CHAPTER 10 ~ HUNTER PROBLEMS

TWO YEARS TWO MONTH AFTER BANISHMENT

“Duck!” I yelled to Travon as the chair flew out of the tent flap entrance and almost hit him.

He yelped and leapt to one side. “Hey!”

I sighed, “If this is about Maglynar I am not taking the fall for you.”

He stuck out his tongue. “You’d let me down by myself?”

“I told you not to get attached to the thing.”

“You like him too,” Travon muttered. “Maybe it’s different. Like Hunter.”

That was my other big worry. I only had two. The first as that Ricald would discover the baby griffin and force us to give him up. Which wouldn’t be too bad, he ate like he’d never seen food a day in his life. But Ricald would want him for purposes I wasn’t about to tell Travon. The other was that I was being sent out on a search and destroy mission for the Hunter.

Since I had joined the army over a year ago I had heard the whisperings of the Hunter’s name. Spy, thief, rouge, magician, and heretic were some of the nicer names attached to him. Ricald was obsessed. Small things that went wrong in the camp were blamed on him and larger things too. It didn’t seem to matter what happened, it was never Ricald’s fault, but always the Hunter. Sometimes he was just an easy excuse, but at other points I wasn’t so sure. The fact that he was a real threat wasn’t disputed, it was how much of a threat.

“Aiden!” The yell came from inside the tent.

Travon turned to me, “Come back alive.”

“Coward,” I replied.

“But alive!” Travon countered as he took a step backwards.

I sighed and headed to the tent. I had to get out of this place.

The captain was sitting behind his desk a huge feast laid out before him. The map that usually occupied the spot had been hung on the tent’s curtain wall. Ricald took a huge bite of elk meat and motioned for me to come closer. I didn’t want to be close when the man was eating like that, but I moved anyway.

“We have been handed the final straw, Aiden. You will stop this menace at once.” Ricald came right to the point.

“Menace?” I questioned.

Ricald looked at me annoyed. “The Hunter! He attacked again. We lost over fifty slaves! They were just inside our boarders when he came at us. Not only did we lose slaves, but many soldiers as well. We need these thieves stopped!” Ricald explained darkly. “Especially now,” he muttered almost as an after thought.

I wondered briefly who was more of a thief. Those that stole the slaves from the slavers, or those that stole the free to be slaves to being with. But I held my tongue. What had he meant by his muttered words?

“If you cut off the head, the serpent will die. We need to take out the Hunter. Once we do that, we will demoralize all of Aerilya. They will not even want to fight when the major battle akes place. We will win the war and Aerilya.”

“Major battle?” I questioned. I had not heard anything of one among the ranks.

Ricald nodded absently, as he studied the map from his place. “Yes, even now King Brastus is securing a deal that will ensure our victory. With the numbers and natures of these men, even worse than you Aiden, Aerilya will not stand a chance.”

He looked at me as his hardened cold blooded murderer. It was a title I had done little to lose and much to enhance. What types of men were these that Ricald spoke of now? And how many were they? The Aerilya forces we fought were courageous in battle, but they fought more with their hearts. A great addition to our number would make their hearts grow weak.

“If this is true, than why are we not preparing?” I asked.

“We are,” Ricald’s eyes held a viscous gleam. “We will add to their horror, but taking away their one hope for salvation.”

“The Hunter.”

“Exactly. With him out of the way, the Arerilya will take one look at our massive army and turn tail home. We will slaughter them and King Brastus’ kingdom will vastly grow. The mission now is to make sure they are completely unprepared for the big battle.”

“How do you propose to do that?” I asked, not liking the direction of the conversation.

Ricald stood, and taking his elk leg with him strode over to the map. He used the leg to point out a wide area. “I have reports that the Hunter was last seen around this area. Go after him and take him out.”

I looked at the map and said nothing. The area he had indicated was huge and right in the middle of Mairbrac Forest. It would take days to cover it alone, not to mention I didn’t know the exact location of the Hunter.

“Then after I kill the Hunter, you won’t need me anymore,” I said out loud.

Immediately Ricald turned to face me squarely. “What?”

“After the war is over, my contract ends. You don’t need me then.”

“I can always find a place for a hardened mercenary,” Ricald sneered.

“Not this one,” I replied calmly. I was silent for a second, but my mind whirled with an increasingly good idea. I wanted out of the army, I couldn’t learn anymore here, and I was bored beyond belief. But perhaps, there was a way for me to exit sooner than I thought and with relative ease too. “I’ll make a deal with you.”

“Deal?” Ricald asked suspiciously.

“I’ll go after the Hunter and kill him, if you immediately rip up my contract,” I stated.

Ricald’s nostrils’ flared slightly, the only indication that he heard my proposal. His eyes quickly darkened. “I already own you, you are in no position to make any deal.”

“I’m in a better one than you,” I replied calmly. “You need me to perform your little missions. I, however, have no more use for the army. I have all I need. Your scare tactics don’t worry me. I’ve dealt with the master of them and you are no match for him. Or have you not noticed your so called punishments have not worked with me?”

“You are still under me!” Ricald exclaimed.

“Not for long,” I stated. “Do we have a deal or do I go back to sharpening my daggers and you get someone else to go after the Hunter?”

“You are not above replacement, Aiden,” Ricald warned in a low threatening voice. “The Wild Men will see to that.”

I had no idea what wild men he was talking about, but I was the only one he ever sent out on mission like this, which meant his wild men weren’t around yet. Ricald was a very impatient man, he wouldn’t want to wait from them to arrive. I took a step forward and lowed my voice as well, “Then replace me or give me what I want.”

“Get out,” Ricald responded.

I backed up and nodded my head slightly. “Your call… for now.”

I left the tent and walked back to my own tent. Travon was waiting outside. He gave me an anxious look, but I only smiled and ducked inside. I lay back on my cot and waited patiently. I knew I wouldn’t be waiting long.

Sure enough, I had just fallen asleep, when Travon shook my shoulder.

“What did you do?” He asked in a whisper.

“Why?” I sat up slowly.

“He’s mad, real mad,” Travon continued to keep his voice low.

An amused smile crossed my face. “Then I have what I want.”

Travon looked at me suspiciously, but for once the kid didn’t question. He followed me out of the tent and sat back down, while I continued on to Captain Ricald’s tent. I was going to enjoy this.

Ricald was pacing the floor in front of his desk when I entered. He glowered at me and for a moment said nothing. Finally, he stopped pacing and looked directly at me, “You leave in two days. No horse. Whatever you need, pack it to walk. I want a report in one month from now. Proof that the Hunter is dead.”

“And the contract?” I asked calmly. What proof did he want for the Hunter’s death?

He glowered, but answered, “I’ll rip it up when I have my proof.”

“No good. I want it gone now,” I replied.

Ricald laughed harshly. “You think I am so foolish to rip it up without your mission complete? No, it will be destroyed only when I have what I want.”

“Then we have a problem.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I don’t trust you either.”

Ricald leaned back against his desk as if he had all the time in the world. “What do you propose?”

“What proof do you want of the Hunter’s death?” I asked instead, buying time to think of a satisfactory compromise.

“He has in his possession a ring. It is emerald with hippogryph sketched into the setting.”

I raised an eyebrow. A hyppogryph was Elangsia’s animal. Aerilya, where the Hunter hailed from, had the unicorn. That meant the ring didn’t belong to the Hunter at all. Was it a Ricald’s signet ring? But then how did the Hunter come to get it?

Ricald glared at me. Obviously, I wasn’t getting an answer from him and I still needed to figure out how I was going to get me out of that contract. I was good with the physical, but Taerith was the one in the family who knew how to outsmart people. The thought made me pause. What would Taerith do? I wanted out the contract and Ricald wanted to insure that I returned. I needed to find a way to accomplish both since neither of us trusted the other’s word… but we did trust the contract.

“I’ll get back your ring and kill the Hunter, but only if you rip up my contract as it now stands,” I finally said.

Ricald gave me a curious look, “I’m listening.”

“I’ll sign a new contract commissioning me for this single job. Once this job is over our ties are cut,” I explained firmly.

Ricald rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Deal.”

Within mintutes the old contract was destroyed and a new one written and signed. I had only one job to do now. Kill the Hunter and then I would be free.

***

“You’re what?” Travon cried out on the day I was leaving.

“I have to murder the Hunter in order to get out of my contract,” I replied calmly. Repeating the rumors he had been hearing all over the camp.

“You can’t!” Travon argued.

I sighed and placed my hand on his shoulder, guiding him out of the camp, and picking up my pack as I did. I had packed it almost in identical fashion to when I had first started out from Braedoch Forest. We walked in silence for quite a ways, but I could feel him trembling beneath my hand. I could only imagine what thoughts must be going through his mind. When we had first met he was determined to kill me for murdering the man who had cared for him, Gidryon. We had never formally spoken of it after our initial meeting, but it hadn’t seemed like we needed to. Whatever Travon thought, he kept it too himself and had accepted me. Now though, I was once again becoming that man he had hated.

Our steps naturally took us in the direction of Maglynar’s hiding place. Travon called out a soft hello as we approached, but when I glanced at him, it didn’t look as if he realized he had made a sound. Maglynar bounded from the small cave Travon had found for him. He let out a small screech at the sight of us and half flew, half ran over to us. I frowned. He was getting bigger every time I saw him. He wouldn’t fit in the small cave much longer. He put his head under Travon’s hand forcing the teenager to rub it. But Travon was watching me, not the animal.

“Will you do it?” Travon asked quietly.

He was not quiet often and it disturbed me more than if he would yell at me. I could easily lie to him and tell him no. “Yes.” There went lying.

“Why?”

Was Zoe in the area? That was her favorite question. But this time it wasn’t something my mind created asking me, it was Travon, and I didn’t know how to respond. Any answer I gave him would not satisfy him… I wasn’t even positive it would satisfy me. I shook the thought away. One more kill and I was out. What did it matter the target?

But when I looked back at Travon I knew the target did matter. I sighed and dropped my pack to the ground before I answered.

“I don’t have a choice, Travon. It is something I must do.” It was far from adequate.

“Like Gidryon?” He asked his eyes not quite meeting mine.

This kid had worse questions than Firebrand. “Yes.”

“If I were there, would you kill me?” I had to strain to hear him. I wished I hadn’t.

“Why do you think that?” I asked instead.

“Would you?” He insisted.

“Travon, I wasn’t at the slaughter. I went in early and killed Gidryon. That was suppose to be it. He was leaking information that we needed stopped, I had no idea Ricald was sending troops back.”

“You weren’t there?” He asked, looking back into my face.

I shook my head no. “I went through afterwards looking for Gidryon’s granddaughter and you, but I couldn’t find either of you. So I figured you’d both escaped.”

“You looked for me?”

“I knew what Gidryon’s granddaughter looked like, I wasn’t sure about you. But I was going to try,” I answered, scratching Maglynar’s head.

“Did you covered Gidryon? They said he was covered.”

“I did.”

“Why?”

What was it with that question? I thought back to the moment. The memories and feelings rippling through me. “He deserved the respect,” I finally answered, surprised by the truthfulness. I had refused to analyze my reasoning before, I wasn’t sure I approved of the reasoning now. Did it mean I also respected what he had told me about his god?

Travon was nodding. “Only he cared for me.”

I focused fully on him then. “I know.” I watched his face as I answered. He nodded his head slowly and then looked down at Maglynar a haunted look in his eyes. “That’s not true anymore,” I spoke before I could stop myself.

“No?” His voice was so low.

I swallowed and answered slowly, “No. It hasn’t been true for a long time now.”

Travon turned his head so that his eyes met mine. “Really?”

The question held a lot more to it than one simple word, but I knew what he was referring too. And I simply nodded my head yes. Travon grinned, and the message passed.

“You still killing Hunter?” Travon asked.

“I don’t have a choice, Travon.”

“You do.”

He was right I did. How much was my freedom worth? More to me than the Hunter’s life. I wasn’t willing to think about the consequences of killing Aerilya’s hero, though Ricald had explained them quite well. I had other thinks to think about and focus on. The only way to get my siblings back together was to defeat Duard. I couldn’t do that if I was stuck in some stupid battle, or worse dead on a major battle field.

“No. I have to do this for reasons you may never understand, Travon.” Or accept, I added silently.

The kid nodded his head slowly. He was done arguing now, but I wasn’t slow enough to think he accepted my actions.

“When do we leave?”

Excuse me? “When what?” I asked, surprised.

“When do we leave?” He asked more firmly.

“I leave right now. You are staying here.”

Travon’s eyes grew wide as he stared at me. “With them? Without you? No!”

“Travon, I’m going to kill the Hunter. You don’t want to be with me when that happens. And I can’t keep on eye on you all the time.”

“I’m sixteen! I don’t need your eye!” He protested.

I laughed at his language. He might be sixteen, something I often forgot, but his words made him sound much younger. “Yes, you do. And no you are not going and that’s it.”

Travon’s whole face changed with my words. His brow lowered, his lips puckered, and his eyes hardened. The stubborn look would have made Arnan proud. It meant a challenge for me. Somehow, I had to convince Travon to stay behind. I couldn’t have him there as I committed my next murder. It was as if I was inviting one of my younger siblings to watch the horrors I committed. The acts might not bother me, but having them standing there as I did it, wasn’t something I could stomach.

“Look, you loyal to Aerilya, right?” I waited for him to nod, then continued, “So you have two choices. One is to follow me and try to prevent me from killing the Hunter. Have you hever known me not to get my target?”

Travon growled a low no. It made Maglynar look up from where he had laid down at our feet. He cocked his head at Travon and quickly stood. Travon glanced at him and took a piece of meat from his pouch. Quickly, he tossed it into the air. The griffin let out a screech and flew up after it. Catching it in his beck, he proceeded to do a flip in the air before landing.

“Show off,” I muttered, but Maglynar was busy tearing the meat into pieces. I looked back at Travon and forced myself to focus on the task at hand. “Okay, so you know you have no chance of stopping me. The Hunter will die.”

Travon’s jaw tightened and he stared at Maglynar. I figured he was putting me in the place of the meat. He would never forgive me for this one, but it couldn’t be helped.

“Option number two. You stay here and work for your own country.” I watched his reaction closely.

His eyes widened for a second before he looked at me suspiciously. “How?”

“Spy. Ricald just told me that there is going to be a major battle. One that Aerilya will have no hope of winning. They are bringing in outsiders to help, I think. Find out what is going on and send the information back to your own people. You’ve become trusted in the camp and Jaton and Sartan already agreed to look after you. You can best help your own country by staying, Travon.” I waited for the reaction I knew would follow.

“Help my brothers… no one could catch me.” He looked up at me. “Maybe we could still win.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know Travon, but it is possible. At least your country will have a chance.”

“Why tell me? You want me out of the way so bad?”

I shook my head no. “I don’t much care who wins this war. I have my own problems I have to look after.” My own family, I added silently. “But you do, Travon. And since you care, I’ll give you what information I can.”

“You are strange, Aiden,” Travon finally said. I wasn’t sure how I was suppose to answer that so I stayed silent.

“Will I ever see you?” Travon asked quietly.

“I’ll be back. I have to bring Ricald back proof that I killed the Hunter. He gave me one month.”

Travon nodded, satisfied. “I will see you in one month.” He stuck his hand out to me.

I smiled and grasped his wrist. We shook in warrior fashion. Grateful the explanations and goodbye were finally over, I picked my pack off the ground and hoisted it over my shoulder.

“One month,” Travon reminded.

I nodded, “Baring something unforeseeable I will meet you then. Take care of yourself. Don’t get caught in your spying.”

He looked at me as if that was not even a remote possibility. I laughed at his expression, though it reminded me again far too much of Arnan. Nothing against Travon, but it would be a relief to get away from him and not have to see the face of my brother so often. His betrayal was worse than my own. Still, that didn’t stop me from wondering where he was and how he was getting along. Or how any of my siblings were doing, for that matter.

I nodded my head and turned quickly to leave. I had only walked a few paces when I heard a harsh screech behind me. I turned just in time to duck before Maglynar could ram into me.

“What are you doing you crazy griffin!” I yelled angrily.

He looked up at me and screeched again.

“Go see Travon.”

Maglynar cocked his head and looked at me with his large blue eagle eyes. How in the world could the animal possible know I was leaving?

“Maglynar! Come on!” Travon called helpfully, from where he stood.

The griffin looked back at his friend and took a few steps toward him, before turning back to face me again. I waved him back and he took a few more steps, but screeched again. If I didn’t know better, I would have said he sounded sad.

Travon laughed. “He wants to go.”

“What?” I exclaimed.

“Oh, no. If you aren’t going, he certitnly isn’t. Calm him back!” I ordered.

“I did,” Travon pointed out helpfully. Or so he thought.

I was not amused. “I can’t be dealing with a baby griffin. What am I suppose to do with the thing?” I muttered out loud. “Stay, Maglynar!” I ordered forcefully, then turned and walked away.

I didn’t take a genius to figure out he was fallowing me after only a few paces. I didn’t get it, he was Travon’s pet. What was wrong with the dumb animal? I never fed it, why did it want to come with me?

I turned around again, “Maglynar! Go back!” I half pleaded, half commanded.

Maglynar cocked his head at me, a favorite habit of his apparently.

“Call this thing back!” I glared at Travon.

He held up his hands in a surrender motion. “He wants to go.”

“Don’t you want him to stay?” I asked trying a different tactic.

“Yes,” Travon answered truthfully. “But he wants you. Maybe he’ll help.”

“Help?” I almost choked out. I did not want this.

“He’ll scare people,” Travon shrugged. He walked over to where Maglynar waited patiently for me to start again. He crouched down and wrapped his arms around the griffin’s neck, giving it a squeeze. “Don’t forget me. Help Aiden. Goodbye.”

Maglynar ducked his head and rubbed it against the kid, letting out a soft screech. Travon nodded and let go. He stood and smiled at me.

“He likes elk best.”

This was not happening.

“He’ll help.” Travon said confidently. I swore he looked proud that the griffin had chosen to go with me. “I don’t need him spying. I’d worry. Better he’s with you.”

No not better. Definitely not better.

“I don’t believe this.”

Travon grinned. “I’ll remember this!”

I groaned out loud, turned, and started walking. Sure enough, a few minutes later I could hear Maglynar padding along behind me.

“Bye Aiden! Bye Maglynar! See you in one month!”

Was it just me or was his wording getting better? I shook my head at the stupid thought and trudged ahead. Travon had actually handled the situation really well. I treated him as if he was eleven or twelve, but he wasn’t. He was growing fast and taking on more than a kid that age should have too.

Maglynar gave a low goodbye screech back. I groaned again. It was going to be a long trip.