The Hunt: A Custodes Noctis Book Read online

  “Aren't they supposed to be out at the ritual?” Flash said, getting into the car.

  “Yes.” Galen started the engine and pulled out, the lights reflecting back, making it harder to see. The mists were so thick he could barely see the hood of the car as they crept though the dark. It was taking forever to get to the highway, let alone to the place where the ritual would take place. As he drove he could hear the soft chiming of bells, the song as the ritual began, the sounds echoing along the muted bond with his brother.

  “What are those things?” Flash said, staring out the window.

  Galen realized he could see a little into the night, small dark eyes were peering at him from the edge of the road. “I'm not sure,” he said.

  “Creepy, just creepy.”

  “I'll give you that,” Galen agreed with a chuckle. Suddenly the eyes vanished, Galen sensed their fear washing through the night. He stopped the car and rolled down the window, eyes and ears straining to catch what had frightened the eyes away. Not able to hear well enough he stepped out of the car.

  A soft growl cut through the heavy silence. Glancing in the direction of the sound, he thought he saw something moving in the fog. “Flash, we have company.”

  “What?” his friend asked, getting out of the car, and walking to stand beside Galen.

  “I'm not sure.” The growl came again, the sound causing an icy thrill to run through Galen's body.

  “It's not good,” Flash said.

  “No.”

  A dark shadow moved through the fog at the edge of the headlights, the glow disappearing into the depths of whatever was out there. Fear tingled along Galen's spine, raising goosebumps on his skin. It wasn't what they'd faced ever before, not like the other dark things that had been appearing, it was something bigger, something so deeply dark it created night around it, sucking light and warmth into itself. Evil, hatred, surrounded it, flowing outwards like a huge wave, destruction of everything so clear in its intent, Galen felt his breath pulled away. He heard Flash's intake of breath as the darkness of the thing flowed over them, the mists rippling away as the black mass moved.

  It came without warning, one second it was lurking in the fog, the next it hit them, knocking them apart, its touch sending freezing cold through Galen. He rolled away, moving as far as he could from the thing. It had Flash pinned, something that looked like a giant hand with shining black claws holding him immobile. Galen shouted, drawing its attention, backing up against the car and opening the door to grab his sword. It came towards him, tossing Flash aside as easily as if he'd been a toy. Its low growl was more a physical sensation than sound, the cold touching the world around Galen, the darkness growing and rippling outwards.

  Suddenly it lifted its head, listening, then Galen felt something that terrified him flow through the creature. It was happy, whatever it heard pleased it. The creature pulled away from Galen and growled again, more a pleased purr than a threat, then turned away, disappearing into the night, possibly going back through the Veil, he wasn't sure.

  Then he heard them, what the creature must have heard—horses. They were moving fast, coming towards them, the sound was coming from his right, pounding hooves getting close. The fog shifted as the horses plunged into view, he recognized them as those that had watched as he and Flash fought by the motel. There were at least a dozen horses in the group. They moved apart as two larger horses pulled up. One almost charcoal-colored, the other dappled gray and white, the bones standing out against the hide.

  “It's gone,” the rider on the dappled horse said. “They must have...”

  “Be quiet. He's listening,” the other said. Galen was sure it was the king's champion.

  “Why aren't you at the ritual?” Galen said mildly, putting a threat into the quiet words.

  “We serve our king,” the champion snapped.

  “You do? By missing the ritual?”

  “Do not address him like that!” the rider on the dappled horse said.

  The champion reached down to backhand Galen before he could get out of the way, the blow hard enough to snap Galen's head back. The other riders cheered their approval. Galen straightened and wiped the blood off his mouth, aware of the burn on his cheek.

  “What the fuck?” Flash said, stepping towards them hammer raised.

  “Flash!” Galen warned.

  “Galen?” Flash asked.

  “Stay back.”

  “Your servant needs to learn manners.”

  “What'd he say?” Flash demanded. Galen translated and Flash growled. “He said what? Hey, you, shithead.”

  “Are you talking to me?” the rider asked Flash.

  “Yeah you, shithead,” Flash answered. Galen knew he didn't know the language, but the intent was clear in his tone.

  The rider growled and swung down off his horse, drawing his sword and facing Flash he said, “You dare address me, servant?”

  “You got a problem with me?”

  “Flash,” Galen warned.

  “Give me a minute” Flash said, Galen moved towards his friend, recognizing the situation. Flash had gotten them into more than one bar brawl and this looked like the same thing. The rider grinned, his skeletal face lighting with malice, then staggered as the first blow of Flash's hammer connected with his skull.

  The rider stumbled, then lunged forward, shoving Flash to the ground as he drove his fist into Flash’s hip. Grappling with the rider, Flash managed to bring his hammer down on the man’s back. The rider rolled away, dark blood staining his shirt. Standing, he kicked out, his foot connecting with Flash's head. The champion growled at him and the rider stepped away. Galen moved to help Flash as his friend pushed himself up. The rider started back towards Flash when the sound of a horn rang out through the fog. The horses tossed their heads in the air, neighing with delight, pawing the ground and shifting restlessly as the call sounded again.

  “Leave it,” the champion snapped.

  “What’s going on?” Flash asked, glancing at Galen.

  “Sir,” the rider said, swaying back and forth, his sword raised.

  “Leave it, the Hunt calls, we must go!”

  “This isn’t finished,” the rider growled to Flash, then walked to his horse, managing to mount, but he slumped forward, unsteady in the saddle.

  “Yeah,” Flash answered as they turned their horses and headed into the mists. “What’d he say?”

  “That was stupid,” Galen said, frowning at him.

  “And that surprises you about me how?” Flash limped towards the car. He opened the door and sat in the seat. “You gonna zap me better?”

  “I should let you suffer.” Galen walked around the vehicle. “But I won’t, I might need you when we get to Rob.”

  * * *

  “We headed straight out where you were, but with the fog, it took awhile to get there,” Galen finished and picked up his coffee.

  “The fight was way more exciting than that!” Flash said with a grumble.

  “You think it was one of the feorhbealu, don’t you, Galen?” Rob asked.

  “I don’t know, but whatever it was, we haven’t faced anything like it ever before,” Galen replied.

  “What was it doing out there?” Rob was picking at his food, Galen could feel worry buzzing along the connection.

  “I’m not sure. Like the one that appeared in the parking lot, it was just there.”

  “Why? Preparing to break through? The Veil is more vulnerable at Solstice, it's why the king was always chosen at this time of year.”

  “Could be, but why was it…”

  “Huh,” Flash interrupted, frowning.

  “What?” Galen turned to him.

  “That’s kind of strange.” Flash was staring into the distance, his coffee mug halfway between the table and his mouth.

  “What?” Galen said again, when Flash didn’t answer, Galen flicked his arm.

  “Ow, what was that for?”

  “What’s strange?”

  “Do you think
it’s weird those thingies were there, and so were those guys? I mean they were supposed to be out playing horsie with Rob, right? But they were there, hanging out where those dark thingies just happened to be, where me and Galen just happened to be.”

  “It was a coincidence, Flash,” Galen trailed off, thinking Flash could be right.

  “I told you, the two of you aren't seeing this,” Flash insisted.

  “The Hunt was created to fight those things,” Rob said.

  “Okay, so it was, but what were those guys doing there when they were supposed to be with the rest of them?” Flash asked, looking from Galen to Rob. “And those thingies? And what's with the guy slapping Galen? And why the hell can't he get rid of that burn mark? It's creeping me out.”

  Galen raised his hand to the mark as Rob focused on him. He felt the hum of their connection as his brother looked at him with the Sight. Rob gasped, shock ran through the bond. “Galen?” Rob said softly, getting up and coming over, gently turning his face. Unlike most younger Custodes Noctis, Rob had the Gift of healing, like the Keepers of the past once had, designed to aid his brother if needed. He placed a hand over the wound, Galen felt the warmth of the healing on his cheek, it spread over his face but stopped at the surface, unable to penetrate the burn mark. “I guess if you couldn't fix it, I wouldn't be able to,” Rob said ruefully and sat back down.

  “So why?” Flash snapped.

  “Ask Rob, he's the scholar.” Galen chuckled, trying to calm Flash down before he and Rob started sniping at each other. It was good-natured, but he wasn't in the mood for it.

  “You have a Ph.D.,” Flash said to Galen.

  “There's a difference.”

  “What?”

  “I'm a freak,” Rob said with a frown. “He means I get off on it.”

  “Uh huh, right.” Flash made a face. “So?”

  “There's nothing in the Sagas,” Rob said cautiously.

  “You see something?” Galen knew the answer before his brother spoke.

  “You said the king's champion was the one who hit you?” Rob asked, Galen nodded. “There's something more to the burn, I'm sure you know that.”

  “Yeah, I don't like it, either.”

  “No.”

  “Don't like what?” Flash stuffed the last of his bacon in his mouth.

  “The mark, it's full of the same darkness as the creatures we've been fighting,” Rob said quietly.

  “Well, isn't that fucking lovely,” Flash muttered. “You need to get out of this now, pack up, leave town.”

  “We can't, Flash. On top of everything else, Stephen said this might be our only chance.” Rob shook his head as he spoke.

  “And we're back to him.” Flash frowned at Rob.

  “What does that mean?” Rob growled.

  Galen's phone rang, he glanced at the caller ID and flipped it open. “Hello?”

  “Galen? It's Hugh.”

  “Hey, how's it going?” Galen asked, mouthing “Hugh” to his brother, trying to distract him from the argument with Flash.

  “I have a bit more information for you. I don’t know how much it'll help, but I've been head down in this stuff for about twelve hours.”

  “Thanks. What did you find out?”

  “That there's not a lot of information, reliable at least, about this sort of thing. Do you know how many books, only available in dusty basements, I've been through for you?”

  “Guilt doesn’t work on me,” Galen said, smiling at Hugh's tone. “I already promised joint publication.”

  “I know you did, I just have to stay in practice for the students,” Hugh said with a chuckle.

  “Right.”

  “I don't even know if I've been chasing the right thing, Galen, but for some reason something you said just stuck and I couldn't get rid of it, so I went after that first.”

  “What?” Galen couldn't hear over Flash and Rob, so he got up and walked to the far side of the room, watching a raven hop on the ground outside the restaurant. It noticed him, looked up and cocked its head before returning to what it had been doing.

  “I don't know if I'm even on the right track.”

  “Hugh? You thought it was worth following, I trust your instincts.”

  “I've been after Petronius the Alchemist.”

  “You have?”

  “Yes, I got that funny feeling, you know the one?”

  “All to well,” Galen agreed. He knew exactly what Hugh was talking about, that sense that you had to follow a line of research, even if it looked like it was miles off track. He'd discovered the writings of a very obscure Ninth Century physician just that way.

  “So I went after him.”

  “I didn't think there was much out there.”

  “More than you might think, once you realize what you're after.”

  “Scholarly vagueness might piss me off this morning, Hugh, I had a long night.”

  “You sound like it,” Hugh agreed.

  “And?”

  “He's an interesting character. I found records that he was nearly burned as a witch.”

  “Yeah, Rob told me he'd found that, too.”

  “Did he tell you it was after Petronius had been found at a stone circle with blood literally on his hands?”

  “No, he didn't, though he did say he thought a Keeper had helped Petronius out of the charges.”

  “I think so, too,” Hugh said with a sigh. “But...”

  “What?”

  “According to the court records, he claimed...”

  Galen heard the hesitation in his voice. “Hugh?”

  “Okay, Galen, I'm getting this third hand, chasing it through copies of reports based on old documents.”

  “Hugh!” he growled.

  “About four years before he was arrested, his close friends and companions disappeared at the Solstice. It's strange actually, because shortly after they disappeared the stories about the Hunt began to change.”

  “Who were they?”

  “Gaius and Robert Emrys.” Hugh paused. “They dropped off the face of the earth, Gauis had sons and they stepped into the Keepers role, but no mention was made of the others until the trial.”

  “What did Petronius say?”

  “All he said when asked if he'd committed the crime was he was trying to free them. The 'who' he was trying to free isn't mentioned, but it was an Emrys who got him out of it all. Petronius himself disappeared after that, briefly resurfacing about ten years later, then he was gone again.”

  “How did Rob miss all that?” Galen said more to himself than Hugh.

  “Galen, these documents are... Not just anyone can get to them. I had to pull strings.”