Halt stood on the wall walk staring silently over Araluen. They brought back the information about Morgan and his army to Cassandra. All that was left for them now was to wait for his arrival.

"Are you all right?"

He didn't move, simply remained facing forward, eyes fixed outward, though he did answer Will's question. "Ask me that after Morgan's arrival."

Will fixed his gaze in the same direction as Halt's and they stood in quiet contemplation for several moments before Will let his curiosity get the best of him. It was a habit he could never seem to break. "You don't believe we can defeat him?"

"It's not a matter of can or can't, Will. I believe it's more of a matter of whether or not we have the will to do so."

Will's brows scrunched in confusion. "I don't think I understand."

Halt turned to him at last. "Morgarath was defeated and returned again in an attempt to beat us down. Before his return he was nothing but a legend, a name used to frighten children into behaving and when he returned he gave no quarter. He was vicious and cruel. If word spreads that he has a son, a son now marching on Castle Araluen, it may cause a great deal of panic and fear."

Will stared down at his boots. "You think fear of Morgarath's legend will be what defeats us?"

Halt inclined his head. "I think it's definitely a possibility."

Will lifted his eyes to look at Halt when he spoke. "We need to figure out a way to defeat him before panic spreads. A way to show the people of Araluen that he isn't to be feared."

"Well, as soon as we can figure that out then we'll do perfectly fine."

Will sighed heavily. Yes, figure out how to defeat fear engendered by thoughts of a legend, a memory. Not easy to do. Even for the mighty Ranger Corps.

***

Deva darted through the corridor as the warning bell tolled through what had been the quiet of night. It seems Morgan had finally arrived, she could think of no other reason for the bell to be rung. It wasn't long before the others joined her as she darted through the hallways. They dashed to the wall walk where they would be able to see Morgan's progress toward the castle.

When they arrived, they took up spots around Halt and Will as the army amassed outside the castle walls. A figure nudged his horse forward, when he came closer they picked out the fact it was Morgan. He looked up at the castle wall.

"I want the man and the Rangers that are responsible for my father's death, send them out and I will leave the rest of you in peace."

Deva sucked in a breath and turned to look at her father. "Dad, you know you can't give him what he wants!"

He shushed her. "We're not going to give into his demands."

"No, we aren't. It would make little difference if we did. We can't trust that he'd abide by his word. That would be foolish," Halt responded.

"You have an hour to comply with my demands," Morgan yelled before he turned and went back to join his men.

"Smart man, he stayed well out of arrow range," Holly muttered.

Cassandra appeared beside Halt, dressed plainly in a pair of trousers and tunic. She blended easily with the men around her so as to remain inconspicuous up on the wall. Bright silk dresses would make her easy to pick out and make her a target if Morgan had any archers in his mix of men.

"What do you suggest?" she asked Halt.

Halt gave a small shake of his head. "I'm not at all certain we can avoid any sort of confrontation with the man. He won't simply leave if we refuse his demands. He wants his vengeance and he isn't going to be satisfied until he receives it."

"We could set him on fire!" Holly called out enthusiastically.

"No, Holly. No fire," Halt replied.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, no fire, but you must admit it would be effective!" she mumbled the last few words under her breath. Somehow, her father still heard her and sent her a look full of warning.

"Well, we have an hour so let's move inside and see if we can't figure something out before our time is up," Will said as he turned away from the massed army.

As they moved inside, Holly fell back, slowing her steps until she trailed well behind the group. When she was certain no one had made note of her sudden absence, she turned and headed back toward the wall. The plan forming inside her head would work, she was quite sure of it. All she had to do was get her tush outside the castle walls. Not an easy task.

"Where exactly do you think you're going?"

She spun to face Logan. He was flanked by Deva and Mitchell. Well, she hadn't made it away as cleanly as she thought. "Uh, nowhere really. I was gonna stand on the wall and glare him into submission. Why go inside, they aren't going to listen to us anyway."

Logan snorted. "Well, they won't listen to you because your answer to everything is to set it on fire. "

Deva frowned at her. "Nice try, Holls, not buying it. Where are you going?"

"You don't believe me? I'm insulted, we're best friends!" Holly pushed out her bottom lip in a pout.

"Oh please, do not try the baby face thing on me. Give it up, you're up to something. I've known you long enough to get that," Deva replied with a snort.

She threw her hands in the air and huffed out a breath. "Fine, so maybe I was going to try and slip out of the castle and put an arrow in Morgan. I'm not going to sit back and let him hurt our family."

Mitchell frowned at her. "You can't get out unless they let you out and I'm fairly certain Halt won't allow that."

"I'll figure something out! You know, eventually."

He sighed and shook his head. "You're determined to do this thing, aren't you?" Mitchell asked with a little sigh of resignation.

"Yes." She folded her arms over her chest for emphasis.

"All right then, let's go." He turned away and headed back inside the castle.

Holly rushed after him with a frown. "Excuse me, where are we going? I want out of the castle not in, we're going in the wrong direction."

"Just be quiet and follow me," he muttered as he led the way through the castle and through a door.

"Wait ... is this your room?" Holly asked.

He nodded and shut the door once they were all inside.

Deva took a moment to look around his room. It was large, of course, he was a prince after all. Yet, despite that, it was decorated very simply. There was nothing overstated or extravagant. It was a very Mitchell space.

Holly groaned and poked him in the back when he passed her. "Is this a trick, you're not going to tie me to a chair so I can't leave, are you?"

He ignored her whining as he moved across the room to a wall with a tapestry hanging on it depicting his father's defeat of Morgarath. He reached up well above his head, pushed a brick and the section of wall where the tapestry hung swung open, revealing a secret passageway.

Holly's eyes went wide. "Why didn't you tell us there was a secret way out of the castle?"

He scrunched his face and shook his head. "It's called a secret passage for a reason, Holly. The castle contains a couple of them in case there's a siege so the royal family can escape or possibly send for assistance. It leads out into the forest where there's an exit hidden."

Logan released a low whistle. "That's a long way to go. Someone would have to be very determined to get out of here."

"We've never had to use them, but I've used them to slip out of the castle undetected a few times."

Deva gasped theatrically, staring at him with wide eyes. "Mitchell, you broke the rules! Shame, shame!"

He scowled at her and turned to lift the torch from the bracket just inside the door. He used the low burning fire to light it. "You exist in a place where rules outnumber the minutes in the day and tell me it doesn't get old after awhile. Let's go."

Holly sidled up beside him and reached for the torch. "No, this is my idea I'll go and you guys stay here and make certain no one takes notice of my absence."

Mitchell held the torch above his head out of her reach. "We are not letting you go out there alone. This is my passageway, my rules."

Holly looked at Deva. "Talk some sense into him, please."

Deva shrugged. "I'm fairly certain he won't listen to me."

Mitchell nodded agreement. "She's right, I won't if you want to go out there then we all go with. Otherwise I'll run downstairs and tell Halt what you're up to."

"You wouldn't!" she replied with a gasp.

"Would too. Now are we going or not?"

Holly grumbled angrily under her breath. "Fine, let's go then."

The walk was long and seemed to take forever to move through the oppressive darkness of the long narrow passageway. Mitchell suddenly stopped, turned and held the torch out to Deva. "Hold this a moment." He turned back and shoved against the wall in front of them and it swung wide, revealing the trees beyond. He took the torch back from Deva and ground it out in the loose dirt outside the passage, before placing it in a bracket on the wall.

Holly grinned at him. "Thanks, Mitchell."

She darted past him into the woods causing Logan to curse. He took off after her, flinging words back at Mitchell and Deva. "Stay here and guard the passage. I'll look after Holly!"

Deva propped her back against the stone beside the open door. "We should have known she'd try and lose us the moment she was outside."

Mitchell nodded and stared out into the forest beyond the passage. He prayed this wasn't going to end up being a really bad idea.

Logan sprinted after Holly. She moved fast despite being shorter than he was. "Holly, slow down damn you!" he hissed at her as loudly as he dared.

From one step to the next she came to a halt and spun to face him. "Go away, I can do this on my own!" she hissed back at him angrily.

He caught her arm to keep her from running off again. "Maybe you can do it alone, but I'm not going to let you do it alone. Especially after your little expedition into Morgarath's castle. Your father would kill me." So will mine, he added silently.

She wrenched her arm from his grasp. "Fine, you can come with but don't interfere!"

He grumbled beneath his breath as he followed her through the trees. They circled around to where Morgan and his men were camped.

They spotted Morgan deep in conversation with two other men. The little group was too far away for them to hear what was being discussed.

Holly moved around, hugging the perimeter of the tiny clearing the group occupied. She kept her cloak pulled around her body to make certain she was concealed, blending in with the surrounding foliage. She found a spot where she could remain concealed and still fire from. Slowly and carefully, she nocked an arrow to the string and raised her recurve bow, taking careful aim at Morgan.

Logan's eyes swept over the gathering of men. The entire army wasn't in this clearing, there wasn't room. He deduced this gathering must be all of Morgan's senior officers. The bulk of the army was still within sight of the castle. His eyes kept moving, looking for anything that might be a threat, while Holly concentrated on her shot.

A small sound behind him took his eyes from the clearing and he searched the growing darkness of the surrounding forest. Holly shifted slightly and drew back the string of her bow.

Logan spotted a man as he moved around a tree, his crossbow raised and aimed at Holly's back, he spun and shoved her to the ground, knocking her shot off target as she released it.

Shouts went up from the clearing as Logan rolled off Holly, pulled his knife, took aim and released it. The man staggered a step and fell as the knife slammed into his chest. Logan grabbed Holly's arm and hauled her up from the ground, dragging her away from the clearing. They needed to get back to the passage.

Holly was cursing as she tried to keep up with Logan while he dragged her through the trees. She couldn't be certain whether she'd hit Morgan or not. Even if Logan hadn't knocked her shot off target she wasn't certain if she would have hit him, the man hadn't remained still the entire time she'd been lining up a shot.

Logan hauled her through the trees to the passage and he saw Deva shove away from the rock wall as they came tearing up to the entrance. A winded Holly coming to a stop behind him.

"What happened?" Mitchell asked.

He shoved Holly toward the passage and panted out an explanation. "One of Morgan's men spotted us. I saw him and managed to shove Holly out of the way before he could fire his crossbow. Morgan knows we're here. We need to haul our butts back through the passageway."

Mitchell ushered them back inside and pulled the door shut quickly. It took him a moment to light the torch in the darkness inside the closed tunnel. The moment it flared to life they set off back toward the castle. Once they were safely inside his room once more, he blew out a long breath.

"I'm never doing that again."

Logan nodded his agreement. If Holly had gone alone things would have ended in a vastly different way. He shuddered at the thought of what might have happened if he hadn't been watching her back.

"Would any of you like to tell me where exactly you've been?"

They all gave a frightened start when Halt moved into the light from where he'd been standing against the far wall.

Holly visibly winced. "Nowhere, Dad, honest. Just, you know, hanging out. Here. In Mitchell's room."

"Do you really expect me to believe that, young lady?"

"Yes, actually I was hoping you would."

Before Halt could launch into a lecture, Mitchell spoke. "I was showing them the passage out of the castle in case of an emergency. If anything happens someone will know and they can get a message out of the castle."

Halt's eyebrows rose. "Is that so?"

They all answered yes in unison.

With a grunt, he turned away to leave the room. "I had better not find out differently."

Logan sighed, his eyes on the door. "I'm going to have a hell of a time explaining where in the blazes my knife went off to."

Holly grinned. "It's taken a little holiday."

He rolled his eyes and led the way out of Mitchell's room. Halt was already most of the way down the corridor by the time they made it out into the hallway. Cassandra was rushing in his direction.

"Halt, Morgan's men are retreating!"

"Why would he do that after giving his demands and allowing us an hour to respond?"

She shook her head. "I can't say, but they are moving away from the castle. We didn't spot Morgan among his men either. Do you think he'll leave a smaller group of men to watch the castle? Maybe it's some sort of a trick."

Halt spun to face them a scowl on his face. "Holly, what have you done?"

She jumped and moved to hide behind Logan, who was moving his cloak to hide the double scabbard with its one missing knife. She peered around Logan. "I didn't do anything, I swear!"

Halt glowered at her, turned and stalked away.

They followed him back downstairs to the main hall. Horace's voice rang out over the room calling everyone to the wall. Everyone moved outside to the wall and they stood watching as Morgan's army moved away from the castle. A smaller group of men had separated themselves from the main body of the army and were now close enough to yell up at those standing on the wall.

"The Rangers will pay for their treachery, my lord has sworn it." He raised something above his head, waving it in the air. Everyone took note of the fact it was a saxe knife. Logan cursed softly. "We will discover which of you attempted to use deceit to try and kill Lord Morgan and you will suffer for it!" he spun away from the castle and rode quickly to catch up with the rest of the men.

Halt spun to Holly. "Nothing! That is not nothing, Holly!"

Logan stepped in front of her. "It's my knife, Halt, not Holly's."

Halt's gaze flicked to him. "Yours?"

Logan nodded. "Yes, sir."

Halt looked back at his daughter. "You had nothing to do with this?"

She scratched her head. "Um ... well not nothing ... exactly. I may have, sort of, shot at Morgan."

"You did what?" he bellowed.

"I thought if we killed him then his men would give up and leave. With no leader lording over them I thought they might just give up."

Logan hurried to interject before Halt could build up a good rage. "I went with her so I could watch her back and keep her safe. As she was lining up her shot, one of Morgan's men happened on us. I threw my knife before he could shoot us with his crossbow. I knocked Holly's aim off shoving her out of the path of the crossbow.

"Is Morgan dead?" he asked tightly.

Holly shrugged. "I don't know where or if he was hit. There was shouting from the clearing, but Logan hauled me out of there and there was no chance to assess whatever damage might have been done."

"We can imagine he's not dead if his man is saying he's sworn to get back at us for what happened today. But he must have been seriously wounded enough to pull back and leave," Logan told him.

"All of you to your rooms now and stay there until further notice!" Halt snapped.

"But, Dad—"

Halt cut a hand through the air, while sending her an angry glare. "No, Holly I don't want to hear any of your excuses. Room now, you're on restrictions until further notice."

Will sighed. "I agree, all of you to your rooms until we sort this out."

"Dad, come on we didn't do anything!" Deva protested.

"I'm certain you were involved in some way. Go before I change my mind and ask Crowley to remove you from the corps. Trust me I'm tempted to do just that." Will pointed the way out of the hall.

"Dad!"

"Go!"

"Mitchell, that includes you. Go to your room," Horace told him, disappointment creeping into his voice.

Mitchell hung his head. "Yes, sir."

Halt turned to Logan. "I'm grateful to you for keeping Holly safe, but as one of your mentors I must include you in the punishment for assisting in this insane plan of hers."

Logan inclined his head. "I understand."

Halt gave his head a shake as he watched the group walk away, feet dragging and their grumblings reaching him. He didn't know what he was going to do with Holly. First her little excursion in the Mountains of Rain and Night and now this. She needed to pull back on her impulses or she'd never become a Ranger. He wasn't certain exactly when he decided he wanted her to succeed, but it had happened. He was proud of her and yet, he wanted to wring her neck at the same time. Keeping her safe had been top priority since the moment of her birth. She wrapped him around her little finger the moment he stared down into her little face. She was his little girl and putting her in any danger was out of the question. Yes, he wouldn't deny her something he knew she wanted so desperately.

It was a twisted situation with no clear path leading to an agreeable end for the both of them. One of them was destined to be disappointed at the end of this road. He wasn't at all certain he wished for it to be his daughter.