Free Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan Page B

you?"
    "My mother is dead," Horace grated at them. Angrily, he began to rise, but Jerome's foot was on the back of his neck, thrusting his face against the hard boards. Horace gave up the attempt.
    "Very sad," Alda said, and the other two laughed. "Now clean this mess up, Baby, or we'll have you run the course again"
    Horace lay, exhausted, as the three older boys swaggered out of the room, tipping footlockers over as they went, spilling his roommates' belongings onto the floor. He closed his eyes as salt perspiration stung its way into them again.
    "I hate this place," he said, his voice muffled by the rough planks of the floor.

Chapter 10
    "T ime you learned about the weapons you'll be using," said Halt.
    They had eaten breakfast well before sunup and Will had followed Halt into the forest. They'd walked for about half an hour, with the Ranger showing Will how to glide from one patch of shade to the next, as silently as possible. Will was a good student in the art of unseen movement, as Halt had already remarked, but he had a lot to learn before he reached Ranger standard. Still, Halt was pleased with his progress. The boy was keen to learn-particularly when it was a matter of field craft like this.
    It was a slightly different matter when it came to the less exciting tasks like map reading and chart drawing. Will tended to skip over details that he saw as unimportant until Halt pointed out to him, with some acerbity, "You'd find these skills would become a little more important if you were planning a route for a company of heavy cavalry and forgot to mention that there's a stream in the way." Now, they stopped in a clearing and Halt dropped a small bundle that had been concealed beneath his cloak.
    Will regarded the bundle doubtfully. When he thought of weapons, he thought of swords and battle-axes and war maces-the weapons carried by knights. It was obvious that this small bundle contained none of those.
    "What sort of weapons? Do we have swords?" Will asked, his eyes glued to the bundle.
    "A Ranger's principal weapons are stealth and silence and his ability to avoid being seen," said Halt. "But if they fail, then you may have to fight."
    "So then we have a sword?" Will said hopefully. Halt knelt and unwrapped the bundle.
    "No. Then we have a bow," he said and placed it at Will's feet. Will's first reaction was one of disappointment. A bow was something people used for hunting, he thought. Everyone had bows. A bow was more a tool than a weapon. As a child, he had made his fair share of them himself, bending a springy tree branch into shape. Then, as Halt said nothing, he looked more closely at the bow. This, he realized, was no bent branch.
    It was unlike any bow that Will had seen before. Most of the bow followed one long curve like a normal longbow, but then each tip curved back in the opposite direction. Will, like most of the people of the kingdom, was used to the standard longbow-which was one long piece of wood bent into a continuous curve. This one was a good deal shorter.
    "It's called a recurve bow," said Halt, sensing his puzzlement. "You're not strong enough to handle a full longbow yet, so the double curve will give you extra arrow speed and power, with a lower draw weight. I learned how to make one from the Temujai."
    "Who are the Temujai?" asked Will, looking up from the strange bow.
    "Fierce fighting men from the east," said Halt. "And probably the world's finest archers."
    "You fought against them?"
    "Against them… and with them for a time," said Halt. "Stop asking so many questions." Will glanced down at the bow in his hand again. Now that he was becoming used to its unusual shape, he could see that it was a beautifully made weapon. Several shaped strips of wood had been glued together, with their grains running in different directions. They were of differing thicknesses and it was this that achieved the double curve of the bow, as the different forces strained against each other, bending the limbs of