“A carrier pigeon arrived from Gilan yesterday evening,” Halt said. “The King has summoned us to Castle Araluen.”
“Is it urgent?” Maddie asked.
The two older Rangers exchanged a glance. “A summons from the King is always urgent,” Will told her. “Should we get going straightaway?” he asked Halt.
Halt made a demurring gesture. “There’s no need to rush,” he said. “After all, nobody will know when you actually arrived back, or when you received the message. We can get going in the morning. Get a good night’s sleep tonight and we’ll leave after sunup.”
Will nodded. “That sounds fair enough. Did Gilan give you any idea what this is all about?”
“Just said, come at once. I imagine it’s important.”
“What makes you think so?” Maddie asked.
Halt shrugged. “The tone of the message for starters. And pigeon messages can go astray all too easily,” he said. “If it’s a delicate matter, it’s never a good idea to put in too much detail—just in case the message falls into unfriendly hands.”
“Is that likely?” Maddie asked, the doubt in her voice obvious.
“Unscrupulous people in the past have been known to train falcons to capture or kill message pigeons,” Halt told her. “Confidential information can be quite valuable if the wrong person gets hold of it.”
“Maybe it’s a mistake to use pigeons for messages,” Will said. “They’re altogether too peaceful. They can’t defend themselves.”
“Some years back, we tried training ravens to carry messages. It’d take a brave falcon to attack a raven,” Halt said. “But it didn’t work out.”
“Why not?” Maddie asked, and the white-haired Ranger hid a grin.
“Ravens talk too much,” he said. “They can’t keep a secret no matter how hard they try.”
Maddie rolled her eyes, as only a teenage girl can do. “There are times when you’re very amusing, Halt,” she said. “This isn’t one of them.”
Halt finished his coffee and stood up. “Young people have no sense of humor,” he said, with some dignity. He pulled up the cowl on his cloak and turned to the door.
“I’ll see you at sunup,” he said. “Pauline will come down later to collect Sable.”
They made their farewells and he mounted Abelard, wheeling the Ranger horse toward the narrow path through the trees. Will and Maddie watched as he rode away, finally disappearing round the first bend.
Will rubbed his beard thoughtfully. “That’s unusual,” he said, more to himself than to Maddie.
She cocked her head curiously toward him. “How do you mean?”
“Well,” he said, turning to go back into the little cabin, “Halt’s semiretired these days and he’s never gone on a mission with us. I wonder why Duncan has summoned all three of us to the castle.”
Maddie considered the point and found she had no answer.
“I expect we’ll find out when we get there,” she said.
“I expect so.”
7
“But why Maddie?” said Cassandra. “Why should she be involved in this?”
Horace sighed. “Cassandra, we’ve discussed this before—”
His wife interrupted before he could go any further, ignoring him and speaking to her father. “I can understand why you’d send Will. After all, he’s the best Ranger you have. But why should Maddie go as well?”
“She’s a Ranger,” her father said patiently. He knew what was on her mind and he knew they were in for an argument.
“She’s your granddaughter,” Cassandra replied. “And she’s second in line to the throne. Yet you’re willing to place her in danger.”
“The world is a dangerous place,” Duncan told her. “Even for princesses. Maddie has chosen to join the Rangers and live their life. I can’t make exceptions for her.”
“But it will be dangerous!” Cassandra protested.
“Just as it was dangerous for you to ransom Erak from the Tualaghi tribesmen. Just as it was dangerous for you to travel to Nihon-Ja to find Horace.”
“That was different!” Cassandra protested. “I was—”
“You were the heir to the throne. You accepted that there was a responsibility that went along with the privilege. That’s the way we have to live our lives, Cassandra.”
“I just don’t see why it’s necessary for her to go. Let Will do it. He can handle it on his own.”
“He’ll be a lot better off if Maddie’s with him,” Gilan said quietly. He had been expecting Cassandra to object to the idea of Maddie accompanying Will on the secret mission to Gallica. He knew how Cassandra felt about her daughter’s role as an apprentice Ranger. She had opposed it from the start and had never fully accepted it.
Cassandra turned to face him. “How do you figure that?” she challenged.
“A stranger traveling alone is more likely to excite suspicion than a father and daughter traveling together. That’s how they’ll be seen. A man traveling with his daughter will be seen as relatively harmless. After all, what father would willingly expose his daughter to danger?”
“So you admit she will be in danger?” Cassandra said.
Gilan nodded. “Of course I admit it. She’s a Ranger, after all, and that’s part and parcel of a Ranger’s life.”
Cassandra opened her mouth to object but Horace forestalled her.
“We agreed to this when she decided to join the Corps,” he said. “If she’s a Ranger, she has to take her share of dangerous situations. We can’t pick and choose what she does. We can’t insist that she only goes on safe missions.”
“Not that there are too many of them,” Gilan observed.
But Cassandra wasn’t willing to give in just yet. “You agreed to this. I never wanted her to be a Ranger in the first place.”
“And yet she is one,” her father said firmly. “And as a Ranger, she has to undertake her share of hazardous duties. Otherwise she might as well quit the Corps.”
“That’d be fine by me,” Cassandra said bitterly.
“So you’d rather have her sit meekly around the castle, practicing her needlework and learning court etiquette?” her father said. “That’s pretty poor training for a future queen. It was something you never accepted. You knew you had to be out in the real world, learning how to lead men and defend your country in times of war.”
In her heart, Cassandra knew they were right. As a young woman, she had led an exciting, and often dangerous, life. She had traveled the world, fought in battles and faced the kingdom’s enemies countless times. The idea of remaining safely at home in Castle Araluen had been anathema to her and she knew she couldn’t impose such a restriction on her daughter. If Maddie was to be queen one day, she had to experience the real world, with all its hazards. That way, she would be equipped to rule the country wisely and bravely. Cassandra knew all this. But that didn’t mean she had to like it. She scowled at the three men sitting opposite her.
“I hate it when you all gang up on me,” she said.
Her father smiled fondly at her. “Now you know how I used to feel,” he told her. “It’s not easy to send your only daughter off into the world. But it’s something we all have to do. And Maddie’s experiences as a Ranger will make her a better queen when the time comes.”
He looked away from her as there was a discreet knock at the door to his office. “What is it?” he called.
The door opened to admit one of his servants. “My lord, there are three Rangers here to see you,” he said.
Duncan made a beckoning gesture. “Thank you, Miles. Please tell them to come in.”
The servant opened the door wider and stood to one side to admit the three gray-and-green-cloaked figures. Halt, Will and Maddie strode into the room, Maddie staying slightly behind her superiors. They stopped before Duncan’s big desk while the servant withdrew, clos
ing the door behind him.
Halt, as the most senior of the group, spoke. “You sent for us, my lord?”
Duncan rose from his seat to greet them, wincing slightly as he placed weight on his injured leg. “Halt! How good it is to see you! And you, Will, of course.”
He reserved a special smile of welcome for his granddaughter. He felt a sudden surge of pride seeing her in her Ranger uniform. Even though she was still an apprentice, she had already proven her skill and courage several times over.
“Maddie,” he said, “I trust you’ve been behaving yourself?”
She smiled widely in return. “Not too much, Grandfather,” she said.
Then Horace and Gilan stepped forward to greet the newcomers and the room was full of warmth and welcome. Cassandra held back for a few seconds, then impulsively rushed forward and enveloped Maddie in a hug, too full of emotion to speak, her eyes bright with tears.
Maddie, a little overwhelmed by the effusive greeting, was somewhat taken aback. “Mum!” she exclaimed. “Settle down!” She met her father’s eyes over Cassandra’s shoulder and raised her eyebrows in a question. He made a gesture with his hands, which she took to mean, Your mother’s a little emotional. Go with it. She nodded and allowed her mother a few seconds to compose herself.
Cassandra finally brought her emotions under control and released Maddie to Horace’s embrace. Will stepped forward then and hugged Cassandra. He thought he understood the reason for her display of emotion. Obviously, he and Maddie were being sent on a mission. Equally obviously, Cassandra was upset by the fact. There was nothing new in that, he thought. His old friend was extremely protective when it came to her daughter.
“I’ll look after her,” he said softly. For a moment or two, she buried her face in his shoulder. Then she recovered and stepped back, smiling into his eyes.
The greetings went on for several more minutes, then Duncan called the group to order. They pulled chairs around the table and waited expectantly for him to tell them why they were here. He wasted no time getting to the heart of the matter.
“Will, I want you and Maddie to go to Gallica,” he said.
Maddie and Will exchanged a quick glance. One thing about life as a Ranger, Maddie thought, you never knew what was coming next.
Will scratched his beard. “Gallica?” he said. “What’s going on there that concerns us?”
* * *
• • •
Will leaned back, nodding, as Duncan finished explaining the reason he had summoned them to Araluen.
“Makes sense,” he said. “A father and daughter traveling together don’t attract as much attention. People don’t seem to be as suspicious as they might be if I were on my own.”
“That’s what I thought,” Gilan said. “After all, it worked before when you were hunting those child robbers on the east coast.”
“But why do we care if there’s trouble in Gallica?” Maddie asked. “After all, it’s not as if Philippe has ever done us any favors.” She realized that she might have sounded somewhat heartless and hurried to amend her statement. “I mean, I’m sorry that his son has been kidnapped, but it hardly involves us, does it?”
“Perhaps not,” Horace told her. “But it’s probably better for us if Philippe remains on the throne. This Lassigny type could be a problem for us if he managed to replace Philippe. And there’s not much doubt that’s his eventual intention. The more power he gains, the greater a potential threat he is to us.”
Maddie nodded as she saw the reasoning behind her father’s words.
Halt was frowning slightly. “My lord,” he said to Duncan, “I take it you don’t want me to go with Will and Maddie. Why did you want me here?”
Duncan hesitated a second, then replied. “I always value your input, Halt. We have to work out how these two will be disguised. After all, they’ll have to have some plausible reason for wandering around the Gallican countryside.”
Halt nodded slowly. He suspected there was something Duncan wasn’t telling him. Whatever it might be, he was sure he’d find out in due course, so he was willing to wait until the King was ready to say more.
8
The meeting broke up shortly afterward. The three new arrivals were given time to freshen up and eat after their long journey. Then Gilan, Halt, Will, Horace and Cassandra assembled in Gilan’s office to make plans for Will and Maddie’s journey to Gallica. Maddie wasn’t required for that meeting so she went in search of Ingrid, her former maid and companion, who was now a senior member of Cassandra’s staff. Duncan had other matters to attend to—a king was always busy—and he trusted his senior officers to come up with a workable plan. He didn’t need to be concerned with the details. The ability to delegate was one of the hallmarks of a good leader and it had been a feature of Duncan’s reign. He chose reliable people as his subordinates and left them to get on with it.
“Why buy a dog and wag your own tail?” he had been known to say.
“Shouldn’t that be, why buy a dog and bark yourself?” Cassandra had once asked him when she was a young girl.
He had shrugged. “Bark, wag your tail, dogs do both. Why do either if you’ve got one?”
“So are we getting a dog?” she had asked eagerly, but he shook his head.
“No. I’ll have to do my own tail wagging for a while,” he said. “Besides, if you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.”
That night, Cassandra had gone to bed a confused little girl.
The five friends sat in Gilan’s tower office, a big pot of coffee on the table between them. Once cups had been poured and generous quantities of honey spooned in, they sat back and discussed the best method for Will and Maddie to travel unobtrusively in Gallica.
“You’ll hardly blend in,” Horace observed. “You’re foreigners. People will notice you.”
“I speak Gallican,” Will said.
Halt raised an eyebrow at him. He was fluent in the language himself and had taught Will, so he knew his former apprentice’s shortcomings. “With an appalling Araluen accent,” he pointed out. “Say good morning and they’ll pick you for a foreigner straightaway—before you even get to morning.”
Will shrugged. He knew Halt was right. He’d never managed to get his tongue around the Gallican accent.
“Well, we can’t simply ride around Gallica for no reason,” he said. “We’ll be bound to attract attention that way.”
“Best way to avoid attention is to divert it—attract it to something else,” Gilan observed. There was silence for some ten seconds while they all thought about this.
“You need some sort of reason for traveling,” Cassandra said finally. “Something that distracts people from the fact that you’re not locals.”
“You could pretend to be tinkers,” Horace suggested. They all turned pained gazes upon him. Seeing their expressions, he spread his hands in a question. “What?”
“Why does someone always suggest that?” Gilan said. “Tinkers have a reputation as petty thieves, and that means people watch them closely. They don’t blend in.”
Horace frowned. “But in romance stories and sagas, heroes often disguise themselves as tinkers,” he protested.
“They often fight dragons and fly on magic horses too,” Will told him, and Horace subsided, realizing that what his friend said was true.
“I’m sure not all tinkers are dishonest,” Cassandra put in. “It’s probably just a few bad ones that have given the others a bad reputation.”
“So we could have a sign that says, ‘We’re honest tinkers’?” Will asked. “That should do the trick.”
Cassandra scowled at him and he grinned.
“Whether tinkers are dishonest or not,” Halt said, “they have that reputation, and people tend to be suspicious of them.”
“Besides,” Will continued, “what if someone actually believed us and trusted us and a
sked me to mend a pot with a hole in it? I’d be totally out of my depth.”
“That’s true,” Halt said. “You’re no handyman, are you?” He rubbed his beard thoughtfully. “When you went to Macindaw years ago, you posed as a jongleur. Maybe that would work again.”
Will considered the idea and nodded slowly. He actually had quite a talent for playing the mandola, and he had a pleasant singing voice.
“That might work,” he said. “I think I can remember the tricks of the trade that Berrigan taught me.” Berrigan was a former Ranger who had been forced to retire from the Corps when he lost a leg. He had found a new identity and purpose for himself as a jongleur—a traveling musician—and had carried out several intelligence operations for the Corps in the past.
“Do you still play your lute?” Halt asked.
Will turned an exasperated expression on him.
“It’s a mand—” he began, then seeing that Halt was trying, unsuccessfully, to smother a grin, he simply agreed. “Yes, I do. As a matter of fact, I’ve got it with me,” he said. For years, Halt had been trying to get a rise out of him by pretending he didn’t know the difference between a lute and a mandola. Usually, he succeeded.
But now Will frowned as a thought struck him. “But what about Maddie?” he asked.
Gilan shrugged his shoulders. “Couldn’t she accompany you? I mean, sing along with you?”
“Can she sing?” Halt asked. He didn’t notice that both Cassandra and Horace looked away, avoiding eye contact with him.
Will hesitated. He liked his young apprentice and hated to say anything derogatory about her. “Like a bird,” he said finally.
Halt spread his hands in a satisfied gesture. “Well, there you are.”
But Will continued. “The bird I had in mind was a crow,” he said uncomfortably.
Horace and Cassandra both nodded.
Gilan was unconvinced. “Oh, come on. She can’t be that bad,” he said, but Maddie’s parents turned to him.
The Royal Ranger: The Missing Prince Page 5
