Chapter 20

As Clarke approached the dock with Torben and Sten he could see Jeremy waiting with his son. The boy was going from one foot to the other in his excitement. His idea might give the island a little hope or at least a little surprise for the enemy. Though his excitement was for another reason, he was going to set foot on a wolfship. Not many free Araluens had done that. His father glanced over at him then put his hand on his shoulder steading him a little bit. "Hello again Jeremy, this is your son?" Clarke began. "These are the skirls of the ships Torben and Sten."

"This is Taylor and he is my oldest son. Say hello Taylor."

Taylor mumbled a quick "Hello" and Jeremy said "Louder boy. Don't be shy, there here to see you and hear your idea."

Taylor nodded to his dad then said clearly "Hello Sirs." Then stepped forward and held out his hand. Both skirls shook his hand in turn, careful not to crush his little hand, but noticing he had a firm handshake.

Sten then said "Lets climb on the Wolfsrage and you can tell us your idea. We can sit on the rower's benches." So the four men and the boy climbed aboard and when they had sat Clarke asked "So what is your idea?"

Taylor took a quick look about the ship judging its length and beam and then began "There is a cave on the north end of the island that's inner depth is only exposed at low tide. I believed the two ships could both fit inside and be out of view to anyone passing by. Though one thing I hadn't accounted for was your masts, the ships would be too tall to fit in the opening. Sorry."

"You know funny thing about these masts is they can be removed easily enough. I believe either of our crews could have the masts down and stowed in a half a hour." replied Torben.

"Would you be able to do that in the dark and with little noise?" asked Clarke. "And would they be able to get in the cave in the dark?" he asked Taylor.

Sten replied "Why in the dark? Oh right don't want the enemy to know what we're doing. If they saw us taking down the masts they would know we didn't leave. You know I'm almost getting used to this thinking things through before just leaping in. But yes we can demast the ship in the dark. We've done it at sea before."

"We're in trouble now. You're turning Sten into a thinker." Joked Torben.

All the men turned to Taylor waiting for his response. Taylor got up and walked from beam to beam at the widest point of the deck. When he returned to the benches he asked "How much water do they draw?"

"As they sit now just over a meter. If we were to store the mast and sails on shore it would be a bit less than a meter."

"You should be good then. At low tide the bottom there is about a meter and a half but varies as the sand shifts. Width wise you will have about a meter to each side as you enter the cave. It opens up, after three to four meters in, to be wide enough to use your oars. There is room on each side of the opening to place a ship with it being hidden from view. On both sides there is a sand beach about three meters deep at high tide. It's obviously dark in there but any light you use will show out the entrance, so I'm not sure about how to get you where you need to be and tied off. So that is my idea, I can show you the cave but the next low tide isn't till after dark now so you won't be able to see much."

Torben looked at Sten and said "What do you think?"

"I have one question. How do we get out of the cave once our ships are in there?" Asked Sten.

"We'll have to tow a small row boat behind us and only take enough crew to get us in there." replied Torben.

"You may not be able to row out while the tide is coming in as the current is fairly strong through the cave mouth. You might need to have a way to pull the row boat out from outside." Said Taylor.

"If we drop an anchor fifty meters out we should be able to use that to pull us out. We just need to have a float on the line so we don't lose our anchor. Once everything is finished we can go back in at low tide and get our ships out before the tide starts coming in."

"Ok, Jeremy, I'll leave you and Taylor with these fine men to discuss the details. I think this time we can forget about port fees and docking charges and let you stay in our cave for free." Clarke said with a grin. "I have a few other things to take care of so I'll be on my way."

"You know Ranger if we didn't really enjoy a good fight this would be too much work and then to pay for the privilege to hide in your deep dark hole in the ground might just have been too much. But we do so enjoy a fight, don't we." Sten returned, "We'll see you around then Ranger."

Clarke jumped to the dock and waved a farewell.

Andross crouched in the shadows wrapped in his cloak, he was waiting for someone who seemed important to the enemy. He had decided one shot then fade away to return again later, two shots at most if it would cause enough havoc. Several small patrols passed by, one of them close enough he could have spit and hit them but they had no clue he was there. There was a bit of commotion at the camp so he was hoping something had happened that would draw out one of the leaders. Several men he could see had mounted horses and were waiting for either orders or someone to join them. He waited. He was patient, all Rangers learned to be patient, but he knew it wouldn't last long. He could hear Kara's voice urging him to act in her behalf. 'Vengeance' it said over and over I his mind, vengeance it would get, soon.

A few minutes later a man in reddish armor mounted and joined those waiting. They turned and rode up the beach toward him. From his crouch he drew back on his bow. He had a heavy arrow with a sharpened steel point waiting on the string. He felt his thumb touch the edge of his lip and he held it there for the count of three then released. He heard a clunk as the arrow hit just off center of the armored man's chest. The horse rode on with the man sitting straight in the saddle for twenty meters before he slowly slid out of his saddle and fell to the ground with a great crash of armor, his helmet rolling two meters beyond where the body stopped. Those riding with him looked around trying to see who had taken the shot but Andross was already gone. The patrols went everywhere looking for whoever took the shot. All they found was the number one scraped into the trail one meter off the beach.

Bert was a merchant and was doing well at it. The money he made went to support his wife and three daughters. Even though their family lived in a small farm house it was well cared for and so were his animals and that was because of his oldest. She was the son he had wanted in every way except by nature itself. Melody was the most organized person he had ever met and was as soon as she could play. He remembered when she was just under a year she had lined up the few toys she had in a row from largest to smallest and only played with them in that order. When she was older she had tried to line up their animals in the yard in alphabetical order, Chicken, Cow, Goat, Horse, Pig and Sheep. Though that had failed she rearranged their pens so they would be in that order or as close as could be given the limits of their sizes.

Leanne was the middle child and wanted to be part of the royal court so had developed expensive taste. As the most likely not to get what she wanted he felt the need to encourage her dreams, so he brought her expensive fabrics he thought she would like, sometimes at the cost of a couple missed sales. She made those into fabulous dresses that were the envy of many of the local girls and he thought, though he might be slightly prejudiced, would be envied in the king's court too.

His youngest daughter Tanya was something else entirely, she was determined to be the first female Ranger. He didn't think it would be possible for her to be a Ranger but he had brought her a bow and she practiced every day until she was pretty good. There was also a rumour around the fief that the Ranger had a female apprentice but he dismissed the idea as fanciful wishing. Tanya could move through the woods so quietly but at home she was like a bull brought inside for the first time, crashing into everything and breaking that which could be broken. He had never understood how she could be both extremes in one person. It was that more than anything that made him think she had a dream that would never be realized.

He travelled throughout the kingdom for two months at a time then would be home for an equal time. He had been gone for seven weeks and would be back in his home fief of Kingswood after one more stop on the island of Seacliff. He was so looking forward to seeing his family that he had ignored the advice to travel in a group with other merchants and there was also the fact if he showed up alone he would get better prices. He wasn't really concerned about the prices as he didn't have much that would be of interest in Seacliff other than a bolt of sail cloth and some leather hides, they didn't have a tannery on the island as it was too small to avoid the smell one would make. He whistled as he rode atop his cart across the grass plains of Thorntree. He had always wondered why it was called Thorntree fief when Thorntree forest was well to the South. Then again Kingswood while surrounded by forests had some wonderful farmland and the forests that surrounded the fief were not hunted in by the king so pretty much anyone did though they never took a deer.

He had avoided the new road as that would be where bandits would be waiting and he didn't want to run into merchants coming the other way and having the whole being alone thing discussed again. He was almost there and could smell the sea, the salt air seemed to refresh him and the tired horse pulling his cart. He noticed his horse was trying to veer away from the way to Seacliff but he thought he was recognizing the way home. He corrected his horse a few times before he smelled the smoke.

Bert saw the farm house ablaze and pulled closer to see if help was needed and what he saw chilled him to the bone. The farmer and his wife were being held by soldiers as their animals were slaughtered. 'What was going on, this didn't happen in Araluen.' He thought as he continued to ride in that direction. With a slight tug on the reins his horse stopped though it was not happy about standing there. He watched with morbid curiosity as a man in black armor stood before the two farmers, he sat up real straight as the man whipped around and slashed his sword across the man's chest and stopped with it pointed at the woman as she cried out. Bert could hear her screaming and could hear the man screaming at her too. Finally her screams cut off as he thrust his sword into her neck. Bert watched in horror as the man in black armor turned his head toward him and pointed with his sword. Bert slashed the reins across his horse's back end and it took off with fright and Bert steered him away from the burning farm house and towards home. Bert's horse tried valiantly to get the cart and Bert away to safety but the black armor clad man and his men caught up easily. One of his men was a huge man that would tower over anyone he knew and was easily as wide as the biggest Skandian. That man grabbed Bert by the scruff of his neck and tossed him to the ground in front of the armor clad man. Bert noticed that he was the only one clad in armor which to him meant he feared his own men or though it gave him an air of command. As Bert was forced to kneel his cart was stripped of all his wares, when the bolt of sailcloth was removed they all started to chatter at one another like excited chipmunks. One stepped towards him and said in a thick accent "Wha iz this?"

"It's sailcloth." He replied

"Hwhy do youz ave eet?"

"My boy is building a boat so I bought it for him. He wants to sail from port to port and buy and sell things like I used to do?" He lied

"Hwhy doz youz stoppe?"

"My ship was sunk by pirates and I barely survived. I swore I would stay on solid ground from then on." Which was almost the truth though it was his wife that made him stay on solid ground. After each exchange the man translated it into whatever language they were jabbering to each other.

" Youz cell tous Skadians?"

"I never sell to Skandians. They are not trustworthy." He lied again. He enjoyed trading with the Skandians they were fierce in getting the best price and he liked the challenge of bartering with them. If they said a price and you agreed they would pay that price even if another trader asked less afterward. Again the chattering and he remembered where he had heard it many years before, these were Gallicans. What were they doing here?

Black armor man, as he thought of him, approached him and grabbed him by his goatee. He jabbered away as if he expected Bert to understand him suddenly. 'Like grabbing someone's beard taught them a new language' he sneered. Unfortunately for Bert, black armor man saw the sneer in his eyes and, just like a snake, struck Bert with a knife without warning and Bert died thinking that he hoped Tanya became a Ranger and killed this guy.