Chapter 9. Melissa

"I've found her!" Jules stormed into the room, panting slightly after running all the way to the tower. He halted on the threshold, still gripping the door handle in his hand.

Ravin sat by the table, the reports spread before him. In front of him, another man perched on the chair, his white fists tightened on the edge of the tabletop. His long, unshaved face, was the pale-green colour of sudden illness.

"Get in and close the door," Ravin ordered. "We'll talk later."

"But it's important," the boy's eyes never left the stranger man's face. They must have met before. Wasn't he one of the guards that held Norrison immobile last night? "I think I know who -"

"Jules," the hunter straightened in his chair. "You'll be either quiet, or you'll wait outside."

The boy held his master's gaze, hoping the hunter would understand the meaning behind his words; but the man's eyes hardened and Jules looked away, closed the door and walked away to sit on his bed.

He plumped down onto the bedtick, huffing with irritation. He repeated Rosalie's words over and over in his head. The ghostly woman was somebody the young lady used to know. Somebody, that had been wronged by the old Lord. Somebody thirsty for revenge. He thought about Arthur's accusation and Rosalie's reaction as she'd appeared to stand up to him.

"Just one question," Jules interrupted Ravin just as the hunter spoke to the guard. "Do you know what happened to that travelling healeress?"

"How does he know it's her?!" the guard stood up rapidly, knocking the chair off. He spun around to face the boy. "Did you talk to her?! Did she say I was next?!"

"Sit down, Thomson," the hunter ordered. The guard hesitated, reaching to right the chair. "You've said you had business with me, so start talking already. What happened to that healeress?"

"We only followed the orders," Thomson's face got a few shades paler, as he slowly shook his head. He must have repeated those words a lot. He sounded almost convinced. "We're not to blame. It wasn't our fault -"

"I need fact," Ravin chopped him off. He cast his apprentice a warning look as the boy opened his mouth to chime in the conversation again. "What were your orders?"

"To capture the healeress," the guard's shoulders slumped. "To get rid off her."

Swelling silence filled the room.

"You'll take me to where you left her body," Ravin said.

"No!" Thomson winced. "Are you insane, Blake?! She already killed Norrison! There's no way I'm going back there! Look, I have my things packed, I'm gonna leave this damned land-!"

"She didn't kill anybody," the hunter interrupted him, a note of annoyance ringing in his voice. "Norrison committed suicide"

"She made him. I know it was her!" the man stood up from the chair. He leaned heavily against the table and looked into the hunter's dark eyes. "She told she'd kill us all, one by one! She's keeping her word!"

The hunter got up from his chair and banged his fist against the tabletop. Jules jumped on the bed, taken aback by the sudden move. The guardsmen stepped back. His hands flew up defensively.

"You have two options," Ravin said in a surprisingly quiet tone. "You either tell me what you know, or you get accused of a murder. Even Lords have to follow the king's law. Lord Harald had no right to sentence that woman to death."

"But-"

"Enough," Ravin cut him short. "Decide. You tell me how and where she died or you wait for a trial."

The guard pressed his shaking hands to his temples. He paced back and forth, thinking. Jules watched him impatiently, wishing Ravin would make him talk already - but the hunter stood quiet, waiting.

"You know the Whining Hills, don't you?" the guard balled his fist. He looked around at Jules and grimaced. "We took the healer there. We chained her up in a cave and walled the entry."

Jules froze, his eyes large and filled with disbelief. What a terrible death! He remembered the smell of the Lord's chamber. The stink of rottenness, moisture, and wet soil... Was it the stench that had filled her last breath?

"She was innocent," Jules said before he remembered to bite his tongue. Both men looked at him, and Jules glared at the guard. "You killed an innocent woman."

"She killed Lady Rosalie!" the guard barked. "She deserved it!"

"She didn't! You can repeat it over and over again, but it's still not true!"

The man stared at the boy, his reddened eyes getting cold and empty. Then he turned sharply and headed to the door, looking back at the hunter, afraid he would chase him.

"You won't see me around here anymore. Do you know everything you wanted?"

"One more question," Ravin said. "Tell me her name."

"Melissa. She never told us her family name," the guard whispered it almost soundlessly before he left.

Jules stared at the door unblinkingly, the words he had just heard slowly sinking in. Then he looked at his master, who took the jug with coffee that stood on the table and poured some of its contents into a mug. He drank it slowly, lost in thought.

"You'll let him leave like that? After what he did?" Jules clenched his teeth.

"I'll inform Kedmon of everything. I doubt he'll decide to try him for murder, though," Ravin put the mug aside. "It would put his family on the spot, don't you think?"

Jules frowned at this.

"He should do what is fair," he crossed his arm on his chest. "Lords have to uphold the King's law, don't they?"

"It is still Kedmon's decision, though," Ravin gave his apprentice a stern look. "This stays between us two."

"I know," the boy shrugged his shoulders. "Rosalie mentioned Melissa too, but she didn't give me the name... Now we have only to burn her body, don't we?"

"I wouldn't say 'only'," the hunter neatened the pile of reports and put it aside. "We'll perform a ritual that will break her connections to the world of the living. Then she'll be gone. But, yes, basically, we'll burn her body."