Ranger's Apprentice - Rescue

Chapter 19

Gilan sighed for the fifth time in the last hour. 

He was back at Castle Highcliff, a fact that already set his nerves on edge. Not a moment passed when he wondered if Halt had found Will yet, or if he would find the young apprentice in time, or if it was already too late.

It didn't help that he hadn't made any progress in the last three days. He had skimmed through what felt like a thousand books and to no avail. Of course, he had thought to look for the librarian, but each day he'd arrived early in the morning, the man was already in his office, and he never seemed to come out. Gilan was beginning to grow increasingly suspicious of this man. In his experience, anyone who was this secluded and secretive, aside from Rangers themselves of course, were usually filled with guilt.

If he doesn't come out of his office in the next hour, Gilan told himself now, I'll have to force his hand.

Because Gilan's internal radar, the instinct that all Rangers learned to rely on early in their training, told him that he would get nowhere by simply sifting through the shelves of books. He glanced up from his chair at the clerk's desk. There was a wiry man behind the oak wood counter, scratching something onto a parchment. Casually, Gilan stood, leaving the book he'd been reading where it was on the table. He walked over to the desk and waited patiently.

The clerk didn't look up. Instead, he simply dipped his quill in the ink nearby and continued scratching neat letters on the parchment. Gilan frowned. It seemed, he thought, that there was a terrible lack of respect for Rangers in this library.

"Ahem," Gilan cleared his throat softly. The clerk glanced up at him.

"Yes?"

"Oh lovely," Gilan said. His tone was cheerful. Too cheerful. It was sarcastic. "I was afraid you'd gone blind and deaf for a moment. Good to see that's not the case."

The clerk had the audacity to look annoyed. Gilan continued to speak before the man had the chance to snap back.

"Listen, I was hoping to find the librarian. I've got a question for him."

The clerk didn't move. He simply stared at Gilan, one eyebrow raised in disinterest. The expression, in Gilan's professional opinion, belonged to none other than Halt. The fact that this man of minor importance was using it admittedly peeved him off.

"He is back there, isn't he?"

Gilan tried for a smile. The clerk hesitated.

"Yes," he finally said in an unkind tone. "But he's very- Hey!"

Gilan waited no longer. He leapt nimbly over the desk, sliding across it with ease. Then he walked past the clerk without a second thought and kicked in the door to the librarian's office.

"Good afternoon, sir!" he called with the same unnecessary amount of false glee in his voice. To an average onlooker, it seemed as if Gilan never once bothered to glance at the librarian as he marched inside and hopped up to sit on the man's small desk, leaning back on his hand. But trained as he was, Gilan was glancing over the wiry old man's shocked face and fidgety manner quickly, taking in all necessary information.

"Wh-who are you?" The librarian asked in complete shock. Gilan laughed loudly.

"Oh, you're a funny man, you are!" he said happily, remaining in his relaxed position on the desk. "But, you know, as much as I love jokes, I need to ask you some questions."

"But I'm-"

"Because you see," Gilan pressed on, keeping the look of ease and cheeriness plastered on his face. "I've been needing to talk to you for days. And you've been hiding out in here."

"Well, I have-"

"Which leads me to believe that you are hiding something! And, usually, I would take a more mischievous path to discover what it is you're doing, but as it is, I have a fairly good guess."

This time, Gilan paused just long enough to see the librarian gulp nervously before he continued. When he did, his voice was suddenly much lower and dangerous than it had been moments before. He drew his saxe knife casually, pretending to inspect the blade.

"You see, my good friend is missing," he explained carefully. Slowly. Threateningly. "And I need to find him. And you, funny enough, are linked to his disappearance. So..."

Gilan leaned forward, his face inches away from the sweating librarian's. The saxe knife snuck its way up until the tip was lightly touching the librarian's throat.

"I'm going to need you to tell me what you've done, where he is, and who these men are that have taken him."

The librarian gulped again. Gilan's face was now void of all cheerfulness. It was stony. It was unwavering. His eyes were glaring, full of a fierce fire. And to a man as old and weak and easily intimidated as Dursby the librarian, it was the most terrifying thing he had seen in his life.

And that was why, despite his recent fears of what the enemy would do to him, Dursby caved.

"Alright, alright!" he cried. 

Gilan didn't move, and Dursby decided he'd better tell this man everything he knew as fast as he could.

"Erm...It's... They're foreigners! From Hibernia. They wanted an anchor in Araluen in case they wanted to expand. It's a religious group called the Outsiders, but they're a nasty bunch. Very intimidating. They threatened me! That's the only reason I told them anything, you must believe me, sir! Please!"

Gilan slowly leaned away, but his saxe knife remained in his hand. Dursby eyed it nervously.

"Outsiders..." Gilan muttered to himself. "I don't know if I've ever heard of them."

"Neither had I, sir!" Dursby said. He was eager to get on this dangerous man's good side now. Gilan, seeing through his act, eyed him rather distastefully.

"And where, exactly, have they taken Will?"

Dursby frowned, clearly afraid that the wrong answer would send this Ranger on a rampage and cost him his own life.

"I...I...I don't know, sir. Please believe me! I have no idea where he's gone!"

Gilan chewed his lip. Then he nodded. He'd gotten all the information Halt had asked him to get. Now he could rejoin his mentor in his search for Will.

"Very well,"  he said, standing and replacing his saxe knife in the double scabbard at his side. "You stay here. And keep your filthy clerk with you."

"Sir?" Dursby asked, hope filling his eyes. Perhaps this Ranger was going to let him off with a warning after all. But Gilan's next words dashed that hope instantly.

"I'll send some guards to take you to the dungeons on my way out. And please don't think about trying to escape," he added in a bored tone. "It would be such a bother for me to detour out of my way to kill you."

With that, Gilan left the trembling librarian, and his pale-faced clerk, in the office.

It was time to find Will.