Hunter's Academy (Veller) (14 page)

So, that was what he was after, the two dragon scales, but why? What possible interest were dragon scales to Eric? Was there any monetary value in the sale of dragon scales, or was it something more th
an wealth? She couldn’t really see Eric risking his chances at the academy simple to pad his purse, there had to be more to this than meets the eye.

“You okay Kile?” Daniel asked.

She focused back to reality.

“Oh, it’s nothing.” She said. “I was just
thinking.”

“Dragon scales or fish scales, I don’t care one way or the other.” Carter said as he pulled one of the swords from the ground and looking down the blade. “All that matters to me right now is
getting in a little practice.”

He tossed the sword to Kile, who grabbed it in her right hand and regretted the action when a sharp pain ran up her arm. She quickly switched to her left
hand; if nothing else it drove any thoughts of scales out of her head.

“You
’re really going to fight left handed against me.” Carter remarked as he took his place in the small circle that they had made. The object was to stay in the circle, but it usually got a little out of hand and they would end up just about anywhere but the circle.

“Actually I thought I would just try to survive with my left hand.” Kile replied as she reluctantly took her place opposite him.

“Suit yourself.” Carter said before launching into his first attack.

She
found herself put on the defensive, but then that was where she usually ended up. It wasn’t that she couldn’t read his moves. That was the easy part. It was trying to get her sword up between his weapon and her body that she was having trouble with, and forget about countering. By the time she reacted to his openings he was well into his next move.

Her only means was to grip the sword with both hands, but this had a tendency to throw her off balance, and what with her right wrist hurting as much as it did, she wasn’t able to follow through with any of the swings. Eventually Carter had pushed her back to the stable walls.

“Yield.” She said reluctantly as she stuck the sword in the ground.

“Come on Kile, you’re not even trying.” Carter frowned as he backed off.

“The sword's just too… awkward.”

“You’re going to have to get the hang of it if you want to graduate.” Daniel reminded her.

“Surely there are lighter, better balanced swords.”

“Well yeah, kind of.” Carter replied. “But this is the standard size and weight.”

“So, why can’t she just use a lighter one?” Daniel asked.

“Actually these are the lighter ones.” Carter explained. “If you want to go even lighter, then you’re looking at the common short sword, which is like… half this length.”

“Good way to get yourself sliced up.” Alex added.

“There’s always the chance of you picking up one of the other weapons to study, like the mace, the flail, the battle hammer, even the battle
ax.” Carter added.

“Oh yeah, I can hardly lift a sword, you expect me to swing those things around.”

Alex started to laugh. “Yeah, she’ll get herself going with one good swing and we won’t be able to stop her. She’d probably screw herself into the ground.” He said.

“What about the staff?” Daniel suggested. “You were pretty good with that.”

“Staff won’t cut it.” Carter replied. “It has to be a lethal weapon, as explained by guild law.”

“Well, that’s just something else I’ll have to worry about later.” Kile sighed as she pulled the sword from the ground. “You’re next.” She said, holding it out to Daniel.

Daniel took the sword and took his place in the circle, opposite Alex, who instantly launched into a wild attack. He had no style, no finesse and yet would probably pass his Weapon examination where as Kile wouldn’t.

“Don’t sweat it.” Carter said as he came to sit down beside her. “You’re getting
better; you just have to work on some upper body strength.”

“Somehow I don’t see that happening anytime soon.”
She replied.

Could days get any worse she wondered? She wasn’t sure how, but then she thought that same thing yesterday, and possibly the day before. She stood in the rain, ankle deep in mud with sword in hand staring across at her opponent. Murphy stood opposite her with a malicious grin on his face and she knew that no matter what happened it would not end well.

As soon as Master Boraro signaled the start of the dual, Murphy launched his first
attack; an over the head cleaving shot which she found was typical of most of the boys at the academy. It appeared to be the ‘lets end this as quickly as possible’ maneuver, it seldom worked. She diverted that shot and knew it would probably be the last one that she could deflect that easily, she even managed to attempt a counter attack, but she was too slow. When she attacked, he wasn’t there, in fact, she had lost him completely. She spun around to see him picking himself up out of the mud.

Kile waited until Murphy got to his feet, he had to wipe mud from his face and out of his mouth before he could do anything. She could have ended the battle quickly by scoring a hit when he was down. This, although unsportsmanlike, was acceptable in Master Boraro’s world, but she just couldn’t do it. She had been the one picking herself up off the ground enough times to know that it was humiliating enough.

When he was finally able to see, he couldn’t find his sword. Kile nudged it over to him and he grumbled a thanks before retrieving it and getting back into position. He launched his second attack, learning from his first. This one was lower and slower. She parried and used the slickness of the mud to slide around him as he came in on her again. He went down on one knee and she held her counter attack. He didn’t even bother trying to get to his feet; he simply lunged at her from his kneeling position. It took her a bit by surprise as she jumped back out of the way and never regained her footing on the slick ground, this time they both found themselves in the mud. Kile quickly rolled to her feet falling into a defense stance only to see Murphy go down again. She stuck her sword into the ground and went to help him up.

“What are you doing Cadet Veller?” Boraro demanded as he came up behind her.

“Sir?” She asked, almost dropping Murphy after being startled by the Weapon Master’s voice.

“He is your enemy Cadet. Would you show that much compassion for a
valrik that was trying to cut off your head in battle?”

“No sir.” She calmly replied as she got Murphy to his feet, although she wasn’t sure how much help she was since the guy was twice her size.

“Then what do you think you’re doing?” Boraro demanded.

“I am showing compassion for a fellow cadet who is not trying to cut off my head in battle… sir.”

Mouthing off to Master Boraro was not the smartest thing to do as she stared at the pulsing vane in his head. Other instructors might have belittled her or ridiculed her in their class if she tried to be too smart, Master Boraro on the other hand was a simple man. He would just knock her upside the head, preferably with a mace or a large club. As it was he just turned and walked away.

“What crawled into his shorts this morning?” She mumbled as she handed Murphy his sword.

“Thanks” The boy replied, and this time she realized he meant it.

“Look, I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of the mud today, how about we just… you know… take it a little easy.”

“Yeah… okay.” Murphy nodded as he took his position. “You wanna… try attacking me for a change?”

“Are you sure?” She asked
. She was a little surprised that he would even suggest such a thing.

“I could use some more practice defending myself.”

“Well… yeah, okay.” She said as she took her position, but before she could start, Murphy held up his hand.

“Hold on a second.” He said as he looked around the List, she was beginning to think that he had changed his mind.

There were cadets falling all over the place, sliding in the muck covered from head to toe in mud. This was defiantly not the environment for sword fighting as the rain fell constantly. Kile looked back over to Murphy to see what it was that he was waiting for and the big man had his eyes closed and was mumbling something under his breath. She had seen Morgan do this before, and realized that the cadet was using his edge. Her first thought was to defend herself but she decided to give Murphy the benefit of the doubt. It was a serious violation of the code for one hunter to use his edge against another, and even though they weren’t hunters yet, it still applied to cadets, and she couldn’t believe Murphy was willing to break that code. It was a one way ticket out of the academy.

She s
uddenly felt the ground beneath her feet harden and the mud began to dry. Where the rest of the field had been nearly six inches of mud, around where they stood, it was less than an inch. He looked up, smiled and nodded that he was ready. Kile launched her first attack.

She couldn’t say she learned a lot from Murphy, but it was a refreshing change to actually leave the List without having to go to the healers afterwards.

“You know Murphy, if you really want to practice your defense, you can always spar with us.” She told the big man as they set their swords back on the rack after the training session was over.

“Really?” He asked, there was a note of excitement in his voice, but it quickly died. Kile glanced over in the direction that Murphy was looking. Eric was standing beside the fence with Roger, and the two did not look very pleased.

“That might not be a good idea.” He added.

“Look Murphy, I don’t want to tell you your business or anything, but there were a few things that Master Boraro actually said that made sense, and one of them was that being a hunter meant being alone. That may not be exactly true, but it does mean that you’re going to have to make
decisions for yourself.”

“Yeah, well… sometimes that’s easier said
than done.” The big man said as he started to walk away.

“If you change your mind, we meet on the far side of the stable, just after the chores. You’re always welcome.”

“Thanks” He mumbled, and then turned and walked away.

She
wasn’t sure what the others would say with her inviting Murphy to their sparring sessions that was if he even came. She never really had any problems with him, unless he was around Eric, and that was just the older boy’s influence.

Kile changed her uniform, retrieved her carrots from Big Joe and made her way to the stables. Assigned chores usually don’t start until after the supper shift, and that was still an hour away, but Kile had very little else to occupy her time, and if she could avoid the dining hall, that was even better.

The stables were
quiet, and Luke was nowhere to be seen, of course now she knew that didn’t actually mean he wasn’t around. She decided that if he wanted to watch her there was little she could do about it, but it wasn’t going to stop her from doing what she usually did, so she made her round, greeting the horses one by one.

She
looked over to where Grim was now watching her. She might have converted one individual today in the way of Murphy, maybe she could convert two.

“Good evening Grim.” She said as she separated the carrots and held one out to him.

Grim turned his nose up at the treat and then turned to look the other way.

“That’s it.” She said as she followed his head around and held the carrot under his nose again. “I can be as stubborn as you. I’m not moving until you take this.”

Grim gave a loud snort, spraying her with what she could only imagine was horse snot as he turned around in his stall, showing her his backside.

“Oh no you don’t” She said as she walked around the stall. “Give me one good reason why you won’t take my peace offering.”

-I don’t like carrots.-

The sudden response caught her off guard. His voice was hard and unforgiving but not nearly as loud as when he first spoke to her.

“You don’t?” She asked. She was under the impression that all horses liked carrots. “What do you like?”

He said nothing, and just stood there staring at her. At first she thought he was going back to his silent treatment.

-Apples-

“You like apples. I’m not sure if the cook has any but I can find out. You wait right here.” She said as she set the carrots down and ran back down to the kitchen.

“What… you need more of the carrots.” Big Joe said upon seeing her.

“No.” She said, catching her breath. “He doesn’t like carrots.”

“Not like carrots. What? He tells you this. Suppose he tell you what he does like.”

“Actually, he says he likes apples.”

“Apples?”

“If you have any.”

“I did. I don’t now.”

“Why not, what happen?”
She asked.

“I make apple pie for the staff
’s supper.” The cook replied with a shrug.

Kile wasn’t sure what bothered her more, that fact that he had no apples to give her, or the fact that the staff get
s apple pie with their supper. Now what, she wondered, apples were apples. What difference could it make?