Blade Archer ~ Thirty-Six

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It was on the third night that Kael had his opportunity to go hunting. His fingers and hands ached, but it was a deep, satisfying ache now, the ache of work solidly done. He felt proud of himself for it.

‘Ideally,’ Banok said as they walked, ‘we’d be hiding by a watering hole somewhere.’ He turned to Kael, eyebrows raised expectantly.

Kael stared at him and shrugged. ‘What?’

‘That’s your prompting for how to find one.’

‘Oh. Right.’ He looked around him, unable to see anything of interest between him and the horizon. He had always thought he lived in a desert city, but Ni-Yana was nothing like this. The world around him was nothing but red sand, spinifex and saltbush.

‘Think about what might be around a watering hole,’ the blade archery master prompted again, when Kael said nothing.

‘Drunks,’ Kael supplied with a crooked grin, then he shrugged again. ‘Trees? I guess?’ He couldn’t see any, though. Nothing grew taller than waist height.

‘Everything,’ Banok amended, a little impatiently. ‘This was day one of your survival training. If you can’t find water, you’re dead.’

Kael folded his arms and nodded, disliking the lecturing tone Banok had taken on. ‘Yeah, I get it.’

‘I’m not sure you do. How much water did you bring?’

‘Seven skins. One for each day.’

Banok shrugged. ‘At least you listened to that bit, then. Right,’ he said with a resigned sigh, ‘back to the basics, then. Water out here is even more desperate than in the city. All life out here will congregate around whatever little water can be found. Not only do they come to drink, but—’

‘Eagles!’ Kael interrupted, remembering something from the lesson Banok had mentioned. He looked up at the sky. ‘They’ll be circling near one, where they can get food.’

Banok nodded slowly. ‘There we go,’ he said sourly. ‘And it’s about time you started showing respect for your leaders, too.’

‘What? I got plenty more respect fer ye than I got for any of me other masters.’

‘Might want to work on showing it, then. Especially the ones you don’t respect. They’re the ones that give you promotions. Or have your back when you’re in trouble.’

Kael snorted. ‘Sure, they do,’ he muttered under his breath.

‘Something’s on your mind,’ Banok said bluntly. ‘You’ve been quiet, even for you.’

‘Like I said the first time, it’s not yer business.’

‘And then you told me and I helped you find a new place. How’s Third District treating you, anyway?’

Kael gritted his teeth and shoved his fists into his pockets. ‘Ye’re not letting this go, are ye? Sticking yer nose in every minute of me life ‘til ye knows everything about me.’

‘I’m trying to help you,’ Banok reminded him. ‘Whatever your problems are, they seem to me to be the sort of problems that one man can’t deal with on his own. There’s no shame in asking for help, or in being scared. Part of Own training is to know—’

‘I couldn’t care less about yer entitled Own training,’ Kael snapped.

A heavy hand clapped on his shoulder, and Banok spun him around. The blade archery master’s brows were pointed and heavy in his apparent anger, but Kael knew him better than that. He tried to throw the man’s hand from his shoulder, but Banok only reached up his other hand to hold him firm.

‘Don’t test me,’ he warned. ‘I am not your enemy, Kael, and let me promise you, you don’t want to make me one. I’ve lost count of the men I’ve killed on missions.’ His growl softened. ‘I’ve watched five of my own friends die, three of them on the same mission. We’ve both had to deal with our own hardships like none of those other boys have.’

‘What about yer own Ma?’ Kael snapped. His eyes were hot with anger. ‘What about yer sister? Ye scared yer wife might die, because of what yer brother’s doing? Did ye find out, years later, that it was yer best mate what killed yer Ma, just so he could get back at yer brother?’

Banok had released Kael from his grip now. ‘No,’ he admitted, his voice as heavy as his brow.

Kael backed away, just now realising how much his tirade had revealed.

The big blade archer folded his arms. ‘It’s about time you talked, Kael.’

Kael shook his head and glared hard at his weapon master. He chewed at the inside of his cheek. He didn’t want any help, not of the sort he knew Banok would offer, and yet he was tired of dealing with everything on his own. ‘Ye reckons ye’re trustworthy?’ he growled. ‘Not an Aeia-damned word.’

Banok shook his head. ‘Not an option,’ he said. ‘I told you, you’re talking. Say enough and I’ll keep your name out of it.’

Kael swore between his teeth, shook his head and swore again. Ronanen was getting to him, he excused himself. ‘Fine,’ he snapped. ‘But if they come after me, it’s on yer hands.’

It didn’t take him long to tell Banok his story. He told of his father’s death and Ynuk’s subsequent search for his killers. He skimmed over his family’s death, knowing he couldn’t keep the emotion from his voice if he dwelt on it for too long, and mentioned nothing of the fight to win his mother’s house back. He finished with Aen’s admission on the night before the desert trip.

‘Who’s your friend?’ Banok asked when Kael omitted Aen’s name.

‘Ye’re keeping me name out of it, ye’re keeping his name out, too.’

‘Why protect him?’

Kael shrugged. ‘Dunno. ‘Til I work out what I think, I dunno.’

Banok held a thoughtful silence, leaving Kael to wonder how much the blade archer planned on saying. Was it even possible to keep Kael’s name away from the Talons? If what he believed was true, and the people who had hired Aen also had roots with the Talons, they would know it was him as soon as the alarm was raised.

‘Ye can’t say nothing,’ he blurted. ‘They’ll know it were me.’

‘Mm?’ Banok appeared to have only half heard, having been lost in his thoughts. ‘No, no. I know what you’re thinking. A syndicate big enough to hire five simultaneous assassins, and has been around since your father died… They’re big. These are some serious people your brother has angered. They probably have plants in the Talons. My sister’s wife is with the Talons. She’s good, high-ranking, too. She’ll know who to trust with this.’

Kael had never really considered the size of the organisation Ynuk had been working to bring down, but what Banok said made sense. Even more, it put into perspective how hopeless Ynuk’s plan had been. Kael had almost certainly saved his life by doing everything he could to keep out of it. A moment of panic gripped his chest and chilled his fingers.

‘Me brother,’ he gasped. ‘He’s gone after ‘em again, I know he has. He’ll be dead by now.’

‘How long has it been since you last saw him?’ Banok asked.

Kael shrugged. ‘Months. I been avoiding him so I can avoid them, y’know? I told him not to, but I bet he has.’

‘I’ll have my sister’s wife go around to his place, just to check up on him. Meanwhile, you get as much out of your friend as you can about these people.’

‘Yeah, sure,’ Kael muttered. ‘He’ll make himself scarce soon as he knows she’s hit the district. News of Talons travels fast, ‘specially to them what don’t want to be found.’

Banok gave a lopsided smirk but said nothing more.

‘What?’

‘Nothing. Nothing at all.’ He could only hold his tongue for a moment longer. ‘You did keep yourself pretty clean after your last scar, though.’

Kael ground his teeth, thinking back over everything he might have been spotted doing since joining the army. Of course they had been watching him. But, if Banok apparently didn’t know about the fight on his mother’s rooftop, they couldn’t have been watching him too closely. They had seen nothing worth throwing him out for, at least.

‘Are we going hunting, then?’ he snapped, ‘Or is ye just going to pick at me life all afternoon?’

Banok barked a laugh. ‘Hunting it is!’