Hunter's Beginning (Veller) (45 page)

The problems really started to add up after the fourth week, when they switched from wood to steel. Kile had just started to get
used to the wooden blade, and even compensated for its awkwardness when Master Boraro decided that for the next couple of weeks they should get familiar with the real thing. The new practice swords were standard issued long swords, about thirty six inches of blunted steel, and weighted about five times that of the wooden sword. Kile didn’t have the strength to wield it effectively or the stamina to wield it for long, and soon she found she was on the losing end of more and more battles. Even with Carter sparring with her after class and sometimes well into the night, she was still lagging behind the rest of the cadets in skill. It wasn’t that she didn’t know the moves, she was getting better at reading her opponents, she just couldn’t swing the sword fast enough or with enough strength to do any real damage. Most of her opponents would just step out of her way and let the full momentum of her blade throw her off balance. There were more times than she cared to admit that she found herself looking up at her sparring partner from the ground when they never touched her.

What really added insult to injury was that Alex was doing so much better with the real weapon, and he was smaller
than she was.

As spring rolled into summer, the topic on everyone’s mind, including Kile’s was the talk of leave. The guild was preparing for a
gathering. It was a time where guild officials from the different provinces as well as some of the more notable Hunters would return to the academy to relay what was happening in the far corners of the kingdom. The academy resides within the province of Azintar, it had always been considered neutral ground, not that there was any real conflict between the guild halls to warrant such an action, it was more or less a tradition as the gathering usually convened at the academy for as long as any of the members cared to remember. During that time no classes would be held and the cadets were allowed, in fact that were encouraged, to return home, which was the last thing Kile wanted to do. It wasn’t that she didn’t miss her mother and her brother, but the thought of going home was actually depressing, not to mention the fact that she didn’t really want to see her father again. Her departure, now almost one year ago, had left some rather frayed edges between them and she didn’t think she could go back to that environment, not now at any rate. Of course it could have a lot to do with the way she left. When she did finally leave Riverport, she knew, in the back of her mind, that she wouldn’t be returning.

Daniel, Alex and Carter were all going home
on leave, which meant she would have no allies, no one to spar with or talk to for the duration of the summer; of course Eric was also going home, which did improve the situation. If nothing else, she always had Vesper, unless he was planning on going home too.

“Hey, slowpoke, what’s taking you?”

Kile looked up to see Alex already at the bottom of the hill. They had finished their breakfast, and now it was back to the List. Sure, he could be in a rush to get there. He didn’t have somebody trying to take off his head every day. She followed the rest of the cadets into the field and looked with dread as Master Boraro came strolling across the List toward them, followed by his little toady Master West. As he came before them she realized he wasn’t carrying his sword as he had for the last couple of weeks, instead he was carrying something different.

He took his place before the cadets and waited. He never had to command them to come to attention, the sight of him standing there with that grim expression on his face was enough to drive them to silence.

“This…” He said as he held the new weapon up. “… is a crossbow. This is the range weapon of choice for the Hunter. Some of you may be familiar with it; some of you may never have seen one of these before. Easy to carry, easy to use, just load and shoot, not even you cadets can screw this up. I thought it would be a good idea to introduce you to this weapon prior to you leaving this summer.”

There appeared to be a general approval over this, not that Master Boraro cared what the cadet thought anyway.

“There are two types of crossbows” He continued. “The two foot crossbow or more commonly referred to as the heavy crossbow, and the one foot crossbow, or the light crossbow. As a Hunter you will be using the light crossbow. They are easier to carry, and easier to conceal.”

Boraro gripped the crossbow with his left hand, and grabbing the string with his right, he pulled it back until it locked into place with an audible click. Master West handed him a green fletched bolt from the bundle that he held. He dropped into the crossbow, turned away from the cadets, and without even aiming, fired it at a target thirty feet down the field. It struck nearly dead center. Even Kile had to admit it was an impressive shot. He turned back to the cadets and handed the weapon
off to West.

“As you see, quite
simple. You will now be divided into groups. Each group will be given a crossbow. Upon my command you will load the weapon, you will then wait for my second signal. When it is all clear and when I tell you to, you will fire the weapon, hopefully at the target, then hand it off to another member of the group. You will continue to do this until you have actually hit the target. Once you have hit the target you will step back from the group and the group will continue without you. This way… we will be able to weed out those that do not have the skill to handle even a crossbow. Do I make myself clear?”

He was answered with a collective “Yes Sir” although there were a few dissenting voices in the back that either went unheard or ignored.

Divided into groups meant Kile wasn’t going enjoy this class, any more than she had enjoyed the others as Master West and Master Boraro began sorting through the cadets and placing them into small groups of five or six. West directed her to the far end of the field where five boys fought over one crossbow. Two of the boys she was not familiar with and only really knew them by names although she had the misfortune of sparing with both of them. Charles was a thin blonde haired boy with a rather bad complexion and Kevin was a shorter cadet with dark brown hair that Kile would have sworn sported some uhyre or valrik blood with his crooked nose and deep set eyes. The other three she knew all to well. Murphy, who, in all honesty hadn’t given her too much grief lately. Rodger Thees, a rather aggressive young man that enjoys breaking things, especially her foot and her nose, and of course who could forget Eric who stood there with a sly grin on his face. She suddenly had that feeling she was being set up.

You might as well just shoot me now because nothing good i
s going to come of this.

“I’m firing first.” She heard Charles say as she got closer.
He was wrestling the crossbow away from Kevin, who was not very inclined to give it up. Kile decided that silence was her best defense, maybe they wouldn’t even notice her if she just stayed quietly in the background.

“You’re going to break it if you keep doing that.” Rodger said,
and then punctuated his statement with a closed fisted strike to the top of Kevin’s head; the shorter dark haired boy quickly released the weapon.

“Boys, boys.” Eric started to say as he stood between them. “
Surely we can solve this like gentlemen.”

Eric solving something
‘like a gentlemen’ was like Boraro given Kile a compliment, it just doesn’t happen, and if it did, it could only mean trouble.

“What are you talking about?” Rodger asked as he snatched the crossbow out of Charles’s hands. The tall thin boy thought better
than to try to get it back. Roger easily outweighed him, Roger easily outweighed most of the cadets and possibly a few of the staff.

“Ladies first of course.” Eric replied as he took the crossbow from Roger and turned to where Kile was standing. He held it out to her, the sly grin never leaving his lips.

Every warning system in her head was going off. Eric never did anything without a reason, and kindness was just a means to an end for him. At this point the little voices in her head were screaming at her to run, but that would have been too extreme, instead she slowly reached out to take the crossbow from Eric’s outstretched hands.

When he
actually released it to her it was like another warning sign going off, this one was pretty loud, almost drowning out all the others, but she had to ignore it. She was in no position to do otherwise. She had expected, and actually hoped, that he would have snatched it back at the last moment, and then laughed in her face. Childish, yes, but that was the extent of Eric’s cunning. He was not one for elaborate schemes. It would also have been over and done with quickly and she could suffer through the rest of the lesson in silence.

Her hands gripped the crossbow and found it to be a lot heavier
than she had anticipated and she had almost dropped it. Wouldn’t that have made Eric’s day?

She looked over the new weapon, she had never seen one up close let alone use one.
It was just another overweight, awkward weapon she told herself as she took her place on the line that had been marked in the sand. A score of bolts were sticking up out of the ground beside her. Each one was about a foot long with a black shaft and green fletching. She waited with trepidation, trying to figure out just how the crossbow worked when Master Boraro took his place beside the range. She could hear the snickering from the boys behind her, if nothing else, that should have been third and final warning sign, and unfortunately she had to ignore it.

“Load
your weapons.” Master Boraro bellowed from his place at the side of the range.

That was easier said
than done Kile thought as she looked up and down the line of cadets. It wouldn’t do her any good to ask the boys in her group for assistance. They would either refuse to help or the information they provide would be less than accurate.

The crossbows had been specially designed for first year cadets, in other words,
novices. Each was fitted with a loading stirrup, something that was only seen on the heavy crossbows. Kile watched as other cadets took advantage of this feature. It seemed simple enough as she set the stirrup on the ground and stuck her foot through it. Now it was just a matter of locking the string in place. Grabbing it with both hands she pulled as hard as she could. It wasn’t as easy as Master Boraro had made it out to be, but she finally managed to lock it into the nut. It didn’t exactly achieve the same audible click he had, it was more like a clack, or possible a clunk, but then she had to use both hands where he only used one. She carefully selected one of the green fletched bolts, although she really wasn’t sure what she was looking for, and loaded it into the conveniently located slot on the crossbow. As Master Boraro said, even cadets couldn’t screw this up. As she lifted it to take aim there was a snap, the bolt was gone, and somebody screamed really loud.

The knock on the door was something that she hadn’t expected. When you’re confined to your cell you don’t usually receive visitors, and if it was the warden with your sentence, they don’t usually knock. Probable one of the boys harassing her she thought as she tried to ignore it.

She sat on her bed, curled up in the corner staring at the small black ebony box that sat on her dresser.

“It’s all your fault.” She told it, although she wasn’t sure why it was the box’s fault, it really had nothing to do with the incident, she just needed someone to blame, and there was no one else available. Of course she could say that if the box had the decency to have been damaged in the entry examination when she fell on it, then she wouldn’t be sitting here right now, waiting to be expelled, or worse.

The knock came again. A persistent, but courteous warden she thought as she climbed out of bed. She took a moment to look out the window and
try to compose herself. The sun was still up and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, it was the perfect day, even the weather was mocking her.

She took a deep breath, pulled open the door, and expected the worst, what she found was Daniel.

“You can’t be here.” She said as she pulled him inside and quickly looked out into the hall, when she was sure there was no one else around, she closed the door. “What if someone saw you, you want to get expelled too?”

“No ones getting expelled.” He said.

“Why, what have you heard?” She asked, her hopes momentary rising.

“Well
… nothing at the moment. I mean there was a lot of yelling and arguing in Oblum’s office, but I’m sure you’re not going to get expelled for this.”

So much for rising hopes she thought as she crashed back
onto her bed and curled up in the corner again.

“I don’t know about where you come from, but I pretty sure that shooting the instructor is something that they frown on.” Kile replied.

“It's not like you did it on purpose, and at least you didn’t kill him.”

“No, I just shot him in the ass, I’m sure they're just arguing over what reward to give me.
Look, you better go; I don’t want you to get in trouble too. I’m supposed to be confined to my cell. I’m pretty sure that means no visitors.”

“You shouldn’t be alone right now, and I’m not too worried about getting in trouble. Master Bealer has mentioned more
than once how important a healer is to the guild.”

“That’s just it, isn’t it? It’s all about special
treatment; the only difference is what side of the coin you’re on. They don’t want to lose you so you can break the rules; they want to get rid of me, so anything that I do will be used against me.”