Page 93 of Peregrine's Call
“Not that wounded.”
“Yes, you are. So wounded you slept all night. That’s what you’ll tell everyone, won’t you?”
He paused, weighing her words. “If that’s what you want me to say.”
“We can talk tomorrow?” Robin asked more hesitantly. “I think…we need to talk.”
“Tomorrow,” he promised. “Now go.” He reached for her and put two fingers on her mouth. If he kissed her again, she’d never leave the room.
Robin smiled and left without another word.
Tav slept fitfully after that, his waking thoughts tangling up with dreams. He walked through the streets of Aleppo he remembered as a child, only to go into a house and see Robin with two children with skin like his, asking him if he’d remembered to buy her more arrows in the market. He walked out, finding that Aleppo was gone and he stood in a church decorated with stained glass depicting English saints. Brother Petrus stood up from where he’d been sitting in the front of the church and advanced toward Tav, reciting the fable of the snake and the frog.
“Who is the frog, Octavian? And will the snake escape justice?”
Tav shook his head. “It’s just a story.”
“Everything is a story, Octavian,” the monk declared. “One single story written by the hand of God. Every chapter in order, every page with a purpose. Will you let the snake kill the bird?”
“The frog,” he corrected. “The fable is about a snake and a frog.”
Brother Petrus turned around walked away. Tav started to chase after him, but tripped on the uneven stones.
He looked up and saw the church had melted away. He now stood in the courtyard of a very familiar manor. Alric was standing in front of him.
“Tav, I thought I’d never see you again.” He pulled Tav to his feet. “We’re glad you’re home. Robin is lost.”
“Lost?”
“Someone stole her.” Alric now held a sword, the blade pointing down so that it looked like a cross in his hand. “I swear I’ll kill him when I find him.”
On either side of Alric, the figures of Sir Rafe and Sir Luc appeared, also holding swords. Rafe spoke, promising Alric every aid a knight could provide a brother knight. Luc echoed the sentiment, his eyes burning.
Tav woke in a sweat.
He got up and struggled into his clothing. His arm seemed to have stiffened up, the wound aching more this morning. He put his head out the door and called for someone to send up the doctor.
Tav turned around and walked to the narrow windows, opening the shutter, letting in the light and cold of the morning. He looked around the newly bright room. Something glinted under the bed frame, and he knelt down to pick it up off the floor. It was a long, thin cord in a silvery color—the lacing from the side of Robin’s gown. Tav swallowed and wound it into a tight coil. If anyone had found it, there was no innocent explanation for its presence in his room.
He had to hide it until he could return it to Robin, but he had nowhere it would be safe. He heard footsteps in the corridor and began to panic. The doctor was coming. His eye fell on his boots and he dropped the balled-up cord into one just as someone opened the door.
He turned, but it wasn’t the doctor who stood in the doorway. It was Lord Pierce.
“Made it through the night? Excellent.”
“Kind of you to check on me,” Tav said.
“Well, we are not finished with our business. I need to speak with the king himself, and the king is not here. I think we should continue on today. You and I. Leave the lady behind.”
“I’ll never leave her,” Tav snapped before he thought better of it. “And you don’t tell me what to do. Try it and I’ll show you what I mean.”
“You can’t harm me,” Pierce said in a smug tone.
Tav grabbed him and shoved him against the stone wall. Astonished by the mere fact of being handled like that, Pierce gave an undignified yelp.
“How dare you try—”
“I’m not trying,” Tav said. “I’m doing. You say I can’t hurt you. But I can.”
