Forest Kingdom Trilogy 3 - Down Among the Dead Men

Constance. “Can you See what happened here?”
    Constance frowned and closed her eyes. “There were three men here. Outlaws. One of them was Scarecrow Jack. Another was one of the guards who brought the gold here. They were fighting something, but I can’t See what.”
    “Whatever made the web, presumably,” said MacNeil. “What else can you See?”
    Constance’s brow furrowed as she concentrated. “There was something else here,” she said slowly. “Something apart from the outlaws and the web … Duncan, they’ve brought something evil into this fort. Something old, and powerful.” She shuddered suddenly and opened her eyes. “I can’t See anything else. The three outlaws are gone. I could try tracking them with a spell, but calling up the magic needed would knock me out for several hours.”
    “It’s not worth it,” said MacNeil. “Three outlaws aren’t going to be much of a threat, no matter what they’ve brought with them, and I might need your abilities yet. No, we’ll track them down the hard way, by checking every room till we find them. It’ll take a while, but what with one thing and another, I doubt we’d be getting much sleep tonight anyway.”
    Constance looked at him but didn’t say anything. The outlaws had brought something awful into the fort, something that endangered them all, but her Sight hadn’t given her a clear picture of what it was. And until she was sure, she couldn’t say anything more to MacNeil. He wouldn’t just take her word for it.
    Even though he would have taken Salamander’s word
…
    “Strange coincidence,” said Flint suddenly.
    “What is?” said MacNeil.
    “We fought monsters down below, and now it seems the outlaws have been fighting something nasty here in the corridor. And we all dreamed of monsters. Maybe there’s a connection.”
    “Such as?”
    Flint shrugged. “Beats me.”
    The Rangers stood together a while, thinking about the new turn of events, and MacNeil frowned as an idea came to him.
    “I don’t know about the rest of you, but it seems to me that if the outlaws were heading for anywhere in particular, it’s almost bound to be the cellar. That’s where the gold was supposed to have been stored, after all.”
    He paused, and the others looked at him expectantly. “So?” said Constance.
    “So, I think we ought to get back down to the cellar first, so we can wait for them.”
    Flint and the Dancer looked at each other. Constance looked at the floor. MacNeil smiled suddenly.
    “It beats the hell out of a room-by-room search, doesn’t it?”
    “Good point,” said the Dancer.
    There was a pause, and then Flint looked directly at MacNeil. “Why are you telling us all this? You lead this team; you make the decisions, and we back you up. That’s the way it’s always been.”
    “This is different,” said MacNeil evenly. “This isn’t the usual kind of case that Rangers have to face. There are dangers here that are way outside our usual scope. I don’t think I have the right to just order you to just follow me into danger. So I’m giving you all the chance to say no if you want to.”
    Flint shook her head slowly. “I thought you’d got over Salamander’s death by now. It wasn’t your fault; you had no way of knowing that ambush was there. All right, Salamander had Seen a danger in that town, but she couldn’t See what it was. She died there because
she
made a mistake, when she decided to trust her sword instead of her magic. Giles and I trust your decisions. We always have. Are you going down into the cellar again?”
    “Yes,” said MacNeil. “I am.”
    “Then the Dancer and I are coming with you. We’ve been part of your team for eight years now, and we’ve no mind to join another. Wherever you go, we go. Right, Giles?”
    “Right,” said the Dancer.
    MacNeil looked at Constance, who smiled back at him. “Same here,” she said calmly. “After all, where would you be without me to look after you? I’m a part of this team too.”
    “Let’s go,” said MacNeil. “We don’t want the outlaws to get there first.”
    He turned and led the way back down the corridor, so they wouldn’t see how moved he was by their loyalty. Flint and the Dancer exchanged grins and moved off after him. Constance brought up the rear, humming tunelessly to herself.
    “More monsters, do you think?” said Flint to the Dancer.
    “Seems likely,” said the Dancer.
    “Good,” said Flint. “You can use the exercise. You’ve