The Nightwatchman (English)(From Ashes Vol.2)

Chapter 38 - What Do You Want?

Archer took the cup from the hands of the maid, and he put his arm around the girl's waist, making her sit beside him, dropping a coin into her bodice. The young woman laughed and she clung to Archer's arm, casting malicious glances both to him and to Guy.
"So," Archer said, turning to Gisborne with an amused look "what have you done to the sheriff to make him hate you so much?"
"Why do you ask?"
"The other day he had no interest in punishing that boy, he wanted to hit you from the beginning. You were his henchman, right? What might have you done to make him dislike you so much?"
Guy grinned.
"Other than serving him for years and saving his life? I just decided that I was tired of working for him."
"Well, good for me. The pay is good."
"For your soul? Maybe not enough."
Archer looked at him and laughed.
"The soul is so insubstantial... I prefer more concrete things," he said, planting a kiss on the maid's neck. "Hey, do you have a friend for him?"
Guy shook his head.
"I'm not interested, thank you anyway."
"Then do you have a friend for me?" Archer asked, and the girl burst out in more giggles. Archer looked at Guy. "Apparently you keep giving up things, and I draw advantage from that."
Guy smiled.
"Like you already said, good for you."
"So what do you want?" Archer asked, staring into his eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"It seems clear to me that you aren't interested so much in drinking or having fun at the tavern. If you invited me here, it's because you want something from me. I'd love to know what do you want."
Guy stared at him.
"I'm curious. I want to know who you are and why you chose to work for the sheriff."
"Why? What do you care, if indeed you are no longer interested in working for him? Look, Gisborne, I have nothing against you, at least not yet, but I won't allow you to get in my way or to take back your job."
Guy raised his hands in front of him.
"For all I care, you can keep it. But the last person who replaced me was a mad murderer who tried to kill the sheriff. I almost died to defend Nottingham, and I'd like to avoid repeating the experience. So I'm asking you: who are you, Archer?"
"What about you, Guy of Gisborne? In any case, if it makes you feel comfortable, I do not intend to kill the sheriff. It would be stupid of me to do so when he pays me so well."
"I never heard about you, you're not from around here, are you?"
"I come from many places and from no one in particular. I traveled a lot, in the past. And you? Where's Gisborne?"
"It's many years that it doesn't exist anymore."
Archer smiled.
"Apparently neither of us has any kind of roots."
"For now."
Archer shrugged.
"I don't care for them. Bonds take freedom away."
"Don't you have a family?"
"Not that I know. My parents died when I was very young, I have no recollection of them. What about you?"
"My parents are dead too," Guy said with a small sigh, then he changed the subject. "But tell me about your travels, did you learn interesting things from them?"
"Something, yes. Are you good with the sword? If you want, I could show you a trick or two."
"I'd like to see what you can do. And, in return, I can reveal to you a few little secrets that might be useful when you have to deal with the sheriff."
Archer studied his expression. Gisborne seemed to be simply curious, and Archer had the vague feeling that he wanted to be friendly with him, but he didn't understand why.
"How was the afterlife?"
"What?"
"There are a lot of rumors about you. Some people say that you died and came back from the dead, for many of them you're worse than a demon, while for others you're a hero. What is the truth?"
"Both and neither of them, probably."
Archer pursed his lips, amused.
"I suppose I'll find out, sooner or later."

Allan went into the tavern, looking around to search for the pretty waitress who he had spotted the last time he had been there. He wondered what story he could use to try to impress her.
Finally he saw her sitting at a table, but he was disappointed to see that she already seemed to be in male company. He opened his eyes in surprise, recognizing the two men who were sitting near the girl.
Allan took a step forward for a better look, convinced that he was mistaken: it wasn't possible that Gisborne was there, drinking happily in the company of a tavern girl, and of the man who just a few days before had whipped him in front of the whole Nottingham!
The young man shook his head, and he thought that he should get away from there, but in that moment Guy looked up, and saw him. Allan saw a flicker of concern in Gisborne's eyes, then Guy called Allan and waved to make him approach to the table, smiling as if nothing had happened.
Even that was odd: usually Guy of Gisborne didn't smile in that superficial way, as if he was amused to be in that place and in that company.
Normally, for him, taverns were just places where he could eat and he wasn't very interested in visiting them. Usually it was Allan who dragged him in those places, in the hope of attracting the attention of some maid, and Guy merely kept him company with an air of amused tolerance, ordering something to eat or drinking a cup of wine.
"Hey, Giz," he said, uncertain, approaching the table.
"Sit with us, Allan. He is Archer," Guy said, cheerfully, and once again the young man noticed a false note in his voice. He glanced at Guy, and he seemed to recognize a silent request in his eyes.
"I know who he is, and the last time we met him, you weren't in such cordial terms with him..."
Archer laughed.
"Work is work, nothing personal. I guess that the idea may confuse you, but I know that Guy understands what I mean. After all he was in my position not too long ago."
Gisborne nodded.
"No grudge," he confirmed.
Allan looked at him, puzzled. The wound of lashes on his back hadn't healed yet, and Guy was so comfortable talking with his torturer?
It occurred to Allan that in the past Gisborne hadn't treated him much better when he forced him to betray Robin Hood, but now they were friends.
Allan sat down without saying anything, and, as usual, he reached for Gisborne's plate, still half full. He took a piece of meat, and he put it in his mouth with brazen air, glancing at Gisborne.
He had been wrong.
The black knight wasn't as calm as he might seem to anyone who didn't know him as well as Allan did. In fact Allan had the impression that Gisborne was grateful for his arrival, as if his presence could comfort him.
"So, Allan," Archer said, with a little disturbing smile "it's good that you came."
"Why?"
"Guy and I were thinking that it would be fun to compare our skills with the sword. We needed a judge and my friend here doesn't understand much about fighting." Archer gave a light squeeze to the maid's leg, who was sitting next to him, and the girl burst out into a giggle. "How about it, Allan, do you want to help?"
Allan's eyes darted at Guy, and the young man read an assent on his friend's face.
He shrugged and smiled.
"Well, why not? It could be interesting."

Marian had left her father with one of their old acquaintances, and she had returned to the market.
She would search for Guy and Allan, and then they would get the wagon and go back to take her father directly at the house of his friend, so Sir Edward could wait for them without getting tired.
She wondered where the two men could be, and if she would found Guy in a better mood than he had been in the morning. She sighed anxiously to both those thoughts: she wasn't sure if she'd like the answers to those questions.
As she walked towards the market square, she noticed that many people had gathered in the same place, and that others were rushing there, excited.
Marian stopped a kid, grabbing him by the arm, and she asked him what was going on.
"They are fighting! I had never seen anything like that! It's so exciting!"
"Who? Who is fighting?" Marian tightened her grip on the boy's arm, but he didn't even notice.
"Guy of Gisborne and the new henchman of the sheriff! Now let me go, I must go and see who will win!"
The boy pulled away and disappeared into the crowd, leaving Marian terrified and shocked.
What had happened? Was Guy in trouble with the sheriff again? Or had he decided to take revenge on the man who had flogged him?
With a groan of anguish, she ran toward the place where the crowd had gathered, and she made her way through the crowd up to the front row.
Guy was actually fighting with Archer, and the two men traded blows with their swords, using increasingly daring moves. Marian knew immediately that this wasn't a real fight, but a sort of challenge to demonstrate their skill in handling swords.
Every blow was deliberately difficult and calculated to the millimeter, a kind of complicated and dangerous dance that eventually would lead one of them to prevail over the other.
Allan was standing on the edge of the crowd, watching them carefully, with an amused expression on his face. It was clear that he was very interested in that duel.
Marian moved through the crowd to get close to the young man and she watched the duel, distressed and fascinated at the same time.
She had already seen Guy fighting when he had defended the sheriff from the guards of Barret, but never like he was doing now. Then, he had fought in the most efficient way possible, trying to survive, with despair and courage, but now he was performing, studying every movement to try to overcome Archer in skill.
And he was having fun.
This was an aspect of Guy that she had never seen before, and she didn't know whether she was attracted or scared by it. The certain thing was that she couldn't take her eyes from him, not even if she tried.
She watched in silence, her heart pounding.