Robin's gang met back at camp, weary but hopeful that one of the other pairs had found Bat. When everyone had returned and learned that the boy was still missing, discouragement set in.
Much voiced his anxieties aloud, until he was told to shut up by nearly everyone. Kate was unusually tight lipped and silent.
Robin, remembering how she had recently told him she wanted children, mistook her silence for concern. "It's alright, Kate," he said gently, trying to console her. "We'll find him, I promise."
Kate gulped and reached for Robin, but he'd already turned away.
Shifting his gaze toward Marian, his heart constricted when he noticed her holding the daisy Bat had picked, its petals edged with brown now, its soft stem wilting.
With quick strides, he moved toward Marian and drew her into his arms.
Marian allowed herself a single moment to rest, her head against his chest. Then, refusing to break down and cry, she pulled away and said, "We need to keep searching."
"What was that?" Djaq suddenly asked.
Everyone listened, but only the three women could hear the faint, high pitched sound.
Marian gasped, her face lighting up. "Robin!" she cried. "Bat's pipes!"
Djaq flung her arms around Will, since he had created the set of pipes for the child, but Robin dropped to the ground. Pressing his ear to earth, he listened intently, not for sound, but for vibrations.
"He's not alone," he warned his gang, leaping to his feet. "If I'm not mistaken, he's brought an entire squadron of sheriff's men with him."
Much sputtered so badly he couldn't spit out the words. "Unbelievable!" he cried at last. "I knew it was dangerous to take him in! I knew it!"
"Don't blame Bat," Robin ordered. "He's only a boy."
"Master, what do we do?"
There wasn't time to think. Robin quickly issued orders for the pairs to fan out and stay hidden, and to be prepared to fight.
"Spare the boy, no matter what you think he's done," Robin demanded. "Let's see if we can save him, along with ourselves. Godspeed, my friends, and thank you."
...
Sheriff Vaisey was sweating, ruining his embroidered black doublet. Any moment, he expected a shower of arrows to come raining down upon him and his men, and for the first time in many years, he doubted the soundness of one of his schemes. At least he'd had the foresight to place Bat the Brat in front of him on his horse, to act as a human shield. And, as long as he made it out of the forest alive, with Hood as his trophy, all would be sunshine. Gisbourne, with his unending demands for the Leper, could die and rot here, for all he cared.
"How much farther, Bat, my friend?" Vaisey asked, despising the boy for being unable to speak, even though it had been his own command to have the brat's tongue cut out.
Gisbourne, too, felt hatred for the boy. The runt was so weak, so frail and sickly, Gisbourne's anger raged within his breast. No son of his should be such a weakling! He couldn't be his! The brat's mother, seemingly so shy, must have been a whore, spreading her legs for dozens of men! Gisbourne pushed back the memory of seizing her and taking her maidenhead roughly behind his stables while his guards held her down, with her pathetic cries of fear and pain, and her warm stickey blood dribbling down her legs.
His memories were interrupted when the runt held something to his lips and weakly blew through it, creating a high pitched, musical sound.
"What is the meaning of this?" Vaisey roared. "Gisbourne!"
Sir Guy wheeled his horse around and reached toward Bat, grabbing the boy's pipes from his tiny hands. Flinging them to the ground, he let his horse trample and crush them.
"Very good, Gisbourne," Vaisey approved, reining his horse to a stop.
"What," Vaisey sneered into Bat's ear, "did you just do, hmm? Don't tell me you just gave warning to Robin Hood! For you won't like what I have in store for you, my little friend, if that was indeed your plan!"
Without warning, an arrow fletched with the striped feathers of the greylag goose buzzed through the air and hit its target, the pommel on Guy of Gisbourne's saddle.
Bile shot up into Gisbourne's throat, making him choke on his fear.
"It's Hood!" the sheriff screamed, ducking behind Bat. "Guards! Gisbourne! Find him!"
