The Sorcerer of the North- Character Reaction

1

Cassandra pulled the next book over. "The Sorcerer In The North," she read aloud. Will, Alyss and Horace exchanged a glance.

Halt was frowning. "That's right after Will graduated. But during Skandia, he was only a second year. And the author skipped the whole deal with Erak."

Will grimaced. "Fine by me if he does," he said. "Who knows? Maybe it'll crop up somewhere."

The book was handed to Thorn next, who glanced over the first few pages before beginning to read.

In the north, he knew, the early winter gales, driving the rain before them, would send the sea crashing against the shore, causing white clouds of spray to burst high into the air.

Here, in the southeastern corner of the kingdom, the only signs of approaching winter were the gentle puffs of steam that marked the breath of his two horses.

Halt frowned. "Why did you bring two horses?"

Will shrugged. "Halt, I have no idea. That was years ago."

The sky was clear blue, almost painfully so, and the sun was warm on his shoulders. He could have dozed off in the saddle, leaving Tug to pick his way along the road, but the years he had spent training and conditioning in a hard and unforgiving discipline would never allow such an indulgence.

"The years being tortured by Halt," Will said, grinning. The older Ranger rolled his eyes.

Will's eyes moved constantly, searching left to right, right to left, close in and far ahead. Halt gave a imperceptible nod. An observer might never notice this constant movement-his head remained still. Again, that was his training: to see without being seen; to notice without being noticed. He knew this part of the kingdom was relatively untroubled. That was why he had been assigned to the Fief of Seacliff. After all, a brand-new, just-commissioned Ranger was hardly going to be handed one of the kingdom's trouble spots.

"You're right, you just assigned trouble itself to a fief."

"Thanks, Halt. I really appreciate that."

He smiled idly at the thought. The prospect of taking up his first solo posting was daunting enough without having to worry about invasion or insurrection. He would be content to find his feet here in this peaceful backwater.

Will laughed. "Right. Just a small invasion from the inside."

The smile died on Will's lips as his keen eyes saw something in the middle distance, almost concealed by the long grass beside the road.

"Trouble already?" Horace asked. Will shook his head.

"Not at the moment, no."

His outward bearing gave no sign that he had noticed anything out of the ordinary. He didn't stiffen in his seat or rise in the stirrups to look more closely, as the majority of people might have done. On the contrary, he appeared to slouch a little more in the saddle as he rode-seemingly disinterested in the world around him. But his eyes, hidden in the deep shadow under the hood of his cloak, probed urgently. Something had moved, he was sure. And now, in the long grass to one side of the road, he thought he could see a trace of black and white-colors that were totally out of place in the fading greens and new russets of autumn.

"The dog?" Crowley guessed. Will grinned.

"Crowley, you're spoiling it!"

Nor was he the only one to sense something out of place. Tug's ears twitched once and he tossed his head, shaking his mane and letting loose a rumbling neigh that Will felt in the barrel-like chest as much as heard.