Shadows of Sherwood (39 page)

And then she, too, fell asleep almost immediately, thinking of twisting rhymes, of suns and moons, of the mysteries of the universe, and the mysteries of herself.

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

Vengeance

Deep into the night, Sheriff Mallet sat at her desk, scrolling through Wanted posters.

In the dark, slow, single-digit hours, she made a decision.

She clicked into the corner of her screen that sent messages to her senior MPs. She typed the instructions deliberately.

Moments later, her second in command appeared on the video screen. He wore rumpled sleep clothes and had clearly stumbled out of bed to answer her summons.

“All of them?” he grumbled, then cleared his throat. “Really?”

“Yes. And bring the bitterstalk boy,” Mallet said. “The one that goes by the name Key.” She did not know who he really was yet. His Tag had been surgically removed.

The senior MP was clearly uncomfortable. He blinked and rubbed his eyes. He pulled his lip and sighed. Mallet waited.

“Meaning no disrespect, Sheriff,” he said. “But are you sure you want to do this?”

Mallet smiled slightly. His protests didn't matter. He would do her bidding. They all would. They understood what would happen if they refused.

“It is as I ordered.” Mallet confirmed. “And I will be there to observe. We move in at first light.”

 

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

The Sun Pendant

“Robyn. Robyn?” Merryan burst into Nottingham Cathedral, shouting. Robyn rolled off her sleep pallet. The sun was barely up. It was too early in the morning.

“Robyn! Are you here?” Merryan's voice trembled with urgency. Something was wrong.

Robyn raced downstairs. Merryan stood in the center of the sanctuary, looking this way and that. Her round cheeks were a high red.

“Oh, Robyn. Good.” Merryan hurried to meet her.

“What are you doing here?” Robyn asked. “What happened?”

“Anyone can decide to be different from their family,” Merryan said, breathing like she had run here all the way from Castle District. She held out a small brown sack, wrapped tight with a rubber band. “This is for you.”

Robyn accepted the package reluctantly. Merryan Crown said she wanted to help, but what did she really understand
of the situation? Probably about as much as Robyn had known before the Night of Shadows.

When Robyn opened the pouch, she gasped. It was a gold-chained necklace with a pendant of white stone. Mom's sun pendant!

“How did you get this?” Robyn demanded.

“Last night . . . I didn't believe you . . . about Centurion Gate . . .” Merryan said, all rushed and breathless.

“Merryan, where did it come from? You have to tell me.”

“You recognize it, don't you?” Merryan said.

“My mother never takes this pendant from around her neck,” Robyn said. “I never saw her without it.” Her breathing came fast and shallow.
Please, no.

“Yes, she wears it,” Merryan said. “She asked me to give it to you. Centurion Gate . . . it's the dungeon in the governor's mansion.”

“My mother is a prisoner in Crown's castle?”

Merryan's eyes blurred liquid. “It seems so,” she said. “I'm sorry—I didn't believe you. I didn't know.”

Robyn felt weak in the knees.
Mom.
She held the necklace in her palm. It began to warm.

Robyn's eyes stung with tears. She blinked hard, refusing to let them fall. She was not a crying kind of girl. She hated to cry.

Robyn's heart cried out what her lips could not.
Mom . . . alive!

The plywood clattered, and Tucker stormed into the cathedral, looking just as breathless as Merryan had
moments before. “Big trouble in T.C.” he reported. “The MPs are down there tearing the whole place apart. They're looking for anyone with stingbug meds and threatening to arrest everyone else, until Robyn turns herself in.”

 

CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT

Hologram Help

Robyn and Merryan raced out of the cathedral, following Tucker toward T.C. When they reached the edge of the fairground, the scene before them was total chaos. MPs stormed through the cardboard shelters, driving people out into the clearing where the medical tents had stood just a few days ago. They systematically tore apart the tent city, leaving no hut uninvaded.

The lot was surrounded. As the search ousted people from their sleeping spaces, they tried to run, but rings of MPs caught and corralled them in a large crowd. A row of dark canvas-walled trucks stood waiting.

Sheriff Mallet herself stood in the bed of a pickup truck, shouting over the crowd. “You would do well to surrender, Robyn,” she called out. “Or more of your friends will pay the price.”

Robyn, Merryan, and Tucker crouch-ran up to the high stone pillars that bridged the road into the fairgrounds. As they approached, Robyn spotted a familiar black-and-red
haired figure already hiding behind the low stone wall that ringed the edge of the fairground.

At the sound of their footsteps, Scarlet glanced over her shoulder, alarmed. When she recognized Robyn, she went back to observing the MPs' raid. Robyn, Tucker, and Merryan knelt alongside Scarlet.

“They've discovered the missing medicine,” Scarlet said immediately. “And figured out where we took it.”

“Wasn't that big a mystery,” Tucker grumbled. “We should've been more careful.”

Shame sliced through Robyn. She had only been trying to help. Not just help Laurel, but all of T.C. Instead her actions had once again only brought more hardship.

News of the market truck heist had spread far and wide among Sherwood residents. The numerous Wanted posters and the MPs' obvious wrath against the mysterious bandit “Robyn” had fueled speculation in the community. The sudden appearance of much-needed medicine only added to the growing legend.

“I'm so stupid,” she muttered. “How could I let this happen?”

Merryan laid a hand on Robyn's shoulder. “You were trying to help,” she said. “People appreciate that.”

How could they appreciate it, given what was happening right now? Every few minutes, Mallet's MPs loaded another small cluster of people onto one of the trucks.

“She's bluffing. She can't arrest everyone,” Scarlet said. “There aren't enough trucks for that.”

“They could come back,” Robyn said, as one truck, now
crammed with prisoners, drove off through the gates. The four friends ducked low and pressed their backs against the pillar, hoping to remain unnoticed. The large vehicle steamed past without slowing.

“You see, people of Sherwood?” Mallet screamed. “The Robyn you look to doesn't care about your needs. She will stand in the shadows and let you take the fall for her mischief.” She paced along the tailgate. “Ask yourselves: What kind of hero is that?”

A low hiss rose up from the crowd. A familiar sound of protest Robyn remembered. Was it protest against the MPs? Or against her?

“Silence!” Mallet motioned for more people to be placed into the trucks.

“We have to do something,” Robyn said. Low in her gut, she felt the certainty that Mallet would indeed arrest all of T.C. to prove her point. Even if it took all day. Even if it required filling every truck in her fleet.

“We need to make them think you're here, and surrendering,” Scarlet suggested.

“A decoy?” Tucker suggested.

“Yeah, but none of us look enough like Robyn,” Merryan said. Tucker was too tall. Scarlet, too short. Merryan, too round. “We need someone her same size.”

“Like a hologram,” Robyn said glumly as the MPs rounded another small cluster into custody.

“Yeah, exactly,” Scarlet said. She quipped, “You have one of those handy?”

“I do.” Robyn handed Scarlet the device. “But it won't start.” What did she have to lose by sharing it now? It was broken.

“Wow, it's triple coded,” Scarlet said, turning the sphere over. “That'll take forever to crack. Who does it belong to?”

“It's mine,” Robyn said.

Scarlet looked puzzled. “Then why won't it start?”