Angie had a brief shouting match with the occupants of the hidden camp before returning to the ground, grumbling as she ran her fingers through her hair and straightened her tunic. Will watched the trapdoor Angie had been attempting to enter, waiting to see if someone was coming down. Several minutes passed before the door opened and a rope ladder fell through it.
"They said they were coming," Angie answered the unasked question when Will turned to her.
"How many?"
"I talked to two of them," Angie stared at the ladder, waiting for the people she had talked with to descend. "They said they were coming," she repeated when Will opened his mouth to ask another question.
Several minutes later someone started down the ladder, a young boy by their appearance. He had a crossbow strapped across his back, a knife on his hip and a brilliant blue band wrapped around the length of his forearm overtop of a dingy tunic. He jumped from the ladder a meter off the ground, pulling his crossbow around while glaring at the four of them.
"We agreed to talk," Angie spoke calmly, "why not lower the crossbow?"
"Only so long as the lot of you relinquish your weapons too," Will's brows rose in surprise. It was a young girl leveling the crossbow, and he had the feeling she was ever apt at using the weapon.
"Alright," Will unbuckled his belt and dropped it on the ground between him and the girl. The others followed his example, leaving a pile of belts, knives, and swords before the girl. They then took several steps back to separate themselves further.
The girl cast skeptical glances at them before lowering her crossbow; she set in carefully on the ground and pulled her knife from its sheath. With an expert flick of her wrist, the knife was buried to the hilt in the ground three meters to her right. That left only the blue band wrapped around her arm.
Will was about to question it when a second person appeared on the ladder. A boy with dark skin and a red band on his arm joined the girl on the ground. Without a word he removed his knife and lodged it in the ground beside the girl's.
"The bands on your arms," Maddie called, her green eyes narrowing. The bands on their arms were moving.
"They're not weapons," the boy answered.
"I don't trust it," Johnny whispered watching the pair closely. "Who knows what those things are."
"They willingly dropped their weapons," Will spoke in a low, calming voice. He was suspicious of the bands, but he trusted the pair. "What are your names?" he called to them.
"We would prefer not to divulge that information, we talk about what Gavin of Picta stole, nothing else." The boy was clever, he meant to disappear after this. Without a name he would be hard to track down again.
"They're hiding something," Angie whispered quietly, her eyes locked in the writhing bands on the arms of the thieves. "I overheard them talking about lizards going to a menagerie of a nobleman."
"They are thieves," Johnny commented simply. "It would be safe to assume they steal and sell for a profit."
"They're children," Maddie sighed, like that would excuse them from the lives of bandits.
"That doesn't mean much anymore," Will scratched his beard looking at the pair. "The boy's not much younger than Angie and Johnny. He's just as capable of anything they are."
"You're comparing me to a thief?" Johnny turned wide eyes on the elder Ranger. "I thought we had moved past all of that?"
"We did," Angie rolled her eyes with a brief shake of her head. "He's just saying that the boy is more man than child, therefore capable of more than Maddie seems to want to give him credit for."
"Exactly. We should proceed with caution."
"Don't we always?" Maddie grinned at her former mentor. Will heaved a low sigh and raised his eyes to the heavens as if asking for guidance from some higher being.
"Let's try for a little more caution then," he amended turning his attention to the pair standing before them, preparing to speak.
"We're here, now what do you want?" the boy called from where the pair stood at the base of the rope ladder.
"Did you remove the contents of an ornate chest in a tavern on the docks?" Will was slightly distracted by the challenge from the boy. Most people were close-lipped around Rangers, generally preferring not to talk to them except when absolutely necessary. Luckily Maddie was able to quickly respond to the question.
"Hard to say," the girl looked up at her partner with a malicious smirk. "There are so many taverns on the docks."
"And so many docks along the coast," the boy added with a great sigh and feigned thought, earning an approving nod from his companion.
"The chest was a meter by a half meter, roughly a meter tall, with red lacquer and gold trim," Will chose to ignore the obvious sarcasm radiating off the pair.
"Sounds familiar," the boy scratched the side of his head, his eyes narrowing as if trying to remember seeing a chest matching Will's description. "Did we see one of those anywhere?" he turned to the girl.
"Gavin's goons had one," the girl's feigned concentration vanished behind a broad grin. "I saw them haul it off Discord a few days ago, took it to, oh where did they put it?" the false distress was all too obvious, these two were playing with them.
"Probably the Grey Mire," the other responded slowly, his head nodding as if agreeing with himself on the answer. "That is the most fortified fortress Gavin has besides Discord."
"The Grey Mire?" Angie raised her brow looking at the pair. "That's not even on the docks."
The girl scoffed, looking down her nose at the Task Force, a feat Angie was impressed by. "Not from 'round here are you? Everyone in these parts knows Grey Mire is anything owned by Gavin and his crew."
"Meaning the whole Port," the boy folded his arms, the band moved to his upper arm, undisturbed by the gesture.
Will focused his attention on that. What did the pair have the moved around their arms? As he watched them, he noticed the girl's eyes continuously dropped to the blue band circling her forearm—but he would not have noticed the movement if he had not been watching closely. It seemed she did not approve of the band, which meant it had been forced upon her.
The boy was more controlled; he managed not to look at his red band. But Will could read the silent struggle on his face, mingling with anger at the Task Force for intruding. Will knew his Task Force had crossed into this boy's territory, that was why they had been shot at, and this boy was going to protect his home.
"We only seek the contents of the chest. If you have it, give to us and we'll leave you in peace."
"And tell everyone you meet where we are," the girl's scowl was the most intimidating expression Will had seen on a child. "Not likely."
"We will tell no one, on our honor as servants of the Queen," Will placed his hand over his heart speaking of his honor. Whatever reason these children had to been hidden away in the trees was their own concern, Will sought the chest and its contents only. And he would not hand children over to Gavin of Picta.
The girl scoffed again, her arms folding across her chest. The blue band writhed, encompassing both of her narrow arms. "Can't trust the word of black magicians," Will heard her mutter to her companion.
"It seems to be the only option," the boy muttered back, turning his head toward the tree behind them. Was that a signal to another partner? How many more were in the trees above them?
"We could keep them," he heard the girl mutter, the rest of her statement lost in the rustling of the wilting leaves surrounding them.
"Can't afford it," the boy shook his head at the girl. Will's brow rose in curiosity. What could have been in the chest? And what ridiculous price were these thieves going to demand for it?
"We could manage," the girl looked pleadingly at the boy, apparently unaware that her conversation was being overheard. "We've always managed before."
"I don't think we can this time."
"You know what would happen to them."
"We don't have another choice."
"There is always another choice," the girl snapped, sending the boy back a small step. "And just giving in is cowardice."
"I like her," Maddie lowered her head to hide the smile spreading across her face. "She's more attitude than I did at that age."
"Heaven help that boy when she's older," Angie muttered in response, earning an appraising smile from Will.
"Perhaps we could help," Will called to the pair, hoping to move the process along and stop their argument.
The girl turned her glare on the Task Force, about to offer a snappy retort when her companion beat her to the point. "You can have them, if you can get them."
He held his arm with the red band out toward the Task Force. The girl's mouth fell open, as she turned wide shocked eyes on the boy. Maddie took a tentative step forward, drawn in by the cryptic challenge the boy offered.
"Will," she motioned her former mentor to her side. "Whatever Mum sent for is alive."
She pointed at the bands on the children's arms, which were living, breathing reptiles clinging tightly to the respective arms of the children.