Chapter 10

To the anon reviewer with the name wow. I have never laughed so hard at a review as yours. I don't even know why I laughed that hard, but I did.

So yeah.

Will walked forwards. It felt odd to be in normal civilian clothes but that was that. There was nothing to allow him to blend into the shadows and the amount of effort it had taken in order to get into the castle in order to see Alyss was nearly too much. Finally at the gates (for he had refused to bring Tug for this) he had just walked up as he would have normally, expecting to be admitted straight away. He was stopped by the guards who had given him an odd look before enquiring why he desired admittance into the castle. They also mentioned that if he wanted to get into the keep he would need a really good reason and probably the paperwork to go along with it.

After telling them who he was they just laughed and told him that he wasn't Will Treaty for Will Treaty was a Ranger and thus wore Ranger clothes and had a shaggy pony. At this Will walked over to the closest stone wall and gently banged his head against it in frustration. This was proving to be a lot more difficult that it originally should have been.

He had been having this conversation with the idiots guarding the gate for about an hour before they shifted. Even after asking one of them to go get someone higher up that could confirm his identity they denied, saying that if he was indeed a Ranger he would kill the one that was left in order to get access. Will didn't tell them that he was able to just kill them anyway, after all, he had all of his weapons on him.

Halt turned up, grabbed the front of Will's collar and dragged him through the gate and past the guards. The one on the right apparently really wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed because he was about to protest Halt's actions until the other guard smacked him over the head with his spear.

No wonder they didn't make it as knights, Will thoughts triumphantly.

He willingly put up with Halt's dragging until they ended up just down the hall from Alyss' rooms. Then he straightened up and attempted to make himself appear neater. Halt shoved him forwards, slipped a note into his hand and then walked off without a word.

A moment later, whilst Will was working up the courage to read the note he heard the guards asking Halt where he had dumped the phony Will Treaty. Halt replied in his normal eloquent manner and told them to write their question down, fold it into sharp corners and shove it somewhere dark.

See me after you're done sucking up.

He took the remaining steps forwards until he reached Alyss' doors and took a deep breath before knocking. This was it.

After a few seconds Alyss opened the door.

To put it bluntly, it appeared as though Alyss was feeling something along the same lines as him. But that didn't make any sense. She was the one who had called the whole thing off.

"What do you want?" she asked rather bluntly. her shoulders were slumped over and she rest the right side of her head against her door.

"Please," Will begged softly. "I did as you asked. I'm not in the Ranger Corps anymore."

Alyss sharply inhaled and took a step backwards. Yes she had been told to tell Will that but neither her or the man had expected Will to actually go away and do something of that nature. She had just assumed that he had left her for a while, tired of the chasing games. She felt like screaming at the world and throwing everything she could in her rooms.

"I need more time to think," she said softly.

"More time?" Will cried. "More time? You have had how long now? I gave up everything for you! I left the Rangers for you without even thinking of the consequences!"

Alyss slammed the door in his face. He shouldn't have left them for her.

She wasn't worth it.

She spun around and nearly screamed.

The man was there sitting on the chair that Will often occupied, spinning a coin between his fingers, not even looking at her.

"So he did it," he commented uselessly. Alyss nodded even though he wasn't watching. The bastard of a man didn't deserve her being polite to him. He flicked his eyes up to look at her once. The look sent shivers to her soul and not in the good way. Obediently she bowed her head and responded verbally.

The man got up and started walking along looking at all of the various objects in her room. Alyss suddenly got an intense urge to teach him what they all felt like when thrown at him, however she knew that it wasn't the safest option.

"What are you going to tell him when he does come back, or when you see him again?" the man asked, the picture of calm. They could have been discussing seafood for all anyone knew.

Alyss remained silent.

"Answer me," the man growled.

She didn't.

He leap up and gave her a backhanded slap with his right hand, sending her to the floor. She used both hands and pushed with her legs in an attempt to get away from him but he grabbed her left ankle and dragged her back. She opened her mouth to scream to get Will, to get anyone, to come to her rescue when the man clamped a hand over hers and persuaded her not to bite him.

By the use of the dagger at her neck that she had been attempting to get to earlier.

"Are you going to remain silent?" he asked. She nodded gingerly in fear. "Good."

He let go of Alyss and she took a few steps forwards before spinning to face him. He motioned mockingly to a seat and she sat down elegantly, her mind attempting to work overtime.

"And this is how a good woman should behave. She should be quiet unless spoken to and act according to how a man desires. Now, we need to discuss what you are going to do about this Ranger when he comes back, or should I say, ex-Ranger?"

"What would you have me do?" she asked hesitantly, delaying, still attempting to find an escape from the madman.

"Tell him that you considered it and have decided not to take him back."

"But I told him that I would take him back if he left!"

"No you didn't. You said that you would think about taking him back if he left. There is a difference you know. I thought that with all of the training that you did you would have learnt how much difference subtle word choice makes."

Alyss looked down at her lap to hide her tears from this man. No matter what she did he somehow always managed to know what she was doing and no matter how many locks she used, he always was able to get into her room. She just had to do as he ordered.

This chapter was so hard to write it was unbelieveable. It was probably because it has been so long since I last wrote a chapter and that I can never seem to remember the storyline to this even though it is more along the lines of what I would read compared to Abhorsen. And I think if I use Math (ew, I know) this story works out more popular. And I am distracted easy. I think I wrote a few one shots and read a few fics in the middle.

Fun fact: Halfway through I got really bored and the jokes in it began to turn inappropriate and I had to remove them. (Hint, they had started where the paper and sharp corners is) Also probably explains the odd formatting...

The next chapter should be really interesting however and I am so pumped for it!

Aly