Chapter 3

Will awoke to a dull ache in his shoulder and collarbone, and a nauseous swaying. It took him a few minutes to make sense of the strange rocking sensation and realize that he was being carried. It took him slightly longer to remember why. He had been injured and captured. Halt hadn't rescued him. At least, he hadn't, yet. Halt would come. He just knew it; his mentor had never let him down before.

Focusing on his current situation, Will wished that the man would just put him down and let him sleep. He felt very tired, but Will supposed that was because of his injury. Didn't people normally feel tired after they lost a lot of blood?

The man that was carrying him wasn't being very gentle, and he walked as if he was trying to personally flatten and annihilate every single blade of grass and stick in the surrounding area. Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. The sound reverberated through Will's head, starting a hot throb behind his eyes that beat in time to the man's footsteps. Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.

Will let out a groan of relief when the giant carrying him finally stopped moving, and placed him, rather too roughly for Will's taste, on a low wooden bench, inside what he could only assume was a tent. He had heard the rustling of oilskin as they entered, but he was far too tired to be bothered with opening his eyes to find out for sure. He just wanted his head to stop spinning and aching, and for the pain in his shoulder to go away.

"Ahh, good. He's still alive. I would have been very disappointed if the boy had died before I could examine him, Captain." The voice was cruel and mocking, and Will shook in terror as he guessed the man's identity. Please let it be just a nightmare. Please let me wake up. Please, someone, anyone, don't let that be Morgarath!

"The correct title is Jarl, my Lord." Erak's tone was cold and clearly showed his disgust of the other man, but he couldn't match the first speaker's outright cruelty.

"Well, Captain, I will try and remember that in case I ever have to deal with your barbarian of a country ever again," said Morgarath, Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, former Baron of Gorlan fief. Will could tell that he held nothing but contempt for Erak.

There was a shift in the light above him and Will tried desperately to remain still and silent, pretending to be asleep. However, he was unable to hold in his gasp of pain as Morgarath leaned over and grabbed the bronze oakleaf amulet at Will's throat.

After meticulously examining the amulet, harshly pulling on the chain as he did so, Morgarath let it fall to sit back around Will's neck. He straightened and beckoned forth one of his generals. Will felt the cold hand of premonition grip his heart in its smothering grasp, as he lay perfectly still, not even daring to breathe.

"Take the boy back to my castle in the Mountains." Will began to shake, desperately hoping that everything that had happened since the burning of the bridge was just an especially vivid nightmare. Morgarath's hatred of rangers was legendary, and ironically, Halt had sparked that hatred when he had defeated Morgarath at Hackam Heath. What would Morgarath do to him when he discovered that he was Halt's apprentice?

General Owen, one of Morgarath's men since the last war, had come forward when Morgarath had beckoned, and he bowed low before he answered. "Of course, my Lord."

Before Owen could shout for one of his men to pick up the boy, Morgarath spoke once more, his voice low and threatening, "However, General, if the boy is to die on the way there or before I can arrive back to see him, I will make sure that you and your men pay in blood for your disobedience."

Bowing low once more, but with a slight tremble this time, Owen left the tent.

"Now my Lord, about payment-"

"Payment? What payment, Captain Erak? You surely don't expect to be paid for doing your duty and handing me an Araluen spy, do you?" Morgarath hissed coldly, leaving no room for argument. "Besides, the boy is next to worthless until he is able to regain consciousness for more than a few seconds. Perhaps, Captain, next time you will bring such a valuable captive directly to me, rather than after you had made him useless as a slave."

With a self-satisfied smirk, Morgarath, Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, left the furious Jarl, and called his men to ready themselves for war.

"Oh thank God!" Cassandra exclaimed in relief.

She had been walking through the night for two days before she reached the Guardian Mountain Range, meaning that she was nearing the plains of Uthal. Luckily, she had been able to find a small spring and a clump of wild blackberries the evening before attempting to pass through the mountains. Despite having long geography lessons and learning the layout of the kingdom's fiefs from a young age, Cassandra was mostly unfamiliar with these mountains, having never actually visited them before.

There was no visible pass through the mountains that Cassandra could see, although there was bound to be one somewhere near here; Morgarath would have needed it to attack her father's army the way he had planned.

After eating her fill of blackberries, Cassandra had woven a small basket from some common water reeds to enable her to take some berries with her. She didn't know when she would be able to find food again. Unfortunately, she had been unable to weave a basket tight enough to hold more than a mouthful of water. Learning how to find water and food while alone in the bush was not part of her upbringing, and Cassandra was fast coming to the conclusion that there were some serious holes in her education.

By the time that she had given up on making a watertight basket, it was dark and Cassandra had found herself falling into a dream like trance. She had been afraid to sleep before now, as she had felt too exposed to wandering Wargals while crossing the Solitary Plain to allow herself to relax enough to sleep. Before she knew it, the young girl was fast asleep, curled into a tight protective ball.

When Cassandra finally awoke, it was nearly mid-afternoon and sunlight was streaming in patches through the trees above her. Cassandra lay still for a moment before her stomach cramped and heaved, her mouth filling with bile.

Turning on her side, the crown princess vomited up the majority of the blackberries she had eaten the night before. After eating the amount she had on an empty stomach, Cassandra shouldn't have been surprised that the berries had made a comeback, but she was. Quickly, she rinsed the bitter taste of her sick out of her mouth.

Hands trembling from hunger and exhaustion, the young girl picked and ate more berries, making sure to do so slowly and to refrain from eating more than a handful of the juicy black fruits. Cassandra knew that no matter how hungry she was, she couldn't risk throwing up again, it would only dehydrate her further, and she had no idea when she would next be able to find a source of water.

Clutching tightly to her now full basket of blackberries, and angrily muttering at her still cramping stomach, Cassandra set off down a goat trail, hoping frantically that it would lead her to her father, and to safety.

It was nearly four days and several wrong turns before Cassandra managed to pass through the Guardian Mountains and spot her father's army. Despite her apprehension about her journey through the mountains, the young princess had found that it was easier than she had anticipated to find food and water. Fruits were bountiful in this part of the kingdom and the mountains held many fresh springs and pools of water.

As Cassandra was making her way down and out of the Guardian Mountains, she had caught her first glimpse of her father's army in the dawn light, the tents littering the plains between the foot of the mountains and the base of Thorntree Forest.

As she had gotten closer, the girl had been able to hear the distant clanging of metal on metal, and spot the Araluen Flag and her father's personal standard, a stylised Golden Eagle, flying from various tents.

She was almost safe. Slowly Cassandra began to make out the individual parts of an army this size. There were the footmen, the cavalry, the cook sites, and of course, the command tents, smack bang in the middle, where she knew she would be able to find her father.

Striding confidently from the cover of the surrounding trees, just over 6 hours after first glimpsing the campsite, Cassandra walked purposefully towards the camp and there was a shout of alarm as a sentry spotted her.

"Halt, in the King's name!" Cassandra was shocked. She had never been challenged by one of her father's men before. With a start, the Crown Princess thought about how she must look and realized that it was no wonder that she hadn't been recognised. Her newly cropped hair was matted and tangled with leaves and twigs, and she hadn't had a wash in over a fortnight. There were a bags under her eyes and her clothes were little more than rags. Really, it was no wonder that the man had stopped her. She looked more like a stray beggar than a princess.

Newly self-conscious, Cassandra ran her hands over her breeches as she spoke to the guard. "I have urgent news for King Duncan. I must speak with him immediately." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realized how ridiculous she must sound. At the same time, she realized that she should keep her identity a secret until she could get a meeting with her father. How she was going to convince the sentry that it was essential she meet with the King of Araluen was going to be the problem.

The sentry silently opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, trying to decide what to say. The girl's accent was Araluen, but she obviously shouldn't be in the middle of an army that was reading itself for war. She spoke with authority, which contrasted sharply with her muddy appearance. She was trembling with exhaustion, and as he watched, she shook her head in a useless attempt to clear her muddied thoughts. Nodding to himself, the sentry opened his mouth as he made up his mind. "Follow me and I will take you to the cooking tents. You look like you need a good meal and I will ask one of my superiors to come and see you."

Her stomach grumbled as they arrived at the cooking tents and her shaking intensified in response to the smell of food. The last decent meal she had had was a hot beef stew with Horace, Will, and Gilan. Gilan. All of a sudden, Cassandra got an idea. "Sir, instead of finding one of your commanding officers, would you be able to find Rangers Gilan and Halt for me? Just tell Ranger Gilan that Evanlyn is here to see him. He will understand." Hopefully, Cassandra added silently to herself, as she eyed a dripping roast that was cooking off to her right.

The sentry frowned silently to himself and before muttering an almost inaudible, "Yes ma'am." The rangers were a mysterious lot and rumour had it that they dabbled in the black arts. He would have preferred to have nothing to do with the sharp-eyed bowmen, but the girl looked ready to collapse, and he was smart enough to realize that she had important information to pass on. He left the girl in the competent hands of Master Chubb, who was in charge of the busy cooking tents, and went in search of the two rangers.

A/N

I studied the map of Araluen in the books, and realized that to get to Duncan's Army, Evanlyn/Cassandra would have to pass through the mountains between the fissure and the plains. They didn't have a name (as far as I am aware), so I decided to name them the Guardian Mountains. What do you guys think of my random place naming abilities? I was going to make up a bit of a back-story with the origin of the name, but I thought that it would be unnecessary. It's unlikely I'll ever mention them again. (But, you never know. Sometimes my characters just hijack my story for a bit, and when/if they give it back, they are in weird places, and I'm left to rearrange all the pieces of shattered plotline…)

I did a quick scan through the books and couldn't find out what Duncan's personal standard was, so I made one up; A Golden Eagle. Cassandra's is a Red Hawk, so I decided to go with the bird theme. If there someone knows Duncan's actual standard, can you please let me know so I can fix it? Or tell me if you like mine? I even did a Google check to see if there are Golden Eagles in England. (There are. Aparently. I'm not to happy with Google at the moment. It failed me for the first time a few days ago...)

I'm taking a vote with my readers and betas about whether to use Ranger with a capital (like the books) or ranger (as follows most spelling rules). What do you think? I'm leaning toward Ranger myself. It just looks funny without a capital… So far I have been writing it without the capital, and, depending on what you think I will go back and change it. For the moment though, I thought I would just keep using ranger, to keep everything consistent.

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, and please review and let me know what you think so far! Reviews are what gets me out of bed in the morning! Literally. The first thing I do in the morning (other than making my alarm shut up, of course) is check my emails. I just love it when I see that someone has alerted/favourited/reviewed one of my stories!

Thanks again to my beta, TwilightsCalling!

Ali Ranger51