A World That Will Not Turn to Ash (English)(From Ashes Vol.1)

Chapter 7: Search

Guy leaned against the wall of the cave and he closed his eyes for a moment to avert a sense of vertigo.
He walked only a few steps to get to the entrance of the cave, and yet he felt so weak that he had the impression of being on the verge of losing consciousness.
He allowed himself a kind of wry smile at the idea: in those last days he had been unconscious for so long that passing out again wouldn't be hardly new.
He opened his eyes and he took another step, just enough to look out, and he was forced to shield them with his hand, dazzled by sunlight.
He crawled out of the cave and looked around, trying to figure out where he was: around him there were only trees and bushes. In the distance he could hear the murmur of the river and the sound of it made his stomach tighten, reminding him the time when he had been dragged to the edge of the precipice and they tried to put the noose around his neck, with the river that was raging at the bottom of the cliff.
A hand touched his shoulder and Guy screamed in terror. He made a sudden movement to escape that contact, but he lost his balance and fell to the ground, gasping in pain.
"Quiet, son, it's me." Tuck said, holding out a hand to help. "I didn't mean to scare you."
Guy nodded briefly, but he made no move to take the hand of the monk and he tried to get up by himself.
Tuck didn't take offense for that gesture of refusal, he merely lowered his hand again with a smile and sat down on a fallen log nearby, inviting the other to imitate him with a nod.
This time Guy accepted the invitation and staggered up to the trunk, hurrying to sit before he lose his strength and he risked falling again.
Tuck watched him carefully: he was pale as a ghost and he seemed to be just back from the grave, but, for the first time since he had rescued him, his eyes seemed to be more present, free from feverish delirium and dizziness and he had managed to get out of bed on his own and take a few steps.
"It seems to me that you are feeling a bit better."
Guy looked down at his chest and he touched the wound left by the blade of the knife, following the length of it with the tip of a finger: just a few centimeters below and it would have pierced his heart.
The cut had been closed with neat stitches and, although it still hurt, the wound was dry and it didn't show signs of infection.
"It's healing." He said, amazed. "How..."
"It's been almost two weeks since I found you."
Guy looked at him incredulously and Tuck gave a small nod to confirm his words.
"For a few days I feared that you wouldn't survive, then the fever broke, but you still slept most of the time. You lost a lot of blood and suffered a lot, your body needed time to begin to heal. Do you still feel a lot of pain?"
Gisborne looked at the friar, wary. After being tortured and almost killed, his first instinct would have been to flee somewhere isolated and lonely and hold off any other human being. Earlier, when Tuck had touched his shoulder, Gisborne had felt his heart racing wildly while a creeping sense of cold had threatened to paralyze him.
But the open and serene expression of the monk wasn't threatening at all and Guy vaguely remembered his reassuring presence between all the nightmares and the delusions of the previous days.
"Yes." He answered. "But it's bearable."
"Unfortunately, the wounds inflicted by a whipping aren't quick to heal. Who did this to you?"
Guy looked away from Tuck and shook his head.
"I don't think I want to talk about it."
Tuck stared for a second, and preferred not to insist. His question brought new shadows on the face of the other man, and the friar didn't want to upset him further.
"No matter, son, but remember that I am always willing to listen."
Gisborne was clutching his arms around his body as if he was feeling cold even though the warmth of the sun was quite pleasant that morning and Tuck took off the cloak he was wearing and placed it on his shoulders without a word.
Guy winced when he felt the touch of the fabric on his wounded back, but he wrapped himself in the cloak, hoping to warm up a little.
"Why do you do that?" He asked abruptly and Tuck looked at him, questioningly.
"What?"
"Why did you help me? For all you know I may have deserved that. You may have saved a criminal from a deserved death penalty, how do you know that you didn't?"
"I don't know it." The monk replied, quietly. "I do not even know your name. You needed treatment and I have given it to you, that's all. Saving your life was my decision and it has nothing to do with your merits or your sins. Those are only between you and the Lord. If you desire it, I can offer you the comfort of confession, but that's your choice."
Guy stood up abruptly, ignoring the pain caused by the sudden move. The words of the friar had troubled him deeply but he could not make out the emotions that stirred within him. He would not talk to Tuck or seek divine forgiveness that he surely didn't deserve and he could not think straight. He felt like a wounded animal who only wanted to hole up somewhere to be able to lick his wounds in solitude, like a dog kicked and made angry and distrustful by pain.
The sheriff's dog...
Guy felt the gaze of the monk upon himself and something inside him made him feel uncomfortable, as if he was forced to somehow justify his rude behavior.
"I'm tired." He muttered, returning to the cave, and in uttering them, he realized that those words were truer than he had thought.
He was tired and suffering in body and soul.
He dropped on the bed and curled up on his side wrapping himself in the cloak, then he stood staring at the flames of the fire, trying not to think about anything.

Allan could already see Locksley in the distance at the end of the road, but he did nothing to speed up the pace of his horse. Instead, the two men who were with him seemed eager to reach their destination and Allan thought they must have been tired and hungry after spending all day riding.
He was exhausted, but he had no appetite at all even if he and his companions had only consumed a frugal meal of bread and cheese during the day.
The two men weren't soldiers or knights although they carried daggers, they were just two of the servants who worked in Locksley. Allan had chosen them because they seemed to be stronger than their peers, but in a dangerous situation he knew he couldn't rely on them.
If they had found what they were looking for, their strength would be helpful, but that day their search had been fruitless and he had no desire to tell it to Marian.
Eventually they arrived in Locksley and Allan noticed that the girl was in the doorway waiting for their return. He also saw that a glance was enough for Marian to understand their failure: her anxious eyes had died suddenly, and her face had returned to take the blank and distant expression that it seemed to have become part of her.
Allan dismounted and gave the horse to one of the grooms.
"Nothing?" Marian asked, going towards him.
"No. Not even a trace."
"I understand." She said flatly. "Tomorrow you will try again."
Allan sighed.
"Marian..."
The girl looked at him, her eyes lit by a trace of the ancient ardor.
"I know what you mean, but I don't care! Tomorrow you will start searching again."
Allan sighed.
"For how long, Marian?"
"For as long as necessary. You will continue to look until you find him and if you do not want to do it, I'll do it personally!"
"No!" Allan protested. "You won't. The forest is no longer a safe place, not for a noble, at least. The outlaws who killed Gisborne have made at least one other victim last week, I heard about it this morning, on the way to Clun. That people continue to attack travelers to rob and kill all those who seem to have a connection with Nottingham."
Marian was startled to hear the words of Allan, both for the horrible news he carried, but also for the fact that the young man now seemed to have accepted the death of Guy as a fact.
"Who was killed?" Marian asked, sadly.
"Apparently a poor man who had no guilt but to be the younger brother of one of the allies of the sheriff. They say he was little more than a boy and he was found drowned in a stream, with hands and feet bound so he could not try to save himself."
Marian shook her head, with tears in her eyes.
"We must do something to stop them. The Nightwatchman might..."
Allan grabbed her arms and shook her.
"The Nightwatchman will do nothing! You won't do anything like that, you won't even get near the forest!" Allan cried, his tone made threatening by panic, then he realized that he exaggerated and he let Marian go. "I'm sorry."
The girl looked at him, surprised by that vehement reaction, but she had lost the strength to protest. Instead, she felt like crying.
"Those murderers can't be allowed to do whatever they want..." She whispered, trying to fight back the tears, but they now had begun to fall on her face and she couldn't stop them.
"The sheriff is furious, his guards continue to patrol the forest and I know that Robin is trying to find out who they are, but no one has yet managed to find them: they hit their victims and then they seem to vanish into thin air. They are too dangerous, so you have to stay here. Your father needs you, he would die if something happened to you."
"But they keep attacking people!" Marian cried, then she lowered her voice and she looked at Allan with horror. "They killed Guy..."
"And if you care to respect his memory you must stay in Locksley." He said. "When he was alive, Gisborne has always tried to protect you. He wouldn't want you to get killed because of his death."
Marian was going to tell him that she wasn't going to be killed for sure, but she suddenly realized that she had once thought the same thing about Guy and probably that was the reason why she was struggling so much to accept his death.
If he had died like that, what would prevent the bandits to kill her too?
For the first time Marian was to face her own mortality and that idea terrified her.
"Allan... I'm putting you in danger too?" She asked, seized by a sudden thought.
"I doubt that they know that I worked for Gisborne and whenever we go into the forest I pay attention to wear common clothes. They wouldn't attack three simple travelers, their victims are the nobles and the soldiers of Nottingham."
Marian wiped her tears, in vain because she could not stop crying.
"I know it's stupid and I shouldn't ask you to take this risk, but I can't accept it... I can never really believe it until I see it with my own eyes."
Allan blinked to try to hide the emotion, but he failed.
"It's been a long time, and the forest is full of animals... There might be not much left..." He paused seeing that Marian had paled at his words, but she said nothing and he spoke again "But I will not stop trying. It's a promise: the body of Guy of Gisborne will have a proper burial."