Hunter's War (Legend of the Wild Hunter Book 4) (12 page)

“What are you waiting for?” Tullner asked.

“What? Are you in a hurry to get rid of me?”

“No,” he replied, glancing over at the bear who was still watching him carefully.

“I’m waiting for my guide, and I think that’s him now.” She said, pointing to a small speck on the horizon.

“Is that a bat?” Tullner asked as it got closer.

“Can you think of anything else who can navigate through total darkness?”

The bat flew around them for a while before awkwardly landing on Kile’s hat, and he crawled his way over the top to sit on the brim. He was small, much smaller than Vesper, and was covered with short brown fur. With his wings folded up, he was little more than three inches long.

“Thank you for coming,” she said.

-Help is needed.-

The bat, whispered.

His voice was soft and, dare she say, eerie. At first, she never liked bats, not since her brother tricked her into going into the old barn down by the river. When she opened the doors, hundreds of bats flew at her. They got tangled in her hair and in her clothes, and she freaked out. She avoided them ever since, until last years, when they redeemed themselves in her eyes. It was a colony of bats who aided her escape from the Hunters in Littenbeck.

“Then you will help me?”

-What need have you?-

“The cave,” she said, putting into the word, all the meaning and information she needed him to understand.

-Help as I may.-

He replied.

“I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Kile, this is Tullner, Vesper and Burgora.”

-Epoh-

He whispered.

“Epoh, that’s an interesting name. Thank you again for your help, Epoh.”

“This can’t be real,” Tullner said, shaking his head.

“Well, I did try to warn you,” she replied. “Real or not it’s going to get weirder. Try not to scare off the deer when they arrive.”

“What? What deer?” Tullner asked, but Kile had already entered the cave, if she heard him, she didn’t reply.

***~~~***

9

The cave was dark, so dark she had to abandon the use of her own sight and rely completely on Epoh’s. It was a strange sensation. She didn’t “see” the twist and turns of the cave, but rather “sensed” where they were. Still, the progress was slow. Epoh was able to show her the path to take, but she was still forced to navigate by hand and carefully feel out the ground with her foot, before committing to a step. Loose stones and the uneven ground, proved challenging. She had almost wished she had taken Tullner up on his offer to go in her stead, but she knew he would never have gotten this far.

The ground sloped suddenly and she braced herself against the wall. It was not the first, pitch-black tunnel she found herself in. When she broke into Windfoil, she was forced to crawl through a small underground river bed, in order to get past the outer walls. Fortunately, within this cave, she was able to stand upright, at least most of the time. There were still a few sections where she had to keep low, or climb over something blocking her way. The path was not as straight or as flat as she had hoped.

The ball of twine was growing smaller with every step she took, until eventually it ended. Now what? Without the twine, she lost her direct path to the exit. She was pretty sure, with Epoh’s help, she would be able to find her way back, but that’s not what she was worried about. In a brief moment of optimism, which was uncommon for her, she thought about the survivors. How would they navigate back to the exit without the twine to guide them through the dark? She tied the end off to what appeared to be a small rock, and placed it where she would be able to find it again before continuing forward. If nothing else, it freed her hands so she could feel her way deeper into the cave. She would go a little further, and if nothing looked promising, she would be forced to turn back.

Another sudden drop brought her to a wider cavern, where she noticed something odd. There was a grayness to the void that wasn’t there before. At first, she couldn’t comprehend what it was, but then it occurred to her, she was seeing the far side of the cavern. And if she could see it, there had to be a light source. Even
her
eyes couldn’t see in total darkness, but it wouldn’t take much light, before her night vision kicked in.

Now that she was able to use her own eyes, she could move faster. She followed the source of the light to the other side of the cavern where it seeped through a small hole, about two feet off the ground. When she got closer, she heard voices.

They sounded garbled at first, but the longer she listened, the more she understood. These were not the guttural sounds of the valrik, but the speech of the vir, muffled behind the thick stone. This had to be the remaining members of Perha Squad. Unfortunately, hearing them and reaching them were two different things. Removing her hat, she carefully set it on the ground. Epoh was still clinging to the brim. She placed Vesper beside him before attempting to widen the hole. The rocks came away quite easily, and it didn’t take long before it was large enough for her to crawl through.

“You two wait here, I’ll be right back,” she told them.

Climbing up into the hole, she was able to crawl another ten feet before she hit a dead end. She couldn’t go any further, but she might not have to. Cracks in the wall where giving way to light and she could hear the voices on the other side, although she still couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. She tried pushing against the obstruction, hoping to dislodge it, but it was no use. Searching the areas in front of her, she picked up a small stone and started to tap out a simple rhythm. The voices went silent.

Calling out to them would be a mistake. There was no way of telling if they were alone, or if it was even them. The valrik were known to work with some unsavory characters, and some of those being vir. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much of a choice, she had to make contact if she was ever going to find out. Laying around in a dark hole was not a way to wait out the war.

She tapped the simple rhythm again.

“It came from over here,” she suddenly heard someone whisper.

Whoever it was, was very close, close enough to block out the light. There was movement on the other side, and people began to shift back and forth.

Kile tapped out the rhythm again.

“I heard it that time,” someone yelled.

“Quiet, do you want them to hear us?”

Suddenly all sound on the other side of the wall stopped. Everything went quiet, and then, very softly, she heard a gentle tapping. It was the same simple rhythm she had been using. She repeated it and waited. She heard it again.

After the third time, there was a burst of activity on the other side of the wall, and the sound of fingers digging. The light suddenly got brighter and face appeared before her, framed in the opening hole. It was Private Nasom.

“Hey guys, it’s Kile,” He said in a loud whisper.

Nasom’s face was quickly replaced by Sandson.

“Kile, is that really you? How did you get here?” he asked.

“This really isn’t the time for explanations.” She replied. “We have to get this hole wider.”

“Anurr, Ustar, get over here and give me a hand,” he said.

“Hold up, Sandson,” someone called out.

Sandson’s face disappeared from the opening and there was a lot of movement off to one side of the cavern.

“What’s going on?” Kile asked.

It was a moment before he returned.

“It’s those damn creatures the valrik have,” he whispered. “They’re keeping a close eye on us. I don’t think we’ll be able to get out of here without them hearing it.”

That was something she hadn’t considered. She knew the valrik had more of those reptilian wolves centered in the town, she could feel them when she sought out Burgora, but it never occurred to her they would be used to guard the prisoners. Although, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise, they were quite effective in the crags.

“We’ll have to find a way to slow them down first. Otherwise, they’ll be on us before any of us can get out here,” Sandson added.

There was only one way she could think of, short of killing them, and that would just raise the alarm. It was something she was loathe to do, but it didn’t look as if she had much of a choice. If they weren’t slowed down or stopped completely, they would tear the prisoners apart before they could even enlarge the hole, let alone escape through it. She made contact with them once, back in the crags, when she used her Edge, but the outcome was not, what she would call, successful. She almost lost herself to the shadows which surrounded them. She would have to be more careful this time.

“I’ll slow them down, but you’re going to have to work fast,” she told Sandson.

“What do you have in mind?” he asked.

“It would take too long to explain,” she replied. “Just give me a few minutes, and wait for the right moment.”

“What moment?” he asked.

“If this works, you’ll know,” she said, and started crawling back down the hole. Once she was at the end and was able to stand up again, she retrieved her hat.

“Vesper, I’m going to need your help,” she told the yarrow.

-Help Kile-

Vesper replied, climbing up her arm and sitting on her shoulder.

“This may sound a little weird, but… If I start to lose it, I want you to bite me.”

-Bite Kile?-

“Yes, like you did back in the crags.”

-Don’t want to hurt Kile.-

“Look Vesper, you have to promise me, If I even look as if I’m about to lose it, you have to bite me or stop me or… whatever.”

-If want.-

Vesper replied. She could tell he was reluctant, and she didn’t like putting him in that position, but it was the only thing she could think of. It was not the most ideal way of being brought back from wherever her mind went, but it was effective. The sudden introduction of pain would snap her back. She couldn’t afford to lose herself again. There was not telling what could happen next time.

Choosing a place away from the hole, she sat down, closed her eyes, took a deep breath and fell into her Edge. It didn’t take long before she felt the sticky black strands of the Maligar fill the darkness at the very edge of her senses. She did her best to resist it, but there was a madness lingering in the shadows, and she could hear the distant sound of laughter. She didn’t have the strength, or the time, to find out where it was coming from.

The first bright source of comfort she found was Burgora, at the entrance of the cave, and was happy to see the bear hadn’t eaten Tullner just yet. She even felt the presence of the black- hoofed mountain deer, which were waiting, some twenty yards from the cave’s entrance, but it was the dreaded reptilian wolves she needed to find.

They were outside the mines along with a handful of the valrik, but the valrik didn’t interest her. She barely knew they were there. They had little connection with the natural realm and so appeared only as ghosts to her.

The reptilian wolves, on the other hand, appeared as dark shadows. Not solid enough to have form or shape, they were ever moving, ever shifting, like ink smudges on the landscape. They existed between realms. She reached out to one of the smudges, touching its mind and merging with it. It was a mistake! The darkness was all consuming and she felt herself being dragged down into it. As their minds fused, she could see bits and pieces of its thoughts. It was like flipping back through a book and only reading every other page. The first visions were the most vivid, since those were the freshest, but they were also the worst. She was reliving the demise of Perha Squad through the eyes of the reptilian wolf.

She had seen the encounter through the eyes of the crows which circled the battlefield, and although the sight was horrific, she was detached from it. Now, looking through the eyes of the reptilian wolf, she was a physical part of it. She was engaged in combat with the same men whom she traveled with over the last couple of days. To see them die at her hands was more than she could take. She was losing her identity as the darkness descended and the laughter grew louder.

Just when she thought she couldn’t take anymore, the page turned. She was now surrounded by valrik. They were closing in on the sleeping town of Coopervill. There was no warning, no reason for the initial attack. They hovered on the edge of town, waiting and watching. What they were waiting for, she did not know, what they were watching, she could not say. She knew only the smell of warm blood, which was plentiful in the town, enough to satisfy even her cravings. A shrill call shattered the silence of the night. It came from somewhere in the north and echoed down the valley. The town was alerted, but not soon enough to save itself. She descended with her pack into the streets as the vir emerged from their stone dwellings. They didn’t stand a chance. Most of them were cut down before they even set foot outside their doors.

A young boy fled from a building with the odd sounding name of Bird and Bay. He ran down the street, barely clothed in his stocking feet, but he wasn’t fast enough. She overtook him just outside the blacksmith’s shop. His name was Toby. Why did she know that?

The night was filled with the screams and cries of the vir. Some tried to make a stand, forming a line across the road. They were outnumbered and ill-equipped. Many of them died in the streets, in the fields, in their homes and in the mines. Those were the lucky ones, hundreds were taken away in chains. It was all over in what felt like a heartbeat.

The pages were flipping again, filling her mind with visions and memories. These were nowhere near as complete. She was traveling through the woods, under the cover of darkness, leading the valrik toward the scent of vir. In the wastelands with her pack, as the armies of the Uhyre were starting to move. Roused from a long slumber, deep in the depth of the earth. Seeing tall temples dedicated to forgotten gods hidden among the dense forests. And now hunting again, but it wasn’t vir, these were the Alva who ran before her. She was floating in a warm viscous black liquid which spoke words she couldn’t understand, but she knew she shouldn’t listen to them. She tried to block them out, tried to sleep. But, there was one voice which kept repeating one word, over and over again, a word she knew.