A World That Will Not Turn to Ash (English)(From Ashes Vol.1)

Chapter 18 - Not Again

Allan looked at the portcullis that closed behind him and he had the unpleasant presentiment he had ended in a trap.
He snapped the reins to move the cart and he stopped it in the courtyard, at the foot of the staircase.
A guard came up suspiciously and he asked him what he wanted.
"We are the servants of Lady Marian, we brought her things. Orders of Sir Barret." Allan said casually. "I really had no idea that a girl could need so many trunks!"
The guard smiled with the air of someone who knew a lot about women.
"Wait here."
He walked away and returned shortly after with another soldier.
"Take those trunks, I will show you where to put them."
Allan nodded and motioned to the two men who were on the wagon with him, telling them to obey to the guards' orders.
The first guard led the way, while the other soldier took one of the boxes too and they walked along the corridors of the castle.
They arrived at the door of a room and the soldiers let them in.
"You can leave everything here."
Allan looked around: that room was clearly unoccupied and there was no sign of Marian. He put the bag that he had carried on the ground, then he turned to the soldier.
"I was hoping to see Lady Marian... Sir Edward, her father, entrusted me with a message for her."
"Oh, look who's here! Gisborne's puppy! - A voice behind him exclaimed and Allan spun around, terrified at seeing the sheriff who was standing in the doorway. Behind him, Roger of Barrett watched the scene with an eerie smile on his face.
Vaisey stared at him and Allan took a step back.
"What's up? Without your owner, you don't know who are you going to wag your tail to? Do you know what, boy? You've chosen badly your master, very badly. He dared to blackmail me. If he had not got himself killed like a fool, at this time you would hear his screams coming from the dungeons. Oh, but I got a very interesting idea!" The sheriff waved to soldiers and the two men grabbed Allan firmly by the arms. "Since your master is dead, I could torture you in his place, boy, what do you say?"
Allan shouted, trying to break free, but the soldiers dragged him away.

Robin Hood pushed Gisborne forward, still holding him by the arm and Guy scowled.
"Get your hands off me, Hood, I'm not going to run away."
Robin stopped and he let him go.
Guy looked around: they were deep into the forest, far away from the camp of the outlaws. The reason seemed all too clear.
"You don't have the courage to kill me in front of the girl, huh? Fair enough, Robin Hood is a hero and he can't get his hands dirty. Or if he does, not in front of his friends."
Robin stared at him, baffled.
"Have you gone mad, Gisborne?"
"Didn't you bring me here to kill me?"
"No."
"Oh."
"Do you want to die so much?"
Guy seemed to think the answer for a few seconds.
"Not if I can help it." He decided after a while. "Why did you bring me here, then?"
"I want to know the truth. Why did you come to the camp?"
"Like I said, Marian is in danger. Instead of making these idiotic questions you should think about how to help her!"
"You could have sent Allan. There must be a reason if you are here in person and I want to know it. When you decided to come to our shelter, you should have imagined that we wouldn't allow you to get away with impunity. You knew that you could be killed, yet you are here. Why?"
Guy looked at him angrily, then all his anger seemed to disappear suddenly.
"Because there was nothing else I could do. Barret will force Marian to marry him and the only options I had were either to go to knock at the gates of Nottingham and be killed by the first archer with a good aim, or to come here and ask for help to my enemy and then get killed by him. What beautiful prospects, right? Between the two, I chose the one that at least would have been useful for Marian."
Robin grabbed Guy by his jacket and threw him on the ground punching him.
"Don't you dare to pretend that you care about her, not after what you did to her! You took advantage of her, you forced her to go to bed with you and then you have abandoned her to the wickedness of the people! Did you hear how they call her? Have you ever witnessed the humiliation that she must endure every day because of you? If you really cared for Marian you wouldn't have allowed such a thing. Try to use her again as an excuse for your actions and I'll kill you for real! You are not worthy to speak her name!"
Guy got up from the ground without looking away from Robin. He touched his face where he had been hit by his fist, then he lowered his hand as if to seek the hilt of the sword.
Robin did not bother for that gesture because he knew that Gisborne was unarmed, but he prepared to defend against him, expecting an attack.
Guy instead didn't move, but he didn't look away from him.
"You're right, I am not worthy of Marian. I did terrible things, I tried to force her to marry me, I burned her house, I wounded her while facing the Nightwatchman and I have not been able to protect her, but I never, not even once, dared to compromise her innocence. Those rumors are false, completely false, and my only fault was that I haven't been able to nip them in the bud. Accuse me of whatever you want, you have a wide range of reasons to want me dead, but don't you ever dare again to say that I don't care for Marian. I love her! Even if she will never be mine."
Robin found himself speechless. He had never heard Gisborne talking so passionately and for once he had no doubt that he was sincere, but he did not know how to relate to that unknown side of his enemy.
A desperate cry in the distance took him away from that embarrassment. Both Robin Guy startled to hear that scream because they knew it came from a man in the grip of a terrible pain.
"What was it?" Guy asked, still shaken by his outburst and concerned about the sudden cry.
Robin shook his head.
"It came from over there." He said, pointing to a spot in the distance through the trees.
The screams were repeated, more and more harrowing, and Guy and Robin moved at the same time to run in that direction.
As they approached, the shouts became stronger and it was clear that the man who was making them was tortured by pain.
Suddenly a chilling silence fell and Robin motioned Gisborne to stop. He drew his sword and handed it to Guy, then he took an arrow and bent his bow, before starting to move again with more caution.
They walked in silence for a few minutes, then they went through a row of trees and emerged in a clearing. Robin was surprised to hear that Gisborne groaned.
He turned to look at him: Guy had become deathly pale, he was trembling and he looked straight ahead with horror.
"No... No... Not here... not again..."
"Hey, what's wrong?" Robin began, then he followed the direction of Gisborne's gaze and the words died in his throat.
At first glance, Robin had not seen the body of the hanged man because it was hidden by the other branches of the tree that grew on the edge of the cliff, but Guy had noticed him immediately because he already knew that place, he already knew which was the use of that branch reaching out into the air, with the river that flowed gurgling many meters below.
The same tree, the same clearing...
Robin lunged forward, but he stopped, seeing that Guy had not moved and he came back to drag him by the arm.
"Come on! Maybe he's still alive, but I can't bring him down alone!" He shouted, shaking him and finally Guy decided to move.
Together they recovered the body of the hanged, hoping they could be able to help him, but it was immediately evident that the man was already dead. Before being hanged, the poor man had been tortured with a knife or a sword because he had the body marked by deep cuts and his face was full of blood to the point of being unrecognizable. Most likely he would have died anyway even without the hanging, Robin thought, horrified.
"He's been... they have gouged out his eyes..." Guy whispered and Robin Hood turned to him, surprised by his shocked tone.
The death of this man must have been horrible, but Gisborne had certainly seen much worse scenes while working for the sheriff and he never flinched when he watched executions at Nottingham Castle.
Robin took off his coat and used it to cover the body, then he looked back at Gisborne who seemed to be sunk in some waking nightmare: he looked around with the look of a hunted animal and he was panting, panicked.
Robin touched his arm and Guy jumped, then turned away and ran blindly, disappearing into the trees. Robin Hood glanced at the corpse, then he let out a curse and ran after Gisborne. The killers could be still around and they shouldn't risk to attract their attention, not when they were only two, with only one of them lucid enough to fight.
He easily reached Gisborne and he grabbed him by his jacket, pulling him to the ground with him.
Robin put an arm on his back to keep him down, but Guy didn't even try to get up: he was on the ground with his face buried in the carpet of dead leaves, shaken by silent tremors.
Robin noticed with dismay that Gisborne was crying.