The Burning Bridge

Infobox Book
name = The Burning Bridge


image_caption = First American Edition Cover
author = John Flanagan
cover_artist =
country = Australia
language = English
series = Ranger's Apprentice
genre =
publisher = Random House (Australia); Philomel (USA)
pub_date = May 5, 2005
media_type = Paperback
pages = 266 (Australian paperback edition); 256 (US hardcover edition)
isbn = ISBN 1741660906 (Australian paperback edition); ISBN 0399244557 (US hardcover edition)
preceded_by = The Ruins of Gorlan
followed_by = The Icebound Land

"The Burning Bridge" is a 2006 fantasy novel and the second story of the Ranger's Apprentice series written by John Flanagan.

Plot introduction

On a special mission for the Rangers, Will, his friend Horace, an apprentice knight, and the Ranger Gilan travel to a neighboring country, Celtica. They discover that all the villagers are gone. Will and Horace wonder if all the villagers have been slain or captured, but Gilan thinks that the evil Lord Morgarath finally devised a plan to cross the mountain pass. If that were true, and the King wasn't warned, the country would be destroyed. Gilan goes to warn the King, and Will and Horace begin to follow a straggling Wargal force. On their way they come across Evanlyn, who claims to be a maid to an Araluen noble. When the three of them follow the Wargals they discover that a gigantic bridge is in the process of being built across The Fissure. They also discover that the King's army will be trapped on the Plains of Uthal, surrounded by Morgarath's army and a huge Skandian force. They decide that the only way to save the country is to burn the bridge. They manage to do this, but Will and Evanlyn are captured by Skandians as they keep the fire burning. Meanwhile, Gilan reaches the camp and as he reports Evanlyn to the King, we find that Evanlyn was actually Princess Cassandra, King Duncan's daughter, who was thought to be dead. She took her lady-in-waiting's identity. Horace rushes back to the battlefield in time for the fight to begin. The cavalry is destroying Morgarath's army, so he sends a retreat, then goes forward and challenges Halt to single combat. When the King forbids Halt from accepting, Horace challenges Morgarath instead. Morgarath is about to kill Horace, but, using the move that Gilan taught Will, called the double knife defense, Horace then, in a last-ditch attempt to win the battle, throws himself into the path of the battlehorse, in order to throw it off-balance. He is successful, and stabs Morgarath to win the battle. The Wargals start retreating back up Three Step Pass after it was discovered that Morgarath manipulated them with his mind. and the Skandians escape with Will and Evanlyn(Princess Cassandra). Halt tries to rescue them, he launches a one-man assault on the skiff, but he was too late. Halt promises Will that he will rescue him, which Halt tries to do in the next book.