"But we are on quest! Must we ride guard upon them, to the nearest sheriff?"
"We cannot leave them to wander the countryside and prey upon travellers again, my friend."
"No, we cannot," Alain sighed. "Ho! Blackbeard!" He leaned down to prod the biggest outlaw with his sword. The man moaned, but forced himself to sit up, one hand pressed to his head. " 'Twas a right shrewd blow, Sir Knight."
"Be glad he did not use the sword's edge," Geoffrey snapped. "What is your name?"
"Forrest, sir."
"I require your name, not your haunts! Speak truly!"
"Why, so I do, sir. 'Forrest' is the name my mother gave, and my father blessed." The bandit grinned, showing a wide, even expanse of white teeth. "Belike 'twas the name that gave me the thought of the life in the greenwood."
Alain surveyed the man, something about the bandit catching his interest. Forrest was tall, six feet or more, and broad-shouldered. His face was open and regular-featured, with thick black hair and a black jawline beard. His eyes were large, well spaced, and deep blue, his nose straight and well formed. He wore hose and cross-gartered sandals, instead of the usual peasant's leggins and buskins, and in place of a tunic wore only a sleeveless jerkin that showed a broad expanse of chest and the bulging muscles of arms and shoulders. Alain found himself wondering if it was by luck that he had defeated this man.
"You are a gentleman gone wrong," Geoffrey stated. "What is your family's name?"
"None of any consequence, for I doubt not they have disowned me."
"Mayhap they have not. What name?" Geoffrey added iron to the question.
"Elmsford," the bandit sighed. "How came you to this pass?"
Forrest shrugged. "I am a youngest son of a youngest son, who had need to seek his living however he might."
"You could have found a way more honorable!"
"I did; I pledged my sword to a lord. He took us all to fight his neighbor, and we lost."
Geoffrey frowned. "Here is no shame."
"So I thought—but the neighbor sought to smite down all who had opposed him. I fled to the greenwood for, my life, and lived as best I could."
"Wherefore you did not throw yourself upon the King's mercy?"
The bandit grinned, teeth startlingly white in the expanse of beard. "The King is at Runnymede, sir, and though 'tis near to us here, 'tis far from the estates of my former lord. I have been many months seeking this greenwood, but have now so many crimes on my conscience that I dare go no farther."
"Certainly the King's shire-reeve was near enough!"
"Aye, and under the hand of the lord who sought my life."
"You shall go to the King now, and woe betide him who would stop you! Do you speak for all of this band?" The bandit looked around, but nobody seemed to want to dispute it. "Aye, Sir Knight."
"Then go to the sheriff at..."
"Nay." Alain stopped him with a touch. "Go to Castle Gallowglass... "
Forrest looked up sharply, and Geoffrey whirled about to stare at Alain. The bandits scrambled to their feet with groans of fear. "The witch-folk!"
Geoffrey turned to scowl at them. "Aye, the Lord Warlock and his family. Mind your manners about them, or you'll have no heads to mind with!" He turned back to Alain with a look that clearly said his friend was mad.
" 'Tis even as your Don Quixote did," Alain reminded him. Then, to Forrest, "Go to the Lady Cordelia, and surrender yourself to her there. If she bids you go to the King's prison, then you must go—for trust me, you do not wish to transgress against her."
"Be sure I do not!" Forrest bobbed his head, not smiling now.
"Be cautious and filled with respect," Alain admonished him. "Say to her that ... that he who hopes to prove himself worthy has sent you."
The carter's wife clapped her hands, eyes shining. Geoffrey restrained an impulse to look up to Heaven for help.
" `He who hopes to prove himself worthy.' " Forrest nodded, lips pursed in puzzlement. "Yet why not send your name, good sir?"
"Because ... because I shall not use it again in public, till she has heard my suit!" Alain smiled, pleased with his first attempt at improvisation. Geoffrey nodded judicious approval.
The bandit bowed, his face wooden, and Geoffrey guessed he was hiding his reaction to the quixotic gesture. "As you bid me, sir."
"Go straightaway, and do not stray from the path," Geoffrey told him. Then he raised his voice. "You, who thread the forest's roots and stitch the green leaves for your garments! Come forth, I pray thee, by the pact of kindred blood!"
The outlaws stared at him as though he had gone mad, but the wife drew back against her husband with a low moan. For a few seconds, the whole forest seemed to be waiting, still and silent.
Then leaves rustled, and a foot-high mannikin walked out along a branch. "Who art thou, who dost seek to summon the Wee Folk?"
Now it was the outlaws who moaned and shrank away, while the wife and husband watched, spellbound.
"I shall not use my name openly again until my companion uses his," Geoffrey told the elf, "yet I ask the favor by the bond 'twixt he who rides the iron horse, and the king who goes about among his peers disguised."
The outlaws glanced at one another and muttered, but none knew what he was talking about.
The elf, though, must have recognized the references to Rod Gallowglass and Brom O'Berin, for he said, "That will suffice. What would you have us do?"
"Accompany these men to Castle Gallowglass," Geoffrey said, "with a whole troop of your kind—and if they stray from the path, I prithee discourage them."
The elf's eyes glittered. "Aye, gladly, for never has a one of them left a bowl for a brownie! How strongly would you have us `discourage' them?"
"Well, I would not have you slay or maim them," Geoffrey conceded. "In all other respects, whatever mischief allows, why, do."
"Here is no work, but play! Aye, surely, young warlock, that we shall do!"
Forrest's head lifted; he glanced sharply at Geoffrey. "Yet do not allow any others to detain them," Geoffrey said. "I wish them to arrive at Castle Gallowglass, not to be taken on the way."
"We know the lord whose lands lie between this forest and that castle, and he knows us, to his sorrow," the elf said. "None shall trouble them, save us."
"I thank you." Geoffrey inclined his head.
"It will be our pleasure." The elf bowed, stepped back among the leaves, and was gone.
Geoffrey turned back to the outlaws. "Get you gone, then—and seek to despoil none, nor to flee an inch from the path. I doubt not you have some coins about you; what food you need, see that you pay for. Be off!"
Forrest bowed again, barked a command to his men, and set off down the road. They straggled after him reluctantly. A whistling sounded from one side of the road, a hooting from the other.
The bandits jumped, and started moving considerably faster.
"Well thought, Geoffrey," Alain said. "I thank you." Geoffrey shrugged. "The gesture was perhaps extravagant, but will no doubt prove effective."
"I doubt it not." Alain turned back to the carter and his wife. "Go your way, now, without fear of these brigands. They shall not trouble you more."
"Aye!" The carter ducked his head, touching his forelock. "I thank you, Sir Knights!"
"And I you, for the chance of glory." Alain inclined his head, and Geoffrey was tempted to tell him chivalry could be taken too far. "Farewell, now, and travel safely."
"And you, good sirs." The carter turned to help his wife climb up onto the seat, followed her, sat down and picked up the reins, then clucked to his mule, and the cart ambled off down the forest road. The couple turned back to wave before the leaves swallowed them up.
" 'Twas well done, Alain, and a good beginning!" Geoffrey clapped him on the shoulder. "Come, let us ride."