The Story of Two

Chapter 6

    It was late in the afternoon when Halt had finally run out of jobs for Will and Ashlyn. He looked around the cabin. The kitchen utensils were all shining, the fireplace was spotless, the floor was thoroughly swept, and the rug was entirely dust free. There was a stack of firewood that was neatly stacked by the fireplace and there was another stack that filed the basket beside the kitchen stove.
    "Hmmm. Not bad," he said. "Not bad at all."
    Ashlyn sighed in relief, but before either of them could feel too pleased with themselves Halt added, "Can either of you cook?"
    "Cook, sir?" Will asked uncertainly. Halt raised his eyes to the heavens.
    "Why do young people always have to answer a question with another question," he asked.
    Receiving no reply, Halt continued "Yes, cook. Prepare food so that one might eat it. Make meals. I assume you know what food is and what meals are?"
    "Ye-s," Will answered, careful to make sure he wasn't asking in a questioning tone.
    "Well, as I told you two this morning, this is no grand castle. If we want to eat food here, we have to cook it," Halt told his apprentices. There was those words again we must, it had seemed to translate to you two must.
    "I can' t cook," Will admitted.
"I can't either," Ashlyn said. Halt clapped his hands together.
    "Well then, it's time you two learned. Come on."
    He led them to the kitchen, and showed Will and Ashlyn the wonders of cooking: peeling and chopping unions, choosing a piece of beef from the meat safe, then cutting it into neat cubes, then chopping vegetables, searing the beef in a pan, and finally adding a small amount of red wine and some of what Halt called his "secret ingredients." The result was a savory-smelling stew, simmering on the top of the stove.
    As they waited for their dinner to be ready, they sat on the verandah in the early evening and talked quietly.
    "The Rangers were founded over one hundred and fifty years ago, in King Herbert's reign. Do you know anything about him?" Halt looked at the kids sitting on either side of him, tossing the question out quickly to see their response.
    "Oh . . . yes," he said, "King Herbert. We learned about him."
    "Really?" the Ranger said. "Perhaps you could tell me a little about him?" He leaned back and crossed his legs, getting comfortable. Will searched through his memory, trying to remember even the smallest of details about King Herbert. He did . . . something, but what?
    "He was the king . . . a hundred and fifty years ago," Will said, trying to sound certain of his facts. The Ranger smiled at him, gesturing for him to continue yet again. Ashlyn was looking quite amused. She had a small smirk on her face and looked like she was trying to hold back a snarky remark.
    "Ummm . . . well, I seem to recall that he was the one who founded the Ranger Corps," he said hopefully, and Halt raised his eyebrow in fake surprise.
    "Really? You recall that," he said, and Will had a horrible moment where he realized that Halt had merely said the Rangers were founded during his reign, not necessarily by him.
    "Well, when I say he founded the Rangers, I actually mean he was the king when the Ranger Corps was founded," he said.
    "A hundred and fifty years ago?" Halt prompted.
    Will nodded. "That's right."
    "Well, that's amazing, seeing how I just told you those facts a minute ago," the Ranger said. "Boy, if you don't know something, don't try to bluff your way through it. Just tell me 'I don't know,' is that clear?"
    "Yes, Halt," Will said looking down at his hands in his lap. After a few moments of silence, he said, "Halt?"
    "Yes?" the Ranger answered.
    "About King Herbert . . . I don't really know," Will admitted. The Ranger made a small snorting noise.    "Well, I would have never guessed," he said sarcastically. "What about you?" he said turning to Ashlyn. "Do you remember anything?"
    "I don't remember much, only that he was known as the 'Father of Modern Araluen.' I can't remember why thought," Ashlyn admitted.
    Halt nodded a few times. "Well, he was the one who drove the northern clans back over the border into the Highlands. He's sometimes known as the Father of Modern Araluen," Halt was saying. "He created the union between the fifty fiefs that's still used today."
    "I sort of remember now," Will put in.
    Ashlyn nodded in agreement. "Same," Ashlyn said simply.
    Halt looked at both of them, one eyebrow raised, then continued. "At the time, King Herbert felt that to remain safe, the kingdom needed an effective intelligence force."
    "An intelligent force?" Will asked.
    "Not intelligent. Intelligence. Although it does help if your intelligence force is also intelligent. Intelligence is knowledge of what your enemies, or potential enemies, are up to. What they're planning. What they're thinking. If you know that sort of thing in advance, you can usually come up with a plan to stop them. That's why he founded the Rangers—to keep the kingdom informed. To act as the eyes and ears of the kingdom."
    "How do you do that?" Will asked, his interest growing. Halt noted the change in tone and a momentary gleam of approval touched his eyes.
    "We keep our eyes and ears open. We patrol the kingdom—and beyond. We listen. We observe. We report back."
    Will nodded to himself, thinking. Then he asked:"Is that the reason why you can make yourselves invisible?"
    "They don't really make themselves invisible. They blend into the background so they appear invisible, but they are just really hard too see. It takes a lot of practice to be able to do it," Ashlyn explained.
    Again, a moment of approval and satisfaction, but he made sure his two apprentices didn't noticed. He knew that she had spent a lot of her free time learning more about the Corps. He didn't realize how much she had figured out.
"Like Ashlyn said, we can't make ourselves invisible," he said."People just think we can. What we do is make ourselves very hard to see. It takes years of learning and practice to do it properly—but both of you already have some of the skills required."
Will looked up, surprised. "I do?"
"When you crossed the castle yard last night, you used the shadows and the movement of the wind to conceal yourself, didn't you?"
Will nodded. "Yes." He'd never met anyone before who actually understood his skill for moving without being seen. Halt continued.
"We use the same principles: to blend into the background. To use it to conceal us. To become part of it."
"I see," said Will slowly. Ashlyn nodded several times.
"The trick is to make sure that nobody else does," he told them. For a moment, Will thought the Ranger had made a joke. But when he looked up, Halt was as grim-faced as ever.
"How many Rangers are there?" he asked. Halt and the Baron had mentioned more than once to the Ranger Corps, but Will had only ever seen one, and that was Halt.
"King Herbert established the Corps at fifty. One for each of the fifty fiefdoms. I'm based here. My colleagues are based at the other forty-nine fiefs.
"In addition to providing intelligence about potential enemies, Rangers are the law keepers," said Halt. "We patrol the fiefdom assigned to us and make sure that the laws are being obeyed."
"I thought Baron Arald did that," Will put in. Halt shook their heads.
"The Baron is a judge," Halt said."People bring their complaints to him so he can settle them. Rangers enforce the law. We take the law out to the people. If a crime has been committed, we look for evidence. We're particularly suited to that role since people often don't realize we're around. We investigate to see who's responsible."
"What happens then?" Will asked. Halt gave a small shrug. Ashlyn was very interested in their discussion. Even though she had learned a lot about Rangers, she was excited to learn it from a Ranger himself.
"Sometimes we report back to the baron of the fief and he'll have the person arrested and charged. Sometimes, if it's a matter of urgency, we just . . . deal with it."
"What do we do?" Will asked. Halt gave him a long, considering look.
"Not too much if we've only been an apprentice for a few hours," he replied. "Those of us who've been Rangers for twenty years or more tend to know what to do without asking."
"Oh," Will said. Halt continued.
"Then, in times of war, we act as special troops—guiding the armies, scouting before them, going behind enemy lines to cause damage." He glanced down at the boy. "It's a bit more exciting than working on a farm." Will and Ashlyn nodded in agreement. "What sort of enemies?" Will asked. After all, Castle Redmont had been at peace for as long as they could remember.
"Enemies from within and without," Halt told them. "People like the Skandian sea raiders, or Morgarath and his Wargals."
Will and Ashlyn shivered, remembering some of the stories about Morgarath, the Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night. Hald nodded seriously as he saw the kids' reaction.
"Yes," he said, "Morgarath and his Wargals are definitely people to be worried about. That's why the Rangers keep an eye on them. We like to know if they're gathering, if they're getting ready for war."
"Still," Will said, "the last time they attacked, the barons' armies easily defeated them."
"That's true," Halt agreed. "But only because they'd been warned of the attack . . ." He paused and looked at the two kids.
"By a Ranger," Ashlyn said. She had read about the battle and how the Rangers had helped in her studies.
"Correct. It was a Ranger who brought a warning that Morgarath's Wargals were on their way . . . then led the cavalry across a secret pass so they could flank the enemy."
"It was a great victory," Will said. Ashlyn nodded her head in agreement.
"It certainly was. And all due to a Ranger's alertness and skill, and knowledge of back trails and secret paths.
"My father died in that battle," Will added in a quieter voice, and Halt cast a curious look at him.
"Is that so?" he said.
"He was a hero. A mighty knight." The Ranger paused, almost as if he was deciding to say something or not. The he simply replied:
"I wasn't aware of that."
Ashlyn looked him suspiciously. She felt like there was something else the Ranger wasn't telling Will. She decided to brush it off, thinking it was just her imagination.
"That was why I was so keen to go to Battleschool," he said finally. "To follow in his footsteps."
"You have other talents," Halt told him.
"Halt . . . ," he said. The Ranger nodded for him to continue. "I was sort of wondering . . . the Baron said you chose me?"
Halt nodded again, saying nothing.
"And both of you say I have other qualities. Qualities that make me suitable to be a Ranger's apprentice . . ."
"That's right," Halt said.
"Well . . . what are they?"
"Yeah, I was kind of wondering the same thing," Ashlyn said leaning forward, to look at the Ranger.
The Ranger leaned back, linking his hands behind his head. "You're agile. That's good in a Ranger," he began. "And, as we've discussed, you can move quietly. That's very important. You're fast on your feet. And you're inquisitive . . ."
"Inquisitive? How do you mean?" asked Will. Halt looked at him.
"Always asking questions. Always wanting to know answers," he explained. "That was why I had the Baron test you with that piece of paper. And why I tested Ashlyn when she tried following me to my cabin."
"But when did you first notice me? I mean, when did you first think of selecting me?" Will asked while Ashlyn's mouth was open in shock. She had no idea that Halt knew she was going to follow him.
"Oh," said Halt,"I suppose it was when I watched you steal those cakes from Master Chubb's kitchen."
Will's jaw dropped open with amazement.
"You watched me? But that was ages ago!" He had a sudden thought."Where were you?"
"In the kitchen," said Halt."You were too busy to notice me when you came in.
He then turned to Will. "But there was one thing that impressed me far more."
"What was that?" asked Will.
"Later, when Master Chubb questioned you I saw you hesitate. You were going to deny stealing the cakes, but then you admitted it. Remember he hit you on the head with his wooden spoon."
"I wondered if I should have lied," he admitted. Halt shook his head.
"Oh, no, Will. If you'd lied, you would have never become my apprentice."
    "What about me?" Ashlyn asked.
        "When you went into town. You wanted to learn more about Rangers. When people said we are black magicians, you didn't believe them, so you did your own research and came up with your own answer." Halt explained. He stood up and stretched, turning to go indoors to the stew on the stove.
"Now, let's eat," he said.

A/N
I finally got this chapter done. The editing took longer than it should have. Anyways, thanks for reading and, as always, tips and suggestions are welcome. I hope to get the next chapter up by the end of the week. Until next time.

-Catherine