CHAPTER 6 ~ GIDRYON’S PROPHESY REVELED

ONE YEAR ONE MONTH AFTER BANISHMENT

I walked numbly through the destroyed village. Bodies were strewn everywhere, dogs had arrows in them, baskets lay trampled, water jugs spilled, roofs caved in, and blood ran like streams. I searched the faces as I walked through, but could find no sign of the little girl. I couldn’t remember her name, but Gidryon had said she was leaving, maybe she had gotten out safely.

I was in old grandfather’s village. It had been massacred on Captain Ricald’s order. There had been no battle and it had taken no time to complete. The village had never seen us coming, hadn’t stood a chance. No explanation had been given for our vicious advance.

As I stepped over a child’s body, I heard a meow. I knelt and lifted the boy’s arm. A cat crawled out and meowed pitifully. Was this the cat that the boy had chased over a month ago? The cat nudged the boy’s body again and I turned away. Why had this happened? I had killed Gidryon, these people could no longer help the Hunter, so why had we killed them? It seemed senseless. Killing for a reason, I could understand, even enjoy, but this?

I shook my head and headed out of the village. After the massacre the army had kept going. I had to catch up.

***

I watched the bush move against the wind again. Someone had been following the army for over three weeks now, but he had yet to show his face. The army had continued to move northeast along the boarder of the forest. There had been no break since the massacre of Gidryon’s village, but I hadn’t been sent out on a private mission for Ricald either. However, I had been doing some scouting around the camp and I was pretty sure it was only one person and probably a young one at that. He left behind obvious signs, but was making attempts to cover smaller ones. It was amusing , expect for the fact that I had yet to catch the little spy. I was about to rectify that problem now.

I got up from my spot near the fire and headed in the opposite direction of the bush. Once I was out of the fire’s glow I circled around back. Practice enabled me to move without a sound, of course the rowdy laughter of the drunk soldiers might have helped just a bit.

Sure enough, a small form crouched behind the bush. It watched the men at the fire intently. The form moved his right hand and the fire light glinted off of something in that hand. The kid held a dagger. I wondered briefly if he knew how to use it. The question had barely formed in my mind before he raised his hand and let it fly. I was helpless to do anything but watch as it embedded itself deep into the arm of one of the men. He howled in pain as the others jumped to their feet, looking all around for the source.

While the kid’s attention was on the activity, I strode quickly to his side. Within seconds, my hand closed on his arm and I hauled him to his feet. He let out a yelp and glared at me.

“You!”

“Me?” I questioned. “And who are you?”

“I’m going to destroy you!” The kid yelled viciously at me.

I lifted an eyebrow, amused. “Just how are you planning on doing that?”

“Aiden! That you?” A voice called from the other side of the bush.

“Did you get him?” A second joined in.

“Let me at him!” Went a third.

They were such pains when they were drunk. I sighed and yanked the kid towards them. We emerged on the other side to see four highly drunk and enraged soldiers staring us down with weapons in hand. The kid shrank back, but only a little.

“This whelp what’s got you all up in arms?” I questioned the four.

“Nah, e’s bigger. Huge, even! Throw a blummen ax at me!” Hitz exclaimed.

“He threw a dagger and it hit Sartan, not you,” I stated calmly.

Hitz looked highly insulted that the intruder had not been aiming at him.

“Well, what’s he want?” Jaton asked in an annoyed tone, the least drunk of the four.

“Good question.” I looked down at the kid, but he was staring a hole into the ground and didn’t look up. I shook his arm hard, but the kid was stubborn.

“I’m dying back here!” Sartan cried out from his place still by the fire. He was holding his bleeding arm, with the dagger still firmly in embedded.

“Just get more fire brew!” one of the other soldiers said, not taking his eyes of the boy.

“I don’t need more juice! I need this thing out!” Sartan barked impatiently.

“Hitz, take him to the healer,” I commanded.

“But..”

“Go!”

This time Hitz moved at lightening speed, or he would have if he wasn’t busy tripping over his feet trying to move so fast. I motioned for the other two soldiers to go with them. They nodded wide eyes and grabbed Hitz, just before he hit the ground. The man was hopeless.

As soon as the four left, I sat the kid down on one of the logs. He made an ‘omph’ noise as he hit the log, but otherwise said nothing. Jaton sat across from him and took a swig of the fire brew.

“All right, kid, who are you?” I asked.

“Your death,” he snarled.

I looked at him, completely startled. But not for his words, because of his attitude, stance, even his face, all reminded me of someone else. Anther person I had left in my past. One who I was sure had betrayed us all. I was looking at my brother Arnan, a younger version, but definitely him.

Jaton whistled. “Attitude.”

“You got a reason to come after me?” I questioned, ignoring Jaton, and trying to focus.

“You murdered my village.”

Well, at least now we were getting somewhere. But I hadn’t murdered Arnan’s village. Wait, I hadn’t murdered any village.

“I’ve done a lot of things kid, but murdering a village ain’t one of them. At least not yet. So, you wanna explain further?”

He only glared at me. This was going to take longer than I thought. The only village I had attacked with the army was the one slaughtered only a month before, Gidryon’s village. The other places we had attacked had been mostly army camps. But no one had been left alive in Gidryon’s place. I had combed every inch of it myself looking for the girl. Besides, it had been over a month ago.

“No, he looks familiar,” a soft voice said.

I glanced behind the kid to see Zoe looking at him with her head cocked to one side. If she said Arnan, I was going to tare something apart. Still, I couldn’t answer her with Jaton and the kid there, so I waited for her explanation, figuring it would come eventually. It usually did.

Finally she whispered, “Gidryon.”

Would I never be rid of that old man and his village? Zoe hadn’t stopped talking about his stupid last words since we had left his dead body behind. Besides, everyone in that village had died. What could this kid possibly have to do with the old god fancying fool?

“He mentioned a name…” Zoe spoke as if she was thinking very hard.

What? Yeah, his granddaughter’s…. and there had been a second one. He had been mysterious about it. I tried to remember, but my mind was cluttered with other memories from that day and I couldn’t pull the illusive data.

“Oh, Aiden. What if he is the boy Gidryon mentioned? What did you do?” The anguish in her voice was getting old, yet for some reason I flinched whenever I heard it.

I turned my focus back to the kid in front of me. “You came from that village that helped the Hunter.” I spoke as if I was sure, which I was, sort of.

As usual, Jaton sat straighter at the mention of the Hunter’s name. I never did manage to get the connection out of him though.

“I’m surprised you remember us at all,” the boy’s voice was filled with scorn, but it couldn’t hide the pain.

“Everyone was slaughtered there. How did you escape?” I asked.

“I was out hunting,” shame seeping into his tone. So, obviously he hadn’t been hunting, off taming some young maiden was more like it.

“You have family in the village?” Jaton questioned, curious now.

“Sort of,” he whispered.

Gidryon had mentioned that the youth had been his ward, but he had been hesitant about it. If this was the same kid, I had no end of bad luck.

“What’s your name, kid?” I had asked already, but this time I thought I might get an answer.

“Travon. My name’s Travon.”

Zoe gasped. “It is him! Oh, Aiden!”

Someone needed to hog tie that girl’s mouth shut. Unfortunately, I was the only one who could hear her and she never listened to me. I chose to ignore Firebrand and focus on the kid sitting before me. What in all griffen’s caves was I suppose to do with the brat?

“So, you came to avenge your village, did ya?” Jaton asked.

The man’s words constantly surprised me. Travon nodded his head meekly. Now that we knew who he was and where he came from, the fight seemed to have gone out of him.

“Time to be a straight mouth, Travon,” I instructed at last, using the slang I had picked up for tell the whole truth.

He stared into the fire for a while before finally speaking. “I’m an orphan, I think. Never knew either of my parents, so guess that makes me an orphan. I been runnin’ since I remember.”

Taerith would start throwing parchments at this kid’s use of language.

“I got caught by Gidryon once and he struck me funny. He was different than everybody. I stuck around for a while to see how much I could bug him. But he didn’t get bugged.” The kid paused to shrug. “I never left.”

“His only family. Aiden, you killed his only family! You know family is important!” Zoe admonished.

“Shut up, Firebrand!” I growled.

Travon looked at me and I glared back. He took a quick interest in the crackling fire logs. I watched him for a moment, Zoe’s admonishment darting through my mind. I hated it, but she was right. Once again, I had parted families. The last time this had happened, I had become stuck with Zoe’s apparition and she had yet to leave. I messed this up and I might have to deal with Arnan’s too. That wasn’t something I was willing to risk. One annoying sibling from the past was plenty.

“Did you think you were going to kill the whole camp?” Jaton broke in again.

“It crossed my mind,” Travon muttered.

I chuckled darkly. The kid had spunk. I couldn’t just let him go. He had harmed Sartan and someone would have to pay for that, but unless there was a use for him somewhere Ricald would have him shipped behind the lines to become a slave. I glanced up only to see Zoe watching me intently. I would never hear the end of it if I let that happen. There were odd jobs he could do around the camp, but the kid wouldn’t be satisfied working for the enemy he had come to kill. I glanced at the kid again. Not that that was really my problem.

“How old are you, Kid?” I asked finally.

“Fifteen,” he answered smartly.

Young, far too young. I could feel Zoe’s eyes on me, waiting. I hadn’t done much right in her eyes over the past year, but then I hadn’t much cared either.

“I should kill you for your assault on Sartan. Instead, you’ve just become a prisoner of the camp.”

“No!” The youth yelled as he leapt to his feet, his face frozen in a protest of horror.

“He’s saving your life, kid, be grateful.” Jaton said sending me a look of surprise and something else, then he turned back to Travon. “By rights, Sartan can still kill you. Or at the least he gets ownership rights.”

“I won’t be a slave!” Travon protested again.

I snorted, “You don’t have a choice.”

I glanced at Zoe to see her nodding her head. Something she approved of? It had to be a first since I had been separated from the real Zoe. I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. Still, it was better than having Arnan keep Zoe company.

***

What an idiot. I thought with disgust as I watched Travon take yet another beating from Sartan. If it had been me, the kid would have been dead long ago. He constantly bucked everything Sartan told him to do, but for some reason Sartan hadn’t turned him over to Ricald yet. Sartan yelled again and this time Travon limped off.

I turned to stomp of into the forest with my bow, leaving the feuding behind me. We had been stuck in the same place for over a month now. The tree leaves were starting to turn color and that meant cold weather on the way. I had only spent one winter out in the land, I wasn’t looking forward to spending a second one, especially now that I was higher in the mountains. Besides that, I was getting restless. I had gotten used to the constant moving, always looking for the next kill. Now I spent more time looking for meat to kill, just to waste energy.

I stopped to watch the area around me. Rabbit stew was what I was craving at the moment. It seemed like a year since I had found a nice fat rabbit. The ones around here tended to be lean and hard, not even much blood to soak the meat in. A real rabbit sounded perfect, but right now, I’d just settle for making a kill.

The pounding on my right made me turn quickly. The coyote shot by at a speed that said she was being chased. I grinned and notched an arrow into my bow. Only one thing made a coyote run that fast. Sure enough, when the Eland came charging after the coyote, I let the arrow fly. It hit him full force in the side and toppled him. I rose quickly and flicked my wrist dagger into my hand.

“No way!”

The voice came from behind me and I didn’t think as I spun and released the dagger. Travon stood stock still as the dagger landed half buried and still shaking in the tree next to his head.

“What do you think you are doing?” I growled.

“Staying away from your dagger,” he replied, taking a large step away from the offending weapon.

“Your lucky it didn’t hit you between the eyes,” I muttered. Obviously, I wasn’t so lucky.

“I believe.” He watched silently as I retrieved the dagger, but he wasn’t silent long enough. “How’d ya do it?”

I didn’t bother to answer. Instead, I turned to go over to the Eland. The arrow had landed deep into his shoulder, but it was a tough animal, and he had only been stunned. I sliced his throat quickly. I had missed the satisfactory feel of the knife cutting its way through the skin. The kid was lucky he hadn’t managed to wake the animal up, or I would have skinned the kid instead.

“Teach me that!” Travon exclaimed from my right shoulder.

“Why, so you can use it on the rest of us while we are asleep? I don’t think so,” I replied.

The thought seemed to settle him, as if he had forgot for a moment his current situation. “So what if I do? You afraid of me?” He sneered.

I wiped my dagger off on the animal’s side and returned it to its sheath. “Afraid of who?”

“Me!” He said more forcefully.

“And why am I afraid of you?” I questioned calmly, knowing full well I was confusing him.

“Because I can hurt you!” His voice was very frustrated now.

“I doubt I have anything to fear from someone as puny as you,” I stated, as I pulled out a rope and tied the beast’s front and back legs together.

He was silent for a moment. “Wait…” He thought for another minute while I ignored him. “I ain’t puny.”

I spared him a look. He really wasn’t, lanky maybe, but not puny. He was somewhere over five and a half feet. A lot of arms and legs, but he had some muscles on him too. His hair was a jagged blond and brown. Ilara would be cutting his hair by force. Right now, his muddy brown eyes were meeting mine in a very defiant manner.

Finally, I just shrugged and picked up my catch. Quickly, I made my way back to the camp. We would be eating well tonight. The kid trotted along behind me asking annoying questions without pause. It seemed his estimation of me had grown, though I couldn’t figure out why.

“Kid, shut up!” I growled as we entered the camp and headed over to my fire.

Jaton and Sartan were both waiting, deep in discussion. They looked up as we approached and Satan’s gaze slide behind me to rest of the welp.

“We were just talking about him,” Sartan commented. “Why’d you drag him with you?”

“I didn’t. The kid followed him,” I replied as I hosted my catch off my shoulders and let it fall to the ground with a loud humph.

“And you let him?” Jaton asked amazed.

“I almost killed him,” I answered, sitting down and taking out my boot dagger to skin the animal.

“Why didn’t you?” Satan questioned.

“I didn’t know it was him.” I hated answering questions.

“I’m standin’ right here!” Travon finally protested loudly.

I didn’t bother to turn around, “Your point?”

When he didn’t say anything, I spared him a glance. He was standing with his arms crossed in a defiant mode. At least he was silent for a change.

Sartan shook his head, “The kid ain’t worth it. I should just let Ricald send him packing. It takes more effort to corral him than it does to do the job myself. At least, if Ricald sends him back I’ll make some money off him. Not as much as Ricald, but…” Sartan shrugged.

“No! You can’t!” Travon yelped.

“Why not? You brought it on yourself,” Sartan said calmly.

“I’ll knock it off. I’ll work for Aiden!” he cried.

I dropped my knife and the Eland. “You’ll what?” I exclaimed, turning to face him.

“I’ll work for you and you train me. Fair deal.”

“No.” I sat back down. Had the kid lost his mind? What made him think I would train him under any circumstances? Besides, he still wanted to kill us for murdering his village! He was a loon if he thought I’d help him do that.

“I’ll do it right. Firebrand would say yes!” Travon pleaded.

I was on my feet before I knew it and hand a hand around his throat. “How do you know about Firebrand?” I growled.

“Nothin’! Honest! You just mentioned her sleepin’! That’s all.” He chocked out.

Zoe had been in my dreams again… all of them had. I could see each one’s devastation as they were told we were no longer a family. Then I watched each leave again and again. Duard stood somewhere out of sight laughing at us all as the red hot flames and black smoke swallowed each one of the people I had called sibling. It played over and over in my mind. Somehow I was unable to shut it off. Yeah, it was quite possible I had called Little Firebrand’s name. It was possible I had called each of their names.

I let Travon go, almost subconsciously, and slumped back down to sit on the log bench. The others were silent. For so long I had been running. My only aim was to find a way to make Duard pay for all he had down to us. And somehow reunite us as one family again. At least, I think that had been my aim at one point. I couldn’t remember. I only felt violent hatred towards the man who had caused me so much pain. It was his fault alone that I was even at some idiotic camp where nothing mattered. I was supposed to be training myself! Yes, I had to train to beat Duard. He had defeated me last time. I remember. I had walked away without even a fight. He had stopped me with one word. One word! No more, next time we met, I would beat him to death. But I had to train first. I had to get all the training I could.

“I have to train,” I muttered out loud.

“Yeah, train me,” Travon added.

Train him? Why? It didn’t matter in the end. I could use the kid to help my own training. What he did with it was up to him, but it was time I stopped mopping around and got back on task. I would train harder than ever and when Duard and I met, I’d be ready.

“Yeah, Kid, I’ll train you,” I finally answered.

Travon whooped, but I barely heard. Nor did I really see the strange looks Jaton and Sartan were giving me. I had a direction again and nothing would make me waver. Daurd would pay by my hand.

***