Ranger's Apprentice 3 & 4 Bindup Read Free Page B

He reached behind him and straightened the fallen chair, then made a gesture of peace to Halt.
    â€˜Look,’ he said in a milder tone, ‘just help me clear up this Foldar business. Two months, maybe three, then you can go after Will, with my blessing.’
    Halt’s grizzled head was already shaking before he’d finished.
    â€˜In two months he could be dead. Or sold on as a slave and lost forever. I need to go now while the trail is still warm. I promised him,’ he added after a pause, his voice thick with misery.
    â€˜No,’ said Crowley, with a note of finality. Hearing it, Halt squared his shoulders.
    â€˜Then I’ll see the King,’ he said.
    Crowley looked down at his desk.
    â€˜The King won’t see you,’ he said flatly. He looked up and saw the surprise and betrayal in Halt’s eyes.
    â€˜He won’t see me? He refuses me?’ For over twenty years, Halt had been one of the King’s closest confidants,with constant, unquestioned access to the royal chambers.
    â€˜He knows what you’ll ask, Halt. He doesn’t want to refuse you, so he refuses to see you.’
    Now the surprise and betrayal were gone from Halt’s eyes. In their place was anger. Bitter anger.
    â€˜Then I’ll just have to change his mind,’ he said quietly.

As the wolfship rounded the point and reached the shelter of the bay, the heavy swell died away. Inside the small natural harbour, the tall, rocky headlands broke the force of both wind and swell so that the water was flat calm, its surface broken only by the spreading V of the wolfship’s wake.
    â€˜Is this Skandia?’ Evanlyn asked.
    Will shrugged uncertainly. It certainly didn’t look the way he had expected. There were only a few small, ramshackle huts on the shore, with no sign of a town. And no people.
    â€˜It doesn’t seem big enough, does it?’ he said.
    Svengal, coiling a rope nearby, laughed at their ignorance.
    â€˜This isn’t Skandia,’ he told them. ‘We’re barely halfway to Skandia. This is Skorghijl.’
    Seeing their puzzled looks, he explained further. ‘We can’t make the full crossing to Skandia now. That storm in the Narrow Sea delayed us so long that the Summer Galeshave set in. We’ll shelter here until they’ve blown out. That’s what those huts are for.’
    Will looked dubiously at the weathered timber huts. They looked grim and uncomfortable.
    â€˜How long will that take?’ he asked and Svengal shrugged.
    â€˜Six weeks, two months. Who knows?’ He moved off, the coil of rope over one shoulder, and the two young people were left to survey their new surroundings.
    Skorghijl was a bleak and uninviting place of bare rock, steep granite cliffs and a small level beach where the sun and salt-whitened timber huts huddled. There was no tree or blade of green anywhere in sight. The rims of the cliffs were scattered with the white of snow and ice. The rest was rock and shale, granite black and dull grey. It was as if whatever gods the Skandians worshipped had removed all vestige of colour from this rocky little world.
    Unconsciously, without the need to battle the constant backward set of the waves, the rowers slackened their pace. The ship glided across the bay to the shingle beach. Erak, at the tiller, kept her in the channel that ran deep right up to the water’s edge, until the keel finally grated into the shingle and the wolfship was, for the first time in days, still.
    Will and Evanlyn stood, their legs uncertain after days of constant movement.
    The ship rang with the dull thuds of timber on timber as the oars were drawn inboard and stowed. Erak looped a leather thong over the tiller to secure it and prevent the rudder banging back and forth with the movement of the tide. He glanced briefly at the two prisoners.
    â€˜Go ashore if you like,’ he told them. There was no need to restrain them or guard them in any way.