A/N: I was rereading Ranger's Apprentice Book 1 and I remembered how much I adore the series, especially the first arc. The Burning Bridge is my favorite book, especially with that masterful cliffhanger! Beautiful. I hate Royal Ranger. I love Maddie, and what happened, and the book itself, but Alyss should not be dead. And Will doesn't have any kids! Aargh. I'm in denial, and it's been two years. I'll probably write an AU for that eventually. Grr. Anyway, I got this idea from The Tournament at Gorlan. Remember how Morgarath wanted Halt to work for him? What's better than to… Well, spoilers! You'll just have to find out!
A Wargal yanked Will from the rock where he had been hiding with Evanlyn. Morgarath and Erak turned to the struggling boy, the dark lord looking angry. Another Wargal held Evanlyn by her arm. Desperately hoping that Evanlyn could survive, Will managed to elbow his Wargal in the neck, and when he was dropped, he ran at the brute holding Evanlyn captive and started attacking him. The Wargal's lapse of concentration caused him to drop Evanlyn, and Will yelled at her while ducking under the beast's punches. "Run! Get to Halt! RUN!"
Evanlyn paused, then started running, recognizing that there was nothing she could do to help Will. She was ignored as the Wargal's primitive consciousnesses saw Will as the much more immediate threat and tried to catch the small and wily boy. Evanlyn was gone in an instant.
The two Wargals managed to subdue Will a few seconds later, and Morgarath was clearly furious. He spun his horse to face Erak. "What," he hissed, "Is this?" Erak saw there was no use lying.
"These are the two who burned the bridge. We were planning on taking them as slaves, and didn't want to tell you because you wouldn't have let us keep them."
Morgarath's attention caught on a glint near the boy's collar. He dismounted and strode towards Will, his arm snaking out and grabbing Will's bronze oakleaf necklace. "This is a Ranger Apprentice. And he was telling the girl to go to Halt…" The renegade knight's eyes lit up with savage glee. "You're Halt's new apprentice, the one who killed one of my Kalkara! My spies have told me about you. Will, isn't it? Men! Ignore the girl! We have a much better prize. Escort him to the castle! If the boy escapes, I'll kill all of you! And kill the traitorous Skandians!"
-ooh. Notice Will is being taken to the castle, not the battlefield-
A horseman carried Evanlyn, no, Cassandra, to the tent that flew her father's standard. Cassandra had spent the last three days sneaking past oblivious Wargals until she had found a navigable goat trail. From there, she had kept traveling along the Mountains of Rain and Night until she came across a scout. He had been on high alert because word had spread that the princess was missing, and could be dead, after Gilan had come back with Horace.
The scout thundered into the King's pavilion and King Duncan looked up, worry lines creasing his face. "What is the meaning of thi- Cassandra?!" Cassandra jumped down and ran to her father, hugging him while tears ran down her face.
Halt had been beside the King, and as soon as he saw Cassandra he looked around, desperately hoping to see his young apprentice. When he couldn't find Will he felt a cold stone hand of foreboding close over his heart. He turned to his King and Princess. "Excuse me, your majesty, but… where is Will?"
Cassandra seemed to sob harder. "W-when we were captured by Skandians, they wanted to take us to Skandia instead of delivering us to Morgarath, so they told him we were dead and were trying to sneak us to their ship. Unfortunately some Wargals caught us, a-and Will fought the Wargals and yelled at me to run and find you, Halt. They had already grabbed him, so I had no choice but to run… I'm sorry!" The poor girl burst into tears all over again while her father rocked her. Halt didn't blame Princess Cassandra at all. As a matter of fact, he thought she was extremely brave.
"No, you did the right thing, if Morgarath had recognized you the results could have been disastrous. But… Is Will dead?" When the shaking Princess shook her head no, he let out a sigh of relief. He had no more time to ponder what horrors may be befalling the boy he thought of as his son as a bugle sounded.
The battle had begun.
-The battle will go basically the same way it did in the books-
Will had been dragged the opposite way Evanlyn had gone. The Wargals ruthlessly pulled the chains they had fastened to Will's thin wrists mercilessly, back handing him if they thought he was lagging. It took a long, hard four days to reach Morgarath's castle and by the end Will was almost relieved to see the tall, craggy spires of the Castle of Rain and Night.
Almost. Will was immediately taken to a high tower room that had cold stone floors and no furniture whatsoever. The chains attached to his wrists were fastened to a large D ring and Will was left huddled in a bare corner of the square tower room, gazing numbly out of one of the four barred windows.
Will could only hope that his mentor was coming for him.
-Halt's gonna go on a warpath.-
The battle had gone well, the Skandians had been defeated and the cavalry had executed the hammerblows perfectly. Morgarath had just called a truce, and Halt could tell from his evil smirk that he had one more card to play.
Morgarath's stark white horse halted, and the dark lord himself stepped down. "Hello King Duncan, Halt, Lords." The exiled lord managed to sound supremely unconcerned and condescending.
King Duncan cleared his throat. "Morgarath, while we believe you have forfeited your rights as a knight, I have decided to negotiate with you."
Morgarath smiled, looking smug. "Oh, I'm not negotiating. My troops are retreating at this very moment. I simply wanted to deliver a… Message to Halt." Halt gripped his bow tightly, looking like he wanted nothing more than to shoot Morgarath.
The black knight seemed to realize exactly how angry Halt was, and reveled in it. "I hope you said your goodbyes, Halt, because you're never seeing your whelp again." In an instant, Halt had an arrow pulled back and aimed at Morgarath's throat. The exiled baron looked beside himself with glee. "Oh, calm down. I haven't killed him… Yet. If you kill me, the Wargals have instructions to kill the boy." The Wargals had no such instructions, but Halt didn't know that.
The legendary ranger slowly eased the tension on his bow. "Let him go, Morgarath."
The Wargals were nearly back into the valley by now, but the King and his advisers' attention was squarely on the man in front of them. Morgarath looked triumphant. He had lost the war, but had his revenge. "Oh, I don't think so. Do you remember when I asked you to work for me, Halt? You refused and disrespected my offer. Your apprentice is highly talented, quite possibly more talented than you were at that age. Besides, my spies report that young Will was the one who killed my second Kalkara and burned my bridge. Who better to be my new assassin than the boy who ruined my war, the apprentice of my hated enemy? I'll enjoy breaking the boy."
By now, Halt was being held back by Crowley, with the Corps Commandant whispering in Halt's ear how if Halt killed Morgarath, Will would die. Halt looked downright murderous. "If you so much as touch Will, I'll…"
"You'll what?" Morgarath was sneering at Halt now. "You can't do anything! Actually, I will let you see the boy- when I send him to kill you!"
A/N: Them Cliffies...