Robyn and the Hoodettes (29 page)

Rook took wing and flew to a rooftop.

Something burned with clarity in Robyn’s mind. “You need
us. That’s your weakness!” She cried out. “You treat people like
dirt. Less than dirt. But your true weakness is that you need
people. You can’t threaten us or make us do anything any more
bec–”

A noose slipped around her neck
. The hangwoman pulled it
tight.

Maudlin turned on Robyn, but she kept her voice loud enough
for the crowd to hear. “You’re right, of course. I cannot hang
everyone. But I can hang
you
!”

The hangwoman–
strong woman that she was–lifted Robyn bodily onto
the stool. The crowd fell to silence.

Heart rattling against her ribs, Robyn’s breath came in short
bursts. The hangwoman tightened the rope above her, making Robyn
stand on tip-toes to ease the pressure. How much would this hurt
when they kicked the stool out from underneath?

Oh please let this be swift.

Tears spritzed from her eyes as she searched the crowd for
Marion. What a fool she’d been to never tell him she loved him. Now
it was too late.

“
I have something important to say!” She wheezed out. That rope
sure was tight. “I go now to meet the almighty with a pure heart
and a clear conscience, which is more than I can say for Maudlin,
who is responsible for your suffering!”

Suddenly arrows flew through the air. Something tugged
behind Robyn and her hands sprang free from their binding. The
noose, however, remained firmly around her neck. She reached up to
loosen it just as everything went mad.

Someone kicked the stool away.

Robyn braced herself for the pain, only to find her body
falling hard on the gallows platform. Agony stole through her as
she landed, nose first, into the ground. Her hands grabbed at the
rope, loosening it enough to rip it over her head. She was
free.

Sticky warmth spread over her face. She touched her aching
nose to find it was covered in blood. The sharp pain made her eyes
water and her ears ring.

But she was alive!

Mayhem filled the world as people shouted and ran in all
directions. Suddenly, Marion was there in front of her, lifting her
back to her feet.

“
You took your time,” she said through the pain.

“
No points for improvising?” He grinned and made her heart
flip.

Relief, and the sheer joy of being alive crashed over Robyn.
“I love you, you know.”

Marion winked at her and threw the noose away so it couldn’t
be re-used. “Feeling’s mutual. But if you don’t mind, can we save
the kissing for later? What with all this–” He made a circling
motion with his hand around his nose.

“
Yeah.” Urgh, her face must be mashed with blood. “I totally
planned this: this is exactly what was supposed to
happen.”

“
And an excellent plan it was too,” Marion said. “Now, at
the risk of getting my head bitten off, what’s next?”

“
Easy,” Robyn grinned as if the battle were already won. “We
high tail it back to the Shire Wood and live in peace with
nature.”

“
I like it.” Marion stepped away suddenly, pulled an arrow from
his quiver and fired it into the air–the arrow flew straight into
the wing of Rook the jackdaw, bringing her down. The bird would be
maimed and possibly never fly again. “I totally meant to do
that.”

Maudlin screamed and ran for Rook, kneeling to scoop her up
from the ground. Squawks and screams clanged through the
air.

“
Or,” Marion said, aiming an arrow at Maudlin, but not setting
it loose, “We could defeat Maudlin, shove her in the dungeons and
stay in Sheffield until winter is over.”

Defenceless, Maudlin cradled the injured Rook in one arm and
raised the other, palm outward in defeat.

Things became very still and quiet as people realized what
was going on. Maudlin, their liege lord, was . . .
capitulating?

Robyn wiped the blood from her face. It hurt just to touch her
nose. There was so much blood she’d need to give the tunic a good
wash in the cold stream later.

“
Surrender!” Marion said.

Maudlin said nothing.

A battle cry sounded from across the bailey. It was Ellen
leading Roger and his rag-tag men into the arena.

With fresh weapons.

“
Don’t take your eyes off Maudlin,” Robyn warned Marion as she
leapt into the fray. Beside her was Joan and Georgia, they had a
spare longstaff so she could join in.

“
You make a terrible hangman,” Robyn said as she stood beside
Georgia.

Twack, biff, thump, dodge, parry, thrust.

“
How did you know it was me?”

Bash, bang, oof!

“
Because you can’t tie a knot to save your life.”

“
I tied the knot badly so I could save your life,” Georgia
said, then I yanked it loose at just the right time.”

“
Fair point.”

Whack, whump.

“
You two, pay attention, we have a fight on our hands.” Joan
said.

Thump, thwack, biff, grunt!

It felt good to get all the aggro out, especially taking on
Roger who had caused them so much trouble right from the start.
Perhaps her father was doing something similar, battling in the
Crusades right now. With a few more biffs and bashes, Joan, Georgia
and Robyn had Roger and his gang moaning on the ground, begging for
mercy.

“
This is all your fault, Doncaster,” Robyn said. “If you hadn’t
been so brutal when you came to collect the taxes in the first
place, we would have paid up and stayed where we were in Loxley.
But you had to get greedy.”

“
I have a family too,” he said, holding his forearm over his
face to deflect any more blows.

“
You’re lucky I don’t like hitting someone when they’re already
down,” Robyn said. “Justify it all you want, but all of this,” she
waved her arm at the chaos around them, “is on your
head.”

Some of Roger’s henchfolk got to their feet and dropped
whatever they were using for weapons.

“
We surrender. Can we join you now?”
One of them said.

Another pleaded.
“You said we could, back in the Shire
Wood.”

That she had. “OK then. Take Roger and whoever is still loyal
to him to the dungeons.” Robyn looked about to see who exactly
would remain loyal to a tax collector. Nobody, it seemed. “Good.
I’m going after Ellen.”

Ellen was scarpering towards the burnt-out tower. Robyn
gave pursuit. Maudlin was barrelling for them both and Marion was
right behind with his arrow ready.

“
Out of my way!” Maudlin charged past, pushing Robyn into a
puddle.

Marion too ran past in tight pursuit. Robyn jumped back to
her feet, wiped her face again–gently!–and gave chase after Marion,
Maudlin and Ellen.

Quickly, Robyn stopped by a barrel of water and washed the
blood from her face, then she took off
after Marion.

Every muscle burned as she took to the steps two at a time
after them.

Gasping for breath, lungs tight with pain, they reached the
top floor–the burnt out top floor, which the people had not yet
begun to rebuild.

Hold it, they had built something.

Ellen stood in some kind of basket, attached to a pulley
system and plenty of ropes. Ropes that went . . . where
exactly?

“
Always have a back-up plan,” Maudlin said, stepping in to the
basked with Ellen and setting them free.

Zip! The basket slid downwards with Ellen and Maudlin in it,
over the moat and into the woods beyond.

Robyn grabbed Marion’s bow out of his hand and ripped an arrow
from his quiver. She fired. The arrow sailed through the air and
pierced Maudlin’s arm.

The woman screamed in pain.

Not a kill shot, merely a match for the raven.

Robyn loosed another arrow, but
the arrow flew over their heads as
they dropped out of sight.

Furious, Robyn grabbed the knife out of her hand and sawed at
the rope.

“
No! Stop!” Marion grabbed her hand away.

“
But they’re getting away!” Robyn cried.

“
I’ve got this. Cut the drawstring on the bow
instead.”

Confusion slowed her for a second. Marion grabbed her knife
and cut the string with a sharp “twang”. Then he slotted the bow
over the rope and held on to the sides.

“
Hold on to me!” He shouted.

Robyn locked her arms around Marion’s shoulders and hung
on.

Shhhhhrrrrrrrr
! They swished down the length of the rope, the
icy north wind freezing their necks and ripping their howls of
terror away.

On the opposite side, Ellen hacked at the end of the rope,
attached to a tree.

They weren’t going to make it.

The river below promised an icy fall.

Ellen kept hacking.

Maudlin hobbled away to the north with her
raven.

Nearly over the river. Nearly . . . nearly.

Riiiip
! The last fibres of rope tore apart. Robyn and Marion
dropped to the ground, landing heavily on the river bank. Half in,
half out of the water, completely covered in pain. Winded from the
fall, Robyn took a second to drag air into her lungs. Then she
pulled her legs out of the water and crawled onto the grassy bank,
helping Marion out at the same time.

He curled his legs up under him and looked like a
freshly-landed fish, his mouth opening and closing so
much.

Sure she must be turning blue, Robyn dragged a breath over
the pain and got her body working again. “Breathe, Marion, Saints
alive, breathe.”

He uncurled his legs and pulled a breath in. Then another. His
wincing expression eventually softened. “What happened?”

Failure swamped Robyn. “They got away.” She looked towards the
trees. “That way.”

“
No, I mean, with the rope. Did it break?”

Huh? “Ellen cut it.”

“
Oh, so our end held up?” He sat up and edged closer to her,
checking her face and body for breaks.

“
I’m fine, just sore. Didn’t you see Ellen cutting the
rope?”

With a shake of his head he said, “Had my eyes closed the
whole time.”

Robyn threw her arms around him and tried not to cry. “They
got away.”

“
We’ll get them next time, don’t worry.” Marion returned the
hug.

They hugged for a while, then the hug turned into rubbing
their backs and arms to keep warm.

A howl of frustration broke free. If they hadn’t cut the
string on the arrow she could have used it to stop Ellen, if not
both of them.

But then she remembered something amazing. “You hate
heights.”

“
Yep.”

“
You hate heights but you got us both down here from all the
way up there!”

A grin formed. “I guess I did.”

“
Have I mentioned lately how much I love you?” Robyn kissed
him, her cold lips meeting his, both thawing mighty fast under the
onslaught of emotions roaring through her. Their feet may be
freezing, their pants wet, her nose on fire from the pain, but the
rest of their bodies were toasty hot.

“
I didn’t believe what Maudlin said about you,” Robyn
said.

“
Never for a second did I think you said the things she said
you did either.” Marion replied.

“
Wait, what?” Robyn recounted the sentence and lost track.
“What did she tell you about me?”

“
She said you’d confessed everything and that you’d hang. Or I
could take your place.”

Cold shivers stole into Robyn’s body. “That was your signature
on the confession?”

“
Yeah.”

“
You were going to hang in my place?”

“
I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that. And it didn’t, so, you
know, it’s all good.”

“
Oh my darling Marion,” Robyn covered him in fresh kisses. “I
would never have let you do that.”

“
I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but then Will, Joan
and Georgia broke me out and all we had to do was take up our
positions near the gibbet and wait for you to be brought
out.”

Tears broke free.
Robyn gulped in a lungful of air as she buried her
head into Marion’s chest, gently, because her nose screamed in
pain. “I’m going to have nightmares about this for
years.”

“
It’s all right,” he stroked her hair and rubbed her back.
It felt so soothing and calming, she started to breathe more
normally. “It didn’t come to that. You know that Joan, Georgia and
Will are always going to be in your corner.”

Relief, fear, gratitude; it all mixed together in an
incoherent bubble of tears and laughter.