Ranger of Kings (William of Alamore Series Book 1)

by C. J. R. Isely

  Will felt choked by terror as he saw the jaw, tight with fury, under the hood. The dagger at his side felt worthless compared to the long-bladed knife the Ranger held in his torch free hand. “I recommend that, if you’d like to live, you stop following people you should leave be. And that you don’t draw that dagger,” The Ranger said, coolly. “I didn’t come in here to kill you, but if you threaten me, I will not hesitate to do so.”

  His fingers stiff, Will released his dagger hilt and let it slid back into its sheath.

  “Very good, Will,” the Ranger leaned down and pulled him to his feet. “How’s the side?”

  “It’s fine,” Will lied, ignoring the urge to rub the place he could feel throbbing even through his bandages and tunic.

  The lips under the hood twitched. “Fine is a good enough lie for now,” The Ranger suddenly swept himself to the side, away from Will and the door, a moment before it opened and Rowan and Colin entered. “Do squires bother staying in their allowed areas anymore, or is that an outdated rule?” snarled the Ranger, snapping the door closed on the heels of the two newcomers.

  Rowan and Colin both jumped, spinning round to face the Ranger. “That’s outdated,” Rowan said, after a long moment. “Rules were made to be broken.”

  “So were bones, if you’re using that logic,” the Ranger retorted. “What are you two doing here?”

  “Following Will,” Colin said, nervously. “Speaking of which, Will, why are we here?”

  “Following me,” said the Ranger.

  Will opened his mouth, then closed it. He had no explanation. His two friends didn’t know that the Ranger knew Marl. They didn’t understand why he wanted to know more about the Ranger and he didn’t know how to even begin.

  “If you three are going to follow me, just shut up and don’t get in my way. I’ll explain some as we walk,” the Ranger said and strode down the hallway, the light of the torch moving his shadow along the wall.

  The three squires exchanged bemused looks. “What is going on?” Colin whispered.

  “It’s a lot to explain,” Will ran a hand through his hair. “Somethings going on and I want to know what it is.”

  “Well,” Rowan said, straightening himself to his full height. “We aren’t going to find out by staying back here, let’s go.”

  The Ranger was opening a door off the hallway, head turned to see if they were following. The three boys broke into a trot to reach him as he stepped through and into a dark stairwell leading down, into shadows and out of sight.

  “I need you three alert. What we are looking for is another entrance to the Tunnels. The one that was down here was sealed off from the inside, with a cave-in, about five years ago,” the Ranger said as he walked.

  “If it sealed, why are we looking for it?” asked Rowan.

  “He thinks that the Tunnel people have cleared it. Don’t you?” said Colin, thoughtfully.

  “Exactly,” the Ranger replied, running his torch free hand along the walls.

  “So why did you plan to come down here alone if there’s a chance of attack?” Will asked quizzically.

  The Ranger turned to them and laughed softly. “I knew I wouldn’t be alone. You can’t resist trouble and the other two won’t let you do anything stupid alone. If you mean why don’t I bring a brigade of knights; it’s because I don’t believe in overreacting. This is a theory, not a fact. Merely a tipoff,” Will felt the Ranger’s eyes shift to him and his stomach twisted. Did he mean Marl? Is this what his father had come to tell them?

  The Ranger, however, did not elaborate, instead turning round once more and stepping off the last stair into another hallway.

  “This bloke is strange,” Rowan whispered.

  Colin shrugged. “I think it’s more along the lines of unorthodox, which is probably why he’s not a knight.”

  “Not a knight because he doesn’t care to be,” Will muttered, more to himself than the others.

  “All of those are true to an extent, boys,” the Ranger replied calmly, as he halted. He had one hand on the stone and his head tilted downwards toward the floor. “And this is what we were looking for,” He knelt and reached up, handing the torch to Colin. “Don’t wander off, I’ll need that back in a moment,” The Ranger growled. “But go ahead and grab another. There should be a bracket nearby.”

  Will glanced around, noticing an unlit torch on the wall to his left. He grabbed it and pressed it against the one that Colin held, casting more light through the hall and on the stone that the Ranger was working to pry his fingers beneath. There was nothing largely significant except for the small notches, like the one in the barn, that allowed hands to grip it. Will shivered and watched the Ranger lift, pulling it aside to reveal an entrance.

  Cold air rushed in through the tunnel, causing the firelight to flicker unevenly. “There must be an opening somewhere. The collapse is further along this branch, so it may be nothing. I don’t care to risk it though,” the Ranger said, easing his legs over the side. “Which is why,” he grunted and dropped into the tunnel, reaching his hand up to take the torch from Colin, “you three will wait here. I don’t need you three as a liability.”

  “What?” Rowan protested. “We can fight!”

  “That doesn’t make you good. I’m not arguing this, I’m telling how it will be, Rowan.” the Ranger snapped. “If I haven’t returned in an hour, then you can get the knights. Is that understood?”

  “Yes,” Will replied, shooting Rowan a look as he opened his mouth to argue more. Rowan crossed his arms and huffed, dropping into a seated position on the floor. All three squires watched as the Ranger walked out of sight in the tunnel.

  “He doesn’t have to be such an ass, does he?” Rowan complained.

  “Pretty sure it’s just his character. Sir Ross has told me I’m not to get in his way or cross him,” Colin said. He and Will lowered themselves to the floor as well, their eyes still fixed on the dark opening in front of them.

  “That air is freezing,” Will said, shivering again.

  “It’s underground, so it’s bound to be,” said Colin.

  “Yes,” said Will, distractedly, “but it feels like outside air. It’s cold but it’s not stale, like how the tunnels were.”

  “Well,” Rowan said, shrugging, “if it’s fresh, then it leads outside, which isn’t where the Tunnel people are. Not sure if you’ve grasped this but they’re in the tunnels. It’s a difficult concept with the name, I know, but,” he broke off into laughter as Will, grinning, punched him in the arm.

  “So, Will, what is going on? Why were you following the Ranger?” Colin asked, breaking the lighthearted moment.

  Will grimaced, looking away from his two friends. He didn’t know how to explain the nagging feeling he had that something was going on that involved his father. Plus, the Ranger had threatened him into secrecy. At the same time, though, the Ranger had essentially said there was something. He hadn’t tried to cover anything when talking to Colin and Rowan.

  “Last night, one of the King’s dogs, Grot, woke me up,” Will started. Soon he was explaining everything, from the strange meeting with Marl to the threatening words as they rode that morning.

  When he had finished, Rowan let out a low whistle. “That explains how you looked this morning when the Ranger said he would be riding by you.”

  Will nodded, eyes fixed on the tunnel entrance once again. “Yeah…hey, how long has he been gone now, anyway?”

  “He should be back soon,” Colin said nervously.

  “I wouldn’t count on it,” laughed a voice behind them.

  They spun, Will slipping as he scrambled to his feet. The short stature form of Vonnic stood in the hallway, blocking their way back to the stairs. In his arms, he held a crossbow, pointed directly at Will. “Drop the torch, William. There won’t be any playing the hero with that.”

  Will glanced at Colin, who nodded to him before he obeyed and let the torch clatter to the cobbles.

  “What are you doing, Vonnic?”
Rowan demanded.

  “What I have always done; assisting King Tollien of Thornten in taking what is rightfully his. This castle, the Tunnels, these lands. Alamore belongs to him,” Vonnic took a slow step forward. “And we just need to make sure we have things handled a little piece at a time. Danvac, tie these three up. We might as well take all of them with us when we leave.”

  Will turned as another man stepped out behind them. The gangly figure was vaguely familiar, his tight curls of blonde hair falling into his icy eyes. Then Will’s stomach dropped. The man from his first day in the castle, the soldier.

  In one hand he held a long-bladed knife, and, in the other, a length of rope. He smiled cruelly. “Lonnac brat, we’ll start with you, hands behind your back or Will there gets a bolt to the throat.”

  Colin didn’t hesitate, putting both hands behind his back. Will noticed that Colin, nervous so often, looked calm and collected. He seemed indifferent as Danvac roughly bound his hands together, not even flinching as the man took the blade of the dagger across the palm of his left hand while pushing him to the floor, on his knees.

  Rowan, the next to be tied, was staring at Vonnic as though he could think of nothing better than to brutally murder the small man. His teeth were exposed in a snarl, his fist clenched tightly behind him as Danvac bound them, before forcing him to kneel like Colin.

  Will wondered about his own expression. He didn’t know how to feel as the rope cut into his wrist a moment later. He doubted he looked as composed as Colin, nor as furious as Rowan. He was somewhere between them. Some part of him wanting to risk the cross-bolt through his stomach to throw himself backwards, against Danvac, in the hope that they would both fall in the tunnel. At the same time, he knew it would mean the lives of Colin and Rowan. This, more than anything, made him comply as he was forced to his knees.

  What about the Ranger? The thought made him glance over his own shoulder, at the darkness. Vonnic knew something. This wasn’t a coincidence.

  “Now,” Vonnic said, his voice becoming squeaky in excitement, “Now we have the choice to bring you or to kill you. We can’t really leave you here, to tell people,” He tossed aside the crossbow, pulling a sword from his belt. “I had orders to try to save you,” the entire time he spoke, his eyes seemed to bore into Will’s own, “but I can’t see that it would be worth blowing our own covers. Do you, Danvac?”

  “Not in the slightest,” the taller man replied, stepping around Will so that the two stood, side by side, surveying their work.

  A thrill of fear stole through Will as the last of his surprise died in his chest. Looking up at the two men, he could think of nothing. There were no escapes now. The Ranger wasn’t returning for them and Vonnic was lifting his sword more securely in his hands. “I think that you can go first,” he said, small dark eyes murderous as Will braced himself, the cold air filling his lungs as he watched the blade descend.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The world broke into chaos as a form threw itself from the shadows, its shoulder hitting Vonnic, hard, and knocking him to the floor. The sword slithered away across the stone as the newcomer pulled himself, unsteadily, to his feet.

  Danvac let out a snarl of rage and lifted his dagger, ready to strike as the man shook the hair from his own livid face.

  “Touch them, soldier, and I will make your death miserable,” Sir Laster snarled, the knife in his hand glinting in the light from the torch on the floor.

  The soldier paused, his anger turning to cold laughter. “Laster, you’ve seen better days! This isn’t a fight; it’s just finishing the job that the tunnel people started.”

  The two men lunged at the same moment and Will scrambled to his feet, heart thundering. Vonnic was slowly beginning to move. There was nothing that Laster could do if the small man joined the fray. It was clear in his uneven movements that his shoulder was still too painful to properly fight.

  Rowan, the closest to Vonnic’s fallen weapon, had struggled to his feet as well and was trying to sink down with his bound hands close to the blade. The smell of burning made Will turn toward Colin. “Colin!” his cry was barely audible over the deafening sound of the two men locked in combat.

  Face twisted in pain, Colin was yanking his hands free of the burning rope and pushing himself away from the torch. With a fluid movement, Colin dove toward Will, yanking his dagger from his belt and cutting the binding from Will’s hands before moving for Rowan.

  Hands now free, Will grabbed his own short blade and sprang into the air, tackling Vonnic, who had stood again, disorientated. This time, when the short man fell, his head struck the ground hard. He didn’t rise.

  “Laster!” Rowan yelled and Will turned.

  Blood had darkened the floor and Sir Laster was stumbling backwards, toward the tunnel entrance, with Danvac bearing down on him. All three squires sprang forward at the same time, Colin and Will with their daggers, Rowan holding Vonnic’s discarded sword. They collided with the bigger man and fell to the unforgiving ground. Will heard the sickening crack of bones. He could taste blood in his own mouth. Someone let out a cry of pain.

  A fist collided with his jaw and bright lights seemed to dance in front of his eyes for a moment. A second cry of pain and Will felt the man he was holding go limp. Lifting his face, he spat out a mouth full of blood and looked up, head spinning. The dim light seemed to be even more distorted than before. Colin was lying on his back on the ground to his left, breathing heavily as Rowan held a hand against his forehead, blood running over his eyebrow.

  Will looked down and thought, for a moment, he might be sick. Danvac was unmoving, his lifeless eyes staring at the ceiling and his own long-bladed dagger’s sharp edge sticking out of the place where his heart had been. Sir Laster was straightening himself, his face disgusted.

  “I didn’t want to make it that fast but the bastard had to die,” He looked at the three squires, blood dripping down his face from a cut on his cheek. “What the Thornten are you three doing down here? Where’s the Ranger?”

  “Don’t step backwards,” Colin said, gasping, “but he’s down there.”

  Sir Laster turned, stepping away from the tunnel entrance. “Well, that’s not quite what I was expecting. This tunnel is collapsed, it’s only about twenty yards long now,” he said, dismissively.

  “Well the Ranger’s been down there about an hour,” Rowan said, pulling his hand from the gash on his forehead and looking at the blood with fascination. “So, he must walk slow. Either that or something isn’t right.”

  Will glanced toward the unconscious form of Vonnic. “Could he have been attacked?”

  “We would have heard him if it really is twenty yards,” Colin said.

  Laster grabbed the torch from the floor, flinching at the movement of his left arm. “Go get Sir Ross and Sir Rockwood. Perhaps a few of the others, but I need those two. Get the King as well. Bring them here immediately but I don’t want one of you waiting back to stand guard over that useless man,” he said, gesturing toward Vonnic. “I may need assistance.”

  “You can’t go after the Ranger! You’re not in a condition to fight for him or yourself!” Will protested.

  Sir Laster smiled, the humor not reaching his eyes. “In that case, you best bring me back up quickly.”

  With that he grabbed the sword that Rowan had abandoned on the floor and dropped into the tunnel, plunging the three of them into darkness.

  “Some knights,” Rowan’s voice said to Will’s right. “Are amazing. And some knights are Sir Laster, which is to say, complete morons.”

  “Let’s get the other knights before something happens,” Colin said, ignoring Rowan’s remark.

  The three made their way up the stairs, blindly feeling along the walls. Once in the hallway above, they broke into a run until they reached the door and threw it open. The dining hall was nearly empty. Three knights still sat at the table; all engrossed their own conversation until they heard the door thrown against the opposite wall.

  Sir Rock
wood, Sir Ross, and Sir Don all stood, turning toward the three squires, hands on their swords. “Rowan!” Rockwood rushed toward them, concerned. “What did you do to your head?”

  “There’s not time!” Rowan panted. Will glanced at his friend, noticing how pale he had become.

  “Vonnic and Danvac attacked us,” Colin said, looking straight at Sir Ross. “Sir Laster came down and attacked. Danvac is dead, Vonnic unconscious, and Sir Laster followed the Ranger down a tunnel. The Ranger has been gone over an hour. He should have only taken a few minutes because the tunnel was supposed to have been collapsed a little ways further.”