The Fires of Esus - Ranger's Apprentice

Chapter 9: A Troubling Time

Several hours later, after the shock of everything had worn off, and Will had recounted every excruciating ounce of information he'd learned from his unsettling discussion with the King to everyone involved, they all stood surrounding a table covered in books in the royal library. Sir Nigel, the head Scribesmaster and the keeper of the royal library, stood in front of the open books covered in paper and notes. He was bent heavily over a sheet covered densely in writing, focusing intently, his glasses set low on the bridge of his knarled nose. Directly underneath lay the rubbing of the strange stone from the Stamford Inn fire. The stone in question sat heavily in Will's pocket, burning a hole through the cloth lining of his tunic.

Everyone was there, including Alyss, Cassandra, Horace, Halt, and even Pauline, who Will had greeted with relief shortly after his reunion with Halt. She had shaken her finger at him, scolding him for almost getting burned to death. Will always savored these moments where he felt like he had a real mother. He had never had anyone growing up to wag their finger at him, aside form Halt of course, but he didn't count. So he didn't even mind when Pauline told him off, "Never do that to me again, darling," and Will had only nodded meekly and smiled as she hugged him tightly.

Gilan, who had been fetching the last of his reports and messages, came stumbling into the room, once again weighed down with massive folders of paper. Will took pity on him and helped him lug the reports to the table, spreading them across the open books.

"Right," Gilan said, gathering his thoughts. "I've received messages from all the riders I sent out to the various locations that were recently set aflame. The stone that Will found at Stamford, the pattern on it, was sent with these messengers for them to see if this symbol appeared anywhere else." He raised both eyebrows and he brandished a single piece of paper off the top of his stack. "Out of all the fires, almost every single rider found an identical rock in the ashes. Only one fire, the second that happened in..." he paused, referencing his notes. "North Drexel, that one didn't have a stone. But I'm chalking that up to the fact that it's difficult to find a small stone in so much rubble, so we'll just assume that was a mistake and that these symbols are cropping up everywhere regardless of if we find them."

Halt nodded at Will. "Can I see this stone?"

Will put the heavy object on the table in front of Halt carefully. The symbol, stark against the smoothness of the rock, was no less menacing than the last few times Will had seen it. Halt didn't try to touch it, he only peered at it with narrowed eyes. "You found this the day after, in the debris? What about the others?"

"All of them were the same." Gilan flipped to a thick stack of papers bound together, and he dropped it in the center of the table to the first open page. "Here are rubbings of every found symbol." Everyone leaned forward to get a better view. Several pages were stacked on top of each other, all of them smudged in ink and charcoal, showing crude drawings of the exact symbol on the stone.

Will's brows drew together as he stood unmoving, deep in thought. "They're all exactly the same size. You said these are the real rubbings, not just replica drawings?" Gilan nodded. Will continued, "Each symbol is exactly the same. There are no slight discrepancies or changes between each of them. It's like they used a stamp, or a stencil."

"The rocks are all the same, too. All the same size and weight, all matte black, perfectly smooth and round, no imperfections," Gilan added, reading off one of the reports.

"So they're a marker. The arsonists' signature, just like Will suspected," Alyss said.

"Definitely a signature, but potentially even more than that. Sir Nigel, what have you been able to find on this symbol?" Lady Pauline asked him.

"Unfortunately, not much. It is an ancient Celtic symbol, since it appears here in an anthology of all Celtic signs and characters. But I haven't been able to find anything about these druids, or the meaning of this picture." Sir Nigel referenced several books, scrambling through the pile spread out in front of him, only confirming his lack of findings.