'Any insolence will be severely dealt with,' said Hunter.
'Holy shit,' said Bobby.
Hunter pointed the weapon at him and Bobby quickly raised his hands.
'What do you demand of us?' said Marion.
Finn and Bobby exchanged quick glances. They were profoundly relieved to see Lucas alive, but who in God's name was the guy with the automatic?
'Some of you know this man,' said Hunter, scowling at the outlaws. They were clearly terrified of him. 'He is the white knight, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe. You are to give him shelter. You are to obey him as you would obey me. You are to say nothing of his presence here to anyone. You know the consequences.'
They were all deathly silent.
'You. And you,' said Hunter, pointing out Finn and Bobby. 'Come with me.' To Marion, he said, 'See to it that we are not disturbed. The rest of you go on about your business.'
'A deserter with a chronoplate,' said Finn. 'Man, you must be living the life of Riley.'
Hunter grinned. 'It suits me.'
'These men obviously know you,' said Bobby. 'If I was really Robin Hood, I suppose I would have known about you, too, but how is it that we've never even heard anyone mention you?'
'Fear,' said Hunter. 'It makes for an effective deterrent. It's not hard to preserve your anonymity in an age where there isn't much mobility, but I couldn't hope to hide from everyone. I put the fear of God into these people, or fear of the devil, if you prefer. I value my privacy, so I told them that there was a spell protecting me. Anyone who speaks of me aloud will be struck down, unless they're addressing me personally. And just to keep them in line, to remind them of the consequences of giving in to temptation, every so often I waste a couple of them. Something showy like laser beam decapitation or a pyrogel grenade.'
'I guess that would do it,' Finn said softly.
'You mean you just… kill a number of them… at random!' said Bobby, shocked.
'I told you, they killed my boys,' said Hunter. 'Why should I care about their lives? Besides, I've got a strong streak of self-preservation.'
'Seems to me I've heard that phrase before,' said Finn, glancing at Bobby.
'It works,' said Hunter. 'I always make sure the hit is witnessed, so the horrible story gets back to the others, ten times exaggerated. It reminds them that I have magical powers and I always take care that I'm not seen, so they simply assume that the poor deceased must have spoken about me.'
'That's crazy,' Bobby said.
'No, it is, perhaps, a bit draconian, but that's not out of line in these times. I'm just taking advantage of Clarke's Axiom. Any sufficiently advanced technology is going to seem like magic to those who don't understand it. If that offends your moral sensibilities, tough shit. Besides, considering your line of work, that would be splitting hairs, wouldn't it?'
'You sure you want this guy on our side?' Bobby said to Lucas.
Hunter laughed. 'Listen, pilgrim, without me, you're dead meat and you know it. Besides, you haven't got any choice. Our friend Irving is threatening me as well as you, by his very intervention in this period. If you're going to stop him, you'll need all the help you can get.'
'Look, arguing amongst ourselves isn't going to help us any,' Finn said. 'He's right. Irving presents a threat and we've got to neutralize it.'
'What about the threat he's presenting?' Bobby said.
'I'm not stupid,' Hunter said. 'I've taken steps to keep my presence here from affecting history. So I bring some artifacts from the future. So what? You think any of these people know what the hell an automatic pistol is? Obviously, there's no guarantee that my presence here will remain a secret. Again, so what? These are superstitious times. What's another story about a sorcerer with deadly powers?'
'Suppose something you brought back falls into the wrong hands?' said Bobby. 'Have you thought of that?'
'I seriously doubt that would change the course of history,' said Hunter. 'Besides, odds are it would be destroyed. Sorcerous paraphernalia, you know. You got any other questions, or can we get down to business?'
'I think that's a sensible suggestion,' Lucas said. 'First off, Finn, how are the outlaws shaping up?'
'Well, a crack military unit they're not, but they'll do in a pinch. The only problem right now is a question of priorities.'
'How's that?'
'They're impossible to control right now,' said Finn. 'Evidently, De Bracy's attack on Cedric's party was seen by someone. Word's gotten around that the prisoners are being kept at Torquilstone. What's more, rumor has it that the outlaws were paid off to help De Bracy. That kind of talk isn't doing these people any good. Many of them have families in the local villages and not a few of them are Saxon patriots.'
'Is there any chance the rumor's true?' said Lucas.
'It's possible,' said Finn, 'although I doubt it. We've got ourselves a small army here and there are a lot of other bands spread out throughout the forest. I don't think any of Locksley's people were involved, but the point is, whether it's true or not, Cedric's very well regarded in these parts. If times are tough, you can always get a meal at Rotherwood. And Cedric doesn't mind if you hunt on his land. These are his people. They might be outlaws, but they're Saxon outlaws and they've got a lot of pride. De Bracy went and put the arm on the last of the house of Alfred. If he wanted to start a revolution, he couldn't have gone about it in a better way.'
'Word's gone out to all the outlaw bands,' said Bobby. 'They've already started arriving. They want to lay siege to Torquilstone.'
'Can they pull it off?' said Lucas.
Finn shrugged. 'They've got the numbers. And their blood is up. If they march on Torquilstone, nothing short of a major military action will stop them.'
'A Saxon uprising did occur in this period,' said Bobby. 'I don't think there's anything that we can do to stop it. Irving knows that, too. It will provide him with an ideal opportunity to make his move.'
Hunter nodded. 'That makes sense. There will be the knights who've returned from the Crusades; they'll be loyal to Richard. My guess is he's probably contacted many of them and they'll be awaiting his orders to move. When the outlaws attack Torquilstone, they'll pin down John's strongest knights. If Irving shows up to help them, he'll have a Saxon army to follow him against Prince John. I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that he even engineered Cedric's capture somehow.'
'But he'll have to know that we'll be there,' said Bobby. 'How can he hope to join the action, knowing that temporal agents are waiting to take him out right then and there?'
'Well, obviously it will be taking a risk,' said Hunter, 'but if it was me, I'll tell you how I'd do it. I'd announce myself as King Richard, returned to end tyranny and oppression and all that sort of thing. Then I'd declare a blanket pardon for all the outlaws in exchange for their help. When it hits the fan, you might be able to draw a bead on him in the middle of it all, but he won't be alone. And he'll have all the outlaws watching out for him.'
'That won't necessarily stop us from killing him,' said Bobby.
'It'll make it hard as hell,' said Hunter. 'But just for a minute, suppose you do get a clear shot at him. If one of the outlaws doesn't stop you, how are you going to survive killing the king? Worse than that, you'll have an army of witnesses to testify to the fact that Richard died at Torquilstone. Be a little awkward if another Richard showed up after that, wouldn't it?'
'You think he'd gamble on that?' said Lucas.
'Why not? We're the only ones interested in preserving history. Irving's the guy who wants to change it.'
12
De Bracy was losing his patience. 'I am not here to bargain with you, Jew,' he said to Isaac. He reached out and grabbed the man by his beard, giving it a vicious yank. Isaac cried out in pain. 'I know you're a rich man, the banker of your accursed tribe. It is not as if I'm asking for the moon.'
