The daub wall were rough against my back. Sneaking slow, I went to the wooden post at the corner and peered around it.

I whipped my head back, the breath rushing from my chest. I froze.

“I expect this will garner results, Gisbourne.”

The name burned through me like a falling star. My throat felt like a hand were closing hard around it, pressing my pipes in, strapping my lungs closed.

I hadn’t seen him in four years, and now here he were, less than an arm’s length ’way from me. I’d run from him and kept running, and now it seemed fate’d run straight back around to slam our lives together.

“If by ‘results’ you mean a gang of thieves to string up while the adoring people watch, I assure you it will,” came the smooth, dark voice.

I screwed my eyes shut; his voice ate through me like acid. I felt sweat jump out of my skin, and my chest burned from not breathing. My fist found its way tight round a knife, and I sucked in a tiny breath.

“But when, Gisbourne?”

He laughed. “Very soon.”

“Make sure of it. The Hood and his men are the scourge of the forest. Prince John himself has written me that these thieves must be put down like dogs. The people protect them, and I can’t find them.”

“I can. Thieves are prey like any other, Sheriff. I hunt them, I track them, and I kill them.”

My heart dropped out from my chest, and my hands set to shaking.

“Good. I’ll see you to your apartments, then.”

The two of them crossed the bailey with a flank of guards and I crouched low, part because I didn’t want them to turn and see me none and part because my knees had gone fair wobbling. I waited until they were inside the apartments and then signaled to John. He and Freddy slid up beside me, and I jumped when Freddy touched my arm.

“The tunnel is behind the residences,” I whispered. I glanced back to watch a guard stay out front, pacing, and I sucked down a breath. “When he paces in the other direction, we can go one at a time.”

John sighed heavy. “Christ, Scar. I’m good for something.” He kicked a bit of a cracked cobblestone loose and picked it up. He heaved it back the way we came, and the guard went on alert. A moment later he jogged toward the noise.

“Go!” John ordered.

I scowled but began to run. John picked Freddy up under one arm and kept pace with me, flying ’cross the open courtyard to round back of the residences, tucked safe in shadow. That were the only rub about the tunnel; it were far from everything in the castle.

We made it to the tunnel, and I felt relief shake through me. John closed the trapdoor behind us, and once in the dark I heaved a sigh.

“It’s dark,” Freddy pointed out.

“I’ll go first, Freddy,” I told him. “You follow behind me.”

“Fred,” he corrected.

“Fred. Make sure not to lose John?”

“I will.”

We went quick through the tunnel, and at the mouth, in the dark, Fred pressed close to my side. “I’m not good with climbing.”

I crouched down. “I’m good with climbing. Hop on.”

“Don’t be silly,” John muttered, picking Fred up and slinging him onto his back. “As much as I’d like to see Will fall down Castle Rock, I’d like better for you, Fred.”

“Everyone knows Will Scarlet can do anything,” Fred told him.

John rolled his eyes.

I decided I’d steal Fred something extra this week for that.

Fred were quiet most of the way back, and John and I walked with him in between us, staying pretty close to each other. I felt like Fred needed people standing close to him right then, and I got an inkling John might’ve had the same notion.

Every step with the castle at my back meant I could breathe a touch easier, but even away from Castle Rock, and farther from Gisbourne, I didn’t feel no safer.

Edwinstowe were due north on the main road from Nottingham. It weren’t big like Worksop, and Lord Thoresby, the nobleman responsible for the town, didn’t have the sorts of coffers for his own private guard. So more often than not Edwinstowe bore the sheriff’s anger like a little one bears a bully. Besides, past Edwinstowe the road snaked through the forest before it went to Worksop, and that were where we made most of our money, watching over the road in the shelter of the forest, if you will. It meant that the sheriff came down much harder on towns what were close to him than he did on those through the forest.

When we walked through the town, the Coopers’ home were the only one with a candle burning inside, and I saw John hesitate as we went close. He stopped at the gate, and I stopped with him. “Go on now, Fred,” I told him. “We’ll wait.”

Fred went forward slow, and in the low light he looked pretty white. Didn’t blame him. Mothers could be tough.

His mother opened the door when he knocked and burst out sobbing, hauling him inside without a glance to us.

“Where are we taking him?” John asked.

I examined a scrape on my hand. “Much’s father will take in the family in Worksop until we can find them something elsewhere.” Licking my thumb, I rubbed out the dirt on my hand.

“You lied to me tonight,” John said.

I shrugged. “I lie to you a lot. Reckon you might want to be more specific.”

“You said you’d wait at the top. You said we’d go together.”

“Well, yes, that was a lie.”

He turned his head. “I don’t give a damn if you lie to me, but if you do it when the life of a boy is on the line again, I swear I’ll knock your block off.”