I'm BACK!

*IMPORTANT*: I might not update for two-three days. See profile if you're wondering why. *IMPORTANT*

Snip. Snip. Snip. The hair came off without any arguing or resisting. My fingers were shaking as I reached up and felt the new ends. They were spiky, not frayed like the split ends of my braids. I set the saxe knife down and closed my eyes.

"Are you alright?"

My eyelids fluttered open. "Yeah."

The old man shrugged. He'd found me that morning, when he'd come over to my tree and called up to say "if you want coffee, Ranger, you'd better come down". Apparently this guy was an old contact of Halt's. He ran a forgery business, and had helped Halt get into places on numerous occasions.

Once I told Horace and Kory that when I got back home, they'd never let Halt forget it. If I got back home…

One of the cats jumped up into my lap and decided I was a good place for a cat nap and a long bout of shedding. I convinced him otherwise.

"Well, girl, here's your seal." He said, handing me a little box. "Remember, you're a Courier."

"That means act like Alyss!" Rosabel hissed.

I was pretending to be a guy Courier from Southern Gallica. They were looking for a girl escapee, not a member of nobility. Especially not a male member of nobility. And as Halt always says, you see—

Rosabel interrupted. "What you expect to see. We know. Just get on with it."

"Okay. Which way's the castle again?"

Jacque—apparently the name was Gallic, but I personally heard "Jack"—sighed. "You're never going to make it. I'll have to come with you." He said, picking up his cloak.

"What? No! I can't have you along, you're…" I trailed off suddenly.

"Old? I know, girl. Now, we're going to need a fake name for you."

"Adrian. It's best if I go by something I'll answer to."

"If you say so."

But before he could open the door, it flew open. A girl my age was there. She closed the door quickly and leaned against it, breathing heavily.

"Shannon!"

"Heya, Jacque." The new girl said, tossing him something in a small drawstring pouch. "Who's she?" She nodded in my direction.

I straightened, folded my arms, and frowned at her. "I am not a she."

Shannon laughed, unconcerned by the denial. "I'm a friend." She said. "Another agent on an undercover mission, Jacque?"

"She went this way!" Someone yelled outside. I saw a mob of people wearing uniforms go running down the dirt road outside.

"SHANNON!" Jacque thundered.

"What?" She asked innocently, before glancing out the window and seeing a guard guy checking a chicken coop. "Ah, that!"

"Yes, that."

"Well, no time for this now, what's the mission? Never mind, I don't care—I'm in!"

I wanted to bang my head against the wall as the three cats came trotting into the room. It looked like I had my own little team to rescue Gil. And it wasn't exactly the one I'd had back in Araluen: three cats, an old man, and a girl who looked like she hadn't eaten in two years.

X-x-X-x-X

"So we're breaking into the castle to not only free three prisoners who may or may not be dead, but to stop this rebellion and bring peace between Gallica and Araluen?" Shannon asked.

"Yep."

"With you, the cats, me, and Jacque for an army."

"Yep."

"And have you got any ideas?"

"Yep."

Jacque spoke for the first time. We were crowded into a corner booth in an inn not too far from the castle. "What's the plan?"

I scooped Turtle, the tortoiseshell, up and scratched her under the chin. "Wing it." I said, grinning.

My voices cheered.

X-x-X-x-X

"Who are you?" The guard asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Eh?" I said, pretending to have been distracted by an important message from Jacque, who was playing the part of manservant. "Oh! I'm Adrian Boutin, the Courier. I expect to be able to talk to the General soon… Fitzroy was replaced with Lefevre, right?"

Lefevre was the guy who'd so kindly led the attack to capture and torture me and my friends.

I flashed the seal in the guard's face.

"Yeah. That looks in order. You're here for Lefevre?"

"Yes, yes, of course. Hurry up, will you?"

He turned on his companion. "Go on, tell Lefevre someone's here to see him."

With my hands shaking, I walked arrogantly into the castle grounds and up the stairs to the atrium. The cats and my "servants" followed.

Lefevre came in flanked by at least twelve men, the ones who'd done the actual torturing, and looked as harried as I was pretending to be.

"Anthony Bonnet, right?"

"Adrian Boutin."

"Whatever. What is it? And make it quick, I'm busy."

"It's not something I can discuss with other ears. It's from… someone…" I shot his group a meaningful look, "Down in Southern Gallica; he wants to join your efforts, but he has a few key demands."

"There's a side room for meetings just over here."

I left my "team" and his in the atrium, still trying not to freak out. Inside was a desk with a map and all those little battle planning doohickeys that represent parts of the army on parts of the map. I picked up one, a triangle ("That's for archers—not like us, the bad ones—and the colour means it's three hundred." Anne said helpfully), and examined it.

"So, what's this about, exactly?" He asked, pulling the door closed.

"It's about the captured Araluens. Are they dead yet?"

"No. We're still trying to get information out of them. None of them are talking, although the one with the glasses is rather pathetic."

George is annoying and bland and he never shuts up, but this jerk calling him pathetic made me snap. "Like you, then."

"Excuse me?"

I snapped out a high kick that caught him in the chest and knocked him to the floor. "Surprise! The name's Adrianne, the Ranger girl who escaped from under your nose. I think we're even when it comes to cracked ribs now, though." I added as I loomed over him and pulled out my saxe knife.

"What do you want?" Lefevre asked, panicked. "Money?"

"Where's my mentor? My friends? Our gear?"

"The dungeons. We decided that there were more escape risks than rescue risks and we thought you wouldn't be able to break in to save them."

I shoved three handkerchiefs into his mouth and glared right into his eyes.

"You thought wrong. Now, he's the deal. I'm a half-trained apprentice to a member of a fifty-strong Corps. If I can make my way into your cute little castle with an old man, a thief who's probably been caught more than she's gotten away with it, and three cats, just think what fifty-odd more of me can do. Then add in superior military based on a higher system of loyalty and unity. Knights, too. And one of my fellow apprentices has a thing for poisons. Just the fifty Rangers, their sixteen apprentices, and a few knights could gut this country and divide it into fiefs.

"DO YOU WANT TO ATTACK ARALUEN NOW?" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

"Um…"

He'd been convinced.

I got up, pulled the thin cord out of my cloak pocket, and tied him to the table. "I'd kill you, but that's not how Rangers operate."

And with that, I ghosted out of the room.

The guards were staring at me.

"Improvise." Will suggested gravely.

"There's a girl in there! She broke in the window and attacked him, go help!"

They all rushed into the room, and I slammed the shut behind them. Shannon understood quickly and pushed a large table in front of the door. I wondered briefly how the heck she was strong enough to do that. She was so skinny and frail she made Elizabeth look chubby, and believe me when I say Elizabeth is tiny.

I glanced around the atrium and saw the staircase that led down. I tore off and heard my five companions follow.

The stairs were lit by torches, and I heard the dungeon guard shift as my shadow appeared. I paused and wondered what to do. My saxe knife wouldn't do much if I couldn't get close to him.

"Use your team." Halt said quickly. "They're your only resource."

Three of my team were looking around for mice and the other two were staring at me, hoping for an order to follow.

I picked up Spice, Turtle's calico sister, and walked down the rest of the stairs. The guard had his sword out and was waiting.

"I—" I broke off and stared off over his shoulder.

When he turned, I threw Spice. She landed on his head and clawed her way onto the top. He swung his sword, trying to scare the cat off, but I was already at his elbow, disarming him. I rammed the pommel into his temple and watched him collapse.

Spice stood up and disentangled herself from his head, affronted.

Ebony, who had black-brown fur, sniffed the man and then recoiled. "Meow." She said disdainfully.

I was halfway down the next set of stairs when Shannon yelled, "No!"

Jacque's voice followed, a growl of indistinguishable words, and then she appeared at the top of the stairs, running down.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "Where's Jacque?"

"He said to go save them, and he'd hold the guards off. There's like thirty there, he'll never make it."

"Shoot! Um, take the sword and go help him. I'll break them out and then we'll have two more fighters. Go!"

"Adrianne?" Gilan croaked.

Shannon took the sword and climbed the stairs two at a time.

"Gilan!" I yelled, running towards the voice. "Are you alright?"

He was standing in a small cell, pressed up to the bars. "Yeah, but they aren't."

George was holding Alyss close to his chest. I almost didn't recognise them. Alyss's hair was dark, wet and streaked with mud and the gunk on the walls down here and blood. Her dress was no longer white, though her skin was making up for that. George's eyes were dark and his face drawn.

"Stand back." I said quickly, picking up a heavy oak chair. Gilan moved back, standing between the couple and the door.

I swung the chair and caught the lock. It fell open as the chair shattered into splinters.

Gilan picked up one of the larger shards of wood as I kicked the door open.

"What's this I hear about thirty guards?"