Ranger's Apprentice: A Twist in Time
Chapter 2: Interrogations
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters involved except Hueven.
"Morgarath took over?" Crowley asked
"Yes…" Hueven said "Did you hit your head when you were out hunting?" he asked
"Hunting?"
"Yes, you should know better than I. The Rangers were replaced by the Shadows, and then they were made into the castle's professional hunters." He explained
Crowley slowly stood up, reaching for the double scabbard at his waist, seeming to have the knife appear in his hand he threw his throwing knife at Hueven, aiming for his shoulder. Hueven produced a sword from under his cloak and deflected the small blade sending it skating across the floor.
"What's gotten into you Crowley?" Hueven shouted
"I'm a member of the Ranger Corps; I will not stand idly by while I am insulted!" Crowley shouted at him
Hueven produced a pair of combat knives from in his cloak. "I don't want to have to fight you Crowley…"
"I believe you should speak to the king." Crowley said as he seemed to calm down.
Hueven slowly slid his knives back into place, letting Crowley lead him to 'king' Duncan. The two arrived and they entered the King's private quarters. Duncan looked up from a stack of papers, Princess Cassandra was similarly engaged.
"You highness, Princess." Crowley said bowing his head to both of them.
"Who have you brought with you Crowley?" Cassandra asked
"Sister, don't you recognize me?" Hueven asked throwing his arms out
"No, I don't recognize you, and I don't believe I'm your sister." Cassandra said
"Who is this Crowley?" Duncan asked
"He says he's Hueven, 42nd Shadow in King Morgarath's Shadow Corps."
"Morgarath? But Horace killed him." Duncan said
"Horace? He was a good kid." Hueven said sadly looking at the floor.
"I think you'd better explain what's happening here… Hueven was it?" Duncan said bridging his fingers together and putting his elbows on the desk.
Hueven nodded and retold the story of how Morgarath had planned a sneak attack on the kingdom of Araluen from the rear via a bridge over the gorge in Celtica, a young Ranger Apprentice, Will, was caught trying to burn the bridge, when Morgarath's troops marched over the battlefield Horace attempted to stop the Evil Lord in 1-on-1 combat. He died in the attempt and Morgarath soon had his troops take over the battlefield. After he won the war he put himself in his seat of power, moving the capital to Gorlan and reasserting his power over all the fiefs using the Wargals as his military occupation forces, and he created the Shadow Corp to keep an eye on things in the cities, to keep revolts from occurring. Hueven was on his way back to Castle Araluen to report about his successful dispatch of a freshly started revolt when he was caught up in a strange storm, when he arrived at the castle, everyone claimed Duncan was King and Morgarath had been killed instead of Horace.
"That is odd…" Duncan said
"Agreed my Lord." Crowley said
"So, Morgarath is dead?" Hueven asked
"Yes, in fact, Horace serves here, in Castle Araluen." Duncan said
"Guards! Fetch Sir Horace please!" Duncan called to the door
"Sir!" The guards shouted through the door before their boots echoed off the stone steps.
The group waited until Horace arrived and Hueven became ecstatic immediately.
"But how is this possible?" he asked
"That's what I'd like to know." Crowley said
"Wait! What about Halt, and is Will ok?" Hueven asked suddenly
"Yes… Will is currently positioned in Seacliff Fief and Halt is positioned at Redmont." Crowley said slowly
Hueven sunk into a chair, a look of peace on his face. "This is it… the legends are true…" he said
"Legends? What legends?" Duncan asked
"Where I come from, that is, the Araluen that I come from. There's a legend from the days of old, that the country would always remain free in some way. This is it!" Hueven shouted happily
The group looked at each other in confusion before turning to Hueven.
"I'm going to set off right now and go find them, Horace you have to come with me! It'll be just like old times." Hueven said smiling as he rose to leave.
"Whoa." Crowley said stopping him "I just can't let you walk out."
"Why not? We have this all figured out. I come from an alternate, yet parallel Araluen. It's as simple as that." He said trying to sneak past Crowley
"That's not simple!" Cassandra shouted
Hueven smiled "You would say that. Crowley, let me go, I just need to see them. That's all; once I'm done there I'll come back and do whatever you need me to."
Crowley thought about it for a moment, this boy seemed trustworthy, a sure sign he didn't deserve to wear the black cloak he had, from his small description of the Shadow Corps, they were similar to the Rangers, gathering information, but in the manner of threats and cutthroats, not in listening and remaining undetected.
Crowley sighed "Fine, but get back here as soon as you can."
Hueven nodded and left the room, followed by Horace.
"Horace." Crowley called after the young knight
"Yes Crowley?" he asked
"Keep an eye on him, and bring him back as soon as he's content with the changes. I have a few more questions for him."
"Understood." Horace said before leaving.
The pair mounted their horses, Kicker and Horace towering hands above Hueven, who seemed a little unnerved by this. They set off toward Castle Redmont, as it was closer than Seacliff.
As the two went down a path in the middle of a wood, Hueven's horse made an indiscreet signal. Horace glanced at it, without moving his head; Hueven noticed the action and nodded slightly.
"Someone's out there." He whispered
Horace waited, and soon a group of bandits presented themselves to the pair, asking them to dismount and hand over their valuables. Hueven smiled to himself as he kicked his stirrups free and leapt from his horse. Seemingly of their own accord two knives appeared in his hands and he landed slicing through one of the bandits, then another, and another, and another. The whole group was lying on the ground, groaning in pain.
"What was that!?" Horace shouted angrily
"What was what?" Hueven asked innocently
"You can't just go around slicing people up!" Horace said
"Whoops…" Hueven said looking down at his bloodied knives
"Whoops! You just killed six men!"
"I didn't kill them; I merely stopped them from robbing us." Hueven said as he re-mounted
Horace sighed "Is this how you're trained in your Araluen? To cut the weaker down before they have a chance to kill you?"
"No, in my Araluen, these men would have been in much larger number, and unless I stated I was a King's Shadow they would've gut us like fish and made off with our valuables. Morgarath doesn't care what happens to the people as long as he's in power." Hueven kneed his horse lightly, the signal to continue.
"What kind of ruler is that?" Horace asked
"The bad kind. The Skandians raid our coastlines, and the barons are always arguing amongst themselves over who has more power than the other."
"Here the barons work together just fine, and the Skandians are our allies." Horace stated
"If only we were so lucky…" Hueven said deeply
In the following days Hueven and Horace grew a mutual respect for each other. Horace showed Hueven a few more skills with the sword and in turn Hueven taught Horace the concept of the double knife style of fighting, a well-kept secret by King's Shadows. Eventually the pair arrived at Redmont and Hueven stopped on a hill to overlook the castle and surrounding village.
"It brings back memories to be here." Hueven said sadly
"What do you mean?"
"When Morgarath attacked I was sent here by my father at a very young age, but it was only a few weeks before Cassandra and I were caught here and returned to our home at Castle Araluen, by that time Morgarath had asserted his power over forty percent of the country, we were powerless to stop him."
"We'd better keep moving if you expect to see Halt before all this is over." Horace said
Hueven nodded and the two began to move toward the village.
"If you don't mind my asking, when did you get recruited to be a Shadow?" Horace asked
Hueven chuckled "That was an interesting experience. After Morgarath took over some of the Ranger's turned on us and became loyal to him. He rearranged the way things worked and the former Rangers who remained loyal to Duncan remained as poachers and professional Yeomen to the barons. The ones who betrayed the kingdom became the first five Shadows. They in turn recruited us much as they would the Ranger's; looking for natural talent in their craft. I was at Castle Gorlan, waiting on my father to finish giving a report to Morgarath when I noticed one of the Shadows was standing in the doorway. I waited, and we stared at each other for a few minutes, my father came out of Morgarath's office and ushered me away, he didn't even see the Shadow standing in the doorway. Later I came to find out this was the lead Shadow. He was the first Ranger to turn on Duncan and became leader of the Shadow Corp. I guess in the ensuing weeks he mentioned the moment between him and me to Morgarath, because he requested my presence in his study about a month later. There he told me I was to become a Shadow and to assume my training immediately."
"And so you became a Shadow?"
"Yes."
The two were now approaching the main gates of Castle Redmont and Horace nodded "What was the training like?"
"It was long, grueling, and most of all, tedious. My master wouldn't settle for anything less than the best, and when I passed my exams with perfect scores, we lost contact. I hated him though, every moment of every day was spent training or doing house work."
"I meant what did he have you do?"
"Oh, well, there was the basic Ranger stuff; bows, knives, tracking, geography-hated that bit-, but eventually when I passed all that I was taught the skills that are unique to Shadows. Sword fighting, interrogation, and espionage."
"And the double knife fighting?"
"And the double knife fighting."
"So, the Shadows are Morgarath's own unique fighting force but they're trained like Rangers?"
"More or less, Shadows have been known to take down a knight or two in one on one combat, and we didn't sit in the back and shoot them with special arrows."
Horace looked at Hueven when he said this, did he know about his and Halt's adventures into Skandia to rescue Will, how could he? In his world He, Horace, had been dead before those events, and he'd claimed Will had been executed when Morgarath had seized control.
They stepped into Baron Arald's office. He looked up at them from his desk with a smile on his face.
"Horace, good to see you. Who's your friend?" Arald asked after shaking Horace's hand.
"This is Hueven." Horace said.
"Hueven, nice to meet you." Arald said, taking his hand and shaking once. Hueven noticed the firmness in his grip.
"What brings you two to Redmont?"
"Routine visit for Halt." Horace said.
"Well, alright then, better get down there. It'll be dark soon and you'll probably want warm beds here in the castle. I'll have my men prepare rooms for you right away."
"Thank you your excellency." Hueven said with a bow from the waist.
The two of them left the Baron's office and arrived at Halt's cabin a few minutes later.
"Alright, remember, this is Halt. I don't know if he's different in your Araluen-"
"Short, wiry, dark eyes, scruffy beard, likes to do things a little 'differently" Hueven said.
"Yes… that sounds like him." Horace said skeptically.
"This should be fun then." Hueven said as they stepped up on Halt's porch and Horace knocked on the door.
Halt answered a minute later, looking out from the doorway he looked at Horace and nodded once. His gaze then stopped at Hueven and they stared into each other's for a minute.
"Who are you?" Halt asked.