The following morning as we ate breakfast around the fire, heavy footsteps pounded toward us. I reached for the dagger in my sock. John and Miller were already on their feet, with their weapons in their hands when Tuck appeared, out of breath.
“Rob…” he panted.
I stood, my mouth going dry.
Tuck bent over, resting his hands on his knees.
“What about Rob?” Miller asked, before I had the chance.
“Is he okay?” Tuck wheezed. “Did you get him out of Oxham?”
John shook his head. “He wouldn’t leave.”
Beneath cheeks reddened from running, Tuck’s skin paled. “Are you sure?”
Both Miller and John nodded.
“Get your weapons. There’s something you all need to see. You too, Maryanne.”
ELEVEN
We sprinted after Tuck, one-by-one down a narrow trail that led to a wider one. I already knew why Tuck was so distraught. Saw it again and again in my mind as we raced along the trail toward the village. Soldiers had attacked. He didn’t need to say it. His reaction made it clear enough.
My fault. I should have tried harder to make Rob leave.
Best I could hope was that Rob was lying on the ground injured. It was that thought that drove my feet to run even as I was out of breath. The next best option was that he was alive but captured—we could do something about that, too. The final option, the one where he was already dead, stayed pushed to the back of my mind.
The tang of blood was heavy in the air and obvious before we saw the village. The hair on my arms stood on end, and I wasn’t sure if my difficulty breathing was from running, or fear of what I was about to see.
Tuck led us between two huts, turned left and sprinted down a pocked road to the hut farthest away. Bodies scattered the ground, lying where they’d fallen, blood already dry on the dirt beneath them. I followed, scanning for a brown cloak with a fur-lined hood like Rob’s, or his bow lying on the ground. I saw neither of those things.
Tuck raced into the hut, then tore back out. “Not there,” he panted. I guessed that was where Rob lived.
Miller and John seemed to take that as an instruction, turning back the way we’d come and stopping to check each body, all without uttering a single word.
Checking for Rob.
“I’ll go and look inside the other homes.” I doubted Rob would be cowering inside, but I didn’t think he was among the dead we’d already passed either, and I had to do something.
“Me too.” Tuck nodded. “I’ll take this side, you do that side?”
I started running before he finished speaking. I sprinted from home to home, opening doors that were shut, barging through those that were open, hoping not to find Rob, but expecting to see him lying on the ground bleeding, anyway.
The homes were empty. All of them. Everyone who had been here was either lying on the ground outside or they’d fled.
Tuck fared no better on his side.
“He’s not here,” said Miller, as we met in the middle of the village, beside the church. He kept moving on the balls of his feet, even as we stood still, his gaze never lingering in one position for long. “We’ve checked every single body on the ground.”
“They must have bolted when they heard the soldiers coming.” John ran a hand through his hair.
Tuck let out a deep breath and loosened his shoulders, but I couldn’t relax. Something didn’t feel right. Rob wouldn’t have run away from the village that had hidden him, leaving them alone against the soldiers. He’d have stayed and fought.
I walked back up to the first home Tuck had brought us to—Rob’s home—and pushed the door open.
There were straw mattresses on the floor and the fire in the middle of the room was cold. I turned in a slow circle, taking in the near-empty room Rob shared with the faceless girlfriend.
I grinned and sprinted back out the door, almost running into John as I did. “He’s not here!”
John looked at me sideways. “I thought we’d already established that.”
We had, but I’d had questions. “He didn’t run. Not from the soldiers. There’s nothing of his inside that house. He must have packed up and left after you and Miller were here.”
Tuck pushed past us to look in the hut. “Huh,” he said, as he came back out.
Miller looked at Tuck. “Well?”
“She’s right. He’s gone.” He scratched the back of his head. “Didn’t notice in my rush to find him.”
“Thank the Lord,” said Miller, a slow smile spreading on his face.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself.” Tuck gave a shaky laugh before his face grew serious once more. “There is something else you all need to see, though.”
Tuck led us to one of the homes he’d checked, opening the door and entering with a beckoning nod for us to follow. Muffled moans escaped the room as I stepped over the threshold with a measured stride.
Inside, four people lay on the straw mattresses on the floor; two adults and two children. One adult had a bandage wet with blood covering his eyes. Another had blood, dried now, dribbling down her chin and over the center of her clothing. The two children were crying softly, and their hands were wrapped in bandages. I glanced at Tuck for confirmation.
He nodded.
The soldiers hadn’t just killed this time, they’d maimed, too. Eyes, fingers and a tongue. Worse still, was the blood each of them had on their left cheek, because beneath it, cut into their skin, was a letter G. Carved with a knife.
I pushed my way between John and Miller, back out the door, and emptied the contents of my stomach onto the ground.
I’d seen this. Or I’d seen something like it. Not the carving. But the damaged eyes and tongues and hands. A second wave of nausea rose, and I couldn’t keep it inside. This was a message from Gisborne. More people were suffering because of us. Because Rob had lived here. Because he’d left before Gisborne could get to him Or, perhaps, because they’d been the recipients of the stolen gold.
I wiped my chin with the back of my hand and got to my feet. Tuck had brought us here to help. It was the least I could do.
John and Miller were still standing in the doorway where I’d left them, mouths partially open, faces a pale shade of green, while Tuck had pulled out his bible and was praying.
“Is there anything I can do?” I asked, looking inside my pack. I had a few first aid supplies with me. I could leave a tube of antiseptic cream with this family—not that it would help the missing tongue, but at least it was something.
Tuck stared pointedly at his bible, the words falling from his lips without pause.
“Anything practical?” I searched for cloths to clean their injuries. There were none, so I settled for ripping a strip from the bottom of my tunic. As Tuck continued to pray rather than answer me, I cleaned the wounds and applied the cream.
As I worked, Tuck said, “Miller’s going to go to Mansfield and get a healer, aren’t you, Miller?”
It sounded more like an instruction than something they’d discussed, but Miller nodded, already backing away. I got the feeling he couldn’t get out the door fast enough, and I didn’t blame him.
“Meet us at Kings Cave, once you’re done,” Tuck called to his back.
Miller nodded again, leaving without another word. I watched him trot down the street and duck into the forest before turning to Tuck. “I hate to say this, but…”
“We should be going?” He glanced up from his bible.
I nodded. “If Gisborne wanted to kill these people, he would have done it already. I don’t think they’re in danger.” But we very well could be.
He got to his feet. “Wouldn’t surprise me if Gisborne’s men were to come back, looking for us.”
My mouth dropped open. Tuck and I were thinking along the same line. There was a first time for everything.
We left water in easy reach of the family and told them a healer would arrive
soon. It was all we could do, and it wasn’t nearly enough. To take them with us would slow us down, possibly put us in the path of soldiers, and put them at a higher risk of their wounds becoming infected.
I wasn’t sure exactly how I made it back to Bob’s Cavern. I felt dazed and broken. Gisborne had left those people alive as a message. A message that could only be interpreted as I am in charge. He might easily have killed Rob, too, had Rob not listened to John and Miller and left. Instead, other people died because of him. It terrified me that Gisborne had come so close to getting what he desperately wanted, and I couldn’t even celebrate the fact that Rob escaped.
We packed our things and left the cavern. No one spoke. I imagined everyone was having much the same thoughts. Feeling the same guilt because we were all pleased Rob wasn’t dead, even though so many others were.
I didn’t remember the walk to Kings Cave, I just put one foot in front of the other and eventually arrived. I dropped my pack on the ground and lay down beside it. I was cold and sweaty at the same time. The idea that I might be to blame for those deaths had crept up on me as I walked.
“All right, Maryanne?” John placed his pack beside me.
“It was all my fault,” I blurted.
He frowned. “Your fault Rob is safe?”
I shook my head. “If I hadn’t insisted we stop that carriage and take the gold, and if we hadn’t given it to the people of Oxham, Gisborne wouldn’t have attacked them.” I should have listened when the boys said they couldn’t stop carriages anymore because Gisborne would retaliate. Instead, I’d focused on the legend, and my place in it. My foolishness had cost lives and left people maimed.
“Yeah, well, you’re not the only one who knows how to do stupid. We all make unwise decisions from time to time.” He sat heavily on the ground beside me.
I’d been expecting sympathy not whatever that was. “Not you. You always think before you act.”
“Sometimes too much.” He leaned forward until his elbows rested on his knees, then put his hands in his hair. “I’ve been so, so stupid. We might all have been grieving because of my foolishness.” His voice dropped to a whisper and sent goosebumps up my arms.
I sat up. “What’s happened?”
“Nothing.” The word came out like a sigh. “Thank goodness.” He shook his head, as if he was clearing it. “And what happened today was in no way your fault. Gisborne couldn’t have known about the gold that quickly. He might have heard about the robbery, but he had no way of knowing what we’d done with the gold. None of that is your fault. Okay?”
I nodded. Logically, it was likely true, it just didn’t feel that way at the moment.
TWELVE
Miller didn’t return that afternoon. Or during the night. Tuck and John spent the following morning either pacing across the small entrance to the cave, or clambering around the ledge at the side of the cave to climb to the top of the hill to see if anyone was coming. Not that it helped. The forest was too thick. I guess they just needed to feel as if they were doing something.
“We should never have sent him.” John marched past, mumbling loud enough for me to hear.
“Who should we have sent, then?” I asked, as much to fill the silence as to hear his answer. Rather than sit around and idly wait for him yesterday afternoon, we’d robbed another carriage and handed out the gold at the nearby villages of Huxley and Clipstone. The people had been among the most grateful I’d ever seen at any village, even agreeing when we suggested they melt the gold down so Gisborne couldn’t link them with the carriage robbery. I couldn’t shake the sense of déjà vu I’d gotten from Huxley, even though I’d never been there before. There was no reason for it; I hadn’t seen the village in my dreams. But still, it was there.
Today though, we were in no mood for carriages. We were in no mood for anything other than Miller returning.
“Me,” said John.
I glanced pointedly at his hand. He still couldn’t use a bow and his staff was more about decoration these days.
He caught my glance and huffed out a breath. “Fine, then. Tuck.”
“You think I don’t know that?” called Tuck, from somewhere above us. “Do you think I haven’t wished I went instead of Miller every moment he’s been gone?” Tuck jumped off the overhang to land on the thin strip of flat rock just in front of me. “I think we should leave Kings Cave. I don’t think we’re safe here.”
I shook my head. He couldn’t be serious. “We can’t leave. This is where Miller is meeting us. This is where he’ll come as soon as he can.” If we left, he wouldn’t know where to find us.
“If he was coming, he’d be here by now,” Tuck snapped.
“So, after just one day, you’re giving up on him? I knew you were cruel, Tuck, but this…”
John didn’t give me the chance to finish. “I agree. We can’t stay here.”
I shook my head, imagining how abandoned Miller would feel if he turned up at the meeting point to find us gone. I couldn’t do it to him. “We have to.”
“What if he’s hurt, Maryanne? What if he can’t get here?” John’s mouth was a thin line. He wouldn’t abandon Miller unless it was necessary, I knew that. It still didn’t make the decision any easier.
“He’s only fourteen. We can’t just leave him all alone!” Except, we could. Because by twelfth century standards, he was all but grown up. If he was living in a village, he’d be engaged, possibly married by now.
“He’s old enough to look after himself. Just like we need to look after ourselves.”
I eyed John. It wasn’t like him to suggest such a thing, especially where Miller was concerned. “Are you feeling all right?” He’d been out of sorts since his visit to Clipstone yesterday, after seeing his sister.
“Not really.” He shook his head. “I’m worried for Miller and I miss my family. Even if I can’t be with them every day of the year, I don’t intend to die and leave them with no one to look out for them, either.”
“You’re not going to die.” There was no reason to think that.
“What would you know?” John snapped before scraping his hands up his face and through his hair. “Sorry, Maryanne. I didn’t mean to bite. It’s just I saw Luke, my nephew yesterday. He’s almost two now. Has this beautiful head of white-blond curls. Reminded me of my little brother at the same age.” He let out a deep sigh. His little brother died along with John’s mother the day soldiers attacked John’s village. “He’s the most beautiful kid I’ve ever seen, and…” He shrugged. “With his father dead, I need to look out for them, even if I don’t ever get to spend any time with him. If Miller leads Gisborne here, he and Josephine will have no one.” He shook his head. “I won’t risk it. We have to leave.”
“We’ll search for Miller,” said Tuck. “Just not while we’re based here.” His voice had taken on a don’t-question-me tone.
I didn’t care. I’d question him all day on this, no matter what tone he used with me. “You’re both walking out on him?”
A rustling noise had us all searching the edge of the forest, hoping to catch sight of Miller. Instead, Rob stepped, huffing and puffing, onto the now crowded area in front of the cave. His blond hair fell loose. I hadn’t heard him come up the trail. Must have been too focused on fighting for Miller. I let out my breath. Rob would take my side. He’d never leave Miller behind.
Rob looked between us, a frown on his forehead. “What’s going on?”
Tuck gave Rob a quick rundown of the last twenty-four hours.
“He should have been back by now,” said Rob, his frown growing heavier. “I’ve seen no sign of Gisborne or his men in my travels. The forest seems extra quiet today. If they have him, they’ve likely gone to ground.”
“I agree,” said Tuck. “And I think continuing to stay here at the cave is unwise.”
Rob nodded. “I think so, too.”
I jumped to my feet. What was wrong with him? The Rob I knew would never walk away f
rom a friend. “What the hell? How can you agree with this?”
Rob’s eyes ran slowly over my face before he blew out a breath and turned away. He lifted one shoulder and I thought he’d dismissed my question out of hand until he said, “Gisborne is going to hurt Miller to find out where we are. If Miller can’t handle it, this is the first place soldiers will come.”
I didn’t understand how they all thought Miller would give them up. “But, this is Miller.”
Rob shook his head, and his jaw stiffened. “It isn’t up for discussion. For your own safety, you need to leave. And you need to leave now.”
I met his eyes and lowered my voice. “And what will you be doing, Rob?” The distance between us was growing by the second. Everything he’d done since I came back was at war with the way he’d behaved when we first met, including forcing us to leave Miller behind. Yet, I was still hopeful. Hopeful there was still some of the guy I thought I knew inside him. Perhaps he’d ask us to leave but would wait here for the friend he treated like a brother.
“I’m leaving, too. None of us should be here. It’s not safe.”
“But—”
“Enough, Maryanne. You all leave. Now.”
John moved to stand beside me, his voice gentle. “If Gisborne has him, and be honest, it’s what we’re all thinking, then he’ll be doing everything he can to make Miller tell him where we’re staying. Everything. It’s what he did with me.”
I glanced at his bandaged hand. It’s what he did with me. “But you didn’t tell him.”
He shrugged. “Two fingers aren’t too high of a price to keep my friends safe.”
The thought of Miller losing part of his body made me feel physically ill, but I also knew how much Miller wanted to be like the rest of them, and how far he’d go to protect them. “Why don’t you trust him? He won’t tell Gisborne where we are.” There was no way Miller would put his friends in that sort of danger.
John dragged a hand through his hair, and it stuck out in every direction. “It’s not that we don’t trust him. I don’t want Miller to have to make the same choice as I had to make. He knows, Maryanne. He knows we’d rather he keep himself safe and give up our location. He knows we’ll move on and we’ll find him when we can.”
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