The Hunt: A Custodes Noctis Book Read online

  “I know, we're pretty excited about it. It's all Galen can talk about.”

  “Yeah, all I can talk about,” Galen said when they turned expectantly to him. “And you should hear Pete and Sean.”

  “I'll put it on my calendar, thanks again, Flash.” She picked up her bag and walked out of the shop.

  “You need to order that statue, there, boss?” Galen asked wryly. “For your customer?”

  “She's been in once or twice when I was here,” Flash said defensively. “Is Rob okay? That was a hell of a crash.”

  “Yeah, he's fine, just tripped over something.”

  “Just tripped?”

  “Yeah, he was sleeping on the couch.”

  “Ah, the shin-eating coffee table.” Flash chuckled. “Someday I'm going to get rid of that thing, it's scarred me one to many times.”

  “You're just clumsy. And don't worry, I think it's pretty dead now,” Galen said, looking out the window, sure he could see something moving out there. He walked to the door and looked out, except for a car at Becci's stand, the street was empty. That in itself was odd. Galen concentrated, trying to figure out what he'd seen.

  “Hey!” Flash grabbed his arm.

  “What?” Galen snapped.

  “Where were you?”

  “Right here, where else?”

  “You didn't answer and had this weird look in your eye—like last night when Rob freaked.”

  “He didn't freak.”

  “Actually, I did,” Rob said, walking in from the back. “One of these coffees for me?” He picked up the cups, looking at the notes on the side. “Six shot, one sugar, inch of cream. Mine, mine, mine. Stay away.”

  “No one is going to take your coffee, Brat.” Galen wandered back to the counter.

  “Good, I might have to kill anyone who tried.” Rob smiled and leaned against the shelves, several jars wobbling as he did. “Thanks, Flash.”

  “Thought you'd need it, you looked like shit last night. Do you know what those things were? Galen thought you might have gotten a better look than we did.”

  “Yeah,” Rob said softly.

  “Rob?” Galen asked, aware of emotion flowing off his brother related to what he'd seen. Concern, horror and and undercurrent of Rob's typical calm, which considering the other emotions, was annoying.

  “I'm not sure what they were, but I did get a good look at them.” He swallowed. “It's hard to describe.”

  “Bad?” Flash nodded knowingly. “Why you freaked?”

  “Yes, bad. No, not why I freaked.” Rob sipped his coffee, looking from Flash to Galen.

  “Ha, told ya, Galen.” Flash grinned at him.

  “Yeah, you did,” Galen said, concerned at the growing anxiety in his brother. “Rob?”

  “Will you watch the shop?” Rob asked Flash.

  “I...” Flash frowned at Rob, meeting his eyes for a moment. “Yeah, you can let me know later.”

  “Thanks.” Rob walked into the back of the shop, Galen grabbed his coffee and followed. “Let's go into the garden.”

  “The garden? Okay.” As Galen walked out into the back, he wondered what was going on. The sense of peace he always got in the garden flowed over him as he walked to the bench where Rob was sitting. “Why are we out here?” He had a good guess, the garden was behind the shop, in a private area so they wouldn't be disturbed by people and it was Bolted—protected by magical plants so nothing else could overhear them either.

  “I don't want anyone, or anything, eavesdropping,” Rob said, staring into his coffee. “I thought you died.”

  “What?” Galen was shocked. “Rob, how could you? The bond...”

  “Broke,” he finished flatly.

  “It what?”

  “Broke. You healed Greg, stood up, and you were gone. Just like that. I thought you'd died and forgotten to fall.”

  “Rob, are you sure?”

  “Why didn't you tell me about the Hunt?” Rob countered.

  “The Hunt?” Galen repeated.

  “Yeah, the Hunt. Dad told me what happened seven years ago.”

  “They're just nightmares.”

  “Just nightmares? Who the fuck do you think you're talking to?” Rob said, his voice quiet, but it felt like a shout.

  “I thought they were!”

  “You know better, Galen.”

  “I know. I thought when you came back—after the Ritual of Swords—it would be okay,” Galen said, the anger draining out of him. “I thought when the dreams started—I don't know what I thought, Rob.”

  “You could have told me.”

  “You could have told me,” Galen said with sudden certainty. “You've known.”

  “I knew you were having nightmares, I wasn't sure of the content until last night when Dad told me what happened.” Rob smiled sheepishly. “I did try to find out. I've seen something around you, mostly shifting mists, and sometimes I've been sure I've heard bells, but I didn't know for sure.”

  “But you suspected?”

  “That you were dreaming of the Hunt? Not exactly.”

  “Rob?” Galen growled.

  “It would've been nice to know,” Rob said, looking towards the edge of the garden. “I have.”

  “You have what?” Galen paused. “Dreamed of the Hunt?”

  “Yeah, I told you the reason I went to Billy was my Sight was out of control? One of the things I saw, well, it must have been the Hunt. It started about seven years ago, I almost mentioned it when I called Uncle Bobby once or twice, but I still thought it was all just legend, you know? I should've known better.”

  “I'm sorry,” Galen said, the weight of the years they were apart pressing on him. “Gods, Rob, I'm sorry.”

  “What?” Rob looked up at him. “Not your fault, Galen.”

  “But it is, I stayed dead.”

  “You had a reason.” Rob smiled. “It wasn't the right reason, but you thought you were doing right. I should have realized years ago that you were alive, that you were blocking me. Ten years, Galen and I never came up here? And five after Dad and Bobby died and it never occurred to me to come? I should have known you were behind it.”

  “See? My fault.”

  “No fault and no sorrys. It's actually one of the reasons I started learning the Sagas in earnest, you know. I'd always loved them, loved when we were working on them together, but after I went back to my family when I was thirteen, they didn't encourage it anymore. They thought it was for the best. I went along with it for awhile, I...” A fleeting look of grief crossed Rob's face.

  “When I was fifteen,” Rob continued, “I found this book in this store and I used to spend a lot of time there. It was a cool store and she had the most amazing history, literature and paranormal section, crazy rare books, ones that only exist in one or two volumes. She gave me a job, I would catalog the stuff she got in and she paid me in books. I still talk to her, it's where I got that copy of Culpepper for you last year. Anyway, I was sorting through a box she'd picked up at an estate sale and there was a copy of the Saga of the Winter King. When I started reading it, I had no idea it was a Keepers' tale, it was just this cool book. When I finished it, I started reading everything I could get my hands on, every saga, song and poem, a lot of them I remembered from training with you, Dad and Bobby; others were more obscure. I think it was because we were apart that I dove into the Sagas like that. It was a way to keep my identity, to be close to what I was supposed to have been.”

  “What you were supposed have been.” Galen stopped. “Rob, I'm sorr...”

  “I told you, I've told you a thousand times, it's okay and it needed to happen.” Rob frowned. “When I started dreaming about the Hunt, I recognized it from the Sagas. For awhile I thought I might be destined to ride with them.”

  “Because of me. I denied you the life you should have had. Your place as Custodes Noctis.”

  “Galen,” Rob said, standing and putting his hands Galen's shoulders, “there is no blame here.”

  “But...”r />
  “I realized that they wouldn't take me, because I hadn't actively denied my place.”

  “I did.”

  “Yes, and that's why you should've told me.” Worry and concern shivered through their connection, amplified by the physical contact.

  “I thought they were just nightmares,” Galen said.

  “No, you didn't. You knew they were calling you, it's been getting stronger for the last couple of months.”

  “No,” Galen lied.

  “Yes, it has, Galen, I know. I sensed the edge of your dreams, and the mists around you have been getting clearer.”

  “Are my nightmares why you aren't sleeping?”

  “Yes and no.”

  “Rob?”

  “You honestly don't know?” Rob asked, searching his eyes. “No, you don't do you, is the call that strong already?” he said more to himself than Galen.

  “What are you talking about?” When his brother didn't answer immediately, Galen reached out through their connection, trying to figure out what the mixed emotions flowing off Rob meant. As he did so, he realized that there was something muting what he was sensing from his brother, after a moment of searching himself he realized what it was.

  “It's you,” Rob said, finishing his thought. “Since the dreams started, Galen, you've slowly been sliding away. The bond isn't gone, but it's like I am sensing it through a screen or something. And it's been getting worse, much worse. I didn't realize that's what it was until this morning.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Last night, when you took the sleeping pill, it closed off the part of you that hears the Hunt. The bond was back full force. It's why I slept.”

  “And why you killed the coffee table this morning?” Galen asked.

  “Yeah, I woke up and you were there, but it was muted again. I got this flash of what that could mean—what was happening—I was a little overexcited and jumped up.” Rob chuckled. “It hated me anyway.”

  “The table?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Flash said it hated him, too.”

  “It hated everyone, Galen, and it was ugly. I think its drawn everyone's blood but yours.”

  “That's because I liked it.” Galen grinned, then sobered. “Is that why you have those pills?”

  “The coffee table? No, the table didn't prevent me sleeping.”

  “Rob.”

  “I knew I'd have to sleep eventually. I've been through every meditation technique I know. I've tried everything, even that sleep blend you make—which tastes like rotting food, by the way.”

  “That's the valerian,” Galen said absently. “How long?”

  “With no sleep at all? Not all that long, but I've only managed a couple of hours for the last couple of months. So, I asked Mike for something. He was very happy to write the prescription, something about 'people asking for help when they need it' and a little grumbling under his breath.”

  “He's still mad about last year, when you wouldn't let him take me in.”

  “Probably,” Rob sighed. “I was planning on taking them, I just hadn't gotten around to it yet.”

  “I'll take one tonight, too, you need your sleep, Brat.” Galen cuffed his brother on the arm.

  “Yeah.”

  “We need to figure out what's going on.”

  “Now that I know it's the Hunt,” Rob paused to frown at him, “I have an idea of where to start.”

  “You do?”

  “The Saga of the Winter King, in fact. There's a scholar who's hinted he knows more about the Hunt.”

  “That's a scholars MO, Rob, I remember when I was working on my Ph.D., there was this 'specialist' in Anglo-Norman medicine who claimed...”

  “Yeah, but you know that feeling you get from a work sometimes? That there is more than the writer's saying? That they know more?”

  “Yes.”

  “This is like that, and he's local. I was planning on calling him today.”

  “And he is?”

  “Father Stephen Blake, he's at the Abby outside of town.”

  “Galen! Need help in here!” Flash shouted out the door.

  “Coming!” Galen called.

  “You go help,” Rob said with a smile.

  “Rob?”

  “I'll call Father Blake and see if we can set up an appointment for tonight.”

  “Okay.”

  “Galen!” Flash shouted again.

  “Go,” Rob said, laughing.

  “I hope he hasn't destroyed the store.” Galen chuckled as he ran towards the door, glad they'd finally had a chance to talk about what was going on. He still didn't know what it meant, but it was a start.

  Chapter Five

  Rob

  It started raining, the soft drizzle soaking into his hair. Unlike a lot of people, Rob liked the rain, there was something about it that was comforting—maybe it was because with the Sight he saw it differently, the drops more like shining snowflakes than simple droplets of water. He would have to go in and call Father Blake in a moment, but he stayed in the garden, enjoying the quiet. The curtain of protection between the garden and everything else was calming, the muted colors relaxing as long as he didn't look towards the vortex of magic Galen had created on the north side of the garden.

  A movement to his left made him look across towards the parking area in back of the store. Something was there, a shadow-shape slipped along the building, pausing at the door into the shop. Rob moved to the very edge of the garden without stepping out, knowing the magic there would keep the thing from seeing him. The problem was it also worked against him, he could see outside the boundaries, but not clearly. From what he could tell, it looked like one of the things they'd been hunting the night before. He could just make out the face, the gaping maw, pulling light into itself.

  “Galen?” he called.

  “Rob? I can barely hear you.”

  “I'm still in the garden. Who's in the shop with you?”

  “Funny you should ask.”

  “How bad?”

  “Under control, I don't think it will try anything in daylight.”

  “There's something outside, in the shadows by the door,” Rob said.

  “Should I come out?”

  “No, I got it.”

  Rob shifted, moving along the edge of the garden to the swirling mass of magic on the other side. He stepped through the curtain of protection for a moment and the thing saw him. It turned and raced towards him as he dove into the vortex, the power surrounding him like a warm, buzzing liquid. The shadow slammed into the boundary and blasted apart, the dark bits of it spreading over the bubble of colors surrounding Rob before fizzling out of existence.