Sparks Flying - A Ranger's Apprentice Story

Chapter Twenty-One

It was still damp and chilly out, but at least the rain had stopped.

Will hardly felt the icy breeze as it wormed its way past his cowl and down the back of his shirt. His mind was too preoccupied with filtering through the information they had, over and over again, incessantly puzzling over each detail.

Halt glanced back at his former apprentice and recognized that familiar look, the one that meant Will was lost to his own mind. He slowed Abelard a little bit and let Will and Tug draw even with him. He reached out and touched Will's shoulder, startling the younger man from his thoughts.

"Will, I need you to listen to me," Halt said seriously. He waited until Will's eyes, so wide and full of pain and fear, finally met his. "I promise, we'll find her. We won't rest until she's safe again."

Will's eyes filled with tears. "What if - what if we're too late?" he whispers.

Halt shook his head. "You can't lose hope," he reminded Will. "You have to believe she'll be all right. You know she would never leave you."

"What if it's not her fault," Will asked. "What if she tries her very best to hang on and wait for us, but she can't?"

Halt knew those thoughts only all too well. They ran through his own head every other minute. He loved Alyss dearly, like the daughter he never had, and he couldn't imagine a world without her. But he had to be strong for Will. He squeezed Will's shoulder comfortingly. "You can't think about 'if,'" he said. "You have to believe there's no other outcome."

Halt saw the doubt in Will's eyes, but then Will nodded, took a deep breath, and straightened his shoulders. "I'm not going to waste any more energy worrying about her," Will said softly. "I know she can take care of herself. That doesn't mean I'm not anxious. But I'm going to throw everything I have into finding her, as quickly as possible. Because I know she needs me right now, and I'm not there."

Halt nodded once, and patted Will's shoulder. "Good," he said briefly. "And you know Gil, Maddie, and I will be right behind you every step of the way." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

"I know," Will said.

Just then, the horses broke through the last of the trees before the little clearing in the middle of the woods. The cabin seemed empty and forlorn, its windows darkened and the curtains drawn. Will was used to the calming scent of woodsmoke and the puffing chimney whenever he entered the clearing after a long, cold, wet journey. The absence of these things seemed to leach the sense of cheerfulness and home out of the clearing.

By unspoken agreement, the four Rangers stopped their horses, dismounting and leaving them in front of the verandah. Halt led the way up the stairs, and they let themselves into the empty cabin. 

It was dark and cold inside, and the air was a bit musty and stale after the cabin being shut up for several days. Will shivered as he walked through the door, but looked around at his surroundings for clues.

Almost immediately, he noticed the faint bloodstain on the floor near the fireplace. It was faded, as if someone had tried to scrub it away, but his keen eyes, trained from years of following almost nonexistent tracks, picked it up instantly. He felt a tightening in his throat, and a surge of anger.

It reminded him of that day, so many years ago, when he was on his way to his first fief, Seacliff, and had found an injured dog by the road. One with an injury almost identical to Sable's. Will wasn't normally one to hold grudges, but he still had felt a strange satisfaction when Horace told him about John Buttle's death in Macindaw. 

Will knew he would not rest easy until he knew with utter certainty that Jory Ruhl was dead, and saw his body.

Without realizing it, Will had stopped cold and was staring at the stain on the floor. Gilan had a vague idea of what must have been going through Will's head, and he put his hand on Will's shoulder.

"Come on," he murmured. "Let's keep looking for clues. The sooner we pick up the tracks, the sooner we find Alyss."

It was Maddie who first noticed the draft near the kitchen. She opened the door to Will and Alyss's bedroom, and saw the broken window.

"I found how he got in," she called over her shoulder.

Halt patted her on the back. "Good work, Maddie," he said. He pretended not to notice as Maddie's cheeks flushed in pleasure.

Once they had determined Ruhl's entry and exit point, it was only a matter of going back outside and around to the back of the house. It took them a few minutes, but they found the tracks. Faint tracks, but tracks nonetheless. They lead north, toward the back of the clearing.

Gilan made a face once they got to the treeline. "It's going to be nasty to get the horses through here," he said.

Halt nodded. "Ruhl's smart," he said grimly. 

"It'll slow us down, but it definitely won't stop us," Will growled.

Maddie had been quiet for some time, but now she spoke up. "What if we split up?" she asked. "We can determine the general direction of the tracks, and then I can take the horses around and meet you at the edge of the forest in that rough direction. It's only a few kilometers away."

"It's a risk," Halt ruminated. "Ruhl is wily enough that he could try to change direction inside the forest. That would really throw this plan off. But if we can second-guess his direction, this could save us almost a day. The trackers could move faster, and we could get going immediately after we break from the forest. The question is, is it worth the risk?"

He addressed this question to Will, because he knew out of all of them, no matter how much he might hate it, Will was the one who needed to make this decision.

"Halt, you once told me that wars are fought with risk and counter-risk. The only way to know which risks are the right ones is to see if you're still alive at the end," Will said. "I think we'll take Maddie's plan. I think that the potential benefits outweigh the potential risks. Even if Ruhl's direction changes, at least we'll know, and the tracker can come back here and lead everyone quickly."

"Let's move out, then," Halt said.