He rushed her to me, setting her atop Amabel, murmuring soothingly as he stroked her ghoul-blood-matted hair.
Ghostly tears sprang from my eyes, which hadn’t happened before, no matter how I’d begged for their release. Now, their cold burn ran down my face, an agonizing relief.
She was back by my side, in one piece, and all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around her, and be certain that she was still whole. I couldn’t tell with all that black blood
“Did they bite you?” She shook her head, so I asked the more pressing question. “Did you see Robin?”
As if she didn’t hear me, she flopped bonelessly over Amabel’s neck, with Jon alternating between petting her back and Amabel’s head. “They fought over me, ripped at each other. One managed to grab me for itself and—and…” She dissolved into shaking sobs.
“Just tell us what happened!” Meira bit off agitatedly.
Agnë swayed upright, hiccupping through her sobs. “It opened its mouth wide—it’s breath alone almost made me pass out…I knew I’d die, then…Robin was there! He–he fought them off me!”
“What happened to him?” I asked, dreading the answer.
She shook her head, and I went colder than I already was. The urge to follow him was overwhelming, even when I now knew these things could hurt me. But I’d be unable to do a thing to help. I’d only stand there and watch those ghouls tear him apart.
All I could do was watch as Will bellowed Robin’s name into the cave, growing increasingly hysterical.
Suddenly, Will’s shouts stopped.
Dreading the reason, I stared at the cave’s mouth as the sounds of shuffling echoed from within, getting nearer, nearer, then…
Robin swayed out.
My insubstantial heart almost burst with relief as I heard him slur, “Muss you shout this loud? Was busy…”
Will caught him with a frantic hug, before recoiling. “You’re bleeding!”
“M’fine, less jus’ keep goin’. Need to find…find…” Robin staggered back and out of Will’s hold, collapsing on the ground in a dead faint.
I didn’t even feel myself moving, but I beat Jon to Robin’s side as Will shook him and yelled his name.
“Where is he hurt?” I frantically looked him over, ice spreading through me at the sight of the expanding red stain on his olive-green shirt.
“In more than one place. But I think most of the blood is coming from a head wound.” Jon gripped the edges of his hood. “We must check it.”
“No, don’t!” Will’s objection fell on deaf ears as Jon bared the face of Robin Hood to the world.
Blood caked his tousled, sandy hair from a serrated gash that ran from the crown of his head down to his left cheekbone. His skin was ashen with blood loss, making the freckles smattering his cheeks and nose stand out. Long lashes brushed his cheeks, and his full lower lip was split and bleeding.
The specifics of his face stopped there, because the only feature I had eyes for anymore was his ears.
Lacking earlobes, and tapering up into angular points, his ears were those of a fairy.
Chapter Fifteen
In the commotion, no one noticed that Alan had left.
He now returned with men in pearly-white-and-sun-yellow uniforms, reminiscent of the Cahramani royal guards. I watched numbly as some carried the unconscious Robin off to their healers.
Before he trailed them to go have his own injuries treated, Jon had to hold Will back from following them. The guards insisted the healers allowed no one to accompany or see their patients until their treatment was complete. Will wouldn’t back down until Jon convinced him that the sooner we concluded our business with the Summer King, the better for all of us. It was what Robin would want.
They left us with the palace official Alan brought with him, a fairy woman who could have been Meira’s much taller, pointy-eared sister.
Ears. After all that had happened since Robin had burst into my tower, I could think of nothing but his ears.
Robin Hood, the mysterious outlaw, the bandit bane of Arbore, was a fairy.
It was inexplicable. Why would a fairy live in our realm, be a soldier in Arbore’s army, and champion the poor and downtrodden? Yet it also made sense, explaining his exploits, and how he’d evaded capture all these years.
It also meant I had placed my fate in the hands of the same kind of creature that had condemned me in the first place.
But then again, I was here in the land of all the fairies. I was surrounded by those mischievous and cruel tricksters by choice,