The Woman In the Tree

by Natasha D Lane

  I’m one step closer today, Uncle Terryn. You will be avenged.

  She opened her eyes and stood. As she had done for the past few weeks, Robin turned to face the tree to her right. She took in a small inhale, before reaching under her cloak and pulling out her dagger. She gripped it by the hilt, keeping her hold firm but relaxed.

  Another breath.

  She pulled her arm back and flung the dagger forward. It scratched the bark, then, fell to the ground.

  Robin mentally cursed. She pulled out her second dagger, repeating the motions again. This time the dagger stuck. A joy erupted in her but quickly deflated as the dagger grew limp and then dropped to the earth.

  She shook her head.

  I’ll barely be able to nick an enemy at this rate. Perhaps I should try to improve my close combat skills.

  Her mind went back to the men she had slain on her first trip to the east. She was lucky because Alistair was there and they likely didn’t expect a woman to fight back. She was proud of herself for proving them wrong. Still, what if Alistair hadn’t been there?

  Robin huffed and marched over to the tree to retrieve her weapons. A cracking sound reached her ears.

  Robin spun around and tossed a dagger forward. Arthur stepped to the side. The knife punctured the earth behind him.

  Well, at least that’s an improvement.

  He glanced between Robin and the blade.

  “A little early for weapons practice. My men aren’t even up.”

  “Perhaps, you need to have a conversation with your men, then?”

  Robin slid the dagger into her belt, then pounded across the earth as she walked past him to retrieve the other. She turned and glared at him.

  She had expected a smile at least. He only stared at her.

  “What do you want, Arthur?” Robin sighed.

  “I was hoping we could speak.”

  “About?”

  His eyes turned to the clearing. Then, they returned to Robin.

  “About us—"

  “There is no us.” She shook her head. “Not anymore.”

  “Is that how you really feel?”

  “I do.” She didn’t meet his stare.

  “Why won’t you look at me, Robin?”

  She closed her eyes. She could feel the tears coming, the traitors they were.

  “Robin?”

  “Because,” --she clasped her hands together-- “there is nothing to discuss. Please, Arthur. I hoped I’d be alone. The matter of what we were has been handled. What else is there?”

  “I choose you.”

  Robin heard the words. They filled her mind with a disarming fog that made her narrow her brows and shake her head.

  It couldn’t be real. She had to be hearing things.

  “I choose you, Robin.”

  She had heard them again--the words that whispered her secret desire, something she knew was still present but had long since stopped acknowledging.

  All the cold left her, replaced by a spark of hope.

  Why are you so stupid?

  She attempted to keep her breath steady.

  “You shouldn’t say things you don’t mean, Arthur.”

  “I mean it. Every word.” Not a hesitation or a flinch.

  The hope grew brighter, burning from her core through her body.

  “Robin,” he said and took a step towards her.

  She did not retreat.

  “What happened between Morganna and me... I think we both needed it. We were both looking for something to help the pain. It seemed right at the moment.” He cleared his throat, before meeting her eyes again.

  “What I’ve realized since you’ve returned is that I-I want to do right by Morganna. But I want to be with you. I want you, Robin.”

  There was a hitch in his breath and Robin’s own chest was rising and falling rapidly.

  With familiarity and ease, Arthur closed the space between them. He reached his hand up and took hers in his, never breaking eye contact.

  “There has never been another and will always be only you, Robin.”

  Foolish.

  She pressed her lips against his and enclosed his face between her hands. The light stubble on his jaw prickled against her palms and chin. His mouth moved with hers, a growing intensity in their pressure. Soon, his hand had pressed against her back and pressed her to his body. With the other, he tilted her head back.

  Robin succumbed. His tongue swept across her bottom lip and she realized there was too much separating them.

  She broke their kiss and unclipped her cloak. Her mouth moved down to his throat and a satisfied moan escaped his lips. He moved his hand across her shoulder and turned her vision upward to him.

  “I am so sorry for all the pain I caused.” Arthur moved a stray hair from her face. “I will never leave you again. And when we take back Camelot, Elizabeth--if she did not die that night--will pay dearly.”

  Robin snuggled against him. She pressed her face into his neck and inhaled.

  Sweet and salty like honey by the sea.

  “I am not the same person I was ten years ago, Arthur,” she whispered. “Are you sure you still want me?”

  “There is no greater desire in me.”

  She closed her eyes. Robin had waited so long for those words.

  “Do you doubt me?” he asked.

  She removed her face from the crook of his neck. She shook her head. “No.”

  His blonde hair was like a halo even under the foggy sky.

  “Good,” he said. “Because I have something for you.”

  Still smiling, Arthur reached behind him and pulled free a dagger. Gripping the knife by its blade, he offered it to Robin.

  Her eyes traveled from the tip of the blade to the end of the hilt. The hilt itself was bone white and shaped into twisted curves like vines. The vines moved around one another, tucking above and under each other. The blade was beautiful. Robin knew it had to be metal but at just the right angle with the right amount of light the blade appeared translucent. Almost like glass.

  “It’s yours,” he said.

  “Why? I don’t think I’m exactly in need of another dagger.” She gestured towards the two in her belt.

  He sighed. “You’re not. But this isn’t any dagger, Robin. Here, let me show you.”

  Arthur stepped under a tree’s shade. He held up a finger and pressed the knife’s tip into the flesh until blood dripped. The drop trickled down the blade and Arthur was wrapped in shadow.

  Where he had been standing, there was now nothing.

  Robin stood frozen. It was almost like her arms and legs were pinned in place. She blinked but what she saw remained the same. Arthur was gone.

  “Robin.”

  She knew his voice, but she still jumped, stumbling backward and almost falling to the ground. He had appeared a few trees to the left of his original spot. She looked him up and down. Her heart pounded in her chest.

  “When did you become a ca—"

  “I’m not,” he stated and stepped from under the tree. “I have no magic. It’s the blade, not me.”

  Robin crossed her arms and glared at him.

  “Do you really think I’d sell my soul?”

  “I’m not sure what to think right now to be honest with you.”

  “The dagger is the same as Excalibur except while Excalibur repels magic, the blade uses it.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “And what did you do to get it?”

  “It was given to me,” he said. “Almost the same way Excalibur was.”

  “No witches?”

  Arthur shook his head. “None that I saw.”

  He walked to Robin and offered the blade again. She watched him.

  “Its name is Carnwennan,” he stated. “It has the power to shield its user in shadow. Simply prick your finger to disappear. Then, wipe the blood clean to reappear. Here, take it.”

  Robin eyed the blade briefly, before rolling her eyes and grabbing the hilt.

  “Why are you g
iving this to me, Arthur?”

  A smirk played across his lips. “For one, Carnwennan acts as an insurance policy you’ll return.”

  Now it was her turn to smile. “And why wouldn’t I?”

  He put his hands on his hips and blew out his cheeks as he took a long breath.

  “Well,” --he rocked on his heels-- “You were always one for a little adventure. I don’t want you gallivanting off on some other journey before you return here. Not to mention…”

  He clasped her face between his hands. His eyes roamed over her features.

  “I want to protect you even when I’m not beside you. If you ever need to escape a situation, the blade can be useful. You can’t come in contact with any light while using it though. It breaks the spell.”

  Robin placed a palm on his cheek. She stared into his eyes. “All those years in that damn tree and I never forgot your eyes. Blue like the eastern seas.”

  He pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “Return to me and I’ll take you there. It’s only a two-day trip by horse.”

  She raised a brow. “You’re giving me no choice but to return, aren’t you?”

  “I’ve missed too much time with you already. As soon as we can end all this, our real lives can begin.”

  Robin gave him a small grin. She stared at the blade between them.

  “And have you told Morganna of your decision?”

  Arthur nodded.

  “And what did she say?”

  He stepped back and wiped his face. “Nothing. She just turned away from me and left the room. I’m not sure how to mend the wound I have inflicted. I--I will never forgive myself for what I have put both you and your cousin through.”

  “What’s done is done,” Robin said and slid the dagger into a belt loop.

  I will not live in the past. This is another step forward.

  “Yes. I’m afraid it is,” he said, rubbing the hairs on his chin.

  “You know, Arthur, you never did tell me how you got Excalibur.”

  He quirked a blonde brow. “Another reason for you to return then.”

  “Really?” She scoffed. “Why can’t you just tell me?”

  “You seem to like men of mystery. I have to keep something unspoken between us.”

  “Yes, and you seem to like being a pain,” she retorted.

  He grinned. “That’s usually what I say to you.”

  “I guess it’s true for both of us, then.” She clasped her hands behind her back and walked up to him. “I was shocked when you returned with Excalibur. You nearly scared the life out of me when you used Carnwennan. I wonder what other magical weaponry you have stumbled upon?”

  His smiled widened. “I’ll only say you should think of that dagger as an engagement gift.”

  Robin’s eyes doubled in size. Arthur grabbed her and pressed his mouth against hers. She fell into him, his familiar touch pulling her in. Yet when their kiss broke, and while he stared down at her with glossy eyes, Robin could only say one thing.

  “No.”

  Morganna thought of drowning herself. She could steal a horse, ride to the sea and tie stones round her ankles. Then she’d walk out until the foamy water consumed her.

  It would be so simple and yet she hesitated.

  She hadn’t been back to the room since Arthur had confessed his love for Robin the night prior. He had spilled everything to her then. Every word was like a slice to her chest and her abdomen. It was as if both her heart and the baby had spilled from her. She felt empty.

  Her mouth was salty from tears, the earth underneath her was cold, starting to freeze with the approaching winter.

  Maybe I’ll just lie out here until I’m dead.

  She wrapped her arm around her stomach.

  “I am so sorry you never had a chance, little baby. I know you would have been beautiful.”

  She tucked her knees under her chin and held them there. The wind blew and a chill ran over her skin.

  Morganna was sure her nose was red. It had started dripping some time ago and she now sniffled like a child. Except before, when she actually was a child and the cold gave her a dripping nose or a harsh cough, someone was there to take care of her. Usually, one of the servants.

  They’d cover her in blankets and braid her hair as she fell to sleep. They’d rub a warm cloth over her face that had been soaked in water and rosemary. Her father would worry like a mother hen.

  Yes, everyone cared about her. Everyone worried over her.

  But then Robin…

  The cold acceptance turned into icy spikes. Morganna balled her hands into fists.

  The day she arrived nothing was the same. She took everything. Everything!

  The forest was quiet around her. Yet, her mind roared with memories.

  The first day Robin arrived, her father had no time for her. He was so busy getting his niece settled, though she didn’t seem very grateful for any of it. At first, she hardly spoke. She wouldn’t eat, and then she began to throw tantrums like a toddler.

  “The ungrateful brat,” Morganna whispered to herself through clenched teeth.

  There was her first birth celebration at Camelot, as well. So much work for one person, particularly one who wasn’t even in line for the throne. Still, everyone put forth their best, only for Robin to run to her room halfway through and refuse to return to the party.

  “Wasteful.”

  Morganna had begun rocking herself. The arm around her stomach tightened and she grabbed the charm around her necklace.

  Memory after memory assaulted her, pushing into her mind whether she wanted them to or not. She didn’t remember them all, some seemed more fiction than fact, but she knew they were real. She knew they had happened and only she knew how horrible her cousin truly was.

  She pulled her blonde hair over her face and took in several breaths.

  You’re safe now. She’s not here.

  An image of Arthur appeared in her mind--a younger Arthur, before he was a knight. His face had been a bit rounder. His jaw was not arched and defined like it was as an adult. No, he was quite simple actually. Even his hair had grown blonder the older he became. But Morganna had loved him as soon as she laid eyes on him.

  A tear slipped down her face as she remembered the heat that had blossomed in her cheeks upon meeting him for the first time. She had seen Arthur’s father before. His mother had died in childbirth, so, Morganna never had the chance.

  She would have loved me, I’m certain.

  His father had quickly became notable for his skill with a sword. The two had started at some small village in the kingdom before finding their way to Camelot and, eventually, into the castle alongside her father.

  Morganna had been twelve. It was Arthur’s first time at such a royal event and he was obviously uncomfortable. They found comradery in their distaste for adult discussions and the boring happenings of the party. After that night, she pined over him for a year until…

  “Robin.”

  Morganna turned on her knees. Her hands dug into the ground beneath her and she screamed into the earth. The dirt was cold and moist between her fingers. She imagined them being warmed by Robin’s blood. Nothing would be right until she had it. The throbbing cold inside her wouldn’t wane until Robin was dead.

  It was the only way.

  She pressed a hand to her abdomen, her head pushed at an angle into the earth.

  “She will not win. She will not take you away from me.”

  Morganna moved her hand from her stomach up to her neck. Her thumb and forefinger rubbed the dragon charm. She wrapped her fingers around the necklace. Her jaw ached at how tightly she had it clenched.

  A flash of young Arthur confident but uncomfortable at his first royal affair.

  Robin, dark-haired, blue eyed and evil.

  She yanked the necklace free and tossed it away.

  Her breath was fog in front of her as she sat straight and looked forward.

  Morganna’s whole body shook but no longer with cold f
rom the weather, no. With a chilling determination.

  Tremors continued to run through her as she struggled to her feet. Her legs had fallen asleep at her immobility. She was ready now.

  Morganna stood and swayed from side to side.

  “I will win,” she whispered and took her first step forward.

  The trees rustled around her as if in agreement.

  She smiled and nodded to them as she moved deeper into the trees.

  “Yes. I will.”

  Maddy stood in the nearly empty clearing and yawned into the daylight. She stretched her arms and smiled up at the sun, though the gray sky tried to dull its shine.

  “Excited for tomorrow’s journey?” Alistair stepped beside her with Fred and another horse in hand. He had been taking them out for exercise.

  His purple eyes were full of light and he hadn’t stopped smiling since they had started their morning. She knew he had not seen his northern family in nearly a year.

  “I don’t think I could ever be as excited as you,” she replied. “You’ve got more than enough for all three of us.”

  He laughed and ran his fingers through his hair.

  “We’re only taking two horses?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Arthur offered three but Robin and I refused. They need the horses for work and winter is fast approaching.”

  “Hm. I assume he and Robin argued about this.”

  “Your assumption would be right. Common sense won out in the end though.”

  “Well that’s one victory.”

  Alistair stroked Fred’s mane. His eyes turned north. “I know the trip won’t be easy. Still, I’m happy at the thought of seeing my home.” He paused and tapped his finger on the reins. “And for my family to meet you…and Robin.”

  A warmth blossomed in Maddy and she knew her cheeks had turned a light pink.

  Alistair cleared his throat. “I should…maybe, someone—"

  “Has there been any news about Lady Morganna?” Maddy asked, turning to him, a small smile on her lips.

  This question seemed to sober him. He lost all his fluster and shook his head.

  “Not since yesterday.”

  “And how is Robin handling it?” She already knew the answer.

  “Considering her cousin tried to kill her, I can’t blame her for the lack of love. I don’t suppose you would either?”