Chapter 5
Chapter five
Oak & Arrows
Threading through the festival crowds was a challenge.
They swelled the closer I got to the edge of the city, where Nottingham Keep and the tournament grounds sat.
But I managed to keep my wits about me, continuing to avoid any man wearing red, even if they were not part of the Iron Fist. As if to remind me just how many threats I now faced, nearly every wall bore a Reward poster with ‘The Devil of Arden’ or ‘Robin Hood’ emblazoned across the center, and a quiver of red-fletched arrows caught my attention, bobbing through the crowd to my left.
I stopped dead and reflexively reached into my pocket to check the coin.
Not blank. Not yet, anyway. I could only pray that, by the time the Devil called in my debt, Will and I would be halfway across the world, unreachable.
The red-feathered arrows vanished into the melee and I craned my neck, trying to see where they’d gone, but it was as if my mind was playing tricks.
Until I saw them again immediately on my right.
This time, I ducked between bodies in the crowd, slamming into people, desperate to keep the arrows in my sights.
But then a second bundle of red appeared in front of me.
Another quiver.
More arrows.
And another. There were at least four of them in the crowd, and I realized that people had dressed themselves in long, green cloaks, pulled hoods over their faces, worn snake masks or painted fake blood on their skin, and dyed the fletching on their arrows.
They were only costumes. My greatest fear, the terror that haunted me at night, the shame I hid at all costs, had been turned into a fucking party costume.
Anger flooded all the way to my fingertips.
At the entrance to the tournament grounds, however, it dissipated somewhat when I saw that the Iron Fist were well occupied, pulling anyone who appeared to be dressed as the Devil aside, forcing them to remove masks and hoods, then washing the dye off their arrows.
At the point where the crowd began to bottleneck onto the tournament grounds, I skirted to the right and hurried along the wall of the outer bailey.
It wound away, following the track of an old moat, which had long since been filled in with a mixture of dirt and iron slag—one of Prince Johar’s many bulwarks against faerie magyk.
It was whispered that he feared the return of the fay even more than he feared the return of his elder brother, the Absent Prince.
After he had captured Nottingham from Rykard, and both their armies had been torn to shreds in the Arden, Johar had set about fortifying it against the Fair Folk.
A new wall, layered with bricks of iron ore, had been built between the city and the Channel, which itself had been infused with iron through the establishment of smelting operations at either end.
All spikes, nails, doorknobs, window frames, fences, and railings were required to be iron too.
Every street in the city reeked of it—an ever-present, metallic tang of paranoia which had infected much of the population too.
Checking over my shoulder to ensure I wasn’t followed, I rushed along the bailey wall until I found the spot that had long ago been overgrown by an unruly hedgerow.
It had been our secret place since we were children—mine and Will’s—a small, hidden courtyard at the base of a disused drum tower.
Pushing aside the last of the branches, I spotted Will standing beside a crumbling fountain with his bow drawn, poised to send an arrow flying into the ancient oak tree that grew at least two stories up the inner wall.
When we first discovered the place, Will had climbed up and carved our names on one of the limbs, as a testament to how we had met.
The rest of it, he used for target practice.
I stopped, my heart slowing and the fretful jumble of emotions melting away when I saw him. Before he could notice me standing there, I announced my presence by calling out the first line of his favorite poem—the one he always recited like a mantra in moments of overwhelm or apprehension.
“When the gyrfalcon calls, it is my time to go…”
Will turned to look at me, smiling, and continued, “So strip down my arrows, and unstring my bow.”
“I haven’t a penny or home to my name…”
“But nor have I sorrow, heartache, or shame…” He set his bow against the fountain and approached me, arms out, so I could fall into them and murmur the next line against his chest.
“I’ve done naught with my life, the gods know it’s true…”
“But naught is not nothing, when I have loved you.”
Will buried his face in my hair and held me tight against his body, while I tried to lose myself in the feeling of being loved and safe, even if it was only for this moment.
“Your father came to Locksley last night,” I said quickly as I pulled away, “with Archbishop Piers.”
Will’s eyes widened. “He said nothing to me of it. Why was he there?”
“He wants to bring the Iron Fist to the Abbey, and he wants us to spy on people for him.”
“Gods be damned.”
“Don’t,” I admonished with a frown. “We have much bigger problems than the gods. Your father brought up my vows, and our friendship. It was a threat, Will. I was nearly denied passage over Boatman’s Bridge this morning too. Weft said I’m no longer exempt from the toll because I’m not a Sister.”
Will cursed under his breath this time. “They’re trying to keep us apart. I won’t let it happen.”
“Did you…speak to your parents last night?” I asked, hope rising in my chest.
“No,” he said shortly. “I didn’t get the chance. We were called to have supper with the Prince and his family.”
“Oh…and Helena?”
“They arrived back last night,” Will sighed, walking over to the oak tree and yanking his arrows out one by one.
I helped him and we had soon freed the entire quiver, which he set on the ground beside his longbow.
“She’s been away since spring, you know, finishing her fancy schooling.
Before she left, I’m not sure she even knew I existed.
She certainly didn’t think I was worth the dirt on her heel, but now she’s become…
very interested in the idea of our marriage. ”
My blood boiled and ran cold in the space of a moment. “Interested?”
“She thinks she’s in love with me, May. Something changed while she was gone, and now she won’t leave me alone.
Our mothers sat us together at supper last night and I nearly had to put a fork in her hand to keep her from touching me under the damn table.
” He collapsed onto the grass at the base of the tree and rubbed his face rather aggressively.
I chewed on my lip before dropping onto my knees in front of him and taking his hands.
“We have to run,” I said softly.
He looked up at me, his beautiful hazel eyes framed between curtains of golden hair. “Run? Run where?”
“Anywhere!” I pulled my satchel around and opened it to show him that I’d already made up my mind, that I was ready. “Your parents are probably already at the Keep with Johar. You can go and pack what you need while I find Tuck, and then we can go. He can help us.”
“May…” said Will quietly. “We’d never make it.”
“They won’t even be able to send anyone out looking for you until the tournament is over!”
“No, I mean…we’d never make it out there…”
Something in his voice sent a sickening, slithering jolt through my stomach, and I leaned back on my heels. “How can you say that? Just yesterday, you asked me to leave the Abbey…”
“Yes, after I win a place with the Archers. And after I talk my family down from this marriage. How could we survive on our own? We’d have to leave Athenium entirely to escape my father!”
“Exactly!” I said with a small laugh. “We leave! We get to the coast, we get on a ship, and we—”
“This is insane,” Will said angrily, getting up to retrieve his quiver and hang it on his back.
If I’d been standing, my knees might have buckled beneath me, and I couldn’t help but mutter, “I knew you’d rather stay on your father’s leash than be with me…”
He whirled around. “That is not fair. You have no idea what it means to leave your family behind!”
“Don’t I?” I cried, lunging to my feet and curling my hands into fists. “The Sisters and Tuck are my family, and they treat me a damn sight better than your family treats you! Do you think I want to leave them?”
“May, please don’t do this!” Will begged, stepping toward me and reaching out. “Just…just stay here until the tournament is over. I’ll win, and I’ll have my place with the Archers, and everything will be alright.”
I backed away from him, shaking my head. “And you’ll kiss Helena.”
“Yes!” he nearly shouted. “Yes, if I must! To give us a future worth having!”
“How will you explain to a woman who is apparently now in love with you, that you accepted her kiss, but do not want to marry her? How will you explain it to your parents? To your Prince?”
“You are asking me to give up everything, May,” he said, his voice now heavy and sad.
“Not just my family, not just my dreams, but a chance to give you the kind of life you deserve. To give you everything you’ve ever wanted.
The Royal Archers are well-paid, well-treated.
Once all this business with Helena dies down—”
“Oh, damn you, Will! How can you be so naive? This won’t just die down! This isn’t some local merchant’s daughter your parents are foisting on you, this is the Prince’s daughter. And now that she wants you too, they won’t let this go! Not when you’re their ticket to the throne.”
“I will make it go away!” he insisted, taking my hand. “Please, May, let me give you this.”