Page 86 of Queen of Sherwood

It made me smile.

I had a good view of the entire square and all the people in it. I recognized the large man Landon, de facto leader of Ravenshead while Bishop Sutton was gone. Near him stood a woman with three children close to her hips, holding them back from veering out into the road at the encroaching convoy.

Then I saw the woman’s head veer left and right, quickly, and she said something in a frantic tone to her husband that I couldn’t hear.

Landon furrowed his brow. He looked behind him, toward me, but paid no attention to me. His focus was elsewhere.

The riders were streaming by into town, sitting high on their saddles like they owned the place.

My smile vanished as Landon and his wife grew more frantic.

“Kelly?!” the woman screamed.

I instinctively moved out of the shadow of the awning, rain dripping in my hair, plastering it to my scalp. My eyes scanned the slight incline of the land, trying to watch what Landon and his wife were watching, and—

There!

A small girl stood in the middle of the road, hands clasping excitedly in front of her belly. She was no taller than my knees.

My heart squeezed and I moved before my brain could agree.

Landon and his wife didn’t see the girl—she was too far away from them, in the mist, and too mystified by the approaching riders.

Riders who were not going to veer off-path and into the mud to avoid her. Mud and holes could lead to a horse’s broken ankle, and they valued their horses more than a silly peasant child.

Beyond that, they simply didn’t care.

I flared my nostrils and broke out into a sprint.

“Kelly!” I shouted, hoping this was the girl in question.

She didn’t look over. Landon did, though, and saw where I was running. He took off, also.

The riders were twenty feet from the girl, closing fast down the road. Perhaps they didn’t even see her because she was so small.

A visceral memory that I’d never actually lived or seen flashed through my mind: Will Scarlet’s mother getting trampled to death by horses. Cracking bone, muffled cries, and sneering laughter from her attackers.

“Kelly!” Landon cried again, voice cracking as his feet churned mud and he floundered and tripped over himself, down to his knees.

The little girl finally looked over, wide smile on her face. She pointed at the riders. “Look how many of ‘em there are, da!”

“Get out of the road!” Landon screamed.

The girl didn’t move. She was mesmerized by the awful nature of the huge horses and their riders.

Ten feet from the horses, and the earth was shaking now under their hooves.

Bearing down.

My legs burned as I ran, stretching my arms out, cloak billowing behind me.

Five feet, my heart stopped—

And I made it to the girl from behind, wrapped my arms around her little body, and spun her around off the road.

Her feet dangled and kicked and she shrieked—

Just as a loud whoosh of air and stamping hooves crashed around us in the road, inches from my cloak.

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