Scarlet

  I remembered the clinking chains and silence, and I shuddered. “Just patch me up, Much. We have to get back there.”

  “You aren’t going back there, Scar,” John said.

  I looked sharp to him, then rolled onto my back. “Just bandage it, Much, please.”

  “You’re turning loose,” John said. “You just ran off last night, cut up and half dead, and we didn’t know what was going on.”

  “Rob were in there, John,” I said, wincing as Much bandaged my shoulder. “I weren’t turning loose. We’re a band and Rob would have never left none of us in there. He saved my life, and I’m not leaving him. And we’re going to go back and break him out.”

  “Except Rob kicked you out of the band,” John said, crossing his big arms over.

  I looked to him. “What?”

  “Might as well have. You told him you were leaving, and he took that as word. Robin doesn’t want you coming after him, Scar. He wants you gone.”

  Stupid tears pushed up at my eyes. “What?” I said again.

  “It isn’t like that,” Much said, quiet.

  “You think I’m wrong?” John said.

  I looked to Much, and he shook his head. “No, you’re not wrong. But you’re making it sound bad.”

  “It doesn’t matter how it sounds, Much.”

  “Yes, but you’re acting like the reason he wants her gone is because he doesn’t want her around, and that’s not it.”

  “Much,” John snapped.

  Much looked at me. “He loves you, Scar. He always has. And he wouldn’t want you to get hurt. He risked his life to get you out. So don’t make his sacrifice for nothing.”

  I bent my head and tears slid down my nose. I thought of Rob, standing in the inn and calling me a whore, walking in the forest and saying he wished he never saw me. Worst, I saw him fighting back Gisbourne and sending me on, and the tears squeezed faster, fair leaping out of me in jumps and starts. “He doesn’t love me, Much.” Pain shuddered through me and I curled over myself. My whole chest hurt.

  Christ Almighty, were this what a broken heart felt like? I hiccuped, and John put his hand on my neck, rubbing a little.

  I pulled away, jumping up and stumbling away from them. They looked at me with their mournful eyes and I slumped on a tree. This were why I never wanted none of them. Not their looks or their stupid pity for the scarred girl who hung her heart on a hero.

  Humiliation broke over me like a wave, and my eyes screwed shut. I wiped the tears, still shaking a little. “I owe him my life. I’ll make this right, Much. I’ll make sure he won’t sacrifice a thing.”

  “We won’t let you go back there.”

  I shivered. “I don’t need you two to do this. But it might be easier to get Rob out if you’re there. You’d be going for him, not me. And then you won’t never have to see me again. Promise.”

  “We don’t want you to leave, Scar,” Much told me. “We never did.”

  I shrugged. “You’re right, though. Rob wants me out of the band. So I’m out, and I’ll get him back to you so we’re square.”

  “What’s your plan, then?” John asked. “Turn yourself in? Gisbourne will kill you.”

  “No. This all started because I forgot who I were. It’s not like a noblewoman can live like this, and I were stupid to think otherwise. I wanted to forget.” I shook my head. “Gisbourne will trade anything for me. For me to go to him willingly, yes. He’d trade anything. Even Rob.”

  They looked at me, and I glared back.

  “Do you want Robin back, or don’t you?”

  “Of course we want Robin back, but neither of us are willing to trade your life to Gisbourne to get him out. Robin will never forgive us,” Much said.

  A tremor rumbled down my back. “If he’s even alive,” I reminded.

  “It’s a stupid plan, Scar! Aside from you being little better than an idiot, the sheriff will just come after us twice as hard. They’ll follow Rob right out and let us all swing,” John said.

  “We had a plan for Ravenna’s wedding gift all along, remember?” I asked. “Much, have you searched the other caves?”

  He shook his head. “Haven’t had the chance.”

  “Then we’ll search tonight. We’ll find enough, and we’ll tumble the castle. Or part of it, at least.” I nodded. “That’s what we’ll do. Between the wedding and offering to trade me for Robin, the guards will be distracted enough. You’ll be able to tumble the castle, we’ll get Rob out, and the people of Nottinghamshire will have a bit of time while the sheriff rebuilds.”

  “I don’t like this plan, Scar,” John said. “We look out for each other, and this is the pure other end of that. Gisbourne could kill you in a heartbeat.”

  I gave him a little smile. “I’m sure he will. But if I’m out of the band, what does it matter?” They lurched forward, and I stepped back. “I’ll do this with or without you, lads. Let’s at least take Robin and the castle wall for me.”

  There were a long quiet where they just stared at me, and I looked back, trying not to think of how much I loved them. Losing the band, I were losing brothers—like I had already lost a sister. Meeting my fate with Gisbourne would be almost a relief.

  “I think it’s brave as hell, Scar,” Much told me. “I think Rob was right. You’re the bravest woman I’ve ever known.”

  I looked down. “This were the eventual end anyway, lads. I just managed to put it off a bit. Now at least some good can come out of it. Just get Robin out of there as soon as you can.”

  A few moments passed and I didn’t look at neither; we just stayed there, quiet.

  “I’ll need some help finding more of the powder, then,” Much said.

  I nodded. “Tell us what to do.”

  Not much time passed before we had to come right back to Nottingham. Ravenna’s wedding had nobles and peasants flooding into the castle, as the sheriff hosted the entire town for the wedding feast. The wedding would take place in the Great Hall. Though every guard were on post, the castle were at its most vulnerable, and we were going to swim right through like silvery trout.

  We crowded in, pushing through bodies to get into the hall. Girls had flowers in their hair, and the clothing round the place were bright with color. My hood were down, my lopped-off hair out, and I weren’t hiding from anyone today. I had scrapes all over my face, and my chin were fair red raw, but it didn’t matter. I were marked and scarred and bloody and filthy, but today I weren’t going to hide my face.

  The hall were awful hot, so many bodies rubbing together like sticks for kindling. As we got closer, I saw Ravenna, looking like a noble lady in a blue velvet gown shot through with gold threads, her face covered over with a veil like most noblewomen wore. I never fancied the veils. They were nice that no one could see where your eyes were wandering for, but they weren’t near so soft as they looked.

  Her family weren’t up there with her, which I thought were fair odd. My eyes set to casting about, and that were when I saw him.

  Hanging above the dais where Ravenna stood swung a heavy gibbet, an iron cage twisting on a beam. Robin were inside it, far off the ground, standing stiff and proud. The cage hung from heavy chains, not rope that I could saw through, and guards stood round the wheel that held the cage in place.

  I felt my stomach twist and hollow as the priest climbed the stairs to the dais. The sheriff and Gisbourne came with him. Gisbourne looked up at Rob with a smug smile; I could kill him for that if nothing else.

  The whole place fell quiet and the priest began to speak the wedding Mass. I started to sneak round the side. Much and John were busy elsewhere in the castle for now.

  I didn’t listen to the priest speak. I’d heard wedding masses before, a few, and they general made me think of things I didn’t like to think none about, like Gisbourne and how I near had to marry him. I heard Ravenna say that she’d honor the sheriff and obey him, and I fair wondered if that were anything he’d ever do for her.

  Before I got to the guarded wheel
the Mass were finished, and the priest stepped down as the sheriff kissed Ravenna, pulling off her veil to do it. She looked scared, but she took his kiss, and she left her face unmasked.

  I saw Gisbourne signaling guards to surround the dais before I knew what happened. The sheriff were holding Ravenna still, but then her shoulders drew up like she were trying to push him off. I saw his dagger flash over her neck, like lightning slicing through the sky. Her head jerked and a short, stunted scream came out from her lips.

  “No!” Rob cried.

  “Ravenna!” roared Godfrey.

  The whole hall broke open, and women started screaming and crying and men started to roar.

  The sheriff yelled over it all, “Silence!”

  The people quieted but didn’t quit moving, fighting against the guards as Ravenna twisted, showing her throat slashed bloody and wide. She fell to the ground like so much trash, blood making her blue velvet black and shining with wet. Her body lay in a heap, and her big skirts took a while to lie flat. I looked back to the sheriff, frozen, my breath gone.

  She were dead. He had killed her, with no reason, no defense, nothing. He killed her because he could, because she were a bird that he could crush.

  “Good people, I try to show you my love, and this is how you repay me! You deny me my rightful taxes, you flee your punishments, and you send one of your own to beguile my heart and betray me. Ravenna Mason was helping the Hood from mine own hearth!”

  “No!” Godfrey hollered. “No, no!” He broke through the guards and Gisbourne tackled him, pushing him to the ground and holding him there as Godfrey fought and strained, trying to get to his fallen sister. His arm whipped out from Gisbourne, but not to fight him. It stretched ’cross the space to Ravenna, trying to get to her, trying to touch her before her soul flew out.

  “I’ve dealt with my unfaithful wife, and now I will deal with your last bastion of insurrection—that outlaw they call the Hood.”

  I jerked into motion as the cage began to lower. Rob, with his heaving chest and angry eyes, looked every bit the caged lion, like they called King Richard. I scrabbled over people, using nails and elbows and fists to punch my way through. I pushed and pushed, getting closer body by body, standing a few feet away from the guarded dais.

  I looked toward the entrance. They needed more time to set the explosion, and I needed some sort of miracle to get Rob free. My eyes skittered round the room; there were guards everywhere. There were windows high up, with big iron chandeliers filled with candles hanging down from the rafters. The part of me that weren’t happy to die today looked after them with longing, imagining scrabbling up to them and swinging—pitching knives this way and that like an avenging angel.

  But that weren’t to be today.

  I looked at Gisbourne and felt my stomach twist and my whole chest squeeze, like someone put me to the rack.

  The gibbet landed with a heavy clang. Rob sagged against the side with the jolt of the cage, and the whole place were dead quiet, shocked silent by the sheriff’s cruelty, by this strange day where a wedding meant death instead of new life. Guards had taken Godfrey in hand, keeping him on his knees at the side of the dais. He just stared at Ravenna’s body, dead and lifeless and abandoned. Gisbourne were now free to draw his sword and go to the cage.

  “No!” I screamed, my voice mixing with hundreds. I went forward but the crowd wouldn’t part, keeping me hard back, holding on to me. Gisbourne’s sword didn’t go farther, and he waited till the cries subsided.

  “On your knees,” he ground out. “You’ll die a common criminal, worse than your traitorous father.”

  Rob’s head were unbowed. He looked around the gibbet. “I’d love to oblige, Gisbourne, but there doesn’t seem to be enough room to kneel.”

  “Open the cage,” Gisbourne ordered. The sheriff didn’t protest. A guard came forward with the key, and the door opened. I saw how heavy Rob leaned on the side of the cage. He were exhausted, and weak, and in a fair bit of pain. He turned to Gisbourne and I saw his back. The cloth were punched through hundreds of times in perfect little rows, and my whole body burned.

  They had put him on a Judas board. It were a big board punched through with spikes, filthy and covered with blood and flesh, and they had put Rob on it till his skin broke and the spikes pushed into him.

  Whether or not it were today, I’d kill Gisbourne for that as well. If he didn’t kill me first.

  “On your knees, Hood.”

  “Wait!” I shrieked. This time my voice were above the crowd, and everyone looked at me. The crowd let me through now, and my shaking legs brought me forward to the guards. “Let me through!” I demanded.

  Gisbourne chuckled. “Do it. Let the little thief come.”

  Maybe Gisbourne already knew my plan, ’cause he looked like he just swallowed a canary whole and it were singing out his throat.

  They parted and I climbed the dais, meeting Rob’s eyes. He didn’t look angry now. He looked lost. I felt lost. I stared at him and my heart broke fresh again. Loving him felt like drowning in his ocean eyes, like a tide I couldn’t hold back, crashing on me again, filling me up with hurt and shame and despair. Standing so close to him, all I could think were the hundred things I should have told him long ago. A hundred moments I’d lost because I were scared and weak and shameful.

  It were fair twisted, but maybe doing this, maybe this sacrifice would make me, for one breath, the person he could love.

  “Please tell me you aren’t really here,” he murmured, hanging his head. “Please tell me I didn’t save your life for nothing.”

  “Needn’t make it so hard, Rob,” I told him. “I’m getting you out of here.”

  His head jerked up, and it weren’t anger in his eyes. “The hell you are. Not with him, Scar, please.”

  Gisbourne’s eyebrow twitched at this, but he just crossed his arms, all patient-like now that he were getting what he wanted. I looked back to Rob, all my inner bits crowded into my pipes, and I weren’t sure of a single thing. “Do not ask me to watch you die,” I hissed at him.

  Rob’s eyes shifted, shimmery blue and wet like rain-slick rocks. “You think you’re going to fare any better?” he whispered. I looked over and saw Ravenna’s blood, and Gisbourne’s sword, dry and thirsty. I shook my head.

  “Are you fixing to join him, or did you have another reason for annoying me?” Gisbourne snapped.

  “A deal,” I said quick, standing in front of him, standing between him and Rob one more time.

  His eyes scraped over me. “What could I possibly want from you?”

  “The one thing you couldn’t ever get, not by force or my father,” I told him, and his eyes flared bright. “Two words, Guy.”

  The sheriff chuckled. “I believe the lad wants you to marry him, Gisbourne.”

  “Another reason you need a thief taker, Nottingham, is that your men should have realized long ago that Will Scarlet is merely a girl.” Gasps ripped through the hall, and Gisbourne laughed. “Christ, no one knew? Not only that, she’s a noblewoman in clever disguise. None other than my delinquent betrothed, Lady Marian Fitzwalter of Leaford.”

  Everyone were staring at me now, but I just raised my chin. “Well?”

  “What are your terms?” he asked.

  “Release Robin and Godfrey. Both of them unharmed.”

  He grinned, looking at Robin. “Well, I’ve already harmed him a little.”

  “Do you agree or not?”

  “And why shouldn’t I just kill him now, and then force you to marry me?”

  “Like I said, Guy, you can’t force me to say the words. And we ain’t married till the words are said. If you want me, this is your only chance.”

  He stepped forward, squeezing my chin between his thumb and forefinger. He smiled, but he looked more like a dog baring its teeth. “I will make it a living hell for you, Marian. That is, if you last longer than your friend,” he said, looking to Ravenna. Rob jerked forward, but I stayed still. “Are you willing to subm
it to me for his life?”

  “Robin the Hood, Robin of Locksley, Earl of Huntingdon—whatever you wish to call him—is the prince of the people, Guy. He is worth more than my whole life.”

  “Little that’s worth,” he spat, pushing my chin away. “Call the priest back,” he ordered.

  “Scarlet,” Rob whispered behind me.

  My pulse set to drumming. “Rob has to be away before I’ll say the words,” I told Gisbourne.

  “How do I know you’ll actually say them?”

  “You have my word.”

  “I had your word before.”

  “You had my father’s word. Now you have mine; I’ll marry you today, once Robin’s free and clear.”

  He grimaced. “Fine. If not, at least I’ll get to kill you.”

  “This is hardly your decision to make, Guy,” the sheriff said, wiping his blood-wet dagger on his arm.

  Guy’s lip curled back, his big head whipping round to glare at the sheriff. “I caught him.”

  “I hired you to catch him.”

  “And I’ll catch him again. But this,” he said, swinging to look at me again, “can’t wait.”

  “You let him go, and I won’t pay you a farthing until he’s dead.”

  Gisbourne chuckled, staring at me, and his teeth shone white. “I don’t do it for the money.”

  The sheriff’s mouth twisted into a sneer, but he shut his yap and didn’t stop Gisbourne none.

  Gisbourne leaned closer. “If this is a ruse, Marian, you will know the full extent of the pain I can inflict.”

  “Two women dying on their wedding day sounds lucky,” the sheriff mused.

  “Trust me, I’d take a lot longer than just a day to kill her,” Gisbourne said, speaking to the sheriff but keeping his evil eyes on me alone.

  I glared at both in turn. “I ain’t as easy to kill.”

  Gisbourne looked pleased by this. “I like a challenge.” The priest appeared, and the sheriff nodded. Gisbourne sighed. “Very well, let the Hood go.”

  I turned, whipping my arms round Rob before I could think or stop. He hugged me tight. “I’m so sorry, Rob,” I whispered, my voice breaking.