Chapter 26

"Allan, do you actually have anything?" Guy asked him quietly as he brought him to the room where he'd be kept prisoner.

"Maybe." Allan shrugged. "I mean, I did know those things, but things like drop offs changed all the time and I don't know if they still go there on the same days and times that they used to."

"If he has to keep guards posted, hidden so they aren't seen, waiting for a week or more in the same place just to see if it might still be a drop point…" Guy shook his head. "He will assume you are just wasting his time to stay alive." Allan knew he was right and decided that trying to convince Guy to help him escape again would probably be his best chance.

"Guy, what about Djaq? Robin could be hurting her."

"If I let you out now, I'm dead." Guy explained.

"Yes, but…" Guy interrupted Allan before he could finish.

"If I let you out…" He said as he raised his eyebrow at Allan and gave him a knowing look. "There will be two guards posted at your door. I think that should be enough, don't you?" Allan was in shock. Is he telling me to run?

"I will be discussing some important plans with the sheriff tonight over supper." Guy added the seemingly off topic comment, and then Allan read between the lines and realized what was actually being said. Run while I have an alibi.

"Won't he blame you? You pleaded for my life." Allan whispered, wondering when he actually came to care about what happened to Guy. He knew he did though. He didn't know if he could run if it meant Guy would be punished in his place.

"If Robin Hood came in to finish what he started yesterday? I don't see how I could be blamed for that." Guy whispered back. It has to look like I was kidnapped. A struggle. Knock over some furniture. Blood. An arrow left behind.

"This is all I'm willing to do." Guy muttered under his breath. "If you get caught again, I won't risk my position to look the other way or plead for your life. There's a horse saddled and ready in the stable."

"Thank you." Allan said, full of gratitude and in awe of Guy's offer. "Thank you, Guy. I won't let you down."

"Good luck." Guy muttered before exiting the room without looking back at the man he'd come to consider a friend.

"Guy!" Marian's voice echoed through the corridor as soon as he emerged from the room. "What's going on here?"

"These guards are watching over Allan." Guy explained as he took Marian by the arm and led her away from the room.

"You convinced the sheriff to spare him?" Marian asked hopefully.

"For now." Guy said. "Marian, I need you to promise me you will stay away from this room."

"Well, I would like to see him." Marian said with uncertainty. "I was concerned for him while he was in the dungeon."

"You may go in to see him now, assure yourself that he is fine, and then go directly back to your room for the rest of the night."

"Why?" Marian narrowed her eyes.

"Just do it, Marian. Please. Don't ask questions. The less you know, the better."

"Alright." She agreed, still confused but assuming that there must be some kind of a plan.

"Thank you, Marian. I am going to spend the evening with the sheriff. I will come to see you in the morning." Guy explained to the guards quickly that she should be allowed to see Allan for a few minutes and then headed to the Great Hall, hoping that everything would go according to plan.

Marian entered the room and saw Allan looking around frantically. She asked him what he was doing and he quickly filled her in on the plan. For a moment, she was overwhelmed with surprise and gratitude that Guy, of all people, was the one who came up with the idea. She had always hoped that this side of him wasn't just her wishful thinking and personal delusions. She had always believed that somewhere underneath the rough exterior was a man with a good heart who was just lost because of the sheriff's influence over him and in moments like this, she knew she was right. There was a good man in there and now they were depending on him for Allan's survival. She knew that however this escape plan was executed, she would have to ensure that Guy would not bear the brunt of the blame over it. He would never approve of it if he knew, but the best way to make it look like Robin was responsible would be to actually use Robin.

"I have a plan," Marian told Allan as he finished his explanation.

"Yeah, what's that?"

"If we want to make it look like Robin did this, then…"

"If Robin actually comes in, the guards will see him and Guy will wonder what happened."

"Then Robin won't come in, but his arrows will." Marian replied.

"Won't he wonder how I got them?"

"Would he really be that suspicious that you, a former member of Robin's gang, knew how to make copycat arrows? Or perhaps still had some?"

"Wouldn't that occur to the sheriff too though?"

"I doubt it." Marian replied.

"Now what about the guards? If I go out and knock them out, they'll know it was me. They'll know I ran."

"Not if you sneak up on them from behind." Marian supplied with a smirk as she formulated her plan.

"Not bein' funny, but how am I supposed to do that? They're stationed just outside the door."

"They will be...distracted."

"By?"

"They will see the Nightwatchman sneaking through the castle and that will take priority over you."

"And when Guy wonders why the Nightwatchman came to help me?" Allan asked. "Even if my job here is over, I don't want him to think I was betrayin' him the whole time. That he helped me for nothing."

"He won't. I have a spare cloak. We'll abandon it near the stable. He'll see it and will assume you were the one dressed as the Nightwatchman to make your escape. That you used some sort of trick on the guards."

"And if the sheriff finds it before he does?"

"I will make sure that doesn't happen." Marian replied. "I'll get the arrows from Robin while you make it look like there was a struggle in this room. When I get back, I'll use the distraction on the guards. Listen for my signal and when you know the guards are focused on me, you come out and hit them from behind. We'll shoot the arrows into the room after the guards are unconscious. You take the cloak to the stables, leave it there and take the horse. The gang will cover your escape to the forest."

Allan went silent for a moment, considering the plan. He had to give it to her, Marian was a quick thinker and thought of everything, except one detail. He sighed in self-despair as he prepared to bring it up.

"Are you sure they're even going to want to help?" He asked in a small voice.

"I am." Marian assured him. "Allan, they're here for you. They're outside the castle right now. Djaq made sure they would come back for you. Neither of us were ever going to leave you behind." She looked down for a moment, a bit embarrassed. "If it were not for my spying, neither of you would have been in this situation. I couldn't just let you hang."

"Nah," Allan started, "it's my own fault. I just...I can't believe you all actually thought that Djaq would…"

"It was foolish of me, of all of us." Marian began. "But I knew how you felt about her and I had reason to believe she may have returned those feelings. But Guy and the guards? Betraying Robin for money?" She shook her head. "I was a fool."

"Yeah, well...guess we all were." Allan sighed.

"I should go." Marian told him. "You know what to do. I'll be back soon, so listen for me."

Marian quickly made her way back outside to get the arrows from Robin and inform the gang of the plan. Meanwhile, Allan went to work in the room, carefully and quietly turning furniture on it's side, leaving things strewn about the room, and moving things ever so slightly out of place while he imagined what the fictitious struggle would look like in his mind.

Next came the hard part: he would have to leave some blood. He tried to break a glass as quietly as he could, leaving the shattered pieces scattered about, and picked up one sharp piece. He pressed his lips firmly together to keep from yelping in pain and closed his eyes tightly as he pressed the sharp edge of the glass into his arm. As soon as he removed the glass, he immediately felt overwhelmed with a stinging, burning pain as the blood swelled to the surface of his skin. He peeked at the wound and saw the dark, red liquid oozing out of his arm and felt a wave of dizziness and nausea wash over him.

Fighting back the urge to lie down, he started spreading the blood around as much as he could. When he was satisfied that there were enough signs of a fight that it looked like he had lost, he ripped a piece of cloth from the bedding, torn in such a way that it would look like he had grabbed onto it as he fell backward into the bed, and wrapped it tightly around the fresh wound to stop the bleeding. It would not do to leave a trail of blood drops to the stable. Finally finished with the unhappy task, he lied down on the now purposely unmade bed to ease his dizziness and listened for Marian's return.