The Sorcerer of the North- Character Reaction

23

"Here, Lydia." The Courier handed the book to her next.

Alyss glanced from side to side along the narrow lane that had been cut through the trees. "Which way were the lights moving, do you remember?" she asked. Will was already nodding in anticipation of the question.

"I can't be totally sure," he said—Halt snorted—, "but I'd say they were moving along this track."

Alyss pointed to the ground. "I'm no tracker," she said, "but they say Rangers are. The Rangers grinned. Any sign of traffic along this path?"

Will dropped to one knee and studied the ground. He frowned after a moment or two. "Could be," he said. "Difficult to say, really. There are faint marks here. But you'd expect that on a track like this, wouldn't you?"

"But not the sort of thing you'd expect if someone were running back and forth carrying a lantern?" she asked, a slight tone of disappointment in her voice. Will shook his head. Then, remembering one of Halt's earliest lessons, he looked up into the forest canopy above them. Always remember to look up, his mentor had told him. It's the one direction most people never think to check.

Will smirked, leaning back in his seat. "One of Halt's earlier lessons?" Gilan asked dubiously. "I think you learned that long before you met him."

Now his eyes narrowed as he saw something in the trees, something out of place. Alyss, seeing the change of expression on his face, looked up as well.

"What is it?" she asked, as Will moved toward one of the larger trees his eyes seeking and finding the hand- and footholds he would need.

"Vines," he said, at length. "I've seen them growing down from the higher parts of trees. But I've rarely seen them growing at right angles to them."

Malcolm sighed. "I suppose I'm lucky the Norgate Ranger didn't go poking around."

"Meralon?" Crowley chuckled. "I don't think you'd be in any danger if he did went looking."

He was a natural climber and he swarmed up the tree in seconds, seeming to Alyss to glide up the apparently smooth trunk. Four meters from the ground he stopped, and she saw he was studying a green creeper that grew along one of the larger branches, then led off toward the neighboring tree, sagging in a loop between the two of them.

"It's rope," he called down to her. "Dyed green to look like a vine, but rope sure enough." He traced the line of the rope as it led from one tree to the next, running along above the track they had discovered. He nodded to himself, satisfied, then slid lightly down to the ground beside her again.

"No need for someone to run up and down with the light," he said. "They could sling it on that rope on a pulley and haul it back and forth with a light line."

"It definitely takes less energy," Ingvar remarked. "I certainly wouldn't want to go running around the forest every night."

"Thorn makes us do enough of that," Stefan added under his breath. Then, catching the older Skandian's gaze, he hurriedly clamped his mouth shut. 

Alyss ruffled the dog's head affectionately. "And this young lady sensed the people doing it-maybe scented them or heard them. That's why she growled," she said. "My bet is if we looked we'd find other trails like this and other horizontally growing vines."

"It doesn't explain the Night Warrior," Will pointed out, and Alyss smiled at him.

"Perhaps not. But if he were real, why bother with trick lights?" she said. "Odds are he was another trick-even less substantial than the lights, judging by the dog's reaction.