On this day, Gisburne was for once glad not to have accumulated too many possessions, for only this made it possible for him to leave the castle so soon. To get his meager belongings out of here, his spare horse had to be used to transport them, but the animal seemed to consider this beneath its dignity. At least its stubborn behavior could be interpreted in this manner, but in reality, it was only caused by the fact that it was used to carrying a rider on its back and not something so stiff and inflexible. This obviously irritated the animal, giving the impression of resenting the knight for being abused as a pack mule.
"Well, that was faster than I would have guessed in advance", his companion noted as he caught up with him.
Gisburne looked thoughtfully at the other. "You don't have to follow me, you weren't dismissed by the sheriff", he then informed him.
The other laughed. "I was never in the sheriff's employ either, so he can't dismiss me either. And I have no intention of abandoning you at this point. You need me now more than ever."
Gisburne felt relief welling up inside him. In fact, it would have been very hard for him to have to say goodbye to the other.
"I'm glad to know you'll continue to be at my side", he then confirmed this to his companion, although he felt awkward at the statement. He just wasn't used to having someone by his side that he didn't want to miss anymore.
"Will you go straight to Huntingdon now?" the other wanted to know.
The knight nodded, for he considered it a sensible thing to do.
The other, however, did not seem to like the answer. "You must go to another destination first!" he then informed him in an emphatic tone.
Gisburne frowned, for the other had never spoken to him in this fashion previously. Besides, he had no idea what his companion was talking about.
"Trust me!" the other answered the unspoken question. "I will show you the way, and once you reach your destination, you will realize why it was so important that I led you there."
Gisburne shook his head, though it was difficult for him not to comply with his companion's request right away. "I shall feel more comfortable once I have arrived at the earl's estate, so I should make my way to Huntingdon as soon as possible. Here, close to Nottingham, I feel very much exposed, and I am anxious to avoid the sheriff finding out too soon what is going on." How could he possibly make the other realize that he could not follow him in this?
"Have I led you astray before?" his companion wanted to know from him. "All I can tell you is that you will regret it for the rest of your life if you don't follow me." Then he grinned at him. "Besides, you still have time."
Gisburne couldn't deny that his companion had indeed never disappointed him so far. So maybe he should take his time and follow his proposal after all. He actually still had time, after all, he had escaped from the sheriff faster than he had anticipated.
Therefore, he nodded to the other, whereupon the latter immediately took the lead. He followed the road north out of Nottingham and after a short time they were in the forest. The knight kept close to his side. And although Gisburne now found himself between the trees of Sherwood, he did so - and for the first time in a very long while - without a sense of impending doom. He found he had completely forgotten what that felt like.
"Are you going to tell me where we're riding?" he tried to find out something from his companion, but this made the other laugh. He shook his head, at which Gisburne sighed softly. But he knew he would follow the other anyway, because he owed him a lot. He had done a great deal for him.
Without any particular hurry, they followed the road until, at one point - which to Gisburne was no different from other similar points here in the forest - the other picked his way between the trees. As they moved away from the road, he again took the lead without so much as a moment's hesitation, and the knight again noticed that the other had no trouble finding his way around Sherwood. He always seemed to know exactly where he was and how to get to his destination. Without him, Gisburne would be hopelessly lost by now. He had never managed to find his way in the forest, although he had been here so many times. But the next time, it was again as if he had never been here before. This seemed to have improved somewhat in recent months, but still he would never have ventured into the depths of Sherwood alone. Once again, he was very grateful for the presence of his companion.
Suddenly they came out among the trees onto an open space, and Gisburne discovered that he was on the shore of a lake. As he let his gaze glide over the water, he noticed that mist had formed in some places, preventing him from seeing the opposite shore. At once he sensed that this sight filled him with a sense of peace such as he had not experienced for many years. He could not help but stop for a moment to admire this natural beauty. Until now, Sherwood had only ever struck him as a place to be feared, but now he realized all of a sudden that he didn't detect any danger here. He couldn't believe that such a spot existed in the forest.
"It's beautiful here, isn't it? This is Darkmere", he heard his companion whisper. "Now it's not far to our destination."
Guy broke away from the sight of the lake with a heavy heart and followed the other along the shore, but he kept looking out at the water, over which the mist was spreading more and more. By now it had also moved to the shore and had begun to swallow the path, causing him to have trouble recognizing his companion.
"Don't worry", the other's voice rang out from further ahead, "you can't miss the destination now. We'll meet again in a moment, my friend." And then the knight could see nothing more of his companion and he almost stopped, but then he reasoned that if he had already come this far, he should now cover the rest of the way. Even if he could hardly recognize anything of the path. As a precaution, though, he dismounted since he didn't trust the ground so close to the lake. Before risking an injury to his stallion, he preferred to lead him by the reins. He had attached the spare horse, which had been downgraded to a pack mule, to Fury's halter with a rope, and it would follow him without any problems, because it wanted to stay close to the only member of his herd that remained. By now the fog had become so thick that he was already having trouble making out his own feet, let alone the tracks his companion must have left behind.
Suddenly a light appeared in front of him, slowly coming nearer. All at once it occurred to him that this must be a torch carried by a person. Could his companion have managed to get so far away from him that he now had to return? Or was he going to have the misfortune of running into one of the outlaws? As a precaution, he stopped, although it was obvious to him that he could not avoid an encounter. There was no way for him to hide here, nor would he be able to use the fog to conceal himself. After all, this was Sherwood and here Robin Hood and his gang were supported even by nature and the weather.
Then, when this person had approached him to the point where he could finally not only see him properly, but also recognize him, he was again taken by surprise, which he did not know whether to consider as unpleasant or pleasant. The person was not his companion - which gave him an unexpected stab of disappointment - but neither was one of the outlaws, which relieved him. He immediately realized, however, that there was no way he had expected to meet this man. If, that is, he was allowed to call him a man, for in this respect he was no longer sure. The serfs in the villages called him a forest deity and Robin Hood referred to himself as his son. Guy had long refused to believe that he had any special powers, but then, having felt them firsthand, he was no longer in a position to deny them. Just as he could not refuse to admit that Herne frightened him. This was mainly because he did not understand his powers.
Involuntarily, the knight had stopped as soon as he realized who was approaching him with the torch. Suddenly, he was not sure if he wanted to continue on this path, even if his friend had asked him to. In the last few days he had had to experience enough changes not to have the desire to not deal with this man now as well. But at the same time, he was aware that he had no choice. He was in the middle of the woods, all alone - for he could no longer see anything of his companion, of his guide - and he would not find his way out again on his own. With a shudder he thought back to the one time he had tried that. To this day, he didn't know how he had managed to escape the trees, but he certainly didn't want to repeat that experience.
"Come!" Herne waved him on - completely out of the blue. "The goal is very close now."
Guy could not stop himself from looking back, for he was convinced that behind him must be one of the outlaws to whom this man - whose head was adorned with antlers - had spoken. To his great astonishment, he discovered that he was still alone, and at that moment he realized that Herne had indeed spoken to him. He could not recall any occasion on which he had ever spoken to him before.
"Come!" repeated Herne and Guy finally started to move, because he didn't have the impression that he had the choice to disregard the request.
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"Are you just going to let him stroll around here in the woods?" raged Will. He obviously couldn't understand why Robin hadn't stopped the knight. He knew that Gisburne had had a part in freeing Robin, but that still didn't give him - in his opinion - the right to be here in the woods. And then of all places here at Darkmere. He - the hardened soldier - saw this place as something special - even if he would never admit that to anyone - and he had the strong feeling that Gisburne's presence would desecrate it. Having to admit something like that to himself would be enough to make him mad, without the knight having to personally get in his way.
"How did he find his way here anyway?" he wanted to know, not looking at any of his friends. "He must have had a guide!" Now he eyed the others challengingly, as if to force one of them to confess.
"You don't seriously believe one of us would have shown him the way, do you?" now John was getting agitated, and in his turn, he glared angrily at Will.
"How should I know?" retorted the former soldier. "Since he offered to save Robin, maybe he's one of us now, and no one has said anything to me about it."
"Will!" admonished Tuck. "This is going too far now."
"Really?" Will Scarlet looked over at their leader, who had not spoken up until now. "Maybe that's why Robin has been acting so weird the last few days."
The leader of the outlaws did not respond to Will's words, even though he did not like it at all that the latter had come so close to the truth. Robin Hood hadn't accepted the knight into the band of outlaws, but he would soon be officially a part of his family, and it felt the same way. And he hadn't yet brought himself to inform his friends about this change. He hadn't - honestly - expected Gisburne to reappear in the woods so soon. He had hoped to have more time to broach the subject with his friends.
He was aware, however, that he could not remain silent now. "You saw that Herne met him, Will. That means we don't have to worry about it ourselves anymore. Herne probably made sure he found his way here, too." Robin tried to reassure his friend.
"And what does Herne want with Gisburne?" There was no way Will was going to give up so easily, and that was now causing quite a few of the other outlaws to sigh over his stubbornness.
"If he believes we need to know, he will tell us." Sometimes Robin found it very hard that he had to deal with Will's contrariness. "Come on, let's get back to camp. Herne will make sure Gisburne isn't wandering around the woods unattended. Besides, I have something important to tell you." He was already dreading the reaction of his friends. He was sure he knew exactly what he would hear from Will.
Will grumbled under his breath all the way to their camp, but he refrained from making another loud protest after discovering that none of his friends supported him, not even Much, who hated Gisburne for killing his father.
They reached the camp much too quickly for Robin's taste, but he was aware that he could not back out now that he had already announced to his friends that he had something to tell them. However, he had done this deliberately and also for the reason that he could not back out at the last moment. He was very uncomfortable with the subject, but the others had to hear it from him before his father made it public.
But then he gave himself a respite, for he wanted to learn something before he revealed himself to his friends. "You have not told me how it actually came about that Gisburne went in search of me?" he therefore asked.
"Wasn't there something you wanted to tell us?", Will went straight to the counterattack, giving his friend the impression that this was a topic he didn't want to talk about.
"I will do that." Robin tried to placate him again. "But don't you agree that I have a right to know why I was rescued by Gisburne, of all people."
Tuck sighed. "You won't believe it, Robin." He glanced at the younger man, but the latter made no move to back down from his question.
"It was Gisburne's suggestion", the monk went on.
"Gisburne's suggestion?" echoed Robin, repeating Tuck's words.
Again, the monk sighed. "He didn't want the sheriff to know what he did that day. Most of all, he didn't want de Rainault to know what he'd said."
Robin frowned, not understanding what Tuck meant by "that day". But then it suddenly occurred to him that he could only be referring to the anniversary of the death of the first Robin Hood. This was a day he had always kept to himself so that his friends could mourn Robin of Loxley undisturbed. He had also never asked them what they had done that day, and they had never said anything about it on their own.
"What did he do that he didn't want the sheriff to know about?" Robin tried to come back to his question.
"You never asked us what we did on that day and we refrained from telling you anything about it", Tuck started again, unaware that Robin had just been pondering that aspect. "That's why you never knew that every year on that very day we saw Gisburne right where Robin died."
"Gisburne?" The leader of the outlaws shook his head in amazement. "What was he doing there?"
"You won't believe this", John let himself be heard.
When Robin looked at him questioningly, he continued quickly. "He got drunk."
"He got what?" Robin actually couldn't believe it. "He got drunk that day at the scene of Loxley's death? And you guys let him?"
"Well, he wasn't doing anything else, and we weren't in the mood to pick a fight that day. So, we let him have his way. He always left again after a few hours. And to be honest, we always forgot about it until the next year", John explained.
"And this year?", Robin wanted to know.
"This year Will wouldn't leave him alone anymore", now Tuck took over the narration once again. "So, we went to check on him. Only to find that this time he was drunk out of his mind. He was no longer able to stand on his own two feet. And the stuff he poured into himself would have knocked even Will out."
"So, you took him with you, did I understand that correctly? But if he was that drunk, he probably didn't say anything else." Robin still didn't understand why this would have led the knight to go looking for him.
Will snorted in amusement. "That's what we thought, too. We tied him to a tree, but that only helped him not to fall down. After a while, though, he started talking again."
"You're not going to believe this", John went on, and Robin thought he'd heard those words too many times today. "He started arguing with Will about whether Robin had actually died. Will was of the opinion he was dead and Gisburne vehemently disagreed with him. He even claimed that he couldn't die at all, since he was Herne's son after all."
Robin could only shake his head again.
"And then Gisburne started questioning why Robin wouldn't be there that day, as if he would run into him any other day. He went on about how he would need him after all and he just wouldn't be there. The way he talked, anyone could have gotten the impression that Robin and he were best friends. It was downright creepy. You can probably imagine we were all glad when he finally fell asleep."
Tuck now took over talking again. "The next morning, Nasir and Will went looking for you since you hadn't returned to us yet. By the time they showed up at camp with the grim news of your disappearance, Gisburne was awake again, too. Needless to say, we put him right on the spot, but he claimed not to know anything about this. We didn't buy it, at least not at first, but then he told us about fitz Edgar and how he was apparently the sheriff's new favorite. Little by little, we actually came to believe he was telling us the truth."
John suddenly had to laugh. "Then it turned out that, to everyone's amazement, he could still remember everything that had happened the day before. And that made him very uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. He certainly didn't want the sheriff to know what he had said. But although we quickly realized that, then none of us expected that he would make us the proposal to search Nottingham Castle for you. In return, he wanted our word that we would not tell anyone what he had done. However, we were also under the impression that his proposal was motivated by the fact that the sheriff hadn't taken him into his confidence for some time."
"That's what it was like", Tuck confirmed, and everyone else nodded in affirmation.
"If someone else had told me that, I actually wouldn't have believed it", was all Robin could say about it at that moment, and then he had to laugh too as he tried to imagine what had happened.
But then he very quickly turned serious again. "I completely forgot that Gisburne has already been acting differently than previously for several months. He has ignored us and only dealt with the other outlaws who had taken shelter in Sherwood. The ones we would have hunted ourselves."
"That's not quite true though", contradicted him Will, of course. "I can think of three occasions when he came after us."
"That's right", Robin admitted. "But in all three cases he broke off the pursuit very early. And you may recall that we later learned he acted on the express orders of the sheriff in all of those instances."
John nodded. "I had actually forgotten that. Do you think de Rainault sought out another aide and booted out Gisburne for that reason?"
"Maybe", Robin reflected. "But really, it doesn't matter. All I really care about now is figuring out why he got me out of that dungeon."
"Well, then, we've got that straightened out", Will remarked. "Then you can finally tell us why you shooed us back to camp, even though Gisburne is still hanging around out there."
"Now", Robin began, "you probably won't believe me either. I've been racking my brains for two days trying to figure out the best way to break it to you, but I'm afraid there's no easy way."
He eyed his friends in turn, all of whom looked back at him, quite startled by his words. All of them, except Nasir, who already knew the truth, but who didn't say anything, since in his opinion it wasn't his place to tell this story. Besides, he was convinced that Robin would not avoid it. Therefore, he had to do nothing but wait.
And now the time had arrived. "Gisburne is my father's eldest son."
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Guy could absolutely not imagine why he was here at the lake, yet he had followed Herne. He had left his horses on the shore and joined the other in a small boat. He hadn't even minded picking up the oars and taking him and Herne across the lake to a shallow, rocky ledge, onto which he then pulled the boat up. He had not even needed any instruction from this supposed forest deity to do this, for he had no intention of swimming back under any circumstances, assuming he got out of this situation alive. In that case, however, he would have a few things to say to his friend about leading him into the woods today.
"You have nothing to fear here", Herne let himself be heard as if listening to his thoughts.
Guy wasn't sure if the other expected an answer from him, however, he had no idea what he should have said. So, he remained silent.
That didn't seem to bother the other man, though. "What you are looking for, you will find in the cave at the back."
With these words he managed to fully confuse Guy, who had not assumed there was anything here for him to find.
"I'm not looking for anything", he informed the old man.
"Surely, you are looking for something, and you have been for four years. Or rather, for at least four years", was the mysterious reply.
For four years? What the hell was it that he had been looking for for four years and why would he find it here, in the middle of Sherwood, of all places. Surely, he should have ridden straight to Huntingdon. Guy was sure by now that the outlaws - that his half-brother - were playing a false game with him. He should never have assumed that the man would stand idly by while he lost his birthright to his enemy, no matter what the earl had said.
But while he was still upset pondering his situation, his feet had already carried him further into the caves and all at once he was able to make out someone lying on a makeshift bed in front of the far wall, obviously asleep.
"He has been in this state between life and death for four years now." Completely unanticipated the voice of Herne rang out from behind him.
Four years? Guy's heart skipped a beat as he thought of a person who had disappeared four years ago. If his feet had just carried him to this part of the caves without him having to think about it, now all of a sudden, they refused to obey him and he stopped as if rooted to the spot.
"At first it had seemed, even to me, that he would soon enter the realm of the dead, but something was holding him back all this time, keeping him here in the world of the living. His condition, however, did not change. Six months ago, however, all of a sudden something occurred. And now I believe he could even wake up, if there was something for him to live for. I do believe there is someone who can bring him out of this limbo."
Guy didn't want to hear those words because they gave him hope. And hope was something he would not allow himself to have. Hope was something that had only ever gotten him into trouble. Therefore, he would not surrender to that temptation. He would not be able to bear another letdown, not in this respect.
But once again his feet betrayed him. Just unwilling to move, they now carried him forward again. And his head seemed unable to command them to do anything else.
"You have a few hours before you must leave the woods." Herne turned and vanished back to the front of the caves, but Guy didn't get any more of that. He was now standing right next to the bed, looking down at the man lying there, giving the appearance that he was asleep.
With a sinking feeling in his stomach, the knight went to his knees and bent over the prone man. "Loxley!" he called out. The outlaw's eyelids fluttered, but he did not open his eyes.
Again, Guy called the other's name, but again the fluttering of the eyelids was the only response. The knight had no idea how to get Loxley to wake up. Should he grab the man by the shoulders and shake him? But somehow that didn't seem like the right thing to do.
"You know what to do, Guy", he suddenly heard his friend whisper.
The knight jerked upright, for the first time it occurred to him that he knew that voice. But he didn't understand why he had never noticed in the last six months that it was not only his new friend's voice, but that he had heard it before. He didn't understand why he hadn't realized it was Loxley's voice.
All at once he actually knew what he had to do, and so he bent over the other again to give him a long kiss, just such a kiss as he himself had received two days ago when Loxley had come into his chamber.
As Guy straightened up again, he was studied from a pair of sparkling green eyes. "I told you I'd see you again in a short while, Guy."
"How did you do that?" the knight whispered.
Loxley smiled, causing Guy's heart to start beating like mad. "I didn't do it", he whispered back. "That was you all by yourself. You called me, and you made sure I stayed by your side."
Guy could only shake his head. He couldn't get another word out.
"Are you going to sit there all the time, Guy? We only have a few hours, you know that." When he put a hand on the knight's arm, the latter was finally able to speak again.
"I know", was still all he could get out before kissing Loxley again. But he knew this was only the prelude. And he also knew he definitely didn't want to waste the time they had remaining here in this cave.