Hunter's War (Legend of the Wild Hunter Book 4) (22 page)

“Maybe you’re missing a few key bits of information.”

“Such as what?” she asked.

Jax turned around and leaning up against the parapet wall. “Have you actually looked at this outpost?” he asked.

“Yeah… sort of.”

He grinned. “You’ve never studied defensive engineering at that Academy of yours, did you?”

“It’s not exactly something a Hunter needs to know.”

“Well, maybe you should, because if you did, you might have seen what appears to be a glaring flaw in this outpost of ours.”

Kile turned around and reexamined the outpost, but she still couldn’t see what Jax meant. To her, it was like any other outpost, not that she had the opportunity to visit many outposts to compare it with.

Jax leaned toward her. “I’ll give you a hint,” he whispered. “Think, defense.”

Defense? The whole purpose of the outpost, according to Jax, was to keep the enemy, whoever they were at the time, out of Callor. The western wall did just that, and should the wall be breached, the solider could retreat to the kastelya and defend the ramp.

“The mainway.” Kile exclaimed. “If the wall is breached, and the soldiers retreat to defend the kastelya, it leaves the mainway open for the enemy to pass through. There’s no secondary defense.”

“Very good, Commander.” Jax replied. “But there is a second defense. The kastelya can be dropped into the mainway, completely blocking the path into Callor.”

Kile looked up at the kastelya again. “Are you serious?” she asked

“That’s why the outpost was built the way it was. Having the main road run under the city does not make living conditions convenient, but shift the keystones ever so slightly and the whole kastelya comes crashing down on top of it. Only the commander of the outpost knows how.”

“And you would do that?” she asked.

“Between destroying the outpost and letting the Uhyre forces into Callor, there really isn’t much of a decision,” he replied.

“At least it gives us another option,” she said, looking at the outpost with a new perspective. It wasn’t the prettiest outpost she had seen, but she would be sorry to see it fall.

“You should get some rest,” Jax said.

“Yeah, I think I’ll try,” she replied, stepping back from the wall. “You’ll let me know if anything happens.”

“I don’t really have to, do I? I mean, you seem to know before I do,” he laughed.

She had only taken a few steps when she stopped. “Do they really call me the Wild Hunter?” she asked.

“You heard about that, have you?” Jax replied. He shrugged. “I wouldn’t take much notice of it.”

“Oh, I don’t know… I kind of like it,” she grinned.

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

When Kile reached the top of the stairs, she was bombarded with images from the dogs on the eastern wall. They were so strong and so unexpected she had to grab the wall to keep her balance. Jax ran to her side.

“What is it?” he asked her.

She couldn’t say, at first. The images were all jumbled together, as if trying to see the same thing from multiple angles at the same time. She had to close her eyes to sort them out.

“Two valrik are approaching the east wall,” she told him.

“What? How do you know this?” Jax asked.

“Tedder smelled them, but he says they don’t smell like valrik, Kentor spotted them, but he says they are valrik. We have to get down there.”

“Who is Tedder, or Kentor for that matter?” he asked.

Kile wasn’t listening to Jax when she descended the stairs. All she knew was she had to reach the eastern wall. Something about the images, which the dogs showed her, wasn’t adding up, she just couldn’t put her finger on it. When she reached the bailey and was heading for the mainway, she was greeted with another intrusion into her psyche.

-What is the problem, oh Wild Hunter?-

Grim was walking up the mainway toward her.

The mountain pony should have been taken to kastelya along with the rest of the horses. What he was doing, walking around the outpost, she didn’t know, and at the moment, she didn’t care.

“If I didn’t know any better, I would think you started that nickname.”

-You can’t say it doesn’t fit.-

“Please, just get me to the eastern gatehouse, we may have a problem.” She said, grabbing hold of his mane and pulled herself up onto his back.

“Kile, wait up,” Jax shouted when he finally caught up to her.

“Sorry, I can’t,” she called back and urged Grim forward.

The pony didn’t hesitate and proceeded down the main-way, soldiers leaping out of his path. Kile would almost say he was aiming for the men. Looking up at the roof of the tunnel, she pictured the kastelya above her. Could it be dropped as easily as the Captain said, she wondered? The thought was a bit unnerving, seeing as she was actually under it at the moment.

When they came out the other side, the place was practically deserted. The civilians were quartered in the eastern section of the kastelya, and only a handful of soldiers was left to patrol this section. She climbed the rise up to the eastern high wall, where archers were moving into position. Quickly dismounting, she made for the stair. The soldiers stepped aside when Kile approached the hound who was standing with his front paws on the parapet, looking over the wall into the Callor province. She knew what she would see, since Kentor already showed it to her.

-They are just behind that hill now.-

The old hound said when she approached.

“Are you sure they’re valrik?” she asked.

-They may look like valrik, but they smell like vir.-

How was that even possible, she wondered? She watched and waited, along with the rest of the soldiers. It wasn’t long before two shapes could be seen moving over the hill, one slightly taller than the other. The taller one was supporting the smaller one, who seemed to be wounded. In all appearances, they looked like valrik, but then, why would they be coming to the outpost. Surely they don’t believe Moran had fallen.

They stumbled coming down the hill. The larger valrik was looking over his shoulder, while trying to help his companion to his feet. They weren’t moving very fast and the archers could easily take them at any time, they were only waiting for orders. Kile tried to catch their scent, by sniffing the wind, but she couldn’t separate it from the other odors. There were just too many vir on the walls, too many standing in the bailey below. All the smells were stifling.

“Are you sure they’re not Uhyre?” she asked Kentor.

-My eyes say they are, but my nose says otherwise,-

The dog replied.

She was hesitant, but there was only one way to be sure. Closing her eyes, she fell into her Edge, reaching out to the two creatures, who stumbled ever closer to the eastern wall. Within moments the darkness assaulted her. It was lying in wait, as if it knew she would try to make contact. She saw, for one brief moment, the shadow which lingered around the outpost, cutting it off from the outside world. The darkness was everywhere. She couldn’t be sure the Uhyre were in Callor, but the enemy was. They had the outpost completely surrounded, but she couldn’t do anything about that now. The immediate threat was the two valrik visitors. With the hounds by her side, it gave her the strength to turn her mind away from the darkness and toward the two figures.

She couldn’t determine whether they were vir or valrik; neither one showed up in the natural realm, but there was something else she was looking for.

Kile quickly opened her eyes-- now it made sense.

“Open the gates,” she shouted to the men below, before running back to the stairs. When she reached the kastelya, Grim was waiting for her. She took the mountain pony down the eastern ramp to the main baily, only to see the portcullis down and gates still closed. The guards, stationed in the gatehouse, looked confused, and didn’t appear very happy taking orders from the Wild Hunter.

“I said, open the gates,” she shouted again when she reached the men.

It was an older soldier who stepped forward, with is gray hair sticking out from under his helm.

“Are you mad?” he shouted, barring her way to the gate.

It wasn’t as if she could actually open the gate by herself. It took two men to turn the wheel which controlled the portcullis, and another three to lift the brace which barred the outer doors.

“They are being pursued. We have to help them,” she explained.

“I don’t rightly care one way or the other. These gates remain closed,” the old guard replied.

“You don’t understand. Something isn’t right.”

“The only thing that isn’t right around here is you. Please stand back.”

“I think you may be a little hard of hearing, sir. The Commander requested the gates be opened.”

Turning, Kile saw Private Emlyed of Perha Squad crossing the baily toward them, he had Privates Anurr and Ustar with him.

Emlyed, alone, was intimidating enough. He may be young and wiry, but he had the look of a man best left alone. Members of the squad said he had to choose between the military or the gallows. What sent him to the gallows in the first place, they didn’t know, nor did they want to know.

“Ustar, open the gates. Anurr, protect the Commander.” Emlyed shouted over his shoulder.

Private Ustar was of the Toreen tribes out of the Balaa region, a rather large, quite spoken man. He calmly walked up to the wheelhouse, which controlled the portcullis, and the guards stepped aside. It didn’t look as if any of the soldiers wanted to hinder the easterner. Anurr made for the stairs, which led to the top of the gatehouse.

The screeching of the metal gate, as the portcullis were raised, was amplified by the silence of the spectators. It stopped about two thirds of the way up, high enough for a horse and rider to pass under. The Toreen then approached the outer doors and pulled back the brace which barred them.

“You better get going, Commander,” Emlyed said. “We shouldn’t keep the gates open for long.”

“Thank you, Emlyed,” she said, urging Grim forward.

The mountain pony thundered past Ustar as he pushed open one of the outer doors.

Once Kile was able to put some distance between her and the overbearing smells of the outpost and she was back in the wild, her senses were alive. She now knew what she should have realized before.

It didn’t take Grim long, to cover the ground between the gates and the valrik. Kile slid off the mountain pony when he came alongside them.

“You have to help him, he’s hurt bad,” the larger valrik said as he stumbled under the weight of his companion.

“Alex!” Kile cried, grabbing the smaller one when he fell. As soon as she touched him, the illusion dissolved and she was looking into the bloodied face of Alex Bartlow. She turned to the other valrik, who was now a young man dressed in the King’s colors. “Come on, we have to get back to the outpost,” she said, ignoring the look on his face. He obviously never saw anyone with yellow eyes before.

“We’ve been avoiding the Uhyre, for the last two days, but I think they’re onto us now,” the young man explained as he helped her get Alex onto the pony. “I’ve been sent to bring word to the Commander of the outpost of Moran.”

“That can wait. We can’t stay out here,” she told him.

The young man quickly climbed onto Grim’s back and extended a hand to help her up, but before she could take it, she heard the sound of maniacal laughter. It pierced her skull and dropped her to her knees, driving all other thoughts out of her head. She tried covering her ears, but it was no use, the laughter wasn’t coming from the world around her, it was coming from somewhere deep inside her.

The darkness soon followed, descending upon her from all sides, isolating her from the natural world. She felt as if she was floating in a thick black liquid, falling asleep to the sound of the laughter. She was returning to the long slumber, deep in the silence of the pits, and she didn’t want to wake up this time.

-Keep it together,-

Grim shouted with such force and malice, it shattered the darkness.

She grabbed hold of that one life line, pulling herself out of the pit and back to reality. As she regained her sense, she could feel the presences of the reptilian wolves all around her. They had cloaked themselves within the shadows that clouded her mind, but now she could feel them.

Looking up, she saw the young man with his hand extended toward her. He had a confused look on his face, or it might have been fear. She quickly grabbed hold of him and he pulled her up onto Grim’s back. No sooner did her feet leave the ground, then the pony turned, and made for the outpost.

The reptilian wolves had no need to hide now as they emerged from the tall grass, casting off their shadows. Had they always been that close? They could have stopped the messenger at any time, but they waited. What were they waiting for? Was this all a trick to lure her out of the outpost, away from the safety of the pack?

Mountain ponies were not built for speed, but for endurance, and it wouldn’t take long before the wolves overtook them. It was a race to see who would reach the outpost first. As one of the wolves got dangerously close, an arrow, shot from the wall, flew past Kile and struck the wolf in the head. It didn’t kill it, but it slowed it down enough for Grim to put some distance between them.

When they got closer to the outpost, it rained arrows, cutting off their pursuers. Two of the wolves went down in the volley, the rest scattered. Grim slipped through the narrow opening of the gates as Ustar and three other guards quickly closed them.

“Get Sumsor down here now,” Kile shouted as she slid off the back of the pony. Emlyed, and the old guard, helped Alex down. They gently laid him on the ground, where Kile knelt beside him.

The wounds to his shoulder and his right arm were bad, but it was the injury to the right side of his face which frightened her. It was hard for her to see her old friend like this.

***~~~***

14

“How bad is it?” Kile asked when she entered the darkened room.

Sumsor was washing his hands in a large bowl his assistant was holding. The water was a foreboding shade of red.