But if he didn’t go, and they came back missing a few, he’d never know how many of those lives he’d traded for his own. Nor did he know whether or not it made him coward to wish he could risk it.

Alan hooted out a victory as he tackled Arthur a Bland hipwise, the both of them tumbling over another through the brush. Arthur responded by pulling Alan to the ground and slapping his arms about the lad’s face. All playfully, but still. “You’re not allowed to tag me back,” Alan cried out, laughing.

“I’m not tagging you back,” came Arthur as he pinned Alan down. “I’m kicking the shit out of you.”

“You can’t change the rules,” Alan shrieked. “That’s why they’re called rules.”

At length, Arthur relented and disappeared into the late-evening fog to find another victim. John took in the dusk glow, thanking whatever quirk of nature it was that made such a thing possible. A heavy thick white slipped through the trees, turned to a curious blue-green by the moonlight. It might mean rain in the morning, but for tonight it gave them a blanket, and let them burn a campfire without risk.

Alan crawled to John and took the stump Tuck had abandoned in search of some ale.

“You’re not wearing your necklace,” John scolded him. When they’d left their Oak Camp and said their goodbyes, the young pretty Malory had thrown her arms around Alan and tied a string about his neck with a few trinkets on it. John hadn’t seen it since.

“What?” Alan asked, then shook his head. “It was stupid. She said it was for luck. Wearing a necklace isn’t going to give me luck.”

“You don’t wear it for luck. You wear it to make her happy.”

Alan made some noises. “She doesn’t know I’m not wearing it, so it can’t make her not happy. She’s silly.”

“You’re silly, too. She’d be good for you.”

“You don’t understand,” Alan mumbled to himself, always thinking nobody knew who he had his eyes upon. He’d never grow out of such a thing by keeping it a secret, only making it the more precious. John was about to say as much, when Robin appeared suddenly and sliced through them with purpose, his finger to his lips.

“Down!” he whispered fiercely, with more at stake than a game of chase.

Alan dropped quick enough to the dirt while John lowered himself to a knee, keenly aware of how little he was concealed by doing so.