Chapter Twelve

The arrows thudded into the targets, shot at ridiculous speeds, and hitting exactly where the newest Ranger had aimed them.

Horace waited until Will's quiver was empty before saying anything, "You done shooting those sharpened toothpicks of yours?"

"As opposed to you swinging your oversized dinner knife?" Will responded immediately.

"Hey, I finished my practice half an hour ago, you're the one making us late." the knight huffed, but started walking forward to help him gather the arrows anyway.

Will just rolled his eyes, "We aren't late. Besides, Jen will love some extra time to put the finishing touches on her new recipe."

Horace's face broke into a wide smile, "I love it when she experiments."

"Only cause you get to be her guinea pig." Will snorted.

"A job I happily accept."

"And everyone knows it." Will said, swinging his quiver around so they could put the arrows in it. Horace handed him the few he had.

"Who else is coming again?" he asked.

Will thought about it for a moment, trying to remember the list, "You, me, Jenny, Alyss, and maybe Gilan if he gets done with his own training."

"Wouldn't he be out here with you then?" Horace looked at his shorter friend curiously, leaning forward to grab a few more 'toothpicks'.

"Not exactly training for him, but for Cassandra," Will explained, "He's been giving her lessons with her saber for a couple weeks now. They have to keep it a secret from Duncan, he's not exactly on board with Cassandra learning how to use any kind of weapon."

"How do you know then?"

"I accidentally walked in on them when I heard Cassandra cursing. Apparently she gets very colorful when Gilan lands a hit." Will laughed.

Horace joined in for a moment before asking, "What about George?"

Will shook his head, "Said he was going to skip out this time, as much as he loves Jenny's cooking."

The blond man gave him an exasperated look, "And his reasoning this time?"

"You're guess is as good as mine," Will shrugged, "But if he wants a night alone in his room, I'm not gonna fault him for that."

Horace huffed, "With an attitude like that, he's going to end up being the equivalent of a spinster and her cats, only with books!"

"I think he's ok with only courting his books." Will chuckled, raising an eyebrow at him, "Although, speaking of courting, I seem to have noticed you and Alyss have gotten closer lately."

Horace's cheeks reddened at the insinuation in his friend's tone.

The entire thing had come as a surprise, to him and Alyss most of all. The two hadn't seemed close at all as they grew up, at least, not in that specific way. But, when Horace had been placed at Castle Araluen, a place that Alyss's career brought her frequently, that all changed. At first it was just two old friends catching up with one another whenever they could. Then, one of her visits was timed with a ball about a year ago and Horace had asked her to dance and the rest had simply…fallen into place. They hadn't told many people yet, mainly because everyone was already so busy with the war and treaty efforts, but Horace honestly couldn't remember when he was happier.

"Is…that ok?" He asked nervously. He knew that Will had had a crush on Alyss when they were younger, but they had never actually discussed any of it.

Will shrugged and grabbed the last of his arrows, putting his quiver back in place before he answered, "As long as you both are happy, then I'm happy too. Yes, I liked her when I was younger, but we both travel too much to spend any proper amount of time together. In the end, any feelings we had for each other sort of…faded away?"

He wasn't quite sure how to phrase it, but a quick glance at his friend told him that Horace understood the point he was trying to make.

Horace gave a sigh of relief. The last thing he wanted was to have something get in the way of his friendship with either Will or Alyss, "I'm glad to hear that."

Will smiled, "Again, if you two are happy, then so am I."

"What about you though?" Horace asked as the two of them turned to start walking back to the castle, anxious to get to Jenny's carefully made dinner, "Is there anyone in particular?"

Will thought over his response carefully. This wasn't normally something he ever thought about, let alone discussed, "...Yes, but she doesn't know yet."

"She doesn't?"

He shook his head, "I'm leaving for Nihon-Ja after the wedding. It didn't seem right to start courting someone right before I leave, with no guarantee of when, or if, I'm coming back."

Horace conceded the point, "Do I get to know who it is though?"

Will shook his head, "Yeah, I think I had better tell her first before I get your hopes up."

He rolled his eyes, deciding to change the subject instead of probing for more. That was something he could bug Will about on the trip to Nihon-Ja at least.

"Are you excited for the wedding?"

Everyone was scheduled to leave days after Nellie and Selethen made their vows, ready to enact their plan against the Temujai.

Will nodded, "As I'll ever be. What's it like in Nihon-Ja?"

"Without a civil war? Pretty amazing." Horace said, "There's this waterfall near the Emperor's palace that has to be at least a hundred feet high."

"Wow," he said in appreciation.

Horace shrugged, "It's a pretty great place. I was sorry to leave."

"At least you get to spend more time with Shigeru now." Will responded.

Horace nodded before turning his head to look at the Ranger in excitement, "Did you hear that he's been asked to officiate?!"

Will grinned, "Gil told me this morning. He's a bit of a gossip. I think it's great though."

"Me too." Horace agreed, "He's already started practicing, absolutely determined to say their names right and everything during the ceremony. His pronunciation is already loads better."

The two of them laughed.

"Something to be said for enthusiasm."

"I know." he smiled as they finally left the courtyard and walked into the castle.

"At least someone's excited about the wedding." Will muttered.

Horace just nodded, "Certainly not what I thought would come from the treaty."

"I don't think anyone truly saw this coming." Will whispered to himself.

"What was that?" Horace asked.

Will opened his mouth to answer as they turned the corner, but stopped, instead staring ahead of them in surprise. Horace followed his best friend's eyes and saw an equally stunned Selethen watching them, obviously not expecting to see them.

"Oh, hello." Horace said awkwardly.

"Hello," Selethen replied, giving them the Arridi hand greeting as well.

Will nodded his head, smiling politely.

"I hope I didn't interrupt anything."

Horace shook his head quickly, "Nah, we just got done with training for the day."

"Ah," he said understandingly, "Did it go well?"

"If the pipsqueak hitting the same targets over and over counts as 'well', then yes, it did."

Will rolled his eyes, "I'm sorry, I forgot that swinging a bit of metal as hard as you could took so much time and concentration."

"You just don't have the patience for the complexities of intricate swordplay, or the mental capacity to understand it." Horace countered, glaring at him.

"This is coming from the bumbling oaf who can't sit still for five seconds if his life was on the line." Will shot back.

Horace huffed, turning to the Wakir who stood smirking in amusement at them, "You're a swordsman, right? Tell him I'm right on this."

"What, can't even make up your own arguments?" Will shook his head in mock insult, "Just proves that I'm right."

"I tell you often enough that I was hoping you'd finally listen to a fresh voice."

Will looked at him in genuine confusion, "I was trained by Halt. why do you think I'd listen to anyone?"

Horace opened his mouth for another quick reply, but stopped himself, eventually sighing, "You're right. Silly me."

"Glad we agree on something."

"I meant silly me to assume that you'd ever do anything sensible."

This time it was Will who huffed, folding his arms and turning away from his best friend, finding Selethen still watching them only a raised eyebrow had joined his smirk.

"Is this normal?"

"For everyone here." Will admitted with a sigh, "What are you doing down here anyway? I thought you would've been wrapped up in meetings or something?"

"For the most part I have been since just after midday, mostly with Atanyan." Selethen explained, "but I was able to sneak away with the excuse that I would get some kafay. Only problem is I can't seem to find the kitchens."

At this, he spread his hands out, gesturing to the empty hallway they were in.

Horace laughed, "Come on then. We're on our way there too for an early dinner."

He nodded his thanks and the three of them began wandering through the halls.

"How are the meetings going?" Horace asked conversationally.

Selethen glanced down, watching the ground as he answered, "As all meetings do. Plenty of people arguing about the same points over and over again."

"What points are they arguing over now?"

"What to do about the Tualaghi. They are a tribe of bandits and criminals who travel around the desert." Selethen explained when he saw their looks of confusion, "They've grown more active lately so we were discussing how best to handle them."

"I've heard Halt talk about them before." Will said, "But I didn't know that they had become such a big issue."

Inwardly he cursed, once again reminded that all their information about anything in Arrida was 16 years old.

"Their numbers have grown faster than we thought. I'm going to suggest that we try to make an alliance with the Bedullin, a nomadic tribe. They know the desert better than anyone and are excellent trackers. Their leader is an old friend of mine and I'm hoping that together we might be able to stop the Tualaghi."

Will and Horace nodded in agreement, not seeing anything wrong with the plan.

"Are you hoping to take care of this tribe before facing the Temujai?" Horace asked curiously.

Selethen nodded, "The Emrikir wants to take care of them as soon as possible and I'm inclined to agree. Fighting a war while also fighting for your home would put too much strain on a country."

"Hence all the problems in Nihon-Ja," Will huffed.

The tall Arridi raised an eyebrow at his comment, "The problems in Nihon-Ja?"

Quickly, the two Araluens explained the civil war and surrounding situation. His eyes widened in understanding.

"That's horrible." he said, "All because he wants everyone to have the same rights?"

Horace nodded gravely, "It's been that way for centuries, with the Senshi ruling over the lower class. They believe that they are simply born better than others."

"Well, I'm very happy to hear that Shigeru isn't that way," Selethen said, lips pressed into a thin line.

"Us too." Will agreed, "And the world is slowly coming to the same conclusion. I heard Erak talking about how he wants to get rid of the slavery in Skandia, using it only for criminals basically."

"I'm sure Hal threw his support behind that idea," Horace smirked, referring to how their new friend's mother was once a slave.

Will nodded again, "Hal, the rest of the Herons, and a few of the Jarls from the sounds of it. It's been difficult though as so many of them make a profit off of selling the slaves."

"That does make everything more difficult. Money tends to get in the way of morality." Selethen put in.

"Truer words were never spoken," Will sighed before looking at the Wakir, "What about Arrida? Do you use slaves there?"

"Personally? No. I think I've made it clear that I find the idea of owning other people to be revolting. As for the rest of Arrida, slavery, sadly, tends to be a gray area."

"Gray area?"

"There are no official laws regarding the subject and His Excellency hasn't made a public statement, leaving it up to the regional leaders to decide how to handle it in each of their own regions." he clarified, "Most of them don't care or turn a blind eye because of the money they get from it. There is one Wakir over in Socorro who has actually made an official slave market, taxing the process. Others are paid under the table to ignore it."

"That's horrifying." Horace actually looked nauseated at the thought of it. He, understandably, hadn't had much experience with slave markets.

"Yes, it is." Selethen said gravely while Will nodded.

The conversation died off as each of them fell into their own thoughts. In moments though, they had come up to the kitchen door.

Plenty of people were inside, getting things ready for dinner that night. Jenny was on the far end of the room, stirring something. She glanced up and waved cheerfully at her friends and Will smiled brightly and waved back.

A servant approached them to ask if they needed anything. Listening to the Wakir's request, she scurried off and was back with a full pot of coffee in seconds. Dinner may not have been for at least another hour, but with so many people in the castle who enjoyed the drink, it was a guarantee that there was always coffee ready in the kitchens.

Selethen accepted it gratefully and then said his goodbyes. The door swung behind him as he left, but not with enough force to latch it. The door crept back open another inch or so, but went unnoticed by the knight and ranger.

Glancing around and seeing that everyone else was absorbed in their work, Horace turned to Will, "So? What do you think?"

Will was silent for a minute, not wanting to admit anything, but knowing that his best friend would be able to tell anyway, "I think that there are definitely worse people that Nel could've ended up with."

"Very true." Horace said, stuffing his hands into his pockets, "He seems like a good man."

"Yeah, but we've been wrong about people before. Remember Keren?"

Horace shook his head, smirking slightly, "No, that was all you. You were wrong about him."

Will huffed, rolling his eyes, "Whatever, my point still stands. I want to trust him, but this is Nel we're talking about Horace."

"I know, I know," He said gently, "But with this whole situation, we don't have a choice. We have to trust him with Nel. It's that, or a world war we have no hope of winning."

Will grumbled. Horace continued, "Look, he's been a good guy so far, and there's a whole month to find out if that's true. But he's trying, that much is obvious, so we should too. The engagement was just as much a shock to him as us. Nel already asked Halt to cut him some slack. We can too."

"Doesn't mean I have to like it." he mumbled, "I still think there's something else going on though."

Horace sighed and moved forward so he could sling an arm over his friend's shoulders, "That's cause you Rangers are dirty and sneaky and underhanded. You're overthinking things. Not everyone is hiding something. Face it Will, you are gonna have to make some room for a new branch in your family tree. You're getting a brother-in-law, whether you like it or not, and, later on, some nieces and nephews."

Will groaned in disgust, "This is Nellie you're talking about! Don't say things like that!"

Horace just laughed at him.

Will rolled his eyes, "When did you get sensible like this?"

"When I realized that Rangers have absolutely no sense of self preservation."

Will ignored the jab and resisted rolling his eyes again, "Come on, let's see if Jenny's done yet."

"Gladly," Horace perked up, now thoroughly distracted at the prospect of food.

The two of them made their way across the kitchen, still unaware of the open door behind them, or the Wakir on the other side who had heard everything.

Selethen stood there, thinking over the conversation thoughtfully, before he fully realized it.

Aranel was related, by blood or otherwise, to four of the most prominent Rangers in Araluen. She was cared for by the Royal Family, the kingdom's foremost knight, and, if the rumors were true, had many other friends in very high places.

It didn't matter if they lived in Arrida, by marrying her, he was, by extension, marrying her whole family.

And it was a very dangerous one. One that didn't trust him just yet.

Selethen vowed then and there that he'd change their minds. He wasn't quite sure how yet, but he was going to earn that branch.

Professor: So I'll admit, I like very few of the canon ships in the Ranger's Apprentice books. And even then, only if they are written well.
Therefore, I'm changing them in this story to some of my favorite ships. I think a couple are obvious at this point, but yes, one of them is Horace and Alyss. Alyss was so poorly written and outside of books five and six, we don't see her interact with Will a whole lot of the time. I honestly like her better with Horace. I think their personalities work out so much better.