The next morning, Alyss left her chambers early. Her room in Castle Redmont, directly next to Halt and Pauline's, was large and comfortable, courtesy of the Baron. But it always felt cold and lonely. It was the place she stayed when Will left for long trips when she wouldn't see him for weeks, even months at a time. This room, no matter how luxurious, only reminded her that Will wasn't here, and that made it a terrible place to stay in. She rose before the sun, tired from a restless night alone in the massive bed, dressed quickly and resolved to do some work in her office before everyone else arrived.

Sitting in that room all alone wouldn't do her any good, after all. Groveling in her own anxiety wasn't going to make him come back any faster. Solving this strange mystery, and catching the murderers, would.

As she stepped out into the hall, not looking back at the desolate room behind her, and jumped a little as another door nearby clicked shut. Sure enough, Halt was just letting go of the handle of his own door down the hall. He strolled up to her, whispering, "I heard you get up, and I wanted to come with you, as long as you're heading to the kitchens to get some breakfast."

"I can get breakfast myself, you know," she said softly, not meeting his eyes. I'm really not in the mood for his overprotectiveness.

Halt frowned slightly as he sensed her discouraged mood. "I'm not joining you for any particular reason, I know you're perfectly capable of eating alone. But Pauline is tired, so she won't be up for a while, and I figured you could use some company." She was still staring dejectedly at the floor. "Sleep badly?"

"I always do." She didn't have to finish the sentence. Halt knew what she meant. When Will is gone, I always sleep terribly.

He nodded once, and then lead her down to breakfast without another word.

Ten minutes later, after a brisk and silent breakfast, Halt walked Alyss to her office. "The meeting is at eleven o'clock, so I think we should meet around ten to get into our positions and report to Athol. The King and all the council members will be there, and I'm thinking we'll have some extra guards stationed outside to help if anything goes wrong. I'll be--"

"I know, Halt. You'll be with me, overseeing it all," Alyss cut in, her voice quiet. She didn't even try to hide the exhaustion in her voice.

He stopped cold as he was reaching for her door handle, turning towards her with a concerned expression. "What's wrong?" he asked simply.

That was what Alyss loved about Halt. He always knew exactly what questions to ask, and didn't waste words asking them.

"Nothing important to the meeting, or the fires. Just... personal things."

He didn't move, his face unchanging. "Would you like to tell me about it?"

Alyss felt herself nodding. "I would." Her voice was even smaller. She was shocked to realize she was holding back tears.

Halt gently took her hand, and wordlessly walked with her back out of the Courier's wing and down to the garden in another courtyard of the castle, her favorite garden. She and Will would sit together on benches next to the pond here, and talk about everything and nothing at all. She was touched that Halt remembered that this was her favorite place to be. Even just the mere act of him trying to comfort her by bringing her to this special place warmed her heart.

But what was it that she was upset about? That was the funniest part, she didn't even really know. Sure, she missed Will, and she was anxious about her baby. But that didn't warrant the crushing anxiety and dread she was feeling right now. She instantly felt bad that she had forced all this onto Halt at such an early hour.

"I'm sorry, Halt, I don't mean to be all gloomy, I honestly just had a bad night and woke up on the wrong side of the bed," Alyss said as they sat down on a bench. The wind blew her hair back over her shoulders and rumpled the cowl of Halt's cloak, the early morning sun warming their faces.

"Why did you have a bad night?"

Alyss sighed, hesitating, before admitting, "I miss him. I hate that he had to leave so soon after we found out about the pregnancy. We didn't even get a chance to celebrate, or do anything for that matter."

Halt nodded. "And when you tried to go out for dinner with the rest of us, we all almost got burned to a crisp."

"A fantastic last night with my husband before he left, to be sure." Alyss sat back against the bench, her shoulders slumping. She waved off Halt's worried gaze. "Don't mind me, Halt. I promise I'm alright, I'm just sulking. Nothing can be changed now."

He gave her a faint smile. "Sometimes we all deserve a good sulk. We'd be inhuman if we didn't wallow in our own misery sometimes. Even Will has his moments."

They both were smiling now. "Nah, Will is always cheerful. It can be sleeting, dark, and freezing cold, and he'll still come in the door with a smile on his face. I don't know how he does it," Alyss chuckled.

"True, but he's felt plenty of sadness in his life, you know as well as I." Halt's hand squeezed her own. "But his optimism is one of the reasons we both love him, isn't it?"

She nodded and felt the sadness creeping back in. "He'll be back soon," she said, more to herself than Halt.

"He will. And you'll be there to welcome him." They both started the journey back to the Courier wing, Alyss's mind determinedly spinning with the work she was planning on getting done, and purposefully ignoring the twisted worried feeling in her gut. It was just after dawn now, and the rest of the world seemed to be waking up. The hallways were busier, full of servants and nobles alike going about their daily duties. People bumped into her left and right, and a few soldiers passing by stepped on Alyss's toes, making her wince. Even Halt, who was usually able to slip through crowds easily, was being jostled around by someone carrying a large fruit basket. She had forgotten how busy Redmont was this early in the morning. The narrow stone corridors didn't help, and everyone's footsteps echoed on the flagstones, building to a deafening roar that moved through the entire wing of the castle.

As they passed by the doors to the throne room, where the meeting between the druid council and the King was supposed to happen later that morning, the one Athol had warned them about the night before, the hallway emptied out, and a calming quiet settled back over them. The only people in the vicinity now were a company of Celtic soldiers standing guard at the door in full uniform, their weapons at the ready. Alyss immediately examined them. Why are they here? What are they guarding? It's barely seven in the morning, nothing should be going on in there.

"Good morning, this room isn't scheduled to be used until later, why are you here?" Alyss asked them.

"We have orders to guard it while the King uses it, so that no one disturbs him." A soldier answered.

"Is the King already in there?" Halt asked them, gesturing to the door, which was locked tightly.

"Yes, he is," another one of the guards answered brusquely. "He's not taking visitors."

Halt raised an eyebrow at his blatant lack of respect. Apparently these Celtic guards didn't know what a Ranger was. He was tempted to show them exactly who he was, but Alyss stopped him with a soft hand on his arm.

"Good thing we're not visitors, then. He's expecting us, we've met with him before." She let her tone go soft, her voice rise in pitch, and she softened her face to a smile. Better to appear disarming, perhaps I can charm them into opening it for us.

"He won't see anyone right now, including you two. Please leave," the solder's voice grew angrier, his hand drifting to the hilt of his sword.

"Why is he locked in, then? His meeting isn't until eleven." Halt stiffened slightly beside her, coiled up like a spring ready to explode.

"The meeting got moved up. The council members just went in a few minutes ago, along with the King. They'll be busy for the next few hours, so I suggest you come after lunch to meet with him."

The rest of the soldier's sentence drifted off as Alyss now felt a growing worm of doubt writhing in the pit of her stomach. "The meeting was... moved up? By whom?"

"The council. A member requested it. Now, please, don't make us ask you to leave again."

Halt, appearing to relax, raised both his hands in a placating gesture. "We won't, I'm sorry to have disturbed you. Just please, before we go, could you just ask them if we could join their meeting? We were supposed to be in attendance, invited by the King himself. I would hate to have accidentally missed the meeting because we didn't realize the time had been moved up."

The soldiers glanced at each other. The most senior one shrugged. "I'll check, but you wait here. Don't try anything." He stuck a large gold key into the door and pushed it open, then shut it behind him and Alyss heard his faint voice calling to the people inside. After only a few moments of waiting, where she and Halt stood motionless and silent, their hands raised in surrender, and the rest of the soldiers staring them down as if they expected them to attack them, the guard leaned out the door. "They'll see you. You can come in. Leave your weapons with us."

Alyss paused at his last remark, hesitant to part with her sword, and then she realized that the guards didn't know she was armed. All her weapons were concealed in the folds of her skirt. She quickly masked her face and held up her hands, letting an easy-going, innocent, and winning smile spread across her lips. "I'm just a lady, I don't have anything that could be considered a weapon."

Halt hid a smile as he handed over his longbow and quiver, followed by his knives. The soldier looked her up and down skeptically. "Sure about that, miss?"

Alyss only nodded, batting her eyelashes and twirling her hair with a finger. His eyes followed her every movement. "I wouldn't know what to do with a weapon even if I had one. Tell me, sir, do I really look like someone who could use a sword properly?"

The soldier shrugged, his shoulders relaxing. I have him, Alyss thought triumphantly. "I suppose not." He turned away from her, nodding to his fellow soldiers. "Let them in."

The door opened, and Halt stepped over the threshold first.

Her visions slowed down, everything happened at half the speed it should be, and Alyss's limbs moved like they were stuck in thick mud.

She could only watch as a stone came pelting down from the space above the inner door frame. Round, smooth, black, and sickeningly familiar, it struck Halt in the temple with a cracking sound. He never even had a chance.

His body collapsed to the floor with a thud. His eyes rolled up in his head. He was out cold.

He had never even seen it coming, because he had gone in first. She had only seen it coming because she was behind him.

Before Alyss had any time to react, the solider behind her grabbed her arms roughly, pushing her down onto the floor beside Halt's unconscious body.

She glanced up quickly, and saw another soldier standing on a chair, hidden in the shadows of the door frame, holding several more stones in his hands. He must have dropped the stone on Halt when he came in. If I had gone first, I would have been knocked out, too.

The soldier was bracing her arm, ready to throw another stone, his gaze aimed right between her eyes, and she cried out, "Stop! I won't do anything, please stop!" She threw herself over Halt's limp body, shielding him. The sword at her hip pressed against her legs awkwardly, but she couldn't use it now, and she certainly couldn't afford to lose it. Better to save it for later, when she had a plan. When she hadn't just been sneak-attacked by Celtic rebels. That's who it had to be, after all. Who else would have known they were involved with the King and would want to hurt them?

"Stop, don't hurt them further!" The King's croaky voice echoed down the hall, fear tinging his words.

Alyss turned her gaze down the long carpet that led to the end of the room, where a large table used for meetings was in place under the throne. Six chairs stood in a circle around the table, and the druid council members were all seated in their places, as well as the King at the head.

All but one. The lone man stormed toward her, fury in his face, and her eyes widened in shock as she recognized who he was.

"You! You weren't supposed to be here!" He was getting closer and closer. "Guards, contain them."

She felt rough hands grip her shoulders, dragging her off of Halt, and she didn't resist.

Her eyes locked with his, and she cursed inwardly.

We've been tricked. 

*****************

A/N Sorry this is so late, I've been having a really hard time at home with motivation and just my good in general. I also realized that because I've written this book so quickly, with just the bare minimum for editing, that I've accidentally made a few mistakes and left out some important stuff. I may go in and edit some pervious chapters over the next few days in an effort to correct some of those. I still plan to keep updating every other day, and if you find something that's changed or that confuses you, PLEASE comment or DM me and I'd be happy to clear it up for you. I don't want you to not enjoy my story because of my mistakes! 

Thank you all for being patient with me. ;)