Post of the Month

~ June 2009 ~

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Merries ~ Written by all writers.  Posted on the HoS Yahoo group September 2007.

Wisps of smoke curled skywards from the embers of the campfire.

The night air was thick with the humidity. The hour was late, long past sunset, and with only the stars and the half moon shining was barely enough to provide a modicum of visibility while the shadows of rocks and brush loomed against the moonlight in thick swathes that threatened to blacken it into nothingness.

Where he sat by the fire, Tuck looked around at the solemn assembled company.

They were all here apart from Naz. The Saracen had not yet returned. Tuck wondered what was keeping him. Scarlet had taken him aside upon returning to camp and told him in a low tone that he had sent Nasir off to scour the area surrounding the place where they were sure Robert had been cornered, overpowered - perhaps killed, perhaps taken. To look for any signs of a body, Will had added low to Tuck.

No news is good news, Tuck tried to tell himself now. Where he sat on the ground with his back against the log seat, he watched the cook pot where it rested on the fire's embers. Keeping warm for Nasir when the man returned. Though it was still half full. No-one had had much of an appetite this evening.

Someone had needed to stay at camp, to keep a watch, in case Robert turned up or someone came with news of him. Tuck, feeling he might slow the others down in their search, had volunteered, and had seen them off that morning with a slow burning deep apprehension in his heart. The slow-gathering sense that things were not right. He had almost felt the whole forest tell him that, through many unspoken ways.

After having seen the others off, he had prepared himself for perhaps a long lonely day of solitude. Of waiting. However, he had not wanted neither idle hands or an idle mind to dwell. It was best to keep busy. He had gathered more wood, stocking it up in the cave, fetched water from the nearby spring, scoured out the cookpot. Set a meal on the go that could simmer on the fire's embers and be ready to eat from noon to dusk, whenever the others returned. Mended a rent in his robe and fletched some arrows.

And he had prayed. Using the log seat as a makeshift altar, he had fallen on his knees before it once all his tasks were done, and had prayed. Prayed for Robert's safety and his safe return. He had rarely prayed so hard before. Only for Loxley, so that his soul could ascend to Heaven - and for Timothy, when he had gone missing from Thornton at age fifteen, run away, and they had not been able to find him.

He had prayed for Timothy for a long time after his disappearance....

Where he sat across the fireside from Tuck, Will studied the friar thoughtfully, and then looked round the sea of solemn faces that were ringed round the fire. Much prodded the fire up with a long branch and it exploded in sparks. No-one spoke.

He glanced down at Rhiannon. She sat close against him, as though for comfort and strength, a sleeping Ellie in her arms. He had his arm lain carelessly across her shoulders and every so often idly stroked her hair in helpless-feeling comfort. This was all he could do. He didn't have fancy words he could give her. And he couldn't tell her everything would be all right, because he didn't know it would be.

She at least, was not falling to pieces, he thought. Not like Marian had done sometimes when Loxley had been caught or wounded or been missing. Like when he'd been enchanted and seduced by that witch Lilleth. No, Rhiannon was made of stronger stuff. He was grateful for it; he didn't know how to handle women's emotions. He would rather deal with a soldier....

Ellie stirred in Rhiannon's arms, and she shushed her; the child sagged against her once more, a dead weight. Rhiannon looked down at the sleeping face that was so much like Robert's and felt a further pang of pain, of fear and dread.

_Where IS he...._

She had asked Will where Nasir had gone. When Will had just answered casually with the reply that he'd sent Nasir to do a bit more scouting around, she had just nodded and had not questioned further. She had known that Nasir was probably looking for a body or a fresh grave, near the area where Robert had obviously been overpowered.

They had trailed back to camp, had had to face Tuck's fear and dismay when they had told him what they had found; she had automatically seen to Ellie's needs; fed her, bathed her, garbed her in fresh clothes. When the others had bid her eat, she had eaten, for she did not want to be the cause of more worry to them, and besides, she needed to keep strong in order to take care of Ellie.

The thought kept creeping into her head, a horrible, insiduous thought that Ellie may be all she had left of Robert and she would have to face that thought sooner or later, but she didn't want to deal with facing that thought just now. Not at the fireside.

Where he sat on the sheepskin beside Tuck, leaning his back against the log, John gingerly rubbed his leg wound. They had walked miles, and his mending leg had felt it. It was stiff now, but he didn't care. Ale could numb that sort of discomfort, and he reached for the aleskin sitting beside him and Alan. He looked at the minstrel. Alan was pensive, sitting staring into the fire, one knee drawn up, his arms hugging it.

The minstrel felt things deeply, John knew, and was close to Robert. They were all close to Robert in their own ways - but there was an extra bond between the softly spoken Alan and Robert, stemming from the events of more than a year ago, when Alan had found them in Sherwood and rejoined them. Alan had been the first of them to accept Robert's blindness, to accept and believe what Robert had told them about it - and Robert had never forgotton it. John had envied Alan's ready acceptance and belief. He himself had struggled for quite a while.

John downed a few gulps of ale. The fire spat and crackled; Tuck leant and stirred the contents of the simmering cookpot; Much yawned; an owl hooted from somewhere nearby.

And still no-one spoke.

Nasir moved silently through the trees, circling back towards the camp. After he had left Will's side he had returned to the Lincoln Road, determined to complete a thorough search. He would not let Rhiannon down now, nor the others. Ignoring the danger, he had followed the road in both directions for a mile, hoping to pick up a trail from the cart further along. Finding nothing, he had returned to the safety of the trees and picked up the tracks once more.

He had explored the myriad small streams and gullies that dotted the area, growing more frustrated as the hours had passed. With the frustration also came a sense of relief that he had found nothing. He did not relish returning to the camp with bad news.

After an exhaustive search of the surrounding area, Nasir had found himself once again by the thorn bushes. He knelt down and touched the ground, gently running a finger over the grass, trying to connect, to SEE what might have happened. Until now he had not had time to stop and think, to wonder what the others might be feeling. How much worse would it be at the camp, sitting and waiting for news? At least here he was able to do something, to act.

He stared into the trees. If Robert's attackers knew the forest, they would know where to hide a body. This didn't look like a well thought out operation though; the grass was littered with hasty footprints and scuffmarks, not the signs of a well planned attack. There was panic here, as if they hadn't expected Robert to fight back. Nasir had suppressed a grin at the thought, no doubt Robert's attackers had got much more than they had bargained for. He stood up, stretching, easing his muscles. It was time to finish searching the area and begin moving towards camp.

By the time he was close, it was full dark. He stopped, listening, making sure he was not being followed. Then he moved on, towards the dim glow of light that signaled a fire. As he moved from the tree line he was confronted by a collection of half hopeful, half worried looks from the faces around the campfire. He knelt in between Alan and Will, the silence stretching uncomfortably.

"Nothing," he said finally. He left the rest of the sentence hanging there, unspoken, not wishing to cause Rhiannon any further distress, although she must have known what he'd been looking for.

From where she was on the other side of Will, Rhiannon relaxed visibly at the single word, and turned an anxious face round towards the Saracen.

"Nuthin'?" Will echoed, and saw Much across the fireside visibly relax too.

Nasir met Will's gaze and held it. "I checked further along the Lincoln Road and then deep into the woods, but there are no other signs of Robert."

"Well, then," Will said quietly and looked grimly round at the others.

John shook his head to himself in thought.

"Here, Naz." Tuck leaned forwards and using a piece of rag, lifted the dented iron cook pot off the embers of the fire. "Come and eat. Kept it warm for you."

"Thank you." Nasir took some of what was offered, which on closer inspection turned out to be rabbit stew. He didn't realize how hungry he was until he started eating.

Watching the Saracen as he ate, Tuck met John's gaze across the leaping flames and rising smoke from the small fire. They were in limbo, Tuck realised. Still in limbo.

John chose his next words carefully and spoke them with slow intent out to the fireside company. "If Robert was dead - Herne would come and tell us."

"Did he come an' find us when Loxley died," Will snarled low from where he sat. "Both times. Both times he let events play out, an' didn't come and tell us."

Rhiannon sought to stem the fear rising up inside her again like a cold, nasty little hand trying to grasp hold of her heart and squeeze it. "Perhaps sometimes events can't be changed, for the good of everything, and he knows that."

_Thy will be done_ thought Tuck from where he sat, but did not say it aloud.

"Maybe it was Gisbourne," Much offered. "Didn't have to be soldiers of his that got Robert. Could've been men that knew the forest, and he paid 'em to do it." He looked at Nasir. "You said that one at least looked like he knew how to move through the forest."

"Yes, one of them knew what they were doing," replied Nasir. "It would have been a simple matter for that person to show the others how to move carefully through the forest as well to avoid detection."

"Foresters," John said soberly. "They wouldn't have looked out of place either, if anyone had seen them by the villages or along the Lincoln Road."

"An' what about those bastards from Lincoln," Will said grimly and looked round at the others. "They said they were comin' in to get us. Well maybe they've arrived. Maybe they just saw Robert an' got lucky. Lucky for them. Unlucky for us." He scowled into the fire.

"Someone somewhere SURELY must have seen something," Rhiannon said. "Strangers....a strange cart....strange behaviour. I mean, someone, whether it be a forester employed by Gisbourne or one of the Lincoln outlaws could have been watching Maybury yestermorn or even overnight, bad as that storm was... Waiting their chance."

"If someone had wanted Robert bad enough, they would have been prepared to wait through even the fiercest of storms," Alan added.

"Aye," John agreed soberly, rubbing his wounded thigh - it was healing but still ached. "And Robert wouldn't have known anyone be watching from a distance."

"But a Maybury villager would have," Rhiannon pointed out.

"You suggestin' I go an' ask Geoffrey again?" Will said.

"Well, a day has passed," said Rhiannon, "they may have news they did not have a day ago. And they don't know where to find us, do they." She levelled her gaze at Will. "We can't sit here safe in camp - we need to be out in the forest, searching some more, asking questions - just BEING out in the forest so if anyone from a village has got any news and is wandering around Sherwood trying to find us, they CAN find us."

"We can't do anything at night, Rhiannon!" Will said irritably.

"We can prepare for the day ahead," Tuck interjected calmly. "A long day, perhaps. We can plan. Use the night for that."

"We've got to find out SOMEthing!" Much burst out desperately. "Whether he's dead or alive - we've got to find out that, haven't we? Haven't we?" He looked from one to another; the sea of pale solemn faces ringed around the campfire.

"Aye," said John, "let's find out as far as is possible whether he could be dead or alive. If we need to comb Sherwood in order to find out that, then by God, let's do it."

"Naz," said Will, "how far an area did you sweep when you searched? From the place where Robert seems to have been cornered, I mean. The last place we know for SURE where he was, judging by his hair that was caught on the thornbushes."

"I searched for at least a couple of miles in either direction, checking the streams and gullies." He paused for a moment, thinking things through, his eyes meeting Rhiannon's and holding them for a few seconds before he answered Will. "If someone was going to get rid of a body it would be far easier to put it in the water and let it wash downstream than try to dig a grave. Less chance of being seen. I think we should search them first."

He pulled a dagger from his boot and leaned forward, roughly sketching the surrounding area in the ground near the fire. "I finished searching here," he pointed to the area where the thorn bushes were. "We should continue searching further down along here, where the stream pools briefly before picking up speed again." He pointed to another line in the dirt, representing a smaller stream. "This one runs downhill, and any debris picked up would find its way further along, perhaps around the deeper gullies. Darkwater," he tapped his dagger on another line, "is fast moving and deep, so we should also look along the banks here." He looked up at the faces, intent on the map he'd drawn into the ground.

"Darkwater runs all the way to past the village of Benfield," Alan pointed out. "That's a long course to follow. Perhaps one of us should take the area of where it runs close to where Robert was cornered, and another of us search its course near Benfield where it widens."

"I will go into Benfield tomorrow and ask there," Nasir said. "One of the villagers may have seen something out of place."

"The rest of us will search them streams," Will said grimly. He looked around at the solemn faces that ringed the camp fire. "Is it agreed?"

"Agreed," said John, whilst the rest of them nodded, and Rhiannon held the sleeping Ellie close to her and stared into the leaping flames as though they might hold the answer if she looked hard enough.