Monsters of the Night

Chapter Thirteen

The Rangers were seated in the hall to finally do the conference.

Gilan stood in front of them, beginning a roll call. Across the room, Jemma spotted Maddie and rolled her eyes, beckoning to the dresses they wore.

Maddie grinned and nodded in agreement.

Sapphire patrolled up and down the rows of chairs, snapping at Ranger's heels if they stepped on her paws by accident when they moved their feet.

Jemma sighed, facing Gilan as he continued reading out names.

"David Tames..."

David raised his hand.

"Jemma Tames..."

Jemma raised a bored hand in the air.

Will took a glance at his daughter and smiled, raising his hand into the air as 'Will Treaty' was called.

"George Rathborne."

Jemma's eyes widened. Ge...

"George?"

Jemma looked up, eyes connecting with David. Her eyes were panicked, and David's mouth formed an 'o' as he realised what she was thinking.

Jemma hurriedly stood up, grabbing her father's knife and shredding her dress, revealing her Ranger pants underneath. David hurriedly handed her his quiver and longbow and she shot off.

In the time it had taken for her to leave, Will, David and Halt had gotten out of their seats and stood up, Gilan and Maddie joining them.

"What's going on?" Gilan asked.

"George." David answered. "Jemma chased a suspect away from the Heron camp this morning as one of the men who made the kidnap attempt started to reveal who hired them. We know George is in the castle - he was meeting up with Andrew and Quigley - his name fits. George is the one behind it!"

"And if he's not here..." Maddie trailed off, and they all gave each other a look of realisation.

"Oh my god." Gilan said.

"Ruth!"

...

Jemma was gasping in panic as she neared Ruth's room, entering and finding Ruth gone. Smacking her head in realisation as she remembered Ruth had been placed somewhere else for her protection, she turned away and raced to another part of the castle.

There, she found the guards to her room unconscious, and the princess herself gone. She cursed.

Running to the window, she hurriedly studied the castle's surroundings for suspicious activity. She noticed a cloaked figure hurriedly sticking to the shadows as much as possible, a bundle in his arms. 

Jemma's expression hardened as she turned, racing out of the castle.

The time it took for her to get to the courtyard meant she had lost the figure, but she wouldn't give up that easily. She darted out of the gates, quickly looking around, seeing a cloak turn off down the road, and followed it.

She followed George as he twisted around bends, afraid to shoot him in fear of harming Ruth. She could only see his cloak, never his face, but their movements were continuous.

The next she knew, George was gone, as they neared the Heron campsite. Jemma stopped, shocked, studying the area, looking for the kind of trickery she might have seen in Malcolm's forest.

"Jemma?" She heard a voice question, and saw Hal as he ran up. "Are you okay? We were just going to send Jesper up - a ship was spotted that shouldn't be here."

Jemma gave him a panicked look and he frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Get everyone on board the Heron, we need to follow the ship." Jemma commanded him quickly.

"Why? What happened?" He ran alongside her as she picked up her pace.

"One of the Rangers betrayed us. Ruth's gone."

"The princess?" He gasped, and they quickened their pace.

"Right everybody! Get up!" Hal commanded loudly as they reached the rest of the Heron crew. "Get on board, quick!"

When Stefan, Ulf and Wulf groaned and slowly stood, Thorn noticed the panicked looks on Jemma and Hal's faces and bellowed, "MOVE IT! NOW!"

His bellows added a step to their pace as they hurried on board and prepared to set sail. Jemma climbed up, followed by Lydia, Thorn and Stig.

"What's going on, Jemma?" Lydia asked, as Hal and Stig moved to help get the ship sailing.

"Ruth's gone." Jemma said quietly as Thorn and Lydia gasped. "Followed George down, lost him around here. Hal said you saw a ship?"

Lydia nodded. "Yeah, we were sending Jesper up."

"I must have missed him. There's no time to wait for him now." Jemma said. "We need to follow that ship now. If they already have Ruth on board..."

"It could be bye-bye baby princess." Thorn said gravely. "What's the plan?"

Jemma shrugged. "Get me close enough to the ship so that I can dive in and swim over. I'll cause a bit of chaos, grab Ruth and go, and you set the ship on fire with the Mangler."

Thorn rolled his shoulders back. "Sounds good to me."

Jemma frowned. "Do you have a basket?"

...

"Ruth's gone." Gilan said gravely as he exited the room. "I looked out the window, saw Jemma chasing George. It looked like George was carrying Ruth."

The Rangers looked at each other, at a loss for words.

"Where's he taking her?" Horace, Cassandra and Henry strolled up the corridor towards them, grave looks on all of their faces. 

"Your highness!" A voice called out, and they turned to see a servant running up to them, closely followed by Jesper. "A messenger!"

"Thank you." Cassandra hurried the servant, turning to Jesper for his message.

"We saw an unknown ship." Jesper gasped. "Hal sent me up to come tell you."

They exchanged looks.

"Let's go."

The group hurried past Jesper, racing through the halls to leave the castle and go down to the campsite.

Jesper groaned. "I'm just gonna wait here a moment...catch my breath."