❝𝘼 𝙈𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙎𝙠𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙖❞

Chapter 11: Anticipation

"Alaric?" Halt walked almost casually to the place where the young knight was standing on a tall rock and counting the Skandian warriors.

"Sir," he replied seriously, yet managing not to divert his own attention from his task.

"Pause the counting for a second, Alaric." Halt said quietly.

Alaric put one hand up, and immediately the milling northern men ground to a halt and fell silent. A rare thing to happen for such wild warriors.

"Not bad." Halt said, one eyebrow raised. "I would ask you how you managed to get these men quiet, but that is not the reason I came here, and therefore I shall let it go for now. How many men so far?"

"Two thousand right now I have counted, all rank and file soldiers. There is also an additional of around twenty or so skirls and ten senior jarls. By my estimation though, we have already only finished half or even a bit less of the counting, so therefore there should be around four to five thousand men in total."

Halt nodded. "Araluan archers?"

"Reports from all of the settlements have already come in, but I have not yet taken the time to focus on the archer calculations. I believe that the hilfmann, Borsa, has taken charge of calculating the sum of all the archers. I do believe that he mentioned to me earlier that it was, or should be, around three hundred. Why, what is your devious mind planning?" At this point, Alaric already knew the Rangers well enough to know how to be less strict and rule-abiding as he used to be in battle-school.

Halt only shook his head grimly, then lowered his voice. "I have a bad feeling. It's been almost three days since I left Will. Alyss is also getting worried, but she doesn't want to say it out loud, knowing how busy we've been. I'm pretty much done with the armory and weapons check, and I want to go check."

"So...what are your plans on checking?"

"I don't see what plans I could make, if I know nothing of what he is in for, or if he hadn't just discovered something that compels him to look into it himself. I just thought I'd go and check myself, alone. I wanted to ask if I could leave you in my position as the helper of Erak."

Alaric turned to the Ranger with an incredulous look. "But Halt...I know nothing! I would never be able to do what you're doing. I mean, you are literally everywhere at once, taking charge of basically everything! I could never achieve that."

Unsurprisingly, Halt only raised an eyebrow to the knight in response to the outburst. Then, with a calmness and gentleness that was seldom expected of this grim man, he said, "Don't worry, Alaric. I've already dealt with most of the things that had to be taken care of, so there is nothing big that you have to worry about, other than the counting, which was under your charge in the first place. And besides, you should certainly have some level of faith in your training. You are a knight, your meaning in life is to serve others and lead them in times of need. This is your chance to learn that. Use it well, Alaric, and you may yet become a great leader and warrior."

Alaric lowered his head for a moment, as if contemplating these words. At last, some two minutes later, he looked up again with renewed resolve. "Alright, Halt. I will do to the best of my efforts to do all that I can."

Halt nodded encouragingly, reaching out a hand to grip the hilt of the young knight's sword. "I trust in you, Alaric. Become the leader of men you were meant and trained to be.

>>>———>

Will woke to a bucket of water thrown over him. Coughing and spluttering, he sat up quickly, only to fall back down, as his wrists were bound to something on the ground underneath him. The farthest he could do was to get to a half-crouched position.

"Lord Ka'zhak, the prisoner is awake."

As his vision cleared, Will saw two men standing in front of him. One was in rags, merely a servant, while the other one was a man in traveling leather, the same man who had been present at his capture.

"There was another one of those Atabi with you, was there not?" He said, not even responding to the words of the servant.

Will said nothing, neither confirming nor denying the Temuj leader.

"The older man." He mused. "Where is he?"

Again, Will said nothing.

Ka'zhak reached back and drew out his bow, caressing it with one hand while the other sought out an arrow from his quiver. "We are both archers, you and I. Mighty warriors who are nonetheless often thought of as cowards by others because we see the value in seeking cover in battle. I know you are a mighty man, and so is your friend. But I must say, sometimes, just as seeking cover in battle, it is not as wise to hide things from a man who holds you life with a line."

"I do not fear death." Will stated, quietly.

The Temuj raised an eyebrow at him. "Indeed. But then, you would not be much use to us if you're dead, would you?" He looked at him for a moment with the expression of inspection, his eyes going up and down as if judging his fitness. "I do believe," he said at length, his tone calculating, "That you will survive perfectly well without food for some days. Plus, also, some flogging."

With a smirk dancing around the corners of his mouth, the man turned his head, gave the servant a meaningful look, then they both turned and left Will alone in the clearing, bound to the stump of a tree. 

A/N: Again, to those very rare readers, hello! I just wanted to say that very sadly, because this is kind of my style, the story's been kind of slow up to this point. I just often like to go into a lot of meaningless details, especially when I'm still internally debating how to further develop the story🫣🫢

All the same, please do give me a few comments and votes, and I'll try to make it better🥹