[Episode OOM -- "Childhood" 2.03 (5)]
Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV - Part V - Part VI
~*~
Marian had been surprised by the early summons to dress and be prepared to accompany The Sheriff to Locksley still. For what, she was informed once dressed and arriving at the gate, would either be the hanging of one of the peasant boys or a trade with Robin for his property. The Black Diamonds, she now knew were used to make the Damascus Steel for Guy's armor.
Things she didn't offer any knowledge about, only annoyance. Being pulled from her bed to attend to his dealing with 'an outlaw,' when her father was still doing poorly and her time was better spent at his bed. It wasn't exactly a lie either, but dissent meant The Sheriff ordered her into the carriage.
It wasn't as though she could ask why Daniel was still at Locksley Manor, but it kept circling in her thoughts as they bumped along the road from the castle. There had been a chance the pass wouldn't work. But she had been sure it was a very slim chance. Apparently, the night had been a highlight for the slimmest of chances working out.
It was an effort not to think of Knighton Hall, as she listened to him trying to bait her, about wanting her right at his side, so he could hear her heart bleed for him, again, when Hood failed and the boy was killed.
It would have been a grace if it had stopped there. But nothing was ever so simple in Nottingham anymore. She steeled herself stepping out, catch sight early of one of Gisborne's guards with Daniel tied up, shackles locking his hands together and a length of rope keeping the boy on a leash. Quickly passed to the Sheriff, as though he were some pet and not a child.
She wished Vasey would have kept at her only, when he switched to goading the boy.
Especially once he was seated on the quickly constructed raised dais, in front of the stocks, before the Council of Nobles flanking The Sheriff, while Daniel sat on his knees in the dirt, staring at the hanging noose. And the gathering peasants of Locksley. Every single one of them waiting now for Robin's appearance now.
"See that there, if Robin Hood doesn't come, these people here are going to watch you swing. Wellup. I can see the sun..." Vasey drew out, tugging the boys leash." ...but no sign of your savior."
"He'll come," Daniel said, with defiant assuredness that threatened to make Marian's wariness turn into too outward of a smile.
"Hm? Oh, well, let’s hope so, hm? For your sake." The Sheriff chuckled under his breath as he stood up, still knotting the end of Daniel's ropes in his hand. Mercurial to the last, he shouted just as suddenly as he had taken to standing, "Hood!" As though it might summon him. Following it jumping off the stage, still talking loudly, and beginning to drag the boy without warning by his rope, with an eerie melodic, "Oh, Robin Hood!"
As if by cued invitation of his named being mocked, Robin did appeared. Walking through the throng of peasants facing the dais. The wooden box that must contain the Black Diamond under his arm. All of the soldiers drew their bows on him, following him as he walked through them all.
Vasey shoved Daniel before him, calling out, "Stay were you are, Hood!" Stilling him behind a line of villagers still. "My Smith will meet you in the middle, check the merchandise. If it's alright..." He drawled, holding up the key to the shackles on Daniel's hands, before tapping him on the head with it. "...you get the key to the boy."
"No, Sheriff. You can make the exchange." Robin shot back, a voice under a hood, but unwavering sureness in the hold on the box in his hands, and the set of his shoulders. Marian couldn't help wondering what it had taken from him to appear there, without his bow. "Otherwise your archers there will kill me. And if they do fire upon me, my men will kill you."
They seemed to come out of almost nowhere, or everywhere. Suddenly, shouting for the people to clear, to return to their homes, and get out of the way, with their entrances. Bows in each of their hands, arrows trained on the guards who were trained on Robin.
"Oh, la-di-da-di-da." The Sheriff called, droll boredom even if he did not look as pleased to have his plans changed. "Right! Let’s get on with it." Robin walked forward through the now desert area. The Sheriff smiled, keeping Daniel forward as his shield before the eight archers, who all kept adjusting as the three got closer and closer, and between him and Robin. The last tiny pin in a grenade set to explode around them. The all too easy causality to both sides.
"Stop!" The word was out of her mouth before she could think whether or not to reign in it. She could not miss how The Sheriff's back straightened at her voice, and she had no choice, and no regret, in having to follow through. Rushing the few steps to where the Sheriff was, and placing her hands on Daniel's shoulders. "You cannot release the child to an outlaw."
Vasey sighed, hands clutching the rope in them, looking more at Robin and the men in front of him, jaw clenched as he said, "Somebody find me a box and put this woman inside it!"
Marian pulled Daniel closer to her, wrapping an arm around his frail shoulders. Showing no reaction to the words just spoken about her. Looking only at the Sheriff, "Release him to me. I’ll see that he gets home safely." She glanced, impartially toward Robin. As though she didn't care for him, only for the boy's plight. "Locksley, this makes no difference to you. You have my word."
Robin nodded, shrugged, as distant for her in appearance as she was from him, as he pause considering her words. "I accept these terms."
"Good for you," The Sheriff said coldly, but he tossing the rest of the leash on to Daniel's head and shoulders, relinquishing the boy. "Go on, then."
She'd managed to catch most of the rope, so that most of it didn't fall on him, though enough still did. Apologies were not things she could make. Not this close to The Sheriff, and not in the center of so tense a moment. But she could get Daniel untied, and out of the center of what was bound to be another powder keg between The Sheriff and Robin.
"Now...the black diamonds..." He held up the key to Daniel's manacles. And as Marian saw it and reached for it, he crossed his arms, tucking it close to him, out of her grasp and everyone's sight, crooning. "Not yet. Allow me to check the merchandise first."
Still working on the ropes tying Daniel's middle she could only glance up as she was removing layers. The awkwardness and tension radiating, even as Robin took the last step and held out the box to The Smith who'd followed them all silently there. The two looked inside and seemed to be fine with whatever was there. The Smith had nodded and The Sheriff had chuckled. Distracted by his amusement he'd flung his arms out.
Marian reached up and snatched the key from his outstretched hand, kneeling down in front of Daniel to see to the manacles.
"Oh, so sorry. You are, after all, as Lady Marian pointed out..." Marian had looked up to see two different things, though the latter more important. "...a murderous outlaw, hmm?"
The first was The Smith pouring the rocks from the box into a bag The Sheriff held, but the second was Robin's face. The deep, obvious, wash of a disappointed wince. One he hadn't kept from her face. Her eyes moved between the three still in the middle. She'd missed something. She was uncertain what it was. But it had been important.
More than if the wince was what to tell by, and the Men's sudden anxious shifting all around them.
"Something wrong, Hood?" The Sheriff crowed.
Something they both knew what was, as Robin said nothing. Only glaring at his adversary, as The Sheriff turned to walk back to the dais. Another thing she could no more do or say or ask about. All she could do was finish with the manacles and lead Daniel off behind Vasey back toward the stage.
Even as The Sheriff called out in a sing-song tone, that froze her blood.
"Gisborne, all yours."
There'd been a long moment at those words. A sudden stretch where no one seemed to know quite where to look. Guy hadn't been present the whole morning thus far. And then, just as suddenly, the doors of the Locksley Church opened on a sight so unusual it seemed entirely unnatural. The visage of a man, covered from head to foot in silver plating.
The Damascus Steel armor she'd seen in Locksley Manor the night before. He walked out before them, stopping only briefly before the dais, where Vasey was crowing for him to go 'Enjoy' himself. Uncertainty and shocked warred for which was stronger. Her hands going back to Daniel's shoulders, even as her eyes followed Guy in alarm in pursuit toward Robin. Who was, in fact, making a hasty retreat toward his own men.
But not fast enough. Barely catching his thrown sword by the time Guy was on him. He swung and missed, he came back again and Robin ducked. When Robin managed to get in his first hit, only sparks came off the armor from the blow. The armor didn't seem to feel it at all, as Guy knocked the sword out of his hand the second time Robin tried to hit it. He twisted his arm free, trying to attack him in the middle, but all it accomplished was getting kneed through the center with more armor. Then punched his back and once he had fallen, to kick him in the ribs.
The Sheriff cheered loudly next to them, while Marian couldn't find it in herself to be able to breathe or tear her eyes away even.
Guy abandoned his own sword, picking up Robin and throwing him over a nearby house's fence. Robin rolled with it, trying to get away, darting further into the cottage area and picking up a bench. He swung it with all his might at Gisborne's back, but clad in the armor he only turned toward his opponent as thought he'd still felt absolutely nothing. The terror and surprise on Robin's face could be seen even there, if not the sudden retreat into the cottage, followed by Guy.
What followed was another moment, that felt like several minutes were slammed into all at once. The house, innocuous and innocent stood there, not moving, barely making anything but a now-and-then clattering sound. Before suddenly Robin's head burst through the side window, followed by the rest of him, thrown and rolling in a tumble toward the outside grounds.
The Sheriff continued to clap and cheer, as Guy re-emerged, a wall of silver plating almost blinding in the high sun, barreling straight through the cottage wall in his pursuit. He picked up Robin again, throwing him at the wall, beside the hole he had just made in coming out. He swung a punch, which Robin narrowly missed. Dropping down to pick up a board and swing it into Guy's side. Still nothing. Guy only reached back and punched Robin, again, with his gauntleted fist.
They went through another section of fence, demolishing it, Guy pushing Robin straight into and through it. He'd barely managed to roll away, and missed what everyone else saw first. Guy picking his sword back up. They were shouting things at each other now and then, but it was too far to hear much more than the rise of their voices. The way Robin would suddenly yell to his men, to stay where they were, trained on the archers only.
Everyone itching to do something. Everyone, that was, who wasn't Vasey who seemed to be becoming more like a giddy child with each hit and toss of Robin.
Robin crawled past his gang, as some conversation went between himself, Much and Little John. The wavering, the almost joining, before they were all focused on the archers again, and Robin was still left at the mercy of the Damascus Steel glad Guy. Guy was only second later bringing his sword down on the railing Robin had gotten up with. He'd missed Robin, but shoved him down over the collapsed fence. Robin narrowly scrambling back up and missing being trampled second after.
Along the Scarlett's former cottage as Gisborne kept swinging his sword. Until they were running between the area again, under the archers, further away. Guy screamed something about Locksley being his, and for some reason suddenly Robin looked more sure of himself. Even as fear rattled through her, Marian could tell that much even this far from them, from him. The next moment he'd picked up a bucket and tossed a black liquid across the front and back of the armor.
The Sheriff called out, in consternation, asking what he was doing. Giving a voice to the sudden confusion of it seemed like everyone still seated on the dais or standing near it. As Robin retrieved a bow from a nearby haystack, lighting the tip on fire. And everyone caught it at once. It seemed everyone except Guy, who had dropped his visor, and was preparing to charge.
One moment he was charging, and the next the chest plate of the armor was on fire. The men laughing, Daniel cheering, The Sheriff whining and looking to the sky, as the armor clad Guy looked around in a panic. The fire spreading. Across his back. And then his arms. The legs of silver. Her heart still leapt within her, and gave her no pause before the sudden question burst into her thoughts, Was it today? Did he die today?
Dancing in circles through the center of the village, until he spotted the large wash tub, and tipped himself backwards over into it. But that wasn't enough, still. None of this over. Robin charged after him, picking up the sword and following Guy into the water. Guy's helmet and breast plate were thrown from it, and Robin perched on one part, sword at Gisborne throat, calling out to The Sheriff to call off his men.
"Another exchange: The Black Diamonds for Gisborne, and you have him back!" Robin yelled even louder this time. Before saying something quieter, but what looked far more menacing, as suddenly Gisborne was calling out for the Sheriff. Pleading with the man he could not even see as Robin continued to press him under the water.
"You, er," The Sheriff was meandering toward them at best. No rush, no concern. "You seem to have overestimated Gisborne's important to me."
There was no time to think about it, Marian pushed Daniel toward a guard, ordering that he keep the boy safe. Listening as Robin said that not even the Sheriff would let Guy die, raising him to sputter for air, before shoving him back under, while the Sheriff sing-songed that he had everything that he needed right now.
She had walked directly behind The Smith, pulling out the long dagger the man kept in his belt, and twisting it up into his side just short of rending the fabric of his shirt. The man's startlement and sudden pain making it far easier, as she argued straight into a conversation she hadn't been part of, "Sheriff."
"Oh, no. Not again." Vasey complained, distractedly not yet even looking at her.
"Let him live," she persevered, against being ignored and the struggling man in his grip.
"Who?" Vasey said in exasperation, watching as Robin dunked Guy under the water in the tub again.
"Guy." Marian said simply. As thought she were stating the most obvious thing in the world.
Vasey seemed surprised by that, as he finally looked at her. His eyes finding her face, flitting to The Smith in her grasp, and then the long dagger pressed up into his side. He frowned with in a stupified surprise that seemed far greater than his alarm at first. "Marian. What are you doing?"
"I'm asking you to reconsider."
His voice became a hiss. "You are helping Hood."
"On the contrary," Marian responded, pushing the dagger in harder, and making The Smith jump. "I'm reminding you that Sir Guy is your most loyal servant."
Robin at least helped preface her point by letting the struggling Guy up from under the water once more. He pleading, loudly, calling out to Vasey. Robin waited on the Sheriff, sword still at Guy's neck, while he looked between the two of them. And then scowled, "Let him die!"
No. No, that could not happen. Not here. Not now. Because if Guy died now, then Robin would--
"He's a noble and good man." Words flew from her, lies caked in insulted surprise, defending him and trying to shove her surprise at the entire twist of fate. "He must be worth more than a sack of rocks!"
The Sheriff leaned over, taking the bag of rocks from writhing Smith, teeming anger. "I will have those rocks."
"Then I will kill this man," Marian returned coolly even as her tone turned hostile, as she racked her brain for the next step. "Without him.." She twisted the dagger, causing him to cry out in pain, even as she gave a tersely, sharp smile to The Sheriff. "...are the rocks really any use?"
"Er, no. No, they are not." The man in her arms finally found his voice. Fear laced his voice, so very close to her ear. Straining with pain of the point of the dagger, "I am the only man west of Jerusalem who can make them work their magic."
The Sheriff stared her down, thinking, anger glittering in his small black eyes. Robin let Gisborne up again, sending his shouting pleas to Vasey in amid their sudden contest of wills, held only in their eyes. Neither of them even looking at the other two men in the wash tub. He shouted for Gisborne to shut up, still staring at only her, in outraged disbelief.
The sound of Guy being shoved under, again, of struggling, but neither of them looked away.
She jabbed the dagger in to him harder, again, making him cry out in sudden pain, again.
"My Lord!" The Smith started again, even more desperate. "I will get you more rocks!"
The moment ran, anger turning to a dark scowl, dangerous defeat before Vasey tossed the bag of rocks toward the tub and Robin. Before looking back at her again. His voice low, as he stepped toward her, making his words a silky warning, teeth bared, when he said, for only her and the Smith to hear, "You'll be punished for this, Marian. Be no doubt; you'll be punished."
He walked away, back toward the dais, and her grip on the long dagger went slack instantly, releasing the Smith without looking to him. There could be no apologies in this arena. Still. She was left there in the center, some twenty feet from them, watching as Guy clambered from the tub, falling on the ground, coughing and sputtering water, before scrambling up to run beyond her, after the Sheriff, while Robin went for the bag of rocks.
Robin threw the bag to Much, ordering them burned. Much followed the orders, upending the bag into one of the small village cook-fires. But instead of watching it Robin had turned back to her.
They had only seconds to look at each other, allowed no more than a glance of each other, meeting each other’s eyes. Not so much as a nod even could pass between them her, while the rocks exploded in the fire to the far side of them, before she turned away to follow after The Sheriff and Guy. No matter how much might have gone wrong, they had succeeded.