Free Christopher Golden - The Veil 01 - The Myth Hunters by The Myth Hunters Page A

of the ridge as a spine before, and those were the ribs. They had been walking alongside the funereal mound of some gigantic, ancient beast.
     
     
“Oliver?”
     
     
The winter man gazed curiously at him, head tilted birdlike to one side, icicle hair swaying in the breeze. Frost clearly did not know what to make of him.
     
     
With a gesture, he urged the winter man to speak. “Maybe that’s enough history for now. Just tell me about the Falconer. You said you were one of the Borderkind. I get that. How many of you are there? How many of these Hunters are after you . . . after us, do you think? And who sent them? If someone’s trying to kill me, I should know who they are.”
     
     
Frost frowned once more, glancing over his shoulder and peering into the deeper forest. When he turned to Oliver that icy mist was spilling from his eyes again. The night had turned humid and grown warmer, and as he spoke the moisture in the air formed ice crystals and drifted to the ground. His expression was grave.
     
     
“The Falconer is a Hunter. It no longer matters what he was in the history of legend. When the Two Kingdoms were at war with each other they employed Hunters. These assassins have never been content with peace and it would be a simple matter to compel them to kill again. I had heard that several Borderkind had been killed. Word of the murder of Julenisse reached me not long before my last journey to your world. Merrows and Selkies have been killed as well, but horrifying as that was, I’d thought perhaps it had been done for their skins.
     
     
“Most of the Lost and the legendary hate the Borderkind because we are the only ones with the ability to travel through the Veil without a Door. The Lost Ones, the humans, I’ve already told you, can never cross back. Once they’ve been touched by the magic in the Veil, they cannot pass back through, even using a Door. The other beings here, the legendary, could cross over, but the Doors are usually well guarded and it requires special authority to pass through.”
     
     
Oliver frowned. “So, whoever sent the Hunters after the Borderkind, they’re either really clever, or they’ve got some serious authority.”
     
     
Frost nodded, troubled. “True.”
     
     
“What I still don’t understand is, why can the Borderkind cross?”
     
     
“It goes back to the creation of the Veil,” Frost said. “At the time, there was great debate on whether some of us should be given that privilege. It was decided that those who desired that freedom could retain it, but only if there were enough people in your world who still talked about us, who still had a glimmer of belief in their hearts for us. There are hundreds of Borderkind, but there will never be any others. Only those who became Borderkind at the time of the Veil’s creation.
     
     
“Now someone is killing us, it seems. And most of the citizens of the Two Kingdoms will care not at all. Some will likely even cheer. The Hunters have likely been employed in secret, but even should word of their actions begin to spread, few will protest. We are only myths, after all,” the winter man said, sneering the hated word.
     
     
A night bird cawed in the shadows of the branches above. In the bole of a nearby tree, Oliver was sure he saw the eyes of an owl.
     
     
“As to who is responsible, who has set these hounds upon my trail— and now upon yours as well— I fear I haven’t the slightest inkling. We need to find a safe haven where we may rest and where we can see what other news can be discovered about—”
     
     
With a gust of frigid wind the winter man spun round and dropped into a crouch, fingers elongating into wicked talons. Something rustled back in amongst the shadows of the trees, far out of the moonlight. Oliver held his breath, wanting to ask what it was that had alarmed him so, but unable to form the words.
     
     
Oliver took a step forward and Frost shot him an abrupt look and then gestured