Chapter 2

'All right,' Will told the three boys, 'let's see you shoot. Ten arrows each at those targets.'

He indicated three large, standard bullseye design targets set up seventy-five metres down range. The three stepped forward to the firing line. A little further down the line, two senior Rangers were practising, shooting at targets no bigger than a large dinner platter, set at the one-hundred-and-fifty-metre mark. For a few moments, the three first-year apprentices watched in awe as the two marksmen slammed arrow after arrow into the almost invisible targets.

'Any time before sunset would be fine,' Will drawled. He had no idea that he was mimicking the dry, mock-weary tone of voice that Halt had used with him when he was first learning the skills of a Ranger.

'Yes, sir. Sorry, sir,' said the nearest of the three boys. They all looked at him, wide eyed. He sighed.

'Stuart?' he said to the boy who had spoken.

'Yes, sir?'

'You don't call me sir. We're both Rangers.'

'But… ' began one of the other boys. He was stockily built and had a mass of red hair that flopped untidily over his forehead. Will searched his memory for the boy's name: Liam, he remembered.

'Yes, Liam?'

The boy shuffled awkwardly. 'But we're apprentices and you're… ' He stopped. He wasn't sure what he was going to say. It was probably something ridiculous like, 'But we're apprentices and you're you.'

Because although Will didn't know it, he was a subject of awe for these boys. He was the legendary Will Treaty, the Ranger who had rescued the King's daughter from Morgarath's Wargal army, then protected her when they were kidnapped by raiding Skandians. Then he had trained and led a company of archers in the battle against the Temujai riders. And only the previous year, he had repelled a Scotti invasion on the northern frontier of the Kingdom.

These three would look up to any graduate Ranger.