Twisted Justice
Chapter 6…Breaking
They had plotted and schemed for hours it seemed. Now, they were marching. To take back what was always theirs.
Most men went on foot. Robin had been offered a horse, but declined. She wouldn't put herself above her men.
Her archers were the best sentries they could have hoped for, bringing back their kills as well as news.
"Over this rise." Robin pointed to the tip of a hill, the road wide and flat. "Is the fief. We'll be in clear view from here."
Raoul just nodded, shifting a little in the saddle. A cool, autumn breeze moved the paling leaves and made Robin want to shiver.
Or, that's what she told herself.
Raoul was the first to crest the rise. The standard bearer held the pennants aloft. There would be no sneaking around in the dark for this group. Raoul stilled when he saw the castle. Men gathered behind him, silent as they looked down.
Robin moved to the front. Lining the castle's thick, scarred walls were rough men in full war garb.
"I guess they've had some new recruits while you weren't watching." Raoul said lightly. Across the castle walls were at least a hundred men. Doubtless more waited below.
"We would have seen them." Robin told him. "That must be all the men on the walls now."
He rummaged around in his saddle for a moment, withdrew a golden feather from somewhere, and held it over his eyes. "Illusions." He said with a grim smile. "Nothing but air."
"Magical air," the tall gangly man pointed out.
"Air's air, Evan." Raoul told him.
"Let's keep going, shall we?" Kale asked dryly. "Set up camp just down a little."
They fell back into their neat, organized columns, began to move along the road.
Raoul stopped out of bowshot, but the men didn't break away when movement was halted. The huge man tilted back his head and called, "we come to reclaim this land in the name of King Jonathan. Surrender yourselves to the king's justice!"
"That's Finn." Robin pointed out the man moving to the edge of the wall. A rough, badly mannered man with the honor of a snake.
He replied with a string of curses that made Robin curl her lip in disgust.
"I hoped he'd say that." Raoul said, to no one in particular. Then: "Set up camp."
"Tomorrow, we'll break them." Kale told Robin, when she stood, watching the men prowl along the walls. "Today, you need rest."
"Don't tell me what I need." She said icily. Turning, she went to set up her own tent.
The enemy may be broken tomorrow…but she was breaking now.
When Robin awoke that night, she grabbed her bow and quiver, and went to check the sentries. It was a few hours until dawn…until they attacked. Men of the Kings Own and the Queen's Riders slept deeply. Robin's men either napped fitfully or stared into the flames, for all intents and purposes asleep themselves, so deep in the hypnotic dance of the flames.
Not surprised to find Kale on the outskirts of the camp, Robin sat next to him. He might be arrogant, but he was also the only person who knew what she was…if not who she was.
He glanced at her. "Couldn't sleep?" He asked.
"I slept fine." She tucked one leg under her.
"You look like you've been crying." He persisted.
"I haven't." She lied easily. "Thanks for the thought, though."
He was silent. For a long time, they sat in the darkness, the chill damp of the air rising around them. When he did speak, his words made Robin far colder than the weather. "The signet ring for Avonsleigh is missing." He said, standing, stretching stiff muscles. "My bet is Finn has it."
"Doubtless." She said, her golden eyes half-shut.
"What were your family like?" Kale asked suddenly, stopping in front of her and taking her hands.
Robin turned her face away. "Good, honest people." She said quietly. "Kind."
"You never speak of them." His hands held onto hers tighter than before.
"They are gone. What is there to speak of?" She snatched back her scarred hands. She didn't want what he was offering her. Didn't want to hope he could find a way to make her buckle.
"Your parents." One of his hands smoothed over a cheek. "They were not in a happy marriage?"
"Why?" She couldn't jerk back without loosing her balance and falling over.
He studied her intently. "You aren't an open person."
So he thought her parents were the reason she wouldn't fall into his arms, praises on her lips? "Give me a break, Kale. I don't need this." She pushed his hand away, stood and walked off, her steps no more than whispers on the hard ground, her presence fading as fast as her form, oddly delicate.
AN: Robin isn't a hard, bitter woman. Not like my other character, Aileen, in Nothing Personal, my first fanfic. You'll see.
AB-scribere: Of course the main character has to be female in TP's world. ^_^ And Kale…he's a bit overbearing, arrogant and proud, but he's an ok kinda person. I do agree with the smacking him around part, he needs to be taught humility…and he will be. Thank you…I liked that line myself. I always thought time was an abstract thing. Man can measure it, label it, but it is always…wild? I don't know the word. Intangible, interchanging?
Reminisca: thank you. I reccomened people read your fic, so you get some confidence and some drive to continue. So, people, go read Reminisca's fic!
Everyone else who reviewed, thank you! Keep reviewing, keep writing…
~Elisse
