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Alex woke to the sound of voices. Her shoulder was sore from lying on the rock all day but surprisingly she felt well rested. Her clothes had slowly dried till they were only slightly damp and the water from her ears had gone. She raised herself into a sitting position and leaned against the back of the cave. She wished she could have removed her restraints but Olivia had tied them too tightly and too expertly for even her to undo.

As she sat, her mind replayed everything that had happened. The sight of Olivia chained to the wall. The flight from the castle and falling over the water fall. She'd never spoken to anyone like she had Olivia- maybe her nursemaid but that was when she was younger. She'd have liked to have thought that she had only tried to explain because Olivia threatened to kill her, might still kill her in fact, but she knew that wasn't the real reason. She'd talked because she had to, because all the thoughts and confusion in her mind were slowly driving her mad and she had to tell someone to just get rid of them. She was tired of trying to figure out if she was a good person who did bad things, or a bad person who did bad things or just a person who did things, neither good nor bad. Let other people decided whether she could live. Let the voices outside the cave decide her life. She just didn't want to think about anything anymore.

They all sat round the fire, still burning though it had been hours since Olivia had lit it. She'd told them what had happened, how she'd escaped and who was now sleeping in the cave behind them. Casey didn't believe her at first but when Amanda went and brought back Alex's helmet they accepted her story. Elliot was all for going and killing her straight away, not even letting her wake up but Olivia made him wait. It had to be a group decision; they had to hear all the facts before anyone went and killed anyone else. Elliot, of course, was not happy to be kept waiting. He rose to his feet and started passing in front of them.

'I don't care who the hell she thinks she is,' he continued their argument, 'who the hell she wants to be, I don't even give a fuck that she's a she. If she wanted to run away from what's she's done she should have run further. We all make choices. Running from her bad one's doesn't make her special Olivia; it makes her a coward.'

'Oh shut the fuck up Elliot! Get off your fucking horse.' Amanda shouted, 'You're a thirty year old man living in the forest with a Saracen, an old friar and a bunch of women. We're all fucking running.'

Elliot turned away shaking his head and biting his tongue between his teeth. After breathing heavily for a moment he turned back and said slowly, 'She's spent her whole life terrorizing the county, killing anybody who got in her way; innocent people Amanda. You can't possibly defend her.'

'We've all killed people Elliot. You know as well as I do that some of those soldiers were just boys. People trying to make a living for their families; yet you stuck a sword through them all the same. We're just a different side of the same coin.'

'The right side.'

Amada shook her head but saw that Elliot couldn't be persuaded. He wanted the Black Cloak to be evil and so she was.

'What do we even know about her?' Casey cut in trying to defuse the tension in the air. She motioned Elliot back to the ground and sighing he sat down beside her, his now aching leg stretched out. 'I mean really know, beyond the rumours and tales.'

They all turned to Munch, who alone among them was already a man when Alex was born. She rolled his eyes skyward, trying to remember everything thing he knew, every story he had been told.

'I was still living at the monastery when the Old Sherriff died. His son arrived that same night to take his place, before the body was even cold. Brother Mathew had gone to the castle to try and ease the Sheriff's passing and yet he didn't return for another ten years. Said the new Sheriff had ordered him to stay, liked his skill with herbs and medicine. He told us all what life in the castle was like, what the new sheriff was like and what was happening with Sheriff's mysterious son.

He cleared the east wing of the castle the night he arrived and picked a single nursemaid to care for the baby. The doors were locked and Brother Mathew said that as the people got acquainted with their new Lord no one dared go near that wing of the castle.

Sometimes the Sheriff would disappear for days and everyone would know where he was but had no idea what he was doing, or even if the child still lived. The rumour is now that the Black Cloak wasn't seen for at least twenty five years but that isn't true.

One day the Sheriff came down to sit judgement on some people…

The hall was full of servants and visiting neighbours, the conversation of the crowd swelling under the roof. Out in the entrance hall, behind the tall wooden doors the people who needed their disputes deciding were gathered, shepherded by hard faced guards into the semblance of a queue.

The Sheriff emerged from a door behind the high table but unlike every other month, this time he wasn't alone. A small child followed him. He was dressed in soft soled shoes and covered from the neck down in a long cloak though the amount of people made the hall quite warm. Nobody had cause to question his sex because his face was covered with a sack, with two holes cut for eyes. On anybody else it would have been the cause for laughter but on him, the never seen before bastard son, no comment was ever made. He sat beside his father behind the top table and waited for the first dispute to be put forward.

The first hour or so went smoothly, just as it normally did but no one seemed to relax. Conversation never restarted, everyone transfixed on the small boy who didn't seem to move a muscle. A man was brought in, flanked on either arm by two guards and if the hall was tense before it was nothing to how thick the air began to feel. The shaking man in question owed the Sheriff money and everyone knew that the Sheriff did not like to be kept waiting.

'You still don't have it then?'

'No my Lord.' The man stuttered, 'buuuuu buuut I can have it within the month. I swear on God Almighty above.

'Daniel,' the Sheriff replied sighing with comical exaggeration, 'that's what you said last month.'

'But this month I will definitely have it. You knnnnow winters been hard. Myyyyy wife's been sick.' Daniel was getting desperate, his eyes darting round the hall looking for help that no one could give, as the Sheriff leaned forward and placed his arms on the table.

'Maybe a lesson in money management might help you out, hmmm.'

'My Lord?'

The Sheriff didn't reply just leaned down and whispered in the ear of his son. Daniel was forced to his knees as the boy, without a word, picked up a knife from the table and walked down to the hall floor. He couldn't have been more than four foot as he came to stand in front of the now shaking and crying man. He turned and looked back at his father, just one look, who simply raised an eyebrow. The boy took a deep breath heard even at the back of the hall before sticking the knife in the man's eye.

The man rolled on the floor, dropped by the guards and screamed but the boy just walked back towards the table as his father laughed, 'his eye; his fucking eye, brilliant!'

'Apparently he was sometimes seen after that.' Much continued, 'training in the courtyard, riding horses in the meadow but no one got too close and he was always wearing his cloak and sack. When, the Black Cloak finally emerged as we know him today everybody had already decided that he was an evil monster. A dog his father had created to do everything even the devil wouldn't do and from there the rumours grew.'

'You see, she was bad from the start.' Elliot cut in as the others sat in shock at Much's story. Olivia tried to kid herself that it was the smoke from the fire that made her eyes water. 'Made her own choices. She's playing us Olivia, attacking us from the inside. Kill her already and do the world a favour.'

'She was made to kill a man at seven, what about that is her own choice.' Amanda quickly yelled back, before Olivia could reply. 'You can't kill her Olivia. If a dog is beaten it's not its fault when it bites back.'

'He didn't hold her hand, tell her where to put the knife. You heard John, it was all her.' Elliot fired back, again before Olivia could respond.

'You haven't been here long Manda,' Finn stated in a quiet voice, 'you don't know everything she's done.'

'You're siding with him now?'

'I didn't say that-'

'You've all lived with the rumours, with the legend. Sure I might not have been here as long but that means I have a fresher view, an unbiased view.'

'I'm not saying kill her,' Finn said louder, over Amanda's interruption, 'I'm saying we can't forget what she's done.'

'None of you know what isolation can do to a person. How it can fuck you up.' Amanda stared at the fire, avoiding Casey's eyes as they'd risen to meet hers.

'You're being very quiet over their John,' Oliva said, 'your story was good to know but what do you actually think?'

Munch sighed heavily and ran a hand through his grey hair. 'I don't know. On the one hand she's the Black Cloak. She's been the Sheriff's dog her whole life, killed people. But on the other, we don't know what kind of life she's had. Yeah Elliot,' he said turning his body towards the large man, 'everybody has choices, all found on the scale of good to bad. It's just that some people only get to choose from the bad side of life. Is that then really a choice?'

They all fell silent as each pondered Munch's words, connecting to them in their own separate ways.

'A vote then. Live or die?' Olivia said addressing everyone. 'Only Alex knows what happened in her life. What the Sheriff did or didn't do. I can't kill her until I find out Elliot. I can't. Everybody deserves a second chance. We're not good enough, innocent enough to judge her and you know it. Find me man with clean hands who says Alex, not the Black Cloak, Alex, deserves to die and I'll swing the sword myself. But until then she lives.'

'Live' Amanda followed.

'Die.'

'Case-'

'Don't Olivia. You don't see the fear on every ones faces, every day, any time she's mentioned. You can escape from her crimes in to the forest. I've lived with them for years, day after day.'

Olivia looked betrayed but her friends face was hard. She wasn't going to change her mind quickly. Elliot and Munch hastily cast their own votes.

'Die. Liv she can't be trusted. For our safety she has to go.'

'Live.'

It was down to Finn. If he voted with Elliot and Casey they would be at a deadlock and the argument would continue till someone changed their vote.

'I'm trusting you.' He started, staring only at Olivia. 'I'm trusting your God forsaken judgement Liv and you'd better not be wrong or we'll all be murdered in our sleep. For now, let the woman live.'

Everyone's shoulder's slumped and though they had reached a decision there were no smiles. Elliot swore to himself that he would stay awake and keep guard over the others while the murderer was allowed to sleep beside them and though not all of the others had voted the same way they were all thinking the same thing. Just because they let Alex live, didn't mean they trusted her.

A/N. I was wondering if people had a preference for how post chapters. I can keep doing what I'm doing and post roughly daily updates but limit them to between 1500-2500 words or I can hold fire on the update and wait a few days but give a longer chapter when I do. I'm not sure what people would prefer, speed or length. If you have a preference then let me know and I can accommodate. If no one's bothered I'll keep posting as I like. :)