The Ruins of Gorlan- Character Reaction

22

"Here, I'll read next." Crowley took the book from the younger Ranger, scanning the first few words before opening his mouth.

WILL WAS IN THE OPEN MEADOW BEHIND HALT'S COTTAGE, practicing. He had four targets set up at different ranges and was alternating his shots at random between the four of them, never firing at the same one twice in a row. Halt had set the exercise for him before he had gone to the Baron's office to discuss a dispatch that had come in from the King.

"At least you actually did it," Halt said gruffly.

"If you fire twice at the same target," he had said,"you'll begin to rely on the first shot to determine your direction and elevation. That way, you'll never learn to shoot instinctively. You'll always need to fire a sighting shot first." Crowley nodded, surprised his old friend had said it without sarcasm as a part of it.

Will knew his teacher was right. But that didn't make the exercise any easier. To add to the difficulty, Halt had stipulated that he should let no more than five seconds elapse between each shot. Gilan snickered.

Frowning in concentration, he let the last five arrows of a set go. One after the other, in rapid succession, they flashed across the meadow, thudding into the targets. Will, his quiver empty for the tenth time that morning, stopped to survey the results. He nodded in satisfaction. Every arrow had hit a target, and most of them were clustered in the inner ring or the bull's-eye itself. It was shooting of an exceptionally high quality and it proved to him the value of constant practice. He wasn't to know it, of course, but there were already few archers in the kingdom, outside of the Ranger Corps, who could have matched him. Even the archers in the King's army weren't trained to shoot with such individual speed and accuracy. They were trained to fire as a group, sending a mass of arrows against an attacking force. As a result, their training concentrated more on coordinated actions, so that all arrows were fired simultaneously. Duncan nodded.

He had just set the bow down, preparatory to recovering his arrows, when the sound of a footstep behind him made him turn. He was a little surprised to see three Battleschool apprentices watching him, their red surcoats marking them as second-year trainees. He didn't recognize any of them, but he nodded a friendly greeting.

"Oh, they're back again," Gilan groaned. "Will they ever leave?"

"Yes," both Will and Horace said.

"Good morning," he said. "What brings you down here?"

"To give me a friendly beating," Will replied to himself.

It was unusual to find Battleschool apprentices this far from the castle. He noted the thick canes that they all carried and decided they must have set out for a walk. The closest of them, a handsome, blond-haired boy, smiled and said:

"We're looking for the Ranger's apprentice."

"...And he's standing right in front of you." Crowley raised an eyebrow. "It seems you're so skilled at unseen movement that they didn't even see you."

Will couldn't help smiling in return. After all, the Ranger cloak that he wore marked him unmistakably as an apprentice Ranger. But perhaps the Battleschool apprentice was only being polite. Will snorted. The farthest from the truth, he thought.

"Well, you've found him," he said. "What can I do for you?"

"We've brought a message from the Battleschool for you," the boy replied. Like all Battleschool trainees, he was tall and well muscled, as were his companions. They moved closer to him now and Will instinctively backed off a pace. They were a little too close, he felt. Closer than they needed to be to pass on a message. Halt nodded.