Chapter Text
“I got you, Will - I got you!” Horace yelled angrily, whacking the smaller boy a few more times with the curtain rod for good measure. “Now you have to play dead!”
“Hey wait, I can’t lose the fight, I’m the knight,” Will protested.
“I told you,” said Horace, tossing aside the curtain rod in favor of tackling Will to the ground. “You’re - unh - you’re not a knight, you’re just a guard! Let go of my hair! You’re too small to be a knight. Any knight” - a groan as the smaller boy drove a knee into his stomach - “I’m going to get you for that - any knight wouldn’t be bested by a robber.”
“You’re going to hurt him, Horace,” protested Jenny. For a moment she looked as if she might join the fray to pull Horace off Will, but she changed her mind as Will managed to push a foot off a nearby wall for added leverage, successfully flipping the two of them over.
His victory was short-lived, as Horace managed to get a knee in between his chest and Will and throw the smaller boy off. “When the real robbers get here, they’re going to eat you for breakfast,” he scoffed. Before Will could tackle the bigger boy, resuming the fight, Mistress Constance entered, arms full of clothes.
“Will, Horace - no fighting,” she said, her voice heavy with having said it a hundred times. “And I told you children - the robbers aren’t coming here. Rumor has it they’re nearly twenty leagues to the south.”
“Then how come we’re moving to one of the towers?” asked Jenny.
“The Baron wants the ground floors open - just in case the people need to move inside the castle walls for a little while. That’s all,” said Miss Constance. Sighing, she set down the bundle of clothes on a table. “And can someone explain why these were still in the main area? I told you children to put your clothes in these boxes so we can move them.”
“We did,” said Will. “Those are George’s clothes.”
“And where is George?”
“He and Alyss are still helping Martin move his books,” said Jenny.
“Of course they are,” said Miss Constance. “Maybe you lot can pack these up, then, instead of fighting.”
“I wasn’t fighting!” Jenny protested.
“Fine, then you can run up and see how much longer the other two will be,” said Miss Constance. “Horace, Will, when you’re finished, you can start moving the boxes up to the new quarters. Then all of you come down here and help me get this place swept out.”
~oOo~
“I don’t see how this is fair,” Will complained, trying to close a box lid over three sweaters too many. “You were the one who started it - and besides, I was the first one to get my clothes packed up.”
Horace glanced over, in the middle of trying to pick up three boxes at once. “That’s because you hardly have any clothes, Will No-Name,” he said. Will was glad his back was turned - he didn’t dare let Horace know just how much that barb hurt - but luckily, Horace’s stack of boxes toppling over and bursting open distracted him before he could continue his verbal attack.
“Now look what you did, you clumsy oaf!” said Will. “Now we’ve got to pack those all up again - and don’t forget we still have to carry them up, and there’s extra sweeping and cleaning to do after that! At this rate we’ll be lucky if we get a chance to breathe before noon tomorrow.”
“I wouldn’t have dropped them if you hadn’t distracted me,” Horace groused, scooping clothes haphazardly back into the boxes. “But you’re right. I don’t understand why robbers coming to town has to be so much work. I thought it was going to be exciting.”
Will’s mind had already wandered far from boxes of clothes. “What if all the grown-ups are wrong, and the robbers actually do come here?” he asked. “What if they attack Wensley Village? The garrison’s almost empty - they might even make it inside the castle. What if we get to see them? I’ve never seen a real robber before.”
“And you won’t, either,” said Horace. “If the robbers get close enough for you to see them, you’ll be dead before you get a good look. They’ll have swords, you know.”
“I didn’t say I would fight them,” said Will. “I just want to see them. It could happen, you know. Maybe they really are coming here, and that’s why the Baron is getting ready.”
“Miss Constance and Mistress Aggie said they weren’t,” Horace pointed out.
“That could just be because they don’t want us to worry,” said Will.
“Worry? Who’s worried? I think it’d be fun to see robbers. I’d show them a thing or two,” said Horace.
“Fat lot of showing them you’ll be doing up in the second tower with everyone else,” said Will.
Horace grunted, seeming frustrated. “Well then,” he said, “what if we weren’t in the Ward? What if we were in the forest, or the village, or - or wherever the robbers were?”
“What - sneak out?” Will asked. “Do you know how much trouble we’d be in?”
“Come on, Will - it’s better than staying here and toting around boxes of clothes. Or sweeping. ”
“It won’t even be an hour before they realize we’re gone,” said Will. “And that’s not even considering the robbers.”
“Figures you’d say that,” Horace retorted. “You’re just a coward who’s afraid of getting into trouble.”
“Not wanting to get into trouble isn’t the same thing as being a coward,” said Will, face reddening.
“Whatever you say,” said Horace. “First chance I get, I’m going to get out and see those robbers - you can stay here and sweep with the others if you want. I heard rumors that Master Chubb needs help in the storerooms.”
Will gulped. The faint possibility of meeting a robber paled in comparison to the notoriously bad-tempered kitchen master - and his ladle.
Five minutes later found two ten-year-old boys in the courtyard of Castle Redmont, arguing.
“It’s all right,” Horace insisted. “If anyone asks, we’ll just say that we’re going out for firewood.”
“You mean lie to the guards?”
“It’s not a lie if we actually bring back some firewood.”
“Yeah, but then we’ll actually have to bring firewood,” Will hissed.
Horace’s retort was halted before it could begin, by Will pulling him out of sight into an alcove in the wall. Together, they watched as a supply wagon, having just delivered its load to the castle kitchens, began rolling back towards the castle gates.
Exchanging a glance, the two boys each saw the same idea enter the other’s head. Without a word, they crept from their hiding place and fell into step beside the cart, out of sight from the guards as they waved it through the gates.
~oOo~
Gilan had been looking forward to a nice, long stretch at the cabin he and Halt shared. After being on the road with Halt for three weeks, chasing down a kidnapping case, scrubbing pots and having Halt criticize his shooting didn’t sound so bad.
He should have known better.
They hadn’t even arrived back in Redmont yet - they had just set out from a neighboring village - when a messenger had come galloping to meet them, bearing urgent news from Baron Arald.
Gilan looked over Halt’s shoulder - not a difficult task, since at fifteen Gilan was already a few inches taller than his mentor - as the Ranger studied the various reports and compared them against his maps. Reading quickly, he did his best to assess the situation for himself, knowing Halt would want to discuss it.
“What do you think?” Halt asked.
“This Tanner character, he and his band have been terrorizing one small village after another. Based on some rumors, scouts think Sedgefield is their next target.” He paused to analyze the location on the map. “Sedgefield isn’t far - we might be able to make it there before they do. And Baron Arald’s sent a good portion of the garrison there to help us.”
Halt’s brow furrowed as he looked from the report to the map. “There’s something strange here,” he murmured. Slowly, he settled down on the grass and spread the papers out before him, eyes darting back and forth between them. Comparing, calculating, coming to a decision. Finally, he spoke. “The scouts are likely wrong.”
Gilan frowned. “Why? Sedgefield certainly seems like a reasonable target.” At Halt’s questioning glance, Gilan knew his mentor expected some explanation of his reasoning. “It’s... small, like the other villages the bandits have attacked,” he began, “which means there’s less chance the villagers will be able to defend themselves without help.”
Halt nodded. “That’s the same reasoning Baron Arald has followed. But I can see two problems with it. First, most of the other small villages these men have attacked have had something in common: a jeweler’s shop, or a goldsmith, or even an uncommonly successful tavern - something to make the village more worth their while than your typical farming or fishing hamlet. Sedgefield doesn’t have any of that.”
Gilan digested this speech, recalling what he knew of the little village from occasions when he and Halt had been there to take care of a problem, and realized that Halt was right. “What’s the second problem?”
“Only this: don’t you find it odd that scouts were able to so easily pick up on rumors of Tanner’s next attack - especially when there’s been no such warning for the last three villages? They swept in with no warning, left few witnesses, and disappeared as quickly as they had come - then attacked the next village, seemingly at random. But with this one - suddenly there are half a dozen people who all happened to overhear where they planned to go next.”
It took Gilan only a moment to see what his mentor was driving at. “You think the robbers let those rumors out on purpose?”
Halt nodded. “I think it’s a distinct possibility. And if so, it’s a frightening one.”
"Yes - but if the attack on Sedgefield is a diversion, where will the real attack fall?" asked Gilan.
"Think through the problem, Gilan. What's the first step in considering why your enemy made a certain move?"
"How he stands to gain," Gilan responded promptly. His brow furrowed, and he turned back to the crude map. "By causing a diversion at Sedgefield... he's gotten Baron Arald to send out most of the garrison.” Gilan’s eyes widened. “Which means... that Wensley itself is now vulnerable."
"Exactly," said Halt. "And that's where we have to look for our friend Tanner next, I'll wager."
"We have to warn the Baron!" Gilan exclaimed, moving to mount Blaze.
"We can warn him, but it won’t do much good," said Halt. "Most of the garrison is already two day's ride away."
"Then what can we do?" asked Gilan.
Halt tapped the paper thoughtfully against his chin. "I was thinking it would be more efficient if we stopped them ourselves."
“Just the two of us?” Gilan asked, incredulous. “How are we supposed to take on an entire band of robbers?”
“You know the saying, don’t you?” asked Halt. “One riot...”
“One Ranger, I know. But a band of robbers who have been terrorizing the entire fief is hardly the same thing as a riot.”
“Just as well we’ve got two Rangers, then.”
~oOo~