Seeing Will's interest, and Crowley's discomfort, Halt continued, with the barest hint of a grin. "He chained him to a mill wheel in the town and let the people of Crewse use him as a mill pony for a period of five years. Apparently it had a chastening effect on his soul and brought quite a bit of prosperity to the town as well. Crewse flour became well known for the fineness of its grind."

Crowley finally interrupted this tale. "Look, it was a different situation and I…" He corrected himself a little too late. "The Ranger concerned… couldn't think of any other way of dealing with it. But at least he was making reparation to the people he had wronged. He wasn't just sold as a slave to a foreign power."

"Well," said Halt, "neither was this Buttle character. And actually, as Will pointed out, he wasn't sold. He was given. A good lawyer could probably make a case that with no money changing hands there was nothing done that was against the laws of the country."

Crowley snorted. "A good lawyer?" he said. "There's no such thing. All right, young Will, I suppose you acted for the best and as your lawyer here points out, technically speaking, there's no crime involved. Maybe you'd better pitch your tent. We'll talk after supper."

Will nodded, flashing a grin at Halt, who raised that eyebrow again. As he moved off to pitch his small green tent, Crowley stepped a little closer to his old friend, speaking in a lowered tone so that Will couldn't hear.

"You know, it's not a bad way of dealing with awkward cases," he said softly. "Maybe you should contact your friend Erak and see if we could do it on a more regular basis."

Halt looked at him for a long moment in silence.

"Of course. After all, this country only has so many flour mills, doesn't it?"

The three Rangers sat comfortably around the fire Will had built. Their evening meal had been a good one. Crowley had brought venison steaks with him and they had cooked them, sizzling and spitting, on flat stones heated in the coals of the fire, supplementing the meat with boiled potatoes, liberally heaped with butter and pepper, and greens that had been blanched quickly in a pot of boiling water. Now, nursing mugs of coffee that Halt had brewed, they sat in a companionable silence.

Will was eager to know the details of his mission but he knew that there was no sense in hurrying things. Crowley and Halt would tell him in their own time, and nothing he did or said would make them do so any sooner than they planned to. A few years earlier, he would have been in a fever of anticipation, fidgeting and unable to relax. But, along with the other skills of a Ranger, he had learned patience. As he sat and waited for his superiors to broach the subject, he felt Halt's approving eye on him from time to time as his former teacher assessed this newfound quality. Will looked up once, caught Halt's eyes on him and allowed a grin to touch his features. He was pleased that he was able to demonstrate his forbearance.

Finally, Halt shifted his seat on the hard ground and said in an exasperated tone, "Oh, all right, Crowley! Let's get on with it, for God's sake!"

The Corps Commandant smiled delightedly at his friend. "I thought we were testing Will's patience here, not yours," he said. Halt made an annoyed gesture.

"Well, consider his patience tested."

Crowley's smile slowly faded as he gathered his thoughts. Will leaned forward, to hear his new assignment. He'd spent the past few days doing his best to suppress his curiosity and now that the moment was here, he felt he couldn't wait another second. He'd been racking his brain wondering what the assignment might involve and had come up with several possibilities, most of them based on his experiences in Skandia. Crowley's first words, however, instantly dispelled all of them.

"We appear to have a problem with sorcery in the north," he said.

Will sat back in surprise. "Sorcery?" he asked, his voice pitched a. little higher than he had meant it to be. Crowley nodded.

"Apparently," he said, laying stress on the word. Will looked from him to Halt. His former teacher's face gave nothing away.

"Do we believe in sorcery?" he asked Halt. The older man gave a small shrug.

"Ninety-five percent of cases that I've seen have been nothing but mumbo jumbo and trickery," he said. "Nothing that couldn't be solved by a well-placed arrow. Then there's perhaps another three percent that involve mind domination and manipulation of a weaker mind by a stronger-the sort of control that Morgarath exercised over his Wargals."

Will nodded slowly. Morgarath, a former baron who had rebelled against the King, had led an army of bestial warriors who were totally bound to his will.

"A further one percent comprises the sort of mass hallucinations that some people are capable of creating," Crowley put in. "It's a similar case of mind control, but one that causes people to 'see' or 'hear' things that aren't really there."

There was a moment's pause. Again, Will looked from one to the other. Finally, he said, "That leaves one percent." The two older men nodded.

"I see your capacity for addition has improved," Halt replied, but then went on before Will could comment. "Yes, as you say. It leaves one percent of cases."

"And you're saying they're examples of sorcery?" Will asked, but Halt shook his head doggedly.

"I'm saying we can't find a logical explanation for them," he said Will shifted in his seat impatiently, looking to pin his former teacher down one way or another.

"Halt," he said, holding the bearded Ranger's gaze steadily with his own, "do you believe in sorcery?"

Halt hesitated before replying. He was a man who had dealt in facts all his life. His life's work was dedicated to gathering facts and information. Uncertainty was anathema to him. Yet, in this case…

"I don't believe in it," he said, choosing his words carefully, "but I don't disbelieve in it either. In those cases where there seems to be no cause or logical explanation, I am prepared to keep an open mind on the subject."

"And I think that's probably the best position we can take," Crowley interrupted. "I mean, there is obviously an evil force that influences our world. We've all seen too many examples of criminal behavior to doubt it. Who's to say that there isn't the occasional person with the ability to summon that force or channel it to his own use?"

"However," Halt said, "remember that we're talking about one case in a hundred-and even then, we're saying it may or may not be the real thing. If the real thing even exists."

Will shook his head slowly, then took a deep sip of his coffee. "I'm getting confused here," he said at length. Halt nodded.

"Just keep one thing in mind. There's a better than ninety percent chance that the case we're dealing with here isn't sorcery-it just appears to be. Hold on to that thought, and keep an open mind for the rest. All right?"

Will nodded, letting out a deep breath. "Fine," he said. "So what are the details of this case? What do you want me to do?"

Crowley gestured for Halt to go ahead with the briefing. The bond between master and pupil was still strong, he knew, and would facilitate a concise briefing with less chance of misunderstanding or confusion. These two knew each other's minds.

"Very well," Halt began, "in the first place, we're talking about Norgate Fief-"

"Norgate?" Will interrupted, surprise evident in his voice. "Don't we have a Ranger assigned to that fief?"

"Yes, we do," Halt agreed. "But he's known in the area. He's recognized. People are scared and confused and the last person they'll talk to at this stage is a Ranger. Half of them think we're sorcerers ourselves," he added grimly. Will nodded. He knew that to be true.