Hunter's Academy (Veller) (34 page)

It was a small fire, surrounded by a ring of rocks, a perfect example
of what Master Folkstaff had taught them. There were a few things on sticks that hung over the flames, and were cooking slowly as Carter turned them.

“Look who’s finally awake.” Daniel said as
he walked passed her holding what appeared to be a cloth basket.

“What time is it?”
She asked as she sat up, by now the small cot in her cell was looking as enticing as the bed with the six inch thick feather mattresses that Master Folkstaff had described.

“Sun’s been up for about an hour now.” Carter
replied.

“An hour, why didn’t you wake me?”

“It didn’t seem necessary. It’s not like we know where we’re going.”

He had a point
she thought as she made her way to the warmth of the flames and watched Carter as he tended the morning breakfast.

“What are you cooking?”
She asked.

“You want some.” Carter said, pulling once of the sticks from the flames. She could now see that
, whatever it was, it once had legs.

“What was it?” She asked, staring at
the thing on the end of the stick.

“Squirrel.” Carter said as he pulled a strip off. He
stuck it in his mouth and she had to look away as he chewed on the tough piece of meat. “What? It actually tastes pretty good.”

“I’m… not very hungry.” She lied. The only thing she could see was Tik skewered on a stick, and although she knew that it couldn’t be that squirrel, it was still hard for her to look at the charred remains. Tik was on the other side of the forest with his family and his friends she told herself as she got up from the fire.

“You alright?” Daniel asked.

“I’m fine.” She replied and dared to look one more time at the charred little squirrels. She couldn’t blame the boys for eating, and at one time she probably would have joined them, but it was getting harder and harder to see food the same way she used to. She had spoken to squirrels, they had helped her when she was hungry, and although it all falls into the cycle of life, it still didn’t
seem very hospitable.

“How about some water?” Daniel suggested as he pointed to the cloth basket that now hung from the tree. She hadn’t noticed it before, but it was the hood off of one of the boy’s cloaks.

“That’s a good idea.” She said as she tipped up the basket and took a drink. The water was cold and quite refreshing.

“Alex thought of that one.” Daniel replied. “Originally he wanted to use your hat, but…”

“Alex?” She said. It was hard to believe the boy could be that resourceful as she looked around the makeshift camp. “Where is he anyway… and where’s Murphy.”

Although Murphy had taken his first steps on the right path, she didn’t feel comfortable with him out of her sight.

“They’re working on something, been working on it all morning.” Carter grumbled. It was clear that he still didn’t trust Murphy either.

“What are they working
on?” She asked. A feeling of dread slowly crept over her.

“They wouldn’t say.” Daniel replied.

Alex suddenly came bursting into the campsite laughing followed by a lumbering, an equally excited Murphy. “We got it.” He shouted.

“Got what?” Carter asked.

“This.” He said as he held a rolled up piece of parchment tightly in his hand.

“That’s… a map.” Carter exclaimed, jumping to his feet.

“It sure is.” Alex grinned, and he unrolled it and held it up for them to see as proof that was actually a map.

“Please tell me you didn’t steal someone’s map.” Kile pleaded.

“What if they did?” Carter replied. “You know the rules, anything goes.”

“Just because the rules say you can doesn’t make it right.”

“I’m with Kile on this one.” Daniel said, and even went as far as to physically stand behind her to prove it. “Where did you get the map Alex?”

“What map?” Alex grinned and as he pulled his hands apart, the map disappeared.

“An illusion?” Kile asked.

He brought his hands together, and the map slowly reappeared, shimmering into existence from nowhere. It looked exactly like the map they had lost in every detail, right down to the wrinkles where Murphy had a tight grip on it most of the time. Alex was getting better at controlling his
edge; he didn’t even look like he was concentrating that hard on it.

“I don’t understand.”
She said a she got closer to look the map over, only when she was right on top of it, did there appear to be a translucent quality to it. “What good is an illusion of a map?”

“
Not a map, our map. When we were waiting for Murphy to get the spheres from the farm house, I asked Joseph if I could take a look at their map. Once I knew what the actual map looked like, it was just a matter of time before I could recreate it. Murphy helped me fill in the rest of the detail.”

“Like what?” Carter asked
. There was no hiding the note of suspicion in his voice.

“Well… for one… not all the maps are the same.” Murphy replied as he pointed to the illusion that Alex was, in a way, holding. “The first map that Alex created, the marks were not in the same place. At first I thought it was just a mistake, but now, I’m not so sure.”

“So only the farmhouse was the same.” Kile replied as she took another look at the map and appreciated the effort that the two boys had put into it even more.

“
That's what it looks like.”

“That would make sense.” Daniel added. “The farmhouse, being the only man made st
ructure in the forest, would be the most practical hiding place.”

“
And the other two spheres would be located at different places for each group, that way nobody could follow anybody.” Murphy concluded.

“How do we know that’s right?” Carter asked. “We only have your word on it.”

“I studied that map every chance I had.” Murphy replied. “I may not have a keen eye for detail like Alex, but once I saw his illusion, I knew exactly where our points were.”

“But can we trust you?” Carter asked. They stood there, staring at one another for what seemed like ages, neither one willing to back down, Finally Kile spoke up.

“I trust him.” She said.

Murphy looked at her
and nodded a thank you.

“So you guys, where does that place us, which way do we have to go from here.”

“We were just talking about that.” Alex grinned. “And according to our new map, the closest point is northeast of here, maybe less than a day's walk.”

“I’m game.” She said as she looked at the boys. “Northeast it is.”

Northeast meant up, and that’s exactly where their path took the
m, up into the rockier, mountainous regions. It wasn’t exactly a mountain, but it was a steep path and on more than one occasion, Kile wished she had Grim with her to carry her to the top. They stopped once to catch their breaths and to drink from the makeshift water skin that looked as it if was dripping more water than it was carrying.

From their new advantage point they could see a great distance across the wild. In the west the smoke still rose from what had to be the remains of the
farmhouse. It wasn’t as black, or as thick as it had been the day before which only meant that it was finally burning itself out. Far to the east, a lot further than any of them had figured, they could see the tips of the towers of Azintar, their final destitution. With two more spheres to collect and only three days to do it in, the task seemed impossible.

Wordlessly they carried on, until the terrain got steeper and ultimately turned into a short vertical climb that brought them to the top
of a wide flat plateau sparsely populated with shrubs and little else.

“Well, now what.” Carter demanded as he surveyed the area, although there wasn’t that much to survey. The entire plateau stretched out for forty feet before dropping down the other side, there was nothing higher
than two feet off the ground, no building, no people, no trees and especially no golden boxes hiding orbs.

Kile’s
first thought was that they had come the wrong way, but was it by accident, or was it by design. She saw Carter watching Murphy. It appeared that she wasn’t the only one that came to that conclusion.

“What did you do now?” Carter asked the big man who looked as surprised as everyone else.

“Me? I didn’t do anything.”

“No, we just happen to be out here… in the middle of nowhere. There’s no telling how far off the track we are now, but we had to follow your map. Our target was probably somewhere off to the south
for all we know.”

“Look I marked the map as I
remembered it.” Murphy replied as he took a step closer to Carter. He wasn’t backing down this time, which means he felt no shame in what he did or he had nothing to be ashamed of. Kile slipped between the two of them and even though they both towered over her, they both backed down.

“We don’t have time for this.” She said.

“Knock it off you two, Kile’s right. If we’re not where we’re supposed to be, then where are we?” Daniel asked. “Let’s see that map of yours again Alex. Alex?”

And he was gone again. How could he be so annoying when he was round but you never notice when he’s missing. The brief moments of silence should have been a give away.

“Over here you guys.”

Across the Plateau a small hand waved
from behind one of the taller brushes.

“Look what I found.” Alex said, pointing to a large hole, concealed by the flora. A rope was tied around the base of one of the thicker bushes and descended into the darkness.

“You think it’s down there?” Daniel asked.

“If it was, then someone else ha
s already beaten us to it.” Carter remarked as he tugged on the rope.

“I don’t think so.” Kile replied. “We already know that the boxes can only be open by one key, they can’t be moved and they can’t be destroyed, so if our box is down there… is should still be down there.”

“Yeah, but someone else is down there too.”

“That’s
not surprising.” Daniel replied. “We know there are seven groups out here, three boxes per group, twenty one boxes total, seven of which were at the farmhouse since that was the most obvious hiding place, which still leaves fourteen boxes. Why not double up on hiding places.”

“Then there’s only one way to find out.” Kile said as she
tugged the rope.

Carter took it
from her “Where do you think you’re going?”

“I thought it was obvious… down.”

“I’m supposed to be protecting this group, I’ll go first.” He said as he gripped the rope and swung his legs over the side of the hole. Hand over hand he descended into the darkness until they could no longer see him. They leaned over the hole, eagerly waiting, straining to hear even the faintest of sounds.

“
I’m at the bottom.” Carter’s voice echoed back from the darkness.

“What do you see?” Daniel called
back.

“Nothing.”

“You mean there’s nothing down there.”

“No, I mean it’s too dark, I can’t see a damn thing.”

“I guess this is where that lantern would have come in handy.” Kile added.

“Wait
a second guys.” Carter called back. “I think I see something. Yeah, there appears to be a tunnel and a light.”

“Hold on, we’re coming down.” Kile said as she gripped the rope. “Hold on tight Vesper.” She told the yarrow that clung to her shoulder.

The drop wasn’t as far as it sounded when Carter was talking; she only had to descend about fifteen feet before her feet hit the cavern floor, which was surprisingly flat for a natural cave. The room was round, hued, almost dome shaped, out of solid rock. She could barely see Carter standing beside a hallway, or tunnel that lead away from their location. A faint, flickering light was visible at the far end. What surprised her most was that she could see Carter, who could not see her.

“Who’s that, is that you Danny?” He asked, as he turned to face her, or almost face her, he was kind of looking off in the wrong direction.

“No, it’s me.” She replied.

“I’m over here.” He said as he
turned towards her.

“Where is everyone?” Alex called out as he touched the cavern floor.

“Over here.” Kile said and watched as Alex fumble around in the dark with his hands out in front of him. Was it that dark, she wondered.

It wasn’t as if she could see them clearly, not as if they were standing in a lit room. It was more like reality had the color stripped from it and everything appeared to be in shades of
gray. Was this what she was seeing, or was Vesper seeing it?

Daniel came d
own next and stumbled into Alex, followed close by Murphy who didn’t move away from the thin shaft of light from the opening in the ceiling.