Hinterland Book 3: The Wolf's Hunt (Hinterland Series)

by K. T. Harding

  Mrs. Mitchell didn’t stop her work laying out the spoons and cups on the table. “I know it tolerable well, too, Miss.”

  Raleigh turned back to the flames. “Do you know a man who lives there? He used to live in Perdue and worked as a cab driver, but he had an accident and went to live on his brother’s farm in Henleyville. It would have been about twenty years ago now. Does that ring any bells for you?”

  Mrs. Mitchell kept moving around and around the kitchen. “Doesn’t sound familiar, no, Miss. Then again, there’s a lot of farms around Henleyville, and I don’t know all the folks that live there. It could be anybody, Miss.”

  Raleigh nodded at no one. “That’s what I thought. Thanks anyways.”

  They all fell silent. Dax oiled his boots until Mrs. Mitchell coughed. “Supper’s on the table.”

  Dax and Raleigh took their usual places, and all three started eating. The kitchen door stood open to the fading light of dusk. The fire crackled and threw its orange rays into the darkening kitchen.

  Raleigh listened to the silence. Even without Bishop here, this place gave her a sense of peace she knew nowhere else. She loved this house and everybody in it. She belonged here as she belonged nowhere else in the world.

  All of a sudden, Mrs. Mitchell’s head shot up. She gasped and dropped her spoon. She stared across the table at Raleigh. “Turnbull!”

  Raleigh blinked. “What?”

  “Turnbull!” Mrs. Mitchell cried. “I remember now. The older brother left the farm, and the younger brother took over. It broke their father’s heart, since he had his eye set on his oldest son taking over. The son wouldn’t hear of it.” She clasped her head. “Oh, if I could only remember his name!”

  Raleigh shot a glance at Dax. He stared at Mrs. Mitchell in surprise.

  “My Jenny went to school with the younger boy. What was his name? Ah! I have it! It was Fraser. Fraser Turnbull. He ran the farm for seven years. His older brother wanted to move to the big city and seek his fortune. Became a cab driver, of all the things! Some fortune! Then seven years later, he shows up again. He didn’t dare try to take over. He crawled back on hands and knees. Begged his brother to give him a job as a hired hand like any other stranger off the street. Fraser wouldn’t hear of it. Took his brother into his own house. Gave him his old room back like he never left.”

  “So what happened?” Raleigh asked.

  “It was a blamed good thing he did, too,” Mrs. Mitchell replied, “because a few years later, Fraser took sick and died. Now the brother runs the farm.” She clasped her head once more. “Oh, if I could only remember his name!”

  Raleigh took another spoonful of the food. “It doesn’t matter. We have his family name. We can track him down. Thank you, Mrs. Mitchell. That’s a big help.”

  Mrs. Mitchell put another spoonful into her own mouth, but she almost choked on it spluttering and trying to talk all at once. “Herman! That’s it. Herman Turnbull. I knew I would remember eventually. Herman Turnbull. He married Felicity Andrews from Tunstead, and they’re still there.”

  One more time, Raleigh experienced a prickling sensation down her spine at the mention of her old home. Henleyville was just down the road from the farm where Raleigh grew up. Now all these forces of Hinterland congregated there to bring their influence into the human world.

  She feared for her father with the Guild of Martial Arts so close. What were they doing, moving out of Hinterland in the first place? She could think of only one reason. As soon as they created the Elixir of Life, they planned to set in motion their plan to dominate the world.

  They must be planning to use Henleyville as a jumping-off point. It was small and out of the way. It was an easy day’s travel to the port at Charleston. No one would notice what they were doing until it was too late.

  Raleigh stuck one more bite of stew into her mouth and got up. She washed her bowl and put it away. Dax called to her as she headed out the door. “Hey! Where are you going?”

  “I’m going upstairs. I’m going to have another look through Bishop’s papers.”

  Raleigh rifled through Bishop’s papers faster than she should have. She tossed one sheet after another into the basket without really looking at them. What was she looking for? She couldn’t say exactly. She only knew she had to find it, and fast.

  She shoved ten sheets aside and grabbed at random a scrap of paper tucked into the stack. She lifted it in front of her face, and her eye skipped down the page without reading until she caught the word Uk. She froze, and the words seared into her brain.

  Last stall on the right, tenth row left from the door, breeder of all creatures, Esmeralda thinks he might be a slipper from the Guild of Husbandry who wanted to use his knowledge to make some money on the side, he doesn’t think he can breed Uk, since they only digest ozone isotopes from the upper atmosphere. I’ll have to do some research on this. I’m going back again Tuesday to find out about a shipment of rare Momso. I’ll ask him about it then. If anybody knows a weakness in the Uk I can exploit in battle, it will be him.

  Raleigh’s mind churned in a ferment. Bishop must have been talking about someone at the market, someone who knew something about the Uk. If this man could give her some clue how to combat them, they could make an assault on Solaris now.

  She stuffed the piece of paper into her shirt pocket and went back downstairs. Mrs. Mitchell wasn’t in the kitchen. Dax sat on his old stool and checked the priming on his guns. He looked up. “Did you find anything?”

  She sat down opposite him. “I’m not sure. Tomorrow morning, we’ll go see this Herman Turnbull and find out what he as to say about the accident. Then I think we’ll stop by the market. There might be someone there who can help us.”

  Chapter 21

  When Raleigh came to breakfast the next morning, she found four places set instead of three. A noise of clattering and clinking and splashing came from outside the kitchen door. When she looked out into the misty morning, she saw Hiram Mitchell hitching the horse to the carriage.

  She smiled at Mrs. Mitchell when the housekeeper came in. “Good morning.”

  Mrs. Mitchell frowned. “Is it?”

  “Yes, it is. We’re going out this morning. We’re on our way to bring the Master back.”

  Mrs. Mitchell turned to the fire. “Then I suppose it is a good morning.”

  “Aren’t you happy about the Master coming home?”

  Mrs. Mitchell didn’t turn around. “I’ll be happy about it when he does come home. Until he does, he’s just as good as dead to me.”

  Raleigh sank onto the bench in front of her bowl and sighed. “I know how you feel.”

  Dax came in and took his place, just as fresh-faced as ever. This house produced the same effect on him it produced on Raleigh. Out there in the wilds of Hinterland, he might be changing into a mysterious force of nature.

  As long as he kept coming back here, he was just an ordinary kid—maybe a little older than Hiram, but essentially the same. He belonged to the hearth and the stable and the Earth. He brought in the firewood and buckets of water for Mrs. Mitchell. He worked in the shed and tended the animals. He was nothing special and never wanted to be.

  Hiram led the horse to the kitchen door and came in last of all. He took off his hat and sat down at the place closest to the door. He kept his eyes down. When he dared look around, Raleigh smiled at him. He was a good kid and worked hard.

  The company ate in silence until Raleigh spoke up. “Do you know the way to Henleyville, Hiram?”

  He bobbed his head. “Yes, indeed, Miss. I’ve driven father’s cart there a dozen times if I’ve done it once, and I’ve ridden while he drives. I know the way as well as you please, Miss.”

  She didn’t bother to tell him to call her Raleigh. Mrs. Mitchell probably put the fear of God into him about using proper manners. “Do you know the old stone bridge near the railroad tracks near the turn-off to Tunstead?”

  “Yes, Miss. I know that well.�
�

  Raleigh bent over her bowl. “Good. After we visit Henleyville, you’ll drop us off at the bridge. You can wait for us under the arch by the railroad tracks until we come back. We shouldn’t be too long.”

  “Yes, Miss.”

  She studied him. “How old are you?”

  “Thirteen, Miss.”

  Raleigh turned to Dax. “He’s not too young, is he? When did you come to work for Bishop?”

  “He’s not too young,” Dax replied. “I came to work for Bishop when I was eight, but I didn’t start driving until I was twelve. As long as he knows the way and can handle the horse, give him a chance. He did perfectly well driving around town. He’ll be fine.”

  Raleigh nodded and finished her breakfast, satisfied. So another generation of slayer was born. Did Mrs. Mitchell realize Hiram would probably become enticed into the slayer’s world, too?

  After breakfast, she and Dax rode out to Henleyville. They passed the bridge leading to the market. Tunstead lay down that other fork in the road. Raleigh gave it one glance and didn’t look that way again, but the questions nagged her all the way to Henleyville.

  What if she retired to her father’s farm in despair? What if her father hadn’t convinced her to go back and complete Bishop’s contract? She never would have found out Bishop was still alive. He would have languished in prison for the rest of his life while she went back to a life of farming.

  Hiram reined in the horse, and Dax and Raleigh climbed down in a dusty street lined on both sides with clapboard shops and a few scattered houses. Raleigh frowned. “This doesn’t look like what I expected. This is hardly a town at all.”

  “It doesn’t look like any place that could support a factory,” Dax added.

  “The Guild would want to keep the factory hidden from the rest of the town. Besides, the town doesn’t need to support it. The Guild won’t be doing any business there, except maybe farming twen.”

  Dax cocked an eyebrow at her. “The Guild of Martial Arts—farming twen? I don’t think so.”

  Raleigh blushed. “Well, we’re not here to investigate the Guild of Martial Arts. We’re here to talk to Herman Turnbull. Come on.”

  “Where will we find him?”

  She pointed. “We’ll ask at the store.”

  As she suspected, the storekeeper gave her directions to the Turnbull farm, and Hiram drove them there. The minute she put her foot on the ground, Raleigh had an attack of déjà vu. The farm looked exactly like her father’s farm in Tunstead.

  Mist hung over the thatched roof. The old stone walls sat low against the cold, wet ground. A horse stamped by the door, but the mist muffled the sound.

  Raleigh shivered. She could almost imagine her father sitting inside. His shade haunted her. She lingered by the gate so long Dax had to urge her forward. “Is anything wrong?”

  She shook herself. “Nothing at all.”

  She pushed herself up to the door and knocked. A deep male voice called from inside. “Come in.”

  The door creaked on its hinges the same way it did back home. Raleigh let herself into the kitchen and found a middle-aged man sitting in the chimney corner by the blazing fire. The flames flicked red and yellow on his cheekbones and rough chin.

  He blinked up at the two slayers. “What can I do for you?’

  “Are you Herman Turnbull?” Raleigh asked.

  “That’s me. Have a seat.”

  “Thanks, all the same,” she replied. “We want to ask you some questions about the time you spent in Perdue. Do you think you can remember that far back?”

  He gazed into the fire. “I could never forget it. I remember every detail as if it was yesterday.”

  “Do you remember every detail of the accident that drove you out of town, too?”

  He nodded. “That, especially.”

  “Can you tell us what happened the morning of the accident?”

  “I was working as usual. I took a bunch of fares—nothing special. Then I got a fare from a man who wanted me to drop him off at the milliner’s shop. I thought that was stranger. He told me to park outside and wait, so I did.”

  “Besides a man going to the milliner’s shop, was there anything else strange about it?”

  “Everything was strange about it. He came out in a few minutes and told me to get down from the seat. He told me to stand by the shop door and wait for him. Well, what could I do? I stood by the door.”

  “Is that when the gun went off upstairs?”

  He nodded. “That’s when all hell broke loose. The horses broke away and ran that man down. I heard all about it at the inquiry.”

  “Did you give evidence at the inquiry?” Raleigh asked. “Did you tell the investigators what you told me, about the man acting strangely?”

  “Oh, I told them all of it. I told the cab service, too, but they said it was a matter for the investigation, and the investigation didn’t turn up anything. They said it was all an accident.”

  “What about the man who hired you? What can you tell me about him?”

  “He was strange, too. Everything about him was strange. I’ll never forget him as long as I live.”

  “What did he look like?”

  “He was tall and thin, and sharp.”

  “What do you mean, sharp?” Raleigh asked.

  “Everything about him was sharp. His eyes were sharp. His face was sharp. Every word he said, he said in a sharp way. That’s all I can tell you about him.”

  A sinking feeling came over Raleigh. “Let me guess. Was he dressed like a farmer, but didn’t act like one?”

  “No, he was dressed like a gentleman. He wore a black suit and a black cloak. He even carried a silver walking cane and work a black silk topper.”

  Raleigh stared down at the man. Her whole being tensed to the breaking point. The man who hired the cab to kill Bishop’s father had to be the same man who contracted Chivvy to deliver a trainload of blue mussels to the factory. The descriptions matched, even if Herman didn’t use the same language as Chivvy. A tall thin man had a sharp way of looking at everything and speaking? He was no farmer. He was a Guildsman of the Martial Arts.

  Raleigh made a mental note to ask Angela about him. Maybe she would recognize the description and point Raleigh in the direction of the culprit.

  Raleigh thanked Herman. She and Dax took their leave, but Raleigh paused at the gate to look back. One more time, she saw her father moving around his kitchen back home. He stooped to duck his head under the roof beams. His angular features caught the firelight when he smiled down on her.

  The coach rattled up to the gate, and Dax held the door open for her to get in. The wheels carried her away from the farm, but not away from her father’s presence. He watched over her every hour she stayed away. He would always guide and protect her, no matter where she went.

  Hiram drove back to the bridge without being told. He parked under the arch and remained in the seat while Dax and Raleigh climbed down. Raleigh glanced up at him. He didn’t watch them go. He didn’t have to be told to stay put or to go home. He had no clue what they were doing and no interest in finding out.

  How long would that last? How long before his natural curiosity overcame his upbringing and he turned to the slayer’s way?

  Raleigh hurried down the road to the stone bridge. She didn’t bother to draw her weapons on the way to the tunnel entrance. The wolves wouldn’t bother her again. She drew back the vines, and they made their way to Esmeralda’s door.

  Esmeralda greeted them the same way she always did. “Hey, honey. How are you doing?”

  Raleigh pulled the paper out of her pocket and showed it to Esmeralda. “Do you know who he’s talking about in this description?”

  “Sure, honey,” Esmeralda replied. “Everybody knows Klimpt. He’s the man for every kind of creature you would want to buy, but he doesn’t do business at that stall anymore. He moved.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “H
e got too famous, got too many contracts,” Esmeralda told her. “He doesn’t operate out of the market anymore. He’s got a little place over in the lower tunnels. Here. Give me your paper and I’ll draw you a map.”

  Raleigh watched over Esmeralda’s shoulder. “Why, that’s just around the corner from Niui’s place!”

  Esmeralda smiled and handed back the map. “That’s right. Those two are great friends. He’s a nice old fella, too, is Klimpt.”

  “Thank you, Esmeralda. We won’t be going into the market after all. Have a good day.”

  Raleigh hurried back to the coach and called up to Hiram. “Take us home.”

  She jumped down in front of the kitchen door. “Come on, Dax. We don’t have any time to lose.”

  Getting into the tunnels and finding their way to Niui’s place was easy, but it took a lot longer than Raleigh expected. Knowing the way and trying to hurry didn’t help much, but at last they knocked on Klimpt’s door.

  It opened by itself, just like Niui’s, but it didn’t open into a kitchen. It opened into another long tunnel cut into the solid rock itself. Shelves and tables lined the walls. Glass aquariums and jars cluttered every surface, and creatures by the thousands lived in every one of them.

  A man looked up at her when she entered. “What do you want?”

  She strode down the tunnel toward him. “I’m Knox Bishop’s apprentice. He said you were the man to talk to about everything we need to know about the Uk.”

  He went back to his work. “Sorry. I don’t breed Uk.”

  “I know that. His notes say they feed on the ozone isotopes of the upper atmosphere, but he also mentioned you might know a weakness we could exploit to defeat them in battle. Any suggestions?”

  Klimpt nodded. “It’s starting to come back to me. He came to see me about something like that. He never told me what the job was, but I gave him a vial of a certain chemical I know of. You release it into the air, and it deactivates the Uk’s electric charge. They become harmless, and they go straight to the ground without latching onto anything.” He shot her a piercing glare. “Do you know anything about Uk?”