Authors: John Flanagan

Tags: #Fantasy, #Juvenile Fiction, #Fantasy & Magic, #Action & Adventure, #General

The Outcasts (48 page)

BOOK: The Outcasts

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“I’ve got a crew,” he said flatly.

Tursgud hesitated, taking that in. Then he tried another tack.

“Well then, perhaps I could join your crew?” he said.

“No. I don’t think so,” Erak told him. But then he was distracted by the sound of someone calling his name. He looked up to see one of the town watch running along the beach toward him.

“Oberjarl! Oberjarl!”

As the man came closer, he slowed to a trot, then pulled up in front of Erak, sucking in lungfuls of the frigid air. His breath came in clouds of steam as he panted.

“Something wrong?” Erak asked.

“They’ve gone!” the man said. “All of them!”

“All of who?” Erak asked and the man, still panting heavily, waved a vague hand in the general direction of the brotherband training ground, high in the hills above the town.

“The team … the brotherband. The Herons,” he said.

Tursgud stepped forward and gripped the man’s jacket.

“Gone? Gone where?” he demanded. The man looked at him, an expression of distaste on his face, then reached up and detached Tursgud’s hand from his lapel.

“Keep your hands to yourself, boy,” he said. Then he turned back to Erak.

“I checked the shrine, and then their barracks. Their bedding and equipment is all gone. They’re gone.”

“Stop saying that!” Tursgud shouted, his voice cracking. “Where have they gone?”

“They’ve gone to get the Andomal back,” said a new voice. They turned to see Karina standing a few meters away. She had a sheet of paper in her hand. She held it up now.

“Hal left me a note. Said there was nothing here for them now so they were going to get the Andomal back to make things right.”

“Ha!” The derisive sound exploded from Tursgud. “As if they could!”

Karina turned a withering glare upon him and Erak placed a heavy hand on his shoulders, gripping the muscles and tendons there until Tursgud winced and shifted with the pain.

“One day,” Erak told him, “you’ll learn to keep your mouth shut. Let me know when that happens, will you?” He shoved Tursgud away from him. For a moment the boy debated whether to try to regain Erak’s favor. Then he decided against it and walked away.

Karina waited till he was gone, then said in a low voice, “You were too hard on them, Erak. You left them no hope.”

“They let down the whole town, Karina. The whole country, in fact.”

But she wouldn’t have it. “They made a mistake, that’s all. They’re only boys.”

Now Erak was shaking his head at her. “They’re not boys anymore, Karina. That’s the whole point of the brotherband program. They’re qualified now as warriors.”

“All the same—,” she began, but a cry from the watchtower interrupted her.

“Sail! Sail to the east!”

They looked in the direction he was pointing. They could just make out a tiny, triangular sail, emerging from behind Bearclaw Headland and speeding away from the coast.

“It’s the
Heron
!” the lookout cried in surprise. There was no mistaking that sail shape. Most of those present surged up onto the harbor mole for a better view. Erak and Karina followed more slowly.

Erak stopped, shading his eyes and looking after the rapidly receding white triangle.

“Well done, boys,” he said in a low voice. “May Ullr guide you.” Ullr was the god of hunters. He looked back at Karina now and said, not unkindly, “This was their only chance for any sort of life.”

She frowned at him. “You knew they’d do this?”

He smiled sadly at her. “Why do you think I gave them until ten o’clock to hand in their weapons?”

He turned to look back to the southeast, but a large squall was sweeping across the sea and the
Heron
was lost from sight.

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ALSO BY JOHN FLANAGAN

The Ranger’s Apprentice Epic

Book 1: The Ruins of Gorlan

Book 2: The Burning Bridge

Book 3: The Icebound Land

Book 4: The Battle for Skandia

Book 5: The Sorcerer of the North

Book 6: The Siege of Macindaw