Hunter's Beginning (Veller) by Garry Spoor Read Free Book Online Page B

her.
    Kile set her pen down and looked over what she had written. It was a lot more than what she had originally intended, and somewhere in there must be the reason why she wanted to be a Hunter; she just hoped it was as clear to them as it was to her. She looked around the rest of the room to see most of the boys had already finished writing. Alex was still scribbling away at his parchment, as was Daniel. Carter looked to be finished but as Daniel described it, Carter had always wanted to be a Hunter, so this assignment should be easy for him. She even glanced over to where Eric was sitting. He too had finished and was leaning back in his chair tapping the tip of the quill pen on his desk. Three times was all Kile could think about, he had taken the exam three times, or actually two times, this would be his third time, but that was still two more times than anyone else in the room. Did it give him that much of an advantage, and how did he fail it the last two times?
    “Is everyone finished?” Mathew Latherby asked from the front of the room. There were a few murmurs of “no” and “just one more minute” but for the most part everyone had finished. The parchments were then collected by two mystics in white robes that, for some reason, Kile had not seen in the room prior to or during the examination, but by now she was starting to get used to them popping up unexpectedly.
    “You will now proceed to the next stage of the examination.” Mathew replied as the mystics handed him the parchments. “Go through these doors, proceed down the hall and wait for further instructions.”
    A large set of iron bound double doors opened behind Mathew as the cadets slowly got up from their desks, each one looking a little nervous, no one really wanting to be the first to pass through the doors into the darkness beyond, there was no telling where they would end up. It was Eric that took the lead as he pushed past a few of the younger boys. It’s easy for him, Kile thought, he knew what was on the other side, but she was not going to be shown up by the likes of him and quickly followed.
    It was one thing for the oldest boy who had taken the examine twice to pass through the doors with confidence, but when the only girl, who was already doomed to fail follows, everyone else is considered dead last as they all rushed to catch up.
    As Kile stepped through the door she had expected to be whisked away again, maybe to another room or another test but that wasn’t the case. She had actually entered the room beyond the door. She turned around to look back into the classroom and saw the other cadets coming in behind her. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed. It seemed like a bit of a let down after what she had gone through so far.
    The room itself was quite large, larger than what should have been in the tower, but then all the rooms she had seen put together were bigger than the tower’s base and she had never gone up or down a flight of stairs yet, so none of it made much sense. There were huge stone columns every fifteen or so feet, set out in a large grid like pattern, reaching to a vaulted ceiling high above. Some of the columns appeared on the verge of collapsing, some may already have, as large stones littered the floor. Small globes of swirling mist cast an early light that danced and flickered, bending the shadows of the pillars into swaying serpents, but the light was isolated to one side of the room. The far side remained cloaked in total darkness. It was difficult to tell exactly how large the room was, but it was a room, and that was a problem. Master Latherby had told them to go down the hall and wait for instructions, where was the hall? It wasn’t that Master Latherby was a bundle of information, to Kile’s way of thinking he seemed a few sandwiches short of a picnic, but even he should be able to tell the difference between a room and a hall. Maybe the room was a lot longer than she had previously thought,