The Surprise Siege - Ranger's Apprentice

Hiding Again

Will was, as a matter of fact, was slithering silently down the dark central staircase in Castle Redmont, wrapped in his cloak and cowl, his soft-soled boots making no sound on the stone floor. Pauline crept a few steps behind him, making just a little noise in her long flowing skirts and soft day slippers. Will made it to the bottom of the stairs and ghosted across the landing to stand on the other side behind a floor-length draped tapestry. When Pauline came to the bottom, he silently gestured for her to stop for a moment. He then peered out from behind the tapestry's shadow and checked the hallway. Then he gestured again, and Pauline moved quickly, smoothly, and silently across the landing and met Will under the tapestry. He moved aside so that she could have the better cover, so that she was just behind the tapestry and Will was in the dark shadow. Will checked the hallway again, and murmured softly to Pauline, "We are getting close enough to the main hall that I think you should stay here for now while I go check it out. I'll return very soon and report back. Make sure you stay behind the tapestry and don't even peek out. Just that sudden movement could make someone suspicious."

Pauline nodded wordlessly, and Will moved out from the shadow of the tapestry and into the open. He moved smoothly across the open landing and into the anteroom that attached to the main hall. He moved over to the curtains surrounding the window, melted seamlessly into its shadow, and waited for someone to come inside. Will looked around the anteroom and thought, Last time I was in here was after escaping the crowds with Alyss, not even 2 hours ago. It can't be possible something that normal could have been happening before something like this. Will sighed at the irony, and just as he got settled into his hiding place and fixed his cowl so that its shadow completely hid his face, someone pushed on the large doors and Will froze as a Genovesan entered the room. He watched as the Genovesan, who kept his back turned to Will so he couldn't identify him, pull out a small slip of paper and read what was on it carefully. Then he put it back in an inner pocket and stepped over to the even bigger main doors that lead to the main hall. Will watched him open the door widely, step through, and release the door, allowing it to start to swing shut behind him. At the last minute, Will darted out from behind the curtain and slipped through the crack in the doors, immediately diving to the left. Will knew there were large potted plants around the doors that were tall enough to give him substantial cover, and by diving to the left, he landed right behind a large potted plant. To the naked eye, it looked like a slight shadow had flitted across the door and then disappeared behind the plant. Will rose to crouched position behind the plant as the Genovesan walked on down the long carpet, oblivious to Will's entrance.

Will looked out and observed the hall. The banners on the wall had all been torn down and pictures on the wall had be slashed. At the end of the hall surrounding the audience chair was a large pack of the hired men, speaking in what sounded like Toscan. They must have been hired from Toscana, thought Will. He noticed Baron Arald, Lady Sandra, and a few more nobles were all sitting surrounded by guards at the end of the hall, cowering under the watchful eyes of the enemy soldiers. Sir Rodney was nowhere to be seen, however. There were also a couple hundred Redmont soldiers sitting in packs on the floor, their hands bound in front of them, slumped over and defeated. The were going around hitting them and screaming at them to tell them where the gems were. The soldier sitting closest to Will suddenly whimpered as the Genovesan came up to him. The Genovesan leaned over the soldier and hissed in the common language, "What did you tell the other man? What was it you said?"

The soldier flinched and said haltingly, "W - hen I was r - running to escape, I - I saw -"

"Just say it!" the Genovesan said softly, but it was all the more menacing because of it.

The soldier flinched harder. "I - it was a R - ranger, and the head diplomat, a l - lady."

"What were they doing?"