The Way of the Hunt-part 2

[3]
Three days from the spot where the four guards of the king had fallen and many miles hence, Kyrin at last saw another person in those wooded lands. In the bright sun of the afternoon, he had spied the woman on horseback long before she had. It did not deter his direction, however, as he continued to tread the land in his own steady gait.

“Avast!” the woman called when she was near enough. “I have been searching for a man of your description and would speak with you.”

Kyrin gave her a warm smile. She was extraordinarily beautiful. He thought of his wife, but he could no longer see her as she had once been. By the gods, he no longer had a wife! And thinking of his prior life in that way was apt to get him killed. Still, it was hard for Kyrin to overcome the guilt that washed over him upon seeing the woman. He may no longer have been bound by matrimony, but his heart still belonged to his wife. While his body might move on in the world and seek earthly pleasures, he swore that his heart and love would belong to Ameryn or to no one.

He thought of the woman’s search for him, and had more than a clue as to what the purpose might be. “Then I would say you are in luck,” Kyrin said at last.

She returned his smile. “I am Lemeri, and I serve the Lord Tangol, king of these lands. We are always happy to have foreigners visit our great kingdom.” She leapt from her steed with the grace of an acrobat. “I am sorry if I misled you a moment ago. I have been searching you by order of the king.”

“The king? But I have never met your king.”

Lemeri took Kyrin’s hand in token of friendship. “That is not surprising. Yet we have reason to believe you may have been witness to grisly murder and evil deeds.” She eyed his weapons. “You are heavily armed for one who is a traveler.”

“An axe may serve many purposes. For me, it is the hunting weapon of choice.”

“You hunt with an axe?” Lemeri said in surprise.

“Aye. As do many of my kinfolk.”

“And from what lands do you hail?”

Kyrin motioned in the direction behind him. “The northern most tips of yonder mountains. I have butchered and dressed a hog only yesterday that fell by the curve of my axe.” He reached within his satchel and pried a piece of salted meat free for the woman to behold. “You’ll not find better, I’ll warrant. I have found great meat while in your lands.”

She ignored his compliment. “And your sword?”

“No traveler should go swordless. One must always be ready to defend oneself from marauders and highwaymen.”

“That is true. Yet two of our citizens claim that you, or one that fits your description, massacred four guardsmen only a few nights ago, armed with a sword and axe. What have you to say to that?”

Kyrin popped a sliver of meat into his mouth and chewed. “I do not know, but perhaps someone is sporting with you. I have encountered few people while within your borders. Why, before you, I have only seen a young girl and her beaux chattering through the forest one night. They woke me up with their talk of uncles and love and other such things. I made to talk to them, but they bade me leave and mind my own business. That is all.”

The woman’s brow furrowed in lines of concentration, giving a serious aspect to her beauty. “Is there nothing else you wish to tell me that may help the cause of justice?”

“Justice? Why what is the matter?”

“These two youths are charged with conspiring to kill the king. Their plot was discovered this very morning. Yet they claimed they were working at your behest.”

Kyrin went wide-eyed. “Murder of a king? The gods save us! I did hear the young boy speak of killing the girl’s uncle, yet I don’t see how that has anything to do with all of this.”

“You do not know what you say,” the woman exclaimed. “The king is the girl’s uncle! If I have it right you yourself heard the plot to assassinate the king!”

“Is that so?”

“The king will want to meet you and hear your story. I am sure he will offer you a large reward.” She seemed hardly able to contain herself. “Perhaps a place of lordship within his fair lands!”

“I am not certain.” Kyrin frowned. “I really must continue my journey, for I do not have time to enjoy the good things of life.”

“Why?”

“I am an exile, and it is the custom of my people that I must be hunted until I am found.”

“This is strange, indeed.” Lemeri thought for a moment, until she smiled again. “I promise you this will only take a few moments, for the king is a busy man. Will you do me this honor?”

“Only if you will dine with me this eve.” Kyrin had spoken his heart before his brain could keep his tongue in check.

“Then it is settled. Come! We are not far from the palace.”

The woman brought Kyrin to the palace of the kingdom. Like all palaces it was a fortress veiled as a place of beauty. It was well defended, but Kyrin had once felt the thundering of siege engines while crouching behind thicker walls. As he entered, it felt no less than a prison, and Kyrin regretted not fleeing from the woman the instant he first set eyes on her. He berated himself for letting her beauty lure him into this situation.

She escorted him through the gate, past a courtyard of greenery and flowers, and into a hall that fed into the main court. There, seated upon a great throne was Tangol, the thirty-first king of Nurria, land of riches and spice. Kyrin gazed at the old man, and felt that he had a glint of fairness within his blue eyes and the heart of a warrior. Even in his advanced years, he bore chain mail as if he were ready to plunge into battle at a moments notice. Though he was surely no holy man, the king was certainly not the man the two youths had described a few nights before.

“Sire,” Lemeri said as she bowed low, touching her forehead to her knee. “This is the man who was spoken of before. I believe he has a tale you would hear.”

“Indeed,” the king said after a moment. He looked at Kyrin with the hardened eyes of a general in wartime. “I would have you answer my questions honestly and fairly, since that is no doubt how you would want to be treated yourself. What is your name?”

“Only my kinsman may know that,” Kyrin said respectfully.

“A custom of your people? Then what shall I call you, stranger?”

“I read the starry heavens. Call me Stargazer,” he said after a moment.

Tangol was surprised. “Have you seen this girl before, Stargazer?”

Kyrin looked at Niome, held tightly by two guards. “Aye. Three nights ago by the light of the moon. A boy was with her.”

“And did you ever speak with them?”

“Aye. The conversation was brief.”

“What was spoken?”

“I heard raised voices in the dark while I slept. I set about to see what the commotion was. Scarcely had I time to speak when she told me to mind my own business.” He shrugged. “With nothing else left for me to do, I turned and went my own way.”

“And did you see any of my guard that night?”

“I hesitate to answer you, sire. I am not of these lands, and you may mistrust those who are not subject to your rule, whatever words may be spoken.”

“You are here, Stargazer” the king said, “beneath this grand ceiling and therefore subject to my rule.”

“Aye, sir. In that case, you must know that I did raise my blades against your guard, but only in my own defense. I wished only to pass, and though I gave them fair warning, they would only have me dead. But this girl spoke lies against me to save herself. And when at last I believed Quent and I had finally understood one another, Merin, like a sneak, stabbed the great man when he was not looking. That is the truth as the stars would tell you could they utter the tale.” He turned to Lemeri. “The only wrong I have committed was lying to her. For that, I apologize.” She returned his sentiment with an understanding look.

The king nodded slowly. “You are in the good graces of the gods, do you know that Stargazer? What you have told me has already been confirmed by my spies this morning. Yet at the time when all of this happened, I dispatched my guard to find those who were conspiring to overthrow me. I did not know it was my niece until this morning.” His face grew pale. “Do you have anything else that may concern this girl and stay the executioner’s hand?”

“Aye,” Kyrin said without hesitation. “The boy who was with her made it clear that you had carnal knowledge of the girl. Your niece did little to deny it. I believe this was a lie that she told him to motivate Merin’s hand to strike against you. She begged him to leave, to undergo something called the Change, yet he was resolute in staying and seeing to your murder.”

“Alas!” the king said in a shocked exhale. “Such a foul thing to speak of.” He turned to his niece. “How comes it that you speak so ill of me? I have never touched you in that way, you disgraceful child. That you falsely accuse me, not only your uncle, but your regent, brings with it the penalty of death.” He averted his eyes in loathing. “I do not know you!”

The girl shrieked, screaming at Kyrin with tears in her eyes. “You murdered those men, you wretched foreigner! Their blood stains your soul, and my blood shall soon do the same!” Her speech lurched in heaving sobs. “Speak!” she cried in agony, her tone now changed. “A kind word to save my life. I’m too young to die!”

Death is blind to age, girl, Kyrin thought. “I have spoken,” he said quietly, turning to the king. “And what has become of the boy?”

The king was lost in thought and spoke as if in a dream. “He was handed over to us by our neighbors, the Incarians. They have the gift of Change, and when we approached them to inquire of the boy, we found they had already transformed Merin into a beast. Yet they knew a traitor and murderer when they saw one, as all good men do, and so he now exists in the body of a ravening creature, ape-like and unnatural. His mind has gone mad within the hideous body, and already has he slain three men since his arrival. Now he occupies the darkest corner of my dungeons, and there he shall stay until merciful death take him.”

“And her?” Kyrin asked, pointing to Niome.

“Far be it for me to keep true love separated.” A look of horror flashed upon Niome’s face as the realization of the king’s judgment descended upon her. “This vile creature, whom I took as my own and showered with love, has raised a hand to destroy me. It is the law that she get all that is coming to her, and more besides.”

Kyrin swallowed the bitter taste of the whole situation from his mouth. He had his own troubles to consider. “Your lordship, this no longer concerns me, as my part was but a little one in this drama. I regret your guards were forced into such a deadly situation, yet I must continue on my way, sir.”

“Indeed. And how may I reward you for your service to this kingdom?”

“Sire, if it is not too much, I would like a small place, the tiniest of places, where I may live without anyone’s knowledge save your own. Be it far or near, I would have such a place.”

The king waved a bejewel hand nonchalantly in Kyrin’s direction. “It is granted. My chamberlain shall draw up the paperwork.” He looked at Kyrin. “You shall dine there this very evening.”

“May the gods ever shine upon you and your kingdom, lord,” Kyrin said as he bowed low.

“Guards!” the king cried out, jabbing his scepter in his niece’s direction. “Take this wretch and give her over to her beast husband. And let that be the last of it, for I do not wish to hear of them ever again.”

As they led Niome away, Kyrin watched her in dread fascination. Perhaps she had believed the old king to be too old to guess her plans. She shrieked in terror as they dragged her below the palace, and Kyrin thought he heard the roar of some monstrous thing that been unleashed to what angered him most. Kyrin shuddered.

“One final matter, stranger,” the king said.

“Sire?”

“What is your name,” he asked suspiciously. “And why do your own people hunt you? Did you murder someone or commit some atrocity?”

Kyrin waded in his thoughts for a moment. He had killed before, and for that he had been revered and adored. How could he make the king understand the source of his anguish was the thing he cherished more than all else in the world, his grandson? “Sire, there are some things that a man must bear without assistance. I am forbidden to tell you why I am hunted; that is the tradition of my people. As for my name, if I were to tell you, your life would be at risk. These hunters will stop at nothing to discover where I may be resting my head.” Kyrin squinted his eyes in an effort to find the right words. “Do you understand my position, my lord?”

The king rose and placed a hand on Kyrin’s shoulder. “I wonder what lands may breed such men as you. Would that I had one thousand of you to guard my city! You have a pure heart, and I will respect the traditions of your people, no matter how uncouth they may seem to me.” The king returned to his throne. “You may go now, stranger, and do what you must to stay ahead of your hunters.”

Kyrin followed Lemeri toward the exit, then stood fast. “King, I will leave you with this as a token of thanks. You have a weighty name, and you will be remembered for centuries long after your reign has ended.”

“How do you know this?”

“I have seen it in the stars,” Kyrin muttered, then left as fast as he could manage without running.

An hour later Lemeri took him to his new home, a small stone edifice within a massive copse of trees only a few leagues from the palace. There he relaxed for a few days as best he could, never fully though, as he knew he would soon be on the move again.

One late afternoon not long after, as he and Lemeri sat just outside of the abode as the day expired, he partially confided in the beautiful young woman.

“I cannot stay much longer,” he said.

“Are you certain of that? The king will see to your safety. No one will find this place.”

Kyrin laughed softly in his throat, but there was no humor in the sound. “Those who hunt me surely will. Nothing will stop them except my death.”

“Then what will you do?” She placed her hand within his.

“Well,” he said after a time. “I must continue on my journey. To stay still for too long in one place is to invite murder when you least expect it.”

“And this place?” she asked.

“You keep it. A gift for you.”

“To remember you by?”

“No. You would do well to forget me.” He squeezed her hand gently. “If I am ever near and I know you are here, I will visit you.”

“Is there anything I can do to help you?”

Kyrin looked into her eyes of blue ice. “Never speak of me. Not to your family or your friends or anyone else. Take my secret with you.”

Lemeri smiled. “Tell me something of your lands. Of yourself.”

How Kyrin wanted to tell her of his people! He wished to tell her they were miners of the great mountains and people of the stars. He very nearly spoke of the woman he loved, and of his children and grandchild. It would have done him good to release the melancholy that drenched his soul and burned his mind. Yet he was bound to his doom, and nothing but time and skill would release him from it.

“That,” he said as he pointed to a bright star in the sky, “is where it is said my people come from. We have many traditions, but the stars ever reveal our destinies.”

“I would know more of you and your people,” she said with intense curiosity. She went inside and began kindling a fire within the stove. “I will cook for you,” she called out, “and we shall enjoy our time together, whatever little we have left.”

Kyrin remained silent as he stared at the bright star in the heavens. This girl, with all of her energy and charm, was a cruel fantasy, Kyrin knew. In time, she would forget him, and he would forget her, as it should have been. That was the way of the hunt. He who is exiled may never have friends, nor can he have enemies. Certainly, there was a risk in letting someone get too close to him, but he was willing to accept that risk at least for the time being. Kyrin needed a friend right now.

Night had nearly fallen, and he noted the moon had only a few more days before waxing full, before turning deadly. Elchalon would then unleash her hunters upon the world as she had done so many times before.

Kyrin clutched his axe at the thought, testing the blade’s edge with his thumb.

“And so,” he whispered to the solitary night. “It begins.”

The End