by Spoor, Garry
As the green banner began to get closer, she was seeing more and more young men along the sidewalks carrying papers and packages. She knew most of these had to be Hunters, more than likely they were level fives or fours if they were still transporting packages. They didn’t take much notice of her as they passed her in the street. They wouldn’t be taking much notice in anything beyond their current deliveries. If they only knew who it was that was walking among them, she was almost a guaranteed promotion to the first one that stopped her.
The Guild Hall was pretty much as Kile had imagined it. A huge white marble building standing three stories high with rows of columns spanning the front and a flight of stairs leading up to a pair of large wooden doors etched with golden filigree. There were guards dressed in the green livery of the Guild posted at every entrance.
“Are you lost Miss?”
She spun around to see a tall, bookish young man with wired rimed glasses perched on the end of crooked nose. He was carrying a stack of books, some of which Kile had actually read at the Academy. This would be one of the academic varieties of Hunters. The ones that seldom went out on true assignments. They spent most of their time making up laws and regulations to torture the Hunters that worked in the wild.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.” He said as he changed his grip on the books and straightened his glasses. “You just appeared to be lost.”
“I was just… admiring the buildings. It appears to be very active.”
“Yes, it would be, that is the Guild Hall. That is where all Hunter activities are regulated. From this hall we communicate with all the Guild Houses throughout the Kingdom of Aru. That’s the difference between us Hunters and the common mercenary.”
“You’re a Hunter?” Kile asked with a forced wild eyed admiration.
The young man threw his chest out and grinned. “I am a certified level four Hunter.”
“Level four? So you’re really important.”
“Well… I don’t want to blow my own horn, but… yeah, I would say what I do is very important.”
“And you know your way around this place, it's just so big. Why, back home I get lost just walking to the barn.”
The young man laughed.
It was just as Alisa had told her, act stupid and bat your eyes and young men will fall all over themselves to do for you. It was actually quite sickening.
“Oh, it’s not that difficult, kind of like a small town divided into a few buildings, but I can see where some people would think it was confusing.”
“Well, like, what’s that one over there?” She asked as she pointed to one across the street.
“That… that’s the armory, and beside that is the blacksmith, and next to that is the stables.”
“Then what about those over there?”
“There we have the dinning hall, next to that is guest housing, over there is the hospital and next to that is the quartermasters and finally the library. If you’re really interested, I can show you around. I just have to drop these books off at the library and that’s pretty much it for the day.”
“I would have thought you would be busy, what with all the Hunters that have died or vanished.”
“I assure you that the stories are greatly exaggerated. A few miscommunications, that’s all. Nothing to be worried about.”
“Yeah, well all the same, I should really be going, I wouldn’t want to keep you from anything important.”
“Maybe I’ll catch you later.” The young man said with a grin.
“Don’t count on it.” She mumbled as she quickly moved away from him.
-Who was that?-
Vesper asked.
“Just another glorified delivery man with delusions of grandeur.”
***
Kile kept to the far side of the street as she approached the Hospital. Being stopped by two Hunters, that didn’t recognize her, was pushing her luck just a bit too far. It was only a matter of time before she ran into a hunter that actually read the open bounties board.
The Hospital was a singled floored flat building with a roof that extended out on all sides and was supported by rows of columns. As she got closer she concentrated more on the smell of the place, rather than what it looked like. It may have looked odd to anyone that might have been watching her, but she was getting very good at discerning different odors and the Hospital was full of them. The strongest was that of the vir, but there were also herbs and medicines as well as the strong scent of death. She really didn’t have to ask directions, she could have found it by its stench alone. As she broke down the individual smells she was able to find the vir she was looking for.
Crossing the street she walked down the alley between the hospital and the quartermasters where there were no guards. She tried the side doors one by one and eventually found a window that was open. Making sure that she wasn’t going to be seen, she jumped up onto the sill and quietly slipped in, being small had its advantages.
She found herself in one of the treatment rooms, fortunately one that wasn’t being used at the time. Moving to the door she opened it a peeked out into the hall. It was a pretty busy place, one that was too busy for her to go unnoticed. She searched through the closets of the room before she found one of the long white robes that most of the staff seemed to be fond of wearing, it even came with a hood. They probably got them from the same robe dealer as the mystics at the tower did. She slipped it on, only to discover that it was made for a much taller person. The sleeves were incredibly baggy and she also lost her way in the folds of the cloth. Pulling the slack up the best she could, she ventured out into the hall.
She let her nose lead the way, following the familiar scent as she navigated the halls of the hospital, eventually finding her way into one of the main recovery rooms, which was where she spotted Daniel Leary.
It had only been a year since she had seen him, but she would have sworn that he had grown another few inches since his time at the academy. His tall, lanky frame seemed to tower over that of the other hospital workers, but he still had that wild unkempt blonde hair and the lopsided smile that he wore when he was confused or just thinking about something.
She pulled up the hems of the robes and moved between the rows of beds. She was grateful to see that most of them were empty and that Daniel wasn’t very busy. Now all she had to do was determine whether his friendship with her was greater than his loyalty to the guild.
“Have time for another patient.” She asked, trying to keep the pitch of her voice as low as possible. Staff workers were Hunters, and there were only two female Hunters in the Guild.
“What? Oh, yes, please, have him take a seat; I’ll be right with him.” Daniel replied as he flipped through his notes.
Taking the seat she pulled the robes in around her until she sank into a pile of cloth. She didn’t look so much like a patient as she did a pile of laundry.
“Now, what seems to be… oh.” He paused as he looked down at her then around the rest of the room to see if he hadn’t made a mistake. “You’re the patient, I see… so… what seems to be the problem.”
“My wrists.” She replied, still trying to disguise her voice.
“Um… where are your wrists?” Daniel asked as she pulled at the layers of cloth.
She lifted one arm and he had to pull back nearly two feet of sleeve before he could find her hand.
“This looks pretty bad, what happened?”
“Does it matter?” She asked as she felt his hands gently touch the bruises and the burns that the shackles and Emara had left behind. His hands were as soothing as she remembered them and her wrist felt better even before he started to use his edge. She could feel the gentle flow of energy as it moved between them.
Daniel was uncommon among hunters. Although his edge was influenced by the sphere of water, it was in the healing arts, something that was rare, even among the mystics. He could seal a wound mend a broken bone or even bring a yarrow back from the edge of death.
“Haven’t I seen those hands before?” He asked.
“You should have, you’ve repaired my fingers enough times.” She remarked.
“Oh no… please don’t let this be who I think it is.” Dannie prayed as he quickly pulled back Kile’s hood.
“Long time no see.” She grinned.
He pulled the hood back over her head.
“There you go, all healed, you better get back to work now.” He said quickly as he started to move away.
“You still have the other one to do.”
“What are you trying to do? Get me arrested too?”
“I came here for information.”
“I don’t know anything.” He told her as he looked around the hall. “Don’t you realize that I’m being watched? They questioned me for twelve hours straight about you.”
“What did you tell them?”
“Nothing. What could I tell them? We spent four years at the Academy together and I still know anything about you.”
“Don’t even tell me you think I did what they say I did.”
“No… no of course not, it just... they’ve been saying a lot of things, and they’ve been keeping a watch on me night and day. I don’t know if they think I’ve been giving you information or that you would eventually come looking for some, but you can’t stay here. It’s too dangerous.”
“It’s not like I have a lot of places to go.”
“You could always turn yourself in.”
“You can’t be serious?”
“They’ll go easier on you if you do. I could bring you in.”
“What… so you could collect the bounty on my script. Thanks a lot. You're right, it was a mistake coming here.” She said as she tried to get up, but Daniel pushed her back into her seat.
“No, that's not what I meant, it’s just… there are a lot of Hunters looking for you, and It’s not just for the bounty. There’s something more going on.”
“And you think that me sitting in a cell is going to be safer. Tried that… didn’t work.”
“Then why are you here?”
“I want to find Tally.”
“Brian Tally? He’s dead, you killed him.”
“I didn’t kill anyone.” She replied, a little too loudly. A few of the white robed workers looked in their direction.
“Will you keep it down?” Daniel told her. “Look, they found one of your… swords at the man’s house. You know those weird ones that you use.”
“They're called Lann. Is that all they have as evidence?”
“Well… supposedly you set fire to the house right after you killed him. There wasn’t much left in the debris but his body and the Lann, and several witnesses saw a young redheaded girl leaving the vicinity”
“Great… where is his house then.”
“It’s over on Quinton Street, on the north side of town, but you’re not going to find anything there. Hunter’s have searched the area but came up empty.”
“It’s either that, or the mystic tower, and I’m not looking forward to going there.”
“What’s at the mystic tower?”
“Hopefully Emara.”
“Emara Lon… nobody’s heard from her since the abduction.”
“Which they think I did.”
“Well, they did find that golden pin, you know, the one shaped like a tree that you wear. It was at the site where she was last seen.”
“Are you kidding me? So what you’re saying is that I left a pin at the site I abducted Emara, a sword near the house that I burned down, and my long knife in the back of some man out in the woods, and I’m not even sure what I’m suppose to have done to this Linny guy. I would have to be the worse assassin to leave bits and pieces of myself at the site of every murder.”
“Or you’re being framed.”
“You thought of that all by yourself.”
“Sorry, but when you put it that way, it does sound a little fishy.”
“Look, my only hope at this point is to find out what these men had in common and try to find out who killed them.”
“There are Hunter’s already investigating this, leave it to them.” Daniel said as he looked over her shoulder. There was a slight change of expression on his face, one that she didn’t miss, and then she caught the somewhat familiar scent. She had smelled that vir before.
“The Hunter’s that are investigating this already think that I did it. They are looking for me, not the real assassin.” She tried to explain, but Daniel wasn’t really paying attention as he was watching the entrance.
He entered the recovery room from the opposite door, his heavy steel toed boots striking the marble floor. He had the stench of tobacco mixed with the strong smell of ginger that only grew stronger as he got closer.
“Daniel. Working late again I see.” The man said in a deep strong voice.
“Hunter Gray, I didn’t realize you were back.” Daniel replied. “Is there a problem that I can help you with? Have you been injured?”
“No, but I think I can help you.” Grey said as he suddenly grabbed the robes on the chair, pulling them aside, only to find the chair empty. “Where is she?”
“Where is who?” Daniel asked. He seemed as equally surprised to see the chair vacant as the Hunter did.
“The fugitive Kile Veller. That was who you were talking to?”
“Kile Veller? I haven’t seen her since my days at the Academy. I’ve already told you that.”
Kile watched from her hiding place on top the cabinet, concealed in the shadows. As long as the Hunter didn’t look up, he wasn’t likely to see her. He was a big man, with short cropped black hair that was starting to turn gray. He had a face that was more weathered and rugged then the padded leather armor that he wore. This was a true level one Hunter and probably had been for quite some time, not like that Hunter back in Coopervill.
“Where is she Daniel?” Grey asked in that low calm voice “This will go easier on you if you just tell me where she went.”
“She hasn’t been here.”
Daniel may be lying for her now, but he didn’t try to warn her or help her when Grey entered the room. Was he planning on letting Grey catch her? If Grey had managed to take them by surprised, Daniel could claim ignorance. She wouldn’t have blamed him for her arrested that was if she hadn’t smelled Grey first. As much as she hated to admit it, she couldn’t trust her old friend.
She crawled her way down the row of cabinets and through a narrow breeze window, dropping into the next room, from there she made her way back out into the hall. Without her white robes to conceal her she was a bit obvious, but the robed staff members didn’t take much interest in her. They must not read the bounty boards either. She exited through the side door, crossed the street and ducked into one of the darker alleys. Waiting in the shadows she saw Grey leave the hospital alone.
He stood in the center of the street, closed his eyes and waited. Kile could smell the energy of his edge pouring off of him. She wasn’t sure what he was capable of doing, but she knew she shouldn’t be anywhere near him. She moved deeper into the shadows, jumping the wall between alleys and ran up the parallel street. If Grey had noticed her, or detected her, he wasn’t following her. She slowed down as she looked around at the buildings that now grew about her. All she had to do was find Quinton Street.
***~~~***
11
Unhindered by the need for secrecy, Erin Silva arrives in Littenbeck as the sun begins to set and twilight descends upon the city. It had only been six days since she had ridden into Littenbeck completely clueless about what was going on, now she was back and she still didn’t have the answers that she had hoped to find, but she did have more questions. At this point she was almost certain that Kile was innocent of the charges that the Council had laid upon her, but she still had to find the girl.
“It is getting late.” Folkstaff said as he stopped his horse outside the Guild Hall stables. “Do we go to the mystic’s tower to see about this Emara Lon first, or sho
uld we leave it to the morning?”
“It’s not like mystics live in the same time zone we do.” Erin replied.
“Perhaps not, but we have been riding for nearly two days straight and I wouldn’t say no to a hot meal and a soft bed.”
“You? Aren’t you the hunter that spent most of his early career living in the wild? Now you want a hot meal and a soft bed?”
“I’m not as young as I use to be.”
“Oh, well that goes without saying.” Erin laughed as she dismounted. “Tell me, if you just got into a town that you’ve never been to before, what would be the first thing you’d do.”
“Get a hot meal and a soft bed.” Folkstaff replied.
“Yes, possibly, but how would you find them?”
“I’d ask.”
“Who would you ask?”
“I didn’t think this was going to be twenty questions.”
“No, think about it. You just arrived in a town that you’ve never been to before. You probably don’t have much money. You don’t want to be seen. Who would you ask for directions?”
“I don’t know.” Folkstaff replied as he stroked his beard. “Obviously someone that I knew I could trust not to set me up. Someone like… an old friend.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking. Certified level five Hunter Daniel Leary was assigned to the Guild Hospital.”
“Isn’t that a bit obvious. She would know that he was being watched.”
“Maybe it was worth the risk.” Erin replied.
“So much for a hot meal and a soft bed.”
Erin crossed the road to the Guild Hospital just as a tall dark haired man was leaving. He looked at her once, but said nothing as he moved into the center of the street, closing his eyes he stretched out his hands falling into a trance like state. Erin could tell that he was using his edge, but such a public display of one’s abilities was not a common sight. Most Hunters kept their edges to themselves, using them in public only when absolutely necessary. It was said that there were only two people that knew a hunter’s edge, the hunter and the mystic that taught them. She watched as the man went through the motions, although she was unable to ascertain what his edge was, she could tell that he didn’t have much success with it. He turned to her again with an accusing look, as if she was somehow responsible for his failure, and then stormed off.