Robin Hood | Thief of Skandia

Chapter 9 (Reunion)

Song: S&M by Rihanna

Halt threw his leg over the pommel and slid to the ground. He stroked Abelard's neck in gratitude. The little horse was barely breathing hard. He was bred to run all day if necessary.

'Robin?' Horace looked at her confusion on his face.

'Hello Horace, nice to see you again.'

Horace clasped her forearm in greeting. 'What are you doing here.'

'Oh you know a little bit of this and a little bit of that.' At everyone's looks she elaborated. 'These guys are fun to drink with.' She shrugged her shoulders, earning a laugh from a few Skandians.

'Who is she Jarl?'

'This is the woman who threatened us from the safety of the trees yesterday.'

She turned to look at him, 'Pity I didn't make do with those threats.' She laughed.

'I thought you said we'd know who you are?' A skandian asked curiously.

'You do.' She paused smiling. 'I'm Robin Hood.'

There was immediately a ring of metal as the Skandians drew their weapons on her, causing her laugh harder.

'What are you going to do kill me on the spot? Then you'd have to drag my dead ass back to Hallasholm to get your reward.'

Halt held up his hands, 'We can deal this later.'

'Did you find the main party?' Will finally asked.

Halt nodded grimly. 'We found them all right.'

'Thousands of them,' Erak added still looking at Hood as if she would attack them at any moment. The Skandians reacted with surprise at the news. Erak silenced them with a gesture.

'There are maybe five or six thousand of them out there, probably heading this way right now.' Once again, there were murmurs of surprise and consternation as he mentioned the numbers. One of the Skandians stepped forward.

'What do they want, Erak?' he asked. 'What are they doing here?'

But it was the Ranger who answered the question: 'They want what they always want,' he said grimly. 'They want your land. And they're here to take it from you.'

His audience looked from one to the other. Then Erak decided it was time he took command of the situation.

'Well, they'll find we're a tough nut to crack,' he declared. He swept his battleaxe in a small arc to indicate the fort behind them. 'We'll hold the fort here and delay them while one of us takes word back to Hallasholm,' he said. 'There may be five thousand of them, but they can only come at us in small numbers through the pass. We should be able to hold them for four or five days at least.'

There was a growl of assent from the Skandians, and several of them swept their axes through the air in experimental patterns. The Jarl was growing in confidence now that he had a definite plan of action. And it was the sort of plan that appealed to the Skandian mind: simple, uncomplicated, easy to put into effect and with a degree of mayhem involved. He looked at Halt, who was watching him in silence, leaning on the man-high longbow.

'We'll trouble you for the use of the horse again,' he said, nodding towards the horse he'd been riding. 'I'll send one of my men back to Hallasholm on it to raise the alarm. The rest of us will stay here and fight.' Again, there was a savage growl from the Skandians in response. The Jarl continued: 'As for you, you can stay and fight with us or go on your way. It's of no consequence to me.'

'I'm staying.' Robin Hood declared. Looking down the point of a Skandians sword glaring at him.

'But if you don't get that sword out of my face I'll kill you.' She threatened with a grin and Erak quickly stepped in.

'If you even think about killing one of my men, I will brain you with my axe.'

'How about we have a little wrestling match, Skipper? Just for fun.' She drawled, face slack but eyes showing the grin she felt. Robin knew she would loose to him, when two people were equally matched the larger would usually win, but that didn't stop her from challenging the man.

Meanwhile, Halt shook his head, a look of bitter disappointment on his face.

'It's too late for us to go now,' he said simply. He turned to his three young companions and shrugged apologetically. 'The Temujai main force lies right across our path back to Teutlandt. We've no choice but to stay here.'

Will exchanged glances with Evanlyn and Horace. He felt a sinking in the pit of his stomach. They had been so close to escaping, so close to going home.

'It's my fault,' Halt continued, addressing his words to the two former captives. 'I should have got you out straight away, instead of going to see what the Temujai were up to. I thought, at worst, it would be a reconnaissance in force. I had no idea it was an invasion.'

'It's all right, Halt,' Will told him. He hated to see his mentor apologising or blaming himself. In Will's eyes, Halt could do no wrong. Horace hurried to agree with him.

'We'll stay here and hold them back with the Skandians,' he said, and one of the sea wolf warriors close by him slapped him heartily on the back.

'That's the spirit, boy!' he said and several others chorused their approval of Horace's intentions. But Halt shook his head.

'Nobody should stay here. There's no point.'

That brought howls of anger and derision from the Skandians. Erak silenced them and stepped forward, staring down at the slight figure in the grey cloak.

'Yes, there's a point,' he said, in an ominously quiet tone. 'We'll hold them here until Ragnak can muster the main force to relieve us. There are twenty of us. That should be more than enough to hold the little beggars off for a while. It won't be like when they slaughtered the garrison here. There were only a dozen men here then. We'll hold them off, or we'll die in the attempt. It's of no consequence to us as long as we delay them for three or four days.'

'You won't last three or four hours,' Halt said flatly, and an ugly silence fell over the small group. The Skandians were too shocked by the enormity of his insult to reply. Erak was the first to recover.

'If you believe that,' he said grimly, 'then you have never seen Skandians fight, my friend.' The last two words carried an enormous weight of sarcasm and dismissal. Now the other Skandians found their voices and an angry chorus grew up, as they agreed with Erak and jeered at Halt.

The Ranger waited patiently for the infuriated shouting to die down.

He was uncowed by the Skandians' anger at his words.

Finally they fell silent.