John Flanagan - The Royal Ranger

Those nearest the two Rangers looked up sulkily. But the column began to move a little faster, led by Tim Stoker in the front rank. Will nodded towards him approvingly.

“He’s a good kid,” he said and Maddie agreed.

“He was a big help before you turned up,” she said. “He was the one who took on the Storyman when he caught up with us.”

She had told Will the bare facts of the confrontation with the Storyman but she hadn’t gone into detail. She didn’t want to dwell on the fact that she had killed him. Or on the savage pleasure she had felt at the time. Such feelings still made her vaguely uncomfortable.

“Maddie! Will Treaty!”

It was Rob, seated on Bumper. He had turned back when Will had yelled for greater speed. Now he was staring beyond the two Rangers, to the horizon in the south.

“What is it, Rob?” Maddie asked. But there had been a shrill note in his voice that made her fear the worst.

“Someone’s coming,” he said.

Rob had seen them first, from his slightly elevated position on Bumper’s back. But within a few seconds, they were visible to Maddie and Will and the other children.

For the moment they were just dark figures against the skyline. Maddie tried to count them but as they moved she lost count. There seemed to be almost a dozen of them and they were coming from the south, bunched together on the road.

One of them was slightly in the lead and he waved the others on. Even from a distance, Maddie fancied that he was pointing to the small group ahead of them.

Frightened cries rang out among the children. They had thought they were safe. Worse, they had been assured they were safe. Now they were in danger again and they looked at Will and Maddie with distrust. They had no doubt who was following them.

“It’s the Stealer!” one of them said and, as the words were spoken, the others whimpered in fear.

“You told us he was gone!” That was one of the older boys, and he shouted the words at Will.

The Ranger met his accusing eyes steadily.

“I thought he was,” he said evenly. “Apparently I was wrong.” He turned back to watch the pursuing men, frowning as he concentrated his gaze on the man leading them, recalling how he had been crouched, peering at the road, when they had first seen the slavers.

“Seems I was wrong about them having a tracker too,” he said in an aside to Maddie. “Looks like that fellow in the lead has been following our trail.”

Maddie looked at him, panic clutching at her throat. “What do we do?” she said. Her voice threatened to betray her and rise into a high-pitched quaver. She fought against it, forcing herself to remain calm. Will reached out and took her wrist, squeezing it firmly. The contact calmed her down. She drew in a deep breath and looked him in the eyes.

“I’m all right,” she said.

Will nodded. “Good. Now here’s what you do. You run. Get these kids running as fast as they can. I’ll stay here and hold off Ruhl and his thugs.”

She glanced fearfully around the open terrain that surrounded them.

“Here?” she said fearfully. “You can’t stop them here! You’ve got open ground on either side, with nothing to protect your flanks. They’ll outflank you and kill you!”

He nodded approvingly at her assessment of the situation. “Seems like you’ve learned a lot about judging terrain,” he said. “But I’m not going to try to stop them. And I’m not planning to let them outflank me. I just want to slow them down—although maybe I’ll be able to pick off a few of them. Then I’ll fall back and do the same thing over again. And I’ll keep doing it for as long as it takes for you to get away.”

As he was talking, he walked to where Tug was standing and unbuckled the arrow case hanging from his saddle. He took an extra dozen arrows and crammed them into his back quiver.

Tug snorted nervously. I don’t like this.

“I’ll be fine,” Will said softly. Maddie assumed he was talking to her to reassure her.

“Let me stay with you,” she said impulsively. “Together, maybe we can hold them off.”

He shook his head. “Together we’d still be outflanked. And it’d be twice as hard for two of us to slip away unseen. Besides, I need you to get the children to safety. If we leave them on their own, they’ll give up after a few kilometres. You’ll have to drive them, Maddie. Keep them running. Force them. Threaten them. Scream at them. But keep them running.”

He glanced up at the sky, noting the position of the sun, where it was beginning its slanting journey down in the west.

“It’s a few hours till dark. If you’re still ahead of them at sunset, look for a good hiding place off the road. Let them rest up for a while, then get them running again before daybreak.”

“But… what about their tracker? He’ll be able to find us,” she said.

Will raised an eyebrow. “When they get closer, he’s going to be the first one I look for,” he said.

She looked fearfully at the dark figures on the road behind them. Already, she could see they were getting closer.

“They’ll kill you,” she said miserably, tears welling in her eyes. Will shook his head.

“Nobody’s done that yet,” he said. “And a lot have tried. Now get going!”

He snapped the last three words at her, galvanising her into action. She reached out and touched his arm and he nodded to her. Then she turned away, yelling to the children.

“Come on! Run! Run for your lives!”

The children turned and began running. Inevitably, the oldest led the way, pulling away from the smaller children. Only one turned back. It was the small boy on Bumper’s back, in front of Rob. He seized the reins and held Bumper still for a moment.

“Can I stay and watch Will Treaty kill the Stealer?” he asked.

“No! Now get going!” Maddie yelled at him. “Run, Bumper! Run!”

Reluctantly, the boy released the reins and Bumper turned, trotting along the road, overtaking the children who had begun running already.

“At least someone’s got faith in me,” Will said, with the ghost of a smile. He looked back to see Ruhl’s men beginning to spread out in a long line, either side of the road. He nodded to himself. Maddie had been right. With open ground on either side, they would try to outflank him, and there was little he could do about it.

He counted them. There were eleven men in the line. Most of them were now waist-deep in the long grass. Two remained on the road itself. That would be Jory Ruhl and the tracker, he thought, wondering idly where the tracker had come from. Those two were still fully exposed on the road and for a moment he was tempted to try a long shot at Ruhl. After all, the slaver had no idea who he was facing and he wouldn’t be expecting the sort of uncanny accuracy with which a Ranger could launch his arrows.

Then, reluctantly, he discarded the notion. His first order of business was to get rid of the tracker, to give Maddie and the children a better chance of escaping. His own personal revenge would have to wait—although not too long.

Calmly, unhurriedly, he drew an arrow from the quiver. He inspected it for flaws, although he knew there would be none, and nocked it to the string.

He turned side on, the massive longbow ready, but as yet undrawn, as he watched the small figures approaching on the road. The men on either side were making heavier weather of it, pushing through the waist-high grass, and Ruhl and his tracker had unintentionally got ahead of them. They were within long bowshot now, but Will waited a little longer. He rarely missed but he wanted to make sure of this shot. Mentally, he reviewed his actions. Draw, sight, release. Then, when he knew the shot was going to hit its target—and he could usually tell within the first few seconds—he would loose a second arrow at Ruhl.