(THOB) Chapter 64: The Hunt (Patreon)

The test of the hunt came in the early days of the month of Setemis. They were required to carry their Sunders, hunting knives, bow and quiver, water canteens, and flints, along with their cloaks. They left the seminary by the west gate where Father Talod found them a carriage in the city. It took them out of the city and, after a three-hour journey, it came to a stop.

Talod brought them to the head of the Vaznik forest. Not much was known about it to them. Still, it would be accurate to say they knew of it. In truth, it was a simple forest.

“Here,” he told them, “yer will engage in the test of the hun’. In this forest there are animals, and there is a group of touched, a ban’ of ten.” He studied their expressions. “Yer will find them, and yer will kill them. When yer are done, yer will gather the bodies an’ burn them, together. Then yer are to wait there.”

They kept their expressions stern. They’d had six months to prepare themselves mentally for it, but six months had not been enough to prepare for what was required of them.

“We are not barbarians that we would mindlessly slaughter men, no matter what they are,” Talod continued. “The men you will be hunting are men who have committed crimes against the Credo. Among them are murderers, rapists, and child molesters. They have been found guilty and sentenced to death. However, you will be the executioners. Should they survive the test, they will be judged to have survived the wrath of Truth. They will be vindicated under the Credo, and you all will be vindicated of your place in the seminary.”

Leaving them, he returned to the carriage. Before closing its door, he added: “If the five of you cannot hunt down ten Tainted, then you have no place in the seminary. You have one week.”

They fell into a myriad of activities as Darvi passed out commands in the priest’s absence.

“Ezril, you will take the trees whenever you can,” he said. “As First Bow we will be relying on your bow. Salem, Father Talod told us what’s in the forest, but he said nothing about what isn’t. I have no intentions of going in unprepared, you will tell us what kind of person we are dealing with if we meet someone we are not sure of. I will not have innocents blood on our Sunders.” He turned to Olufemi. “And you will track every last one of them.”

Olufemi looked to Ezril. Waiting.

Everyone fell silent and Ezril couldn’t hide his surprise.

“Are you going to do this, now?!” Takan asked, annoyed.

Darvi turned to Takan. “This is no time for that.” Then he turned at Ezril. “We’re waiting.”

Ezril shook his surprise. “Yes, Olufemi,” he said in Vrail. “Track them.”

The next minutes saw them running through the forest. Olufemi was far ahead, tracking with a skill beyond theirs. They’d seen it a number of times, but it still irked them how at ease he looked in the forest.

“Why Vrail?” Darvi asked as they bounded forward.

Ezril spared him a brief glance. “There are certain things our brother doesn’t like. Most times he doesn’t agree to talk. Why? I don’t know.” They scaled a fallen tree. “But he cooperates more when I use sign language or Vrail.” Ezril would have shrugged had he not been running. “I guess he doesn’t like the Alduin tongue very much.”

“But he always listens to you,” Darvi said, dodging a stray branch. “He’s always with you.”

Ezril frowned. “You have it wrong. He listens to whatever he wants to, and answers whatever he wants to. It’s all about how you say it and ask it. And it took me a long time to figure it out.”

They pulled to a stop at the sight of Olufemi’s raised hand.

A man. Not too far, maybe a mile away, he signed.

Ezril unhooked his bow and surveyed the tree branches. They were nothing like those of the Umunna forests. For one, the branches weren’t all even, they were either too fat or too thin and the distance between each one wasn’t too much that he would be hard pressed to reach them. But the Elken forest had been worse.

They are not too far apart, he noted, gauging the distances between each tree. I can use them.

Darvi looked at him, “What are you thinking, brother?”

“I may have to take the trees.”

Darvi nodded. “Do what you have to.”

They continued forward, Ezril high in the trees, branches rustling as they served as his path. After another thirty minutes, he spotted a man running. However, he wasn’t alone. A few birds—five or more—flocked above him.

They stopped about a hundred paces from the man and Ezril looked at his brothers.

Put him down, Darvi signed.Don’t kill him.

Ezril nocked an arrow and took aim. He drew back the bow string, finding the man’s leg as his brothers stalked ahead. He released it and the outcome was nothing near what he’d expected. A bird fell to the ground. From its side, his arrow jutted out.

“Truth!” he hissed, nocking another arrow almost immediately, his brothers running after the man.

His arrow took another bird and the man was now over a hundred and fifty paces away. Ezril nocked a third, jumping among branches. The third took another bird, and so did the fourth, and the fifth. By the sixth arrow, there were no birds.

The seventh arrow pierced the man’s thigh.

The man let out a pain filled cry and fell to the ground in a tumble. He rose, limping forward with all the strength he could muster. Ezril bounded forward, making no attempt to nock another arrow. He barely covered ten paces before his brothers caught him.

The man laid in the grass as they closed in on him. He reminded Ezril of a rat he had once seen laying on the ground as hawks flew above it.

“Where are the others?” Darvi asked when they stood around him.

“W…what others?” the man sputtered, blood seeping from his thigh. The arrow had gone through the thigh, its point jutting out on the other side.

Darvi sighed. “You are going to die either way,” he told him. “You either help us, and maybe Truth will accept you, or you don’t, and in time I will send your brothers after you and your souls can writhe in agony as Vayla rips you and your abomination apart.”

“I’m not a Tainted!” the man snarled, spittle flying from his mouth.

“Really?” Salem stepped towards him. “Because I do not remember ravens being so generous as to take an arrow for a man. Six ravens to be precise.” His lips twisted in a snarl. “We know a Tainted when we see one.”

The man’s eyes darted around, frantic. He gauged each of them in the briefest moments. Olufemi. Salem. Darvi. Tarkan. Soon they came to settle on Ezril.

“You have to spare me,” he begged Ezril. “The others were heading west the last time I saw them. I’m a good man who made a mistake. I deserve to be punished, but I don’t deserve this.”

Ezril kept his disappointment from his face. If he knew who he was, he wouldn’t be begging him. The city already bore rumors of a brother who had arrested a Tainted and sentenced her to the pyre to burn.

Like I have the power to do that, Ezril thought scornfully.

“You have to understand,” the man continued. “It was just a mistake. You can tell I’m saying the Truth, can’t you? Tell them—”

His words drowned out in a gurgle of blood as it pooled from a cut in his throat. Olufemi rose from the body and cleaned his hunting knife on the man’s shirt. Ezril hadn’t seen him pull it.

Olufemi took a deep breath. It looked calming but something told Ezril he hadn’t taken the breath to calm himself. Worse, the scars on his back tickled him slightly but not enough to be an itch. It was like being blown by a soft breeze.

Olufemi looked at Ezril.

“West?” he asked.

Ezril nodded.

After retrieving his arrows from the ravens, leaving the birds on the ground as Darvi advised, they moved on. They headed west in search of their remaining quarry. After a few miles, and wondering if the man had lied to them, which Ezril doubted, priding himself on being able to spot a lie, Olufemi found a trail. They followed it for the entire day.

When night fell, they gathered at the foot of a tree. There they sat in silence.

“They gave us a week for a reason,” Takan grumbled.

“They never said it was going to be easy.” They could hear the smile in Salem’s voice. It was mocking.

Darvi looked at Ezril.

“Is he going to be alright?” he asked, tilting his head in the direction Olufemi had gone off in search of prey.

He had darted away at the sound of movement in the brushes without a word. Ezril didn’t doubt his brother would return with his prey. However, he doubted the size of the prey would prove sufficient for all of them.

“He’ll be alright,” he answered. The boy had not communicated since he killed the man, but Ezril saw no reason for it to cause alarm; the boy rarely communicated.

“…Did you see how fast it took Ezril’s arrow?” Takan was telling Salem. “I wondered why they were following him. But, by Truth! I did not expect them to protect him.”

“He was a Tainted,” Salem said casually. “He was probably manipulating them.”

They continued to talk until Olufemi returned. When he came, he held two hares in both hands. The sight brought silent cheers from the brothers.

He sat beside Ezril. “Why is there no fire?” he asked in Vrail.

Ezril opened his mouth but Takan spoke first, his Vrail was clean but not as genteel. “Because we didn’t think you’d catch anything in this darkness.”

Olufemi’s face grew tight, and he gave the larger brother an ominous look.

Takan was unable to meet his eyes but, realizing it almost immediately, added in challenge. “You want to do this here, brother?”

Darvi sighed. “Takan. Shut up.” Then he looked at Ezril, a request in his gaze: control him.

Salem rose from his place. “I’ll be right back,” he told them. “Try not to kill each other before then, brothers.”

Then he left.

Ezril remembered how when they were younger Olufemi’s reaction to being spoken to when he didn’t want to be spoken to was one of annoyance, a frown at best. Then, he had been the smallest of them. Now he was grown, his muscles developed. He was not the biggest, but he wouldn’t hesitate to challenge anyone who offended him.

Salem returned shortly with a small pile of dried sticks. He cleared a spot in between them and, after a while, they had a fire going. They spitted the hares, and soon had them roasting.

“Do you think it’s a smart thing to have a fire going?” Takan asked between bites of his meat.

Darvi nodded. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because they will be resting by now,” Salem answered. “And if they are not, they would be trying to outrun us for their freedom, not kill us.”

All the while, Olufemi watched Ezril subtly from beside him.

“We will be together for six more days,” Darvi said, addressing Takan. “I would suggest you stop trying to rouse Olufemi’s anger.”

“Why are you scolding me?” Takan asked, confused. “He’s the one doing the wrong things.”

Salem ignored his meat to look at Takan. “I thought it was Ezril you didn’t like, brother,” he said. “So why are you after Olufemi?”

Takan frowned. A piece of meat dangled from his lip. “It’s because of him Olufemi annoys me. Always accommodating him. Its why he never talks to the rest of us. He is not a child.”

“And would you rather Ezril ignored him?!” Darvi snapped. “Would you rather our brother spoke to none of us?”

Takan frowned but said nothing.

They had the rest of their meals in silence. Though Ezril felt the question was one he should ponder on, he did no such thing.

“We should sleep if there is nothing else for us to do,” Salem suggested after the meal.

Darvi’s brows furrowed in thought at his words. “One moment,” he said, rising, then turned to Ezril. “A word, brother.”

They walked away from the fire with Olufemi following after them.

“I know it’s dark,” Darvi began, “but can you work in it?”

Ezril sighed. The night was dark, but not so dark that he couldn’t see. The stars and the crescent moon, though not of sufficient illumination, provided enough for him. He knew for a fact that it had been why Olufemi had been watching him. Even now, Olufemi studied him.

“I can,” he answered.

“Good. And how many days can you go without needing rest?”

“Two,” he replied. “Perhaps three. Four if I strain myself.” Then he looked at Olufemi in question.

Olufemi’s answer was immediate: “Five.”

Darvi nodded slowly. “You won’t need to push it passed two, brother,” he told Ezril. “Take Olufemi with you. Continue on the trail and we will follow.” He walked back to the fire, raising his voice slightly. “Put out the fire. We continue the hunt.”