The Greenwood Shadow (6 page)

CHAPTER SEVEN

The tax cart drew near. It wasn't laden with piles of silver, like most of the others. Evey could tell that by the shape of the canvas. But even this cart would be a risky job.

The stories had grown more fanciful every day. Ever since that night at the inn, the tale of the mysterious 'Robin Hood' had spread like wildfire. For a month, she'd been as careful as she could, but the time had only served to turn Robin from a great story to a legend. The entire country talked about the man who robbed from the rich to give to the poor.

Because of the legends, things had gotten more dangerous. That hardly mattered, though. She needed that silver. The tax season had been rough across the whole region. Evey had hit five different carts within days of each other, and it still wasn't enough.

She couldn't let a few extra guards keep her from her duty.

She gauged the distance, the slight breeze, the speed of the cart, and let an arrow fly. As a testament to her skill, it cleanly severed some of the harness straps without even touching the horse. Obviously one shot would never allow a horse to gallop off, whatever Bill claimed. But her arrow cut through an important line, making the whole thing unstable. The driver had no choice but to slow down.

He stood and gripped a sword tightly in his right hand. Clearly, he expected the seven foot outlaw to materialize from the trees, but Evey kept to the shadows. As usual, the driver would never know she'd been there.

Just as she reached the back of the cart, she paused. Why were there were no soldiers? Even before the stories, there had usually been two or three, no matter what the cargo was.

Something was definitely wrong. Her brain told her that she needed the silver. Too many families depended on her. But her instincts told her to leave, and her instincts were very rarely wrong. She chose to follow her gut, and backed off, leaving no sign that she'd ever been there.

After the cart pulled away, she dashed to the other side of the road to retrieve her arrow. She didn't understand what had just happened. Everything looked so normal, and she hadn't even been seen, let alone caught.

Maybe the driver did have thirty men around the corner this time. But even if he did, why would that make a difference? She'd still be long gone before anyone sounded an alarm. Once in the trees, she was untraceable.

So what was the problem? Was she getting soft? Was she losing her touch? It had to be all the stories. She was jumping at shadows. Which was dumb. She was the shadow. She was the one in charge.

In a fit of stubborn rashness, she dashed through the woods to catch up with the cart, and hid in a small patch of pine saplings, all growing close together.

She could send a few arrows toward the driver, just to scare him a little. That would also be dumb, though. He probably thought she was already gone. There was no reason to show him otherwise. It served no tactical advantage.

She waited as patiently as she could while the cart advanced. Just before it passed her, the driver stopped altogether. She froze. Had he seen her?

No. He couldn't have. She was perfectly hidden and still. If she ran, she'd give herself away for sure.

The driver glanced around suspiciously, and jumped down from the cart with an extra length of rope. He went to the horse, presumably to repair the severed harness strap. Evey saw the ploy for what it was. The driver had gotten tired of waiting for his attackers to show themselves. With the cart in such a vulnerable position, it would seem foolish to pass up such an opportunity.

The man moved very slowly, drawing out the time for an attack. He was clearly more on guard than he let on, and Evey had no choice but to wait. The time to act would be just after he really gave up.

Sudden movement drew her attention. A figure in gray and brown leapt down from a shallow ridge on the other side of the road. Evey cringed at the noise. The driver would have to be a complete fool to miss it.

He wasn't. He immediately dropped his rope and took up the sword again, but didn't turn around.

The hooded stranger approached the cart and reached under the cover, just as Evey would have done. An explosion of canvas and limbs told her exactly why the driver hadn't given immediate chase. At the sight of the thief's hand, three men leapt up, casting the canvas to the road behind them. One grasped the offending arm. The other two drew swords and held them at the boy's throat.

The stranger screeched in surprise. He tried to pull away, but he was smaller than two of the three soldiers. They subdued him quickly. The driver paced in front of the prisoner, chuckling to himself. He ran his thumb down the blade of a knife, which he had drawn in place of his sword.

"Well, this is no Robin Hood. You're almost too small to be a man at all. I'd say you only just made the cut."

The driver yanked the hood from the thief's head. He was too old to be a boy. Like the driver said, he was a man, but only just.

"No, you're certainly no Robin Hood. But perhaps you know him. The shot that cut my harness couldn't have been made by just anyone."

The young man stiffened in surprise. He hadn't made any shot.

The soldier paced a few more steps in front of his prisoner. Suddenly, he grabbed the boy's hair and yanked his head back, while placing the dagger tip carefully, but not gently, against the exposed throat.

"I could kill you now. If you value your life, tell me everything."

The stranger started to shake his head, then thought better of it. Evey couldn't see his face, but his hair was a sunny golden brown, cut short in the style of an aspiring knight. For some reason, that made her uncomfortable. Almost as though she had watched the same scene before.

"Don't play with me, boy. Tell me what you know!" The driver removed his knife a fraction of an inch, allowing for speech.

"I don't know anything. But even if I did, I wouldn't tell you."

That, she could respect. He had shown quite a bit of courage just then, even with a knife at his throat. A little foolishly, perhaps, but it was a bold stand.

The driver struck the boy with his dagger hilt, causing him to stagger a few steps to the left. As soon as he got balanced again, he stood up straight and faced another savage hit with stoic resolve.

That was it. No matter who that young man was, or why he had been stealing from the cart, Evey would set him free.

She watched the guards closely. One was a short, spindly man. Nothing much to worry about. The other two were typical burly soldiers, clad in chain mail, and wielding poorly balanced swords. They would be slow and unoriginal, but strong.

The driver himself was as tall as the two soldiers, but not quite as large. He had a coat of arms just visible on his shield, though she couldn't make out whose it was. The man was certainly a knight, and his easy use of both the sword and knife suggested that he had been a military man for many years. He would be the one to watch if it came to a fight.

The knight asked a few more questions, to no avail. Finally he grew bored with the young man's lack of cooperation, and ordered him tied to the back of the cart. The harness repairs were completed, and the whole procession got underway.

The timing had to be just right. Evey watched them for half a mile before she acted. All three soldiers walked in a bunch on the right hand side. Bad form. Sure, they did think they had their culprit for the day, but it was still a poor decision.

Evey came in from the left. She slipped up behind the bound young man, and matched his pace, before tightly clamping her hand over his mouth.

He struggled fiercely until he realized that the newcomer was not a soldier. She held a finger to her mouth, and he nodded. In one swift movement, she slashed the bindings that held him. He stopped walking, and rubbed his wrists where the ropes had burned.

Evey rolled her eyes, then quickly grabbed his collar and motioned for him to keep pace, as though his hands were still tied. Again he nodded. She set her bow on the edge of the wagon, deftly swung herself up, and slipped under the canvas. With the slightest jingle, five bags of silver dropped into her quiver.

She kept two arrows in her hand, just in case. Then she grabbed five more bags. Her small hand could barely take the load, but she only needed to hold them long enough to leave the cover. Once in the open air, she shoved the bags into the boy's hands, and he took them with a curious expression.

Still as silent as always, she jumped from the cart. Then she grabbed the bow and nocked an arrow. Waving the boy ahead, she trotted down the road, keeping an eye on the four men at the cart. A short distance away, she slipped into the bushes at the edge, and winced as the young man followed, crushing twigs and jingling the silver.

"Don't move. Don't even blink," she whispered as softly as she could, certain that the other men would turn toward the crashing noise at any moment.

The cart slowly drew farther away. As loud as the boy seemed to her, nobody else had noticed. But it was never safe to assume, so she stayed put, watching the driver keenly. Just a few yards further down, the cart and its guards gradually disappeared around a bend in the road.

The young man let out a loud burst of air. As fast as lightning, she clamped her hand over his mouth for the second time that afternoon and held it there. He looked affronted, but eventually accepted that fact that she knew more about being invisible than he did.

"You couldn't possibly be a bit louder, could you?" she asked scathingly when she finally deemed it safe to whisper.

"I'm –"

"Quiet! They're still just down the road, you know. Just because we can't see them doesn't mean they can't hear us."

He adopted her low tone. "Sorry."

"You should be. If they turn to look for any noise and see you gone, they'll be back here before you can blink. We need to let them get as far away as possible before they notice."

"Then we should go."

She grabbed his arm before he could stand. "I could. You'd be two steps before they heard you tearing the wood down around you. Just don't move. Especially if they come back. Just freeze."

He nodded, snapping a small twig as he did so. She sighed. If the men did come back, she would leave with the five bags in her quiver. She had rescued the boy once, but if he got himself caught again, that wasn't her problem.

Five minutes ticked by with no sign of trouble.

"Can you carry ten bags?" He turned a questioning look on her, so she pointed to the stolen hoard. "Ten bags of silver. Can you carry that many for a while?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Take these." She emptied the five from her quiver. "Head into the woods, straight that way. Be as quiet as you can, and don't wander off course too much. I'll find you in about half an hour."

He stopped her with a hand on her arm. "How will you find me? Where are you going?"

She glanced at the silver bags, then back up at his face. "Don't worry about that. Just remember, I will find you. Besides, I don't think a blind man would have trouble finding you in these woods."

He looked dumbstruck, but stood anyway and gathered up all ten bags of silver. Evey suddenly had an idea that brought a sneaky grin to her face, which she erased as soon as he looked back at her.

She pushed him off in the direction she had indicated, and waited for him to take a few steps. Then, like the shadow she was, she slipped several yards to the west of where they had been, and blended into the cover of several beech trees. Only her eyes peered out between the trunks.

Just as she expected, the boy had only gone a few paces before feeling uncertain. He looked back at her, only to find that she had dissolved into thin air. He jumped, nearly dropping a few bags, and spun in a full circle before resuming his previous course. She saw him shudder before she turned and dashed away.

The cart still rolled along while its oblivious protectors laughed loudly over something. The knight in the driver's seat looked much less amused, but he, too, remained unaware that the boy was gone. Just as she turned to leave, the driver slowed the cart.

"Let's have a quick rest. Give the boy some water. We don't want him to– Find him! Now!"

The soldiers turned and dropped their jaws in perfect synchronization. It took several seconds before they drew their weapons and split up. Evey knew they would never find her, and the boy they were searching for was at least a mile away. Perhaps more if he had kept a good pace. Still, she felt as though she should do something.

On the ground she found a small, round stone. She picked it up, tested its weight, and then lobbed it as hard as she could into the trees on the other side of the road. All four men froze and stared in the direction of the sound. Evey found another stone and threw it farther down from the first.

"Get him!"

The soldiers dove into the brush, making more racket than a flock of frightened game birds. Evey smiled and retreated in the opposite direction.

As she had suspected, the boy was ridiculously easy to find. She watched him stumble around in the late afternoon light as though it were pitch black out. That would have to be remedied. Under no circumstances would she go anywhere with a clod like that.

She circled around and stepped out from behind a tree only feet in front of him. He dropped all ten bags.