A/N In this chapter, while Angie is speaking Genovesan is misspelled. This is intentional, Angie does not pronounce the name correctly, therefore it is only incorrect as part of her speech pattern. I wanted to make that clear before everyone started commenting on the poor spelling in the chapter. Please enjoy.

She had climbed a tree.
Will had no idea why, but the girl had climbed a tree. He circled the tree several times trying to see if something had chased her up the tree, and found nothing. He could not even find where she had come down, there was just one set of prints leading to the tree.
So where had she gone?
Tug stood on the road watching as Will circled the tree, his head tilted to one side. Will was tuning the little horse's comments out. The last thing he needed was a distraction. He could only find one set of prints.
He spread his search out farther. Perhaps she had leapt from the lower branches of the tree. Or she might have jumped to another tree and climbed down. She was avoiding detection from someone so she would be trying to make the trail vanish. And she had done a fantastic job, Will could not find anything.
"I think we've lost her, Tug," he commented scratching his head and walking back to his horse.
Tug snorted, stamping his foot.
"What?" Will asked swinging up in the saddle. Again Tug snorted and stamped his hoof.
Look, Tug bent his head down to the ground. Will leaned over the saddle to see what the horse was so determined for him to look at. There were several prints in the road, a group of seven or eight had milled around where Tug was standing. And there was a set of small prints that appeared in the center of the circle and then followed the others off the road.
"She jumped into the road," he mused twisting around in the saddle to see where the prints led. "And ran to the coast."
Will guided Tug to the edge of the road, looking carefully to see if Angie had come back up or if she had boarded the ship that had been beached there. It took no time to find where Angie had come back to the road, and started heading north.
"It seems she's going back to Hallasholm," Will looked down the road.
This whole little adventure was turning out to be pointless. Whatever had caused Angie to leave was taking her back to Hallasholm. He was going to be expecting a good reason for all of this.
"Let's go," Will turned Tug to start down the road.
He set the pace at a steady lope, eating up the kilometers wondering what Angie had been doing out in the mountain. It made no sense for her to send Starburst away if she was going to run up and down the mountain and then back to Hallasholm. There was really no reason for her to have run off like she did.
Unless she found something, Tug commented. Will studied the horse carefully, Tug was a mind reader now. No wonder Will could never get the last word in with the shaggy little pony.
"But what could she have found?" he asked scanning the trees around him. "And where are the people she was with?"
Who said she was with them? Tug asked silently.
Will stared at the back of Tug's head. Will had just assumed Angie was with them, but Tug had a valid point. What if she was not with them? That would be the reason she climbed the tree. And if she feared pursuit or discovery she would have sent Starburst away.
It was all coming together. Angie was following someone, probably someone in the rebellion the jarls feared. He needed to hurry, and find Angie. She was on foot somewhere in the Skandian countryside with hostile parties nearby.
"Come on Tug, we have to find her," Tug sped to a canter with a touch from Will's heels.
Tug suddenly let out a low rumble in his chest and nickered softly. A greeting to another Ranger horse, Will knew. Starburst came into full view over the next ridge, Angie leaning low over his neck with her cloak billowing out behind her. They were going at a full gallop down the road.
Will reached for his bow, nocking an arrow in a single motion waiting for someone else to crest the ridge. She was being chased, that was the only reason she would be running Starburst that hard. But she continued at the same breakneck pace and no pursuit showed itself.
Will furrowed his brow as Angie came in closer. She slowed when she came within twenty meters, bringing Starburst to a skidding halt in front of Tug. Will replaced his arrow as Angie reached down stroking Starburst's lathered neck trying to catch her breath.
"Will, there's something bad," she started, still rubbing her horse's neck. "On the ship, they want to kill Hal."
"What?" he shook his head, dismissing his own question. "What ship? Who wants to kill Hal?"
"I was sitting in the tree and they beached a ship and then they stood in the road talking about Hal and how he couldn't be Oberjarl because he's half Araluen," She spoke quickly, her words only gasps away from become one giant muddled word. "Then the guy with the funny accent said he could take care of that and his friend said for a price and another said it would be easy and then they haggled prices and talked about the Arridi and some council of sissies."
"Stop," Will interrupted her holding his hand up. "Take a deep breath," Angie inhaled deeply, held it and released it slowly. "Start from the beginning, slowly."
"There's no time," she squealed wheeling Starburst around to take off again. "They're sailing for Hallasholm and they're going to kill Hal," her voice cracked as it rose in pitch. "Come on we have to go!"
"Who?" Will asked, trying to keep Angie from racing off without a full explanation.
"The Genevasens," she gasped, motioning for Will to come, they could talk later. "We have to go, they could be in Hallasholm by now!"
She spurred Starburst straight to a gallop, not waiting to see if Will was following. Will had no choice but to follow, whatever she had seen it had frightened her. Could this be a continuation of what happened in the green in Hallasholm? There was a distinct possibility of that. Will urged Tug to follow after.
It felt like no time before Angie came up on Johnny again. He and his battle horse were walking at a pace barely above a shuffle toward the city. Angie pulled up beside him to wait for Will, she could see the outer palisade of Hallasholm through the thinning pines around them.
"You still haven't made it back?" she nearly shouted at the battle school student. "I left you like forever ago."
"I'm almost there," Johnny retorted turning to see Will coming up behind them. "I see you found him."
"I wouldn't be here if I didn't, now come on. People are in danger," Angie went to ride off again, but Will caught up and took a firm hold on her reins.
"You need to tell me what's going on," he shot Johnny a look of disapproval, the boy should have been in Hallasholm already, telling Maddie and Horace that Angie was safe. "And you should have been in the city by now."
"It's right there," Johnny motioned with a sweeping arm motion the looming wall they were approaching, the sun was just starting to touch the pine logs.
"I told you that almost four hours ago," Will snapped. "If this had been an emergency," he started.
"It wasn't," Johnny huffed quickly. "And if it's so important that we get there, why are we sitting in the middle of the road?"
"Will, Hal's in danger," Angie squealed again looking between Will and the city. "The Genevasens will already be in the city."
"The what?" Johnny and Will asked at the same time.
"The Genevasens, they had the funny accents and said they could easily kill for the right price and no one would know that a wolfship brought them in and no one would know that the freaking short seawolf with a neatly trimmed beard and combed back hair had hired them with money from the sissy council once they go back to Arrida," her voice was shaking as she repeated everything to Will for a second time. "They want to kill Hal because he's only half Skandian and not fit to be a jarl much less Oberjarl and all the seawolves on the beached wolfship agreed and they got the Genevasens with the purple leather to kill him. We have to go save him."
"They wore purple?" Will stared at her, hoping this was something Angie had just confused in her rapid retelling of what she had seen. She nodded still trying to urge Will toward Hallasholm. "Did they have matching cloaks and wide brimmed hats?" Angie nodded again.
Will released Starburt's reins and laid his heels into Tug's sides. If Angie was speaking truthfully, and he knew she was, a group of Skandians had brought Genovesan Assassins to kill off the popular choice for Oberjarl before he could be elected. And if they had been on a wolfship Angie was right, they would already be in the city.
"Will, what are we going to do?" Angie's panic seemed to have lessened now that Will was worried about the men on the wolfship. She was most likely just relieved that Will would be taking over, she was still just a first year apprentice.
"We have to find Horace and Maddie," Will began.
"And Hal?" Angie leaned over Starburst's neck she and Will raced for the wall.
"And Hal," Will agreed. "Then we have to find the Genovesans and stop them."
"Have you dealt with them before?"
"Once, a long time ago," Will said darkly, remembering the fear he had felt in the drowned forest and the events afterward, when he thought Halt was going to die. He shook the memory away, he had to remain focused on the task at hand. "How many Genovesans are there?"
"Four," she responded instantly. They rushed through the gates into Hallasholm, turning for the Oberjarl's Palace.
"You're sure?"
"I'm distracted, not incompetent," Angie narrowed her eyes at him. Did he really have such little faith her abilities?
"I'm just making sure, the Genovesans are trained killers, I'll need to know their numbers for when we confront them."
"What about the seawolves that brought them here?" Angie swung off of Starburst while the horse was still running through the gate the Oberjarl's Palace beside Will.
"We'll have to deal with that later," Will grabbed a girl hurrying across the yard, "Are the other Araluens here?" The girl nodded quickly. "Where?"
"The Big Hall, with the senior jarls," the girl squeaked. Will released her hurrying into the Palace. They climbed the steps two at a time and threw the great doors open.
"What about Johnny?" Angie looked over her shoulder watching as the battle school student charged in on his horse.
"Wait for him," Will rushed into the palace, running for the Big Hall. There might still be time, the Genovesans could still be trying to infiltrate the palace or, hopefully, they were stuck on the wolfship until night fall. There was a chance, Will would have to hope for that.