It had been a month since the massacre at the cabin and Thomas found himself in the middle of Nottingham proper, late at night. He was mapping the streets in his mind, paying less attention to the people than to the distances of the main roads and back alleys. The work was easy enough but Thomas had to keep a low profile, a fact reinforced when he happened upon a poster with his likeness on it.
In bold letters at the top was written "REWARD". Below that was two visages. One of a man with a hood pulled up over his head, obscuring the details of his face and the other of a man with a badly healed scar over the left side of his face. Thomas noticed the inaccuracies. The shape of the scar was wrong and Thomas hadn't shaved in months so he wasn't clean-shaven as depicted. Tonight, Thomas had opted for a bandanna instead of a hood and his long, red hair draped from under it and around his neck.
He tore down the poster then thought about how funny and unsettling it would be if by the following morning, none of the posters were up. Searching for the posters helped him find shortcuts around the town's roads and by sun up, he was sure that he'd seen every inch of it.
On two separate occasions, he'd stealthily tore down posters in plain view of guards. Once by pretending to be a drunkard and holding himself up with the wall, pulling the sheet down when he'd corrected himself. Another by looking at it as if interested in the reward. In that instance, he'd approached the guard and asked, "What price has been decided for this man's head?" Thomas' face was soiled all over which made the guard look at him only once and pass him off for a derelict.
"Believe it or not," the guard said, "rumor has it that the sum is more than one thousand."
"Silver?" Thomas asked.
"Gold," the guard answered, "you know anything."
"Not yet," Thomas said then coughed to add character to his role, "but if I see him, I'll surely bring him in."
"He's dangerous," the guard warned.
"How dangerous?"
"Dangerous enough that you won't see many guards going to hunt for him," the guard admitted. Thomas noted his cowardice. "Good luck."
Thomas meandered off. When he was out of sight of the town he pulled out his bounty of paper. Forty two sheets in all. He thought about how that number seemed perfect to him.
Hours later, Thomas made it to sanctuary. Inside, everyone seemed busy. Will was with John, practicing his hand to hand combat. Between teaching a couple of his first students, Will had spent time honing his body with rigorous training. Tuck was teaching writing to the students.
On the table, Thomas found a note to him. It was from his sister. He opened it.
It was in their code and Thomas took a moment to decipher it. To the naked eye, it seemed like a loving note from a sister to a brother. Talking about how wonderful her days were, spent in service to the nobles. Deeper though, there was a warning. The sheriff's personal page had gone to collect money from the king. Most of the money was to fund increasing the number of soldiers under the sheriff's command but there was money allotted to Thomas' capture. What's more, she suspected that this information was not kept guarded in an attempt to trap Thomas. She gave details on which road his carriage would likely take. She also noted that it would be heavily guarded and possibly armored.
Thomas had three days to prepare for the kill.
Thomas' brain began placing pieces for the trap. He'd need several things. Bear's urine, which he could probably get from one of the official hunters of Nottingham. He'd need red material cut into many pieces that were about one yard each. He'd need a saw.
Thomas wasted no time returning to Nottingham. He reached the town at nightfall and found the building that housed the supplies for the hunters. It was attached to the castle but was more like a barn than an actual building. Inside were many supplies. No actual weapons because all the hunters used their own. Some items had to be purchased from specialists from far away. Thomas had learned about this when he'd inquired about hunting to Captain Teague over dinner one night. The captain was very forth coming with information. It had made him feel like he was educating some savage.
There were bottles of urine collected from animal keepers all over the kingdom. Thomas grabbed every bottle that had a bear on it. There were also saws for creating blinds and such from trees in the wild. Thomas took a couple of them.
After pilfering the hunting supplies, he made his way over to the tailor. Breaking in was easy and the guard patrol was slow so Thomas could be in and out without notice. He found two rolls of red material and took both. They were heavy but Thomas hardly noticed that in comparison to how big and unwieldy they were. Once he got all the items secured to the horse, Thomas made off for the road that the carriage would most likely come down.
It was a big enough road for a heavy carriage which would have four horses pulling it instead of two because of the weight of the gold and armor. Thomas found the spot he wanted and bed down for the rest of the night. He slept until late in the afternoon then began cutting the strips of material.
He had found spots between fifty and two hundred yards from site where breezes seemed strongest and he tied the strips of material. Always within sight of each other but far enough away that you could only glimpse the red material as it moved with the wind.
Thomas returned to the site and cut down several trees with the saws. He arranged them on the ground in a way that made them interlock. The trees themselves were small so that he could move them easily but the entangled weave made them impassable and a terror to try and dismantle. He spent the rest of the day making a sheet of vines that he could wear while hiding up in the large tree near the road side. From far away, it looked like it was part of the tree, masking anything underneath.
As the time of their inevitable arrival drew nearer, Thomas soaked the ground around with the urine. He then took his horse to sanctuary and walked back on foot.
Scaling the tree was easy and Thomas' vine sheet covered him head to toe as he waited patiently. Hours passed and he could hear the dull gallop of a group of horses in the distance. As the horses drew closer, the bear urine made them jumpy, causing the men to slow the caravan. Thomas didn't want them to wreck into his roadblock and not get the chance to kill the page himself.
Eight mounted soldiers chaperoned the carriage. Four in the front and four in the rear. Thomas watched as they came to the road block. The men didn't talk. Instead, they gave each other signals, breaking into groups to spread out. Two of the soldiers tried to move the roadblock as the carriage driver calmed the horses. One of the men must have seen one of the pieces of material and signalled the others to follow. Thomas watched the carriage closely. He wasn't sure there was someone in it.
Matty was right. The carriage was armored but the linear thinking of the nobles had only armored the sides, front and back of the carriage. The top was left relatively exposed with only wood covering it. Thomas was still unsure if someone was in it.
Then a hand tossed a piece of eaten fruit from the window. Thomas' brain instantly filled in gaps. He could see the position the person inside was sitting in from the glimpse of his hand. Thomas aimed at the spot that the passenger's head most likely was in. He hoped that the arrow would align with the woods grain and split it as it penetrated.
The was a loud thud and the driver turned to see an arrow sticking out of the roof of his carriage. It wiggled as something inside moved against it, screaming. The driver looked up as Thomas dropped onto him, dagger stabbing into the man's face.
Thomas jumped over the side of the carriage and peered in through a thin window. His arrow had bore into the top of the page's skull, pinning him in place but not killing him. He screamed louder when he saw Thomas. Thomas immediately cut the horses from their fittings and slapped their hind quarters so they would run. Then he slipped under the carriage.
The eight soldiers returned to find chaos had befallen their charge. They dismounted and surrounded the carriage. Some looked up into the trees while others were trying to get the carriage door open. Thomas heard the door come open and he swung his sword out, on the opposite side, cleaving the feet from two of the soldiers.
He rolled out and to his feet, carving an arc that cut both of the fallen men's throats and coming up to block an attack by another. Thomas foot came up and kicked the man in the chest, throwing him back against another soldier and expelling the wind from his lungs.
One soldier came up from behind and swung, Thomas side stepped and spun. He dropped to his knee and thrust his sword up under the man's rib cage. It's point exited near the man's collar. In his head, things moved in slow motion. Panic had set in and the men scrambled to surround him. One thrust with his sword and Thomas side stepped, gripped the man's arm with his free hand and guided the tip of the sword into the face of another.
Blood seemed to rain down on the carnage and as Thomas turned to face the four that were left, they saw his face light up with a smile. The page screamed as he glimpsed the onslaught.
Thomas seemed to wait patiently as the men looked at each other, trying to regain control.
Then his patience was up.
He stepped in, closing ground between him and one of the men, chopping at the man's wrist, separating it and it fell to the ground still gripping it's weapon. Thomas spun again, this time backwards toward the two behind him, his sword arced and stabbed deep into one man's chest. Thomas let his sword go as the man fell lifeless to the ground.
The two remaining men thought this was their chance. A miscalculation Thomas had considered and counted on. As they approached, the tips of their blades missed him by fractions of an inch as he danced between them. He knew their tunnel vision would stay focused on him and their blades chased him until they stopped inside each other. The two men looked at each other, having disemboweled each other.
Thomas glanced at the man that still stood. Tears filled his eyes. He just saw his two friends gut each other. How did this demon trick them into such a feat?
"Please don't kill me," he begged.
"Stop that man from screaming," Thomas ordered.
Without hesitation, the guard pulled his dagger with his one good hand and slit the page's throat. Thomas went to the man's horse and pulled an ax from it's place on the saddle. He chopped at the roof of the carriage as the man sat in shock. Thomas severed the page's head and gave it to the soldier.
Thomas wrote on the back of one of the posters he'd collected in Nottingham. It was a note to Guy and the sheriff. It read:
Sirs,
A fine exercise indeed. Thank you for the gold. Maybe next time, just give me the gold and you can spare some of your men the terror. An open bounty on my head has made me feel
quite special. Looking forward to meeting you in person.
Hooded Devil
P.S. Sleep well.
Thomas bandaged the man's wrist and put him on his horse. Thomas also slipped the man some gold. He figured it was the least he could do since the man could no longer be employed as a soldier.
As the man rode off, Thomas collected the gold into the separate saddlebags and divided the saddlebags between the horses. He then tied the horses to each other in a caravan then rode them back to sanctuary.
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