Lion Heart (2 page)

Thomas's hold grew lighter at the mention of my father.

“Yes, your father has done
so
much to show he loves you,
hasn't he?” Prince John mocked.

I frowned.

“But you're right. My brother has quite the temper,” he told me, still smiling, weighing the stone in his hand. “I wonder what I should do about that.”

“Run,” I told him, glaring over Thomas's shoulder.

He smiled in his dark way and toyed with the chain of the necklace. “You keep assuming that I won't dare kill you, Marian. You think I am so frightened of my mother's disapproval and my brother's wrath that it will stay my hand. But she has changed her mind before, and kings will come and go. You may have noble blood, but you are a common thing. You see the world as fixed and finite, and it is not. It is liquid and ever moving, and one act can change everything.”

My blood rushed to ice in my veins, and I didn't say anything.

“Your father has been captured, Marian,” he told me, his words slithering out from his evil smile. “Held ransom by the Holy Roman Emperor. He will never set foot in England again—so just imagine what I would do to you now.”

Thomas's hands squeezed harder.

Prince John chuckled. “Guards, come along. I need to speak with you both about her
arrangements
.”

Thomas held me until David and the prince were out of the cell, and then he locked the door behind me.

I sat back down on the ground, breathing hard.

It weren't long when Thomas and David came back, now without the prince. I tucked the rock into my sleeve, standing to meet them.

“Where are we going?” I asked. If they were planning to kill me, it would be best to do it here. Caged and in close quarters, I'd be less likely to get away. And I weren't big enough that they'd worry about the weight of carrying me out. I glanced at their weapons. They both had their knives drawn, but not their swords.

“We're just moving you,” David said, nodding to me, trying to calm me like I were an animal. “I believe the prince was only trying to scare you, my lady.”

“Stop calling her ‘my lady,'” Thomas snapped. “She's a traitor to the Crown.”

David bristled. “She's a princess,” he returned. “Something you ought to remember, sir.”

“Open the gate,” Thomas ordered. He were shifting his weight, foot to foot. Restless. Ready.

David frowned, noticing it as well. “What did you and the prince discuss, Thomas?”

“When?” he said, but he were a bad liar.

“When I left to call for the prince's horse,” David said.

“Open the gate,” I told David soft.

“I asked you a question, sir,” David told Thomas, raising his knife and resting his hand on his sword hilt.

Thomas turned to David. “Don't get in the way,” he warned him, shaking his head slow.

“Of what?” David asked, lowering his stance. He were ready for the fight that were coming, but Thomas were the brute of the two of them. In the narrow space of the hall, I didn't want to watch David die.

“Open the gate, David, please!” I called, coming closer.

This distracted Thomas for a moment, and David raised his foot and kicked him hard. Thomas reeled back and stopped, charging at David with a roar.

There weren't nowhere for them to fight. Thomas heaved David up against the stone wall, and when David swiped at him with the knife, Thomas jumped back.

“You know what we have to do!”  Thomas shouted, drawing his sword. “We are the prince's knights; we must obey his orders!”

David shook his head, holding fast to his knife. “Those are not my orders.”

“He knew you wouldn't agree to kill her!”

“Then why did you?” David demanded. “I will put you down if I must, Thomas. For all the time we have served together, do not make me do it.”

“You think a few months of following this girl around
makes us brothers?” he snarled.

“The oath we swore as knights makes us brothers.”

“The oath we swore demands we obey him!” Thomas said, lunging forward.

David jumped into his lunge, grabbing Thomas's hand and slamming the sword and Thomas's wrist against the iron door. David tried to stab Thomas, but Thomas grabbed David's wrist and they held, trembling with the force of fighting against each other's strength.

“I never swore an oath to the prince,” David growled. “I swore an oath to the queen mother.”

I slammed the rock shard as hard as I could against Thomas's captive hand, still holding the sword. The rock caught and tore, blood rushing out.

Thomas yelled and dropped the sword. His hold lost strength, and David's hand pushed forward, stabbing him in the side where his armor didn't cover.

Thomas tried to reach for his own knife, but David punched him across the face. Thomas hit the stone wall and slid down it. He didn't get up, though I saw his chest move with breath as the red spread out beneath him.

“Come along, my lady,” David said, fumbling with his keys to get the door open.

“You're one of my grandmother's knights?” I asked him.

He looked up at me, nodding. The key clicked and the door opened, but I didn't move.

“She knew where I were the whole time?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No. She told me contacting her would be too dangerous; we couldn't risk Prince John questioning my loyalty. But she told me to protect you at any cost.”

I shivered, nodding and coming out of the cell. He took off his heavy cloak and wrapped it round me. I pulled it tight. “Can you take me to her?”

He nodded. “Yes, my lady.”

I stopped. “I'm sorry you had to do that, David.”

His mouth were tight. He didn't lie and say it were fine, that he were glad to do it. He gave me a sharp nod, I reckon more so I knew he heard me than anything else.

“Thank you,” I told him.

He sighed. “We should go.”

I nodded, crouching and taking Thomas's sword from his still body, and capturing his knife besides. I stood, and David led me down the hall to a larger chamber that guarded the hallway. There were a door there, and I could just see the dark night out beyond it.

“Stay back,” he murmured to me. “The castle is well guarded. I don't know how much they know of what was meant to happen.”

“Let me help,” I told him. “You can't fight them
alone.”

His mouth settled into a grim line. “You aren't strong enough for that, my lady. And there are too many of them.”

“They may not know that it were meant to be you and Thomas,” I told him.

He looked at me. “We can't risk it if they do.”

I sighed. “Where are we?” I asked him.

“Bramber Castle,” he told me. “Sussex. We're only a few hours' ride to London.”

I opened the door, looking out. There were two horses, and affixed behind one of them were a cart filled with hay and a white cloth, the perfect size to hold a person. I shivered.

“What did you think that were for?” I asked him.

He shook his head. “That wasn't out there before. Thomas must have ordered it hooked up to the horses.” He looked at me.

“But why would he want my body?” I asked.

“Maybe Prince John wanted . . . proof,” he said slow.

I nodded, shutting the door. “Of course he would. Which also limits the time we have until Prince John discovers what's been done.”

“Not necessarily,” David said. “He wouldn't have wanted to risk being seen in public with your body. Thomas must have had another location to meet
him. I can forge Thomas's hand well enough and send Prince John a letter.”

“But the guards here still need to believe it,” I told him. I looked down the hallway to where the cell were at the end. “But I may have an idea for that.”

David looked at me and crossed himself.

“What?” I asked.

“My lady, I find this quite chilling.”

I touched my face. I'd rubbed mud from the cell on my skin, letting it dry gray and white, before smearing Thomas's blood on me, spattering it on my face. To anyone who saw, I would look truly dead.

I looked at my hands, paler than usual and chalky looking, with blood on them. A dead man's blood. “Yes,” I told him. “Well, that is the idea.”

He nodded, and with a sigh, he put his arm around my back and crouched to sweep under my knees. He picked me up and carried me to the end of the hall. “Remember,” he told me. “Try to move—and breathe—as little as possible.”

I nodded, shutting my eyes and letting my head fall limp in his arms, craning back at an awkward angle.

The door creaked open, and I felt the chill of the night air around me. It were late spring now, months since the winter when I'd first been imprisoned, but
the nights still held a chill, like the sun couldn't quite keep its hold on the world.

My hand slipped from my stomach, stretching out at an awkward angle, but I didn't dare move. I didn't know who were in the courtyard with us.

“Move the sheet,” David ordered someone. I heard rustling, and David lowered my body onto the hay. It were sharp and hostile, poking into skin that weren't supposed to be able to feel it. I felt a harder weight beneath me—David had put Thomas's sword and knife in the cart before me. I couldn't move enough to grab them, but knowing they were there were a comfort.

“Christ,” another voice murmured. “She's a child. Who was she?”

“You're not paid for your interest, sir,” David said sharply. “This letter must be taken to the prince immediately. Have your messenger see it directly into his hands, do you understand?”

The cloth came down over my face, pitching me deeper into darkness, and I opened my eyes a hair, cautious. I couldn't see anything, which should mean they couldn't see me.

“Yes, sir.”

“Tell them to open the gate,” he ordered.

“Yes, sir.”

Moments later, the cart started to move slow, only to stop again after a short distance. I felt a low shaking
and wondered if they were raising the portcullis.

“Where's the other fellow?” someone asked.

“We had some difficulty with the prisoner,” David said. “See that your priest gives him a proper burial.”

There were some low noises I couldn't make out.

The shaking stopped with a metal grunt, and the cart began to move again.

After a few moments, I heard the portcullis shudder closed behind us. As we rode out, I knew we were near the ocean. I could feel it in my bones, and I could smell the salt in the air, laced with peat smoke, like I had fallen into the ocean blue of Rob's eyes. It were as if Robin were there, behind me, beside me, just out of my sight, but when I turned to look at him, there were only darkness.

I nodded off at one point, and woke as we were slowing down. I tugged the sheet down careful so I could see out a tiny sliver.

We were in the woods, on a path wide enough to hold the cart. I couldn't see anyone else. “David?” I called.