Once again I find myself in a position where I have to apologize for the long gap between chapters... Sorry.

On a completely unrelated note, if you haven't watched the Hobbit (Desolation of Smaug) yet, I strongly suggest that you do. I loved it! And I'm also now obsessed with the song I See Fire that plays at the end of the movie.

Anyways, on to the chapter!

Chapter 20

The sounds of swords clashing on swords and daggers thudding into targets greeted Keira's ears as she made her way across the training grounds. MacNeil stood on the far side, waiting for her so that they could begin their regular mid-day training.

As Keira strode up to him, she wondered to herself how the Rangers knew with so much certainty that he was on their side. It was true, MacNeil had never seemed too happy to be teaching other people, but he had always seemed decently good-tempered when she was around. And if he was here to spy on the fortress, then why had he not escaped and reported back to the King by now? The whole situation confused Keira, and she felt that the Rangers knew something that they weren't telling her. She mentally shrugged it off though, and promised herself that she'd figure it out later.

"What are we working on today?" she asked MacNeil as she unsheathed her sword from its scabbard.

"We'll start off by seeing how much you've forgotten since you've been away," he replied with a slight smirk, causing the edges of his mouth to tilt up. "Attack me."

Keira sighed. There was always only one outcome when they dueled. Already knowing how this was going to end, she brought her sword up in the ready position and, sensing that MacNeil was ready, darted forwards like a snake, her sword a silver blur as she swung, blocked, and parried. MacNeil parried her attacks with ease, before switching to offensive and pushing her back towards the wall of the training grounds.

After duelling back and forth for about a minute, MacNeil finally brought his sword under hers and twisted, causing her to lose her grip and the sword to clatter to the ground.

Keira swore under her breath. "Not again…" she complained to herself. MacNeil had disarmed her the exact same way the Gilan had.

MacNeil raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing-" Keira said quickly. "It's just… - never mind."

"I see," MacNeil replied. "Well you're not too much out of practice, but we've got a lot more to work on."

Keira groaned. She knew that all of her muscles would ache the next day after this session. After another hour, she finally finished her training session. While she was sharpening her sword, her hand cautiously fumbled around in her pocket, searching for the message that Halt had assigned her to give to MacNeil. Her fingers finally closed around the slip of paper, and she drew it out, hiding it within her hand. The message had been written in code, so Keira had no idea what it said. Just as she was leaving, she bumped into MacNeil, and in doing so slipped the small paper into his pocket. It was such a subtle movement that anyone who was watching them would not have determined it to be anything suspicious.

Now that her job was done, Keira returned back to her rooms and packed up anything that would come in useful for the next part of their plan. On the pretense of going out hunting, she made her way down to the stables and packed her few provisions onto Airis before making her way out of the gates, with little controversy from the guards standing there.

MacNeil closed the door to his chambers and unbuckled his sword before placing it on the stand by the door. It had been a long day for him, with first two of Magnus' minions causing him trouble in the morning, and then being assigned to clean all of the swords in the armoury afterwards. The only real good part of his day had been being able to see Keira again after she had been gone for around a month. Magnus had forbidden him from asking her what mission he had sent on her, so he had had to make do with guessing. He had noticed that she had looked at him peculiarly when she had first arrived at their training session, making him wonder if she had found something out while she had been gone.

It was then, as he was standing there pondering over his day, that Magnus felt the small scratch of the paper that Keira had slipped into his pocket. He cautiously drew it out, and unfolded it, revealing a scrawl of mixed up letters and words that, when put together, seemed unintelligible. He squinted at it for a moment, confused as to how it had ended up in his pocket.

Then the mixed up and jumbled letters on the small piece of paper began to make sense to him. It was an old code that had often been used in Araluen between the Couriers and people of high standing such as the Rangers and Barons. And him, of course. After decoding the message this was what it read:

Be ready at dusk tomorrow to rescue Crowley. Keira is on our side, but does not know your secret.

- Halt, Gilan, Will

MacNeil's mouth twitched up into a smile as he finished decoding the message. He wasn't sure who Will was, but it was good to know that the two Rangers that he knew and trusted the most had finally found him.

Keira urged Airis into a gallop as they went further into the forest towards the meeting place with the Rangers, and away from the fortress. After a while, she slowed him back down to a trot as they reached a part of the forest that was particularly difficult to navigate. As she cautiously made her way through the network of different paths, Keira couldn't help but look behind her every now and then, just in case she had been followed.

After a few more minutes, Keira dismounted Airis and led him along by foot. They were nearing the meeting place that Keira had arranged with the Rangers. The forest was brighter here, with more sunlight managing to make its way through the foliage up above. The place that they were meeting at was a secret grove in the forest, and, as far as Keira could tell, she was the only one who had known about it before. Instead of having the usual dark pine trees that made up most of the rest of the forest, this grove had maple and aspen trees that allowed more sunlight through to the ground than the coniferous trees.

All of a sudden, Keira came to an abrupt halt as she felt the cold sharp tip of a dagger press against her throat. Whoever was holding the knife was standing behind her, so she had no way of knowing who it was. Her hand cautiously inched towards the knife at her hip, but a familiar voice stopped her.

"Don't move." It was Will's voice.

"What's this about?" Keira asked in an angry whisper.

"Were you aware that you were being followed here?" Will said.

Keira's heart dropped. She had been almost certain that she hadn't been followed. "No," she answered him. After a short pause of silence, Keira spoke up again. "Let me go, will you?" The knife was still pressed against her throat.

"Just wait."

A man's yell off to Keira's right made her flinch a little, but she didn't turn her head, still painfully aware of the sharp blade. A moment later Halt and Gilan appeared, dragging a half conscious and tightly bound Genovesan.

"You can let her go, Will," Halt said, and the knife was slowly taken away from Keira's throat. "Do you know who this man is?" he said, directing the question at Keira.

"Of course. He's one of Magnus's chief advisers." Keira spoke with disdain evident in her voice. "And a spy."

"You didn't know he was following you?" Halt asked.

Keira shook her head. "I thought that I was in the clear."

Halt looked at her a moment before nodding his head. There was something about Keira that told him that she was telling the truth. He couldn't blame her for not knowing that she had been followed here.

"We'll have to change our plans," Gilan said. "They will be expecting him to report back, and when he doesn't come back they're going to get suspicious. We should attack tonight instead of tomorrow."

Halt and Will nodded their agreement. "MacNeil won't know about the change of plans though. If he got the message then he'll think that we're attacking tomorrow night," Halt pointed out.

Gilan shrugged. "He'll have to figure it out for himself. There's nothing else we can do."

"Ok, so what's our plan?" asked Will.