Hunter's Bounty (Veller) (29 page)

“Is
she here?” Erin asked.

“No.”
Leon replied and didn’t look as if he was going to give her any more information than that.

“Do you know where she is?”

“No.”

“Well, I see your way is getting us a load of information.” Grey commented.

She shot a look at Grey that went unnoticed, or ignored. Grey was going to make this as hard as he could for her. She looked at Folkstaff and he just shook his head.

“Do you mind if we search?” Folkstaff asked.

“You’re going to even if I say no.” Leon replied with a shrug “Knock yourselves out, you won't find her, she’s already gone.” He said as he retrieved the grain sack and started across the yard again.

“Take Grey and give the place a once over.”
Erin told him, if anything it will keep the other Hunter occupied, maybe Leon would be more willing to talk under less hostile conditions. “I’ll take Daniel and see if we can’t get any information out of her brother. He may be more receptive if he knows Daniel was a friend of his sister.”

“You may want to focus your search in the barns and the fields, anywhere there is livestock.” Daniel added before following
Erin. Folkstaff nodded and made his first point of interest the old barn that stood off to the side of the field.

Erin
watched Leon as he filled the grain feed. There was some resemblance between him and Kile, they both shared the same red hair the same eyes, they even shared the same nose, but that was where the similarities ended. Leon was taller, broader; he would have made a fine Hunter if he had not chosen the life of a farmer, assuming that he actually chose this life and did not have it forced upon him. From what she knew of Kile’s father, that was more than likely what happened.

“You care
about your sister, don’t you?” She asked.

“
That's a silly question, of course I do.” He replied without turning around. It was clear that he wanted nothing to do with her, or maybe it was Hunter’s in general, but she couldn’t really blame him. If the guild was after her sister, she wouldn’t be very fond of talking with them either.

“
Help me find her.”

“Why would I want to do that?”
He asked turning suddenly as he dropped the sack, scatting a bit of the grain across the ground. That was another thing Kile shared with her bother, that lightning fast temper.

“Because if you don’t, some
one else might get to her first, someone that might not just want to bring her in.”

“Wonderful, you turn my sister into a… a freak… and then you chase her across the
countryside and you want me to help you. I don’t think so.”

“
She is not a freak.” Daniel shouted as he stepped forward. “She’s different, yeah, but that doesn’t make her a freak, and the academy had nothing to do with it.”

“What do you know about it?”
Leon asked.

“Probably more th
an you do.” Daniel replied.

“Listen, my sister was a normal girl before she set off to become a
hunter. She had a normal life here with a caring family and…”

“
Normal, Kile was never normal, not in the way you see normal, if anything’s she’s unique, and as for having a normal life and a caring family, did you know she never spoke of her family or her life here. She was ashamed of it, or frightened by it. If you believe what you're saying, then you don’t know your sister as well as you think you do, or maybe you just choose to ignore those things that don’t fit into your little world. Either way you’re not helping her by stone walling our investigation.”

Leon
turned to look at Daniel. Erin was sure that fists would fly as she got ready to intervene but Leon just closed his eyes and sighed. He was defeated before he even started.

“You
’re right.” He whispered. “She never did… fit in. Not in this world and by the sounds of, not in your world either.”

“Then help us.” Daniel
pleaded.

“I don’t know what I can tell you
.” Leon said as he ran one hand through his hair and started back toward the house. “All I can tell you is she came looking for information.”

“What information?”
Erin asked.

“
She was looking for someone, a man, an outsider by the name of William Rothershire.”

“
Rothershire.” Erin repeated the name as she pulled the small tattered half burnt book from the pouch on her belt. She flipped quickly through the pages and stopped at one that had been marked by an oak leaf. This was one of the pages that Kile wanted her to read, the one she had deciphered. It was a list of names, and the third one down was Rothershire.

“You’re
Erin.” Leon said as if looking at the Hunter for the first time. “You’re the one that found my sister when she was lost. You’re the one that put the idea of becoming a hunter in her head.”

“I’m sorry.”
Erin replied.

“Don’t be.”
Leon said shaking his head. “I may have been a bit abrupt earlier, but I truly believed that going off to become a hunter saved my sister.”

“Saved her from what?”
Daniel asked.

“From this.”
Leon replied with a wide sweep of his arms as he embraced the Veller farm. “There was always something about my sister, something I could never put a word to, but she was her own self and had she been forced to stay here, I think it would have… destroyed her, not that I believe the Hunters are any better. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against the Hunters aside from the fact that they are trying to capture my little sister, but they are still an organization of rules and regulation and I don’t think she can fit into that world any better than she fits into this one. ”

“I think I know what you mean.” Daniel replied with a slight grin. “She was the same way at the academy
. She had a certain flare for annoying authority.”

“I guess something’s never change.”
Leon replied.

“What can you tell me of Rothershire?”
Erin asked.

“Nothing much I’m afraid.
Rothershire was kind of an outcast in Riverport. From what I knew he only came into town to get drunk and start fights, I never really knew much more about him, I only heard about his death from Keith Wints who helped Garth prepare the grave. The thing is, she did uncover information, but she wouldn’t tell me what it was, she lied to me. She told me that Rothershire spoke of a place by the name of Grover’s den.”

“Grover’s den?” Daniel exclaim
ed, “You don’t think this has something to do with that do you? You don’t think she’s heading back there.”

“No, that’s just it.”
Leon said turning to Daniel. “That was what she told me, but that wasn’t the truth. I spoke with Keith the next day and he told me what Garth message really was, that Rothershire spoke of a man by the name of Saybela and a place called Windfoil. I don’t know why she lied.”

“Windfoil.”
Erin said as a worried look crossed her face.

“
You’ve heard of it?” Daniel asked.

“Windfoil was the name of the seat where King
Jusen I. reigned and some of the old timers still refer to the Waltair Castle as Windfoil, but I don’t see how that’s going to help.”

“Well, she did leave a message for you.”

“A message? For me?”

This was a little unusual. She never had a bounty that left
messages or clues behind deliberately.

“She told me to tell you that the four names in the book are connected, and that if she wanted to clear her name she had to get a head of it. She also said that there was a Hunter involved by the name of Garret B.”

There was only one hunter by the name of Garret with the last initial of B that Erin could think of, but what would he have to do with all this? Was this another trick to try to throw them off her trail, like lying about Grover’s Den, but if so, then for what purpose? She was leaving clues to help them, but then steering them off in another direction.

“She wouldn’t.” Daniel exclaimed
with a look of horror.

“She wouldn’t what?”
Erin asked, although she didn’t really want to know the answer. The one thing she had learned from chasing Kile was that the girl was unpredictable.

“She said in order to clear her name she had to get ahead of it.
You don’t think she would actually go to Waltair Castle and confront the High King himself.”

“I don’t think even Kile
is that crazy.” Erin said but a look from Leon and she wasn’t so sure. “You’re not telling us everything… are you?” She asked him.

“That’s all I know.”
Leon replied with a dismissive hand gesture that clearly stated he no longer wanted to discuss the matter. He turned and continued back to the house, but Erin wasn’t going to give up that easily. There was something more that Leon wasn’t telling them, something that he was reluctant to tell them. As she followed Leon, she saw for the first time, the young girl standing on the porch with a child in her arms. She had been listening to the exchange, and Erin couldn’t help notice the look of apprehension the girl wore.

“What happened here the night Kile left?”
Erin asked, grabbing Leon’s arm.

“It was nothing.”
He said, easily breaking the hold as he pulled back.

“It wasn’t nothing.” The young girl said from the front step.

“That’s enough Jenny.”

“No
Leon, they have to know.”

“There is nothing more to say.”
He said, silencing his wife, but then he was never able to silence her for long.

“She went crazy, she was like a wild animal,
and she tried to harm our child.”

“Jenny!”
Leon shouted and the young girl jumped.

“I don’t believe it.” Daniel exclaimed. “I’ve
known Kile, and she wouldn’t harm anyone.”

“Well, you didn’t see her that night.”
Jenny shot back, gripping the child closer to her chest as if just talking about the incident put her baby at risk.

“Jenny, why don’t you go back inside?”
Leon said, although it sounded like a request, it was much more than that. Jenny entered the farmhouse, letting the door swing shut behind her.

“What
did happen?” Erin asked again.

“You have to forgive Jenny, she was upset.”

“About what?”

Leon
said nothing for a while as if putting his thoughts together and feeling out his story before he told it. It was clear that he cared for his sister, so much so that he was unwilling to say anything that would have put Kile in a negative light.

“Ki only stayed with us for one night.”
Leon started. “When Keith arrived, she must have thought it was someone coming for her. She kind of… lost it.”

“Lost it, what do you mean lost it?” Daniel asked.
Erin placed her hand on his shoulder to calm him down. It would not do to antagonize Leon at this moment. She needed to know everything, and she had a feeling that this might have been what Morgan had warned her about.

“She kind of went… wild. When I tried to stop
him from going outside, that’s when she turned on me, there was just this… this look and her eyes…”

“What about her eyes?” Daniel asked
Leon, but it wasn’t Leon that answered.

“They turned
golden, like those of a cat.” Erin said.

“That right… how did…”

“It doesn’t matter. Did she threaten you in any way? Did she threaten your child?”

“No, no, nothing like that. She just ran out of the house. I thought she was going to attack Keith but… nothing happened. She never came back that night, not that Jenny would have allowed
her in anyway. I’m guessing she spent the night in the barn. The next morning I found her in the high fields. That's when she told me she was leaving… among other things.”

“What other things?”
Erin asked.

“It wasn’t
all that important.” Leon replied.

“Anything you can tell
us will help.”

“Well, it was kind of strange. She told me to set apart a quart of an acre for the rabbits and they’d stop eating my crops. I wasn’t sure what to make of it.”

“I do.” Daniel replied. “And I’d do exactly what she said.”

Daniel gave
Leon a nodding goodbye and headed off toward his horse, Erin quickly caught up. Only when they were far enough away from Leon did Daniel say anything.

“I don’t believe she had any intention of harming that child, it’s just not in her nature.”

“I’m not sure what her nature is.” Erin replied. “But I agree. I think that part of the story was from a frightened mother protecting her child.”

“Or someone trying to make more trouble for Kile.
It doesn’t look like she was wanted here any more than she’s wanted anywhere else.”