Scarlet

“Scarlet!”

I slipped a bit as I swung to the voice, seeing John thunder through the swinging swords with nothing but his fists. “John!”

“Get the hell out of here, Scarlet!” He met Gisbourne and smiled. “I’ve got this under control.”

I watched John strike a blow that knocked Gisbourne’s sword away, and I shook my head. My husband were a fool. John would trounce him in a moment’s time. Relieved and hurting both, I took my time climbing toward the rafters.

“Honor, obey?” Gisbourne shouted, grappling with John. “This is what you call being a good wife?”

I stopped. “I never said I’d be a good wife, Guy. Just that I’d marry you.”

“Guards!” he roared. “Guards! Someone will burn alive for this, Marian!”

But the guards were all fair busy at that point, and no one paid him a bit of mind. I kept climbing.

“You traitorous bitch!” he yelled. “You goddamn liar!”

I laughed. “You knew I were a bitch and a liar when you married me, Guy. It’s your own damn fault for agreeing to it.”

I made it to the rafters with muscles burning, and I clung to the wood for a long moment, trying to breathe, trying to force down the beating pain in my shoulder, my cheek, my whole body. I searched for John as I hung there, and it took me precious seconds to find him.

I saw John’s head pressed tight against Gisbourne’s, the two of them twisting as one, whipping each other round. John got an inch of space and fired a ham-fisted punch to Gisbourne’s cruel mug.

Gisbourne sprawled out at John’s feet. John dropped to his knee to grab Gisbourne’s sword and rose with flashing steel in his hand, ready to make me a widow.

But he didn’t. John’s face jerked up, and when he saw me on the crossbeam he just froze.

Panic rushed through me. “JOHN! DO SOMETHING!” I shrieked, but he couldn’t hear me.

The sheriff broke from the crowd behind John and came at him, his sword raised and an awful snarl on his face, like a wolf in a fight.

I screamed to the high heavens and pointed, but John still couldn’t hear me. He saw me point, and his face folded like he were fair confused as the sheriff made it a step closer to him.

My feet ran on the rafter before I knew what I were ’bout, but there were no way I’d get to him. This weren’t a battle I had a place in, and I were set to watch my friend die for it.

The sheriff’s foot struck the ground, coming to my eyes unnatural slow, like it were staged so that I could see every move, every turn. His sword came down at John’s neck as John just bare started to turn. I screamed again, and screamed and screamed.

The blade never cut. The steel flashed and flew in the air as the sheriff were swept sideways. Men poured over him like a tide, and I could see James Mason in the fore, pinning the sheriff down. Someone dragged the sheriff’s chin back, and Mason didn’t hold but for a moment before he made the sheriff’s neck bloom like red roses, drawing the same line over his throat that been done drawn over Ravenna’s. The blood poured down over the side of his neck and dripped down, and from the rafters it all looked like one big puddle, Ravenna’s blood and the sheriff’s mixing together, married in gruesome truth as they died side by side.

James Mason had avenged his daughter, even if it were his awful fixings that got her into the marriage to start. It weren’t as if our problems were over, but on this day the villagers, and not just Rob and my mates, stood up and fought back the flood.

Even if the wave of evil and pain and injustice would break over us again, just this once it were pressed back. And that were more a start than anything we’d done.

Gisbourne got on his feet again, and John fought back against him, moving like lightning so none could interfere. They circled and fought, and I hung on the rafter. Part of me thought I should be fighting ’longside John, but part of me thought damned little of that plan, and so I hung there, not moving.

I heard a sound like thunder outside, and breath snaked away from me as the rafters shook; one broke off, snapping from the side and falling to the ground. The whole structure began to wobble and I moved like I were sparked. The roof were made of thick layers of thatch, and I clung to a beam and kicked my way through it, running along the edge of the roof to the castle wall. My whole body hurt and ached and burned, but I weren’t stopping till I saw Robin again.

Making it to the outer wall of the castle, I scrambled up, huffing hard with breath. I slid off the wall and ran into the forest, my heart pounding louder than I’d ever heard. I didn’t know which way they’d take to the cave, and it were a long time before I heard footsteps crunching over leaves. I ran faster, feeling tears streak out of my eyes and my heartbeat break into a fluttering.

I saw the shapes ahead, small and slight for Much, tall and thin for Godfrey, and the last shape, the one that meant everything, leaning a little on Godfrey.

“Robin!” I shrieked.

He turned, standing away from Godfrey as I came at him, slamming into him and tumbling him to the ground. I gripped him tight, sobbing into his chest. I felt hot blood from his back on my hands, but I let it wash my skin, pulling his weight on top of me so his back weren’t in the dirt. I didn’t care none, even knowing how much we both were hurting.

I heard a ragged sound, and I felt water on my neck. “Tell me you didn’t marry him, Scar,” he whispered.

“I had to,” I mewled. “I gave him my word.”

“But you’re here.”

I nodded. “And married or not, I ain’t never leaving you, Rob.”

His nose rubbed at my neck, then along my right cheek. “You’re married, Scar.”

New tears squeezed out my eyes. “I know.”

“To him.”

I nodded, hiccuping.

He rested his face against mine, blood and all. “Let me heal up a bit, and we’ll see if we can make his part of ‘so long as ye both shall live’ a little shorter.”

I gave a short, watery laugh, and I sat up, dragging him with me. I pressed my hand over his heart, and he covered mine.

“Those eyes,” he murmured, stroking hair back from my face, careful to avoid the new slice on my cheek.

“Come on, Robin Hood. I’ll heal you up fast as I can,” I told him, taking his hands and pulling us both to our feet.

“As soon as we stitch you up, Scar,” Much reminded.

Robin leaned heavy on me, and I looked to Much and Godfrey. I’d forgotten ’bout them. They just stared at us, and I felt my cheeks go red. Under the blood, leastways.