We found what cover we could as several more bolts flew at us.
“Robard, stay down,” I said. “If they try to draw you out. . We can’t lose you.”
“I’m not going anywhere, squire, and neither are you, and. . Tristan. . where is Maryam?”
From my hiding place, I glanced around me in every direction, but she was nowhere to be found. She was either excellent at hiding or had disappeared into thin air. “I don’t know,” I answered. “Maryam? Maryam, where are you?” I called quietly.
“Confound it!” Robard exclaimed. “What is that Assassin up to? If she gets herself caught again. .” Robard tried to sound angry, but he was worried. I knew he would fight the knights with his bare hands before he’d let any harm come to her.
“Perhaps she’s finding an escape route,” I said hopefully. “We need to get out of here. Maryam can more than take care of herself.”
We remained hidden from the knights’ view as best we could. Our enemies appeared comfortable with keeping us pinned down by crossbows. They fired a shot in our direction on occasion, but we were well concealed. Robard had no clear shot or time to stand and draw, so we waited.
“Maybe they’ve caught her,” Robard mused, concern in his voice.
“No. If they had, Sir Hugh would be using her as a means to get us to surrender. He doesn’t have her.”
Robard muttered quiet curses under his breath. Our situation was beginning to wear on him.
“You should have let me shoot Sir Hugh in the alley,” he complained bitterly.
I said nothing. It was time to act.
“Let’s go,” I said. “Waiting gets us nothing. We have to get out of here somehow.”
My wound made bending at the waist painful, but standing upright meant instant death, so I crouched as best I could and scrambled toward the south end of the marketplace. A bolt skittered across the cobblestone in front of me, and I dove behind a cart.
Robard landed beside me an instant later. “We’re wasting time,” he muttered.
I tried to rise to get a view of where the knights had placed themselves, but another bolt bit into the wood just inches from my face, and I ducked again.
“They’re getting closer,” I yelped.
“I say we rush them!” Robard said through gritted teeth, anger at our situation beginning to get the best of him.
Then, though I would not have wished it in this manner, our deliverance arrived. From out of the darkness a fiery torch came spinning our way, followed quickly by another. The first landed harmlessly on the cobblestone and burned out, but the other clattered against a canvas-covered stall, and the material began to smolder, then burn. Sir Hugh was willing to burn down the marketplace to get to us. I wanted to rush and put it out before it caught, not wishing some poor vendor to lose his livelihood, but I held fast, for fear of the crossbowmen.
The breeze fanned the flames. In a few short moments the wood frame of the stall caught as well. Then the next stall caught, and a full-on conflagration took hold.
“Robard,” I said, “this is our chance! Wait for the smoke to thicken a little, then move off toward the south end.” When the time came and the air was dense with the smell of fire, Robard stood and aimed his bow.
“Robard. . what. .” But he loosed his arrow before I could finish, and an instant later came the answering cry of agony where it found its mark. He quickly ducked as two bolts flew through the air where he’d stood just moments before.
“How did you. .,” I asked. Wondering how he could hit a target he couldn’t see.
“I measured where he stood and marked it in my memory,” he explained. “That’s one less knight. I suggest we move. You’re looking weaker, Tristan. Can you make it?”
“This way,” I said, ignoring his question, for in truth my side ached miserably. But with the smoke swirling around us and the flames licking the night sky, I ran in my crablike gait from stall to stall. With any luck, we’d have a few precious seconds before our movement was revealed.
We paused behind a large vegetable cart and waited. We were nearly to the very end of the marketplace and the flames were moving toward us. With the fire behind us we had no other option. The blaze cast a glow in the darkness, and beyond us on the street we could see two knights guarding the nearest exit, crossbows ready, waiting for us to show ourselves. If we rushed them, they would shoot us down before we took a step. And if Robard stood and drew his bow, he might get one of them, but the other would have a clear shot at him.
I coughed as the smoke thickened. The knights strained to find where the sound had come from over the crackling noise.
Then our luck turned. From out of the night came shouts of alarm. It was the townspeople. “Fire! Fire!” rang through the night. And down the street, in the shadows beyond, I spotted movement as dozens of men and women rushed toward the marketplace.
“Robard, this is our chance,” I said.
“What about Maryam?”
“One thing at a time.” I grabbed hold of the handle on the cart we were hiding behind and pushed. Robard joined in, and the wheels spun as we steered it directly toward the knights twenty yards away. Distracted by the gathering crowd, they didn’t notice us at first, but then one turned as we were almost upon him and fired his crossbow. The bolt bounced harmlessly off the wooden cart, but his companion’s shot bit hard into the wood, next to my hand. I gasped in alarm and pushed harder, the cart gaining speed. With no time to span their crossbows, the knights dropped them to the ground and were about to draw their swords when we crashed into them.
We were immediately surrounded by a crowd of frantic Doverites, clamoring and shouting. I spotted Sir Hugh astride his horse, trying to force his way through the crowd to reach us.
“The knight there, on horseback, he’s responsible for the fire!” I shouted, pointing frantically.
One man looked at me, confused and upset. “Him! Him!” I shouted, pointing at Sir Hugh again. “He ordered the marketplace burned!” A few men heard me and took off after him. Sir Hugh was trying desperately to rally the remaining knights to come after us, but the whole area was a sea of confusion, with more people pouring into the streets every second. At least now there was an angry crowd between him and us.
Robard and I ran, picking our way through the crowd. Robard still held his bow at the ready, and I had drawn my sword. He shouted and cursed, and his near madness gave us a widened path through the teeming mass of people storming toward the fire. Some were carrying buckets of water, and I prayed they could control the flames before the fire spread farther into the town.
I cast a quick glance over my shoulder and found Sir Hugh still urging his horse through the crowd. He held his sword high above his head, as if commanding the masses to part, but his words were drowned out in the chaos. In our attempt to escape, I had lost count of how many knights were still in fighting shape, but we remained outnumbered.
“We’re never going to make it!” I yelled to Robard. “Once he clears the crowd, he’ll ride us down!
“Robard, there!” I exclaimed. A riderless horse belonging to one of Sir Hugh’s men wandered toward us, then skittered away, spooked by the advancing flames. “Come on!” We sprinted toward it, and I clutched the reins and managed to claw my way into the saddle as Robard climbed up behind me.
Slowly the crowd parted and I urged the horse onward.
“Tristan!” I heard my name shouted over the noise surrounding me. And then came a familiar ululating war cry.
“Look!” I said to Robard.
And there was Maryam, standing upright on the back of her horse lest someone in the dizzying crowd attempt to pull her from the saddle. She was leading our other mount behind her, and I could hear Angel barking madly. The crowd parted like water before Maryam’s thundering horses. She reined to a stop a few paces in front of us and dropped into the saddle of her horse with practiced ease. Angel ran back and forth between Robard and me. I praised her for so admirably guarding the horses.
“I would suggest we ride,” Maryam said, smiling.
10
