Hunter's Beginning (Veller) Read online

  “Do we have a mystic?” Alex asked.

  “The mystic that preformed the sphere influence test during your entry examination. That is your mystic for the next three years. It will be his job to teach you guys how to use your Hunter’s edge responsibly.”

  “You mean the old guy in the yellow robes?” Alex shouted in surprise.

  “Yeah, that would be him.” Tree shouted back. “You’ll all be assigned sessions with him based on your individual needs.”

  “What does that mean?” Daniel asked.

  “Well...The more training you need to control your edge, the more times you will be seeing him.”

  Great, Kile thought, she might as well just move in with the old man and save him the trouble of finding her, how could he teach her about something that she didn’t have.

  “Has a Hunter ever graduated without any edge?” She asked.

  “Not possible.” Tree replied, an answer that Kile didn’t really want to hear. “Every Hunter has to prove he has a grasp of his edge before he can graduate, although that evaluation is also done one on one with the mystics. So no one, not the instructors, not your classmates, not even the guild knows what your edge is. That is something between you and the mystic.”

  “Then how do we know if we pass?” Tommy asked.

  “Again, that is between you and the mystic. Only he will know if you have a firm enough grasp of your edge. For some people it’s easy, others have to try a little harder. Just because two people are influenced by the same sphere, doesn’t mean that they have the same edge, and even if they do happen to have the same edge, it could be at two different levels. Say two people are influenced by the sphere of fire. One might be able to light a candle, the other might be able to set a house ablaze, but they can both pass if the mystic feel that they have a firm enough grasp on their edge based on their own limitations.”

  “But what if you’re not influenced by any sphere, what if you have no skills in the mystic arts what so ever, no edge, would you still be able to pass?” Kile asked.

  “You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have some skill in the arts, it just doesn’t happen. That like asking… can I pass if I’m not breathing, well no, if you’re not breathing your dead so you wouldn’t be here.”

  Kile thought about it for a moment, but it still didn’t make any sense, she knew what Tree was trying to say, but she just didn’t have any skills in the mystic arts. Could the old mystic have made a mistake? He did seem a little distracted during the examination, maybe he didn’t mean to pass her in the first place.

  ***~~~***

  10

  Kile lay on her bed, wide awake, staring up at the ceiling. Two months had passed since Tree’s graduation ceremony, and she was fortunately enough to be allowed to watch it. It appeared to be a rather simple ceremony, although she didn’t have much to compare it to. It was held in the great hall and seemed rather fitting with all the history and the grandeur of the Hunters displayed around them; even the painting appeared to have mellowed for the occasion.

  Each cadet was called up onto a small stage where they passed through a gauntlet of academy instructors and guild members, each one giving their encouragement to the young cadet as well as handing them some useless looking items which the cadet passed off to their seconds.

  When Tree was called it was his father that went up with him. The man was beaming with pride as he walked behind his son, accepting each one of the worthless items that were handed to him as if they were treasured artifacts to be prized beyond all worth. The only items that Tree was interested in were his destination papers as well as his Hunter’s ring.

  He didn’t get the assignment that he wanted, instead of being stationed in Baxter’s Bay, he wound up in a small town on the western border in the province of Denal, a place called Grover’s Den, not even Tree knew where that was, although he would never admit it. He never let it get him down. That was the one thing Kile was going to miss about the man that she had only known for a few days, nothing ever managed to dampen his spirits, he took everything in stride and it was something that Kile tried to do, but wasn’t having much luck at it.

  She pulled herself out of bed, walked to the widow, and stared out at the compound that was still asleep. It wouldn’t be long now she thought as she looked toward the sky. The sun was already starting to peek over the eastern wall, and with the rising of the sun comes the start of another day at the academy. For the first couple of weeks the boys have done nothing but complain about the early mornings and not getting enough sleep at night. It was clear that none of these guys ever grew up on a farm. If she had slept in as late as they do around here, her father would have kittens. He was never one to tolerate idleness, to him that was on the same level as murder or possibly even worse. Of course there were a few good things about waking up before the rest of the compound. She had the showers all to herself for one, and she was able to read the daily schedule posted on the board without having to fight her way through the mobs. She wasn’t sure who posted the daily schedule, but it had to be done the night before since it was always updated by the time she got up in the morning. She had been up for nearly two hours now, and was already dressed in her Academy browns, or that’s what most of the cadets called them. Brown tunic, brown slacks, brown boots, brown belt, there was a definite lack of style in this place.

  She pulled the chair up to the window and rested her chin on the sill as she watched the sun rise. The first sign of life was usually Luke as he worked the stables. He was the only one that got up as early as she did, and she had often through of going up there to talk with him, but he wasn’t exactly the sociable sort and he kind of frightened her at times. The next hub of activity was the kitchen, and on some morning Sir Oblum could be seen walking his two Shinar mastiffs, Hunar and Gorum. It was a rather curious sight to see, since Oblum always made it a point to present himself as a hard nosed military man, but when he was playing with his dogs in the field, Kile could almost imagine what he must have been like when he was a little boy.

  She sat back in her chair and looked around the room again, hoping for something new that she might have missed the several thousand other times she looked around her room. If this was going to keep up for the next three years, she would have to find herself a hobby or at least a book to read. She had already read through the manuals that they gave her for the classes, and wasn’t surprised to find them rather dry an extremely boring. They were something to be read before going to bed, not after waking up. Unfortunately the only other books she had seen were those in Master Adam’s room and he wasn’t going to lend them out so easily, especially not to Kile. He was another instructor who had made it quite clear that girls were not meant to be Hunters.

  A noise caught her attention as she turned back to the window and looked toward the Staff building, toward the door that Master West, the assistant weapons master usually came out of, but it wasn’t him. It wasn’t that she wanted to see him. Personally she thought the man was a bit of a stooge, he never had an option of his own unless it was handed to him by Boraro, but it was his responsibility to ring in the new day.

  Kile was starting to feel the solitude creeping in on her. She didn’t see much of Daniel during the day, her schedule and his never seemed to link up, and on those rare occasions when they did, he was often hanging around with Carter, or one of the other boys. She couldn’t really blame him for being able to make friends with the other cadets, even when they wouldn’t give her the time of day.

  The cadets didn’t want her there, and they had made that quite clear. There were the not so friendly notes left on her door, the mud that had mysteriously made it into her room, the overly seasoned food that had somehow managed to make it onto her plate, even a set of her Academy browns had gone missing. She wasn’t sure who had them, or what they were planning on doing with them, but what ever it was, she didn’t really want them back.

  Of course those were the more creative tricks, most of the time it was the hand
that knocked the books out from under her arm, or the unseen foot in the dinning hall that send her and her tray to the floor, much to the delight of the room. It always surprised her that a room full of would be Hunters that prided themselves on their observation, were never able to see whose foot it was, not even the instructors noticed.

  Her only true consolation was that Eric had kept his involvement to a minimum, although she sort of figured he had something to do with her underwear being posted on the bulletin board. She was so embarrassed that she had considered giving up right then and there, giving the cadets what they wanted and taking the walk of shame, but after she passed through those gates, what then? It wasn’t as if she could just go home.

  The most upsetting aspect about the harassment was that it wasn’t only by her classmates. Right now the first year cadets were preoccupied with trying to fit into their routines, to be where they were suppose to be when they were suppose to be there. They didn’t have the time or the energy to make Kile’s life a living hell, therefore it must be the upper classmen, or, and this was a bit unnerving, one of the staff members.

  The problem was that she had no one to report it to. There was just nobody to sympathize with her. The only person still talking to her was Alex, and he wasn’t exactly the right person to go to with such matters. She could try going through the proper channels which would mean reporting it Sir Oblum, but he would just accuse her of seeking special treatment, so in the end she was forced to endure the humiliation in silence and immerse herself into her studies.

  Their days consisted mostly of the academic lessons, classes that included reading, writing, mathematics, culture, history and even a course on ethics. They weren’t scheduled to start combat training until the early part of the spring, which Kile was quite happy with. Although she knew she had to learn it, and she was eager to learn it, she also knew that Master Boraro was one of the instructors that were dead set against her being at the academy.

  In the evening they had their assigned chores, and Kile was put on cleaning duty, which placed her in the dinning hall cleaning off the tables and mopping the floors after the supper shift. There were two other cadets assigned to work with her, but after the first day neither one of them showed up again. She had thought about reporting that too, it would have been the right thing to do based upon the teachings of the ethics class she was taking, but it would also have alienated her more than she already was, and besides, she preferred to do the work alone, rather than work with two boys that didn’t want her there in the first place.

  She found out from Alex that Daniel’s first assignment had been with the healers, but that was to be expected. It was no secret that his edge was in the healing arts, so it came as no surprise that they would want to capitalize on that from the start. Alex wound up with the one job he didn’t want, kitchen duties. It was his job to carry the plates of food from the kitchen to the dining hall and the empty tray from the dining hall back to the kitchen. His only comfort was in his reasoning, that if he was doing it now, then he wouldn’t have to do it in the winter. Kile didn’t have the heart to remind him that it was a random drawing, which means he has as much chance of kitchen duties in the winter as anybody else.

  After the chores it was bed time, or it was for her. There was no strict discipline on when you actually had to go to bed, if you wanted to stay up all night you could, you just had to pay the consequences the next morning. She knew some of the other boys stayed up well past lights out since she had heard them moving through the halls and carrying on conversations in their cells on more than one occasion. That was probably why they were so tired in the morning.

  Master Carl West stepped out of his small room on the second floor of the Staff quarters and walked, rather stiffly, down the stairs and across the compound to the old rusty bell. He stood there for a while, staring at something, although Kile never knew what, she couldn’t see where he was looking from her vantage point, but whatever it was it was obviously something that happened each day at a certain time since after it happened, he would start ringing the bell, and then the chaos would ensue and a new day at the academy would begin. The only difference with today was that today she had her first meeting with the yellow robed mystic. According to the schedule board, that was to be just before the supper period, which meant she would have to see the old mystic on an empty stomach, and there was no telling how long the lesson, or meeting, or whatever it was supposed to be, was going to go on for. Since she had no affiliation with the mystic arts, she couldn’t see it lasting too long.

  The sharp sound of the bell jogged her back to reality as Master West vigorously pulled on the rope. She listened for the footsteps of one of the new senior cadets coming down the hall, banging on the doors as he passed to wake up anybody that had slept through the noise, as if that was likely. From her chair by the window she could hear the sound of movement up and down the hall, as well as overhead as the boys rose from their slumber. She would give them a few minutes; wait until a few of them dragged themselves out onto the field before going herself. It was all part of her master survival plan not to draw too attention to herself, and being the first one on the field every day was definitely counter productive to her survival.

  It only took about five minutes before the first boys started to appear, some of them were still getting dressed as they ran across the compound to be first. Most of them were second or third year cadets, they seemed to have the routine down cold, like her they were probably sitting beside their windows just waiting for the bell to ring. It was some kind of contest for them, to see who would be the first cadet on the field. Today it was some red headed boy who was laughing at another cadet who had fallen while still pulling on one of his boots and trying to run at the same time. There didn’t appear to be any true animosity between them, it was all in good nature, but it was still competitive.

  When she saw the first boy she recognized from her class, she got up from her chair and stepped out into the hall to brave the madness.

  The dorm harbored it’s usually chaos as each cadet was searching frantically for a missing boot or belt, arguing over who’s got who’s pants and other such nonsense. It was a wonder that they ever managed to get out onto the field at all, let alone on time. Kile moved passed it all as quickly and as quietly as possible, while trying not to get squashed against a wall or bounced down the hall. If her window wasn’t visible from the field, she would exit the dorms that way. The distance was only twenty yards but it took her nearly ten minutes to navigate the mayhem.

  When she did finally manage to get out of the building, it was a simple walk across the compound to join the boys on the fields. Here they would stand until everyone was assembled, and one of the senior cadets gave roll call. Anyone who didn’t show up was often retrieved by a few of the other senior cadets in a rather harsh and humiliating manner. During her first week at the Academy she witnessed one of the first year cadets being dragged half naked across the compound in the field by two senior cadets. She hadn’t seen that boy since, and figured he was probably one of the two that had taken the walk of shame.

  It seemed that the entire morning ritual was overseen by the seniors, the only thing they didn’t do was make the morning announcements, if there were any to be made. That was a job for sir Oblum who appeared rather disappointed when he had to announce the names of the two cadets that had taken the walk of shame last week. Kile wasn’t sure if he was disappointed because he lost two cadets, or because he only lost two cadets, and what if her name had been on that short list. She could guarantee he wouldn’t have been nearly as upset.

  After the roll was called and everyone was accounted for, they were put through sixty minutes of calisthenics before being dismissed to the dinning hall for breakfast. By that time, anything the kitchen cooked was considered a deliciously. Kile retriever her breakfast from the counter and true to her master survival plan, made her way to the back of the room where she sat in the far corner, away from the crowds. At first Al
ex would join her, but she knew it was more out of pity than companionship, it was clear to her that he would much rather spend his breakfast with the rest of the boys trying to fit in, and she really couldn’t blame him.

  She sat in silence and made short work of her toast, eggs, juice and the gray stuff that came in a small bowl that she has yet to identify. The food at the academy only made her appreciate the food at the tower all that much more. Why was it, that they could recruit a mystic to teach them, but they couldn’t recruit a mystic to feed them?

  She finished her meal and took the tray back to the counter, then escaped the noise and confinement of the dinning hall as quickly and as quietly as possible. Once outside she was able to breathe a sigh of relief, she had made it through another breakfast without incident, and she had an hour to herself before the first of a long series of classes was to begin.

  The only place she managed to find any salvation was a small area on the far side of the stables. She would never dare to enter uninvited, Luke was probably one of those territorial stable hands and she had no intention of crossing him. She wasn’t sure what side of the fence he was on with regards to women at the academy, and she didn’t want to influence his decision by being a nuisance.

  She leaned back against the wall, closed her eyes and felt the warmth of the morning sun on her face, and the smell of pine on the autumn breeze. There was a slight chill in the air, nothing of any great concern, but a definite warning to an early winter. When the bell rang, another one of the cadet’s duties, it marked the beginning of classes, which mean Master Voreing political lectures, not exactly the most stimulating of experiences. She reluctantly got to her feet collected her books and headed over to the Great hall.

  Most of the boys were heading in that direction and she just moved with the flow, unfortunately they were not all heading for the same class. Daniel, she knew, had mathematics and Alex had his ethics class today. She would be alone for the better part of the day, even though she was surrounded by so many cadets.