Free Hunter's Bounty (Veller) by Garry Spoor Page B

man before turning around and heading for the door. He stopped in the middle of the floor and looked up at the balcony, directly at Kile as if he could see her, and then she realized that Eric could see her since Emara was hiding behind her.
    “Emara… what are you doing?” Kile asked not taking her eyes off of Eric.
    “I don’t want that Ravenshadow guy to see me.” Emara replied.
    “Great. But now… he can see me.”
    “Oh… yeah… sorry about that.” The young mystic apologized.
    Ravenshadow slowly rose from his wooden throne and stepped down from the raised platform. He walked up behind Eric, his black robes sliding along the floor behind him silently like a massive shadow. He turned his head up to her and even though Kile couldn’t see his face within the folds of his hood, she knew he was smiling.
    “So, you are Kile Veller. Eric has told me all about you.” He stated in a low calm voice.
    “And you are Ravenshadow.” Kile replied, keeping her voice equally as calm. “And I’m afraid I’ve never heard of you before.”
    “Oh, you will my dear… you will, but maybe that’s a bit premature, since your use to me is… well… shall we say … at an end.”
    “Well, if that is so, then I do have one question.” Kile said as she leaned over the balcony railings.
    “Only one… I am surprised.”
    “Oh, well… let’s be honest. I have a lot of questions to ask, but I’m sure you wouldn’t answer any of them. From what I’ve heard you won’t even tell you toady your plans, so why would you even think about telling them to me.”
    There was a momentary break in Ravenshadow’s calm exterior as he turned and looked at Eric, but it was only brief and he soon turned his full attention back to her.
    “My plans are not that secret, all I seek is justice. Surly as a true hunter, you can understand that.”
    “True… true, but the whole… kidnapping, bondage thing, that I don’t get.”
    “It was only to keep you safe, for the time being.”
    “Safe… safe from who? You? The uhyre? Funny, I thought I was safe before you brought me here.”
    By now Emara was pulling on Kile’s arm and she knew that the uhyre were on their way, if they hadn’t already arrived.
    “Was that your question?” The black robed man asked.
    “No, not really, all I really wanted to know was… why Ravenshadow. What? Were all the good names taken? I mean it's a bit cliché, sort of like a villain in an old fairy tale. I mean, come on, this was the best you could come up with.”
    “Oh, I think the name suits me just fine.” He laughed as he raised his arms and his black tattered robes fell around him. She had to admit that at that moment, he did kind of look like a large raven’s shadow.
    “ Um… Kile?” Emara whispered, pulling on her arm again. “I think we have more trouble.”
    The young mystic was pointing up at the rafters this time, and Kile could see why. The wooden beams were now occupied by hundreds of ravens, each one of them staring at the girls with their little black eyes.
    “I’m afraid this discussion is at an end.” Ravenshadow said, and as he brought down his arms, folding his tattered black robes about him, the ravens took flight heading directly at the two girls.
     
     
     
    ***~~~***
     
     
     
    5
     
    Of all the parts of her edge that Kile had learned and was still learning, there was one part, one skill, that she despised above all else.  The reason she disliked it was simple. It went against what she had come to believe to be nature, in a way it was an abomination of the order of things. She hated the way it made her feel, she hated the fact that it came so easily to her, she hated what it did to the animals around her and worse of all, deep down, somewhere in the dark recesses of her psyche, the one thing she hated the most about it, was that some part of her actually enjoyed it.
    The Maligar was a power that she swore she would never use again, but as it consumed her, as its thick