EVANDER

"On this day, gathered here before you are Sir Horace Altman and…" as cardinal Jackson prattled on about religious

things and the holy sanctity of marriage and such, Evander, crouched on the rafter beams of the church, looked

directly down, from the depths of his hood, hoping that the huge twenty-five by six foot rug was hard enough for

what he had in mind. The church that everyone was in was the church directly outside Castle Araulen, and it didn't

have a name. The church was huge, as in like massive and the walls where fifty feet high, and the wall behind the

altar was fifty feet across, same with the back wall. The other two walls, where sixty feet across. The rows of

benches in the church, where twenty feet in width, and gave someone about two feet of room in front of them and

two feet of room in width. There were a total of thirty benches per side in the church, bringing a total of sixty, twenty

foot long benches, holding ten people per bench per side, which came to a total of six hundred people that could fit

in the church. There were stained glass windows lining the church walls. On the right hand wall was a fifty foot long

bookcase, ending at the raised altar. Time ticked by as the procession drudged on, a seemingly happy mood, in air.

It was sad that the mood had to end so soon. He looked up at the couple, about to be wed, oblivious to all else.

There was Horace Altman, Korokuma of the Nihan-Jan's, Sunrise Warrior of the Hibernian's, the Oak Leaf Bearer of

the Gallican's, with his most prestigious title, Champion of Princess Cassandra of Araulen, whom today he was being

wed too. Then there was the Princess her self, who helped create the treaties between the Toscan's and the Arridi,

as well as the Skandians, most of which, was done by Will Treaty, who was to Horace's left, being his best man. Will

was wearing a funny little cape, and very fine garments. He had two knives in an ornamented belt at his side. He

scanned the crowd, making sure everyone had there attention on the procession. He saw Halt, who Evander knew

quite well, sitting in the front row, smiling up at Horace and Cassandra, holding hands with Lady Pauline, to his left.

He had the knives too. On Cassandra's right, resided Alyss Mainwaring, the bridesmaid. She was carrying a bouquet

of flowers. Evander knew that Will and Alyss where to be married, in two months, as there jobs permitted. Evander

knew a lot in fact. It's amazing what you find out when you stick to the shadows. Of course, there is a lot you didn't

find out too. Like that man in the opposite row from Halt and Pauline, wearing glasses, sitting next to the rather

plump girl who was wearing a wooden ladle at her side, he looked like he genuinely knew Horace, Will, and Alyss. He

looked at the knives again, sure that Will knew how to use them. That could be painful, he thought. He glanced up at

the clock directly above the altar, and silently swore to himself. He hadn't been paying attention! He may have…

there; he had just heard the three ticks coming from the wall behind him. He stood from his crouching position,

standing now, on the rafters. Once again he glanced down at the giant rug that had been residing in the church for

god knows how long and hoped it was hard enough for his plan. It was only two seconds until the next ticks, and

then it was go time. He glanced over at the four bodies he had stored on top of the giant bookcase, stretching from

one end of the church to the other. It was bad enough that they posted guards all around the church, but inside it

too? And four of them where standing on little platforms, hastily constructed up above, and it was hard to kill them

with out letting them fall or letting blood soak through. Evander was lucky that there had been a bookcase, else he

might have had to store them on the platforms, and then there feet would have been sticking out, which could have

been noticed by the noble's children, down below. Kid's always seemed to notice things like that. But still, it was not

time to think about kids noticing things. Another three ticks. Evander ran right across the rafters, hopping lightly for

one to the other, with out noise, as his master had taught him, all those years ago. When he reached the fourth one

before the final one, forty feet off the ground ready to pounce on the cardinal, when he came running towards the

door, he heard the bang, as the wall blew in. He had been surprised when he found it so easy to put the bomb, on

the wall when everyone was in the church. Then again the procession hadn't started yet and there was a lot on

noise at the time, and that made all the difference, didn't it. The crowd of people below, jumped at the noise, turning

their attention towards it. From all places inside the crowd, and from Will, a knife shot into view. The guards pulled

out there weapons a moment to late. Evander frowned, he knew Will was a ranger, but he what he didn't know,

was that he had invited his entire group of little ranger friends too. Paranoid people aren't they? He also wondered

how they had honed there reaction skills so well. Then he laughed at himself, how had he done it? Duncan must

have wanted top security, inviting all the rangers. Ah and there was the great King now, staring about madly, as if

anyone, dared threaten his little girl, on her big day. Evander felt he had waited long enough, the Rangers and

guard's where just letting their guard down again, thinking that it was just something falling outside. It was a very

windy day, and he had set the bomb so it would blow up facing the outside of the church. It was a good plan,

making sure that they thought something wrong, and then when they finally thought; oh there is nothing coming to

get us… BOOM! There is something to get you, you foolish people! There was a creaking noise. Evander turned his

head around slowly, and was shocked to see the wall had been completely torn open, he had wanted a little chunk

falling, not a big one. Luckily, not the entire portion of the wall had caved, and it looked like the majority of the non-

caved portion, was about to fall inside. He hadn't measured the explosion right, he obviously put in too much

gunpowder. The rangers sheathed there knives. Evander, quick as he could, reached into one of the many pouches

at his belt, and threw down a smoke bomb. He smiled as it blew up, the carpet was hard enough. There where

several screams, as chaos reined, and after a few seconds, once he was sure that the cardinal started running,

Evander jumped down, and felt something go whooshing by his head just as he left the rafters, and he heard them

thud into the dull wood right, beside where his head would have been. Wow, he thought, the rangers have good

accuracy, even if they can't see their target. His legs tried to fold and absorb the impact as he landed on the cardinal,

who was fleeing the scene, but he wouldn't let them. He landed, catlike on top of the cardinal, and he brought him

to the ground. Good, I timed my jump right. Then he stood up straight, got off the cardinal, who was dazed and

winded because of the adrenaline pumping through his veins, and then Evander lifted him into a standing position.

"Thank you for taking that falling piece of stone off of me!" he exclaimed loudly looking light headed as he looked up

into Evander's hood. When he saw what was there all color drained from his face. "No, please don't!" he whispered,

now fully alert, trying to step back, for he knew what was coming. "This is your fault, Jackson, you brought this upon

yourself." Evander said a look of deep sorrow on his face. He flicked his left hand out and a blade appeared,

springing from a mechanism attached to his wrist, and he whipped his hand around so it slammed, full force, into the

cardinal's head. Blood spurted from the fatal wound, and then slowly gushed down the side of his head. The blow

had killed him instantly. Evander threw him off his blade, and flicked is wrist again. The blade retracted back into the

mechanism. Then before the smoke could clear, he ran, up to the book case, scaled it, fast as a monkey, and broke a

window, ensuring his escape.

WILL

The day was going great. He had woke up that morning, cleaned him self, put on his ceremonial ranger clothing, and

combed his hair. Then he went over to Alyss's rooms at Redmont Castle, to pick her up, on Tug. When Alyss came

down the stairs, Will did a double take. She had he blonde hair in a bun, and she was wearing a blue dress, which

came just above her ankles. "What, no couriers badge today?" Will teased, "Oh," replied Alyss, "just because you

don't have any other good cloths to wear doesn't mean you get to take it out on me. And by the way, I am officially

off duty." Will laughed, and Alyss gave him a smile. He helped Alyss up onto Tug then turned his upper body and

gave Alyss a kiss. Then he turned around and rode to the church. As they walked in, they heard a lot of noise, as the

servants that where there worked hard on the decorations. King Duncan stood beside the altar, shouting a million

different commands at once, wile a group of people stood directly behind him, speaking quietly with occasional

glances at the King. Will and Alyss presented themselves to the king, bowing and curtsying alike. He dismissed them

with a wave of his hand, and they went and joined the group people behind him. "Hey Horace," said Will "How's it

going?" Horace didn't say anything. "He's overly nervous, but that's okay because a touch of nervousness can

actually improve-" George never got to finish his sentence. Because he was given a bear hug by Will. "Um, yes it is

good to see you too." He finished. George had been away on a top secret mission for the scribe's master, so

naturally everyone knew about it. He was sent to find an old type of order of some sort, called the Issassano. He

had sent someone from his party ahead, to bring the news that the Issassano where eradicated, and had been for

the past forty years. "We didn't know you where back!" Horace exclaimed. "Well I'm not really," George explained,

"I'm still back at the castle that we found, trying to break into all the locked rooms we found, which, naturally is, all

of them." Then Will heard it, a slight swoosh as someone walked across the carpet behind him. And the swooshing

was way to light to be a normal person's walk. It was either a ranger, or a very small person. Will favored his

chances that it was the first of the two choices. He loosened his saxe knife in its sheath and spun around crossing

its blade with the one that was coming at him, flicking his wrist, in such a way, that his opponent was disarmed.

"Knew I shouldn't have taught you that one." Said Halt, everyone exclaimed remarks loudly, as they had not seen

him coming. "Your getting old, Halt" laughed Will. "And with age comes, wisdom, as you are forgetting one thing." He

replied. "What's that?" Will asked. "You always check for an accomplice." a different voice said. A saxe knife slid in

front of his neck. "How could you have forgotten that one Will?" Gilan smiled at him. The rest of the day went

smoothly after that. The preparations got done, (with much shouting by King Duncan) and Alyss went off to join

Cassandra, who was in the horse shed outside the hall, which had been prepared in such a way, that one could

wait there without getting dirty. A slow trickle of people appeared flowing into the hall, and they all took there

respective seats, ranging from the craft masters, to the Hierarchy's of other country's. Will took his place next to

Horace, and the organ started playing. Will had never seen an organ before, as he never really had time to go to

church, as he was constantly doing ranger things. Religion wasn't a big part of ranger things. Will scanned the

crowd, and was satisfied, all the rangers where there. King Duncan had wanted the best security, and to him it was

many rangers and many guards. To Crowley, it was many guards, and three rangers. Of course the King eventually swayed Crowley into making the decision that all rangers had to

be there. It was, but with so many important people there, the King HAD to have the best security. Of course no one knew that the rangers where

there, as they where all under different aliases, of randomly created lords and lady's of far off castles and such. King

Duncan couldn't affiliate himself with all his subjects, could he? The procession went on Alyss behind Cassandra, as

they entered the church, the women gasping as they saw Cassandra's dress, and so on and so forth. There was a

moment, when Will thought he saw a flicker of movement, when something shifted, but then he remembered that

King Duncan had earlier posted sentries, on top of the rafters, and dismissed it as nothing. The cardinal of Castle

Araulen, named Jackson, started the procession"…Sir Horace Altman and Princess Cassandra of Araulen, to be wed

here today in this church…" the cardinal went on, speaking of marriage and why it was so sacred, but Will was so

happy, he couldn't have cared less. He was surrounded, by friends, and basically family, and they where happy so

he was happy. BOOM! There was a big thundering sound, and the doors to the church where thrown opened by a

sudden gust of wind. A guard went outside to investigate. Meanwhile, Will, Halt, and all of the other rangers in the

room had there saxe knives out. Cardinal Jackson faltered, and then kept plowing right through the service. Will and

the other rangers sheathed there blades. It was nothing. He thought. At the corner of his vision he saw something

flicker, up in the rafter beams, he turned his head and saw a face, features hidden by a hood, perfectly still in the

rafters. He watched entranced, as his hand went to a pouch by his side, and pulled out a small object. He raised his

arm. Realizing what he was going to do and pulled out his knife just as the man threw the object to the ground. The

object hit the ground and exploded, smoke curling off the thing like an evil disease. As soon as the smoke reached

the altar, the cardinal started running towards the door, which he couldn't see. Then Will glanced back up, and

threw his knife at the man in the rafters. His knife was a moment to late, for the man jumped, and the knife thudded

into the wood, where his head just was. Then he looked back at the cardinal, and saw the end of his robe whirl into

the smoke. Will cursed; the man who jumped was in there! And after a moment's hesitation, he ran after the

cardinal. He ran for a few seconds, and as he was running he tripped over something and he slammed, face down,

into the floor. He looked at what he had slipped over, and he saw the Cardinal lying with his face towards the doors,

blood leaking from his head, eyes blank. There was a tinkling sound, as if someone near by, was breaking glass. The

screams slowly stopped as the people realized that it was just smoke, and that no harm was befalling them. Then

after what felt like an eternity staring at the Cardinal's dead eyes, the smoke cleared. Everyone looked over at Will,

and then the screams started again.

"Who could have done this?" Halt proclaimed as he paced around the room, like an agitated animal "I mean we had

the top most security possible, and yet, we still allowed someone to get hurt, or rather to die." Around the table that

had been quickly erected beside the altar, sat Horace, Will, Halt, George, King Duncan, and Crowley. Well Halt was

actually pacing, but there was a spot reserved for him. Cassandra had run off crying, saying that everything was

ruined, and because of that Horace was in shambles. Alyss had run off after Cassandra, saying something about

calming her down. Horace looked up "I don't care right now," He snapped, "Cassandra is in tears, the whole

wedding went wrong, and I, for one, am not letting this day go, without marrying Cassandra, even if all our guests

have been evacuated, from the church." "No." King Duncan was in an outrage, he did everything right, he was sure

of it, and yet, still everything seemed to go wrong. On his daughter's big day, the day he had been waiting for his

whole life, the most joyous day ever, something had gone wrong. Will looked up, still in shock from falling over a

dead man's body. Of course he had seen dead bodies before, and he had killed, but on those occasions the person

or persons had to be killed for a good cause, but this, this was just plain murder. As he looked up, he observed that

it was an understatement to say that the King was pissed. "We are tracking this killer down, before you marry

Cassandra." He said angrily. "Why?" said Horace, now rising to a similar level of anger. "Because," said Crowley,

"This has been going on for months." For once Halt looked genuinely surprised. Will felt the same way, as did

everyone at the table, "What do you mean?" Will asked. "The Duke of Kartaberia, for one." Crowley answered

looking at Halt, pointedly. Halt paled, "What do you mean? What about him?" He asked, "What I mean is, he died

similarly, with the same wound to the head, two months ago." Crowley answered. Halt's mouth was hanging open

just a fraction of an inch. Then he snapped back to reality and let out a gasp. "What do you mean he is dead?" He

questioned. Crowley sighed, "I wanted to tell you sooner, but I didn't have time what with the wedding

preparations. And before you say; but two months ago was way before the wedding! Let me tell you that we only

found out, about two weeks ago, which was when we started pulling all the rangers in for the wedding." Halt buried

his face in his hands. "Yes," said Duncan "I have to have a word with you about that." His expression was one of a

tiger, wounded, but still strong enough to eat whatever came to close to it. And it looked hungry. "All fifty-one

rangers, and I ordered all of them! And yet they let a single killer escape? How could this happen?" He was

calming down a bit but not by much. "I don't know sir, but we," Crowley said, referring to the ranger corps, even

though it was just him who knew about the man, "have good intelligence information on this killer, we have been

observing the killers pattern over the last few years, and it seems like-" "Last few years!" Duncan roared, completely

throwing courtesy in the garbage, obviously pissed again, "If," Crowley said calmly, "you would allow me to finish my

sentence, maybe you would have found out why we haven't caught this man yet. But it sounds like you don't want

to know so…" Crowley let his sentence trail off, and Duncan nodded once, signaling him to resume. "Anyway, this

man knows how to evade us, and track us, as well as people and guards. I don't even know how he got in here! We

had two rangers replace the ushers, and the checked every single person that got in or out. It is most strange.

Anyway he has been killing in no pattern I can see, and he seems to be killing nobles and holy men at random." King

Duncan looked at Crowley and asked "Who are these nobles and holy men?" Crowley went up to the King and

quickly whispered the names in his ear. With each word the King seemed to pale more, and when he reached the

last name, the King let out a strangled cry. His face then made itself into a stone hard mask. He said "Halt, you and

your team will go out and hunt this man with whatever information Crowley arms you with, also take one other

ranger." "I will, sir, but before we go, how is it that you have been observing his killing patterns, though you say he has none, even though the first kill that we know of is the Duke

of Kartaberia?" Halt said. "Oh," said Crowley, "Well, that was the first kill that YOU know of. You remember Boris?" Halt nodded, "He was the one killed by the puncture wound to

the..." Halt's mouth fell open in shock. "...Head thats right." finished Crowley, " He has made quite a few kills in Araulen as well. We just didn't know it was him the whole time."

Halt and Duncan both went white in the face. Boris, whoever he was, was obviously very well known.

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT THIS KILLER!" Horace snarled. "I am not going anywhere until I have married Cassandra." King

Duncan opened his mouth to tell Horace that if he disobeys him, he won't let him marry his daughter, but Will got

there first. "Well before we do or say anything hasty," He said with a worried glance at the King "Let's just find out,

where do you think this killer is based?" "Well, his first kill was on the Isle of Kartaberia and so was his second to

latest, judging from the majority of the information i have collected on him, and I have managed to track him a tiny bit, using my informers that are all over Araulen, and from all

the information I have conveyed, it seems that his lair is on Kartaberia, very well hidden, underground or something

like that." Crowley stated. "Oh," George had finally piped up, the whole table jumped, they had all forgotten that

George was there, given the fact that he was so silent. "Kartaberia is where my team was sent by the scribe's

master, to find a hidden castle. He said it would most likely be underground, and as it is, it is in a mountain, all that

there is above ground, is a really big tower, and a big stack of hay on the ground." Everyone looked at George

shocked. "So the scribe's master knows of something this?" said Halt. "It seems so" George replied "Well?" said King

Duncan "Did you find the castle?" George looked straight at the King. "Yes."