{Ranger's Apprentice} "A Mission to Skandia"

Chapter 10: Caught...

"Erak, let me see all of the alliance documents," Alyss said in a quiet but confident manner. It was already the morning of the second day, and they had finished their breakfast. Lady Pauline was sitting next to Alyss, but allowing her to deal with the majority of things, since she is younger and thus would be faster. And Pauline was technically retired.

"They're all here, miss. This one was the first every document, signed by Will Treaty himself," said the hilfmann, Borsa, holding out two long papers.

Alyss nodded, "And this one, I assume, was the second document, which was signed overseas, with one end by the King himself in Araluen and the other in by the Oberjarl."

"That would be correct." Erak replied.

Carefully, Alyss scanned the second, newer, paper up and down. "Treaty-wise, I do not see any problems with this paper, and I believe that—"

With a loud clang, the doors of the hall burst open to admit Halt, forcefully interrupting Alyss. Startled, everyone looked up. Alyss sprang straight back up after her initial sitting backwards in her seat at the interruption.

"Halt." Her voice was urgent. "Where is Will?"

"He's fine," Halt replied, "Or at least, he should be." Turning to look at the Oberjarl intensely, he said, "Erak, there's going to be an attack on your north-eastern borders in less than two weeks."

Realizing that Halt was not going to speak further of Will's condition, Alyss sank slowly back into her seat to let him unfold his entire tale.

"And you thought that Will is going to be safe out there, all alone?" Alyss said softly when he was done.

"He's one of the best Rangers alive, Alyss, I trust that he will take care of himself. I'm sorry, but somebody had to come back here and warn you."

After a second, Alyss nodded in acceptance.

"So...what are your plans?" Erak said to Halt.

The Ranger sighed deeply. "I need more information. I need Will to come back with numbers. But I also need to know our own numbers. So in that case, I suppose that the next step we should take would be to see how many men we have ourselves."

The Oberjarl nodded. "Gundar!" He called to a nearby senior jarl. "See to it."

>>>———>

"Lord Ka'zhak."

"Enter."

Two men shuffled into the tent hesitantly.

"Lord, all is made ready," said one of them.

"My lord, we saw Atabi in the forests."

The Kaijin turned, alarmed. "Atabi? Are you sure of this?"

The Temujai soldier shuffled his feet nervously. "Our friend here confirmed that it is one of them."

"And...am I to understand that you did nothing about this?"

Neither of the two men dared to speak.

Ka'zhak pinned them both down there with a furious gaze, then said, "Get out of my tent. Send me two of the best archers that came with us to this scouting. Oh, and, the messages shall be sent as planned. I do not intend for these Araluan green-cloaks to ruin our conquests yet again."

Both men bowed low, then retreated.

>>>———>

After Halt left, Will had carefully made his way down into hiding among the trees on the ridge above the gully in which the Temujai camp was located. He had waited for almost ten minutes while several men passed him on their way to go somewhere; where it was, he did not catch. Once he was cleared, he slowly flitted from shade to shade, until he was right above the camp and could easily observe all the activities inside it. Pushing aside the screen formed by leaves, he used the technique of Rangers, to count the heads of horses. He then quickly did some calculations, and estimated the camp to hold only an approximate thirty or so men.

Their plan had been to ask for more men to come in two weeks, then attack, Will mused. I doubt there is much else to look for. I suppose I ought to go back and report.

Carefully rising up from the shelter of the bush behind which he had been squatting, he took two very cautious steps backward, letting his feet search the ground for possible cracking branches and leaves before putting his weight onto any one spot.

"You aren't going anywhere, Atabi." A voice suddenly sounded out from directly behind him.

Will froze.

"That trick isn't going to work on us anymore," the same voice continued, as something hard prodded him on the back. An object that felt startling familiar, especially from those many years ago, when he had still been training.

An arrow.

Clearly, Will knew, he has been seen. Sighing to himself in resignation, he turned around reluctantly and said, "Alright, fine. You can see me, agreed. But I don't exactly think you can do much to me. So what can you possibly want?"

The man furrowed his eyebrows and examined him carefully in the darkness. "Have we met before?"

Will shrugged. "Can't say. I don't have any memory of meeting someone as dumb-looking as you. You could have met me before in the Skandian War?"

"Insolent youth." The man said, his tone arrogant. "Do you not know that I am the leader of this expedition, and if I commanded, I could have you executed right now?"

"Lord Ka'zhak," another man, who was standing beside the leader, said suddenly, "The Atabi is fumbling with his bow. Be wary. Perhaps we should bind him first, talk later."

With a sudden movement that surprised even Will, the skilled Kaijin stepped forward and expertly knocked his bow from his hand using his own bow. Then, without even batting an eye, he twisted his wrist sideways with surprising swiftness and knocked Will square on the jaw. Unfortunately for him, Will saw it and jerked quickly to the right, getting knocked down to the ground injured, but not yet unconscious, as was the Temuj's first intention.

Disgusted as his own failure, Ka'zhak kicked the Ranger savagely on the thigh, then said to the two men who had accompanied him, "Bind his hands, and bring him to the camp."