Robin Hood WIP diaries (5) - the rescue (teaser)
Hello, friends, I recently surpassed 25K words on my Robin Hood WIP (halfway there for my monthly goal of 50K yaaay). To celebrate, I want to share a little snippet from a scene that I’ve dubbed “the rescue” in my outline. It’s one of the earliest scenes in the book, and one of my favorites. Enjoy!
T H E R E S C U EThe applause lasted FOR less than a full minute. As soon as it died down, the Sheriff motioned to his deputy, Sir Guy of Gisborne, a large, muscular soldier with a thin, withered face that was too old for his five and thirty years. Unceremoniously, Sir Guy took a step forward and lifted a blue flag. Fixing the hangman with his gaze, he dropped it.
It all happened so fast, Robin had barely time to react.
John wrenched free with a war cry, and flung himself into the crowd’s writhing body. Robin started pushing and shoving people out of his way, careless as to who would see him. He ran towards John, towards the children, towards the noose. But still, he was too late. There was no vantage point where he could stand and take aim, and everywhere he looked, there were people’s heads and hats in the way, between the children and his bow.
The hangman lifted the rod and pushed the stools out of the way. Shrieks filled the night sky, as the hanging children started dangling, their little feet kicking thin air. Robin couldn’t look away. He practically climbed over a thick man’s back in his rush to get to them, but he was still too bloody far away.
“Nooo!” John’s voice tore through the night like a wounded animal’s.
Robin thought he’d be sick, right there, on the town square cobblestones.
And then.
The zing of an arrow.
In all his nineteen years, Robin hadn’t heard a more blessed sound.
His eyes snapped to the source of the sound, just in time to see an arrow fly, straight and true, right through the crowd, headed for the rope. The archer must have chosen a vantage point to shoot it from, for it came downwards, as if it was shot from a higher place –one that Robin should have found by now, but hadn’t. The arrow sliced the hanging rope in two, freeing John’s little girl, who hit the chopping block’s ground like a sack of apples. Before anyone had time to blink, another arrow sliced the air, going straight for the second noose, setting the boy free as he was starting to struggle and choke.
Robin’s eyes gleamed in approval at the unseen archer’s impeccable aim.
He couldn’t see who it was had sent the arrows flying so quickly in succession to each other, for immediately the archer must have been seized. There would be no opportunity to shoot any more. He, Robin, along with the rest of the crowd, craned his neck, but it was obvious the archer was well-hidden above them, amid the branches of a tree or even on the castle buttresses, impossible as that seemed, and so it was impossible to see him.
Before one moment had passed, pandemonium broke loose. The Sherriff’s guards scrambled to detain the children, who were quickly on their feet and struggling with all their strength to free themselves from their binds, and the crowds were screaming in fear and panic. If there was even a perfect time to step in, unnoticed, it was now; Robin had had enough of this masquerade.
“Stay back,” he ordered his men in a low voice, pulling the hood lower over his face. He stood about a head taller than most of the men in the crowd, but right now, amid all the confusion and darkness, he wasn’t worried anyone would notice him. Maybe they would even manage to escape the Sheriff’s greedy claws, for at the first zing of the unknown archer’s arrow, he’d fled inside his castle, followed by his trusted deputy and personal guards. “Bows and swords at the ready, I’ll need you.”
Four heads bowed in agreement, and with a bound, he was off.
He leaped easily from spot to spot, evading people, until he found himself near the hangman’s block. He kept the children’s small forms in his eye line as he was moving, never taking his eyes off them for a minute, careful not to lose sight of them, and grit his teeth when he saw the massive back of a soldier lifting them both, one in each arm, and preparing to get away with them.
“Damn,” he muttered under his breath, and started running.
…
Once more, he was too late. The man bore the two children as easily as if they weighed no more than two sacks of flour, and ducked among the crowd, the gleam of his mail disappearing in the darkness that enveloped him as soon as he stepped off the block. All was lost.
But, just as Robin was on the cusp of following blindly, most probably right into the Castle’s stronghold, someone else appeared in front of the tall guard.
Right in front of him a slight form which looked like it belonged to a child, slid through the crowds, almost invisible. He seemed to drop from above, as though he’d been perched on top of a tree overhead. But Robin noticed, inspite of being shoved and pushed by running countrymen and women from all sides, as his senses were sharpened by fear and fury. The boy’s dark form ran for the hanging block, and suddenly Robin realized that if, by some strange miracle, the boy had been the one shooting the arrows, it made perfect sense for him to drop from the skies like a sort of malnourished avenging angel.
Robin watched in amazement as the youth gave a leap with his spindly legs, landing right on top of the hangman’s block, and with one fell swoop, grabbed one of the children’s feet. The soldier who was carrying the child stopped in his tracks. He turned around, his face a mask of malice, and Robin’s expression turned to one of horror.
He put his fingers in his mouth and whistled, once.
Within seconds, he was flagged by two men on each side, Tuck and Will. John was already walking up to the block, Alice on his heels.
“To the boy!” Robin commanded. Will and Tuck ran.
© 2017, M.C. Frank
more coming soon!
Read the rest of the Robin Hood dWIP diaries at my blog.
Duuuuude! I need more! 😍
More is comingggggg
Read all the Robin Hood WIP diaries here
I love this! Can’t wait to read more!! <33
