The Royal Ranger

Ten

There was a moment of silence in the cabin, then Halt rose slowly to his feet, his eyes blazing with anger. He pointed a finger at his former apprentice. When he spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper. But it was no less intense for all that.

“How dare you say that!” he spat. “How dare you turn your back on the Corps the moment you have some personal grief in your life? I didn’t spend years training you and caring about you, and watching you grow into a man I was proud of, to see you crumble like this! You took an oath when you joined the Corps. I know it meant something to you then. Does it mean nothing to you now?”

Will made an awkward gesture. “No. I… I just…”

“Will, I’m sorry Alyss is gone. I really am. I loved her, you know. We all did.”

“Not as much as I did,” Will said bitterly.

Halt nodded. “No. The hurt is deeper for you. And it will be harder to bear. But you can bear it. You must bear it. You have to move on.”

Will faced him angrily. “D’you expect me to just forget about her?”

“No! I expect you to remember her always. And to cherish and honour that memory. But honouring her memory doesn’t mean eating yourself up with this obsession for revenge until there’s no room for anything else in your life. It’s destroying you, Will.”

“Just let me find Ruhl,” Will said, a pleading note in his voice. “Let me find him and bring him to trial and then I’ll be glad to get back to being a Ranger again.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” Gilan said angrily. “You’re a Ranger and you have your duties to attend to as a Ranger. We all do. You can’t put them aside to suit yourself, then take them up again when you feel like it.

“You are one of the rare people who can make a difference to this world. You’re a leader. You’re a hero to thousands of ordinary people. They look up to you and respect you. You give them hope and something to believe in. How dare you reject that responsibility? How dare you throw their respect for you back in their faces?”

“Maybe I don’t care about them,” Will said, his voice low.

“Then you’re not the person I taught about honour and duty,” Halt threw at him and Will flushed.

“You’re needed, Will,” Gilan said softly, the anger dissipated now. “The Corps needs you and your friends need you.”

“What friends?” Will asked.

“Horace and Evanlyn,” Halt told him. “Your oldest friends in the world. The man you’ve fought beside countless times. And the girl who faced danger with you—who refused to abandon you when the Skandians captured you at the Rift, and when the Temujai overran your position in Skandia. They’re asking for your help. Are you going to refuse them—while you skulk in a corner feeling sorry for yourself?”

“They need me?” Will said uncertainly. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Maddie. Your goddaughter. She’s constantly getting into trouble. She’s running wild and driving them crazy. They’re worried about her and they can’t find a way to bring her into control. They think you might be able to.”

Will frowned. “Me? What can I do? If they can’t handle her, how do they expect me to do it?”

“They want you to train her as an apprentice,” Gilan said.

Will actually recoiled in shock at those words. “Maddie? A girl?”

“Maddie. A girl,” Halt repeated. He reached inside his jerkin and produced a linen envelope, holding it out to Will. “They’ve written to you, asking for your help.”

Will took the envelope distractedly. His mind was whirling at high speed. A girl apprentice? There had never been such a thing, he thought. Then he wondered, why not? All his life he had been open to new ideas, new thinking. Why not this? Evanlyn would have made a superb Ranger, he thought. She was brave and quick-witted and intelligent. And her daughter was the same. He glanced down at the envelope again, seeing Evanlyn’s seal in the red wax that fastened it.

“I’ll give you my answer tomorrow,” he said.

Later that night, Will slit open the envelope that held the letter from Horace and Cassandra.

There was a separate inclusion in the letter, but it was marked to be read second. As he studied the words before him, his heart went out to his friends. It was a short letter, but none the less poignant for its brevity.

Beneath the words penned by Cassandra, Horace had added a brief note of his own.

Will folded the letter and tapped it thoughtfully against his palm. Then he opened the second document. It was short and to the point—only a few paragraphs in length. But his eyes widened in surprise. Then he re-folded it and leaned back in his chair, thinking.

Gilan had tried to stir him from his obsession with revenge against Jory Ruhl and his gang. He had used words like “duty’ and “obligation’. They were abstract terms and they paled into insignificance in the light of the heart-wrenching hurt of Alyss’s death.

But this was something far more tangible and immediate. A plea for help from the two people whom he now loved most in the world—whom he had loved for years. He wavered, then asked himself the pivotal question.

“What would Alyss want me to do?”

He said the words aloud and, as ever, his dog Sable’s head rose and her tail thumped once. He ignored her. He knew what Alyss would say if she were here.

She might consider the fact that, by agreeing to train Madelyn, he would be serving the Kingdom and helping secure its future. But even more important would be one overlying fact. He could almost hear her voice saying two words.

“They’re friends.”

Old friends. Best friends. Friendships that had been tested in the fires of a dozen challenges. Two people who had stood by him and saved his life more times than he could count.

There was no question as to what his answer was going to be. This was a request he simply could not refuse.