Does He Understand Flight, the Pale One?

Chapter Eight

"Is there anything I can do for him?" Luke asked worryingly after almost forty-five minutes of silence once the rest of the outlaws had left, as he continued to sit at his brother's side. "I can't take this quiet any longer. I'm going crazy."

"That is what silence does to someone when they are afraid for the life of another," the Saracen woman responded as she motioned for the boy to carefully lift Will's head so that she could help him drink some more water, the motion waking him once again. "Believe me, I know what it feels like, all too well."

Will began to choke on the water after the third swallow as Djaq immediately apologized and pulled the flask away from her husband's lips, then she helped him to sit up a little higher as she asked softly, "Would you like some more?"

He shook his head slightly until he closed his eyes again when a wave of nausea overcame him and when it passed, he looked between Djaq and Luke, then spoke up weakly saying, "I'm alright. I'm…"

"You will allow me to say whether you are alright or not," his wife answered while she placed a pillow beneath his head so that he wasn't simply laying back against a cold, hard rock, then repositioned the blankets draped over his body as well. "You are most definitely getting better, but you are far from being alright."

"I can't disagree… agree with you," the older Scarlett brother replied as he looked into her eyes. "How did you… find… How did you get us… both home… alone?"

She quickly looked at Luke again, then back down at Will and responded, "With Allah's help I suppose. The point is we made it, the both of us. I feared what I might find when I finally found those soldiers' camp, but I never gave up the hope that I would find you. Do you remember anything, I mean with what happened on the night you were captured, or for as long as they held you prisoner?"

He closed his eyes to avoid looking at the woman he loved as well as at his brother and answered sadly, "What I remember… comes and goes. I see faces, but not… not too clearly. And I can re… remember their torture, most of it."

"Why did they do it?" Luke asked angrily. "Why would Saracens burn one of their own people's homes to the ground and take you prisoner, torture you for days, then just abandon their camp where they left you to die?"

"It is what many… of the English… would do if the situation… were reversed," Will replied in frustration. "We are both at war…"

Djaq gently laid one of her hands down across his chest to help keep him still as he began to cough and writhe from his agony, and the other on the back of his neck beneath his chin, then once he was settled, she worryingly finished for him, "He is saying that the Saracens were angry when they learned that we were not only protecting him, an Englishman, as I told the others, but angry too that we married. They saw it as a betrayal, so they punished my friend, Bassam, by burning down his home and took my husband on the night of our wedding to punish Will and me."

Will reached out for his brother's hand and grasped it tightly as he said, "Why… they left me to die… I don't know. Something… urgent came… up. I do not blame all Sar… Saracens, Luke. There is ev… evil in all races, especially… our own. Those men were evil, but I'm… still alive."

"Yes, but perhaps not for much longer," the man who had been watching them since before the rest of the outlaws had left stated as he stood before them, staring coldly at both Djaq and Luke while blocking their only path of escape. "That depends if your wife and brother cooperate."

"You!" Luke cried out in surprise as he and Djaq quickly stood in front of Will to protect him from the man Luke recognized as the man he had spoken to briefly in the forest before returning to the camp. "How did you…? What do you want?"

The stranger smiled smugly and responded, "I want to bring Robin Hood and his band of thieves to justice. Your brother and this Saracen is clearly two of them, but I don't believe you are too, son."

Luke glared at the man as he answered in anger, "I am not your son. And I won't let you take my brother."

"Luke!" Will called out as he struggled to sit up until Djaq quickly knelt down beside him to try to stop him. "Don't hurt…!"

"How dare you come here now to, arrest us I presume?" Djaq said coolly, looking up at the man with heat and fear in her eyes. "I don't care how you found us. My husband cannot be moved, he is too ill."

The stranger shrugged as he reached into his cloak and pulled out a sword from his scabbard, then replied, "I'm afraid that I didn't come to arrest you, but I am going to bring the three of you with me to someplace where we can wait for the rest of your friends to come find you. I suggest that you focus on helping him, rather than try to resist."

The younger Scarlett shouted, "Did you not hear what she said? He can't be moved, he could die!"

"I'll come," Will responded weakly as he continued to fight against his wife's protests until she gave up and carefully helped him to stand, with help from Luke, who rushed to his other side.

"We won't… won't fight you, but if you harm them…" Will threatened until he cut himself off.

He smiled again and then motioned for them to move out in front of them to leave the shelter as he answered smugly, "No harm will come to either of you so long as you don't resist me, at least until Hood comes for you."

As they were about to walk out, Djaq pulled a small knife from her hip and swiftly thrust it into the pillow Will had laid his head on before, then glared back at the stranger coldly as she replied, "There needs to be some sign of foul play, don't you agree? At the very least, you wouldn't want me carrying it to risk using it later to stab you through your heart; if you even have one."