Ranger's Apprentice 1 & 2 Bindup (17 page)

‘He's already used them twice in the past year – to kill Lord Northolt and Lord Lorriac.' The three younger men all exchanged puzzled glances, so he went on.

‘Northolt was thought to be killed by a bear, remember?' Will nodded slowly. He remembered now. On his first day as Halt's apprentice, the Ranger had received news of the supreme commander's death. ‘I thought at the time that Northolt was too skilled a hunter to be killed that way. Crowley evidently agrees.'

‘But what about Lorriac? Everyone said it was a stroke.' It was Merron who asked this question. Halt glanced at him briefly, then answered.

‘You'd heard that, had you? Well, his physician was most surprised. Said he'd never seen a healthier man. On the other hand …' He paused, and Gilan finished the thought.

‘It could have been the work of the Kalkara.'

Halt nodded. ‘Exactly. We don't know the full effects of the freezing stare they've developed. Maintained over a long enough time, the terror could well be enough to stop a man's heart. And there were vague reports that a large, dark animal was seen in the area.'

Again, silence settled over the small group under the trees. Around them, Rangers bustled to and fro, striking camp and saddling their horses. Halt finally roused them all from their thoughts.

‘We'd best be moving. Merron, you'll need to return to your fief. Crowley wants the army alerted and mobilised. Orders will be distributed in a few minutes.'

Merron nodded and turned away towards his camp site. He paused and turned back. Something in Halt's voice, the way he had said ‘
you'll
need to return to your fief', had made him think.

‘What about you three?' he said. ‘Where are you going?'

Even before Halt answered, Will knew what he was going to say. But that didn't make it any less terrifying or blood-chilling when the words were said.

‘We're going after the Kalkara.'

The camp buzzed with activity as tents came down and Rangers repacked their equipment and tied on their saddle bags. Already, the first few riders had departed, heading back to their own fiefs.

Will was fastening the ties on their saddle packs, having replaced the few items they had taken out. Halt sat a few metres away, frowning thoughtfully as he studied a map of the area surrounding the Solitary Plain. The Plain itself was a vast, unmapped area, with no roads and few features indicated. A shadow fell across him and he looked up. Gilan stood there, a worried look on his face.

‘Halt,' he said in a low, concerned voice. ‘Are you sure about this?'

Halt met his gaze steadily. ‘Very sure, Gilan. It simply has to be done.'

‘But he's only a boy!' Gilan protested, looking to where Will was tying a pack roll in place behind Tug's saddle. Halt let go a long breath, his eyes dropping from Gilan's.

‘I know that. But he's a Ranger. Apprentice or not, he's a member of the Corps, like all of us.' He saw that Gilan was about to protest further, out of concern for Will, and he felt a surge of affection for his old apprentice.

‘Gilan, in an ideal world, I wouldn't put him at risk like this. But this isn't an ideal world. Everyone's going to have to play his part in this campaign, even boys like Will. Morgarath is preparing for something big. Crowley's agents have got wind that, on top of everything else, he's been in touch with the Skandians.'

‘The Skandians? What for?'

Halt shrugged. ‘We don't know the details but my bet is he's hoping to form an alliance with them. They'll fight anyone for money. And apparently, they'll fight
for
anyone as well,' he added, his distaste for mercenaries obvious in his voice. ‘The point is, we're short-handed enough while Crowley tries to raise the army. Normally, I wouldn't go after the Kalkara with a force of less than five senior Rangers. But he simply can't spare them for me. So I've had to settle for the two I trust most – you and Will.'

Gilan grinned crookedly. ‘Well, thanks for that, anyway.' He was touched by Halt's confidence. He still looked up to his old mentor. Most of the Ranger Corps did.

‘Besides, I thought that rusty old sword of yours might come in handy if we run into those horrors,' Halt said. The Ranger Corps had chosen wisely when they allowed Gilan to continue his training with the weapon. Although very few people knew it, Gilan was one of the finest swordsmen in Araluen.

‘As for Will,' Halt continued, ‘don't underestimate him.
He's very resourceful. He's quick and brave and a damn good shot already. Best of all, he thinks quickly. My real thinking is that if we get on the trail of the Kalkara, we can send him for reinforcements. That'll help us and keep him out of harm's way.'

Gilan scratched his chin thoughtfully. Now that Halt had explained it, it seemed the only logical course for them to take. He met the older man's eyes and nodded his understanding of the situation. Then he turned to organise his own kit, only to find that Will had already repacked it and tied it to his saddle. He smiled at Halt.

‘You're right,' he said. ‘He does think for himself.'

The three of them rode out a little while later, while the other Rangers were still receiving their orders. Mobilising the Araluen army would be no small task, and it would be the Rangers' job to co-ordinate it, then be ready to guide the individual forces from the fifty fiefs to their assembly point at the Plains of Uthal. With both Gilan and Halt assigned to searching for the Kalkara, other Rangers had to be tasked with co-ordinating the forces from their fiefs as well.

There was little said between the three companions as Halt led the way to the south-east. Even Will's natural curiosity was subdued by the magnitude of the task ahead of them. As they rode in silence, his mind's eye kept conjuring images of savage bear-like creatures with the features of apes – creatures that might well prove to be invincible, even for someone of Halt's skill.

Eventually, however, as monotony set in, the horrific images receded and he began to wonder what plan, if any, Halt had in mind.

‘Halt,' he said, a little breathlessly, ‘where do you hope to find the Kalkara?'

Halt looked at the serious young face beside him. They were travelling at the Rangers' forced march pace – forty minutes in the saddle, riding at a steady canter, then twenty minutes on foot, leading the horses and allowing them to travel unburdened, while the men ran at a steady trot.

Every four hours, they would pause for one hour's rest, when they ate a quick meal of dried meat, hard bread and fruit, then rolled into their cloaks to sleep.

They had been travelling for some time now and Halt judged that it was time to rest. He led Abelard off the road and into the shelter of a grove of trees. Will and Gilan followed, dropping the reins and allowing their horses to graze.

‘The best way I can think of,' Halt said, in answer to Will's question, ‘is to start at their lair and see if they're in the vicinity.'

‘Do we know where that is?' Gilan asked.

‘Best intelligence we have is that it's somewhere on the Solitary Plain, beyond the Stone Flutes. We'll scout around that area and see what we can find. If they're in the area, we should find that the odd sheep or goat is going missing from villages nearby. Although getting the villagers themselves to talk will be another matter. Plains people are a close-mouthed bunch at the best of times.'

‘What's this Plain you're talking about?' Will asked,
through a mouthful of hard bread. ‘And what on earth is a Stone Flute?'

‘The Solitary Plain is a vast flat area – very few trees, mainly covered in rock outcrops and long grass,' Halt told him. ‘The wind seems to always be blowing, no matter what time of year you go there. It's a dismal, depressing place and the Stone Flutes are the most dismal part of it.'

‘But what are –' Will began but Halt had only paused briefly.

‘The Stone Flutes? Nobody really knows. They're a circle of standing stones built by the ancients, smack in the middle of the windiest part of the Plain.

‘Nobody has ever worked out their original purpose but they're arranged in such a way that the wind is deflected round the circle, and through a series of holes in the stones themselves. They create a constant keening sound, although why anyone thought they sounded like flutes is beyond me. The sound is eerie and discordant and you can hear it from kilometres away. After a few minutes, it sets your teeth on edge – and it goes on and on for hours.'

Will was silent. The thought of a dismal, windswept plain and stones that emitted a nonstop, keening wail seemed to take the last vestige of warmth from the late afternoon sun. He shivered involuntarily. Halt saw the movement and leaned forward to clap him on the shoulder encouragingly.

‘Cheer up,' he said. ‘Nothing's ever as bad as it sounds. Now let's get some rest.'

They reached the outskirts of the Solitary Plain by noon the second day. Halt was right, Will thought, it was a vast, depressing place. The featureless ground stretched out before them for kilometre after kilometre, covered in tall, grey grass, made rank and dry by the constant wind.

The wind itself almost seemed to be a living presence. It rubbed on their nerves, blowing constantly and unvaryingly from the west, bending the tall grass before it as it swept across the flat ground of the Solitary Plain.

‘Now you can see why they call it the Solitary Plain?' Halt said to the two of them, reining Abelard in so they could come abreast of him. ‘When you ride out into this damned wind, you feel as if you're the only person left alive on earth.'

It was true, Will thought. He felt small and insignificant against the emptiness of the Plain. And with the feeling of insignificance came an accompanying feeling of impotence. The wasteland they were riding across seemed to hint at the presence of arcane forces – forces far greater than his own capabilities. Even Gilan, normally cheerful and ebullient, seemed affected by the heavy, depressing atmosphere of the place. Only Halt seemed unchanged, remaining grim and taciturn as ever.

Gradually, as they rode, Will became aware of a disquieting sensation. Something was lurking, just outside the range of his conscious perception. Something that made him feel uneasy. He couldn't isolate it, couldn't even tell where it was coming from or what form it took. It was just there, ever present. He shifted in his saddle, standing in the stirrups to scan the featureless horizon in the
hope that he might see the source of it all. Halt noticed the movement.

‘You've noticed them,' he said. ‘It's the Stones.'

And now that Halt said it, Will realised that it had been a sound – so faint and so continuous that he couldn't isolate it as such – that had been creating the sense of unease in his mind, and the tight cramping of fear in the pit of his stomach. Or perhaps it was just that as Halt said it, they came into proper earshot of the Stone Flutes. Because now he could isolate it. It was an unmelodic series of musical notes, all being played at once but creating a harsh, discordant sound that jangled the nerves and unsettled the mind. His left hand crept unobtrusively to the hilt of his saxe knife as he rode, and he drew comfort from the solid, dependable touch of the weapon.

They went on through the afternoon, never seeming to advance across the empty featureless Plain. With each pace, the horizons behind and before them seemed to neither recede nor draw closer. It was as if they were marking time in the empty world. The constant keening sound of the Stone Flutes was with them all day, growing gradually stronger as they travelled. It was the only sign that they were making progress. The hours passed and the sound continued and Will found it no easier to bear. It wore at his nerves, keeping him constantly on edge. As the sun began to sink at the western rim, Halt reined Abelard in.

‘We'll rest for the night,' he announced. ‘It's almost impossible to maintain a constant course in the dark. Without any significant land features to set a course by, we could easily wind up going round in circles.'

Gratefully, the others dismounted. Fit as they were, the hours spent at forced march pace had left them bone weary. Will began scouting around the few stunted bushes that grew on the Plain, searching for firewood. Halt, realising what was in his mind, shook his head.

‘No fire,' he said. ‘We'd be visible for miles and we have no idea who might be watching.'

Will paused, letting the small bundle he had gathered fall to the ground. ‘You mean the Kalkara?' he said. Halt shrugged.

‘Them, or Plains people. We can't be sure that some of them aren't in league with the Kalkara. After all, living cheek by jowl with creatures like that, you might well end up co-operating with them, just to ensure your own safety. And we don't want them getting word that there are strangers on the Plain.'

Gilan was unsaddling Blaze, his bay horse. He dropped the saddle to the ground and rubbed the horse down with a handful of the ever-present dry grass.

‘You don't think we've been seen already?' he asked. Halt considered the question for a few seconds before answering.

‘We might have been. There are just too many unknowns here – like where the Kalkara actually have their lair, whether or not the Plains people are their allies, whether or not any of them have seen us and reported our presence. But until I
know
we have been seen, we'll assume we haven't. So, no fire.'

Gilan nodded reluctantly. ‘You're right, of course,' he said. ‘It's just I'd happily kill someone for a cup of coffee.'

‘Light a fire to brew it,' Halt told him, ‘and you might end up having to do just that.'