Hunter's Bounty (Veller) (32 page)

“So, he’s in Azintar now.”
She replied. “But, what was that about Blackmoore.”

“Not the province
, mind you, but the prison. There’s an old prison located in the swamps of Blackmoore, it actually goes by a few different names. You may have heard it referred to as Blackwater, Blackshadow, Raven’s Watch, but most people know it as Blackmoore.”

“Raven’s watch.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve only seen the place once, but I can tell you it’s not a place you’d want to be locked up in. The thing I remember most was when the ravens were flying around the watchtowers. From what I was told it was a common occurrence. That’s why it’s often called Raven’s watch.”

“Or
raven’s shadow.” She replied.

“Yeah, I think it’s been called that once or twice
too.”

“
Ravenshadow, now it’s beginning to make sense.”

“Sorry.”

“A bit too complicated to explain.” She said.

“Fair enough.” The man replied as he
looked down at his dog. The dog gave a feeble wag of its tail before looking at the young man.

“Take it easy boy.”
He said with a reassuring hand on Tyler’s head.

-Can you tell him farewell
from me, and that he should not mourn for my passing.-

Tyler
asked Kile.

“I can tell him, but I know from experience that it’s doesn’t help.”
She said as she cradled the dog’s head in her arms.

“I’m sorry.”
He said, looking at her.

She took a deep breath, how was she going to talk her way out of this one she wondered.

“Tyler wanted me to bid you farewell, and told me to tell you not to mourn for him.”

“How do you know this?”
He asked, now the look on his face wasn’t as amused as it was before, it was almost troubling.

“He’s not afraid to die. They never are. They accept death as a part of the cycle, with his death new life begins.
It’s what he believes, so he’s not afraid to die. But he thanks you for the kindness that you’ve shown him these past years, and he says to remember him when you walk the white fields in the summer.”

“How can you know this?”
He asked, but what she told him must have meant something to him. As he looked down at his dog, he had to blink back the tears.

“But I shall miss him
. I don’t want him to leave me.” He said, barely above a whisper.

“He knows, and I can assure you, the feeling is mutual.”
She replied, now she was forced to blink back her own tears, why did the sappy stuff always get to her.

“Thank you Kile.”

Before she could say another word, the doors to the far end of the dining hall opened again, and heavy boots hit the floor. She got a strong scent of steel and leather, and knew that one of the guards was approaching. Slowly slipping out from under Tyler she gently laid his head down upon the pillow. The old dog looked at her and knew something was wrong as she got to her feet. A man dressed in the livery of the King approached.

“Sir, I was told you were in here, the men are making another sweep of the grounds. So far they haven’t found… her.” The
guard shouted the last word as he pointed at Kile.

“Guards!”
He bellowed, and his voice filled the room, echoing off the walls and probably wakening everyone in a quarter of a mile. She thought only her weapon’s master at the academy could yell that loud.

“I think that my queue to get out of here.”
She said backing to the wall. “You still with me Vesper?”

-Dogs come-

The yarrow warned from the safety of his pouch, but she didn’t need that warning since she could hear the baying of the hounds as the halls began to fill up with more men in heavy boots.

The lone guard drew his weapon and the sound of steel sliding
from its sheath sent a chill down her spine. He stepped between her and the man she had been talking to. It was obvious he had intended to protect the man and his dog from her, but he had also managed to block her access to the kitchen, and her only means of escape, unless she wanted to try running for the front door.

“By the order of the High King of Aru, you are under arrest.” The guard shouted.

“This is not necessary.” The man yelled from behind him as he got to his feet.

“She
is wanted for crimes against the crown my lord.” The Guard replied, but he had no intention of waiting to see if she was going to surrender as he launched his first attack at her. She easily avoided the stroke of his sword and recognized his stance as the clumsy maneuvers they taught at the Academy. She was sure she could defeat this one guard if she had to but there were already more coming through the doors. She had no desire to harm an innocent man, especially when she was trying to clear her own name.

The hounds were released at the front of the room and quickly covered the ground between their handlers and Kile, but, much to everyone’s surprise, they stopped short of actually attacking.
There was a momentary pause as all four dogs sat down in the middle of the hall and stared at her.

-Watch out pup.-

Tyler’s voice echoed in Kile’s head, and even though she wasn’t looking, she could see through the words of the old dog the guard had seized on her momentary distraction. She turned just in time to see the flash of his blade and spun away from his attack, but she wasn’t fast enough as she felt the tip of his sword bite into her arm. There was a deafening bark as one of the four hounds charged, plowing into the lone guard, sending him sprawling across the marble floor.

-Get out of here pup.-

Tyler shouted, filling Kile’s head with a sense of urgency.

She leapt over the fallen guard and sprinted to the
open door that led back to the kitchen. As she exited the room, two hounds were right behind her and more guards were coming in through the dining hall doors.

“She went that way.”

She heard one of the guards yell.

“Are you
alright your majesty?”

Another guard
was asking the man she had recently been speaking with.

She
stopped suddenly and turned around.

“That was the King?”

-Get down.-

She quickly
fell to the ground as one of the large hounds leapt over her, barreling into a guard that had come up the other side of the hall, knocking the man back hard onto the floor. Jumping to her feet she maneuvered around him and ducked back into the kitchen, slamming the door behind her and throwing the deadbolt. She made for the back of the room and had only just pulled up the grate when she heard the something strike the kitchen door.

-We leave now?-

Vesper asked.

“Yeah, I think it’s time to go.”
She said as she swung down into the hole and pulled the grate shut.

She was only three rungs down when the door shattered.

“Search the room, find her, she couldn’t have gone far.”

Kile descended down to the refuse pile, crossed over to the hole in the wall, pulling herself through she was gone.

***~~~***

18

The wound wasn’t nearly as bad as it felt, but she managed to clean it in
a small stream and wrap it in a clean cloth, or as clean a cloth as he could find, before setting off to Azintar. The day was already breaking when she reached Grim on the ridge, and although she should have stopped to rest she knew the guards would be searching for her. Why were the guards looking for her? How did they know she was going to be there? She didn’t even know she was going to be there until she actually arrived but somehow the guards had been alerted. Did somebody figure out the connection between Saybela and the other men, or did they already know.

-You’ve been qui
et.-

Grim remarked as he plodded across the field, moving in a southerly direction. They knew the city of
Azintar had to be around here somewhere.

“Sorry, I was just lost in thought.” She said as she shifted her weight on the
pony and laid crossed his back to stare up at the sky. “All the pieces are starting to fall together, but something is missing.”

-And
that would be.-

“If I knew
what it was, it wouldn’t be missing.”

-Perhaps you are looking at it from the wrong point of view.-

“What do you mean?”

-If you look at it through the eyes of this… Ravenshade…-

“Ravenshadow... and I have been doing just that. If Ravenshadow was the original assassin, why would he be so caught up in revenge, I mean, he was the one that was in the wrong, he can’t very well blame everyone else for doing what they were suppose to do.”

-
Was he in the wrong?-

“Of course he was. He killed the Prince, if that wasn’t wrong then what is?”

-But this Ravenshadow didn’t say he wanted revenge.-

“No, he didn’t, did he.”
She replied, sitting back up. “He said he wanted justice, but justice for what?”

-What does a vir know of justice anyway?-

“But that still doesn’t explain why these five men. What did these men have in common? Was it something to do with the prince? If that were the case, why were they all in hiding? Could Ravenshadow actually be innocent of the crime?”

It was not that far fetched of an idea. She was innocent of the crimes she was being hounded for, why not Ravenshadow. Could these five men have conspired somehow to arrest an innocent man?

No matter how many times she spun the pieces, no matter how many times she put them together, the puzzle just didn’t look like the box cover. Something was definitely off, and maybe it was in Azintar.

She stopped Grim along the side of the road.

-What is the matter now?-

The pony grumbled.

“I was just thinking. We can’t enter Azintar.”

-And why not?-

“Well, to put it simply, you’re too well known there.”

-Me.-

“Yes you.” She said as she slid off his back. “Don’t forget all the attention you drew last year at the academy.”

-I was not the one that burned down the
Great Hall.-

“I did not burn down the Great Hall.”
She shouted. “That was an accident, and it wasn’t even me. That was Eric’s doing.”

-If you say so.-

“And if I’m not mistaken, you did walk through the stable wall.”

-That was to save your life.-

“And what about chasing the horse master through the dinning hall and up a tree, was that to save my life? Do you think that went unnoticed?”

-He was an annoying little vir.-

“The point is we both have a reputation, but I can probably hide among the vir, you can not hide among the other horses, you stick out like a sore thumb.”

-And you don’t.-

Grim replied with a harsh snort.

“And what’s that suppose to mean?”

-You smell like a compost heap.-

She
had to admit he was right, she hadn’t been able to change or bath for some time now and crawling through the refuse pile within Windfoil didn’t help in the hygiene department.

“Well… I can’t do much about that now, can I?”
She said. “We’re going to have to find a place for you to hide.”

-Fine, then once again, I shall wait while you go and get yourself stabbed.-

“That wasn’t my fault.” She said as she touched the bandage on her arm. “And it’s not like I plan to get myself in a situation like that again anyway.”

-
Vir come.-

Vesper said from his place
between Grim’s ears.

She quickly
sniffed the air, but the mixture of smells made it difficult to figure out who these vir were, all she knew was that they were heading in her directions. She moved further back from the road with Grim and waited. It wasn’t until they got closer that she could hear them singing. They definitely weren’t professional entertainers with the noise they were making, banging on boxes and blowing small horns. Their voices weren’t even in harmony and she wasn’t even sure they were all singing the same song, but they did sound like they were having fun.

As the caravan came into view she could tell by the number of
carriages that it had to be one of the merchant trains. Grim must have stumbled onto the trade routes. The lead carriages were round barrels. Large wagons with round back that were often used as portable houses for long journeys. Following behind them were a series of flat bed wagons carrying an assortment of sacks, barrels and boxes. Where ever they were coming from, they had traveled a great distance.