Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (50 page)

“Who threw that?” He yelled as his eyes fell on Murphy, the only cadet unfortunate enough to be sitting behind him.

“Threw what?” He asked
. It was clear that Murphy didn’t appreciate being accused.

“Someone just threw a rock at me.”

“Sit down will you.” Eric ordered.

Reluctantly Roger returned to his spot on the
hillside, but no sooner had he sat down then another small stone flew through the air and struck him in the back of the head. He jumped to his feet again and spun around, this time Murphy’s hand suddenly jerked up holding yet another small stone. Murphy was more surprised to see it happen than anyone. He just held his hand up, staring at the rock that, for some reason, had suddenly appeared there. Daniel was surprised that the boy just didn’t drop it when he realized what it must look like, but that was not Murphy’s way of thinking, if he thought at all. Roger on the other hand was thinking, and the only thoughts that came into that boy’s head were those of the violent kind. He didn’t wait to see if Murphy had an explanation for what had just happened, or why he had a rock in his hand, he just launched himself at the other cadet, fist flying. Murphy, never one to back down from a fight, was only too happy to accommodate him.

It didn’t take long before the incident escalated, and the chants of “Fight! Fight!” w
ere echoed across the compound by just about everyone. The brawl soon became more interesting than the ball game as even the players joined the spectators to see these two boys beat each other to a pulp. With the distraction well underway, Daniel quickly moved into the throngs of spectators and grabbed Charles by the arm.

“Somebody wants to speak with you.” He told the nervous kids as he quickly pulled him out of the crowd.

“What are you doing, I don’t know nothing.” Charles cried as he tried to pull away from Daniel but when Carter joined them, the boy was a little more cooperative.

“I don’t know nothing.” He kept repeating.

“We’ll see about that.” Carter remarked as he grabbed Charles’s other arm, and helped Daniel drag him across the field toward the stables.

Even with the sun shining outside, the interior of the stables
was bathed in shadows and with the lanterns extinguished the only light came through the open hayloft door high above, created a perfect square on the straw covered floor, this is where they dragged the nervous blonde haired boy.

“You can let him go now
. I don’t think he’s going anywhere.” Kile’s voice echoed in the darkness, and Charles suddenly went limp.

They released the blonde haired boy together and the cadet fell to his knees. Carter retreated to the stable doors to make sure that they hadn’t been followed.

“You’re going to tell us what you know about the crossbow.” Daniel demanded.

“I told you, I don’t know nothing.”

“That’s a shame.” Kile said as she stepped from the shadows. The boy suddenly went pale.

“You
… you’ve been arrested.”

“Yes, a pity that.” She said as she crossed her arms. “But you
’re going to tell me what really happened, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Well, that’s funny, because my new friends here think you do.” She said with a slight grin.

Charles looked first and Carter, then at
Daniels.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” He scoffed. “Is this all you’ve got? What are they going to do?”

“Oh, I didn’t mean them, I mean these new friends.” She said, and she lifted up her arms and one side of her Hunar appeared, and on the other side was Gorum, Oblum’s two large black Shinar mastiffs. The blood drained from Charlie’s face and what courage he felt at that moment quickly sank away as the two monstrous dogs sat on either side of Kile. Even Daniel was intimidated by the sight of the redheaded girl standing there, flanked by these large black dogs.

“You see, they don’t want to see me go, and they have a feeling that you know more
than you’re telling.”

“It… it was a...
A joke, nobody was supposed to get hurt. It was rigged to simple misfire… it was just to make you look bad.”

“That’s a pretty bad joke.” Kile remarked, and Hunar second that opinion with a low menacing growl.

“I’m sorry, I’ll do anything you want, anything.”

“
First, you’re going to confess to Master Adams. You’re going to tell him exactly what you did and who told you to do it, believe this, if I get thrown out of here because of a stupid joke you pulled, then there will be no reason for me not to set my new friends on you, do we understand each other?”

“Yes ma’am.” Charles whimpered.

It was hard to determine who detected him first as Gorum, Hunar and Kile all turned around at the same time to see Eric duck out of the back of the barn.

“Dam
n, that’s torn it.” Daniel replied, “He’s going for Master Boraro.”

-I want him
.-

Gorum told her.

Why not she thought.

“Go for it.”

No sooner had she said the words then the large dog shot out of the barn in pursuit of the boy.

“Daniel, take Charles and the crossbow to Master Adams…”

“We have this covered, you get back to the dorms before Boraro gets there, I don’t think Alex will be able to keep him fooled, especially if he’s on to us.”

- I
’ll walk you back. –

“No Hunar, stay with Daniel and help him get Charles to Master Adams. If Charles doesn’t confess or tries to run for it, eat him.”

-Really?-

There was a note of pleasure in the mastiff’s question, a little too much pleasure for Kile’s comfort.

“Well… use your discretions.”

-Sure sure, take all the fun away
.-

Hunar approached Charles who was staring wide eyed with fear at the large dog. She wished that she could wait around to see what Master Adams made of all this, but she knew she had to beat Eric back to the dorms.

Kile went out the same way Gorum did. She was forced to give the field a wide berth since the staff was now out trying to break up the fight. Eric was well ahead of her, but the boy never stopped to speak with any of the staff members. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, it was because Gorum was right on his heels. Eric ran straight past Boraro and was going for Oblum’s office, he almost made it, but Gorum was quicker, and the Mastiff plowed right over him, planting him face first into the dirt. Oblum came running out of the office as he tried to pull his dog off of Eric, but Gorum had other plans as he sat on the boy's back, refusing to let him up. Kile wanted to stay and watch, but when Boraro join Oblum the two men together persuaded the mastiff to move.

Kile reached her window, jumped up to grab the sill and pulled herself in. She hit the floor hard and quickly got to her feet only to be greeted by another Kile sitting on her bed watching her.

It was a strange sensation to actually look at yourself looking at you. She cautiously walked around to the side of the bed, all the while with the other Kile staring at her with a vacant expression, it was all a bit unnerving. She reached out to touch her other self, and wasn’t sure what she would have done if her hand had felt something solid, as it was her hand passed through the other Kile’s arm and she slowly faded away.

“Pretty good huh?” Alex asked as he appeared behind her. She quickly motioned for him to be quite and Alex clapped
both hands over his mouth, but it was too late, the latch of the door was lifted.

Kile pulled off Alex’s cloak and shoved it under the blankets as she jumped into bed, sitting where the other Kile
had sat not too long ago. The guard poked his head around the door and looked inside. If he had noticed anything different, he didn’t show it.

“Everything okay?” He asked.

“Yes Sir.” Kile replied as she flipped the page of her book.

He scanned the room once more, then closed the door again, and
she breathed a sigh of relief. She quickly looked around but couldn’t find Alex anywhere. She was sure he didn’t go out the window, but she didn’t know if he had learned the invisibility trick that Carter had.

“You still here?” She whispered.

“Yeah.” The wall whispered back.

It was a section of the wall that blurred and became distorted as Alex appeared. He had created an illusion of the wall and
simply stood behind it. It was a pretty good trick, considering she knew he was in the room and still couldn’t see him.

“Boraro is probably on his way, you better get out of here.” She told him.

Alex nodded, not daring to actually speak as he started to climb out the window.

“Alex.” She called out to him in a hushed whisper before he disappeared. “Thanks, for everything.”

Alex gave her the thumbs up and was about to descend when she called to him again.

“Alex.”

He was dangling out the window now, holding onto the ledge as he looked at her.

“Don’t ever let me catch you making another illusion of me, you got that?”

She never got her answer as the voice of Oblum was heard in the hallway.

“Guard, open this door immediately.”

Alex let go of the sill and all she heard was the dull thud of him hitting the ground.

“Is there a problem sir?” The guard asked.

“We have reason to believe that the prisoner is no longer confined.” Oblum replied.

“Sir, as I told your staff member, technically she is not a prisoner, she is a detainee.”

“I don’t give a damn what she is. You will open this door now.”

The latch on the door was lifted and the door was pushed open, Kile looked up from the book she was supposed to be reading.

“I assure you sir, she never left this room.” The guard replied. “As you, yourself, can plainly see sir.”

“There would appear to have been an error.” A tall lean man with a long braided beard and a large floppy hat said from the back of the group that was now crowding her
doorway.

Boraro was the first to enter, this time the young guard made no attempt to stop him.

“Obviously you are not aware of the skills of the cadets here.” He said as he grabbed Kile’s arm. It was clear that he had figured it out, or thought that he had figured it out, that the Kile he spoke with was an illusion of sorts, because once his hand clamped on the real Kile’s arm he quickly released it.

“What’s going on?”
She asked as she pulled back from the Weapons Master and giving her best frightened look to Oblum.

“Yes, I would like
to know that as well.” The large fat man replied.

“It’s an illusion.” Boraro stammered.

“Clearly it is not.” The bearded man said as he stepped into the room. “Are you alright child?” He asked her.

“Yes sir.”

“And your name child?”

“Kile sir, Kile Veller.”

He crouched down, placed his hands on the floor and closed his eyes. She wasn’t sure what he was trying to do, but whatever it was it didn’t take him that long to do it as he looked up at her. There was a strange look in his eyes, and she had the feeling that this man now knew everything that had just happened in that room.

“Have you left this room at any time today?”
He asked, without breaking eye contact.

“No sir.”
She replied and hoped that this man couldn’t read her mind. He looked at her for a few moments, nodded his head, and then gave her wink.

“I see no deception in this cadet
, nor does this room tell me of any arts that may have been cast within it.” He said as he stood up and faced Oblum. “Cleary, I think we have another issue before us.”

Oblum looked confused. “What are you talking about Folkstaff?”
He asked.

“Far be it for me to accuse anyone of any
wrongdoing, and since there is no evidence…”

“Get on with it man.”

“These accusations seem to be more… personal than they should be.”

“What are you saying?” Boraro demanded as he took a step toward
the other Hunter. Kile thought that the Weapon’s Master was about to swing on the bearded man, but Folkstaff never flinched as he looked over Boraro’s shoulder to where Oblum was still standing in the doorway.

“I don’t believe we should be discussing this here.” He said calmly.

“No, I want to know. If you’re accusing me of something...”

“It just appears to me that you have a personal vendetta against this particular cadet. You claimed she had broken confinement, and obviously she hadn’t, you insisted that she was an illusion, and clearly she isn’t. You have made these accusations without proof. Would you have been so eager to accuse her, if she wasn’t
of Orseen blood, or a peasant’s daughter?”

“That’s
outrageous; you’ve heard the account from cadet Rimes. He saw her in the stables.”