The Surprise Siege - Ranger's Apprentice

Rodney

They walked for about 2 minutes. Will coughed quietly as the air grew thick with dust. He let his hand trail on the wall and pulled it away quickly. There was dust caked on his hand and had clouded up, covering his face and hair. He noticed that Pauline's gown had gone from white to gray with streaks of dirt. But she had avoided getting as dirty as he had. They went down a great many staircases but they eventually reached a small wooden door that Pauline stopped in front of. Will turned the knob and opened the door. Inside were tall shelves stacked close together with bottles, casks, and barrels of wine and other types of alcohol. The room went pretty far back, with probably at least 50 racks of wine, beers, ales, and other stronger drinks. Looming in the front of the room was the huge double doors with chains wrapped securely around the knobs and padlocked. Near this was a table and some benches, put there for when guests would come wine tasting. Will scanned the room to make sure they were alone, and then grabbed Pauline's hand and lead her into the room. He took her over to the benches and they both sat down together for a moment in silence. Then Pauline felt a stickiness on her fingertips, glanced down, and realized there was blood on her hands, but it wasn't hers. She looked sharply at Will's hands. "Will, are you bleeding?"

"What? No I don't think so..." Will looked down at his hands. They had cuts on them and they were oozing a little blood. He reached down and pulled up the leg of his pants to reveal some bruising and cuts along the inner sides of his right calf, but his left calf was just bruised. Pauline pursed her lips and stood. She walked over to a cupboard and flung open the doors to reveal some linen cloths normally used for chilling wine. She grabbed a large stack of them and brought them back over to Will and helped him wrap up his hands and leg. He pulled his pants back over the bandage and flexed his hands gratefully. "Thanks, but really, I'm alright."

Pauline raised her eyebrows skeptically. "Are you sure about that? Do you want to explain everything that happened in detail? Then we will decide if you really are alright."

Will started at the beginning, describing the main hall, the soldiers, the interrogation, and the startling discovery of seven Genovesans.

"Seven..." Pauline whispered thoughtfully.

Will continued with the soldier escaping, him following it, and everything after that.

"So, let me get this straight. You sent this soldier off with a message for Halt. Then the Genovesan comes into the room and you roll under the table. The Genovesan paces around for a while, you grab the bottom of the table and hold yourself perfectly still for at least 3 minutes, even when he screams at you. By some small miracle he doesn't see you, and then you get back to the tapestry." Pauline smiled proudly at Will. "I've never, in all my years of knowing you, gotten the chance to work with you. I have worked with many a Ranger in my time, and let me say that only a few could have pulled that off."

Will flushed a little, and said, "Thanks, Pauline, really, it was nothing."

She raised her eyebrows. "It was a lot more than nothing. So when did you hurt your hands and leg?"

Will frowned thoughtfully. "I think I probably cut them when I was clinging to the bottom of the table for so long. I probably held on to the metal so hard that I cut my skin."

She winced. "It probably hurts. Here, I'll go open one of these bottles and get you something to drink to help with the pain." She got up, grabbed a wine tasting glass, and went over to one of the wine flasks. She pulled out the cork and let a few mouthfuls of wine trickle into the cup. Suddenly she heard a small noise behind her. She dropped the cup and whirled around, whipping her knife out of her sheath in her dress. But Will had already heard the noise, and had the gleaming blade of his saxe pressed against the intruder's chest.