Ranger's Apprentice: Alex + The Burning Bridge (Discontinued)

Prologue

Halt, Will, and Alex had been trailing the Wargals for three days. The four heavy bodied, brutish creatures, foot soldiers of the rebel warlord Morgarath, had been sighted passing through Redmont Fief, heading north. They had set out to intercept them.

"Where could they have come from, Halt?" Will asked during one of their short rest stops. "Surely we've got Three Step Pass well and truly bottled up by now." 

Three step pass provided the only real access between the Kingdom of Araluen and the Mountains of Rain and Night, where Morgarath had his headquarters. Now that the kingdom was preparing for the coming war with Morgarath, a company of infantry and Archers had been sent to reinforce the small permanent garrison at the narrow pass until the main army could assemble.

"That's the only place where they can come in sizable numbers," Halt agreed. "But a small party like this could slip into the kingdom by way of the barrier of cliffs."

Morgarath's domain was an inhospitable mountain plateau that towered high above the southern reaches of the kingdom. From Three Step Pass in the east, a line of sheer, precipitous cliffs ran roughly due west, forming the border between  the plateau and Araluen. As the cliffs swung southwest, they plunged into another obstacle called he Fissure, a huge split in the earth that ran out to the sea, and separated Morgarath's lands from the kingdom of the Celts.

It was these natural fortifications that had kept Araluen, and the neighboring Celtica, safe from Morgarath's armies for the past sixteen years. Conversely, they also provided the rebel warlord with protection from Araluen's forces.

"I thought those cliffs were impassable," Will said. 

Halt allowed himself a grim smile. "Nowhere is ever impassible. Particularly if you have no respect for how many lives you lose trying to prove the fact. My guess is that they used ropes and grapnels and waited for a moonless night and bad weather. That way, they could slip past the border patrols."

Alex and Will nodded. Halt stood, signifying that their rest stop was at an end. The twins rose with him and they moved toward their horses. Halt gave a small grunt as he swung into the saddle. The wound he had suffered in the battle with the two Kalkara still trouble him a little. 

Alex's bruises and wounds on her body had all healed. She had six scars on her back where she had been hit with the canes, they could still hurt sometimes, but other than that she was as fit as could be.

"My main concern isn't where they come from." Halt continued. "It's where  they're heading, and what they have in mind."

The words were barely spoken when they head a shout from somewhere ahead of them, followed by a commotion of grunting and, finally, the clash of weapons. 

"And we may be about to find out!" Alex said. She urged her horse to a gallop. Halt and Will doing the same a few seconds after her.

Halt controlled Abelard with his knees. He selected an arrow and nocked it to the string of his massive longbow. 

Alex and Will had their bows in their left hands, they couldn't match the same hand free mode Halt could.

They were riding through sparse woodland, leaving it to the surefooted Ranger horses to pick the best route. Suddenly, they burst clear of the trees into a wide meadow. Maple slid to a stop, Abelard and Tug following suit.

Will and Alex dropped the reins to their horses necks, selected and nocked it on their bows.

A large fig tree grew in the middle of the cleared ground. At the base of it there was a small camp. A wisp of smoke still curled from the fireplace and a pack and blanket roll lay beside it. The four Wargals they had been tracking surrounded a single man, who had his back to the tree. For the moment his long sword held at bay, but the Wargals were making small feinting movements toward him, trying to find an advantage. They were armed with short swords and axes and one carried a heavy iron spear.