Robin Hood | Thief of Skandia

Chapter 18 (Slagor)

Song: Beggin' by Måneskin

Robin Hood was sitting cross-legged on a chair in Halt's quarters. Erak was in the room too obviously. His bulky body seeming to fill most spaces he occupied. He was sprawled in one of the comfortable, carved wood armchairs that decorated the room – doubtless liberated on some wolfship raid down the coast. Halt was standing by the window, framed against the low-angled light of the late afternoon. Evanlyn was standing to the back of the room.

All of the Araluan party had been assigned rooms in the main hall. As Halt was their leader, he had been given a small suite of three rooms. Midst their discussion, someone knocked perfunctorily on the door and Halt gruffly replied: 'Come.'

Erak looked quizzically at the doorway as the Will and Horace entered hurriedly.

'Halt,' Will began urgently, 'Horace says Evanlyn's disappeared. She's –'

'Safe and sound and back in Hallasholm,' a familiar voice finished the sentence for him. Both boys turned to the speaker. Standing a little back, in the shadows of the room, she hadn't been evident as they'd entered.

'Evanlyn!' Horace exclaimed. 'You're all right!'

The girl smiled. Her eyes met his and she smiled at him, a little wistfully. Then she upended the flask of juice that she had in her hand and drank greedily from it.

'Apparently,' she said, setting the flask down. 'Although I have a thirst on me that I doubt I'll ever quench. All I've had to drink in the last eighteen hours was a little rainwater that made its way through the canvas covers over the ...' She hesitated and looked to Erak to supply the word she was after. The Jarl obliged.

'Forepeak,' Erak and Robin said at the same time and Evanlyn repeated the word.

'Forepeak, exactly, of Slagor's ship,' she said. Will and Horace exchanged puzzled glances.

'What in the devil's name were you doing there?' Will asked and Halt answered for her.

'The devil's name is right,' he said. 'It seems our friend Slagor has sold out to the Temujai – and he's planning to betray Hallasholm to them.'

'What?' asked Will, his voice almost cracking with surprise. He looked at Evanlyn. 'How do you know?'

The girl shrugged her slim shoulders. 'Because I heard him discussing it with the Temujai leader. They were barely two metres away from me.'

'It seems,' Halt put in, by way of explanation, 'that your old friend Slagor sailed down the coast yesterday to a rendezvous with the Temujai Shan – one Haz'kam. And since our traitor obviously didn't trust his new allies too far, he insisted on all negotiations being carried out on board his ship – just to keep Haz'kam's retainers at a distance.'

'Which is how I came to hear it,' Evanlyn finished. But now Horace was scratching his head in bewilderment.

'But ... what were you doing on the ship?' he said.

'I told you,' Evanlyn replied. 'Eavesdropping on Slagor and the Temujai.'

Horace made an impatient gesture. 'Yes, yes, so you've said. But why were you there in the first place?'

Evanlyn went to answer, hesitated, then stopped altogether. All eyes in the room were on her now and she realised she didn't really have a logical answer to that question.

'I ... don't know,' she said, finally. 'I was bored, I guess. And feeling useless. I was looking for something to do. And besides, Slagor looked sort of ... shifty.'