Sherwood (18 page)

Harlow laughed, this time indulging in
her normal laugh instead of the masculine one she'd been using for
months. She could tell it caught Enders by surprise at first, but
his smiled showed that he had been delighted by the
sound.

Silence returned gradually. "I'm
scared he'll send you home." Enders confessed, looking up at the
night sky.

Harlow shook her head, trying to keep
from looking at him. "There's no home to go back to.”

Enders drew his eyebrows together in
confusion. “What do you mean?”

"King Wesley's men came through the
village and destroyed it. There were only four survivors," Harlow
said, taking in a deep breath, "because they were looking for
outlaws. My father fled before they could find him. Apparently his
name came up as the men were torturing the villagers."

Enders nodded, "Oh. I'm sorry for your
loss."

Harlow decided it was better not to
tell that she wasn't too hurt by the incident. No one had enjoyed
her presence anyway, but she knew they hadn't deserved to
die.

The two let the silence fill the air
between the, this time much more comfortable than the
last.

"I can't stay out of the unit." Harlow
said quietly.

Enders turned his head to her and
placing his arms under his head. "I know."

"This is bigger than you and me now,"
Harlow looked up over the horizon. "This is about a whole nation of
people, an entire kingdom."

Enders felt his jaw go slack just a
little bit. "What are you saying?"

Harlow kept her eyes forward, refusing
to let herself be swayed by Enders' devastation. "I'm the only one
who has the right to stop him." Finally she turned her head to
Enders, who sat defeated.

He nodded and looked over the lake,
his jaw tensing up and irritation scaling his face again. "I'm
going to go back to the cabin and sleep," he said, standing up,
"You should do the same, Princess."

Harlow nodded, disliking the
affectionate term. "I'll be there soon."

She saw Enders nod and turn his back,
walking out of the forest and out of her sight.

She scolded herself for letting him
find out about the secret she'd tried so hard to hide.

She scolded herself for telling him
about the family history she tried so desperately to
forget.

She had told herself not to
get close to
anyone
.

Of course, she didn't understand
exactly how hard that would prove to be.

Chapter
Sixteen

"Get up, McBride," Robin called out as
he walked past Enders and Harlow training together. They hadn't
spoken about the incident since the previous night.

Enders was still being his nice,
gentle, charming self to her, but he'd been oddly
distant.

He held out his hand to her, offering
her help to stand up. Harlow grabbed it gratefully and pulled
herself upward.

"You ready?" Enders asked again,
getting ready for another round. Other recruits were also training,
but they weren't going for as long as Enders and Harlow had been.
It had been several hours since they'd started training together
that day.

Harlow nodded, refusing to admit that
she was tired.

Enders readied himself for the
offensive side, when a shout rang out throughout the entire forest.
"Open the gates!"

A man with broad shoulders and looked
like he had two hundred pounds in muscle alone, ran toward the door
pulley and started to yank it downward.

Harlow noticed Robin run as fast as he
could to the gates, Little John, Will Scarlett, and her father in
hot pursuit of him. They neared the gates and waited for the oak
doors to open.

A bloodied and beaten man sat upon a
horse that rushed into the gates, the burly man yanking the pulley
level the opposite direction to close the doors.

The beaten man was hanging like a rag
doll off of the horse, his eyes lolling around in his head. He was
barely conscious.

"Who did this to you?" Robin was the
first person to reach him, trying to hold him up enough.

"They attacked Nottingham Village.
They're headed this way." The man said, trying to keep himself
awake and propped up.

"Who?" Robin asked, trying to undo the
saddle of the horse. "John, take the horse to our stables, get him
fixed up. "

The man came off the horse and
stumbled into Robin Hood and Harrison

McBride. "The king and his
men."

Harlow's eyes widened in horror. She
let her eyes fall on her father who tried to hold the man up with
Robin Hood.

"What were they looking for?" She
heard her father ask the man, his voice cautious and
apprehensive.

"Outlaws of Sherwood. They mentioned a
man named McBride." The man said, his eyes still
unfocused.

Harrison turned his eyes away from the
man and locked them onto Harlow's. The contact was nonverbal but it
told her so much. They wanted the Outlaws, and everyone associated
with them, dead.

"They're headed this way?" Robin
asked, holding the man up.

The man took a moment to cough and
wheeze. "Aye," He coughed again. "They said they were headed
through Sherwood."

Robin looked over to a woman standing
nearby. "Evie, go to the nursing cabin and get supplies ready to
help this man." The woman nodded and scurried off. "John, take this
man to the cabin that Evie is going to."

Little John stepped closer and grabbed
the man, practically dragging him to the cabin.

Robin surveyed the recruits for a
moment, as if unsure exactly what to do.

"This is it men," Robin announced,
causing Harlow's blood to quiver. "Today is the beginning of the
war."

Chapter
Seventeen

"Everyone get your weaponry and meet
back here in two minutes!" Nobody moved. "Now!" Robin bared,
causing everyone to rush off.

Harlow noticed Enders rush off toward
the cabin, but Harlow didn't move. She had her eyes glued on the
sad state of her father. She felt Enders grab her arm and drag her
with him.

She ran mindlessly with Enders until
they reached their cabin, grabbing the weaponry they'd had stashed
there. Enders grabbed his bow and arrows as well as a sword. Harlow
opted for knives and other small, throwing objects; it wasn't in
her nature to use swords and bows.

Enders found himself dragging her
along again. That was until her brain kicked into overdrive and she
was able to think.

This was it.

It was time to prove herself to
everyone, including her father.

She started racing alongside Enders,
without his constant pulling on her arm. She only stopped when she
saw her father running toward the training area.

"Father!" She shouted, running toward
him and away from Enders, who followed right behind her.

"Henry," Her father called to her as
she jogged over. "Are you sure you can do this?"

Harlow nodded. "I can do this on my
own. We need you somewhere else." She said, looking
around.

"Henry, I'll be fine." Her father
said, looking at her.

"No, Father," Harlow started, looking
at him carefully. "You don't understand. We can handle this by
ourselves. That's the second village that has been attacked. You
need to head out and warn the other villages. Bring as many
refugees here as possible." Harlow said, looking over her shoulder
at Robin Hood.

Her father had stayed quiet and simply
looked at her for a few seconds. "Father, you're more useful trying
to evacuate the citizens than you are here."

"Then you'll come with me," Her father
said, about to walk past her and toward Robin.

"No, Father." She said, turning toward
him. "If I plan on leading these people, I need to be able to
protect them," She said, pushing her sleeves up. "I can do
this."

Her father paled slightly,
understanding what Harlow meant. "Lead these people?"

Harlow nodded and swallowed. "Evacuate
the other villages, General McBride. Take Coors and Landon with you
as a unit."

Her father stared silently for a
moment. Slowly, he nodded, tears threatening his eyes. “As you
command, Princess.”

Harlow stepped forward and engulfed
her father in a hug. "Be careful."

Harrison McBride laughed. "You as
well, my child." He held on for a moment longer. "I love you,
Harlow."

"I love you, too." She responded,
breaking free of the hug and turning her back to her father,
rushing off with Enders at her side.

Robin had just begun a speech about
which direction they'd be going in and what strategy they would
use. "We're splitting into two groups," he shouted, "We'll attack
from the left and right sides. We don't want any of our blood
spilled, so be careful. If they retreat, let them run."

Harlow listened intently as Robin
rattled off the groups that would be taking each position. Enders,
Harlow, Robin, Reggie, Little John, and Candor all shared a group
with two dozen other recruits that Harlow hadn't
remembered.

Everything had happened so fast,
Sherwood citizens running around gathering their things together
before the men set off.

Then, they were in the forest. That's
when Harlow's brain seemed to click back on. The fuzzy, blurry
feeling wore off and she was suddenly aware of everything going on
around her. The wind blew gently, brushing against her face. She
took step by boring step and waited for something to happen.
Instead, the minutes dragged on like hours and every noise made her
more alert.

Robin Hood stood at the back of the
group with several of the more experienced archers, in the front
were some of the experienced swordsmen, and standing in the middle
of the group were some of the people who could do either swordplay
or archery with great skill. Harlow was placed in the middle, given
her excellence with knives and other objects that were light enough
to be thrown. Just behind her, the archers stood, Aldridge
following her as the group tried to pack themselves
together.

Every snap and twig made Enders
twitch, Harlow noticed. He was nervous, but he was alert, and that
was one of his better traits.

It was then that Harlow heard the snap
of a renegade twig in the distance. It was too close to be the
other group of outlaws, but too distant to be anyone in this group.
Everyone seemed to become ten times more alert and awake at the
sound.

"Left," Robin had whispered just loud
enough for every to hear, everyone making a left turn and going
down an old, abandoned dirt pathway.

"Stop!" He immediately shouted and
turned behind him. Everyone in the group turned to face him, more
alert than ever.

Robin held a man at arrow-point before
him. The man was dressed in kingdom armor, a small beard covering
his chin. He held his hand up defensively, dropping his sword to
the ground.

Harlow raised an eyebrow. "Enders," he
didn't answer but she knew he was listening, "Kings men never give
up that fast. This isn't right."

"Who are you?" Robin demanded from the
man.

"I'm a soldier for the kings army."
the man answered, his voice shaking in cowardice.

"They never give up any information.
The men would rather die. This isn't how the king trains his men."
Harlow said quietly to Enders. Enders had raised an eyebrow at this
point and started looking to his left and right sides.

"You're right." He said
simply.

Harlow felt her heart skip a beat as
she realized what was happening. "He's a distraction."

The man that Robin held at arrow-point
started to smile wickedly now, looking beyond all the
men.

Harlow noticed the behavior and turned
around to see a swarm of men in soldiers dress. They held their
swords and archery bows out and at the ready.

All the outlaws had turned around and
started to stare at the scene before them. Everyone's blood curled
with an acceptable degree of fear.

"Sire," One of the me called in a
masculine, burly voice. "We've found the outlaws."

The sounds of a horse trotting came to
Harlow's ears as she stood in awe. She'd taken out her throwing
knives and held them ready in her hand below the soldier's
eyesight.

In front of them trotted the King,
sitting in a golden saddle that seemed to weigh the horse down,
even though it was muscular.

"Outlaws," the king sneered, a wicked
smile on his face. "How nice of you to find my sweet forest a
humble abode."

No one spoke, probably because they
were contemplating how to survive this impending
massacre.

"Now, I'll make this quick and
painless for you." King Wesley said, looking through the crowd.
Harlow tried to hide her face for fear that he might know who she
was. "Which of you is Robin Hood?"