Oh my gosh. It feels like forever since I updated! I started a brand new fanfic and got all the way up to chapter six before I realized that I hadn't updated this one yet. Sorry! ^?^
Last chapter, I said there were only going to be a couple more chapters at most. I lied. ^_^ The plot bug has bitten me once more. This story is going to go on for a while longer, though I can't even give a guesstimate of how many more chapters there will be. Heck, I could probably start with this chapter on a sequel, but I don't really feel like it. Anyhoo, here's the story—I hope that this chapter is satisfactory. It wasn't too easy to write. I don't know why.
Disclaimer: I don't own Ranger's Apprentice.
Crowley rode up to Will's cabin from an angle, coming from the side of the house to the porch. He dismounted and walked over to the steps on the side of the porch. He heard a sigh and did a double take. He looked over and saw Will looking morosely at his lute… No, Crowley was pretty sure it wasn't called a lute, but the instrument's name evaded him at the moment. He walked silently up the wooden steps and suppressed a grin as he realized the young Ranger still hadn't heard him.
"Why the long face, Will?" he said casually.
Will jumped a good foot in the air and just about dropped his instrument. He turned to the Commandant. "For goodness sake, Crowley, don't do that! Sneaking up on enemies I can understand, but sneaking up on friends is just plain mean."
Crowley chuckled. "And since when have I ever had any inhibitions about being mean?"
Will had no answer to that.
"Where's Halt, by the way? I need to talk to you two."
Will raised an eyebrow. "Why would he be here? He lives at the castle now."
Crowley sighed. "Great," he grumbled. "Now I've got to ride up to the castle and get him. You know, it was much easier when you two were master and apprentice and just both stayed at the cabin."
Will grinned. "Alright, I guess you better get going to the castle."
Crowley sighed and was about to turn around when he saw an unwelcome glint in the younger Ranger's eyes. "Am I missing something?" he asked warily.
"What? No," Will replied, his eyes completely innocent.
Crowley eyed him distrustfully, then accepted his word and went to go get his horse.
"I'm kidding, Crowley. Halt isn't at the castle right now."
Crowley nearly growled. "Then where is he?"
Will smiled. "Busy." Crowley raised an eyebrow, but Will didn't elaborate. "Want some coffee?" Will asked in an abrupt change of subject, rising from his seat and heading toward the door. The question was a formality; he didn't actually have to ask. Of course a Ranger would want coffee. Crowley followed him inside.
Will and Crowley sat with their empty coffee cups in a comfortable silence. It had been nearly an hour and a half, but Will still hadn't said what Halt was doing. Crowley was about to ask again when there was a knock at the door and someone came in.
Crowley turned, expecting to see Halt, but instead it was a woman he'd never seen. He looked at Will, hoping for an explanation, but Will wasn't looking at him.
"Couldn't you at least wait until I said come in?" Will complained.
Caitlyn grinned. "What, and waste all that time?"
Will frowned. "I'm not that slow."
"Not at drinking coffee," Caitlyn smirked. "Speaking of which, is there any left?" she asked, noting the empty mugs.
Will raised an eyebrow "Think of who's here. Two Rangers. You should know that if the other Rangers are anything like me and Halt, there's never enough coffee to go around. The pot's empty."
Caitlyn checked the coffeepot anyway. Sure enough, there was no coffee in it.
"So, did you explain the whole thing to Pauline?"
"No, Pauline and I decided that Halt should explain," she said with a smirk. "He wasn't very happy about that, but he decided not to risk our wrath."
Will snorted. "Probably a good choice. Where is he now?" Will asked.
Caitlyn looked up. "Oh, he's going back to the castle with Pauline. Why?"
Crowley, who had been watching the conversation, groaned. "I've been waiting for him for an hour and a half."
Caitlyn gave him a look. "Try waiting for a week and a half."
Crowley chuckled and Caitlyn gave him a dark glare.
Will jumped up. "I'll get him before he goes all the way home." He was out the door in a moment and began saddling Tug. Within a few minutes, he was riding through the forest.
Caitlyn raised an eyebrow as she looked out the window at him. Crowley got up and joined her, frowning as he saw Will and Tug disappear behind the trees.
"Where is he headed?" he wondered aloud. Caitlyn shrugged.
There was a pause.
"Do you think he knows he's headed in the wrong direction?" she asked.
"No, probably not," he replied.
Pause.
"Should we try to tell him?"
There was a third pause as Crowley took the time to think. He came to a decision.
"Maybe after some coffee."
It was a good half hour before Will returned with Halt. The older Ranger looked very disgruntled.
"All right, Crowley, what's this about?" he growled.
Crowley looked up at him from where he'd been chatting with Caitlyn over a cup of coffee. He settled back as if for a long explanation. "Well, you see, as you've recently gone to Hibernia, I've been looking at some old official papers of the relations between the six kingdoms and Araluen. We have a treaty with every one of them—or rather, had. Apparently the treaty with Clonmel is now null and void since King Ferris died. From what you've said about the newly crowned King Sean, I believe that I'm right to think that we can get the treaty renewed with him. Are you two up to it?"
Halt gave him a baleful glare. "We just got back, Crowley."
Crowley sighed. "Yes, I realize that, and I'm terribly sorry for pulling you away from whatever so drastically needs your attention."
"It's not that, I…" Halt gave an exasperated sigh. "And that's the downside of this whole 'special task group' thing. You're always the one to go."
Will grinned and clapped his mentor on the shoulder. "You signed up for it, Halt, now you have to live up to your agreements. Crowley, of course we'll go."
"Great," Halt muttered. "We're traipsing off to foreign countries again."
Crowley was about to point out that for Halt, Clonmel wasn't a foreign country when Caitlyn cut in. "I'm going too. I've been planning on going to go see Sean anyways, and I might as well do so with my brother."
"What am I, chopped liver?" Will complained spreading his hands out in an annoyed gesture.
Caitlyn seriously considered the question, scrutinizing him. "You know, I think you might be. I see the resemblance."
Will's hands dropped and his shoulders slumped as he gave her a reproachful look. Crowley attempted to conceal his laughter and failed spectacularly while Halt just grinned slightly.
"It must rub off from master to apprentice," she added, and Halt's grin disappeared to be replaced with a scowl while Will snorted with laughter and Crowley guffawed all the harder.
"Very funny," Halt said sarcastically. "Crowley, is there anything else you need to know or can I get out of here?"
Crowley sighed dramatically. "But it's just so fun to annoy you, Halt, it's so easy." He saw the look on Halt's face and realized that, Commandant or not, he should probably start talking. "Well, you'll be taking Cassandra with you to make the treaty official. Apparently, Duncan still wants to give her a bit of practice in the more controlled situations."
Halt snorted. "Like Arrida?"
"Arrida was a bit of a screw-up, I'll admit, but it turned out perfectly fine, now, didn't it?" Crowley pointed out.
Will rolled his eyes. "Yes, after I shot the headsman that was about to decapitate Halt," he said dryly.
"And after Cassandra turned out to be quite the shot with a sling," Halt muttered.
Caitlyn looked up, eyes wide. "Now that sounds like a story," she said. "Any chance of me hearing it?"
"No," Halt responded automatically at the same time that Crowley said, "Later, if you don't mind."
"Oh. Right, sorry Crowley," she said, but she glared at Halt.
Will smirked. "Halt's just jealous because he got captured and I had to be the hero and go rescue him."
Crowley sighed. "I'd prefer to get some sleep sometime tonight. If we could keep on subject and get this over with…" There was silence, so he continued. "You'll also be accompanied by Horace and fifteen other soldiers as an escort for Cassandra."
"Wait, who's Cassandra?" Caitlyn asked.
Crowley raised an eyebrow, but Will answered. "She's King Duncan's daughter. The Crown Princess."
"That's where I've heard the name before," she said.
"When do we leave?" Halt asked.
"In another week," Crowley answered. Caitlyn groaned. "You're certainly impatient," Crowley observed.
Caitlyn shrugged. "Yep. I don't think it runs in the family though, considering how Halt can be still as a rock and about as intelligent at any given time."
"Caitlyn, I've got a quiver full of arrows and two sharpened knives on me at the moment. I'd suggest quitting the jibes as I have a tendency to launch them at people I deem annoying," Halt growled at her with narrowed eyes.
Caitlyn snorted. "You wouldn't use them on your sister, though."
"Think about why you left Hibernia."
Caitlyn remembered Ferris. "You're nothing like him." She knew that Halt would know who she was talking about.
Halt grinned suddenly. "Finally. I got one compliment out of an ocean of insults."
"Who are you people talking about?" Crowley asked, mystified. He turned toward the younger Ranger. "Do you know?"
Will shifted. "I'm not positive." He was perfectly positive. He just wanted Halt to tell the commandant if he wanted to rather than he, Will, tell of the past that his mentor preferred hidden.
Caitlyn yawned. "Since we seem to be speaking of nothing productive, I'm going to bed."
"Where?" Halt asked.
Caitlyn blinked. She hadn't quite thought about that part yet. "I'll find a room at an inn."
Halt sighed. "No, I'll get you a room at the castle. Or Crowley can, if he's getting one for himself for the night."
Crowley smiled. "Oh, I'll be staying here longer than one night. I'm taking a short vacation from my fief and I figured that since I had to come here anyway, I might as well take a break here."
Will spoke up for the first time in a while. "But don't you have paperwork back at Araluen Fief too?"
Crowley waved a dismissive hand. "And should that mean that I don't ever get to take leave of my duties?" He didn't wait for an answer. "I'll be staying for a couple days."
He, Halt and Caitlyn all stood up. They said their goodnights and left, leaving Will alone in his little cabin once again.
Crowley walked with Caitlyn through the halls of the castle after he had helped to get her a room for the duration of her stay. Their quarters were in the same general area, so Crowley had decided to be a gentleman and escort her.
"Crowley, I already know my way around here," she told him.
He glanced at her curiously. "When did you come inside?"
"Well, I went into Halt's quarters on my first night—"
"Without permission, am I correct?"
She snorted. "I came in through the window. Do you think it was with or without permission?"
Crowley stifled another laugh. Halt's sister was full of surprises. "You climbed up the wall and broke into his room?
"That was how I figured out he was married," she said thoughtfully and Crowley had to pull his cowl further over his head to hide the broad grin on his face from her. "Then he didn't even recognize my seal on the letter I left him."
"You broke into a Ranger's personal quarters to drop of a letter." It wasn't a question, it was a statement of disbelief. Crowley shook his head. "You really are Halt's sister, by state of mind as well as blood. I can definitely see Halt doing that to someone to keep them on their toes."
"Looks like I better watch out, then," she muttered.
"But I don't understand. That would show you nothing but his rooms. How do you know your way around the entire castle if he didn't see you?"
"I got stabbed the night before he left on a mission and got planted in the infirmary while he was gone. I saw both Will and Pauline, but they didn't know who I was."
Crowley stared at her for a moment. "You got stabbed? By who?"
She shrugged nonchalantly. "Just some drunk. I don't know who. I was in an alley after dark—I guess I had it coming."
Crowley stopped walking. Caitlyn turned, confused. He grinned. "So much for knowing your way around." He nodded toward a door to his right. "There's your rooms right there."
She smiled and gave him a mock glare. "You distracted me. I would have found it on my own."
Crowley chuckled. "I'm sure you would have." He opened the door and gestured for her to go inside. She just rolled her eyes.
"I'm perfectly capable of opening a door by myself, Crowley."
He winked. "I walked you all the way here. I might as well hold to the pretense of a gentleman."
"Oh, so a Ranger can't actually be a gentleman?"
"Not unless they're on vacation or in the presence of a lady," he joked. "And both seem to apply to me at the moment."
"Oh, fine," she said, relenting. "I suppose I'll see you around for the next week," she added as she swept through the door with the grace of a lady raised in the court. She was raised as a princess, he reminded himself.
He closed the door behind her, still smiling slightly. And as he walked to his rooms, for some reason he couldn't fathom, he had an unusual spring to his step.
On the other side of the door, Caitlyn leaned against the wall, her eyes closed, the grin on her lips the result of something she'd lost a long time ago—something she never thought she'd have again.
Sorry if the reason for them returning to Hibernia was too cheesy, but I had to find a way to make them go because I really wanted to write Caitlyn meeting up with her son again. I hope you liked the chapter!
I repeat the words of every other author on this website: Review!
-Rydd Rider