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Chapter 9 - A Risk

"You're a feisty little bastard aren't you?" Morgarath sneered, tightening his grip. "I can see why Halt picked you for his apprentice."

Will could feel his face reddening and his heartbeat was slowly becoming louder and louder, echoing in his ears.

"Lots of spirit."

Will's head became so light, he knew he was going to be unconscious any second.

"Yes," Morgarath mused to himself. "You've definitely got spirit." He turned his words back to Will, "I'll soon fix that."

Morgarath let go and Will dropped to the ground. He gasped for air, sweet sweet air. It seemed as if there was not enough in the world for him to wheeze into his lungs.

Meanwhile, Lord Morgarath strode over to the table and sipped some more of his drink, watching Will as he coughed and gasped. He wiped away the tears that had formed in his eyes and lightly felt around his neck. That incident would leave bruises, he knew.

"You know Will," Morgarath said, sitting down on his big chair. "Over the years your master has caused me quite a bit of trouble. He destroyed my dreams. All I wanted was power and respect, is that too much to ask for?"

While Morgarath was talking Will slowly got to his feet.

"He put my life in ruins and everything I had ever worked for seemed as if it never existed." Morgarath took a deep breath. "But now he is going to pay. There's no way he can stop me this time."

"He will stop you."

Morgarath turned his cold eyes onto Will once again.

"He'll stop you just like before and there is not a thing you will be able to do about it."

Will's voice was raspy but strong.

"No." Morgarath said. "I'm going to win this time and there's nothing you or Halt can do about it. Jason!" he called. After a second the blonde man came into the tent.

"Yes my Lord?"

"We're finished."

Jason grabbed Will's collar and shoved him through the tent opening. Will stumbled through it and before he could regain himself he tripped on a small stone and fell. The force of his body impacting with the ground was not enough to make Will groan but the force of the severe kick he received on the side of his leg was. Jason, who was taking any opportunity he could to inflict pain on Will, had kicked him when he fell. Then Will felt a hand on his collar, again, and Jason hauled him off the ground. Will stumbled as his throbbing leg gave way slightly, but then continued walking. If figured if he said anything to Jason about the kick it would give him satisfaction and Will was not going to let him have that.

The two marched in silence through the camp and while Jason was most likely thinking about nothing, because that was all he could handle before he started getting confused, Will was thinking about his escape.

He knew that if he stayed any longer, things would just get worse for him. What he had had tonight was only a taste of what was coming. On the way to Morgarath's tent Will had observed that between the Skandians area, on the edge of the camp, and the Wargals area there was about a ten metre gap. A divider so that each could have their own space. In the gap there really was not anything at all.

It was in this gap Will decided to act. It was not likely that a Skandian or Wargal would be looking in the direction of each other. It was not likely but it was still possible. If it did happen, Will would be caught and most likely killed but it was a chance he would have to take.

Jason was walking slightly behind Will, making sure that he was going the right way. Jason was a big man and compared to Will, who was only small, he was a giant.

Suddenly Will changed his forward direction to a backwards one and rammed his elbow into Jason's stomach who, caught by surprise as he was, stumbled back and fell.

"What the-" Jason never finished his words as Will turned around and kicked him in the head, rendering him unconscious.

Quickly, Will looked around to see if anyone saw and sighed in relief when no one called in alarm. Relieved he ran as fast as he could to the trees, not slowing down or looking back once.

He was free of Morgarath's hold. He had only been there not even for a day but that was more than enough in Will's opinion. He ran and ran but it seemed as if the trees wanted him to stay. Their sharp limbs whipped at him and dragged at his clothes. Then his foot caught on a fallen branch and he fell into the dirt, hitting his head on a rock as he did. In the moment of silence when he fell Will heard shouts and men running, also, stopping made Will realise how tired he was and he knew that he would not be able to run like he just did again. But no way was Will going to give up.

He stood, wiping some blood off his brow with the back of his hand. Hurriedly he looked around to see if there was somewhere he could hide.

Nowhere.

Then a thought hit him. The trees.

He climbed the nearest one swiftly and with ease. He was about ten metres from the top when he heard people moving, underneath the tree.

Will froze. He knew that if he moved it would give away his position. Damn, Will thought, they couldn't have come at a worse time.

One of Will's feet was securely sitting on a thick branch, the other on a tiny one that he knew, would not be able to hold him much longer. Both of Will's arms were wrapped around the tree. He thought to risk moving his foot onto the good branch with the other one, but decided against it. It was too much of a risk.

Will could hear the footsteps slowly moving from his tree to the next, he could also feel the thin branch bending underneath his foot. Carefully, Will tried to ease more of his weight onto the other leg but concentrating as much as he was on his legs, Will's arms slowly loosened around the tree. Realising his mistake Will quickly went back to his original position. That was another mistake, he moved too fast and...

The branch snapped.

Gilan could see the thing that was making all the noise. It was human and by the size, probably male. Silently Gilan took out an arrow out if his quiver and laid it on the bowstring. As he edged closer he saw that this person was in a bad way. He put the arrow back in his quiver. If this person did give Gilan any trouble, he would be able to handle it with his knives.

Slowly, not wanting to startle the man, Gilan silently moved towards him.

Then he turned around, fists up, ready to fight. When he turned around Gilan realised the man was barely more than a boy. At most he was nineteen.

"Who's there?" he asked, voice quivering.

Realising that the darkness and his cloak was keeping him out of sight, Gilan threw back his hood and stepped forward.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said reassuringly.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Again, his voice was quivering. He shook his once blonde hair out of his eyes to get a better look at Gilan.

"My name is Gilan." He took another couple of steps forward but the blonde decided that was too close and took the same amount back. In his hurry he tripped over his feet and fell back. Gilan moved forward to help him up but fear flashed in the boy's eyes and he held up his hand.

"Stay there!" He almost screamed, Gilan guessed, out of fear.

Slowly, he picked himself up. He was shaking form the effort.

"What's your name?" Gilan asked.

The boy eyed him suspiciously. "Why should I tell you?"

Gilan was taken aback by the severe question. It was obvious the boy had been through hell and back. "I'm not here to hurt you," he said again.

"But that doesn't mean you're here to help me."

Gilan thought for a moment. "To tell you the truth, I'm not here to help you. I'm looking for my friend and then I was woken by the sound of someone crashing around in the trees and, here we are."

The boy looked at Gilan. "Was I really that loud?"

Gilan nodded.

Then the boy said, "My name's Joel."

Gilan did not know what he had said to make the boy trust him but whatever it was he was gald he'd said it.

"Well Joel, why don't you come with me and we'll get you something to eat. You look like you could use some food."

Joel nodded and then regretted it as he stumbled. This time, he didn't stop Gilan from catching him.

With Joel leaning on Gilan for support, they walked back to the camp. At first, Joel was alarmed to see all the armed men but Gilan calmed his fears. Gilan sat Joel down where he had been sleeping, where he knew it was comfortable. He got something out of his pack, told Joel to make himself at home and that he would be back.

Then Gilan went to the other men, all of whom were awake now, and told them to relax and they all could g back to sleep. Gilan would take the last watch.

Gilan shoved another piece of wood on the embers of the fire and waited for it to catch, then he put some water to boil.

While he was waiting he went back over to Joel and Gilan was not surprised to see him out cold.

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