He could feel his hands burning where the shackles touched his skin; his back was hurting against the hard rock from crouching there for hours. But the worst of all was the blood throbbing in the veins of his head. He could see her figure standing in a reserved manner, yet her eyes were meeting his with affection.
"Marian?" he whispered. She was exactly as he remembered her. With fewer ragged clothes, of course. And less weapons strapped on her. And her hair not braided. But it was her. Her eyes gleaming with kindness.
"You have no idea how much I missed you, Much." She knelt in front of him and wiped his tears with the back of her hand.
"He has no idea about other things as well. How you came to be alive, for example." Gisborne spoke and the magic of their blessed reunion ended, darkening even more the already dim-lighted cave. "Isn't this the story you came to tell?"
"It must be a torture for you not knowing. This much I will grant you, Gisborne. You've earned the right to this knowledge."
Much watched her shifting from on knee to the other in order to face Gisborne for the first time in months.
"Unless..." Gisborne's voice had a threatening tone. "Unless there's been an elaborate lie spread across the shire. A lie which our dear Much had been privy to..."
"What?! What lie?"
"You know!" Gisborne spat the words. "Your Master told everyone that she's dead and you knew all this time she was alive!"
"That's absurd! It was Vaisey who told us she was dead." Much turned to Marian who was following the conversation in silence. "He did, Marian! There was a fight... We came to Acre... I didn't say it before. Yes, we did. The minute we knew that you were gone, we followed. But we didn't manage to locate you there. And then the King was in danger and we fought and then Vaisey announced you were dead..." He was out of breath. "If there's anyone who would know it'd be you!" he told Gisborne. "It was your Master who-"
"Vaisey in all his dishonesty, believed he was actually telling the truth." Marian intervened. "Will and Djaq told me what happened."
"Will?"
"They are waiting outside."
"Shouldn't we get to them?"
"Not yet. I came in to see how were you doing. Will said he'd signal us when it'd be safe to make our exit."
"Then resume your story!"
"Gisborne, I said you could learn the truth, I never said it would be on your terms."
"For my sake, then?" Much prompted.
"After he sent Gisborne out of the room where I was lying bleeding, a friend of mine came in, posing as a physician. Vaisey was alarmed at the sight of a man with the ability to heal me. Ranulf, a skilled liar, told Vaisey that he was called by someone to save me, but that was not the reason he bothered to come. When Vaisey, impatient and hostile, demanded to know the true purpose, my friend said that he would be very grateful if Vaisey would be kind enough to sell my body for educating purposes. The Sheriff questioned his motives, reminding him of the countless bodies lying in the battlefield not far from there. Ranulf informed him that he had no interest for mutilated bodies. My injury was clean, fatal, but clean. Vaisey's spirits improved, learning I was dying and wouldn't stop looking at me, waiting for my heart to stop, the issue of gain upon the event of my death not lost to him.
Thankfully my friend was prepared. That concoction Carter had introduced us to was not in abundance, but my friend was a man with connections. He gave me enough for a quick result, and to Vaisey's pure delight, I appeared to drift from this world. After that, he didn't blink twice before he named his steep price and left the room saying "Good. This is good."
"Unbelievable!"
"It is, isn't it?"
"This friend... oh what was his name again?"
"Ranulf." Marian said.
"How did you make friends with him... well, with anyone... really... You were a prisoner..."
"That is another interesting part of the story. One that Gisborne must not have had the courage to admit to."
Gisborne grunted, his face pale.
"What did you tell them?" she asked.
"Your Master knows." he told Much "Ask him..."
"This again!" Much protested. "Robin doesn't know anything-"
"He does. Once he took in me as a member of his gang I told him what I did!"
Marian wrapped her hands around Gisborne's neck so quickly that the last word came out choking.
"It's true! Your beloved Robin forgot his hatred for me, forgot his love for you and not only let me live, but he welcomed me in his gang!"
"Marian, please! It's not like that! Please listen to me!" Much pleaded with her. "Please!"
"Time to go to sleep, Gisborne. Have a nightmare." Marian delivered a blow to Gisborne's head, hard enough to keep him unconscious. "He'll live. Sadly."
"It's not how he said it, Marian. There's a long story behind this unholy alliance."
"I am sure there is." She sat next to him. "I am sorry if I scared you. My temper is not easily controlled nowadays. Will and Djaq worry. Even Olaf, of all people!"
"Your friend from the Holy Land?"
"No that was Ranulf."
"This is a different one?" he asked amused. "Well you're good at making friends!"
"Even in the most unlikely places!"
"Will you tell me? From the beginning?"
"On our way south, Vaisey, Allan, Gisborne and myself stopped at an inn. Late at night, Allan, crippled by guilt, tried to escape and he was kind enough to attempt a rescue for me as well. Alas, his luck was limited..."
She went on telling him about the fight, the bargain between the Captain and Gisborne, the assassins, the trainees; the whole story of her wondrous journey.
"Assassins?"
She lifted her sleeve and revealed the symbol that marked her encounter with the notorious Captain.
"They... trained you?"
"Day and night on the deck of the ship. Rain, heat, wind wouldn't stop us. Until there was one of us left. By that time, we had reached the port."
Much must have fallen silent for quite some time, because Marian stared at him.
"I have," she said.
He looked at her confused.
"I have killed people."
"I have killed people, too."
"Troubled times."
Much nodded. For years he couldn't remember untroubled days. Only moments. Brief and shocking. Like the moment he saw her stepping out of the shadows, before the gruesome reality of her miraculous survival.
"Once you were there? In Acre?"
"The Captain had an estate in the desert. We rode for days, through difficult paths for safety. Not that anyone would attack him. Once we got there, he halted. He knew something was wrong. Soon we all knew. His younger sons had rioted against the eldest. The Captain was ill, we learned, soon to die. His successor was a target for his younger brothers. A bloodbath, Much. The look on the Captain's face was horrible."
"You felt for him?"
"At the time, I thought I was incapable of any feeling, but yes, Much. I felt sorry for that man. No one deserves watching his sons killing each other. Even him. He was... how should I put it? He showed me something different than kindness and sympathy, Much. Yes, he took me captive, but he gave me the chance to earn my freedom again. He acknowledged my value and respected me which is more than most of the men in my life have done for me."
"I suppose that should count for something," Much said, not mentioning a few outstanding exceptions to this disappointing group of men. Even with those exceptions, she was right. "What happened then?"
"Chaos. Swords each ever way. Guards and assassins were picking sides. Ranulf and me, by the Captain's side."
"Ranulf? Oh, the physician, correct?"
"The pretender, yes."
"How could this man ended with you in the fight with Vaisey? You escaped with him, didn't you?"
"Ranulf would lay his life for the Captain and I felt obliged to at least try. But it was all in vain. The Captain fell by his youngest son's blade and we made a run for it. For days Ranulf was licking his wounds, promising revenge."
"And you?"
"I... I was trying to remember what Marian had once been. You see, once I had realised the life that I had ahead of me, Lady Marian couldn't command the hand of an assassin. I let myself be forgotten. Most of me. There was one small thing living inside me. Revenge. That was why I helped Ranulf get his revenge. And Ranulf stayed with me. He vowed to never leave."
"When did you find Vaisey? It couldn't have taken you too long."
"It all happened very quickly. In that state we were, hours counted for days."
"I see. And how did you find him?"
"We were living in a hole in the ground, but news reached us, through the appropriate channels, of course. Two Englishmen, plotting and scheming were hard to miss. We set a trap, but it failed. I failed miserably. I failed to save England, I failed..."
"I still can't believe all these things happened before we got there!"
"Will said it took you sometime to get a ship from England. Ours was a quick one. We were several weeks ahead of you."
"So, when did it happen? This fight with you and Gisborne?" Much had been wondering for some time, but he couldn't raise that subject, fearing it would hurt Robin.
"A week or so, before you met them. We tried to estimate the days, Will and I."
"Unbelievable!" Much shook his head, focusing for the first time on the fact that Marian hadn't returned alone. "You found Will! And Djaq. You missed us, however. We left rather quickly, under Richard's orders. But you found Will and Djaq!"
"And Carter."
"Oh, I knew he couldn't stay away!"
"It was him I found first. At the King's camp. Then we searched for Djaq and Will." She told him about the tragedy that had occurred in Bassam's house and their adventures after that. The German Count was an important part of the story, too.
"This other friend. The one whose name sounds like Ranulf, but isn't Ranulf. Friedrich's brother in law!"
"Olaf the Viking. And Rochelle, the French Lord's rock solid daughter."
"Quite a team!"
"We re an impressive bunch, I must say."
Gisborne moved a little, letting a low noise. Much waited until he was quiet again before he spoke. "Marian," he started, "you said, you didn't... you weren't yourself. Back then, with these people."
"I couldn't be."
"When did you start being yourself again? When you found Carter?"
"Before that. After my failed attempt to kill Vaisey and Gisborne it was hard. I had been living for revenge and I let the opportunity slip through my fingers. I had to find something to keep going. Something other than murder plans. Of course it was completely different from the way I had been functioning for several months, but I didn't have to live that way anymore. So I tried to move on.
One day while I was getting water from a well, I heard a plea for help. A young boy was crying in the bottom of the well. Without thinking I looked for a way to get this child back to his mother's arms. Once I got him out he hugged me and cried. And then a small window opened inside my mind. I saw my father standing in our house, calm and happy. I saw Sarah, my maid. I saw the people of Nottingham going about their busy lives. And I knew that I had to keep fighting. So I started looking for other Englishmen. Imagine my surprise when I learned which Englishmen I had just missed and which I could still find close by."
"I had a similar experience once. I was lying wounded in the desert. The sun was blinding me and a window opened. When I looked through I saw my mother's face. Strange isn't it? I never met her, but I am sure it was her face. What else did you see?"
"I saw all of you. Fighting for justice. And I saw-"
"Robin!"
"Yes I saw Robin-"
"No, look!" Much nudged her.
"I guess I ow Will and Djaq an apology for calling them insane," Robin walked towards them.
