He asked.
“Positive.”
“Well, I don’t know. They clearly have him down as being influenced by water and they should know better than us. Maybe this just isn’t who you think it is.” He said as he handed the script back to her. “Just hang it up if you will.”
She waited until he had disappeared into the back room again before reaching across the desk to retrieve a pen. She crossed out water and filled in fire. She couldn’t do it to all the scripts posted to all the houses, but at least she could correct this one, and possibly the one back at Coopervill. It surprised her that something of this magnitude went unnoticed, if it had even gone unnoticed. She pinned the script to the board, and now Eric’s face was among the other Vir staring out into the room.
“Here’s the mail, sorry it took so long.” Justin replied, dropping a much smaller parcel on the counter. “It’s not much but we don’t get much for Noxton, and if we leave it until we do, well, then some of these letters could wind up a year to two old before they reach their destination. I don’t know why the Guild keeps sending them to us, they should send the up to you guys in Coopervill, but I’m sure the Guild knows what it's doing.”
“Yeah, I’m sure.” Kile replied with little conviction.
“You still probationary right?”
“Yes sir.”
Justin pulled another form from under the counter and scribbled his name along the bottom.
“If you present this to the Dancing Squirrel Inn, just down the road, they’ll give you a free meal… Well, I say a free meal, but really the Guild picks up the tab. Once you’re certified you’ll have to provide for yourself, but by then you should have the coin. I can offer you one of the beds upstairs if you wish to spend the night, again, free of charge. The Guild looks after its own.”
“No, that's alright, I’ll probably just head out tonight.”
“Suit yourself.” Justine replied. “Suppose I’ll be seeing you around more, what with you taking over the mail routes for Coopervill. It’s about time they got themselves a new hunter.”
She slipped the small bundle of scrolls into her courier bag and headed back out into the rain. With so many forms and so much misinformation, it was no wonder the Hunter’s Guild was looking to change.
***~~~***
27
It didn’t take nearly as long to get from Tobery to Noxton as it did to get from Coopervill to Tobery but that was probably due to the fact that she never left the roads, and therefore would not risk running into another Minotaur or being sidetracked to outposts in Callor, but it still took her a good three days before she rode into the town of Noxton. She had only spent a few hours in Tobery, long enough to eat at the Dancing Squirrel on the Guilds tab, not that there was much she could order. It would appear that the proprietor of the Squirrel was used to having hunters in his establishment and he even had a set bill of fare that he called the Hunter’s Meal. It was probably not a coincidence that it was the cheapest thing on the menu. A simple dish of bread, cheese, some form of pickle and a few slices of fruit, all washed down with a tankard of ale, although Kile opted for plain water. The proprietor didn’t seem all that pleased to accept the ticket that Justin had given her, but he did accept it and that was all that mattered. She mange to pocket a few slices of fruit for Vesper, and Grim who was allowed to stay at the Guild House stables until she was ready to leave, but she declined a room for herself at the House. She just wanted to be on the road again, heading for the only thing she knew as home.
The return trip was uneventful, the road that led to Noxton was right where the map said it should be, and the only thing of any real interest during the trip was meeting a groundhog that shared supper with them one night. He was a pleasant enough creature, although, like most animals that had very little contact with the Vir, his speech patterns were difficult to understand in their simplicity while the images that he shared with her were quite intriguing. He had invited her to stay in his burrow if she wished, but even she wasn’t that small, although he did show her the wild berry patch that he frequented.
She had learned that the Minotaur had not been in the area all that long, and had in fact passed through the groundhogs territory only three or four weeks past, that was if she understood the groundhogs measurement of time. If this was true, and Caldor Falls, where she assumed the creature had come from, it was called the Minotaur of Caldor Falls after all, was some distance east of where she was, then that would mean that the Minotaur was traveling west. Normally this would not have been a big deal, and she would not have given it much thought if it wasn’t for Rick’s warning about the area and about the west in general. It just stirred up that old paranoia. What if the Minotaur was heading west to join up with the uhyre?
She had absolutely nothing to base that on, and it was sheer speculation, but the same two words kept coming up… what if? What if something was recruiting such creatures for any army against the province of Denal? What if it wasn’t just the Denal province? What if it was the entire Kingdom of Aru? What if the province of Callor was in on it from the beginning?
The more she asked the questions, the more scenarios formed in her overactive imagination, the more she didn’t like the outcomes, mainly because each outcome lead to two inescapable conclusions. First, that if any of it was true, then there had to be a single force working to gather and organize the uhyre. The valrik were not known for cooperating among themselves unless there was a strong presence to keep them in line, and the second conclusion was that war was inevitable. It was not that war was new in the Kingdom of A
ru. It would be new if there weren't any wars. There was war between towns, between cities and even between provinces, but a war between kingdoms was something entirely different and frightening.
These scenarios and even more, although the others were just too outlandish even to entertain, were rolling around in her head when she eventually rode into the town of Noxton. The town was not unlike Coopervill or even Tobery from what she had seen of it. It was almost as if she was riding around in circles and someone was rearranging the buildings and calling the town by a different name. Coopervill had the Bird and Bay, Tobery had the Dancing Squirrel and Noxton had an inn with the pleasant name of the Starving Fish, it even had a picture of the bones of a fish painted on the sign to get the message across. Who makes up these names anyway?
The biggest difference was the one she had expected, there was no Guild house in Noxton, so she headed for the meeting hall. It wasn’t actually a meeting hall, the concept of the meeting hall where the town’s people would gather to discuss their problems was obsolete, but the term still lingered and now it was applied to a large building filled with offices that housed the self proclaimed important people of the town. There was a Lord in name only, an under secretary, a captain of the guard, a captain of arms and about another dozen or so titles that really meant nothing to her, but they all had an office in the meeting hall, and the ironic part was that none of them were ever in their office, except the secretary who monitored the front desk.
All meeting halls, or at least those that Kile had seen so far, had one thing in common, they were the most extravagant looking buildings in town, next to the local church that is. They were not hard to find, they were usually two or three stories in height and the preferred color of the exterior appeared to be white. The windows always seemed larger than any other place, and the door was usually composed of some exotic wood that didn’t grow within the immediate area, but someone at sometime though it was essential to have the wood shipped in, since the wood that appeared to be fine for every other door in every other structure in town was, for some reason, not suited for the meeting hall. She figured it was either the ego of one man, or the pride of an entire town, either way she saw it as a waste of money.