"Something's happened, I just know it," Horace paced the length of a table in the Big Hall, wringing his hands in front of him. "They should have been back hours ago. Will would have sent word." He was repeating his worries, the longer they were in the Big Hall with no word from Will the more Horace was able to convince himself that something was wrong.
"I'm sure he's fine," Maddie spoke calmly from her seat at the table. She refused to pace, she was a Ranger and she faith in Will's abilities. They were fine, all three of them, she knew that. But her father's pacing was making her nervous. "Angie must have just traveled through the night, she was farther away they we expected so it took longer to find her."
"You don't know that," Horace turned in his pacing, starting down the length of the table again, his head shaking miserably.
"And you don't know that something's wrong," Maddie kept her tone civil. He was just worried. She could never fault him for that.
Horace shook his head quickly, "It's the same as it was when her parents went off."
"Her parents where full-fledged Rangers," Maddie brushed her hair back watching her father. "They knew what they were doing when they accepted that mission."
"I felt wrong about that. I told Will and Gilan to reconsider. They were both too young, too inexperienced to go alone," Horace twisted his hands, watching them intently. "I have a similar feeling now."
"Will is a Senior Ranger, one of the most revered of all the Corps. You know what he's capable of, and he has never let you down," Maddie watched her father turn at the end of the table, his shoulders slumped with guilt. "All three of them are fine and will be back soon," Maddie consoled her father. "Now please stop that pacing."
"I'm not pacing," Horace stopped looking at his daughter. His shoulders squared as he straightened, "I'm a King. I have not paced since your mother was a headstrong Princess."
"You two bicker too much," One of the jarls, a rough older seawolf called Frey, commented from where he sat on the other side of the Big Hall. "I don't like it, reminds me of my parents."
"He's just agitated," Maddie responded turning from her father. "He's more father than knight at the moment." She gave Horace a small joking smile. Horace missed the humor in her statement.
"That's not fair," Horace began to protest. "I care for the girl, just like the rest of the Ranger Corps and you can't tell me you're not worried about her."
He considered himself a member of the Rangers, a very special member but that was beside the point. He cared about Angie just as much as the rest of them. He had been a frequent visitor to Redmont under the guise of inspecting the Battle School. So maybe he was acting more a father than a hardened knight, but he felt like it was his own daughter that was missing. He was allowed to worry.
"I never said I wasn't," Maddie defended herself quietly. She was worried but at least she had managed to control herself.
"Something special to you Rangers, is she?" Colby, another of the jarls asked.
"Of course she is," Kelby, the youngest of the senior jarls commented. "Haven't you ever been to Araluen? Those Rangers are a close knit group."
"Bit odd if you ask me," a few of the jarls nodded to Frey's comment. They thought it was odd that the Rangers were so close.
"It's no different than the crew of a wolfship," a jarl named Hal responded instantly. Many of the jarls nodded their agreement to the statement. "Trials bring people closer together, that's why we all go through Brother Band training."
"She's the child of Rangers," Horace answered the original question. "Both of her parents were killed on a mission in Pitca when she was a baby."
"All of the Corps thinks of Angie as their own child," Maddie finished.
All of the Rangers had made visits to Redmont to see the child. They all had excuses for the unexpected visits in Redmont Fief, some even managed to have viable reasons to go check on Angie. Like Will they had all kept their distance, but they still came to check on their daughter. Maddie had even seen several of the senior Rangers at the Gathering every year holding competitions to see who would become Angie's mentor. To her knowledge Will had always won, but he would have gotten to Angie first since she was in his Fief.
But Maddie knew Will felt just as guilty about the deaths of Mark and Grace as Horace did. It had been Will who convinced Gilan to give the young couple the mission. Horace had backed Will even though he thought the assignment should have gone to someone else. They had both escorted the young couple to the border, giving them helpful advice and took Angie from their care just before they left Norgate Fief.
When word returned of the failed mission, the deaths of the Rangers… Maddie had never seen the Rangers as solemn as they had been that day.
It was close to a month after that before a decision was reached over Angie's future. Horace had instantly said he would take the child and raise her has his ward. Every Ranger had offered to care for her. There had been talk of moving her from Fief to Fief as Ranger's went on missions, or as their duties took too much of their time. Gilan had said he had found a family that would take her in and raise her near Castle Araluen.
Will had insisted that Angie go to Redmont. He had been watching her with the assistance of his friend Jenny in Wensley since her parent's deaths. He had talked to the Baron of Redmont and learned that the Ward established under Arald after the first War with Morgarath was still running. A majority of the Rangers had said that was a good idea, some disagreed. But Gilan made the final decision, and Will talked him into sending Angie to Redmont.
After the decision had been made, the Rangers had each been granted a day with her. Angie had been to all fifty Fiefs to see her family before her life in the Ward. Some had tried to keep her, saying they had quiet Fiefs and she could stay there. There had almost been a riot between the Rangers. It had been a command from Queen Cassandra that had finally ended the arguing, but some still disapproved of the official order.
"They would never forgive us if we returned without her," Maddie shook her head, dislodging the thought. Will was going to find her and they would all sail home together.
The jarls nodded their understanding. Horace resumed his pacing. Some of the jarls set out again, going to talk in to people in town, send questions to other villages throughout Skandia. A few hours later the jarls started to stagger back in.
Time moved by slowly. The jarls returning from their searches of the countryside joined the waiting in the Big Hall. No one had any news.
The last of the jarls to arrive was Hal, he was joined Maddie at her table where she was still watching Horace pace. "I took Heron as far up the river as I could. I didn't see anything," he reported as a tankard was brought to him.
"She must have gone up the mountain," Horace muttered looking briefly at the Skandian jarl. "Did anyone go that way?"
"Will and Johnny went up the mountain," Maddie answered as if that was all that was necessary. It should have been, Will was an expert tracker, he would find her.
"It's a big mountain," Horace protested. "Were there any other groups that went that way?"
"I've sent Stig out," Hal responded. "He'll round up a few crews and search the mountain. We've still got plenty of daylight."
Horace shook his head, his pacing intensifying. "I knew this was a mistake, she wasn't ready for this."
"Yes she was," Maddie smiled at her father, even thought he did not turn to see it. "We don't know what led Angie from her room, and we don't know that something has happened."
"Something happened," Horace snapped, turning to stare at his daughter. "Angie is gone, we've no idea where she went or why. Will and Johnny are still gone and no one has seen anything. This is a prime example of something happening."
Maddie nodded her agreement to her father's statement. He had been on enough campaigns to have a sense for when things were falling apart. But she knew Horace had no patience, even less when he was worried about the safety of his friends. But they were in Skandia peacefully, nothing had happened to Angie, Maddie could feel it. Soon Will would be back with the apprentices.
"Please sit down," she spoke quietly, in the tone Cassandra used with Maddie when she was upset but could not let it show. Horace stopped his pacing at looked at the woman Ranger. Maddie pat the spot on the bench beside her, locking eyes with Horace.
"Don't ask me to do that," Horace shook his head. "Don't ask me to sit and wait, I can't do it," he looked pleadingly at his daughter.
He could not just sit there, it was already too much that he was in Hallasholm while Angie was missing. It was too much for him to bear, he could not just sit waiting. All his life he had charged ahead when Will and Halt told him, and in the time before his valiant charges he could still do something. This waiting was killing him. He could never understand how Will did it, but he was not Will and he could not sit quietly.
Maddie could not force him to sit, she tried a few more times as the day wore on but he ignored her. Some of the jarls left, going out to search the coast on their wolfships, a few went out to search coast on foot. Hal remained, watching the knight beside Maddie.
As dusk was beginning to settle, jarls started returning, all bearing the same dismal news: they had found nothing. Horace had increased the speed of his pacing, his hands turning red from all the rubbing he had done. No word from Will, the Skandians had found nothing, and it was getting dark.
"I'm going back out," Horace turned the door. He was done waiting, something had happened. Will would be waiting for him, expecting him to arrive at any moment. Horace had not let Will down in a very long time, and he was not going allow it to happen now.
"Horace," the doors flew open before Will, "Maddie, we have a situation."
"I told you something happened," Horace rushed across the room to Will, ready to help him. With the way Will had rushed in Horace was expecting the worst. "What is it? Where are Angie and Johnny?"
"They're fine, but we have bigger problems. There are Genovesans in Hallasholm," Will quickly told them what Angie had told him about the meeting on the road. The jarls gathered around to listen, their expressions dark.
"We knew there was talk of rebellion, but what pure-blooded Skandian would call upon outsides for a fight?"
"It's unnatural. Skipping out on the chance of a fight."
"It's worse than that," Will interrupting, knowing how much the Skandians loved fighting. "The Genovesans are trained assassins, and we know their target."
"We aren't afraid of assassins," the jarls jeered at the Ranger's concern. "We'll brain them before they have a chance to do anything to any of us."
"You won't have a chance to brain anything," Will was kept his face straight making eye contact with the assembled jarls. "They use poisons and crossbows, they'll kill you before you even know where they are."