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Back Nottingham
Chapters (76)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. PART I
  6. ONE
  7. TWO
  8. THREE
  9. FOUR
  10. FIVE
  11. SIX
  12. SEVEN
  13. EIGHT
  14. NINE
  15. PART II
  16. TEN
  17. ELEVEN
  18. TWELVE
  19. THIRTEEN
  20. FOURTEEN
  21. FIFTEEN
  22. SIXTEEN
  23. SEVENTEEN
  24. EIGHTEEN
  25. NINETEEN
  26. PART III
  27. TWENTY
  28. TWENTY-ONE
  29. TWENTY-TWO
  30. TWENTY-THREE
  31. TWENTY-FOUR
  32. TWENTY-FIVE
  33. TWENTY-SIX
  34. INTERLUDE
  35. PART IV
  36. TWENTY-SEVEN
  37. TWENTY-EIGHT
  38. TWENTY-NINE
  39. THIRTY
  40. THIRTY-ONE
  41. THIRTY-TWO
  42. THIRTY-THREE
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. INTERLUDE
  45. PART V
  46. THIRTY-FIVE
  47. THIRTY-SIX
  48. THIRTY-SEVEN
  49. THIRTY-EIGHT
  50. PART VI
  51. THIRTY-NINE
  52. FORTY
  53. FORTY-ONE
  54. FORTY-TWO
  55. FORTY-THREE
  56. FORTY-FOUR
  57. FORTY-FIVE
  58. INTERLUDE
  59. PART VII
  60. FORTY-SIX
  61. FORTY-SEVEN
  62. FORTY-EIGHT
  63. FORTY-NINE
  64. FIFTY
  65. FIFTY-ONE
  66. FIFTY-TWO
  67. PART VIII
  68. FIFTY-THREE
  69. FIFTY-FOUR
  70. FIFTY-FIVE
  71. FIFTY-SIX
  72. EPILOGUE
  73. AUTHOR’S NOTE
  74. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  75. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  76. Newsletter Sign-up

“They’ve killed before. People who were a threat.” He swallowed to prepare for a story. “Before the fire, I had taken to eating on my own in the field. Away from the big dinners Lord Walter held in the dining hall. Away from the crowd, that’s where I met the skeleton man. He wasn’t there tonight, but he’s part of them. Never learned his real name. I didn’t know who he was at first, thought might be his reasons for eating alone were the same as mine. But he wasn’t like me. One night he led me out, away from the castle, farther than seemed safe in the dark, until we came to … a corpse, a man, face down in the dirt. The skeleton man said he’d caught the man days earlier, tied him to the tree. Said he’d been stealing food. Said he didn’t know what to do with him, but in the end he let him go. And then strange things. He said … said he was responsible for giving the man his life back, which meant it was his to take again. So he did. I wanted to run. He took his knife out. Said Lord Walter gave me my life. Asked me if I was grateful for it. Then left me with the corpse, in the woods.”

Devon shook his head, and the rest of his story seemed to slip away.

Guy didn’t know how to react. His thoughts tainted black with images of Jon Bassett trapped with savages such as these. “They like leaving messages. Could be they’ll use Bassett to make one.”

“They didn’t come this way,” Eric called out, coughing blood. “We have to double back.”

This earned an array of curses from Reginold and Bolt, and a grunt from Morg, but Guy just closed his eyes. Devon sank in his frame.

There weren’t going to find him.

But they would push on nonetheless.

TIME WAS TOO CRUEL to let them guess the hour when they finally rediscovered the tracks. Eric chastised himself for missing it earlier, showing where the gullet of the wheels drove sharply off the road into the birkland. “None of the rest of us saw it either,” Reginold defended him. “We wouldn’t be on their tail at all if not for you. Don’t beat yourself up on this.”

Bolt winced, and nudged his friend. “You’re making it worse.”

“Exactly,” Eric said, his shoulders slumped. “It’s on me to follow them. That’s what I’m supposed to be good at.”

The idea that Eric thought he was not doing enough spoke volumes about Guy’s own share. The discovery invigorated them, but only until the new path petered into a deer run that cut back and forth too harshly for a cart to navigate. It was a truth too dangerous to speak aloud.