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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

There used to be only ten of them sparring, now there were three times as many. Motivated help had poured in from the surrounding villages, especially from those closest to Bernesdale. Robin had them change partners constantly, forcing them to adapt to new sizes and styles. Alan was currently paired up against Nick Delaney, a painfully handsome man with an equally handsome twin brother Peter. They had come to the camp along with their father Henry after Gisbourne ousted them from their home in Bernesdale for his own men’s comfort. They were exactly the type of help Robin needed—even-tempered, eager to learn, and decent beyond reason. They had quickly become beloved around the camp for their assistance in all things from cooking to building shelter. They’d already earned nicknames—“Nicks” and “Peeteys”—to help explain how they could be in so many places at once. When young women fantasized about what princes and kings must be like, they imagined men like Nicks and Peeteys. Pairing one of them against the skinny hapless Alan-a-Dale was almost cruel.

“Can we use sticks again?” Alan whined. “These swords are slower and heavier.”

“Not unless you want to go into battle with one,” Robin returned.

“But I could fight forever with those.” He stretched out his arms. “These fights don’t last more than one or two attacks.”

“Neither will a real one.” Robin kept a stern voice against Alan’s levity. “This isn’t tournament fighting. A real fight is over before you even realize it’s begun. Show me your stance.”

Alan held his sword out and away from him like it was a sack of vomit.

“Where are your hands?” Robin asked. Alan wiggled his fingers but fortunately didn’t answer, “They’re right here,” again, because nobody had laughed the previous time he said it. Somehow he always ended up with his hands overlapped on top of each other no matter how many times Robin reminded him one should be halfway on the pommel.

Nicks seemed to take pity, and swung his sword in a slow and obvious sweep toward Alan’s side. Even with the forecast, Alan only held his sword limply up to defend, and the resulting momentum knocked him off his feet to a bed of dead leaves. The others laughed, because they’d never seen a body cleaved in half before. Robin knew what the hole in Alan’s side would look like, how his shattered ribs would pierce his flesh. He knew what sound Alan would make as he cried away the last of his life.