Lionhearts by Nathan Makaryk

Author:Nathan Makaryk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

They all crashed up the staircase at once, FitzOdo and Derrick and Ronnell arriving from other directions, but Quill vaulted up first. His sword was in his hands though he did not recall pulling it. He didn’t wait to try the handle at the top of the stairs, he greeted the door with the heel of his boot and burst into the room at full speed.

Square, a desk in its middle, tiny slatted windows no body could squeeze through. The girl to the right, clattering to the back wall. Two figures to the left. Quill’s eyes had not adjusted but he knew them by size. Lord Beneger stood tall, his hands behind his back, where Will Scarlet was hiding. One arm reached out from behind, high, where he held a fat dagger in a reverse grip. Its point was directly downward, touching the soft of Ben’s clavicle.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Will Scarlet cursed, pulling Ben back the small amount he could, away from the suddenly crowded entrance. The girl across from him was young. She scampered up onto a large wooden chest to make distance as the room instantly filled beyond capacity.

“Put it down!” screamed FitzOdo, or someone else, or all of them. Jacelyn yelled it as well, she leveled her blade against the girl, who had whipped out a small knife dangling from a thin rope.

“Fuck, I told you not to come!” Scarlet yelled at the girl, who continued to scatter randomly, hoping to find some foothold or posture that would give her an advantage. “Put that away, you’re going to get yourself killed!”

“Kill the girl,” FitzOdo demanded.

“Anybody fucking moves…” Will pierced over the commotion, “… and this man is the first to die.”

Quill locked eyes with Lord Beneger, by far the calmest in the room. His chin was perked slightly up, as if to make it easier, as if to show how little he feared the knife. Quill felt his own neck shrink away, what he imagined would be a natural reaction to the touch of a blade. There was also blood, blood on Ben’s neck, but not his own. It flowed down from Will Scarlet’s hand. Whatever had already transpired before they entered, Lord Beneger had done damage.

“As I was saying,” Lord Beneger’s voice was all gut, “there’s no way out of this.”

“You’d better hope that’s not true,” Scarlet growled back at him, “or you leave this world with me.”

“Go on, then.” FitzOdo pushed forward, lowering his weapon to get dangerously closer to Scarlet. “Kill him. You think it can’t get any worse for you? Best think that one over.” For a moment there was a silence, the chaos of uncertainty had stilled into the edge of his words. “This is it for you either way, Scarlet. But we could end it quick, or we could take a few days.” There was a raw truth in his voice that was black ice, and Quill knew that for the first time he was hearing the real Sir Robert FitzOdo. “I told Red Roger I’d bring him back a Robin Hood, and I mean to.

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