Ranger's Apprentice:Book Three, Chapter Four

    Slade watched as Emily went to retrieve her arrows. She had a perfect shot already, and probably didn't need this extra training on her bow. He sighed, and leaned back against the tree. Using Merlin was a bad idea, he realized, and maybe he needed to just go kill her himself. What he didn't know was that Halt had told Gilan to practice with Emily, to keep an eye on her.  Gilan walked up to Emily, correcting something that she'd done wrong. Slade frowned. But if the Ranger boy was going to get in the way, he was going to die. Why? Because no one got in between Slade and his little sister.

    Emily looked over Gilan's shoulder the trees to the right of Slade. She thought she had heard something, a movement in the trees, something. She shrugged, and went back to shooting. Ten arrows later,  she walked up to the targets that Halt had placed on the far side of the meadow. She smiled when she saw the results. Most of the arrows had gone into the bulls eye. The ones that hadn't were close to that. Then she herd it again. That slight rustle of leaves as they were moved out of place. Gilan heard it to, and stood in-between Emily and the forest, sure that someone was going to come out of it.

    Slade stepped into the clearing. He had his sword un-sheathed, and he saw Emily hiding behind Gilan. 

    "Give me the girl, boy." Slade said. "She's a wanted criminal you know."

    "No." Gilan said, "And if she was, why wasn't she taken by the King??"

    "Complications in communication. That can happen, you should know, being a Ranger and all that fun stuff."

    Gilan stepped closer to the strange man wielding a sword. He unsheathed his own sword and said, "Well, your not getting Emily. Not while I still breathe."

    "You know, I can kill you, little boy?"

    "I don't care. Emily run!"

    Emily turned around and ran. She heard the clang of swords hitting each other. And then she turned, to see what was happening.

    Slade was on top of Gilan, sword raised for a killing stroke. Gilan's sword lay a few feet away, up to the crosspiece in the ground. Emily saw Slade's sword go into Gilan, and she screamed. Slade pulled is sword out, and it was covered in blood. Emily turned and ran again, hearing him get closer with almost every step. Suddenly, she was knocked of her feet, and Slade was standing above her, with a cloth instead of a sword. Emily tried to scream, but the cloth was put over her nose and mouth. It smelled sweet, and a few minutes later, she felt tired. Before she blacked out, she called out weakly for Gilan and Halt.

    Halt, having heard Emily's scream had run to see what was wrong. He saw Gilan's body, and then he saw Emily, draped over Slade's shoulder being carried away, and tried to catch up to them. Slade heard him, and threw something at Halt. It was a weighted rope, and it twisted around Halt's ankles, and he fell. He got his saxe knife from his sheath and cut the rope.

    But, by the time he was done, Emily and Slade were no where to be seen. He walked over to Gilan, and knelt by him. Halt's body was racked by terrible sobs, and he held the body of his first apprentice in his arms.  What was he going to tell Pauline? David? He finally put down Gilan and went to get Abelard ready.

    He had an apprentice to save, just like what she had done for him, two years ago.