Chapter 4

"We should read one more chapter before going to bed," Alyss suggested. Everybody agreed. "So who wants to read?"

"I'll read!" Cassandra said her hand shooting up immediately, "I want to know what else happens between these two." She glared at Will and Horace.

"All right candidates! This way! And look lively!"

"Like anyone can just look lively on the day there future is going to be decided" Will mumbled. Horace nodded grimly

The speaker or more correctly the shouter was Martin secretary to Baron Arald As his voice echoed around the anteroom, the five wards rose uncertainly from the long wooden benches where they had been seated. Suddenly nervous now that the day had finally arrived, they began to shuffle forward, each one reluctant to be the first through the great ironbound door that Martin now held open for them.

"Come on, come on!" Martin bellowed impatiently

"Good god! What is his problem? Can he not hold his horses?" Cassandra exclaimed. Baron Arald gave her a smile.

"Yes, he is an anxious one isn't he?" He said.

Alyss finally elected to lead the way, as Will had guessed she would. The others followed the willowy blonde girl. Now that someone had decided to lead, the rest of them were content to follow.

Will looked around curiously as he entered the Barons study. He had never been in this part of the castle before. This tower, containing the administrative section and the Baron's private apartments, was seldom visited by those of low rank – such as castle wards. The room was huge. The ceiling seemed to tower above him and the walls were constructed of massive stone blocks, fitted together with only the barest lines of mortar between them. On the eastern wall was a huge window space – open to the elements but with massive wooden shutters that could be closed in the event of bad weather. It was the same window he had seen through last night, he realized. Today, sunlight streamed in and fell on the huge oak table that Baron Arald used as a desk.

Will smiled as he remembered that day.

"I had that desk especially cut for me. It came all the way from Castle Araluen." Baron Arald boasted.

"Come on now! Stand in line, stand in line!" Martin seemed to be enjoying his moment of authority. The group shuffled slowly into line and he studied them, his mouth twisted in disapproval.

"God, that god is really annoying! I'm surprised nobody punched him yet!" Crowley exclaimed!

"Crowley! That is not nice!" Pauline scolded. Crowley hung his head in shame. Halt snickered at him. Crowley glared at him.

"In size place! Taller this end!" He indicated the end where he wanted the tallest of the five to stand. Gradually, the group rearranged itself. Horace, of course, was the tallest. After him, Alyss took her position. Then George, half a head shorter than she and painfully thin. He stood in his usual stoop-shouldered posture. Will and Jenny hesitated.

Horace snickered at Will. Will glared daggers at. If looks could kill, then Horace would have been dead for a while.

Jenny smiled at Will and gestured for him to go before her, even though she was possibly an inch taller that he was. That was typical of Jenny. She knew how Will agonized over the fact that he was the smallest of all the castle wards. As Will moved into the line, Martin's voice stopped him.

"Not you! The girl's next."

All the boys were laughing.

"It isn't nice you know. To laugh at people like that," Jenny said. "Gilan I seem to remember that you're afraid of spiders. Should I laugh at that?"

Gilan paled, but Jenny wasn't finished. "And Horace I remember when we went horseback riding for the first time everybody could get on the horses easily except for you. What about that."

Everybody laughed! Horace blushed.

Jenny shrugged apologetically and moved into the place Martin had indicated. Will took the last place in the line, wishing Martin hadn't made his lack of height so apparent.

"Come on! Smarten up, smarten up! Let's see you at attention there," Martin continued, then broke off as a deep voice interrupted him.

"I don't believe that's totally necessary, Martin."

"Finally we were saved!" Will exclaimed! Jenny giggled.

It was Baron Arald, who had entered, unobserved, by way of a smaller door behind his massive desk. Now it was Martin who brought himself to what he considered to be a position of attention, with his skinny elbows held out at his sides, his heels forced together so that his unmistakably bowed legs were widely separated at his knees, and his head thrown back.

Everybody snickered.

Baron Arald raised his eyes to heaven. Sometimes his secretary's zeal on these occasions could be a little overwhelming. The baron was a big man, broad in shoulder and waist and heavily muscled, as was necessary for a knight of the realm. It was well known, however, that Baron Arald was fond of his food and drink, so his considerable bulk was not totally attribute to muscle.

Baron Arald turned as red as a tomato. Everybody was trying to hold their laughter, unsuccessfully.

"Oh go on! Laugh!" Baron Arald huffed.

He had a short, neatly trimmed black beard that, like his hair, was beginning to show traces of gray that went with his forty- two years.

Baron Arald sighed. He was getting old.

He had a strong jaw, a large nose and dark, piercing eyes under heavy brows. It was a powerful face, but not an unkind one, Will thought. There was a surprising hint of humor in those dark eyes. Will had noted it before, on the occasion when Arald had made his infrequent visits to the ward's quarters to see how their lessons and personal development were progressing

"You were always kind, my lord." Alyss told him, smiling. The Baron smiled back.

"Sir!" Martin said at top volume, causing the Baron to wince slightly. "The candidates are assembled!"

"I can see that," Baron Arald replied patiently. "Perhaps you might be good enough to ask the Craftmasters to step in as well?"

"Sir!" Martin responded, making an attempt to click his heels together. As he was wearing shoes of soft, pliable leather, the attempt was doomed to failure. He marched toward the main door of the study, all elbows and knees. Will was reminded of a rooster. As Martin laid his hand on the door handle, the Baron stopped him once more.

"You have an unimaginable amount of patience keeping up with that man. If I were you, my dear Baron, I would have thrown him in a moat." Halt said quietly.

Pauline patted her husband's arm. "Yes dear, we all know what you would do."

"Martin?" he said softly. As the secretary turned an inquiring look back at him, he continued in the same quite voice, "Ask them. Don't bellow at them. Craftmasters don't like that."

"Yes, sir," said Martin looking somewhat deflated. He opened the door and, making an obvious effort to speak in a lower voice, said, "Craftmasters. The Baron is ready now."

The Craftmasters heads entered the room in no particular order. As a group, they admired and respected one another and so rarely stood on strict ceremonial procedures. Sir Rodney, head of the Battleschool, came first. Tall and broad-shouldered like the Baron, he wrote the standered battledress of chain mail shirt under a white surcoat emblazoned with his own crest, a scarlet wolfs head. He had earned the crest as a young man, fighting the wolf ships of the Skandians sea raiders who constantly harried the kingdoms east coast.

Rodney smiled at the memory. "That was something of a fight. I broke five ribs, my collarbone, and my left wrist and got cuts all over me. I'm quite glad that we are at an agreement with them." He smiled at Will. Will blushed.

He wire a sword belt and sword, of course. No knight would be seen in public without one. He was around the Barons age, with blue eyes and a face that would have been remarkably handsome-

Rodney smiled happily.

If it weren't for the massive broken nose.

He slumped back in his chair, frowning.

He sported an enormous mustache but, unlike the Baron, he had no beard.

Next came Ulf, the Horsemaster, responsible for the care and training of the castle might battle horses. He had keen brown eyes, strong muscular forearms and heavy wrists. He wore a simple leather vest over his woolen shirt and leggings. Tall riding boots of soft leather reached up past his knees.

Lady Pauline followed Ulf. Lim, gray –haired and elegant, she had been considerable beauty in her youth and still had the grace and style to turn men's heads.

Halt turned to her and smiled at her. She returned the smile and grabbed his hand.

Lady Pauline, who had been awarded the title in her own right for her work 9in the foreign policy for the kingdom, was the head of the Diplomatic Service in Redmont. Baron Arald regarded her abilities highly and she was one of his close confidents and advisers. Arald had often said that girls made the best recruits of the Diplomatic Service. They tended to be more subtle than the boys, who gravitated naturally to Battleschool. And while boys constantly looked physical means as the way of solving problems, girls could be depended on to use their wits.

Lady Pauline smiled. "Of course that true. You men would probably stab them with your swords or shoot them with arrows before even listening to the situati9on. Or along the way to deliver the message, you would have lost it somewhere. Aren't I right, my dear?" She smiled at Halt sweetly.

Halt's jaw fell. He didn't want to say no to his wife, but he wanted to stand up for himself as well. He sighed. At least if he agreed with her then she'll let him inside their apartment when they get home. Otherwise else, she would make him spend the night in a tree.

He looked uneasily at her. "Yes," he said, "Whatever you say is correct." She smiled at him.

Alyss spoke up. "Why don't we go sleep and tomorrow we'll finish the chapter. I'm tired."

They all agreed and made their way up too their guest bedrooms.