"Wherefore?" Geoffrey's eyes glittered with excitement as he landed; his whole body was tensed for battle. "Dost truly think they can stand against us?"
"Mayhap! Thou mayest lapse, thou mayest grow careless!"
"Yet we are not like to! Nay! Let us stay, and stretch them senseless on the greensward!"
"There is no need," Magnus pointed out, "and 'tis witless to hurt them when we need not."
Geoffrey hesitated.
"We shall brawl at thy side, when we must," Gregory piped, "as we have done already. Yet now, brother, I prithee —let us be gone, sin that we can!"
"Away!" Puck commanded. "Till we discover who hath sent them! Why seize the sheep, when thou mayest have the shepherd?"
The soldiers finished wiping the goo off their faces and strode forward.
"So be it, then," Geoffrey said with disgust. "We go!" He relaxed, straightening up, and disappeared with a bang. A double explosion echoed his, and the soldiers found themselves staring at one another over an empty clearing.
Gregory turned the spit slowly, eyes huge and mouth watering as he watched the roasting partridges growing brown.
"What word, Puck?" The firelight reflected off Magnus's face as he watched a tiny elf muttering into Puck's ear. The sprite darted away, and Puck sat up straight, nodding. "'Tis even as we thought."
Geoffrey nodded with satisfaction. "Their livery was in good repair, and their weapons bright. These were no renegades, but men-at-arms of some lord."
"And, their mission failed, they returned to their master," Magnus finished.
Puck nodded. "So indeed they did—but knew not that elfin eyes watched their every step." He grinned, preening. "I thought that I did know that livery."
"What is it then?"
"The lord's arms confirm it," Puck bragged. "He is Count Drosz, a nobleman of Hapsburg."
"Of Hapsburg?" Geoffrey frowned. "What doth he in Tudor?"
"Small good, belike," Cordelia opined.
"What dost thou think, Robin?" Magnus asked. "Doth he come to join Earl Tudor in some form of mischief?"
"Nay!" Geoffrey's eyes lit with excitement. "Belike he doth seek to join battle with Glynn, the lord of this county! Oh, Robin! A melee! Please, oh! I must follow, to watch!"
"Nay!" Puck recoiled, startled and horrified. "A lad of eight, near a battle? 'Tis too great a chance thou might be hurted!"
"Assuredly they'd not harm a child!"
Puck started to answer, then caught himself, and said only, "Thou knowest little of the ways of soldiers in wartime, lad. Nay. What should I say to thy father and mother, if thou didst come to harm?"
"But…!"
"Nay!" Puck snapped. "Let thy father escort thee near battle-lines if he will, when that he doth return! Let his conscience bear the chance of thine hurt, if he will—but I will not risk it, whiles thou art in my care! Thou art not- my son, after all."
"Praise Heaven," Geoffrey muttered as Puck turned stamping away into the forest.
The elf turned back, frowning at the children. "Now come, follow me!"
"But," Gregory pointed out, "the soldiers have gone in the other direction."
"Thou hast noticed," Puck said dryly. "Come."
Chapter 8
A little after sunrise, they came out of the forest into a meadow dotted with wildflowers. "How pretty!" Cordelia exclaimed; then, "Yon is a footpath!"
Off to their right, a dusty track wound down the slope toward the fields below.
"And people beyond it." Magnus squinted from his vantage point on Fess's back. "Eh, but they're awake betimes!"
"Country people rise before the sun," Fess informed them. "May I suggest the unicorn seek a more discreet route?"
"But why?" Cordelia cried.
Puck shook his head. "I must own the iron beast hath the right of it. Bethink thee, child, what mortal men, full grown, would seek to do with such a creature."
Cordelia stared, her eyes widening. "Surely thou dost not mean they would wish to enslave her!"
"Aye, certes they would—and would try to steal her from one another." Geoffrey smiled with tolerance for his sister's innocence. "And the creature might be slain in the fighting."
Cordelia leaped down from the unicorn's back as though it were a hot griddle. "Oh, I could not bear it!" She caught the great silver head between her hands and stroked the muzzle. "I could not bear to have thee hurted! Nay, my love, my jewel! Go thou, and hide thee! Be assured, we'll meet again when we come back to this forest."
But the unicorn tossed her head as though scorning danger.
"Nay, I beg of thee!" Cordelia pleaded. "Hide thee! Thou knowest not how vile some men may be!"
Puck smiled, with a cynicism that softened into fondness.
The unicorn gazed into Cordelia's eyes. Then she tossed her head, turning, and trotted back into the forest.
"Will I see her again, thinkest thou, Puck?"
"Who may say?" Puck said softly. "Such creatures are wild and free; no man may summon them, nor no young lass, neither. They come when they wish." He turned to smile up at
Cordelia. "Yet I think this one will wish it."
He turned away. "Now, come! Let's trace this track that thou hast found!"
They went down a slope glorious with blossoms. As they neared the bottom, they passed a stile, a set of stairs that went up one side of a wall and came down the other, so that people could cross, but cattle could not. A pretty peasant girl was leaning against the stile with a mocking smile, gazing up through half-lowered eyelashes at a young farmhand who stood, rigid with anger, fists clenched so tightly his knuckles were white.
"Nay, then, Corin," the peasant girl purred. "How durst thou think that I might spare a glance for one who's craven?"
Magnus and Geoffrey stopped to stare at the girl. "Why, she is beautiful," Magnus breathed.
Geoffrey swallowed heavily.
Cordelia looked at them as though they'd taken leave of their senses. So, for that matter, did Gregory.
"Craven?" Corin exploded. "Nay! I'm as brave as any man! Show me any foe, and I will fight him!"
"Foe?" she scoffed. "Nay, walk into the greenwood! Go into the hills! Stride down any highway! Thy foes will leap to meet thee—bandits, thieves, and outlaws! 'Tis come to be so bad as that! Any man who's restless, or hath an ounce of mettle, doth break the law, and runneth off to hide and thieve —and leaveth wife and children to the care of those dull males who have no daring!"
Puck had hidden in the heather near Magnus's foot, but the children could hear him growl, "Assuredly, 'tis never so bad as that!"
" 'Tis not a word of truth!" Corin bawled. " 'Tis not needful for a man to work evil, only because he's a man! Nay, there's strength required to stay and ward, and. care for those ye love!"
"Love?" the girl sneered. "I spit on that which you call love! Oh, caring there may be—but there's naught of thrill nor joy within it!"
Corin stepped toward her, hands outstretched, palms up. "If thou didst love me, thou wouldst see the error of thy words."
"An I did love thee," she spat, "I would needs be as dull as thou! Nay, how could I love a man who'd leave his wife and ' bairns in threat of pillaging?" >
"I would never do so!" Corin cried.
"Yet thou dost! Thou dost permit these bandits to roam wild throughout the hills! Thou dost give leave to highway-men to rob and beat whomsoe'er they please! Nay, no woman's safe to walk abroad now by herself! Within these two days gone, three lasses that I know have suffered, and a dozen men have run off to the hills. True men." Her eyes glittered as she looked directly into his. "Not mere boys."
"In only two days' time?" Puck snorted. "Such could never hap so quickly."