xxviii. As he went down the steps, quietly trying to make his exit knowing if anyone saw him they would stop him until they got things sorted out, he wondered how Maiah was doing. He had had no time to see her and since she hadn't been present at the war council it was obvious they were trying to keep her out of it as much as possible; after all, she already knew some techniques from spending so much time with them and although he didn't question her word and fully trusted her, knew she was still a foreigner and a member of the opposing party—even if a prosecuted member. He had wanted to at least say hello, though in part he was somewhat glad he hadn't gotten to; his reasonable self told him it was better that way. Nevertheless, when he crossed the hall he caught a short bit of the conversation going on in the next room. It sounded as if none of the men had gotten back to bed after the news had been brought and were debating with little success. There was, however, one fact everyone had agreed on, and it was what made Gilan stop in his tracks and retrace his steps to the crack on the door. He stood outside, quietly listening to the matter being settled on the other side of the doors trying hard to stop himself from storming into the room. "Tomorrow is as good as any." Sir David was saying coming to a close in the matter. "If we wait any longer who knows if she won't find a way to dig herself out of the dungeon and escape to babble about our moves." One of the younger knights was heard to intervene on the prisoner's behalf, recalling she had asked for charges as if she knew nothing of the reason why she was being tried for. However, Martin coldly cut in, claiming she was only playing along trying to act innocent until she could do it no more. Soon enough, voices rose and yet another debate started on the matter though it was hard to distinguish who said what and whether it was in agreement or not. "Well, enough on the matter." Although the king's voice was firm as he concluded the issue, Gilan could tell it was tired and perhaps a little gloomy. "Our priority now is to turn the men back and deploy the ones we still have to the east as fast as possible." There was some more discussion on the best way to organize their remaining men but Gilan cared little about what they did with that. He knew there was only one person they could be talking about and the thought of Maiah sitting alone in the damp dungeons made him feel as if they were knotting his insides. For a second he had the urge to run down and see her but pulled himself back just in time knowing there was a higher probability of him helping if he stayed above ground and spoke with the executors of her sentence. It would only take a couple of hours to get her out and forget the misunderstanding. At that point he had completely forgotten the fact that he had been up that early for a purpose. He tried to stay still as he waited outside the doors but occasionally he had to release his anxiousness and would pace down the hall a few rounds until he felt ready again. Finally, after what seemed like the longest hour in his life though he knew were just twenty minutes, he heard the men inside breaking council, pulling chairs, picking up papers, and chattering in quieter voices. Not long after the door cracked open and the men filed out, unaware of the cloaked Ranger standing just next to the door in the shadow cast by the opened door. Like he had anticipated, Sir David was the last one to come out once the rest of the knights had disappeared around the corner. Only then did Gilan tore himself from the wall and approached him. "Good grief, Gilan!" Sir David exclaimed almost dropping the parchments he was carrying. Even after all these years, he had not grown used to his son appearing out of thin air. "Can't you announce yourself a little more subtly?" "I need to talk to you." Gilan said. Under other circumstances he would have cracked a joke in response to his father's request. Sir David seemed to notice the change as well and made no further inquiry but allowed the Ranger to continue. "What are the charges?" It took him a second to know what Gilan was talking about and won some time by steering the young man out of the doorway and a little to the side. "The charges. Against Maiah." "Her trial is private business of the council and—" "And as a King's Ranger I am entitled to know what it is all about." Gilan snapped perhaps a little too sharply. His father gave him a warning look; after all, pulling rank against the man who had seen him toddle around the halls before he learned how to walk and feed himself was not a good idea on his part. "Under the circumstances, however, I think an exception is necessary." Sir David replied coldly as if daring his son to step out of line again. True, he was now old enough to take care of himself and when it came down to business Gilan was of higher rank than the Battlemaster. However, when the Battlemaster was his father, certain respect was still expected from the young man. "If I don't get it from you I'll bother someone else." Gilan replied though his tone told Sir David he had stepped back. The knight pursed his lips in frustration though finally sighed. "Treason. She awaits trial, most probably tomorrow morning though we all know how that is going to go." "You mean she has no chance?" He didn't wait for an answer, however, and plunged into the next statement. "What evidence do you have for that? She's been more than helpful the last weeks, if it wasn't for her—" "You brought the evidence. She led us west so that her people could advance in the east without opposition. There's no going around it." "You have no way of knowing she knew about it, though!" He said though began feeling his father had a point. "She warned us Alia was unpredictable, she couldn't have known they would come from the east. It makes no logical sense." "And yet she led us west not a week ago. More than a quarter of our forces are marching down Redmont fief at this moment because we listened to what she had to say." "What about all the other facts you listened to before? Were they lies? She helped capture Prowessa and sailed across for weeks just to warn us they were coming." "It was all a frame. They are unreasonable barbarians. I am not surprised if they are willing to sacrifice two of their women to achieve their purpose and lead us on believing she could be trusted." "Or she could have been genuinely concerned for us and risked everything to try and save us from the fate her people suffered." "I won't deny that is still a faint possibility, but one that I am not willing to take against stronger claims that say otherwise. Whether she is a traitor or not she will in the end get to pick how she dies, at least we give her that. Of course she will be given the choice of surrendering all her knowledge and getting a life sentence; but by now I think everyone here knows her people are not ones to refuse death if it means they get to keep their pride." "She's a foreigner. You can't charge her with treason." He said trying hard not to listen to his father. He knew he was right in assuming Maiah would choose death if she was guilty. And yet, he knew she wasn't; she couldn't have lied all this time, it wasn't who she was. It couldn't be. "Arald saved us time, actually. Before she left Redmont he made her a resident of his fief to ensure her protection. Now she is also under our laws." "So you are willing to send an innocent person to the gallows because you can?" Sir David gave the Ranger a long stare. He seized him up carefully and finally told himself what he had suspected had been there all along; he knew his son well enough to see what perhaps Gilan himself couldn't. With some heaviness in his heart he ran a hand across his jaw before speaking again. "I think it's about time we both stop this nonsense and acknowledge the fact that there is more to this than sentencing an innocent person. I doubt you would be fighting as ardently if that were the case." For a second, Gilan couldn't find words to reply to his father's accusation. Before he recovered, however, Crowley appeared from behind Sir David. Halt and Duncan were just coming out of the meeting room and after the Ranger bowed his head to the monarch he walked over to join them. "I need you to get to Will as fast as you can." Crowley said, addressing the young Ranger after nodding in the direction of the Battlemaster. "Can you leave in an hour?" Sir David excused himself, knowing that was as good an opportunity as he would get. It hurt him to see Gilan so distraught, but it was better for them to get it over with as soon as possible. Not about to give up as easily as that, however, Gilan turned to the new comers. They would, after all, have more sense in understanding Maiah wasn't a traitor, they had been the first ones to trust her. "What will happen to Maiah?" "Look, Gil," Halt started. For some time now, he had been mulling over the idea of having to tell Gilan they had all been deceived and at least it wasn't going the worst way possible. "I know it's somewhat hard to realize she was playing along all this time, but—" "But she wasn't!" He interrupted. Few were the occasions when he dared speak to Halt in such a tone, but he couldn't understand how everyone was overseeing simple details that didn't fit with their conclusion. "You can't tell me now you doubted her. You saw how she tried as hard as she could to help out in every possible scenario." "I didn't doubt her." "It could have all been staged." Crowley added before Halt could think of a subtler complement to his statement that would still drive home the point. He still couldn't fully wrap his mind around the idea of all those small, unnoticed observations he had been doing on the girl being false. But bringing his own hesitation would not help the issue any more than if he argued against Duncan for keeping her prisoner. Furthermore, there was the clear, visible evidence that Gilan himself had brought from the east; not a lot of people noticed the small facial expressions or changes in the tone of voice that could give away a lie, not even the particular transparency that Maiah's green eyes held. All they perceived was the news smacking them on the face that what she had supposed was wrong. He almost wished he had held Will back for a couple of extra days just to get his opinion and reassure himself that what he was doing in letting them take the traitor was really the right thing—that is, that she was a traitor. Although still firm and rational, unlike Will and himself, Gilan was kinder and perhaps, one could say, warmer towards his fellow men than the other two. Will would be able to tie the two extremes together and see what they could do. "I think your father wasn't far from the truth here, son." Crowley said with a sigh. He decided it would be best for Halt to deal with it, after all, he knew his friend better. He held out a rolled piece of parchment. "It'd be best if you could go get back with Will and make sure everything is set as we begin moving troops east. I'm trusting you with it, yes?" "He'll do it." Halt answered, grabbing the document just as Gilan opened his mouth to refuse. Crowley gave the young Ranger a hard stare making sure he would keep his word—or Halt's word in this case—before he headed down the hall to his study. "I'm not going anywhere until we get Maiah out of there. You know she's innocent, Halt; I know you do." "It is not what I think I know or not. The evident facts are set all against her and at the moment we can't worry ourselves with fixing issues outside of our power." "We can get a defense for the trial. They respect you enough to trust your judgment." "It'd just be a fight of words. Hers and ours against concrete evidence of the prosecution." They walked down the flight of stairs and headed for the stables where Blaze and Abelard greeted them with a soft snort. When they saw there were no apples, however, they seemed to roll their eyes and return to the silent conversation they had been having before they had been interrupted—it probably had something to do with the lack of fruit in their diet. "Could I at least see her?" Gilan said wondering what else he could do to stop this from happening. He knew she shouldn't be locked in that cave; he had to tell them they were making the wrong conclusions. But first, the least he could do was tell her he hadn't forgotten about her and would try to get her out. "Gil, you have orders." Halt looked up to meet his former pupil's eyes. They were determined to do anything he could to set things straight; Halt began wondering if Gilan was just playing along now when he already had a plan of getting the girl out or fixing the trial. If it happened he would be accused of treason and hanged along the foreigner. It wasn't that he didn't care about the girl, they had grown close in the past weeks; but if Gilan was the one behind bars and waiting for the moment they would read out his sentence and lead him to the stage… "What if there is another international law that protects her?" Gilan said finally. He had been trying to avoid using it as best as he could, but it was his last hope. "What if all we needed was to—" "Smuggle her out?" "Not technically. It'd be more like exile, in a way." "Exile may be one of her options, but it all depends on what she chooses in the end. And she has nowhere else to go if both her country and Araluen prosecute her." "We would just say we are taking her into exile. Before the trial, before she is given the opportunity to pick which way she wants to die." "What you're doing right now is treason. You are conspiring against the state, you know that?" His credentials wouldn't allow him to continue listening any longer without taking action. Yes, Gilan was his friend, almost his family, but one thing was to joke around about silly maneuvers, and a completely different matter was plotting to free a suspect traitor. "Not when in saving an innocent life I am saving the peace of Araluen." He waited until he had Halt's undivided attention and curiosity. When the bearded man narrowed his eyes and looked at him, Gilan knew all he needed now was word it carefully. "She does have the protection of international law and sentencing her to death may severe relations with Skandia." "I doubt Skandians will recognize her as one of their own. For all they know, she does not exist." "That would be the case were she just any Skandian." "Where are you going with this? Who is she then?" "Remember Ragnak's 'right' to revenge on the royal line?" "Ragnak died years ago, in case you don't remember." "Doesn't matter. As daughter of the current Oberjarl, Erak could just as well take a Vallasvow to avenge her death and would have a right against Duncan's line."