The Huntsman of Adamos (Quartet)- draft

CH A TIRED OLD RETIRED VETERAN

They walked down to Bolton’s shop. In the store room, the wounded brigand laid on a cot. He struggled to sit up when they came in, especially when he saw Rieth. “You can’t kill me. I have rights... It’s the king’s law.”

“That’s true, youngin’, but we have a few questions.” Banth sat down in the only chair in the room. “What’s your name?”

“I... I don’t think I have to answer.” The man stammered.

“You’re right, you don’t. But wouldn’t it be easier if we knew your name, so we could talk like civilized people. I’m Banth.” The old veteran said in an almost bored tone.

“Just ask me what you want?”

“Did someone send you here to poison our blind lighthouse keeper or murder her and take her fatherless son?” Banth started with the scariest question, accusing him of attempting murder and kidnapping.

“No... No, sir,” the brigand denied, he looked desperately at Fleur, “Please, my lady, I never tried to hurt you or your son. It was just a job robbing travelers, no one was supposed to get hurt...I’m not a murderer. Taking the boy was just for the money, I wouldn’t have let them hurt him.”

“Who’s idea was it to attack her in her home?” Banth asked calmly but Rieth was glaring at the injured thief like he was going to kill the man.

“I want to go to Aetheria and talk to the Justice Advocates, or the Mariner Security Unit in the capital... Please, don’t kill me. I didn’t kill anyone.”

“Who sent you to the lighthouse to hurt her?” Rieth growled out, Banth was looking at the prisoner and didn’t see the menacing flash of magic in Rieth’s eyes.

“Woren, it was his idea. He’s been a little crazy since he lost his eye to her cat. He said she would have all kinds of wealth, but then Muick went down with the railing and Woren grabbed her. She hit her head when she fell. We didn’t know how poor she was, that the lighthouse was falling apart. I said we needed to go, but Woren said he’d kill me if I left, then the warrior attacked us and saved her from Woren. He wasn’t right in the head. He said we could make some easy wealth if we came here. I’m sorry, my lady, I’m so sorry.” The man bowed his head.

“He’s telling the truth,” Fleur said softly.

Rieth squeezed her shoulders as Banth nodded for him to take her out. But she wouldn’t be moved, she continued to look at the floor to the left of the brigand, just listening.

Banth leaned forward. “You seem a decent fellow who just fell in with the wrong kind of friends. Do you know who brought you to the Isles?”

“I... I can’t tell you, you won’t believe me... He’ll kill me... I want to talk to the J.A. or SecUn, I want assurances that I’ll be protected,” the criminal demanded, glancing fearfully at Rieth and Fleur.

“Was it someone who might be ranked?” Banth watched the man’s reactions. “Maybe someone royal who wanted to take boy from his mother. Did they let you escape capture? Is that why they didn’t find you? Is that why you’re so afraid? You think the person who sent you here will harm you?”

“Yes... No... I mean... I mean I need to tell the royals... The boss told Woren where to go to hide from the royals. Please, you need to get me off the isles. Comm the J.A. or the Mariner SecUn. I don’t want to stay on this island any longer,” he insisted.

“Tell me who you’re so afraid of and I’ll make comm.” Banth bargained.

“No... ” The man shook his head in terror, “You won’t believe me. You’ll talk to him and he’ll kill me. I am not saying anything else.”

“He won’t tell us, but it isn’t whom we suspected.” Fleur turned and walked out with Rieth. She was almost shaking with relief as Rieth held her against him while they walked up the hill.

“Please, don’t let the warrior woodsmith kill me, I never meant for the Lady to be hurt,” the brigand begged after the door closed.

Banth smiled, “That’s fine, Rieth won’t hurt you since you didn’t intend to hurt her or the boy. I’ll just keep you company until your escort gets here. So, let’s talk about something else. I’m just a tired, old retired veteran, I have never seen Rieth fight. He was a war hero, you know, they say he was very skilled. What was it like?”

By late afternoon, four Royal Guardsmen had arrived, and the Brigand, whose name was Jorlin, insisted on being taken off Arbor Isle immediately. Arrangements were made for them to travel to Golden and stay overnight. He never told Banth who he was so scared of, but he admitted the boss had killed one of the brigands who had survived attacking Rieth. His story of that night was very interesting to Banth, and so was the information that the boss wanted Rieth dead. But more concerning was that the boss had ordered that Fleur and her son be left alone then the boss had a change of mind and asked for the boy to be brought to him to use as leverage. Banth wondered who was stalking Fleur, and who would be willing to use Yuli to force her to do what they wanted. He also wondered why Rieth was hiding what he was.

Two days later, word reached Soldiers Cove that the Guardsmen and their prisoner were ambushed, the small skimmer boat taking them from Golden to Brightwater Port had sunk. Witnesses had reported seeing a fireball at sea between the islands, none aboard survived. Fleur had freaked out; Banth and Stacy barely managed to convince her to stay in Soldiers Cove. Rieth had returned to his shop reluctantly when Fleur’s students had come for school as Finn and Stacy had all their boarding house rooms filled with students. Desa, Dosander, and Deanna had moved into the only empty cottage in the village. Stacy and Desa cooked breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all the children except the six staying with Fleur.

Rieth had just sent one of the young Lumberton guardsmen away with a gift for his mother when Banth, Bolton, and Nevin entered his shop. He was expecting Nevin, Vela’s banisters and the new panel for the front of her reception desk were ready.

“Come to see Vela’s carvings?” Reith asked in his harsh whisper.

He led them back to his workroom and the three men examined the banisters that looked like real tree limbs with small woodland creatures and birds . The front of the desk was a woodland scene from Arborea. It was the place where Nevin had asked Vela to be his for all time, the place where Daisy had killed her first shadow creature alone after his brother Kaleth had died and revived. Kaleth had taken him to the place and asked if he remembered anything about oracles using their light as a weapon. It wasn’t the first or last time Rieth had lied about what he remembered. Rieth handed the holographic image of the place back to Nevin who was running his hand over the carved image.

“These are all very nice, Rieth, but we came to talk to you about Fleur,” Banth started.

Rieth wave his hand toward the stairs, then flipped the sign in his window as they all went up. Sitting down, Rieth offered them each an ale.

“They look great,” Nevin complimented. “You’re making the other woodsmiths look like hacks.”

Rieth smirked and bowed as he sat on a tall stool. “About Fleur?”

Bolton spoke first, “As you know, we are all retired guardsmen, fleeters, or mariners.”

“Just like we know you are a retired huntsman,” Banth said slowly. “Why did you give it up? Why not join the King’s Huntsmen at the Academy? You would have wealth, prestige, even be given a rank.”

“Are you going to make me drink truth potion again?” Rieth whispered.

Banth chuckled, “I think we can skip it this time.”

Rieth thought about what to say, then decided to tell the truth of two different events together. His words rasped out in a harsh whisper. “I gave it up because being a huntsman meant being a different person than I was born to be, than I wanted to be. When I went to the King’s Academy, there was a fellow student, he pitied us, taught us a little. A huntsman of the House of Remus, he was my friend and when we went to the war together, I learned a lot more. There was a battle; the Xelusians used magic to make the warriors of Aetheria slay each other. What I told you about seeing a healer put his fingers in a warrior’s neck and the warrior trying to kill the healer before being killed by a huntsman. I was the huntsman who killed that warrior. Only healers and huntsmen were unaffected by the evil magic. I had no choice but to kill or maim dozens of our warriors to protect the healer and unconscious wounded as the healer put them to sleep. By the end of the battle, half the army of Aetheria lay dead or maimed, over forty thousand.”

Reith didn’t have to fake the trembling that particular memory always caused him, or the urge to wash his hands whenever he thought about that day. He coughed and took several gulps of his ale. He was talking too much but he couldn’t bear to write down his memory of that battle.

“There was so much blood, it seeped from the grass as we walked the field looking for survivors. The Huntsman of Adamos was the highest-ranking officer left alive and unwounded. He made us gather and burn the dead so the Xelusians couldn’t harvest their blood for their profane magic. They were my friends, and I piled up their bodies to be burned by the mages like cord wood...” He paused to inhale deeply, his memory could still remember the smell. “I lost myself. I became cruel, heartless; I hurt the ones I loved. Once the war was over, I left that way of life. I gave up being a huntsman and became a woodsmith because I hate fighting. I carved the entire insides of castles, manors, and homes.”

Rieth looked at his hands, his head was bowed, “I tried to make beauty come out of these hands that had shed so much blood in King Xerxes’ service. My sealed one left me, and then died... my children died too. I was searching for hope when we came forward. I vowed I would never go back to being what I was. The Huntsman knew me, demanded I join him, but I won’t go back to that life. I won’t become like him. I’m sorry I lied about my magic, but I won’t use it unless I have no other choice. It has cost me too much.”

Nevin nodded, Bolton looked very sad, but Banth was watching him carefully when he looked up. “Tell him the rest, Bolton.”

Bolton nodded, “You know we are all retired as you are, we all hate war and what we went through, but we don’t live here by chance or as a favor to our warbrothers, Shadz and Vole, to watch over Vole’s cousin. We are here to protect someone very important to the king, someone only the King, High Mage, and Master Healer know still lives.”

Rieth looked at them, “Fleur told me this. She was a concubine of the King’s house, they let everyone think she died because the Huntsman of Adamos would harass and threaten her if he knew she lived.”

Nevin’s mouth made a thin line, “Fleur isn’t who she thinks she is.”

Banth cleared his throat and set his ale aside, “Do you know what happened to the War Oracle when you and the other refugees arrived in our time?”

Rieth narrowed his eyes at them, “She overused her magic and died.”

“She did, but that isn’t the whole truth.” Banth elaborated, “Do you know why she went back in the first place?”

Rieth nodded, he whispered, “Lady Serapha told us it was to help Lord Adamos save the remnant on the Tear of Heaven’s Hope and that she decided she could save more. It is on the dedication plaque I carved for the Xelusian heritage center in Dauntless 6. ′The Blind War Oracle sacrificed her future so a few more could be saved because we all deserve to live and know peace. Every life has worth.′ ” He quoted.

“The Oracle used an ancient device to go back, not just to save the Remnant of the Tear and the Relic but to save the future.” Bolton paused to empty his bottle. “The night Doster died, what I said about the War Oracle having sacrificed everything for us and we wouldn’t be there without her... It wasn’t about her saving the Remnant, or making sacrifices in the war, but about her saving the future. She chased four of the shadows back to your time to stop them from changing the outcome of the war.”

“And to save the future, she had to let the past die,” Nevin added. “The War Oracle could feel the deaths of every world and every life when the Devourer attacked. She lived through the harvest of several worlds, but something about the harvest of yours broke her. She came back wounded and dying, not just physically, but spiritually. She couldn’t live with the horror anymore. So, to save her life, they erased her memories.”

“Are you saying Fleur is the Blind Oracle?” Rieth looked at them with the hard demand for the truth. “She doesn’t look anything like the woman who rescued us.”

“Her scars faded while she was healing, so did her hair and eyes, but her heart is the same,” Bolton explained.

Banth nodded. “Fleur doesn’t know she was High Lady Daisy, the War Oracle of the House of Adamos, or the Blind Oracle of the Relic Remnant. Her life’s story is one Meara pieced together from the bits of memory that the magic couldn’t contain. Magic that is failing and if it does, she could forever die. That is why our hope rests in you, Rieth, son of Riles.”

It was more than he could have hoped for in such a short time. But he had to wonder if Fleur remembered, if she returned to being Daisy, would she forgive him or not, because she had been very unforgiving in the past and she had every reason to believe his love was a lie.

“What do you want of me? Why are you telling me? I’m just a woodsmith now,” Rieth breathed out rapidly, he had learned their truth and gained their confidence.

“Just keep telling yourself that Rieth, you’re the only one who believes it. You’re special and Fleur can feel it,” Nevin chuckled.

“She loves you.” Banth said plainly, “She loves you, and you love her. The Master Healer believes that having someone who loves her may be enough to save her if the magic fails. I have known Daisy for almost six hundred years, once she sets her will to something, she doesn’t fail. If she has loved ones to live for... someone to fight to live for... she will. She will fight to stay with you and Yuli.”

“But?” Reith question when Banth paused.

“But he is still looking for her. I am an old man, Rieth, I should have gone into the light decades ago. I need you to take my place, I need you to protect her and Yuli. You’re a huntsman too, you know how Lord Yurieth thinks, how he fights, how he hunts. Only you can protect her from his obsession. You could take her away if he found her, hide her and her son.”

Reith rubbed his face to hide his smile, then he clenched his teeth and thought about how hard he had hunted, and how much further he would run to keep Fleur and Yuli at his side. “Do you realize what you are asking? I have a brother with a sealed one and children. I might never see them again.”

“We do.” Bolton answered, “But from talking to Brie, I think he would understand.”

“Will you accept? We can move your workspace into warehouse space you kept in Soldiers Cove and you can say you are enlarging your sales floor here or convert it to a classroom. The local youngins seem to enjoy learning from you. You could hire a clerk to run your shop and take commission consultations by appointment only,” Banth suggested.

“If Fleur sees you every day, maybe she will give up on this foolish notion that she isn’t worthy of love and the two of you can be joined,” Bolton added.

Reith walked over to the window and looked down at the street below. If he were in Soldiers Cove, he could spend more time with both Fleur and Yuli, and more carefully monitor Fleur as Serapha’s replacement pills weaned her off the medicines they were keeping her drugged with. There really wasn’t a decision to make, he knew he would do it, but he also knew he had to seem like he was thinking about it. Any normal warrior would hesitate at the thought of spending the rest of their life running from someone with his skills, but he may be spending the rest of his life fleeing the King’s Guardsmen.

“I accept,” he whispered into the hushed room. And the three warriors let out a collective sigh of relief.