Even if he'd possessed a notion what to say, Robin would have shared nothing.
"Why are you dear to the Green Man?" Odo trickled the point of the dagger along the line of Robin's collarbone, parting a wafer-thin layer of flesh. "Speak, damn it!"
Odo buried his fist in Robin's belly. Pain consumed him, searing his guts and leaving him moaning like a stricken beast.
"He loves you as family," said Odo. "Before this night is out, you'll tell me why."
Love? Robin let his head rest against his shoulder and stared straight through Odo.
"I know what you're thinking." Odo warped his lips into a cynical smile. "I don't know the meaning of the word. But you do, Robin, I'm sure. Tell me, did you love the treacherous forester?"
"No!"
Robin's protest resounded too loud, too desperate.
"How touching," drawled Odo. "The whore ensnared you. That's why you're here, isn't it? I should reward the boy for making my triumph absolute."
Robin let his eyes glaze and blanked Odo's ravings. Nothing he could say or do would help Cal. The Wild Hunt would ride, and now Odo wished to use Robin's blood to command the vilest beings of the forest. Whether the baron could control the foul spirits seemed irrelevant. Thousands could die because of his lust for the crown.
"Don't ye fret." Odo patted Robin's smarting shoulder. "With luck, you'll see your golden-haired slattern before the end."
Odo called for Daniel. The door opened, and Daniel poked his head inside. "Keep a guard outside this chamber," commanded Odo. "One we can trust so nobody goes snitching to Brock before time. I'm off to either cut a whore's throat or fetch my new right-hand man."
When the door swung closed, Daniel stayed without, and Robin sighed. Daniel had once been a good man, and Robin nursed faint hopes his former friend could be persuaded to switch sides once more.
He wished Cal too would lie and cheat. Odo had no intention of elevating Cal's status so quickly; those words were meant as another blow to Robin's gut. But if Cal swore loyalty to Odo, at least he might live. As for the Green Man, if Robin was so damned special, he could use some aid right now.
He dropped his head forward, wincing at the uncomfortable pinch in his back. Though the discomfort in his gut faded, the bite mark stung, and his blood dripped among the winding chains on the floorboards.
His hopes and prayers felt weak.
*~*~*
When the box opened, Cal had fallen beyond the realm of thought or wisdom. More animal than man, he whimpered. His muscles cramped, and the shackles grazed each place they touched. Ames took him by the hair to haul him out before dumping him face-first on the floor, sweating and shivering.
The torturer removed the collar, then rolled him over and slapped him on the face. Cal hardly flinched, though he gasped for the freely flowing air. Everything hurt, and he refused the meaning of sounds or sights. Quivering halos of torchlight dazzled him.
"Robin," he murmured, seeking refuge behind closed lids. He couldn't recall the face that matched the name. He grasped at a distant recollection of Robin's warmth, his scent.
Ames's snort was echoed by a slithering laugh. Cal's faculties slowly regrouped, and he forced his eyes wide. Ames thwacked him harder, the impact magnified by the dampness of his skin.
"You with me, runt?"
He blinked. Ames's round, oily face veered into focus. Behind him loomed Odo, the rich colours of his gown in stark juxtaposition with the squalor of the cell. Ames grabbed Cal's jaw, squeezing so hard the bones creaked, and poured vile-tasting water down his throat. Cal choked and pushed up onto his elbow, coughing and spitting it out.
Somebody rubbed his back.
"Would you like to get out of here?" asked Odo.
Cal nodded stupidly. The elbow on which he rested his weight shook like a leaf.
"You've had a goodly taste of Ames's hospitality, and you're very welcome to more." Odo tilted his head in the direction of the brazier and grim array of instruments. "And while your charms leave me cold, I'm sure plenty can derive pleasure from that bony arse of yours."
Cal's imagination did Odo's work for him. He pictured a faceless garrison ripping into him one by one. When they'd had their fill, Ames would break all that remained of him in this chamber, then lock him back in that box till the rats chewed his bones. A noise caught between a sob and a mirthless snicker escaped him.
"Or," said Odo, "there is that other way, through which you shall inherit everything a man of good blood deserves."
Cal scrambled for some notion of courage, a reason he should endure rather than surrender. Could he suffer so for Robin? Why the hell should he?
"You might be interested to know," said Odo, "that Robin Hood is my captive."
All was lost. Cal collapsed back to the floor while Odo's revelations washed over him. Robin had been taken, so Odo claimed, in the Greenwood that very day, hunted because Odo had discovered why he was beloved by so many and so damned good.
The rest of Odo's words took a while to sink in. Ames pulled Cal to his feet, and he managed to stay upright while Ames peeled away the dirty remnants of his clothes. He felt beyond shame, just stunned. Ames's rough handling bruised him further, and Odo raved like a being possessed. Ames scoured Cal's face using a cloth so filthy it must have added as much dirt as it removed. Cal screwed his eyes tight Ames ran the rag over his limbs, then scrubbed harshly at his more intimate places. A creeping understanding of what Odo was telling him overwhelmed even his loathing for the humiliating intimacy.
"You see, the trees don't just whisper of Robin Hood," said Odo. "They wept for him too. When I held him in my dungeon, the Green Man pleaded for him as family, fascinating me enough to sweep the lands in pursuit, and finally I've brought the outlaw in. The Wild Hunt will ride for me, and who knows what power Robin Hood's blood will bring."
For Cal, naked and trembling with his arms hooked about his ribs, the disclosure seemed too much to bear. Odo's quest for the crown was briefly irrelevant. The Greenwood that hated Cal as a traitor loved Robin like a son. With cracked lips, he formed a sneer.
How exquisite! Why had he felt anything but hate for the man? Robin had snatched his birth right—to hell with the matter that Cal had never wanted the Greenwood's respect and love.
Robin was everything he should have been and could never be.
Odo's voice cut across his angry stupor. "You see, I cannot lose. Are you my man, Cal? Will you make Herne act?"
Survive. Win. Show no mercy.
"Yes," said Cal. "I'll do my utmost."
"You will succeed. You have no other option. Only my most loyal servants are privy to these plans."
Cal answered calmly. "Then I'll succeed."
"Well done, boy." He smirked, raking his gaze down Cal's naked, vulnerable form. "Your first reward will be clothes and a bandage for that injury you carry. Then you will prove your fealty to your future monarch."
"I'll do anything you ask." Cal batted his tear-clotted lashes. A large black rat scratched near his bare toes, and Ames grinned down at it.
"You will flay the skin from the back of Robin Hood," demanded Odo.
"Is that all?" Cal rattled out a dry laugh. "Very well."
*~*~*
Robin chafed his flesh raw, confirming he'd no chance of twisting free from the cuffs. Hanging still, he forced himself to think and look. The fetters attached to his ankles were long enough to allow him to walk at least a yard. The tauter chains about his arms that had been slung over the beams were fixed using rope to a metal loop on a near wall. If he could somehow reach that far, contrive a way to cut or burn the hemp, or…
When the door opened, he steeled his nerve and refused to let despondency defeat him. It proved a struggle. Cal entered the room behind Odo, who slid an arm about Cal's shoulder. They made a beguiling pair. Cal wore an emerald-green tunic that hugged his slim waist and emphasized the breadth and hard lines of his shoulders. A smirk lifted the edge of his mouth, an echo of Odo's predatory leer.
> The question in Robin's head wearied him. Whose side was Cal on? He trusted Cal had a good heart, but the finest of men could be broken. If only Cal would give him a sign, though expressing his desires would be dangerous.
Despising their silent examination, Robin cleared his throat. "I see you've rolled over for the enemy again, Cal."
Cal shot toward him like a scalded pup, rising onto tiptoes to sneer in his face. "Don't presume to speak to me in such a way, outlaw. Very soon, Odo will be king of England, I shall be his revered servant, and you? You will be dead, but your death, so it seems, may serve my new master better than I ever imagined."
Cal slapped him, but not that hard. Up close, the pallor of Cal's complexion alarmed Robin, and Cal's chin looked bruised and scratched. Hurt and longing lay naked in his reddened eyes, hardly a promise of salvation. Robin gritted his teeth.
Cal backed off, and as Robin's expectations lurched and waned, Odo opened the chest at the bottom of the bed. The baron placed a scroll he'd kept concealed beneath his mantle in the casket and then retrieved a whip, which he passed to Cal.
Cal fingered the long bone handle. "Flay the skin from his back, you say, master?"
"That is my command."
"Wouldn't you like to see me suck him hard first, my lord? I could do that. I'll show you how good a whore I can be."
Robin's jaw dropped. Pain he could endure, and he'd never harden for Odo, whatever the inducement… but Cal? The humiliation of becoming erect in front of Odo would be unbearable.
Odo pondered a moment and then clapped. "Very well. I suppose we've got all evening."
Robin's glare shot venom at Cal, who swallowed hard. Odo sliced the remnants of Robin's clothing to expose his back, and Cal crouched before him. He shifted Robin's shredded tunic and leaned in, breath bated against Robin's loins.
Just as Robin verged on cursing him to the devil, Cal glanced up, an image of agony that could rival a Christian martyr. He mouthed a word. Please?
The chamber whirled full circle about Robin. It was part of a plan…he hoped. Growling, he offered a barely discernible nod.
Cal managed a strained whisper, little more than a sigh. "Sorry."
He took Robin's limp member and tugged. Robin gasped, his pulse accelerating, undecided whether to fight or go with the flow. Cal knew what he was doing, damn the sly pixie. He slid Robin's foreskin back, then pried a warm tongue between his slit, dabbing that most sensitive point to the fore of his cockhead. Robin groaned; it felt sublime. The discomfort of his bondage faded, and for a split second they were back in the spring meadow of his dream. His prick filled and hardened.
His balls tightened, his body ached for fulfilment, but reality crashed back. Odo's mocking gaze tormented him, and Cal pumped him without pity. By the time Cal pulled away, clamping fingers about the base of Robin's member, Robin suspected what awful fate he'd sealed. Odo gave Cal a silver ring, and with a brief grimace, Cal slid it up Robin's shaft till it nestled at his base. Cal looked to Odo, licking Robin's moisture from his lips.
"Fine work," murmured Odo, his face flushed with arousal.
Oh, Cal, please make this worth it.
Robin's erection bobbed up toward his stomach. He tried closing his eyes, shutting out Odo's derisive scrutiny, but the sensation of the trapped blood couldn't be suppressed. Whip in hand, Cal circled him with a relish reminiscent of his new master, though even Cal couldn't command Robin's attention for long.
If Cal had intended to work Odo into a shameless state of passion, he'd succeeded. Odo reached beneath his clothes and stroked his cock.
Robin discerned no reason to shield his disgust. He'd have yelled his pointless fury, had Cal not cracked the whip like a bolt from the blue. Robin bit his tongue, then cried out, "Agh!"
The strip wrapped his back. It didn't split the skin but stung nevertheless. Cal rained down a second blow hard enough to raise a welt and drew a guttural moan from Robin's throat. He twisted and writhed, attempting to evade the inevitable. Odo's rasps filled the air, and he fisted himself harder. Robin's abhorrence outweighed his pain and even the dreadful pressure in his cock.
Cal lashed down a third time, and Robin tugged so hard the cuffs savaged his broken skin. Yet he'd endured more brutal beatings. Cal held back. This had to be part of some escape plot.
Unless Cal remained as entrapped as he. Or worse, Cal still played both sides.
Robin snatched a glance over his shoulder, desperate for reassurance. Cal's elfin features distorted with malice as he bore the lash down once more. Robin and Cal yelled out as one. White-hot pain snaked across his back. His body arched, then locked rigid.
Cal hadn't held back on that last blow. Either blood coursed down Robin's back, or his perspiration streamed in rivers. A few more strokes like that, and Cal would skin him like a calf. He squeezed his eyes tight and girded himself for the next. It never came.
When Cal reappeared from behind him, he'd cast the whip aside and held one of the torches. He sneered and swiped it inches from Robin's nose. Robin felt the glare of the heat.
"What is this?" demanded Odo, forcing eyelids heavy with lust wide. "I said whip him, not burn him."
"Forgive me, my lord." Cal replaced the torch in its halter and then scurried over to squat at Odo's feet. "Master, my mouth will feel so much sweeter than your hand. Please let me pleasure you."
"Get back to your work," snapped Odo. "Or you'll be kissing my fist again."
"I beg of you, my lord." Cal dared to stroke Odo's thighs, pawing and cloying. "I roused the outlaw, though he be strung up for torture. I'm the best you'll ever have."
"I don't want you, whore. I want to see Robin Hood squirm."
"Yes, my lord," drawled Cal. "I'm a whore, but I'm not just any whore. I've been a royal whore, an outlaw's whore, and now I'm yours. So close your eyes and pretend I'm…him."
Odo hesitated only a moment. His glower impaling Robin, he swung his legs so he sat on the edge of the bed and spat some kind of assent. Cal lifted Odo's robes, then slipped those soft lips about his swollen cock. Odo threw his head back, emitting a groan, while Cal slurped noisily.
Robin gaped at them, his mouth arid, trying to shake off the debilitating aftereffects of the flogging. The sight of Cal's blond head between Odo's legs set his skin crawling anew. He almost wished his eyeballs had been gouged out.
Whore, devil, liar, traitor.
He pushed aside his petty disgust.
Cal was doing this to save him. He'd timed his actions to give Robin a much-needed reprieve from the flogging, and that wasn't all. Cal debased and sacrificed himself to save thousands. He was a good man. And now he withdrew one of his hands from Odo's groin to gesture behind his back.
Robin frowned.
Cal jabbed a finger toward where the chains were linked by the rope Robin had identified as the weak point in his imprisonment. Well, that was no use. He couldn't get close enough to cut through, he'd no knife, and…
His heart seemed to jump into his mouth. Cal had snatched his chance with the torch to singe the thick rope. It smouldered and frayed fast and appeared on the verge of snapping.
All he had to do was tug.
*~*~*
Cal worked Odo's shaft with the enthusiasm of a mule hauling rocks up a mountain. He mauled the foreskin and smooth bulb beneath, licking and sucking, kneading Odo's testicles. Briefly he imagined he pleasured Robin. It didn't work. Odo's jarring musk set his innards curdling. His body thrummed with the same blend of determination and self-loathing that had gripped him when he'd cleaved the whip across Robin's back.
A stab of guilt shamed him the same moment Odo shoved forward so the thick cock brushed his tonsils. Striving not to gag, he buttressed his resolve. He'd wandered from the torture chamber a lost soul, promising Odo anything and everything. All prospects had brought misery, apart from the vague notion he might be able to help Robin. Seeing Robin had changed everything. Faint plans had crystallized, and he'd hardened his will to iron.
Odo wouldn't be recorded in the chronicles as the man who brought down Robin Hood—nay, England. Neither would Cal, though he strove above all to save the friend he cared too much for and prayed the object of his affection marshalled his wits and looked lively. He'd done his part, causing a distraction and burning the rope, though he'd had the briefest time to act.
And it was damned difficult trying to communicate to a man chained behind him while sucking another to what he hoped would be oblivion.
The rope, Robin. Break that damned rope.
Odo's roar slammed his ears. The baron's cock convulsed, and Cal cursed his wandering concentration. He should have held back. Odo was about to come, and as far as he knew, Robin still wasn't free.
Odo climaxed with three shattering thrusts, his seed clogging Cal's throat.
Sweet Mother Goddess, my faith is all yours. Please instruct that fool Robin to tug!
He heard the clunk of metal against wood. His jaw aching, his mouth stretched and filled, he swallowed the brackish semen. Odo's eyes flew wide. He jerked free of Cal the same instant Robin plunged forward and seized him, then flung him flat onto the bed.
Though Robin's shackles trailed him, surprise and Odo's boneless condition worked in his favour. He gripped Odo's wrist, and they fought to wrest control of the knife.
Robin won. Cal fell back onto his haunches, spitting Odo's foul liquid. Robin slammed a hand over Odo's mouth. He pinned Odo with his bulk and slid the blade to Odo's throat. "Cal. The key's about his neck. Get these things off me."
Cal yanked the key from a chain and started stripping the cuffs, careful not to jog Robin. Cal winced at the red welts he'd carved on his back, wishing he'd time to apologize.
"I should kill you now," hissed Robin to Odo. "I can't see any reason why not, though you deserve to suffer more."
After pulling the last clamp from Robin's ankle, Cal cast the chains aside. He hauled open the wooden chest and grabbed the charter he'd delivered to the barons. "You won't need to if he puts his seal to this."
Robin glanced his way. "What?"
"His seal is on his ring. Give me a moment." Cal put down the scroll, relieved to find the chest contained the other possessions he'd expected. Among jewels and sumptuous fabrics, he located a couple of documents in Odo's hand, a pot of iron gall ink, and the pinion of a goose. He unfolded Robin and Herne's ultimatum, dipped the quill's nib, and began to scratch beneath the Elfaene's daubs.
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