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

Chapter 79 - Gold, Like the End of a Day

Allan realized that he had held his breath only when Meg touched his arm, making him start. He forced himself to look away from the platform of the gallows and to look at the girl.
Meg, unlike him, kept her eyes on the ground and she could not look up.
"You didn't expect this, did you?" Meg whispered.
"No."
"What do we do now?"
"We have to stop it somehow, or Giz will be shattered."
Meg looked at him, in surprise. Robin was the one who was suffering the whipping, but Allan was worried about Gisborne.
"Have you seen the scars on his back? Giz knows exactly how badly each of those lashes hurts. Every blow on the back of Robin also injures him, straight to the heart."
Meg took one of the smoke bombs.
"Shall we use these, then?"
Allan nodded. It would have been better to wait a little longer and take advantage of a time when people's attention wasn't on Guy, but they couldn't allow the flogging to go on for long.
"Be ready."
The girl nudged him to get his attention and she pointed to a spot in the crowd.
"Look, that's Much! And there are Will and Little John there!"
"They must have something in mind..."
Allan kept an eye on them and realized that, around them, the people, already in a bad mood for the forthcoming execution of Robin Hood, began to roar even more.
"They want to start a riot!"
Allan and Meg saw with horror that a couple of persons had collected stones from the ground and started throwing them toward the gallows.
Almost all of them missed the target, but one hit Guy in the shoulder, making him wince with pain.
Gisborne had raised his arm to whip Robin again and he stopped, but Vaisey sternly ordered him to continue, casting a significant glance in the direction of Marian and Sir Edward.
Allan looked at him as he struck Robin again, amid the screams and insults of an increasingly angry mob, and he realized that if he didn't act quickly, those people would end up lynching Guy.
Meg put a stone in his hand and Allan stared at her, not understanding.
"Hit him, hurry!"
"What?"
"According to the plan he had to pretend to faint because of the smoke, right? It wouldn't work, now he has too many eyes on him, but if you hit him with a stone it would be credible. You just have to make him understand that he has to play along."
Allan nodded.
"As soon as Giz is on the ground, throw the bags into the braziers, we'll have to take advantage of the commotion."
"Do you have his mask and his bow?"
"They are hidden under my cloak."
"Well then, good luck."
The girl turned away from him and Allan turned his attention back to the gallows. He had to get Gisborne's attention and he had to do it quickly, so that his friend understood what he had to do.
He covered his face with the hood of his cloak, ready to throw the stone, and he called to Guy, shouting at him in a threatening voice.
"Hey, sheriff's dog! Take this!"

Gisborne had the impression that he was in the middle of one of his worst nightmares: a furious mob was about to attack him, the sheriff threatened not too covertly the people he cared for, and he was forced to inflict on Robin Hood a pain that he knew it was excruciating.
He was trapped in a situation without escape and he couldn't get out of it on his own.
A stone had hit him on the shoulder, making him moan in pain, and for a moment he couldn't do anything, petrified by terror, then Vaisey had looked at Marian and he had found himself blindly obeying him.
He had struck Robin again, and he had hated himself for each of the red marks that crossed his friend's back, then Allan's voice had reached him through the shouts of the crowd.
The phrase shouted by his friend was nothing but an insult, but Guy recognized it for what it really was: an anchor of salvation, the promise of help that was coming to save him from that situation.
Allan's stone barely touched him, missing his temple by a few millimeters, but Guy screamed, dropped the whip and covered his head and face with his hands, staggering forward as if he had been hit.
Guy bumped into Robin Hood and he took the opportunity to drop the key of the chains into his hand, then he fell to his knees holding his face in his hands.
In a moment Guy slipped his curved dagger out of his sleeve and used it to scratch his forehead deeply enough to make it bleed.
Vaisey joined him, grabbing him by the collar of his jacket to shake him and get him up from the ground.
"Get up, imbecile! Do you think you have finished?" Vaisey shouted, and Guy leaned heavily on him, as if he couldn't stand on his own. Blood ran down his face from the wound on his forehead and it dripped on Vaisey.
The sheriff pushed him away, disgusted, and Gisborne, falling, clung to one of the banners hanging from the castle wall, dragging it to the ground with him. The heavy cloth fell on him, covering his upper body and Guy stood still, pretending to have fainted.
He didn't even move when the sheriff hit him with a kick in the back, even if the blow had been so strong that it made his old wounds hurt.