A Ranger From Adamnar

“I need to ring the general alarm,” Alana said.

“Why?” Etimus asked with a frown.

“That’s the only way to get the Rangers back to the stronghold,” she said. She was already losing patience with him had made up her mind to leave and go ring it no matter what he thought.

“Why do they all need to come back?” Etimus asked.

“We’re under attack!” Alana nearly shouted.

“Alana,” he said in a calm, slightly condescending tone. “There is no attack. There are no monsters anywhere near here, or humans who would want to attack us, for that matter. Besides, three quarters of our patrols patrol north into the great forest. If that storm is headed this way, they would find creatures in it a full day before they were anywhere near the stronghold.”

“I haven’t got time for this,” Alana said and turned quickly to go.

“And what about Privest Outpost?” he added. “Lord Dreaeral can teleport. He could easily warn the entire stronghold in a few hours when that storm hits his outpost. At least wait until then.”

Alana didn’t wait until then. She sprinted again out of the main hall and took the stairs to the bell tower three at a time.

“Easy there Alana,” Ranger Addins smiled at her. “You’re going to run right off the platform.

“I need to sound the general alarm,” she panted.

The smile left his face. “Why?” Alana could see in his eyes he at least understood she was serious. “On whose order?”

Alas, she could not so easily brush him off. Unlike Etimus, it was his job to guard the bell. He had a right to ask these questions. She pointed stiffly at the storm, now much more clearly visible from up here at the top of the stronghold. “There’s evil coming in that storm and it means to kill us all.”

He looked long at the storm and then turned his head to look back down at her. “By which Lord do you have authority to ring this bell,” he asked.

“Damn it all, Addins,” Alana shouted loud enough for the Rangers passing below to stop and look up. “I don’t need any Lord’s authority and you know it.”

“You can’t just go ringing the bell because you think there’s evil on the way,” he said angrily. “It’s meant for an impending attack, not a hunch. If you ring it all the Rangers will come back and there will be hell to pay.”

“What, so they all have to run very hard to get back here?” she asked, sarcastically. “Even if I am wrong, isn’t that the worst that will happen, Rangers run hard? By the Code of Adamnar and my good standing as a Stronghold Ranger sworn to this stronghold, it is my right to ring that bell. You will stand aside now!”

Kada pulled his sword from the dead Ranger. This was the first group they encountered. He had a hundred warriors at his command and this patrol of ten was no match for his advanced scout. What’s more, they had followed his orders and allowed one to run back to the outpost ahead to raise an alarm. He was proud of his scouts. Elite soldiers be damned, Kada thought. We’re the best warriors in the nation.

“Now run boys,” Kada shouted above the storm. “Run to the outpost like the witches themselves are at your heels.” Half his men were dead, but the fifty who remained, some badly wounded, shouted their eagerness for more battle. They ran hard straight south towards the outpost. All they had to do was lure the Rangers out. Their force size was chosen by Lord Kragon himself. Large enough to engage the outpost but not large enough to cause them to want to alert the stronghold another day’s run south.

About forty of his T’Rundi reached the outpost alive As Kragon said they would do, Rangers left their outpost to meet them in the forest in battle. Stupid Rangers, Kada thought. He could see there were about fifty Rangers forming outside already and more coming in from the flanks. It had worked. He looked eagerly over the humans for his prize—the commander of the outpost. Kragon told him the Mage had told him only the commander could teleport. Killing him was their only concern. The thousands that followed just a few miles behind would easily take care of the rest. The Mage had burned the face of the Ranger Lord into Kada’s mind and one of the witches would be looking through his eyes.

Kada hung back from the fight as his men were decimated by the Rangers. He waited and watched as his scouts got chopped up. He only had to live to see the leader. Lord Kragon’s witches would do the rest. He rocked back and forth on his heels, hidden behind his tree a few score yards from the battle, panting, allowing his nostrils to fill with the stink of battle and death. His eyes were wide with bloodlust. His sword hand pounded at the empty air.

As the last of his men died, Kada saw him. Most of the Rangers stayed on guard, waiting for another attack. The Ranger leader walked among his dead and wounded humans. That’s right, Kada thought, there’s nothing terrible here. There’s nothing wrong. No need to report it.

Kada would have eaten his own children for the chance to see what he saw next. Three witches teleported in around the leader and cut him up before he could teleport away. His head came off even before the last of the witches had fully teleported in. They cut his body into small pieces and teleported away again before even one of the Rangers could attack them. Kada’s job was done and done with glorious success. He screamed loud in triumph, spit flying from his fangs, and charged the ring of Rangers. He would now get his chance at glory in Arnitath’s army.

The Ranger who cut him down as he charged barked something in the human tongue, which Kada never bothered to learn. As his life slipped away from him, he laughed. The Ranger looked at him strangely as he kicked him off of his long sword. Kada tried to shout one final battle cry but could only gurgle now with his lung punctured. As his life slipped finally away from him, he felt the ground begin to tremble from the approaching horde. He laughed and felt no more.

Trainer Valeen heard the bell even though her second phase group was a full two days south of the stronghold. “Trainees,” she shouted at them as she ran into the center of their camp. “Break camp now. Adamnar is under attack.” She didn’t respond to their looks of confusion. She quickly packed up her backpack and bedroll and then looked around at her trainees. Most of them were still staring at her.

“I said move!” she shouted at them again. They jumped and scrambled to pack their gear. One trainee started to clear their campsite of the signs of their passing. “Leave it,” Valeen barked. “We need to get back to the stronghold now!” Secretly she hoped it would still be there when at last, in two days hence, they arrived.

Trainer Gandrere’s fourth phase group wasn’t as far away. Lord Berol was with them and they were less than a day’s stiff run north. There was a wicked storm coming at them from the north. Until the bell sounded, Gandrere was sure his Lord Berol would get to see his trainees expertly tracking in the worst storm he had ever seen. He stood up from his small half shelter and tiny fire and looked over at Lord Berol. The trainees could tell immediately something was wrong as Lord Berol stopped in mid sentence and stared back in the direction of the stronghold.

Lord Berol looked at Gandrere. Gandrere put his hand on his sword hilt and nodded. “I’ll get them back, my Lord. You need to go. His trainees had no idea the incredible danger that lay ahead of them just a long run’s distance south to the stronghold. Lord Berol teleported away.

“Trainees gather around,” Gandrere said somberly. As they did so, most kept half an eye on their immediate surroundings. He felt a surge of pride. A light rain began fall at a strange angle. “Someone has rung the great battle bell of Adamnar. You can’t hear it yet because you’re still trainees. It means Adamnar is under attack.” He could see his trainees transforming into Rangers before his eyes as the seriousness of his tone infused them with a genuine sense of purpose. Inwardly he smiled. “We’re the farthest north group of trainees but there’s no need for us to search for this trouble. There are plenty of patrols out and about whose job that is. Our job now is to get back to the stronghold as quickly as possible. Are you up for a long hard run?”

“Yes!” cried one and all.

He smiled. “Good. There’s no telling what we’ll find when we get there. You have to expect battle to already be raging. You will run with your weapons drawn the entire way. You will expect to get attacked behind every tree,” he said. He paused, breathed deeply, and looked around at his group. “Run hard. Stay together. No one is left behind.”

“No one is left behind,” his trainees answered in unison. The rain fell heavily now and the wind began to howl.

Pellou heard the bell as his group was running across the ravine below Parsin cliff. He ran them into a circle and stopped them. They looked glad for the break. They had been running hard all morning.

“Well, you might not be ready for this but hey,” he smiled and looked at them all with evident eagerness, “there’s no time like the present.” They looked at each other, confused. “Adamnar is under attack. Don’t ask me how I know. If we make it through this, I’ll explain it to you. Everyone get in a tight circle and link hands.” He waited until they all did. “For those of you who have never teleported before, you’re in for a real treat,” he said and laughed a short laugh. “For all of you, expect there to be fighting when we appear. Draw your sword as soon as you can, even before you have a sense of where you are. For now, I just need you all to hold on tight to each other, and I mean really tight. I want us all to make it there. Ready?” He didn’t wait for a reply. He set his hand on one of the trainee’s shoulders and the entire group teleported to the main square of the stronghold.

“Who rang the bell?” Lord Berol demanded as he appeared on the bell tower platform. Alana was still ringing it. He glanced at Ranger Addins, then reached over and gently but firmly grabbed Alana’s shoulder. “Alana, you can stop. You only have to ring it once.” Alana rang on. He moved to stand to her side facing her and pushed her gently back from the bell. “Alana, why did you ring the bell.”

Alana was panting heavily from her sprinting and from the effort of ringing the great bell by hand. Wordlessly she lifted an arm and pointed north to the storm. Lord Berol looked where she pointed. The sky was so black, the underside of the clouds on the leading edge were green. It looked like a wall of water falling into the trees. He could see it was no natural storm.

“What do you see?” he asked. Addins glanced quickly back and forth between them.

“A sea of evil flows towards us beneath those storm clouds,” Alana said.

Lord Chasimar and Lord Cartyet both came running up the stairs. “What is it?” Lord Chasimar asked. “I thought we were under attack.”

“Ranger, why did you ring the bell,” Lord Cartyet asked Alana angrily.

“Aidan, wait a moment, please,” Lord Berol said. “Alana, tell us what you saw.”

“I didn’t see anything. I feel it.”

“I don’t understand,” Lord Cartyet said. “I thought we were under attack.”

“If Alana felt that she had to ring the bell,” Lord Berol responded, not taking his eyes off Alana, “then I believe we are under an attack we can only hope to win by calling all our number home now.” Alana was staring off to the north with an expression of horror on her face.

“Alana,” Lord Chasimar asked, “What do you feel now?”

“There is a wave of death at the head of that storm,” Alana said.

“Look, I know Alana’s powers, but,” Lord Cartyet said, “This is an awfully big hunch. Why haven’t we heard anything from any of our scouts? Why haven’t we heard from Privest? Why isn’t Dreaeral here ringing the bell himself?” he asked her. Alana turned her head slowly to look away from the storm and into Lord Cartyet’s eyes.

“Privest is gone,” she said in a low voice.

“How can this be?” Lord Cartyet said. “How do you know?” He looked back and forth between Alana and Lord Berol in disbelief.

“Because she knows,” Lord Berol said flatly, ending all of Lord Cartyet’s protestations.

“How do we get all the trainees in?” Lord Chasimar asked. “There aren’t enough of us to teleport in all those trainees.”

“I can help with that,” Pellou said from behind Lords Chasimar and Cartyet, back by the top of the stairs. Only it wasn’t Pellou. Instead of Trainer Pellou they turned now to look at a knight in full chain mail. He had a Talisman of Anrothan, the avatar of Aniyatomei, Keeper of the Ways, around his neck. It looked like a flat, round three colored piece of stained glass, but was actually made from a material harder than any of them knew. In place of his eyes now were black star fields, as if to look into them were to look at the night sky. He still had the crazy Pellou smile, but he seemed to stand a little taller.

“Blessed Asaeria,” Lord Cartyet said, “a Plane Traveler.”

“And a Key Knight, at that,” Lord Berol added, equally stunned.

“Yes, and you are a Novadi and Alana is a High Priestess and you didn’t know that either,” Pellou said back to Lord Berol. “I can round up all your trainees and get them back to you here safe. You all should just worry about protecting your stronghold. It’s about to get wiped off the face of Gorthus.” He walked over to Alana and looked down at her. “Tell me, Alana, what evil drives that wind?”

“I don’t know. It hides itself from the forest,” she said. “But,” she hesitated, “I think I’ve felt it before. Only now it feels like every evil creature in the forest is running towards us in that storm.”

“So can someone tell me where all the trainees are?” Pellou asked.

“I know where they all are.” Lord Chasimar said.

“Is there anyone else,” Lord Berol countered. “I need you here now to plan.”

“Ranger Laren also knows,” Lord Chasimar said. She looked at Pellou, “Can you find her.”

“Of course I can’t find her,” Pellou answered with a grunt. “Why the heck would you ask a question like that?”

Lord Chasimar looked back and forth from Lord Berol to Pellou and said, “I don’t understand. A question like what? It’s a pretty simple question.”

“Oh, you don’t know,” Pellou said. “Would someone please walk me to Ranger Laren?”

“I thought Plane Travelers could go anywhere, move anyone, and so on,” Lord Cartyet said.

Pellou looked at Lord Berol and said, “I’ll explain this later. We’re wasting time.”

Lord Berol said, “You’re right. Maralene, please take Pellou to Laren and then meet me in my office. Aidan, round up all my senior staff. Addins,” and he turned to face the Ranger guarding the bell, “Keep your eyes on that storm. If anything changes—anything at all—I want you to ring the bell again. Is that understood?”

“Yes Lord Berol,” Addins said.

“Good,” Lord Berol said. He turned last to Alana and asked, “Is there anything else you can tell us?”

“No Lord Berol,” Alana said.

“All right then,” he said. “Go to your patrol and await your mission. If anything changes, I want you to come see me in my office. Is that understood?”

“Shouldn’t she stay with us,” Lord Chasimar asked?

“No, she’s told us all she knows. She can be of most use now in her patrol group,” Lord Berol answered. “Let’s go, and Aidan,” Lord Berol added, “I want four Rangers up here with their eyes on the horizon in all directions.”

“Yes, Lord Berol,” Lord Cartyet said.

In emergencies, Ben formed his patrol in the courtyard in front of the patrol leaders’ quarters. When Alana arrived, she saw that his entire patrol was already there waiting for her. Ben wasn’t there. He was with Lord Herton getting their assignment. She was hit with a barrage of questions.

“Did you ring the bell?” asked one.

“What’s coming?” asked another, and “When will they get here?.”

“By morning, maybe sooner,” Alana said.

“What is it?” the first asked.

“I don’t know,” Alana said, looking at nothing, “but it’s moving fast and it’s tearing the forest apart as it goes.”

Ben jogged over to them. They all stared at him, hungry for any information. He stopped and looked at them for a moment, then at the ground. When he looked up again he said, “There are twelve thousand T’Rundi headed for us and they’ll be here with the storm.”

“Blessed Asaeria,” one Ranger said. Another’s mouth just hung open.

“We can’t fight that,” a third said.

“Yes we can,” Ben growled at him. “We are eight hundred Rangers and we got advanced warning, thanks to Alana. We have a full day to prepare and this is Adamnar stronghold.” He stared at them hard, grim determination on his face. “Our actual battle tasks haven’t been assigned yet. The lords are figuring that out now. For now, we’re going to the north fields to help set up the siege defenses.”

“T’Rundi don’t siege,” one of the patrol said. “They’ll hit us hard and won’t stop until the last of us is dead.”

“No, that’s not true,” Ben said. “They won’t stop until the last one of them is dead. We still have to do everything we can to allow as many of them as possible to die before they get here.”

“How did you find out it was T’Rundi?” Alana asked.

Ben said, “Lord Berol himself went and took a look. He couldn’t see what was making the storm though, and I’m sure you can agree he didn’t want to stay to find out.” Then he said to the entire group, “Lord Herton’s inner patrols are all working on the north field and a little on the forest to the north of that. So now we run first to stock house number two and then right out north gate. Any more questions?”

“Can I get a transfer?” one of the Rangers joked. There were a few short laughs.

“After this is over, if you still want one, I’ll kick your ass out myself,” Ben said. “Let’s run.”

Preparing the stronghold for the siege wasn’t too difficult. All the stores were well stocked for just such an event. The outer wall consisted of ten feet of solid stone, magically placed. Many of the inner buildings had six foot thick walls.

During the preparations most of the trainees shuttled supplies. The bulk of the defenses were built to the north. The T’Rundi weren’t likely to think of flanking on purpose, but there were so many of them they would surely envelope the stronghold.

Come the time of the attack, the new trainees would assemble in the dining hall with Bruny and his healers and patch up Rangers as quickly as possible. The more seasoned trainees would shuttle supplies to the Rangers on the walls. A few trainees with special abilities, such as Cadius, would stand the wall with the Rangers, or breach guard.

When night fell, they didn’t stop. They just kept building more and more defenses farther and farther north. Ben told his group they would build until the advanced scouts said the enemy were three hours away. Only then would the Rangers retreat to the stronghold.

The storm was already upon them. Alana was hit more than once by flying branches as she dug spike pits. “How many do you think we’ll take out with all this?” one of her patrol mates asked.

“Every bit helps,” she said and flung another shovel full of dirt back towards the stronghold. The pit was mostly mud now and each shovel full hurt her arms to lift. As soon as a section of the pit was complete, one of Lord Vistor’s non–Ranger admin personnel would throw leaves over it to hide it. She noticed a few of them looked truly terrified. They were a half mile away from the stronghold now and couldn’t see it anymore. She thought they were holding up well considering what they must have heard. The wind was so fierce the trees creaked as they swayed and a few cracked and fell. She could feel the forest groan in pain.

Ben came running by and shouted above the storm, “Everyone back in the stronghold now! They’re coming and they’ll be here in an hour.

“They can’t move that fast!” the Ranger digging next to Alana said.

“Have you got a problem with that order, Ranger Torson?” Ben shouted at him. “Alana, make sure your helpers all get back with you.”

Ben dashed on to the next group of his patrol in the next pit. Alana dropped her shovel and jumped out of the pit. Torson tried to scrabble up the slippery wall but failed. “Reach the shovel to me,” she yelled down to him. He did so and she lifted him out easily. He looked at her in surprise. He was almost twice her size. Alana turned to the clerk standing there staring at her. The clerk’s face was transfixed in horror. Alana could tell that shock had set in. She turned her head to look at Torson and shouted, “You make sure Sarai gets back, you got it?” He nodded. She turned to look at the young man standing in front of her, picked him up and threw him over her shoulder and started to run. Torson did the same with Sarai.