Chapter 9

"There's no point in stretching out the inevitable."

Will's hands were trembling. His shoulders shook. The world reddened in front of his eyes- red trees; red people; red as a passionate rose; red as the freshest of blood. Anger rose within him, not searing, burning anger, no. This was a cold feeling, cold and red and chilling.

"What kind of a healer will sit back and let a patient die!" Will's voice rose in crescendo until the very last word, that split the forest and plummeted to silence when no one responded.

He didn't care what anyone else was doing. Perhaps Lillian was glancing around, nervous at the volume. Perhaps Sirisa was scoffing at the other girl's reaction. Will didn't care, not at all. He would not look away from the dead eyes of Antil that faced him. Dead, hopeless eyes.

"Answer me!" Will demanded. Halt stirred at the loud noise, muttering something indefinable. Will glanced back at him, anxious, his anger growing.

"I don't care if it is helpless, you will treat Halt's wound!" the young ranger yelled. Antil shook his head. "You will! You will!"

"Calm down," Ruch tried to sooth him, reaching a hand to his shoulder. Will shook him off. He leapt to his feet and seized the healer by his collar. Antil's eyes widened in surprise, the first real emotion he had shown.

"I won't stand for this!" Will snapped. "I'll make you treat him! I bet you know healing plants around here somewhere that would help him!" He glanced around the forest, eyes wild, maddened.

"Maybe I do," Antil muttered. Will turned back to him. Their faces were close together; there was no one else in their little world of hate. Of red ice anger. "But it doesn't matter. We're all going-"

"If you want to die so much, I'll kill you!" Will screamed at him. He was lost and furious, lost in this hazy world of fear. What if Halt really didn't make it? What if he died? There couldn't be a world without the ranger Halt! It was inconceivable! Impossible!

"Will!" Ruch was appalled at the threat.

"What did I tell you," Will heard Sirisa mutter through a haze of fury, "foreigners are all the same. Violent, uncontrollable beasts."

"I swear I'll kill you if you don't help Halt," Will growled, losing his raised volume. "I swear I will."

Antil stared at him. The threat was useless. He'd already resigned himself to death.

"Will, if you kill him, he'll definitely never help," Ruch pointed out. Will shook his head. Frustrated tears blinded his vision, spilling down his cheeks. He choked, coughed, his breath coming in raggid gasps. Antil was no use, dead or alive. If Halt had to die, then so did this pathetic, whiny man.

"He'll never help anyway," Will spat. He tightened his grip around Antil's collar, blood spilling from his injured hand as he applied pressure to the wound.

Antil still just stared at him, not uttering a sound. There was a slight grimance on his face at being held in such a way.

Will hated him. He hated this man. This stupid, horrid healer who was going to sit back and watch them all die. Hated him! He kept one hand secure on the collar as the other bunched into a fist, ready to pummel this man and make him pay for sentencing Halt to death and-

"Stop Will."

He froze. His hand relaxed at his side and he thrust the useless healer away from him. Lillian had tears in her eyes, Sirisa was staring at him in disgust, Ruch appeared disappointed and Antil lay on the ground, still silent. And Halt had his eyes open, one hand resting on his stomache, a look of stern disapproval on his face and, though weak, he had been the one to speak.

"Halt," Will whispered, the tears still streaming down his cheeks. He wiped them away, suddenly embarrassed at his weakness. Impulsively, he hurried to sit beside his mentor. "How are you feeling? You're going to be fine, you know, absolutely fine."

"'Course I am," Halt murmured, his voice little more than a whisper. "So there's no need to bully that Oramine man."

"But Halt, he's a healer!" Will protested. "He could help you."

Halt tried to rise, failed, then gave up. "Don't need a healer poking around me. Just need something to drink."

"Of course!" Will held out the canteen and let drops fall into his mentor's mouth.

"Mhm, Will?" His eyelids fluttered shut. "Lost a lot of blood, I think. You got t' be strong. Right up til the end."

"What are you saying?" Will stared at him in horror.

"No beating up your allies," Halt mumbled. "Not good for moral...and no crying either...not yet. And no mater what happens to me, you survive and you escort Lillian home. That's our mission. No forgetting it."

"Halt? Are trying to say you think you'll...? No, you won't!" Will shook his head, over and over, denying the possibility. He tore a strip off his ranger cloak to use as a fresh bandage. The wound wasn't looking good, the flesh was swollen and crusted with blood. He cleaned it by dribbling water over it and Halt muttered something about it being cold. That was the last thing he said that day; he fell asleep. Will couldn't help the fresh tears that spilled down his face. He wasn't experienced with bad wounds, but he could see that this one was infected. And he knew that was very bad.

He crouched beside his mentor. There was no energy left in him to try and persuade Antil. Behind him, he heard Ruch trying on his behalf.

"Look Antil, please help?" the oldest member of their party pleaded. "You could be the only one who can save the ranger's life."

And Antil's reply- no.

"Please Antil?" Lillian put in.

And Antil's reply again- no.

Hopeless, Will thought. Just hopeless. Then he shook the thought off. That was the sort of thing Antil would say, and he didn't want to have any similarities to that despicable man.

"That ranger is a foreigner anyway," Sirisa said, tossing her head contemptously. "I suppose it doesn't matter if he lives or dies."

Will looked up at her, his usually warm eyes burning. But he would not lose his temper again, Halt wouldn't want that.

"Back in Araluen, I have many friends," he said, speaking low and carefully. "Horace, Alyss, Cassandra, Jenny, Gilan, George, Crowley, Sir Rodney, Baron Arald, and those are only some. But what every single one of them has in common is that they would never give up. They will fight until the death to protect the ones they love."

Sirisa blinked at him, unsure where this was coming from.

"And not only that, they have fought to protect other countries, like the battle of Skandia. How can you say your intreverted country is honourable? How can you say that foreigners are worth nothing? Have you ever put your life on the line to protect someone? Is there anyone in this world you would die for? Because, I, worthless foreigner that I am, have many of those people."

Sirisa dropped her gaze. She didn't respond. There was nothing for her to say, she had no family, or lover, and few friends.

"I also have people like that." It was Antil who had spoken, his usually emotionless face wracked with grief. "Or I did."

Will turned to him in surprise. He remained silent, hoping the healer would open up more. Instead, Ruch decided to continue.

"Your wife and your son, right?" he guessed. Antil nodded, his face closing up again. Ruch smiled at him. "They are well, you know. I've seen them. Your wife is a beautiful woman and your son a fine young man."

"She is beautiful," Antil murmured. "But she is lost to me. I have not seen her since I was accused. Not for a whole year."

And that was why, Will realised, he didn't care if he died. There was an opportunity here that he couldn't let pass, he had to play his cards right. Maybe Antil had it tough, but that was no reason to give in so easily.

"When I get home, I'm going to propose to the woman I love," Will said. A smile crossed his face at the thought of her. His anger had faded away. "As a ranger, I'm often apart from her, but I know I'll always get to see her again. Even now, I know I'll make it back. And if you work with me, have a little faith and a little hope, I promise I'll reunite you with your family."

Antil smiled, and the ghost of the man he might have once been crossed his face. But it faded again.

"I spent a whole year in that prison, you know," he said. "A whole year while they sentenced me."

"It was a long trial," Ruch agreed. "It was controversal."

"What happened, anyway?" Sirisa asked. "I heard about your sentence, but I never found out what it was for." She'd never cared. She was always self absorbed.

Antil would not answer, so Ruch took on the explaining himself.

"Lord Daan's mistress fell ill. You remember, Lady Maeira?"

"I remember her death," Sirisa said. Will and Lillian kept quiet, they were both content to listen to the Oramine.

"Well, Lord Daan got Antil to see to Lady Maeira. It was kept a secret from the general public, because Daan's affairs with the woman was not something he wanted to share- since he was also dating Lady Petutia, Lady Erredella, and Lady Marree at the same time."

"How do you know?" Sirisa intterupted. Ruch shrugged.

"I've always been well aquainted with the nobles, they share things with me, and I was involved in the court case. Anyway, he got Antil to see to her. But things went wrong and Maeira had a bad reaction to the medicine. She died."

"I assume Lord Daan didn't take kindly to this," Will put in.

"No, he overeated in the extreme," Ruch said. "He'd been very fond of the woman. He sentenced Antil to the Wild. But it took a whole year to send him there, because he needed sufficient witnesses, and the transport and everything, all the while keeping the whole affair as secret as possible. When he made his statement of sentence, he said simply that Antil was a traitor."

"And that is why I might as well die here," Antil said bleakly. "It is too late for me to return home."

Will's eyebrows drew together. "That's not a reason," he said. "I don't care what happened, we can sneak out your family and you can live in Araluen. There's always a way to make things work."

Antil shook his head. "I still will not help your friend."

"He's not just my friend," Will said. "He's also my father. That's why I'll fight to get him all the help he deserves. At least give me a reason you won't help him. And 'we're all going to die anyway' isn't good enough." If he had a substantial reason, Will might be able to address that reason and persuade him to help.

Antil sighed. He stared at his hands. "I told myself when Maeira died and I was sentenced for it, I would not heal anyone again."

"Then you are a coward and a fool," Will told him. Ruch was appalled.

"Will, that's not helping," he hissed but the young ranger waved off his protest.

"If you would give up that easily, then you were never a good healer to begin with," Will said. "If a soldier gives up when he breaks an arm, he is the worst soldier. If a cook gives up because one person doesn't like his dish, he is the worst cook. If a healer gives up because one person dies, he is the most pathetic, foolish, cowardly healer I have ever seen. I don't know your wife, but the girls I know back in Araluen would skin me alive if I dared give up so easily!"

Antil stared at him. He glanced down at his hands, glanced up again.

"My wife would kill me," he said, followed by a sigh, "I've cause her such pain."

"If she's anything like Alyss, Pauline or Cassandra, she'll forgive you if you return to her in one piece," Will told him, with a grin in place.

There was silence for a moment, then Antil stood up and strode purposefully over to the injured ranger.

"I'd better get to work then," he said.