Chapter 6

Halt walked with his cowl covering his face and his body in shadow as he led a troop of infantrymen through the fens. He wished the men could move faster, but they dared not in case they missed one of the path markers and ended up in the swamp. Gilan was leading another troop somewhere off to Halt's left.

Once King Duncan had learned that there would be a force of Skandians attacking his army from the rear, he had held an emergency meeting of the war council. After a long debate, it had been decided that a special force of infantrymen would ambush and take out the Skandians before they reached the plains. Most of those present had been skeptical of the plan at first. One of the basic principals of warfare was to never split your forces, but after a lengthy discussion it had been agreed that the potential benefits outweighed the risks.

The fens were a massive swamp near the south-west coast of Araluen. For the most part, Rangers and Skandians were the only ones who could pass safely through it, mainly because they were the only ones who had any reason to. As Rangers were the kingdom's intelligence force they were in charge of mapping every inch of Araluen, and naturally this included the places that were normally avoided. Skandians, however, had a much less innocent reason for knowing their way around the fens. They had been sending raiding parties through the deadly swamp for as long as anyone could remember.

Halt thought that it was only natural that two Rangers lead the ambush, and had volunteered himself and Gilan for the task. He had jumped at the chance to get revenge on the people responsible for his apprentice's death. Though the Skandians that had actually killed Will wouldn't be involved in the fight, Halt knew that it would only be a matter of time before he managed to track them down. He had promised himself that. He would not rest until he had avenged Will, even if he had to go all the way to Skandia to do it. After the battle in the fens, Halt planned to melt away into the forest and wait with the Skandian wolfships for the crew that had killed Will to make their getaway. He would make sure that they never made it onto their ship.

Smiling grimly, Halt waved the men into position as he nocked an arrow and disappeared into the trees. Now that they had reached the designated ambush point, he was no longer needed to direct the men. The commanders would do that, and he and Gilan would be free to shoot at whoever they thought would look better with an arrow sticking out of their chest. Which, Halt thought, when you considered the giant hulking forms of Skandians, was the entire lot of them. He had never had much patience for the sea-going pirates and recent events had erased any tolerance that he might have once had for them.

"They shouldn't be too far away now, Halt. We should be able to hear them soon, and with any luck, they'll walk right into the ambush. The ground here is good and solid, so our men shouldn't have any problems." Gilan had materialized seemingly out of thin air to stand beside Halt, and though his voice was calm and steady he was shifting his weight from foot to foot anxiously, and he kept glancing towards the south to where the approaching army would appear.

Halt merely grunted in reply. He had noticed Gilan's out of character behavior, but had decided that there was nothing that he could do about it. Gilan was dealing with Will's death in his own way and Halt wouldn't interfere, so long as Gilan was able to keep his head when it was needed. Gilan would fight when the time came and Halt would make sure that his former apprentice didn't lose control or make any decision that could put him in danger. Halt would not lose another apprentice. Not if there was anything he could do about it.

Not longer than an hour later, a scout warned the waiting men that the approaching Skandians were ten minutes from the ambush site. Gilan, with a nod to the older ranger, left and took up his own position on the north side to await the arrival of the Skandians.

Halt watched him go, and keeping one eye on Gilan, he turned to the east and waited for the pirates to come into view. His targets would be those in charge and even though the wolfship captains had no recognizable insignia or any other display of rank, they would be easy to find. They would be the ones yelling the loudest.

With a roar, the assembled men ran out of the trees and charged towards the shocked Skandians just as they emerged into the arranged clearing. Halt watched and before the Skandians could form an effective shield wall, he had already identified four of their leaders. Within ten seconds, he had three arrows in the air and flying towards the men that he had noticed. He had no need to worry about the fourth as he trusted that Gilan would take care of him. As he began to scan the men again, he saw one of Gilan's arrows strike the man in the neck and he smiled in grim satisfaction.

The Skandians were putting up a good fight, but they were unprepared for a battle in the fens. Even though the ground here was a bit more firm than in the rest of the swamp, it was still less than ideal, and the Skandians were having problems keeping their footing. They were used to fighting in open ground and around buildings, not amongst trees and various swamp plants.

As the initial shock of the ambush wore off, Gilan shot the rest of his arrows into a group of Skandians that were fighting closest to him and he drew his sword and entered the fight on foot. He fought ferociously and cut down any Skandian who happened to have the misfortune to get in his way. There was no practiced grace in his movements, only calm, blank determination to take out as many Skandians as he could.

Gilan had managed to force his way into the centre of the fight when a particularly brave Skandian came hurtling towards right side, and he was forced to step back hurriedly to avoid the massive battleaxe that was suddenly all too close. Unfortunately, in stepping back, he tripped over the body of a fallen Skandian and fell to the ground with a crash.

Gilan was all of a sudden uncomfortably aware of the roaring of battle around him, and of his lack of armor. He had thought that the heavy armor that knights normally wore would be too cumbersome in the fens, so he had left it behind. He was mentally kicking himself for it now.

In a berserker rage, the Skandian gave an animalistic roar of triumph as he lifted his battleaxe above his head to deliver what would surely be a killing blow.

Halt had nearly emptied his second quiver when he saw that Gilan had abandoned his longbow and joined the battle with his sword. Halt knew that he would be next to useless against the Skandians with only his knives and even though he knew how to use a sword, he was no master like Gilan.

Instead, he contented himself with shooting any of the Skandians that got too close to Gilan for his liking; he didn't think that the younger Ranger had even noticed. He was too busy thinking about hacking and slashing any Skandian that he could reach to watch what was going on around him, which was a very bad thing in a close-quarters battle like this.

The battle was nearly over and the Skandians forces were almost annihilated. The only ones still fighting were near Gilan, and they were desperate. They had seen their comrades fall and those that were left were well aware that they were going to lose, and so in true Skandian style they had decided to take out as many of the Araluens as possible. Many of them had entered a berserker rage, and seemed not to notice the many cuts and injuries that they had acquired.

As Halt watched, he saw a berserker cut down four of the men on Gilan's right and then launch himself at Gilan. With horror, he watched as Gilan fell to the ground and he saw the Skandian raise his axe to strike. No, thought Halt. I will not lose Gilan too. And in a blur of speed he sent two arrows towards the man. They struck their target directly in the heart, each arrow less an inch apart. The man was dead before he could even realize what had hit him.

Gilan watched in a stunned silence as two arrows struck his attacker in the chest and he realized dimly that Halt must have shot the man. He breathed a silent word of thanks to the older Ranger before he realized that he was still in danger. The Skandian fell forward with a large thump, and Gilan only just managed to roll out of the way before he sprang to his feet and snatched up his sword from the ground

Taking a deep breath and a moment to look around, Gilan noticed that the fight was almost over. There were few Skandians left fighting.

Glancing at the corpses that littered the ground, Gilan was relived to find that most of the dead were Skandian. As he watched, some well-placed arrows took out the last fighters, and he saw Halt slowly picking his way towards him. "Gilan!"

"Yes, Halt?" As soon as the words left his mouth, Gilan realized how tired he was. Shaking his head slightly to keep himself alert, he moved to see what Halt wanted. There was more to do after all. They still needed to make it back to the plains, and most likely, they would be needed to fight there as well.

"I'm going to continue onwards to find the Skandian ships. I need you to lead the men back. Take the shields and those ridiculous helmets from the Skandians, and make sure that everyone who is well enough to fight has one." Seeing the puzzled expression on Gilan's face, Halt decided that more explanation was needed. "Morgarath will be expecting to see Skandians attack us from the rear and if the men put on the shields and helmets then they could pass as Skandians. If Duncan were to pretend to fight you, then Morgarath wouldn't realize that the attack was false which leaves Duncan free to launch a surprise attack, say, with the cavalry. He could have the army split down the middle leaving a clear line of passage for the cavalry to get to the Wargals."

Gilan was looking at his former mentor with awe. "Halt, that's genius! Morgarath will have no idea what hit him!" He wondered silently how long it had taken Halt to think up this plan, but he wasn't tired anymore.

"You just need to find some way to alert the King that the 'Skandians' aren't a real threat, but I trust that you can figure something out?" Halt raised his eyebrow, and his tone was one Gilan remembered from long nights discussing strategy with the man when he had been an apprentice.

Gilan nodded quickly to Halt. An idea was already forming in his head. "Ok. Good luck with the ships." As Gilan spoke, Halt was already turning and moving away from the ambush site.

Gilan didn't need to ask why Halt wanted to go to the wolfships. He knew. He just wished that he could have gone too. Gilan would have loved to get his hands on the men that killed Will, but he knew that he was needed to lead the men back to the Plains, and then he would be needed to fight there. Duty came first, and while his most pressing duty was to the kingdom, Halt's was to his fallen apprentice.

A/N

I hope you liked the chapter! This one was always one of my favourites, even though I find it tricky to write battles.

Thank you to my beta, TwilightsCalling, and to everyone who has reviewed so far! I love getting reviews, and they make my day. I always reply, sometimes it just takes me a week... (I have a special folder in my email account where I move them to so I can keep all my lovely reviewes forever, and I only move them there when I have replied. I feel like I haven't earned the right to put them in my treasured review folder if I haven't replied, so please review! I'll try not to be lazy this week, and get out replies as soon as possible!)

On a side note I have a meeting with a teacher tomorrow to see if I can go on a year long school exchange to Japan. (Not the flooded and broken part.) I suck at Japanese...

Ali Ranger51