AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The guard’s helmet had fallen off, and that’s when I noticed he was no older than Griff himself. No more than a young lad. Perhaps even someone Griff might have known in a past life, if their paths had gone different directions.
A tug of guilt and pity bloomed inside me.
I took Griff by the arm and lifted him, giving a stern nod to the lady who had protected him with nothing but her body. The one ready to get struck down.
She took off running into the crowd, and I didn’t try to stop her.
Griff took my hand, jumped to his feet, and limped alongside me. “Much is over there somewhere!” He pointed in the direction of the madness all around us.
“Let’s go!” I called out, voice hoarse over the cacophony of swords and screams. Fleeing townsfolk ran into me, unbalancing my gait. Griff bounced like a hare in spring and I had trouble keeping up.
A hand wrapped around my arm and I twirled, ready to stab—
The shocked, grimy face of Rosco stared at me in terror. “It’s proper bedlam in here, tiny lord, let’s—”
“My people are here, Rosco! I can’t go.”
His throat bobbed as he nodded. “You’re a real sharp bitch, aren’t you?”
I smirked at his lack of propriety. Just how storytellers had no use for humility, guttersnipes had no use for politeness.
Still, I was confused at what he was talking about, and he noticed the lines of puzzlement etched onto my forehead.
“The arrows, lady,” he explained, squeezing my arm. “I saw what you did to the hangman with those arrows.”
I shook my head. My throat was dry, my lips parched and cracking. A dull throb pulsed behind my eyes, yet I tried to focus on his face. “I . . . That wasn’t me!”
Rosco reeled. “What’s that now?”
I looked around at the madness, and noticed Griff was nowhere to be seen. He had vanished into a pocket of the crowd where the fighting was heaviest near the raised stage.
The staging area was getting packed full of fighters. It’s where I needed to be.
Yet another shadow in my peripheral vision made me hesitate. I saw where the shadow fled off to, and once I spent a moment to calculate everything and get my bearings intact, I instinctively moved in the direction of the fleeing shadow.
“Lady, the fight is over ther—”
I shrugged Rosco off me and pushed him hard in the chest. “Stay out of that brawl, man! Your job is to help as many people as you can stay safe. Don’t let anymore innocents lose their lives!”
The orphan blinked. “Well fuck me, tiny lord! None of us is innocent!”
I smiled, winking. As he started skipping away and flashed me a smirk, I muttered to myself, “Don’t I know it, guttersnipe.”
He melded into the nearest crowd, next to the huge circular fountain in the town square—crammed with scared peasants and angry, roused soldiers scuffing up whoever looked like they may be a bandit.
I didn’t even recognize some of the people fighting the guards. Hell, most of the people fighting the guards.
I tossed the curious thought aside and darted in a different direction than Griff or Rosco had gone, thinking to myself, I only have one chance at this. Have to make it count.
Chapter 28
Friar Tuck
My fists swung of their own volition, battle-lust surging through me for the first time in ages. I felt alive and awful at the devastation that came from Atonement and Discipline.
This was why I had never made a good priest. My penchant for gambling, drinking, and violence always got the better of me.
And now, my fists sang.
