Hunter's Beginning (Veller) Page 26

  “Sir… do yarrows talk?”

  “Certainly not.” Morgan scoffed, as if the sheer notion of such an act was so beyond the boundaries of reality that, to even think it, was preposterous.

  “What about… crows? Do crows talk?”

  “Perhaps you should sit down child, maybe that last shot was harder than I had previously thought.”

  Crows don’t talk and yarrows don’t talk, but she heard something. Maybe it’s not that they can’t talk, maybe it’s just that nobody ever listened to them.

  - Finally -

  Kile looked up at the crow that was pacing back and forth over the top of the shelves staring at her.

  “What do you mean?” She asked him.

  - I mean it took you long enough –

  “You knew?”

  - I knew the minutes you walked through those doors, you knew it as well, you just didn’t believe in yourself.-

  “But why can’t anyone else hear you.”

  - Every species communicates with a series of sounds. The noises you make to Morgan are just that, noises. Dogs bark, horses whinny, crows caw, to most vir these are but noises.-

  “But I can understand you.”

  - Vir are the only species that refuses to communicate with anything other than themselves.-

  “But is it possible, why? How?”

  - How and why, I don’t know, and it's no use asking him, he wouldn’t know either-

  The crow said as it nodded its head toward the mystic who was watching Kile with great concern. Clearly he thought she had gone completely around the bend.

  “Is it common?”

  -What, vir communicating with the natural world, not that I’m aware of, I have never seen it within my lifetime, and I was raised in the tower.-

  “Then can you answer me this, why can I carry on a conversation with you, but when I spoke… well, actually I didn’t speak with the yarrow…”

  - Why was his communication so much more… primitive than mine? -

  “I guess that’s what I want to ask.”

  - As I’ve already told you, I was raised by the mystics in the tower. I have been in contact with them from the day I hatched from my egg. I doubt if you were to speak with any other crow, that you would find them as articulate or as intelligent as myself. -

  “I’m sorry, I haven’t even asked you your name.”

  - It’s nice to see that you do have manners, unlike most vir that I have the displeasure of associating with. My name is Kaza.-

  “Are you quite finished?” Morgan asked in a calm, but rather patronizing, voice.

  “Sorry?”

  “I don’t know what game you are trying to play child, but if you, for the slightest moment, think that you can get out of the rest of these tests by making believe you are speaking with… that crow, you are sadly mistaken. You must take your studies of the mystic arts seriously. If you can not hone your edge by the time you graduate, then I will have no other choice… but to recommend that you be passed over for certification.”

  “But sir, Kaza was only trying to explain…”

  “Kaza? Who’s Kaza?”

  “Your crow sir.”

  “The crow’s name is Nullus.”

  Kile looked back up at Kaza, or Nullus, or whatever the crow's name was. She had just spoken to it, hadn’t she? But shouldn’t Morgan know the name of his own bird.

  “It is clear to me that you have no desire to explore your edge and you are simply wasting my time.”

  - His favorite drink is rosemary tea.-

  Kile looked at the crow to make sure she heard him right, and the crow nodded toward the old mystic.

  “Your favorite drink… is rosemary tea.”

  Morgan turned to look at Kile, then up at the crow.

  “That doesn’t prove anything.” He said, but she wasn’t sure if his statement was directed at her, or at the crow. “You would have been able to smell the rosemary brewing, or… seen me drinking it. There are any number of ways you could have figured that out.”

  “But I wouldn’t know you add a shot of rum to it.” Kile replied.

  “What, that’s outrageous.” Morgan stammered. “To imply the fact that I would indulge in such spirits... it’s… it’s unheard of.”

  “What about the time you got drunk with Archie Black… and tried to play a prank on Willy Teel… but ended up setting fire to the queen’s...”

  “That’s enough of that.” Morgan shouted, waving his hands at the crow to silence it. The black bird flew from its perch on the shelf, staying just out of reach of the mystics grasp.

  “Believe me now?” Kile asked.

  “What did he tell you?”

  “Actually he never finished.” Kile assure the exasperated mystic as he took his seat by the flickering ball of fire.

  “Only three people knew what happened that night… well… four if you count the queen.”

  “You’re… not in trouble with the royal family… are you?”

  “Of course not… the queen may her soul rest, never found out who actually did it.” Morgan replied, looking a little nervous. “And anyway, that was a long time ago, I was younger then, and besides, it’s not very important at the moment.”

  “Kaza did talk to me.” Kile said, taking her seat opposite the mystic.

  “His name is Nullus.” The mystic replied, but he wasn’t as convinced as he had been earlier.

  “That’s what you call him, that’s not his name.”

  Morgan looked up at Kaza, then down at Kile.

  “If what you’re saying is true, then you truly are a… miscellaneous. I am not aware of any mystic, let alone a Hunter that can communicate with other species.”

  “Why now. I could never do this before?”

  “It is such a rare ability, I just don’t know. There could be any number of reasons. Your age for one. At the age of fourteen your body goes through changes, this could be a manifestation of those changes.”

  Kaza flew down from the safety of the high shelve to land on the back of Kile’s chair.

  - It could be that you are only now listening, only now believing in yourself –

  “What did he say?” Morgan asked.

  “He said it could be because I believe in myself.” Kile repeated, although she figured it should be more than just that, but at least the mystic acknowledged the fact that she was speaking with the bird, or the bird was speaking to her.

  “That is also a possibility. Sometimes through doubt we can hamper, or completely block our abilities. Remove those doubts and there is no telling how far your skills can take you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’ve only scratched the surface of your edge.” Morgan replied with a grin. “There’s no telling what you can do with it.”

  - He’s only happy because he has a riddle to solve –

  Kaza replied as he took off from Kile’s chair and returned to his perch on the shelf. How much further could communicating with a crow, or a yarrow for that matter, go.

  Kile sat in the dinning hall, staring down at her meal, but mainly at the mystery meat that was floating in the gray gravy. It kind of changed her entire perspective on things. What if she was able to speak with the cow, or pig, actually it could even be lamb. Regardless of what it was, what if she had spoken to it before it became what it is now. It was kind of like eating a steak of Daniel, or a roast leg of Carter, or and Alex pot pie. The thought of it made her nauseous as she pushed the tray away.

  “What’s wrong, not hungry?” Alex asked.

  Kile hadn’t told them what she had learned from the mystic, what she had learned about her edge. It wasn’t that she wanted to keep it a secret, it was just too weird to explain and she really didn’t understand it herself. She definitely couldn’t tell Alex, the boy means well but couldn’t keep a secret to save his life, as for Carter, he already looks at her like she has two heads, that would really give him something to think about. Daniel would be the only one she could confi
de in, but would he even understand.

  “If you’re not going to eat it, I’ll have it.” Carter said as he stabbed the unknown meat with his fork and flopped it onto his own tray with the gravy trailing behind like gray blood. She was being ridiculous she knew, but she still had to divert her eyes. She used to love a good steak; now all she could think about was the poor animal’s name, if it even had one.

  “Help yourself.” She said which was actually pointless at the time since he was already half finished with it.

  “You alright Kile?” Daniel asked.

  “Yeah, I’m okay.” Was her less than enthusiastic reply, as she took the broccoli from his tray. That was one good thing, she couldn’t communicate with plants. If that ever happened, she wouldn’t know what to do.

  “I can’t wait until the spring. This academic stuff is for the birds.” Carter remarked.

  Yes, the bird was pretty smart, Kile thought.

  “Winter just started, how can you possibly be thinking about spring already?” Daniel asked.

  “All I’m saying is that all this studying is boring, I want something practical, I want something that I can get my hands on, like the hilt of a sword.”

  “You think they’ll let us use swords?” Alex asked.

  Didn’t Leon mention something about sword fish? Could she talk to a fish? How would you communicate with a fish? Would she have to be underwater to do it?

  “Of course they will, swords are the Hunter’s weapon of choice.”

  “Yeah, but I doubt if we’ll start out using swords.” Daniel interjected. “We’ll probably start out with something easier, like the quarterstaff.”

  “Oh please, staffs are for girls… I mean… kids.”

  Kids? Could she have spoken to the goats back home? Maybe they were trying to talk to her all these years, but she just didn’t listen.

  “Nice save.” Alex remarked, rolling his eyes.

  “Doesn’t matter, I don’t think she heard.” Daniel replied.

  “I don’t think she’s here.” Carter added.

  Hares? They were like large rabbits weren’t they. Could she communicate with rabbits? What would a rabbit have to say anyhow? If she was back on the farm, she may be able to convince the rabbits to stay out of the vegetable patch.

  “Hey, Kile, you okay?” Daniel asked, poking her in the side

  “What… what about rabbits?” She asked.

  “Rabbits? Who’s talking about rabbits? We were talking about swords. Oh well, it doesn’t matter anyway, I have an appointment with Morgan.” Carter said as he got up from the bench.

  “What? Now?” Daniel asked. “Don’t you have gallery duties?”

  “Got out of it didn’t I.” Carter grinned. “Besides, what are you balking about? You have it easy, working in the halls of healing.”

  “Hey, they know talent when they see it.” Daniel laughed.

  “Real funny, I’ll see you guys later then.” Carter said, and then looked over at Kile. “When she gets back, tell her I said bye.”

  “Will do.”

  “I got to get the serving plates back to the kitchen before the cook balls me out again.” Alex added as he also got up to leave. “You still there Kile girl?”

  “What did he just call me?” Kile asked without looking up.

  “Yeah, she’s still here, and I think you better not be.” Carter replied.

  “Kile girl?” Kile repeated as she slowly got up from her seat.

  “You heard that one didn’t you?” Daniel laughed. “Come on, I’ll help you clean the hall.”

  Kile sat on her stool, knife in hands as she picked another potato from the pile. She was getting tired of peeling potatoes, and she kept asking herself was it really worth the satisfaction of throwing that potato at Eric, and the answer always came back as yes, but next time she would have to be more careful as to who was around her, or behind her.

  “Vesper, you here?” She called out as she dropped the peeled potato in the bucket and took another off the pile. No sooner had she spoken the words then the familiar white shape moved away from the shadows.

  “There you are.” She said as she sliced off a piece of the potato and held it out to him. Vesper knew no fear as he came up to her and took it from her hand.

  “Where have you been?” She asked, although she really wasn’t expecting an answer, she got one anyway.

  -Here-

  It wasn’t so much a voice with Vesper as it was with Kaza, it was more of a notion, a feeling. She didn’t so much as hear what he said as she felt it. Her conversations with Kaza were much more intellectual, her conversations with Vesper were more instinctual.

  “So, you live here… in the kitchen?”

  -Here… sometimes we here-

  “We? How many are there?”

  He didn’t really answer her directly, instead she had this sensation of many yarrows, many, many yarrows. She could not imagine that there were as many as Vesper indicated, but then in his mind, maybe there were.

  “So you all live around… here.”

  - Here, there –

  And the images that followed were of yarrows in buildings, underground, in the wild, all over the city of Azintar.

  “Where are they all? You’re the only one that I’ve seen so far.”

  -Yarrow hide -

  “Hide, from whom… from me?”

  -From all… men scare yarrow… yarrow hide from men.-

  “Why aren’t you hiding?”

  -You not like men -

  From the words that she heard and the visions that she saw, although she actually didn’t see or hear anything as it all played out in her head, she was able to figure out what Vesper meant. At first she had misinterpreted his words, when he said she was not like a man, she had thought that meant that it was because she was a girl, but that wasn’t the case. In Vesper’s world, he didn’t distinguish between men and women. To him everyone was man or sometimes he used the word vir, and Kaza had used the word as well, although she wasn’t sure what it meant. So if it wasn’t because she was a girl, then it was because she was different from everyone else. It was just like the crow said; he had known when he first saw her, just like Vesper knew now.

  “So, will other yarrows come to see me?” She asked.

  -maybe… they not sure.-

  “So they’re still a little scared of me.” She reasoned, which in many ways wasn’t all that bad. The last thing she needed was to be followed around by a few thousand yarrows.

  “You’re not scared of me.”

  - Vesper like you –

  “Okay, for that I’m bringing you something better than a potato tomorrow.”

  “You’re talking to yourself again.” Alex announced as he walked into the room carrying a knife in one hand and a stool in the other.

  Kile looked to Alex, and then back to where the yarrow was sitting, but Vesper was long gone. She wondered if she could coax him out of hiding, but then thought better of it.

  “You were supposed to wait for me in the hall.” Alex said as he set the stool down. “I was only going back to change my pants.”

  “Who was the one that spilled gravy down themselves in the first place?” Kile said with a shrug.

  “Who was the one that threatened to brain me with a serving tray?”

  “Who was the one that called me Kile girl… twice?”

  “Okay, you win.” Alex surrendered

  “To tell you the truth, I figured once you got back to the warmth of the barracks you’d want to stay inside. I wouldn’t blame you if you did, but I am glad you came back.”

  “Yeah, and he brought reinforcements.”

  Kile spun on her stool to see Daniel walking in, carrying a chair that he dropped beside the pile of potatoes.

  “What are you doing here?” She asked.

  “Well, it’s not like we have anything else to do.” Daniel replied.

  “And it’s just as cold in here as it is back in the cells.” Carter added as he dropped h
is own chair.

  “Light hands make much work.” Alex exclaimed, and then thought better of it. “That’s not right is it?”

  “Its many hands make light work.” Daniel corrected.

  “What ever it is, the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get back to the cold of our cells.” Carter added as he grabbed one of the potatoes and quickly started to whittle the peel away. Kile was impressed on how fast the boy could work and started to pick up the pace so as not to be outdone.

  “I really want to thank you guys.” She said.

  “Don’t, Carter doesn’t like the mushy stuff, you start thanking us and he’s apt to leave.”

  “Shut up squirt.”

  “By the end of the night you’re going to wish we never came.” Daniel laughed.

  “Carter’s throwing potatoes.” Alex yelled.

  “You want the entire compound in here.” Carter snapped back.

  “Yeah, then we’d really get this done quickly.”

  “I see what you mean.” Kile whispered to Daniel.

  “Hey guys, you want to see a trick.” Alex announced as he set his knife down and got up from his stool.

  “Not particularly.” Carter mumbled.

  “Sure you do, watch this.”

  The small boy closed his eyes and held out his hands. Kile had seen him do this before when he showed her the street that his father’s store was on back in Procton, but this time the area of the illusion was greater. This time it wasn’t a street, it was a person, and not just any person, it was a greasy haired boy that they all knew too well.

  “Oh for crying out loud Alex, Get him out of here.” Daniel replied as a full size, although slightly shorter, version of Eric appeared in the room with them.

  Again, Kile was impressed with Alex’s illusions. Although the specter of Eric that appeared before them wasn’t an exact copy, it would have fooled anyone at a distance. A closer look would have revealed the noise as being slightly off and of course the height, but there was no mistaking who it was.

  “Can you make him do anything?” Carter asked.

  “How about this?” Alex replied, his voice sounded a little strained as he began to move his fingers, and like a puppeteer with a marionette on invisible strings, Eric the specter began to dance.