Robyn Hood: Fight For Freedom (7 page)

“I thought you said
some
horses, not a stable!” I shouted to my Merry Man as I pushed a soldier off the platform and into the panicked crowd.

“Not my fault!” Tom insisted. “It was your demon horse! Be grateful I managed to get him tacked up!”

“Little John, Will! We’re getting out of here!” I called, running to Crafty, who had reared onto his hind legs, planted his front legs on the platform, and was biting a soldier in the calf.

“Coming!” Little John cheerfully said, literately picking up a soldier and throwing him over his head.

Crafty released the soldier and fell back to all four legs. I hopped on him and gathered up the reins.

Little John thundered across the platform and threw himself on a
tacked up chestnut behind Crafty.

Will Scarlet slowly worked his way
across the platform, fighting soldiers with a sword he had taken off a fallen man.

“WILL!” I shouted. “NOW!”

“Yes Robin!” Will cheerfully shouted. A few seconds later he flew off the platform, landing on the remaining saddled horse.

“Go, go
, GO!” I shouted, heeling Crafty. My black horse took off like a streak, leading the way through the streets.

Soldiers tried to follow us, but the horses that were liberated from stable were still galloping around, causing mass chaos as villagers fled and
screamed.

We tore down the streets, our horses clattering across the cobblestone
road.

“The gates are down
, we’ll never get out!” Little John shouted.

“We’ll get out!” I promised before Crafty jumped a vegetable stand.

Within minutes we were galloping up to the main gate. “LOBB! RYAN!” I shouted as Crafty reared and wickedly neighed.

The air was filled with the clanging bells
, and trumpeting horses and screaming villagers could still be heard from the castle square. But over all of this clatter I could still hear my blessed men.

“WE CAN’T FIND THE THING THAT WILL DROP THE BRIDGE!”
Lobb shouted.

“SHUT UP! DO YOU WANT TO CALL SOLDIERS HERE?” Ryan yelled.

“WHAT’S THIS?” Lobb loudly asked.

“Wha—DON’T TOUCH THAT!” Ryan screamed.

“WHAT?” Lobb asked.

“DON’T TOUCH THAT!!” Ryan shouted.

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU! REPEAT IT PLEASE!” Lobb requested.

“
I SAID
…
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
,” Ryan shrieked.

The wooden drawbridge
dropped like a sack of flour, shaking the ground when it landed.

“YOU IDIOT!” Ryan screamed as our horses neighed and
shied away from the suddenly open gate.

“Well, the gates are open,” Little John helpfully pointed out.

“RYAN, LOBB! COME ON!” I shouted.

Two soldiers hurried out of the empty gate house, practically falling down the stairs. The taller one, Lobb, hurtled in my direction. I gave him a hand up, and he flopped onto Crafty’s back.
After Ryan mounted up behind Tom we urged our horses forward again.

Our horses carefully picked their way across
the drawbridge, some of the wooden boards had snapped in places, and it pitifully creaked as we crossed. When we reached the open road I gave Crafty his head. He snorted as we fled Nottingham Castle, leaving chaos in our wake.

Chapter 4

Sudden Confessions

We crossed the open plain between Nottingham Castle and Sherwood Forest with ease. I pulled Crafty into a walk and spun him around. No one was following us, but a bunch of soldiers were standing around the drawbridge with obvious dismay.

I couldn’t help it. The heroicness of the moment caught up with me.

I unstrapped my horn from my side and blew one long,
smug
note before directing Crafty back into the forest.

Behind
me Lobb whooped and shouted. “That’s my Robin Hood, Sheriff! And he’s got yer goat!”

Eventually Tom joined in,
hollering and singing no tune in particular. Ryan watched the two with a pinched expression and laughed only when Tom was nearly knocked out of the saddle by a wayward branch.

Operating out of habit, Crafty and I nearly led the group to our main camp in Sherwood before I finally snapped out of my fit of joy.

“Halt!” I shouted, pulling back on the reins. Crafty locked his legs and skid to a stop, the horses behind us scrambled to avoid smacking into Crafty.

The singing Lobb slipped right off Crafty’s back, and Will Scarlet barely avoided running him over.

“What, what is it?” Tom shouted.

“What’s wrong?” Little John added.

“Bloody hell Robyn, you could warn us next time,” Will Scarlet chided.

“Robin, what happened?” Ryan
asked.

“Ow,” Lobb said from the ground. His eyes nearly popped out of his head when Crafty set a hoof down next to his head.

“I almost forgot,” I said, twisting in the saddle, ignoring Lobb’s whimpers. “I’m not coming back.”

“WHAT?”

“Not coming back??”

“But Robyn, you
have
to!”

I ignored Tom, Ryan, and Lobb and kept my gaze fixed on Little John and Will, who had moved their horses back behind Crafty.

Will Scarlet uncomfortably shifted, but Little John nodded at the other three Merry Men. “Tom, Ryan, Lobb. Head back to camp. We’ll see you there in a bit.”

“We don’t take orders from you,” Ryan snarled.

Tom turned in his saddle to shake his head at Ryan in a warning before pulling his horse along side Little John’s. “If you don’t bring her back, we’ll feed you to the wolves,” he warned in a quiet voice before brightening. “Right then! Come along Lobb, let’s get moving!” he said before heeling his horse.

“Wait up,” Lobb complained, picking himself off the ground before lamely trotting after the riding pair. “I hav
en’t a horse! You’ll have to slow down!” Lobb crossly called after them.

“Why should we, you silly gawp fish?” Tom laughed.

“I am
not
silly! It was
I
who opened up the gates!” Lobb protested, crashing through the woods after them.

“No, you
destroyed
the gate,” Ryan corrected.

The trio
eventually fell out of my hearing range, leaving me with Little John and Scarlet.

“Robyn… you have to come back. You have to lead us,” Little John said after several moments of forest-y silence.

Crafty arched his neck and chewed his bit. I was silent.

“We need you Robyn. We can’t get by without you,” Will Scarlet evenly said.

“But you said—,” I started.

“Forget what we said!” Will Scarlet exploded.

Little John rubbed his forehead with a giant hand before reaching down to stroke his horse’s neck. “We were being fools, Robyn.
I
was being a fool. A wretched fool. The contest was unfair and I knew it. I just wanted—,” he broke off for a second. “I just. I, I was stupid Robyn. Please forgive us. Forgive me,” Little John said.

I wheeled Crafty around so I could properly face them. “Whether you were being foolish or not isn’t the question. You
legitimately beat me and said you wanted to lead the Merry Men. Who am I to stop you?” I asked, gesturing with my free hand. (I didn’t dare release Crafty’s reins; there was no telling what the demon horse would do.)

“Robyn, you don’t understand! It wasn’t that I didn’t want you as a l
eader anymore,” Little John said.

“It is the same for me. I would never see you replaced,
” Will Scarlet echoed.

“Then explain to me, Little John, and Will Scarlet, why you demanded tha
t Little John should be our leader? Make me understand what you
really
meant by that. Please, enlighten me,” I hissed. Crafty, sensing my foul mood, pinned his ears and snarled at the duo.

Scarlet and Little John avoided my gaze and stared down at their hands.

I blinked back tears. So in the end they couldn’t even explain themselves. If they couldn’t do that much then surely they still didn’t want me as their leader. The two men I had trusted the most betrayed me. And it hurt deeply.

“That’s what I thought,” I said, trying to keep my tears in and the hurt from lacing my voice. I clucked to Crafty, who rocked forward into a walk. We snaked between the mounted Little John and Will Scarlet, moving past them.

We were almost out of sight when Little John called out. “Robyn! Wait!”

“Robyn!” Scarlet shouted.

The two barreled up to me on their horses.

“It was us,” Little John said in a rushed, jumble of words
when they caught up. “I started it. I thought you would like me more since I was your right hand man. I was here first. If you were to love either of us it should be me,” Little John said, scowling at Will.

Scarlet interrupted him as they swiveled their horses in front of mine, making us stop. “Much and Will Stutely told us they would never see you married until the Merry Men were pardoned and disbanded and you were no longer the outlawed leader. We couldn’t very well get you pardoned, but it occurred to Little John that he could unseat you, which might be close enough.”

“So I challenged you to an unfair contest. I figured in the morning we could talk it over and you would choose one of us and… and,” Little John trailed off. “I didn’t think things through very well,” he admitted.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” I said, rapidly blinking. “All of this was because Much and Will Stutely said they won’t let me
be married?”

Little John and Will Scarlet swapped glances before turning to me and speaking in one voice.

“Robyn, we love you.”

“
Really
love you,” Scarlet stressed.

“Not the way the rest of the Merry Men love you,” Little John added.

“We
really
love
you,” Will Scarlet repeated.

“So chose one of us.”

I couldn’t tell which one of them said that in such a pleading voice, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

I stared at them, completely dumbfounded. My mind was blanking. Their sudden,
simultaneous confessions were the last things I ever expected to hear in my entire
life
. Besides the infamously flirtatious Dan the Musician, I had never been paid any particular attention by men as handsome, comely, and powerful as John and Will. (And Will was a lord’s son. A LORD’S
son
.)

I was so stupefied my hands went slack. Crafty judged his moment of liberation was near, and threw me without apology. I went flying off his back when he crow hopped, cracking into a small tree.

As I groaned, blinking stars out of my eyes while trying to regain my knocked out breath, Crafty laughed under his horsey breath and started meandering through Sherwood, heading back for camp.

“Robyn!” Scarlet cried as he and Little John slid off their horses and rushed to my side.

“I’m fine,” I groaned, already disengaging myself from the tree. “I’m fine,” I repeated, standing up on shaky legs.

When I finally reoriented myself I realized both of the men were clasping my elbows.
Naturally shied by the awkward situation, I shook them off before abruptly plunging through the woods, heading for camp.

“
I must return to camp,” I muttered, scrambling over a log. Maybe if I ignored them they would go away.

Unfortunately,
Little John and Will Scarlet trailed after me, leading their horses by the reins.

“Robyn?” Little John hesitantly called.

I stopped and turned around to stare at the pair.

They shifted and looked a little uncomfortable.

“We—,” Scarlet started.

I abruptly slapped my hands over my ears. “La-la-la
-la-la! I can’t hear you!” I declared, spinning back around as my face turned the most brilliant shade of red. “La-la-la!” I shouted while skirting around a bush, following the unseen trails of the Merry Men.

Little John gave me the fright of a lifetime when he suddenly grasped my left wrist and pulled my hand off my ear. “Reacting like a bashful child isn’t going to make this situation
disappear, Robyn,” he said.

I removed my right hand from my ear only so I could properly elbow Little John in the gut, making the unsus
pecting man bend over in a gasp.

I squirmed away from him and started tearing through the underbrush. “Marian! You’re never around when I need you!” I
shouted, careening through the underbrush. Marian would know what to do in these circumstances.

I hurriedly cleared the last natural wall of trees that hedged in our camp, knocking a scout clean off his feet.