Peregrine’s Call by Elizabeth Cole

Author:Elizabeth Cole
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Medieval
Publisher: 0
Published: 2018-05-21T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

FROM HER VANTAGE POINT IN the shadow of the trees, Robin saw Pierce emerge from the broken part of the curtain wall. He pushed a large sort of basket through, then sidled several feet over, but didn’t move farther. She could hear nothing from where she hid, and she waited in an agony until she saw Octavian appear a little while later. When no yells or flares from torches followed him, she allowed herself a small sigh of relief.

The men made their way to where Robin waited. She was once again dressed in the brown monk’s robe, and it fluttered around her as she stood up.

Pierce stumbled backward, startled by her movement. “God’s wounds!” he muttered. “What’s there?”

“Me, my lord,” she said in a low voice. “I’ve got our supplies.” She had dropped the wrapped bundles over the walls earlier, using the darkness as cover. She slipped through the gap after waiting for the guard on duty to pass by, long before the men followed.

The most nerve-wracking part had been getting Irene safely out of the way. The maid came up to help Robin prepare for bed, bringing the mulled wine Robin specially requested. Robin had to slip a dose of poppy syrup into the glass without Irene noticing, and then trick Irene into drinking it herself. Luckily, the maid’s desire for a warm, rich drink outweighed the expectations that a servant should not indulge in the luxuries meant for her betters.

Robin waited until Irene succumbed to the medicine, got her to bed, and then pulled the blankets over the sleeping woman. Drawing the curtains helped even more. With luck, Irene would slumber till sunrise, blissfully unaware of the escape until it was far too late.

“Any issues with your side of the plan?” she asked Tav.

Pierce answered before Tav could. “He didn’t kill the guard who saw us.”

“Knocked him out,” Tav explained.

“Will we regret that?” she asked him.

“Possibly. But I’m not dwelling on it.” Tav gave Robin a quick smile, and bent to gather some of the bundled supplies. He heaved them over his back, and ordered Pierce to do the same with the others.

The lord grumbled at the need for labor, but mimicked Tav’s actions. Finally, he hefted the woven hamper he’d brought himself, holding it as though the contents might break. “Where are the horses?”

“Hidden,” Robin said, slinging her own pack and quiver across her shoulders and picking up her bow. “Follow me.”

She led the men on a more or less direct route to where she’d seen that barn on the day she and Tav first came upon the Willesden woodgatherers. As she picked her way through the nighttime forest, she prayed that the barn held the animals they needed to escape. She’d ride a mule if she had to, but the men would require suitable horses.

Pierce cursed every time branches whipped past their faces or a tree root rose up too high. Behind him, Octavian warned him to be silent.

“Where are the horses?” Pierce asked instead.

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