Read Online Forbidden Forest by Michael Cadnum - Free Book Online

a man’s wind where you come from, John?”
    â€œNo quicker than in any other town,” said John, sorry at the alarm his question seemed to cause Will Scathlock. “But this is not a band of honest men, unless I am mistaken.”
    â€œHonest men!” laughed the burgess. “Oh, no, and the saints be thanked. These are outlaws, and the best hosts a traveling merchant could ask.”
    â€œThese outlaws robbed you,” said John. “And yet you celebrate by filling your belly with red wine.”
    â€œI have never met a finer band, in castle or in court. I was a tired and hungry man before I met these green-clad men.” The merchant struggled to his feet, helped by one of the woodsmen. “But if I don’t hurry back to Nottingham this night, the sheriff’s men will come hunting.”
    â€œGrimes Black, one of my most surefooted men,” said Robin Hood, “will lead you to the High Way.”
    â€œDid these outlaws leave your purse as big around as ever?” asked John.
    The merchant laughed. “No, they took many a fat coin, and I’ve never spent gold so happily.”
    The merchant was led away, talking merrily with his outlaw guide.
    John considered what he had learned. Were the traveling burgesses of this shire moonstruck, or simple to the point of idiocy?
    â€œOh, we’re wealthy enough, to a man,” said Will Scathlock, smiling into the firelight. “The sheriff does not keep such warm company.”
    â€œIs this your usual hiding place?” asked John.
    â€œWe have no usual place,” said Will. “If one corner of the forest does not please us, we seek another.”
    The fire spat and the meat sizzled. John knew his words were ungrateful, and possibly unwise, but he continued, “Can even a subtle outlaw escape the law forever?”
    â€œI’d not cut a throat to take a swallow of wine with my meat,” said Will with passion. “One of the sheriff of Nottingham’s men would cut a head off at a stroke, but never me.”
    John parted his lips to apologize for troubling the young man.
    â€œThis mouth of mine was full of teeth,” said Will, with strong feeling. “And as fine and white a set of ivory as any archbishop might have in his smile.”
    To his surprise, John felt protective toward Will, and put a hand reassuringly on the man’s arm.
    â€œAnd what happens to my bite?” Will continued. “In Nottingham, a brace of sheriff’s men find me watching a lute player. A merry lute man, who can play ‘My Lady Hides Her Treasure’ with his eyes closed.” Will gazed around at his friends. “A worthy man, by my faith. But I’m interrupted in my pleasure and dragged behind the goat stall, and sheriff’s men sit on me, chest and arms, and pincer my teeth out of my head, each one. They had no fair reason, but for the love of their own spite. That right hand to the lord sheriff, a man called Henry, did the deed. He says he’ll have the tooth out of every outlaw’s head.”
    â€œIt pains me to hear it,” said John earnestly. “I’ll beat the heads of the men who did this with my two—” John raised his fists, but then fell silent.
    â€œTell us a story, John,” said Will.
    â€œI have no tales,” said John.
    â€œEvery traveler tells of ways and folk no other traveler knows,” said Will. “It is the price of meat and wine here,” he added.
    â€œI have a gift for keeping silent when I should speak,” said John, “and speaking when I should close my mouth.”
    â€œSing us a song,” said Will, “or tell us a dream, or—”
    â€œI do not dream,” said John abruptly. He recalled his dream of the tree woman all too well.
    He stared at the men around the fire. Hang me , he thought.
    And be done with it.
    Robin Hood raised a hand, and one of the men slipped away from the fire. John had heard