Ranger's Apprentice 3 & 4 Bindup (40 page)

United now in their concern for Evanlyn, the two apprentices headed for Halt's quarters. All of the Araluan party had been assigned rooms in the main hall.

As Halt was their leader, he had been given a small suite of three rooms. At the door, Will knocked perfunctorily and heard Halt's gruff reply: ‘Come.'

As they entered, he took in the fact that Erak was in the room with Halt. It was hard to miss the bulky Skandian. He seemed to fill most spaces he occupied. He was sprawled in one of the comfortable, carved wood armchairs that decorated the room – doubtless liberated on some wolfship raid down the coast. Halt was standing by the window, framed against the low-angled light of the late afternoon. He looked quizzically at the doorway as the two boys entered hurriedly.

‘Halt,' Will began urgently, ‘Horace says Evanlyn's disappeared. She's –'

‘Safe and sound and back in Hallasholm,' a familiar
voice finished the sentence for him. Both boys turned to the speaker. Standing a little back, in the shadows of the room, she hadn't been evident as they'd entered.

‘Evanlyn!' Horace exclaimed. ‘You're all right!'

The girl smiled. Now his eyes were accustomed to the darker part of the room, Will could make out that her face and clothes were smeared with grease and dirt. Her eyes met his and she smiled at him, a little wistfully. Then she upended the flask of juice that she had in her hand and drank greedily from it.

‘Apparently,' she said, setting the flask down. ‘Although I have a thirst on me that I doubt I'll ever quench. All I've had to drink in the last eighteen hours was a little rainwater that made its way through the canvas covers over the …' She hesitated and looked to Erak to supply the word she was after. The Jarl obliged.

‘Forepeak,' he said and Evanlyn repeated the word.

‘Forepeak, exactly, of Slagor's ship,' she said. Will and Horace exchanged puzzled glances.

‘What in the devil's name were you doing there?' Will asked and Halt answered for her.

‘The devil's name is right,' he said. ‘It seems our friend Slagor has sold out to the Temujai – and he's planning to betray Hallasholm to them.'

‘What?' asked Will, his voice almost cracking with surprise. He looked at Evanlyn. ‘How do you know?'

The girl shrugged her slim shoulders. ‘Because I heard him discussing it with the Temujai leader. They were barely two metres away from me.'

‘It seems,' Halt put in, by way of explanation, ‘that your old friend Slagor sailed down the coast yesterday to a
rendezvous with the Temujai Shan – one Haz'kam. And since our traitor obviously didn't trust his new allies too far, he insisted on all negotiations being carried out on board his ship – just to keep Haz'kam's retainers at a distance.'

‘Which is how I came to hear it,' Evanlyn finished. But now Horace was scratching his head in bewilderment.

‘But … what were you doing on the ship?' he said.

‘I told you,' Evanlyn replied. ‘Eavesdropping on Slagor and the Temujai.'

Horace made an impatient gesture. ‘Yes, yes, so you've said. But why were you there in the first place?'

Evanlyn went to answer, hesitated, then stopped altogether. All eyes in the room were on her now and she realised she didn't really have a logical answer to that question.

‘I … don't know,' she said, finally. ‘I was bored, I guess. And feeling useless. I was looking for something to do. And besides, Slagor looked sort of … shifty.'

‘Slagor always looks sort of shifty,' Erak put in, helping himself to fruit from a bowl on the table in front of him. Evanlyn thought about it, then conceded the point.

‘Well, that's true, I suppose. But he looked even shiftier than usual,' she said. ‘So I decided someone had better keep an eye on him and see what he was up to.'

Truth be told, Evanlyn was quite enjoying herself now. She had gone from feeling useless and unnecessary to being the bearer of important, even vital news to Halt and Erak. She couldn't help preening, just a little. Horace's next reaction was exactly what she'd hoped for.

‘But … you could have been spotted! What if they'd found you there? They would have killed you,' he said, his concern for her evident in the worried tone of his voice.
That thought had occurred to Evanlyn on more than one occasion as she'd crouched in the damp space in the bow of the wolfship. Once she had fully realised the situation she was in, her skin had crawled with the fear of discovery with every second. But now she affected a nonchalant air about the entire episode.

‘I suppose so. But let's face it, someone had to do it.'

She was delighted to notice that Horace was looking at her with something approaching awe. She glanced quickly at Will, hoping to see the same look of admiration there. His next words dashed that hope.

‘All very well,' he said dismissively. ‘But the important thing is that Slagor is planning to betray us. How is he aiming to do it?'

‘That's the point, of course,' Halt agreed. He indicated a chart of the Skandian coast that he and Erak had spread on the table between them. ‘Apparently, friend Slagor plans to put to sea quietly the day after tomorrow and make for the same rendezvous point down the coast. Only this time, there'll be one hundred and fifty Temujai warriors waiting. He'll take them aboard and ferry them back here to Hallasholm –'

‘He'll never fit a hundred and fifty men into one wolfship!' Will interrupted.

Halt nodded. ‘Apparently, he has another two ships waiting for him out behind this island, halfway to the rendezvous.'

‘They left a week ago,' Erak put in. ‘Supposedly, they were going to raid behind the Temujai lines. It seems the skirls are in league with Slagor and they're waiting at this prearranged point.' He tapped the map with his dagger,
with which he'd been peeling fruit. A few spots of apple juice fell onto the parchment. Halt raised an eyebrow at him and wiped them away as the Jarl continued. ‘With three ships, they'll carry one hundred and fifty men easily.'

‘Then what?' Horace asked. Evanlyn, piqued that attention had been diverted from her and that Will had ignored the danger she'd been in, leapt back into the conversation.

‘They'll be able to attack our forces from the rear,' she explained. ‘Think of it, one hundred and fifty men, with the element of surprise, suddenly appearing behind our lines!'

‘That could be very nasty indeed,' Horace said thoughtfully. ‘So what do we do?'

‘We've already taken the first step,' Erak told him. ‘I've sent Svengal with two of my ships out to Fallkork Island here.' Again he tapped the juice-stained knife on the map and again Halt raised his eyes at him. ‘To make sure Slagor's other two ships don't keep any rendezvous.'

‘Two against two?' Will asked. ‘Is that enough?'

The Jarl cocked his head to one side and smiled at him. ‘Count yourself lucky that Svengal wasn't here to hear you say that,' he replied. ‘He'd consider his crew alone to be more than a match for two ships full of Slagor's followers. But in fact, Slagor's ships will have only rowing crews. They need all the space they have to cram those Temujai on board with them.'

‘But what do we do about Slagor?' Will asked and this time, it was Halt who answered.

‘That's the problem. If he gets wind that we know what he's up to, he'll simply abandon the plan. We'll be able to prove nothing. It'll be his word against the word of a former slave – and an escaped one at that.' He smiled at
Evanlyn to show he meant no insult, but was merely stating the facts. She nodded her understanding.

‘But if Slagor finds the other two ships at this island, surely that's proof?' Horace interjected and Halt shook his head.

‘Proof of what? The crews will hardly admit they were waiting to go fetch the Temujai,' he said.

Horace sat back, frowning. This was getting too complicated for him.

‘Then what can we do?' Will asked. But at that moment there was a heavy knock at the door. They all looked at each other in surprise. The clandestine nature of their discussion had made them speak in lowered tones and the sudden interruption had made them all start guiltily, as if discovered.

‘Anyone expecting visitors?' Halt asked and, as the others shook their heads, he called once more: ‘Come.'

The door opened to admit Hodak, one of Erak's younger followers. He glanced about the room, noting the identities of all present. He looked uncomfortable as he noticed Evanlyn.

‘Thought I might find you here,' he said to Erak. ‘Ragnak's calling a special council in the Great Hall. He wants you there, Jarl.' He indicated Evanlyn. ‘And you'd better bring the girl with you.'

‘Evanlyn? Why should she go?' Halt asked. He saw the girl shrink back from the young Skandian. Maybe she had some premonition of what was to come.

‘The council's about her,' Hodak said awkwardly. ‘Slagor has invoked Ragnak's Vallasvow. He says the girl is really Princess Cassandra, daughter of King Duncan.'

There was a low mutter of interest from the assembled crowd as the five companions followed Hodak into the Main Hall. At the head of the room, Ragnak sat on his massive, carved chair. Beside, and slightly behind him, Will recognised the slightly stooped form of Slagor, as the treacherous Jarl leant down to whisper something to Ragnak. The Oberjarl angrily waved him away, then gestured towards Evanlyn, who was trying to make herself as inconspicuous as possible behind Erak.

‘Bring her forward!' Ragnak's massive voice, used to dominating the howling gales of the Stormwhite, boomed painfully in the low-ceilinged Hall. Evanlyn shrank back, instinctively, then recovered as Halt touched her arm and met her eyes with a reassuring smile. She straightened her shoulders and drew herself up to full height. Will watched in admiration as she walked down the cleared space in the centre of the Hall. Halt, Erak and the two apprentices followed close behind her. Horace, Will noticed, was
continually easing his sword in its scabbard, lifting it to free the blade, then allowing it to drop back again. As he noticed, Will's own hand strayed to the hilt of his throwing knife. If things went as badly as they all feared, he decided that knife was for Slagor. Once before, on Skorghijl, Will had demonstrated his skill with the knife to Erak's and Slagor's crews, throwing across the room and skewering a small wooden keg next to Slagor's hand. This time, there would be no keg.

The room watched in utter silence as Evanlyn stopped before Ragnak's raised dais.

She met the Oberjarl's glower with a calm, composed expression on her face. Again, Will found himself almost overwhelmed by her courage and her composure. Slagor signed to a pair of attendants by a side door.

‘Bring in the slave,' he called. His voice was soft and silky, totally unlike Ragnak's forceful bellow. He sounded very pleased with the current turn of events, Will thought. The two men, rowers from Slagor's crew, opened the door and dragged in a protesting, weeping figure. She was a middle-aged woman, her hair greying and her face lined before its time with the strain of unending labour, poor food and the threat of constant punishment that was the lot of a slave in Hallasholm. The sailors dragged her forward and cast her down on the floor in front of Evanlyn. She crouched there miserably, her eyes down.

‘Look up, slave,' Slagor told her in that same quiet voice. Her sobbing continued and she shook her head, her eyes still cast down at the floor. Slagor moved quickly, stepping down from the platform and drawing his saxe knife in one smooth movement. He held the razor-sharp
blade below the woman's chin, pressing into the flesh of her neck with not quite sufficient force to break the skin.

‘I said, “look up”,' he repeated, and applied pressure to the knife to raise her eyes until she was gazing at Evanlyn. As she saw the girl, the woman began sobbing even louder.

‘Shut up,' Slagor told her. ‘Shut up that noise and tell the Oberjarl what you told me.'

There were angry weals across the woman's face. Obviously, she had been beaten recently. Her ragged shift was torn in several spots as well, and more red marks were visible on her body through the gaps. In some places, blood had soaked through the thin material. Her tear-filled eyes pleaded with Evanlyn.

‘I'm sorry, my lady,' she said, her voice breaking. ‘They beat me until I told.'

Evanlyn took an involuntary step towards her. But Slagor's knife swung up and round to confront her and stop her coming closer. Beside him, Will heard Horace's quick intake of breath and saw his hand fall to the sword hilt once more. He placed his own hand over Horace's, stopping him from drawing the sword. The heavily built apprentice looked round at him, surprised. Will shook his head slightly. He realised that Horace's movement had been a reflex reaction and he knew that in this tinderbox atmosphere, if his friend ever drew that sword it could mean the end of all of them.

‘Not yet.' He mouthed the words. If the time came, he was willing to join Horace in an attack on Slagor and Ragnak. But first, he thought, they should see if Halt couldn't talk their way out of this situation.

‘Leave the talking to me,' the Ranger had told them
before they left his apartment. ‘And don't do anything until I tell you. Clear?'

The two boys had nodded. Then Halt had added: ‘This puts an altogether different slant on our accusing Slagor, of course.'

‘But surely you're still going to tell Ragnak?' Will had burst out. Halt shook his head doubtfully.

‘The problem is, he's got in first. If we make a counter accusation now, it will look as if we're simply doing it to save Evanlyn. Chances are, Ragnak will ignore it altogether.'

‘But you can't let him get away with …' Will began, but Halt held up a hand to silence him.

‘I'm not letting him get away with anything,' he reassured them. ‘We'll just have to pick the right time to bring the matter up, that's all.'

Now, Slagor turned back to the woman on the floor. ‘Tell the Oberjarl,' he repeated.

The woman said nothing and Slagor turned to Ragnak in exasperation. ‘My head slave overheard her talking to some of the others,' he explained. ‘She's Araluan originally and she said she recognised this girl here …' He jerked a thumb in Evanlyn's direction. ‘As the Princess Cassandra – Duncan's daughter.'

Ragnak's eyes narrowed and he turned slightly to inspect Evanlyn. Her chin went up and she stood a little taller under his gaze.

‘She does have something of the look of Duncan about her,' he said suspiciously.

‘No! No! I was mistaken!' the slave burst out suddenly. On her knees, she stretched her hands out to Slagor in
supplication. ‘Now I see her close to, I realise I was wrong, Lord Slagor. I was mistaken!'

‘You called her “my lady”,' Slagor reminded her.

‘It was a mistake, that was all. A mistake. Now I see her properly, I can tell it's not her,' the woman insisted. Slagor regarded her with a pained expression on his face. He turned to Ragnak again. ‘She's lying, Oberjarl,' he said. ‘I'll have my men beat the truth out of her.'

He made a signal to the two men again and one of them came forward, uncoiling a short, thick whip as he came. The woman cringed away from him.

‘No! Please, my lord, please!' Her voice was shrill with fear as she tried to crawl away. Slagor's man grabbed a handful of her hair to stop her and she cried out again, in pain as well as fear. He raised the vicious-looking whip over his head, ready to bring it down.

‘Leave her alone!' Evanlyn cried, and her voice froze the sailor where he stood. He looked uncertainly to Slagor for direction, but the wolfship captain was watching Evanlyn, waiting for her to say more.

‘All right,' she said quietly, ‘I'm Cassandra. There's no need to torture her further.'

The silence in the room was almost a physical force. Then an excited buzz broke out among the assembled crowd. Will distinctly heard the words ‘Vallasvow' from several different sources.

‘Silence!' roared Ragnak and instantly the noise ceased. He rose and moved forward to confront Evanlyn, glaring down at her. ‘You are Duncan's daughter?'

She hesitated, then replied.

‘I am King Duncan's daughter,' she said, with a slight emphasis on his title. ‘Cassandra, Princess of Araluen.'

‘Then you are my enemy,' he said, spitting the words out. ‘And I've sworn that you should die.'

Erak stepped forward. ‘And I've sworn that she will be safe here, Oberjarl,' he said. ‘I gave my word when I asked the Ranger to help us.'

Ragnak looked up angrily. Again there was a buzz of conversation through the room. Erak was a popular jarl among the Skandians and Ragnak hadn't reckoned on having to contend with him over this matter. With an invading army only days away from his stronghold, he knew he couldn't afford a split with his senior war leader.

‘I am Oberjarl,' he said. ‘My vow is of greater importance.'

Erak folded his arms across his chest. ‘Not to me it isn't,' he said, and there was a chorus of agreement from the crowd.

‘Erak cannot defy you like this! You are Oberjarl!' Slagor suddenly interjected. ‘Have him imprisoned! He is defying your vow to the Vallas!'

‘Shut up, Slagor,' Erak told him, in an ominously calm voice. Then he re-addressed himself to Ragnak. ‘I didn't ask you to take your death vow, Ragnak,' he said. ‘But if you want to carry it out, I'm afraid you'll have to go through me to do it.'

Now Ragnak stepped down from his podium, and walked closer to where Erak stood. They were of equal height, both massively built. He faced his old companion, the anger burning in his eyes.

‘Erak, did you know? Did you know who she was when you brought her here?'

Erak shook his head.

Slagor snorted in disgust. ‘Of course he knew!' he cried, then stopped suddenly as the point of Erak's dagger appeared under his nose.

‘I'll allow that once,' Erak told him. ‘Say it again and you're a dead man.'

Wordlessly, Slagor backed away from the bigger man, putting a safe distance between himself and the point of the knife. Erak sheathed the dagger and turned back to Ragnak. ‘I didn't know,' he said. ‘Otherwise I would never have brought her here, knowing of your vow. But the fact remains, I vouched for her safety and my word is all-important to me – as is yours to you.'

‘Damn and blast it, Erak!' Ragnak shouted. ‘The Temujai are only three or four days' march from here! We can't afford to be fighting amongst ourselves now!'

‘It would be a shame if you had to face the Temujai with at least one, and possibly both, of your best leaders dead,' Halt put in mildly and the Oberjarl rounded on him in a fury.

‘Shut up, Ranger! I'm of half a mind to believe that this is all your doing! No good ever came of dealing with your kind!'

Halt shrugged, unimpressed by the Skandian's fury. ‘Be that as it may,' he said, ‘it occurs to me that there might be a solution to your problem – for the time being, at least.'

The buzz of conversation through the room was cut short as Ragnak swung his gaze around angrily. He watched Halt with narrowed eyes, expecting some trick or some kind of subterfuge.

‘What are you talking about? My vow is binding upon me,' he said and Halt nodded agreement.

‘I understand that. But is there any time factor involved?' he asked. Now Ragnak looked puzzled as well as suspicious.

‘Time factor? How do you mean?'

‘If we accept that you plan to do your best to kill Evanlyn, knowing that Erak will try to stop you when you do – not to mention the fact that if he doesn't, I most certainly will – have you vowed that you'll do it at any particular time?' Halt continued.

The puzzled expression on Ragnak's face grew more intense.

‘No. I didn't specify any time. I just made the vow,' he said finally and Halt nodded several times.

‘Good. So, as far as these Vallas are concerned, they don't care whether you try to fulfil your vow today or if you choose to wait until, say, after we've sent the Temujai packing?'

Understanding was beginning to dawn on the Oberjarl's face. ‘That's right,' he said slowly. ‘As long as the intent is there, the Vallas will be satisfied.'

‘No!' a shrill voice cut across them. It was Slagor, the silky, self-satisfied tones gone from his voice now. ‘Can't you see, Oberjarl, he's trying to trick you? He has something in mind. The girl must die and she must die now! Otherwise your sworn word is worthless!' Slagor's anger, and his long-held desire for revenge on Evanlyn for the events that had occurred on Skorghijl had caused him to go too far. Ragnak turned on him now, a flame of anger burning in his eyes.

‘Slagor, I would advise you to get rid of this reckless habit of telling your peers that they are liars,' he said and instantly the wolfship captain retracted his accusation.

‘Of course, Oberjarl. I didn't mean –'

Ragnak cut him off before he could go further.

‘My first concern is for the safety of Skandia. With these Temujai on our doorstep, Erak and I cannot afford to be fighting. If he'll agree to postpone our differences until after we've settled with them, then I will too.'

Erak nodded agreement instantly. ‘It sounds like a good compromise to me.'

There was still one thread of suspicion in Ragnak's mind. He turned back to Halt, his heavy brows knitted together in a frown.

‘I can't help wondering what's in it for you, Ranger. All you've done is win a postponement.'

Halt inclined his head slightly to one side as he considered the matter. ‘True,' he replied. ‘But a lot can happen in the next few days. You might be killed in the battle. Or Erak. Or me. Or all three of us. Beside that, my immediate priority is the same as yours: to see these Temujai driven back. After all, if they win here, it won't be long before they're invading Araluen as well. I have a sworn duty to try to prevent that.' He smiled grimly. ‘That's another of those vows that we all seem to rush around taking. Damned nuisances, aren't they?'

Ragnak turned and stepped back up on the dais to his massive council chair.

‘We're agreed then,' he said. ‘We'll settle the Temujai question first. Then we'll come back to this problem.'

Erak and Halt exchanged glances, then both men
nodded. Only Slagor seemed to be in disagreement with the compromise. He muttered a curse under his breath. Halt took Evanlyn's arm and began to guide her from the Great Hall, followed by the two apprentices and Erak. They hadn't gone half a dozen paces when Halt turned back to Ragnak.

‘Of course, there is one more question that I'd like to hear Slagor answer,' he said. As he hoped, at the mention of his name, everyone in the room involuntarily glanced at Slagor. Then, when all eyes were on him, Halt continued.

‘Perhaps he could tell us what his ships are doing at Fallkork Island?'