The Royal Ranger: A New Beginning: 1 (Ranger’s Apprentice: The Royal Ranger)

THE LITTLE CABIN IN THE TREES WAS STILL HIDDEN FROM sight when Tug raised his head and let out a cheerful whinny. Bumper looked up at the sound.

Almost instantly, an answering whinny came from the direction of the cabin.

“We’ve got company,” Will said.

Maddie looked at him inquiringly but he said no more. He thought he’d recognized the strange horse’s sound but he wasn’t totally sure. No sense in voicing an assumption only to have it proven wrong.

As it turned out, he was right. They rode into the clearing and saw a bay mare standing before the porch. She turned her head as they approached and whinnied again. Both Bumper and Tug responded.

Maddie looked at her horse, puzzled. “How does Bumper know her?” she asked.

Will glanced at her. “Ranger horses tend to recognize each other. Even if they’ve never met.”

“That doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said a cheerful voice from the end of the porch. “How can you recognize someone you’ve never met?”

Will shrugged. “Why ask me? I’m not a horse.”

You don’t have the legs for it, Tug commented dryly.

Gilan was sitting at the end of the porch, fondling Sable’s ears. The dog had her head to one side, eyes closed and a blissful expression on her face.

Sable loved to have the thick fur around her ears and throat patted and smoothed.

Will dismounted and glared in mock disappointment at Sable.

“Some watchdog you are. You should have torn him to pieces.”

Sable thumped her tail on the porch boards in agreement. Gilan gave her a final pat and rose to his feet.

“Hello, Maddie. How’s your training going?”

She gave him a wan smile as she dismounted. “Well, some days I think I’m getting there. Then others I know I’m not.”

Gilan raised an eyebrow and looked at Will. He had never heard such self-deprecation from Maddie before. Perhaps this idea of Halt’s was working out. Will saw the look and guessed its meaning. He gave a brief nod.

“Should I take the horses to the stable?” she asked, and Gilan’s surprise went up another notch. Maddie volunteering to do menial work was something else he wasn’t accustomed to.

“Yes. If you would,” Will told her. “Blaze too.” He glanced at Gilan. “I assume you’ll stay with us? Or did you want to sleep at the castle?”

“No. I’ll stay here if I’m welcome,” Gilan said hastily. “Too much fuss and formality at the castle.”

“And we’re closer to The Heaped Platter here, of course,” Will said.

Gilan allowed himself a grin. The Heaped Platter was the name of Jenny’s eating house in Wensley Village.

“Well, yes,” the Commandant replied. “I thought I might slip over there for breakfast in the morning.”

“She’ll be glad to see you,” Will said, and for a moment, a hint of sadness tinged his expression. Jenny and Gilan might not have married, but they still had each other.

He led the way inside and moved to the kitchen bench, filling the coffeepot from the large jug of fresh water. He didn’t ask if Gilan wanted coffee. He was a Ranger. Rangers always wanted coffee.

As Will began to grind coffee beans, the rich aroma released by the grinding filled Gilan’s nostrils. His mouth watered at the thought of fresh coffee. He sat at the table, pushing aside a stack of papers that had been left there. Glancing idly at them, he recognized several of the weekly reports he sent out to Rangers throughout the country. There were several letters as well, and beneath them was a leather folder, with more papers inside. He tapped his finger on it.

“What’s this?” he asked. Will looked round and saw the leather folder.

His face took on a slightly embarrassed look.

“Oh . . . just an idea I was working on. It’s not important now.” He took the folder and shoved it into a bookshelf along one wall of the living room.

There was an air of finality about the gesture, Gilan thought. He shrugged.

He had merely been making idle conversation.

“So, how’s it working out with Maddie?” he asked, changing the subject.

Will, who had resumed his coffee grinding, turned to face him.

“Surprisingly well,” he said. “She’s quick and keen and she’s eager to learn. She loves the outdoor life and a little freedom. My guess is, she was rebelling against all the restrictions at Castle Araluen. Now that she’s not a princess anymore, she seems to be taking more notice of people around her.”

Gilan pursed his lips with interest. “Did you use the letter?” he asked. He was aware of the letter that Cassandra and Horace had sent to Will, disinheriting their daughter.

Will nodded, turning back to the task of making coffee again.

“Had to. She needed a jolt. Needed to know she was nothing special. And it worked.”

“How so?”

Will paused to consider, while he set the pot on the stovetop. He opened the firebox and tossed in several pieces of wood, then opened the draft at the bottom of the stove.

“Well, today is a good example. A local farmer was having trouble with a marten stealing his eggs and killing his hens.”

“So you took care of it?”

“Maddie did. Knocked it down with her sling. She’s a dead shot with that thing, by the way. Then she slipped over and skinned it in a few minutes.”

Gilan looked impressed. “Be a good pelt at this time of year.”

Will nodded as he dropped a handful of coffee into the boiling pot. “It was. It was a beautiful pelt. And that’s the thing. The farmer and his wife were as poor as church mice. Their clothes were thin and ragged. She gave the woman the pelt. Said she wanted her to have something warm for winter.”

Gilan nodded. “As you say, it sounds as if she’s taking notice of other people’s needs. Which is a good quality to have in a Ranger.”

“She’s always been a good kid at heart,” Will said. He’d decided not to say anything about the episode with the wine. “She just needed to remember it.”

Gilan stroked his chin thoughtfully. The news about Maddie was interesting—and gratifying. Appointing a girl as an apprentice Ranger had always been a risk. But it appeared to be working out.

But even more interesting was Will’s attitude and manner. There was a

sense of muted enthusiasm as he talked about his apprentice and her abilities.

The haunted look, the tension, the morbid obsession with revenge that had been so much a part of him over the past months seemed to have gone. He wasn’t back to his original, cheerful self. But he was definitely improving.

Looks like Halt knew what he was talking about, Gilan thought. Then he wondered why he was surprised by the revelation. Halt usually did know what he was talking about.

He waited while Will placed a cup of steaming, rich coffee in front of him, then said, “So, do you think she’s ready to go on a mission with you?”

He said it casually, but it was a crucial point. Will, torn by grief and fixated on the idea of hunting down Jory Ruhl, had spurned the last two missions Gilan had assigned to him. Gilan felt a surge of relief as he saw his friend considering the point, then nodding.

“Yes. I’d be happy to take her along on a mission. Be good for her at this stage of her training.”

The door opened and Maddie entered. They both turned and fell silent, as people do when the subject of their conversation suddenly appears. Maddie noticed their sudden lack of conversation and looked anxiously from Will to Gilan. Had Will been telling the Commandant of her fall from grace? she wondered.

“I gave Blaze an apple,” she said tentatively. “She seemed to think that was totally inadequate, so I gave her another.”

“She’ll be your slave for life,” Gilan said easily.

Maddie relaxed a little at his friendly tone. She glanced anxiously at Will, and sensing the cause for her concern, he gave a slight shake of the head. He pointed to the cup on the table.

“Coffee’s made,” he said and she sat gratefully, cradling her cup in both hands.

“I drink coffee now,” she told Gilan.

He nodded gravely. “Just as well. It’s a condition of becoming a Ranger.”

He saw the look of relief in her eyes, and he’d noticed the quick glance that passed between her and Will. Will’s face was deadpan. So deadpan that Gilan knew there was something he wasn’t being told. Then he shrugged mentally.

If Will had decided not to tell him, it was probably none of his business, he thought.

“Will says you’re ready to go on a mission with him,” he said. “What do you think?”

She glanced once at her mentor, then looked back to Gilan.

“I’m ready,” she said. “What’s the mission?”

Gilan was pleased with her reply. No hesitating. No uncertainty.

“It’s in Trelleth Fief,” he said. “The Ranger there has been killed.”

Will’s head snapped up instantly. “Killed? Killed by whom?”

Gilan shook his head uncertainly. “There’s no one suspected. He fell from his horse and his neck was broken.”

“So it was an accident?” Maddie said.

Gilan looked at her skeptically. “Possibly. Indeed, that’s the way it looks.

But I don’t believe in accidents—not when it’s a Ranger who’s died.”

Will was frowning thoughtfully. “Who’s the Ranger at Trelleth?” He paused and corrected himself. “Or rather, who was he?”

In a small force like the Ranger Corps, everyone knew each other, at least by sight and name. Of course, there were some closer relationships within the ranks as well.

“It was Liam,” Gilan told him. “Remember him?”

Will nodded sadly. He’d been present at Liam’s graduation, the day he was presented with his silver oakleaf. It had been the year that he and Halt and Horace had traveled to Hibernia to track down the cult leader, Tennyson.

“Yes. He was a good type.”

“He was indeed. He was one of the brighter ones among the younger crop of Rangers. We’ll miss him badly.”

“So what do you want us to do?” Will asked.

“Go up to Trelleth and ask around. See if you can find anything suspicious about his death. As I say, I’m always suspicious when a Ranger dies.”

Will glanced at a map of Araluen on the wall of the cabin. Trelleth was a medium-size fief on the eastern coast of the country. Gilan followed the direction of his gaze.

“The baron there is called Scully. He sent a carrier pigeon with news of Liam’s death. The man who found Liam’s body is a farmer,” he said. “Name of Wendell Gatt. His farm is a large one, about five kilometers southwest of Castle Trelleth.”

Will’s eyes remained fixed on the map. Like Gilan, he distrusted accidents. Particularly in a coastal fief like Trelleth. Coastal fiefs were vulnerable to outsiders—smugglers, pirates and the like. A coastline presented too many opportunities for intruders.

“We’ve nothing to keep us here,” he said. “We’ll start out tomorrow.”

Gilan nodded approvingly. “The sooner the better,” he said. The phrase might well have been the official Ranger motto, Will thought. “Check it out and see if it was just an accident.”

Will turned his gaze from the map to look at his old friend. “And if it wasn’t?”

Gilan made a small hand gesture. “Find out why someone wanted a Ranger dead. And who that someone might be.”