38. Targeted
The next day saw them heading west along the trade road and up toward the River Road that would lead them to Port Rumm. It felt vaguely wrong to be escaping the city after everything that had transpired. Val had sworn an oath of revenge in front of all three septs, and here she was retreating from the half-occupied Verdenlecht.
"We're not retreating," Ette assured her. "We're regrouping."
There were five of them now - Levin had stayed behind to help with the defense of the city. Ette, Garvan, and Val, obviously, as well as Niko and Izzy, which is what they were calling Iselde now, apparently. Izzy had only ridden a horse once or twice before, and Val had to keep reminding herself that she'd been in exactly the same boat not so long ago. It was an awfully long ride for somebody not used to it and they found themselves stopping frequently to spare Izzy's poor thighs.
Izzy enjoyed the stops, and not just because she got to get off of Poppy. She could count on one hand the number of times she'd been outside of Verdenlecht and she found the notion of mile upon mile of open space amazing. The moment she was off of Poppy, she'd zoom off despite Ette's admonitions to stay nearby, and crouch in front of whatever shrub or glade was nearby to look for new flowers for her growing collection, or to ask what different bugs or animals were called.
"If you wanted to, you could just walk and walk in whatever direction you wanted to," she said. "Why does anybody live in the city?"
"Clothes and food, mostly," Val said.
"But you said the elderberries I found were edible," Izzy said.
"If you cook them, I said," Val said. "If you don't, they're poisonous… how many did you eat?"
"One or two?"
"You'll be fine… but don't eat any more. That's the problem, isn't it? Most folks don't know how to survive in the rough, and if everybody did, then we'd clean the whole countryside bare. And there aren't any shops or tradespeople out here. Nobody to fix your armor or mend your dress or sell you kebabs."
Izzy nodded sagely. "So that's why posh folks like to go out to the country on holiday but come back when the holiday's over. Makes sense. What's this flower called?"
"That's a golden tickseed."
"That's a terrible name. I'm calling it a queenscrown." She slipped it into her hair, the same intense, coppery-orange as Val's hair, but cut about half as long.
"That's a better name," Val agreed.
Izzy talked all the time, and she talked at a mile a minute. By contrast, Niko didn't say much for the first two days of their trip, never meeting anybody's gaze, not even Val's, and not responding to anything unless you called her name directly. It just about broke Val's heart to see her like that. She still let Val cuddle up to her at night, but she just lay there quietly, soaking up Val's touch like she was freezing and needed the warmth, but looking faraway like she couldn’t connect on any emotional level. When Val asked her what was wrong, she'd say it was nothing, that she just didn't feel like talking, and when Val finally insisted that Niko tell her what was happening, she burst into tears and fled from their little camp.
Val had to track her down in the glade near their resting stop. It wasn't hard to do - she just had to follow the sounds of Niko sobbing. Iselde followed after her, too, but Val waved her away, wanting to speak with Niko in private first. She found her sitting on a log, her face buried in her hands as she wept. When Val sat next to her and pulled her close, at least she didn't pull away.
"Please, Niko, please," Val said. "Tell me what to do. Please. How can I help?"
"I've got no family. I'm cursed… I'm going to be an orphan forever," she said. "I thought Sabine was going to be my mom like Ette's your dad. But she's dead and I'm never going to have anybody."
"I thought I was cursed, too," Val said.
Niko looked at her in astonishment. "You? Cursed?" She let out a bitter laugh. "You got blessed by the gods. You got a family, and you're friends with the duchess, and you got more Gift than anybody I've ever heard of. You're smart and brave and pretty, and I’m a nobody…"
Val played with the tight braids of Niko's hair, a blonde so pale they were almost silvery. "I didn’t have any of that stuff. I almost got apprenticeships three times and they all fell through. I found Ginn and Ette and then I had to leave them because the Pale Order wanted my blood. I got kicked out of my orphanage because I was too dangerous. But I wasn't cursed… and you're not cursed." She kissed Niko's forehead and rubbed her back. "You've got me. You've got your friends. And we all know that you're the bravest, sweetest, kindest girl in the whole city."
"But you're shite at streetball," Izzy said. She'd crept up close while Val was comforting her girlfriend.
Niko finally cracked a smile. "I'm not. I just don't play dirty like some girls."
"We're your family, and we'll always be here," Val said. She unsheathed her knife and put magical fire to the blade's edge to clean it. "I made an oath before the gods that I'd get my revenge. What do you say we make a blood-pact? We're going to destroy the bastards who attacked our family. The three of us are sisters."
Niko ran her fingers through Val's hair, picking out one of the wildflowers that Izzy had stuck in there. "I'm not sure I want to dream about kissing my sister…"
Val blushed. "Family means we're more than just friends," she said softly. "That's what it means. We can still… you know… kiss and cuddle and whatever."
"Let's do this already, love birds," Izzy said. She snatched the knife from Val. "Come on, I always wanted sisters. Let's be blood sisters."
When they returned to camp with bloody palms, Ette didn't ask what had transpired, because it was pretty obvious. Three girls returning from the wood, holding hands, palms bloodied, and a look of determination in their eyes? If they hadn't been torturing small woodland creatures, it was probably a blood-oath. Kids made them all the time, perhaps not realizing the gravity of such a thing. But if the gods took such oaths seriously, then Val did, too.
Niko and Iselde were Val's blood sisters now. In Niko's case, the sort of sister that you could cuddle and kiss without it being weird. In Iselde's case, she was a sister more like Galvan was a brother: annoying at times, but mostly okay. And they would always look out for one another.
+++++
They didn't stop in any inns on the return trip, even though they had enough money to afford it. The nights were warm and, with a little repellant oil, the insects weren't too bad. Supposedly, there was a magical means to ward off bugs, but Val hadn't learned it yet. You could just ask the bugs to stay away - and they would - but you had to ask them one at a time, which wasn't really a workable tactic. They rode for six or seven hours a day, taking stops whenever they arrived somewhere that Ette thought would be helpful for honing their skills.
One of the things he taught them was hunting, which you could do with a knife but was easier with a spear or a bow and arrow. You could use a bolt-caster, too, but Ette wouldn't let them because, once you spent a bolt, you needed an alchemical setup to refurbish it, whereas you could reuse arrows and even make your own, if need be.
"Why do we need to know this stuff?" Izzy asked Ette. Val had been wondering the same thing.
"Because there's a war on, and we've picked the side that's currently losing. We might find ourselves on our own or on the run and unwelcome in the nearby towns, which means we've got to be able to survive on our own for a while. Val knows more about foraging than I do, but the best way to get a full meal is to hunt. Plus, it's handy to be able to take out enemies at a distance without magic or alchemy."
Val accepted that line of reasoning and let Ette teach them. They bought two decent hunting bows, three quivers, and five dozen arrows as they passed through the town on the edge of hill country and practiced with them two or three times every day. Galvan already had some experience with the bow, and Niko and Iselde took to archery immediately. For Val, it was a frustrating experience, as she was possibly even worse at archery than she was at riding horses… which, come to think of it, she was actually pretty good at now. So maybe she'd get better at archery. But maybe not - her arrows flew all over the place. She would watch Izzy pull back and easily split a target at twenty yards that Val had just missed at ten… and then, that evening, come back with a ten-pound wild turkey she'd shot for dinner.
At least Val was learning about how to clean and dress animals and how to skin them for leather. The latter was a particularly valuable skill when you also knew chem-hardening. But trying to shoot and failing and failing again brought her close to tears, and Ette could tell.
"Val, you've got the best hand-eye coordination of anybody I've ever met. Maybe tied with Iselde…"
"Izzy," Izzy corrected him.
Ette nodded. "Tied with Izzy. Maybe. But you're trying to do too much. When your first few arrows didn't go the way you wanted, you doubled down and then doubled down again on figuring out what you were doing wrong. Which is good. But you keep changing three or four things at once - your stance, your grip, your pull, the angle… if you do everything exactly the same in exactly the same weather, the arrow will fly the same every time. Good archery is knowing which things to change for a shot - which you'll never learn if you change five things at once."
"I don't mean to change five things. I'm just trying to make the arrow hit true."
"I know, Val. And I can tell you're frustrated. So how about this… here's what we'll do. I want you to take the smaller bow and come over to that tree stump…"
Val put her face in her hands. Her cheeks burned. "This is embarrassing… everybody's watching me…"
"They're not. They're getting that turkey ready for supper and then the three of them are doing combat drills while it cooks." He waved at Val's siblings to do as he'd said. "It's just you and me and the bow."
Val felt like a little kid being walked through a beginner's lesson, even though the other three were already good enough to bring in game. Ette had Val place the bottom tip of the bow dead center on a stump and imagine an invisible point that the top was anchored to. He drew out the angle to swivel the bow to with a little piece of charcoal and then had her nock, draw, and release - one, two, three, just like in their earlier practice. The arrow struck the nearby maple, perhaps ten yards away, about three inches off from center. Val started to adjust…
"No." Ette stated. He retrieved the arrow and handed her another. "The exact same shot. Now."
She nocked, drew, and released. Ette retrieved the arrow and put his stick of charcoal in the hole. "Exact same shot, exact same hole," he said. He stood by the tree and tossed her the arrow. "Again."
Now that Ette was standing two feet from the spot, she had to be precise. Two feet off would mean… she checked her pocket for a healing potion… she still had two. She took a deep breath. She nocked, drew, and released.
"Exact same shot, exact same hole," Ette said. He paced back over to the stump and marked the edge of the trunk a quarter inch from the first mark. "Line up with that new mark, everything else the same… good. Now lift the bow one inch up from the stump… good. Now take that shot."
Val did. The arrow zipped out and landed an inch higher and exactly in the middle of the poor maple's trunk. Ette paced to the tree and tossed her the arrow.
"Again."
Val nocked, drew, and released.
Ette reached over to remove the arrow and placed his stick of charcoal in the hole. "Exact same shot, exact same hole," he said. He tossed the arrow back to Val. His eyes met hers, dark and intense in the shadows of the late afternoon wood. "Do you have any idea what most archers would give to be able to do that?" He tossed her the charcoal stick. "Now… mark where you think you'll need to line up to hit that oak tree, oh… twenty-two yards off, and we'll go again…"
An hour later and supper was ready. Val and Ette returned to their little camp, where Val sat next to Niko on one log, Iselde and Galvan sat on another, and Ette got his own since he was as broader than any two of them put together (well, Niko plus Galvan would have been close). Niko took Val's hand and traced her finger over the tender red spot that would become a callus if she kept her archery up. Val figured it was a lot like fighting drills, so she could incorporate archery into those.
Val couldn't stop smiling - now she could hit an eighteen-inch-wide trunk at ten yards without needing to mark her angle with charcoal. She wouldn't be bringing in wild turkeys any time soon, but Ette had convinced Val that she could shoot anything eventually by changing exactly one thing at a time, and that she'd eventually get an intuitive feel for what to change to make a shot land true. It was almost as strange to realize that Niko and Izzy had developed that intuition over the course of about three lessons as it was to think that most people couldn't make the same shot many times in a row.
After supper, evening was upon them and it was time to finish setting camp before it was completely dark. Ette fed wood into their fire and then addressed the group.
"All right, tonight we're going to learn a valuable skill that'll serve you in the city or in the wild: keeping watch. Now, tell me… why do you think it is that we haven't all had our food stolen by wild animals yet?"
+++++
When they arrived in Port Rumm after six days on the road, they resembled a hunting party more than they did an inveterate bounty-hunter and his four wards. They rode into town with two wild turkeys, caught that morning, and three scraped hides - Val had managed to down one of the deer, which were a lot easier to hunt than birds on account of their size if you were willing to sit in absolute silence for a while and knew where on the deer to shoot. She'd got it right in the heart from fifteen yards, and it had only managed three staggering steps before it dropped dead.
There was a lot more to hunting than just shooting animals. In fact, that was Val's least favorite part about hunting, since you were killing the poor things. First, they would check all of their equipment. Then there was the prayer - most hunters didn't do prayers before hunts, but it was technically required in the Old Sudren religion. The idea was to ask the Earth for its bounty, to promise not to take more than you needed, to use everything you killed, and to take no joy in death. You didn't have to pray like that, but if you didn't, then the Earth would get stingier and stingier with its yield. So the superstition went. As far as Val knew, other religions managed to hunt just fine, but Ette insisted that they had to work three times as hard for their kills, that their prey spooked more easily and fought harder. Maybe he was right, and maybe not.
They arrived at the Uddy residence hauling about thirty pounds of prime venison steak, two very fine antlers, and two dressed turkeys, all ready for butchering. Val thought of it as their offering for Ginn, an apology for going off and leaving her in Port Rumm to worry. But Ginn didn't care about their hunt. She wasn't even angry. Even though they'd sent a message that had arrived two days before, she couldn't contain her tears of relief as she pulled each of them into a tearful hug… even Niko and Izzy got hugs, though they were a lot more perfunctory.
"Valkyrie Valicent-Vinzenno…" Ginn stated - and that was a real alarm-ringer when she unleashed the Triple Name. "Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
For some reason, it was Val's fault more than Galvan's, even though they'd gone together at his insistence. "I have a pretty good idea."
"Well?"
"I'm sorry I worried you, but I’m not sorry I did it," she said. "There's a lot to worry about out there, and it's their fault you were worried - Boleares and the Pale Order - not mine. Galvan and I left because we were worried, too, and we figured we could do something about it. And we did."
"I had to physically restrain her twice on the first day to keep her from going after you," Uncle Wuldie added. "Are things as bad in Verdenlecht as they're saying?"
Ette shrugged. "Just about as bad, I'd guess."
"Damn."
They got to unpacking their things and figuring out their living arrangements since, as hospitable as the Uddys were, there simply wasn't enough room for six additional people in the residence. Since they'd roughed it their whole trip from Verdenlecht to Port Rumm, Ette decided that they ought to hole up in a proper hotel for a few days until they found more appropriate accommodations for the indeterminate length of their stay. Val was just about beside herself at the prospect of staying in a proper hotel room and getting a proper bath when a half dozen members of the earl's guard rode up to the Uddy residence, their lieutenant pounding on the door far more aggressively than befit a friendly visit.
"Is this the household of Aeth… Aethylwulde Cal… Mr. Uddy?"
"It is," Uncle Wuldie said. "I assure you, I have documentation for every last contract I've notarized, even that bloody…"
"Sir, is there a Valk… Miss V. Vinzenno in your residence?"
"Who wants to know?"
She handed Wuldie an official-looking paper. "On behalf of Gunthald, the 5th Earl Rumm, I have a writ to detain Ms. Vinzenno pursuant to questioning by ducal authorities on charges of sedition."
OvidLemma
An Obligatory Message from the Author
Thanks for reading, and make sure you follow me here to catch my latest releases! I know these pleas for support are annoying to read, but the only thing keeping me from making daily chapter updates of the stories you love is the fact that I need a regular job. Please consider helping me realize my goal of writing full-time if you can. And if you can't, no worries! I don't want anybody breaking the bank on my behalf. Regardless of whether or not you can chip in, I hope you continue to read and enjoy my stories!
I plan on releasing chapters of this story 2-3 times a week, but I haven't decided on what days yet. Advance chapters are available on my Patreon. If you liked this story, don't forget to check out my many other stories Scribble Hub, Patreon, or Amazon (free with Kindle Unlimited)!
https://www.patreon.com/OvidLemma
https://www.amazon.com/s?i=digital-text&rh=p_27:Ovid+Lemma
-Ovid
38. Targeted
The next day saw them heading west along the trade road and up toward the River Road that would lead them to Port Rumm. It felt vaguely wrong to be escaping the city after everything that had transpired. Val had sworn an oath of revenge in front of all three septs, and here she was retreating from the half-occupied Verdenlecht.
"We're not retreating," Ette assured her. "We're regrouping."
There were five of them now - Levin had stayed behind to help with the defense of the city. Ette, Garvan, and Val, obviously, as well as Niko and Izzy, which is what they were calling Iselde now, apparently. Izzy had only ridden a horse once or twice before, and Val had to keep reminding herself that she'd been in exactly the same boat not so long ago. It was an awfully long ride for somebody not used to it and they found themselves stopping frequently to spare Izzy's poor thighs.
Izzy enjoyed the stops, and not just because she got to get off of Poppy. She could count on one hand the number of times she'd been outside of Verdenlecht and she found the notion of mile upon mile of open space amazing. The moment she was off of Poppy, she'd zoom off despite Ette's admonitions to stay nearby, and crouch in front of whatever shrub or glade was nearby to look for new flowers for her growing collection, or to ask what different bugs or animals were called.
"If you wanted to, you could just walk and walk in whatever direction you wanted to," she said. "Why does anybody live in the city?"
"Clothes and food, mostly," Val said.
"But you said the elderberries I found were edible," Izzy said.
"If you cook them, I said," Val said. "If you don't, they're poisonous… how many did you eat?"
"One or two?"
"You'll be fine… but don't eat any more. That's the problem, isn't it? Most folks don't know how to survive in the rough, and if everybody did, then we'd clean the whole countryside bare. And there aren't any shops or tradespeople out here. Nobody to fix your armor or mend your dress or sell you kebabs."
Izzy nodded sagely. "So that's why posh folks like to go out to the country on holiday but come back when the holiday's over. Makes sense. What's this flower called?"
"That's a golden tickseed."
"That's a terrible name. I'm calling it a queenscrown." She slipped it into her hair, the same intense, coppery-orange as Val's hair, but cut about half as long.
"That's a better name," Val agreed.
Izzy talked all the time, and she talked at a mile a minute. By contrast, Niko didn't say much for the first two days of their trip, never meeting anybody's gaze, not even Val's, and not responding to anything unless you called her name directly. It just about broke Val's heart to see her like that. She still let Val cuddle up to her at night, but she just lay there quietly, soaking up Val's touch like she was freezing and needed the warmth, but looking faraway like she couldn’t connect on any emotional level. When Val asked her what was wrong, she'd say it was nothing, that she just didn't feel like talking, and when Val finally insisted that Niko tell her what was happening, she burst into tears and fled from their little camp.
Val had to track her down in the glade near their resting stop. It wasn't hard to do - she just had to follow the sounds of Niko sobbing. Iselde followed after her, too, but Val waved her away, wanting to speak with Niko in private first. She found her sitting on a log, her face buried in her hands as she wept. When Val sat next to her and pulled her close, at least she didn't pull away.
"Please, Niko, please," Val said. "Tell me what to do. Please. How can I help?"
"I've got no family. I'm cursed… I'm going to be an orphan forever," she said. "I thought Sabine was going to be my mom like Ette's your dad. But she's dead and I'm never going to have anybody."
"I thought I was cursed, too," Val said.
Niko looked at her in astonishment. "You? Cursed?" She let out a bitter laugh. "You got blessed by the gods. You got a family, and you're friends with the duchess, and you got more Gift than anybody I've ever heard of. You're smart and brave and pretty, and I’m a nobody…"
Val played with the tight braids of Niko's hair, a blonde so pale they were almost silvery. "I didn’t have any of that stuff. I almost got apprenticeships three times and they all fell through. I found Ginn and Ette and then I had to leave them because the Pale Order wanted my blood. I got kicked out of my orphanage because I was too dangerous. But I wasn't cursed… and you're not cursed." She kissed Niko's forehead and rubbed her back. "You've got me. You've got your friends. And we all know that you're the bravest, sweetest, kindest girl in the whole city."
"But you're shite at streetball," Izzy said. She'd crept up close while Val was comforting her girlfriend.
Niko finally cracked a smile. "I'm not. I just don't play dirty like some girls."
"We're your family, and we'll always be here," Val said. She unsheathed her knife and put magical fire to the blade's edge to clean it. "I made an oath before the gods that I'd get my revenge. What do you say we make a blood-pact? We're going to destroy the bastards who attacked our family. The three of us are sisters."
Niko ran her fingers through Val's hair, picking out one of the wildflowers that Izzy had stuck in there. "I'm not sure I want to dream about kissing my sister…"
Val blushed. "Family means we're more than just friends," she said softly. "That's what it means. We can still… you know… kiss and cuddle and whatever."
"Let's do this already, love birds," Izzy said. She snatched the knife from Val. "Come on, I always wanted sisters. Let's be blood sisters."
When they returned to camp with bloody palms, Ette didn't ask what had transpired, because it was pretty obvious. Three girls returning from the wood, holding hands, palms bloodied, and a look of determination in their eyes? If they hadn't been torturing small woodland creatures, it was probably a blood-oath. Kids made them all the time, perhaps not realizing the gravity of such a thing. But if the gods took such oaths seriously, then Val did, too.
Niko and Iselde were Val's blood sisters now. In Niko's case, the sort of sister that you could cuddle and kiss without it being weird. In Iselde's case, she was a sister more like Galvan was a brother: annoying at times, but mostly okay. And they would always look out for one another.
+++++
They didn't stop in any inns on the return trip, even though they had enough money to afford it. The nights were warm and, with a little repellant oil, the insects weren't too bad. Supposedly, there was a magical means to ward off bugs, but Val hadn't learned it yet. You could just ask the bugs to stay away - and they would - but you had to ask them one at a time, which wasn't really a workable tactic. They rode for six or seven hours a day, taking stops whenever they arrived somewhere that Ette thought would be helpful for honing their skills.
One of the things he taught them was hunting, which you could do with a knife but was easier with a spear or a bow and arrow. You could use a bolt-caster, too, but Ette wouldn't let them because, once you spent a bolt, you needed an alchemical setup to refurbish it, whereas you could reuse arrows and even make your own, if need be.
"Why do we need to know this stuff?" Izzy asked Ette. Val had been wondering the same thing.
"Because there's a war on, and we've picked the side that's currently losing. We might find ourselves on our own or on the run and unwelcome in the nearby towns, which means we've got to be able to survive on our own for a while. Val knows more about foraging than I do, but the best way to get a full meal is to hunt. Plus, it's handy to be able to take out enemies at a distance without magic or alchemy."
Val accepted that line of reasoning and let Ette teach them. They bought two decent hunting bows, three quivers, and five dozen arrows as they passed through the town on the edge of hill country and practiced with them two or three times every day. Galvan already had some experience with the bow, and Niko and Iselde took to archery immediately. For Val, it was a frustrating experience, as she was possibly even worse at archery than she was at riding horses… which, come to think of it, she was actually pretty good at now. So maybe she'd get better at archery. But maybe not - her arrows flew all over the place. She would watch Izzy pull back and easily split a target at twenty yards that Val had just missed at ten… and then, that evening, come back with a ten-pound wild turkey she'd shot for dinner.
At least Val was learning about how to clean and dress animals and how to skin them for leather. The latter was a particularly valuable skill when you also knew chem-hardening. But trying to shoot and failing and failing again brought her close to tears, and Ette could tell.
"Val, you've got the best hand-eye coordination of anybody I've ever met. Maybe tied with Iselde…"
"Izzy," Izzy corrected him.
Ette nodded. "Tied with Izzy. Maybe. But you're trying to do too much. When your first few arrows didn't go the way you wanted, you doubled down and then doubled down again on figuring out what you were doing wrong. Which is good. But you keep changing three or four things at once - your stance, your grip, your pull, the angle… if you do everything exactly the same in exactly the same weather, the arrow will fly the same every time. Good archery is knowing which things to change for a shot - which you'll never learn if you change five things at once."
"I don't mean to change five things. I'm just trying to make the arrow hit true."
"I know, Val. And I can tell you're frustrated. So how about this… here's what we'll do. I want you to take the smaller bow and come over to that tree stump…"
Val put her face in her hands. Her cheeks burned. "This is embarrassing… everybody's watching me…"
"They're not. They're getting that turkey ready for supper and then the three of them are doing combat drills while it cooks." He waved at Val's siblings to do as he'd said. "It's just you and me and the bow."
Val felt like a little kid being walked through a beginner's lesson, even though the other three were already good enough to bring in game. Ette had Val place the bottom tip of the bow dead center on a stump and imagine an invisible point that the top was anchored to. He drew out the angle to swivel the bow to with a little piece of charcoal and then had her nock, draw, and release - one, two, three, just like in their earlier practice. The arrow struck the nearby maple, perhaps ten yards away, about three inches off from center. Val started to adjust…
"No." Ette stated. He retrieved the arrow and handed her another. "The exact same shot. Now."
She nocked, drew, and released. Ette retrieved the arrow and put his stick of charcoal in the hole. "Exact same shot, exact same hole," he said. He stood by the tree and tossed her the arrow. "Again."
Now that Ette was standing two feet from the spot, she had to be precise. Two feet off would mean… she checked her pocket for a healing potion… she still had two. She took a deep breath. She nocked, drew, and released.
"Exact same shot, exact same hole," Ette said. He paced back over to the stump and marked the edge of the trunk a quarter inch from the first mark. "Line up with that new mark, everything else the same… good. Now lift the bow one inch up from the stump… good. Now take that shot."
Val did. The arrow zipped out and landed an inch higher and exactly in the middle of the poor maple's trunk. Ette paced to the tree and tossed her the arrow.
"Again."
Val nocked, drew, and released.
Ette reached over to remove the arrow and placed his stick of charcoal in the hole. "Exact same shot, exact same hole," he said. He tossed the arrow back to Val. His eyes met hers, dark and intense in the shadows of the late afternoon wood. "Do you have any idea what most archers would give to be able to do that?" He tossed her the charcoal stick. "Now… mark where you think you'll need to line up to hit that oak tree, oh… twenty-two yards off, and we'll go again…"
An hour later and supper was ready. Val and Ette returned to their little camp, where Val sat next to Niko on one log, Iselde and Galvan sat on another, and Ette got his own since he was as broader than any two of them put together (well, Niko plus Galvan would have been close). Niko took Val's hand and traced her finger over the tender red spot that would become a callus if she kept her archery up. Val figured it was a lot like fighting drills, so she could incorporate archery into those.
Val couldn't stop smiling - now she could hit an eighteen-inch-wide trunk at ten yards without needing to mark her angle with charcoal. She wouldn't be bringing in wild turkeys any time soon, but Ette had convinced Val that she could shoot anything eventually by changing exactly one thing at a time, and that she'd eventually get an intuitive feel for what to change to make a shot land true. It was almost as strange to realize that Niko and Izzy had developed that intuition over the course of about three lessons as it was to think that most people couldn't make the same shot many times in a row.
After supper, evening was upon them and it was time to finish setting camp before it was completely dark. Ette fed wood into their fire and then addressed the group.
"All right, tonight we're going to learn a valuable skill that'll serve you in the city or in the wild: keeping watch. Now, tell me… why do you think it is that we haven't all had our food stolen by wild animals yet?"
+++++
When they arrived in Port Rumm after six days on the road, they resembled a hunting party more than they did an inveterate bounty-hunter and his four wards. They rode into town with two wild turkeys, caught that morning, and three scraped hides - Val had managed to down one of the deer, which were a lot easier to hunt than birds on account of their size if you were willing to sit in absolute silence for a while and knew where on the deer to shoot. She'd got it right in the heart from fifteen yards, and it had only managed three staggering steps before it dropped dead.
There was a lot more to hunting than just shooting animals. In fact, that was Val's least favorite part about hunting, since you were killing the poor things. First, they would check all of their equipment. Then there was the prayer - most hunters didn't do prayers before hunts, but it was technically required in the Old Sudren religion. The idea was to ask the Earth for its bounty, to promise not to take more than you needed, to use everything you killed, and to take no joy in death. You didn't have to pray like that, but if you didn't, then the Earth would get stingier and stingier with its yield. So the superstition went. As far as Val knew, other religions managed to hunt just fine, but Ette insisted that they had to work three times as hard for their kills, that their prey spooked more easily and fought harder. Maybe he was right, and maybe not.
They arrived at the Uddy residence hauling about thirty pounds of prime venison steak, two very fine antlers, and two dressed turkeys, all ready for butchering. Val thought of it as their offering for Ginn, an apology for going off and leaving her in Port Rumm to worry. But Ginn didn't care about their hunt. She wasn't even angry. Even though they'd sent a message that had arrived two days before, she couldn't contain her tears of relief as she pulled each of them into a tearful hug… even Niko and Izzy got hugs, though they were a lot more perfunctory.
"Valkyrie Valicent-Vinzenno…" Ginn stated - and that was a real alarm-ringer when she unleashed the Triple Name. "Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
For some reason, it was Val's fault more than Galvan's, even though they'd gone together at his insistence. "I have a pretty good idea."
"Well?"
"I'm sorry I worried you, but I’m not sorry I did it," she said. "There's a lot to worry about out there, and it's their fault you were worried - Boleares and the Pale Order - not mine. Galvan and I left because we were worried, too, and we figured we could do something about it. And we did."
"I had to physically restrain her twice on the first day to keep her from going after you," Uncle Wuldie added. "Are things as bad in Verdenlecht as they're saying?"
Ette shrugged. "Just about as bad, I'd guess."
"Damn."
They got to unpacking their things and figuring out their living arrangements since, as hospitable as the Uddys were, there simply wasn't enough room for six additional people in the residence. Since they'd roughed it their whole trip from Verdenlecht to Port Rumm, Ette decided that they ought to hole up in a proper hotel for a few days until they found more appropriate accommodations for the indeterminate length of their stay. Val was just about beside herself at the prospect of staying in a proper hotel room and getting a proper bath when a half dozen members of the earl's guard rode up to the Uddy residence, their lieutenant pounding on the door far more aggressively than befit a friendly visit.
"Is this the household of Aeth… Aethylwulde Cal… Mr. Uddy?"
"It is," Uncle Wuldie said. "I assure you, I have documentation for every last contract I've notarized, even that bloody…"
"Sir, is there a Valk… Miss V. Vinzenno in your residence?"
"Who wants to know?"
She handed Wuldie an official-looking paper. "On behalf of Gunthald, the 5th Earl Rumm, I have a writ to detain Ms. Vinzenno pursuant to questioning by ducal authorities on charges of sedition."
OvidLemma
An Obligatory Message from the Author
Thanks for reading, and make sure you follow me here to catch my latest releases! I know these pleas for support are annoying to read, but the only thing keeping me from making daily chapter updates of the stories you love is the fact that I need a regular job. Please consider helping me realize my goal of writing full-time if you can. And if you can't, no worries! I don't want anybody breaking the bank on my behalf. Regardless of whether or not you can chip in, I hope you continue to read and enjoy my stories!
I plan on releasing chapters of this story 2-3 times a week, but I haven't decided on what days yet. Advance chapters are available on my Patreon. If you liked this story, don't forget to check out my many other stories Scribble Hub, Patreon, or Amazon (free with Kindle Unlimited)!
https://www.patreon.com/OvidLemma
https://www.amazon.com/s?i=digital-text&rh=p_27:Ovid+Lemma
-Ovid
