“He’s just some bandit,” came a rougher voice, a curt swordarm named Hadrian. John had promoted the man to the head of his contingent after dismissing the French knights that had been assigned to him, which he was expected to pay for. Hadrian was paid, too, but without all the bullshittery that came with being a knight. “Some group of men stealing from those that travel through the Sherwood. Nobles mostly. The ladies seem to find a sport in letting themselves be robbed.”

John couldn’t have been less impressed. “Why do I care, again?”

“Apparently,” Hadrian continued, “he’s very good. And he doesn’t keep what he steals. He gives it out. The peasants here in Nottinghamshire are having a better time of it than the nobles lately. That’s what I hear at least.” He gave a sneer to Wally.

This was tasty. Not the thief, of course, but his effect on others. Move a little money in the wrong hands, and suddenly even a fat sloth like Red Roger could be stirred to fury.

“He sounds delightful,” John said after heavy consideration. “Why the hell would I want anybody to kill him?”

Social upheaval was precisely the sort of thing that delighted John. His world confined him to the biggest pieces on the board, but there was no arguing that the smallest ones could sometimes do the most damage. The more John thought about it, the more he was lured by the idea of hiding in the forest, making tiny amounts of hell for tiny amounts of people. He could play both ends toward the other.

“I’d very much like to meet this Robin Hood.”

Hadrian scoffed. “Nobody knows where to find him. That’s the problem, my lord.”

“I’m not your lord.” John rounded the corner and they were outside again, a smattering of rain greeting their walk back up the hill to the tower. “Of course somebody knows where to find him, we just don’t know how to find that somebody. I shouldn’t spend my precious time correcting your gaps of logic.”

“Of course.”

“You say the ladies make sport of being robbed by him? Perhaps we can become very attractive ladies.”

Hadrian clicked his jaw. “Your entourage is too large. No thief would attack a garrison armed such as we.”

“Then we’ll travel light. Only a few of us.”

“It would be too dangerous.”

“Then we’ll have to double-check, before we leave…” John turned in the doorway to the tower and let the rain collect on Hadrian’s head, “… that none of us are giant pussies.”