Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Gundam Wing and the Men of Sherwood Forest ❯ A Daring Rescue ( Chapter 13 )

Chapter 13: A Daring Rescue

“No, Quatre,” Duo said with great patience, “you may not blow a giant hole in the side of the castle to rescue Trowa.”

Quatre frowned. “I promise I'll miss all the load-bearing walls. Not too much of the castle should collapse.”

Duo sighed. “Quatre, you know Trowa can take care of himself. He's not in any real danger. Be patient. We will come up with a plan to rescue him that does not involve risking the complete destruction of Nottingham Castle and everyone inside.”

“It wouldn't be a very big hole. Seven or eight meters, tops.”

“Quatre…”

Quatre, seated cross-legged on the floor of the room at the inn which he was sharing with Trowa and Roku, struggled briefly against the sturdy rope wrapped several times around his body, pinning his arms to his torso. “You can untie me. I'm perfectly all right now.”

“Do you still want to blow up the castle?”

“Just part of it.”

“Then you're not all right.” Duo glanced at Heero. “What do you think?”

Heero regarded Quatre with his arms crossed. “I think we should knock him back out.”

“Some friend you are.” Quatre struggled some more and then gave up with an exasperated sigh. “Well, what are you going to do about Trowa, then? How do you know he's not in danger? The Sheriff thinks he's Robin Hood. He might try to hang him without waiting for a trial.”

“Wu-Fei went to meet with Treize and Zechs to find out what's going on. Little John and Friar Tuck have gone to get Robin and the rest of the Merry Men. We'll get Trowa out of the dungeon before anything bad happens.” Duo grinned. “Trust me!”

Quatre hung his head. “Trowa's gonna die!” he moaned.

“Mama!” Roku said. “Papa Duo will rescue Papa Trowa. I trust him.” He put his arms around Quatre. “I'm going with him.”

Quatre glared at Duo. “So you're planning to risk my baby's life too?”

“Mama! Stop it.” Roku kissed Quatre on the cheek. “Papa Trowa is ok. I would know if he wasn't.”

Quatre looked at Roku. “Really?”

Roku nodded.

“Well, I suppose I can wait a little while before I take care of the matter myself.”

“Good.” Duo rubbed his hands together. “But you'll understand if I wait to untie you until after we have Trowa back.”

“I'll remember this,” Quatre growled. “I hope you like being a lizard.”

“Mama, you may not turn Papa Duo into a lizard.”

“But…”

“No.”

“Fine,” Quatre pouted. “But he better get Trowa back in one undamaged piece or else!”

“It'll be fine,” Heero grated. “You should trust us. And Trowa.”

Wu-Fei, Treize and Zechs entered the room at that moment.

“How is Trowa?” Quatre demanded immediately.

“He's fine, for the moment,” Treize replied. “The Sheriff had him locked up in the dungeon before we even made it back to the castle. He hadn't yet gone to talk to him when we got there. He and the mayor were too busy gloating about the capture.”

“But what will they do when they find out he's not Robin Hood?” Quatre asked.

“They'll have to let him go, of course. They can't just go around arresting stray archers on the chance that they might be Robin Hood.”

“Won't someone recognize him?” asked Heero. “He went to the castle with you before as your servant.”

“I doubt it. No one really looks at servants. Not even other servants sometimes.”

“But if you tell them he's your servant, they'll have to let him go!” Quatre pointed out. He squirmed inside the rope. “Untie me and let's go tell them who he is.”

“Well,” Treize looked a little embarrassed. “I'd rather not do that. You see, it would look rather coincidentally bad that all the contests were won by people connected to me and I just conveniently turned up right before the tournament. Especially with the rather large bets I placed with prominent individuals.”

“That's a good point,” Wu-Fei agreed. “And we still haven't collected all the bets. We need that money to clear Robin's name.”

“Money is not as important as Trowa!” Quatre growled. “I want to hear plans about getting Trowa back, dammit!” He started muttering under his breath in Latin.

Roku put a gentle hand on Quatre's arm. “Stop that, Mama.”

There was a knock at the door and a soft voice hissed, “Anon, friends!”

Duo opened the door and several hooded and cloaked men slipped inside. They tossed their hoods back as soon as Duo closed the door, revealing Robin Hood, Little John, Friar Tuck, Alan `a Dale and Will Scarlett. The room was getting rather crowded.

“Friends!” Robin exclaimed in an anguished tone. “I am devastated that good Master Trowa has been arrested in my stead! I would have gone to the castle at once to take his place, but Little John prevented me.”

“That is a fool's idea, Robin, and you know it,” Little John replied. “They would just throw you in beside Trowa.” Little John looked around at the others. “I sent Jarvis and a few others to sniff out what they could. It seems the Sheriff is aware he has the wrong man but he's not letting that news get about. He is hoping that Robin will do something foolish rather than let an innocent man hang in his place.”

“It is not foolish, but honorable, to prevent such a wrong!” Robin exclaimed.

“Hanged?!” Quatre exclaimed.

Will Scarlett nodded. “There is talk of a hanging, yes, but I agree with Little John that it is probably just a ploy to smoke out Robin Hood.”

“And it will succeed!” Robin exclaimed rather dramatically. “I will go to the Sheriff at once and…”

“Be quiet, Robin!” Little John interrupted him. “You'll do no such thing.” He looked at the others. “But I do hope you have a plan to rescue your companion.”

“Yeah!” Quatre declared. “Let's hear the plan!”

Duo patted Quatre on the head. “Well, at the moment, the plan is mostly preventive, since Quatre here was planning a major frontal assault using explosive magic.” Duo chuckled. “And they call me impulsive! Anyway, I was thinking that a diversion would be helpful while Wu-Fei, Roku and I sneak in and spirit Trowa out of the dungeon.”

Little John nodded. “We can help with that. No doubt the Sheriff is expecting some kind of trouble.” He rubbed his hands together and grinned wickedly. “We can give him a whole peck of it!”

Duo and Little John huddled together and started making plans. Quatre watched them with an angry glare. Treize leaned over to address Quatre.

“Try not to worry, Quatre. Zechs and I will go back to the castle and keep an eye on things. We can cause a stir in the castle to keep the other nobles occupied during the rescue. We'll have Trowa back safe at your side in no time.”

Quatre sighed. “I just don't like it when his life is in danger.”

“I understand completely,” Zechs said. He regarded Treize with a fond smile. “But Trowa has survived worse.”

Treize stepped over to join the plotting between Duo and Little John.

At last, Duo turned to face the others. “All right. We've got a plan. Heero, you take Quatre and go back to the camp in Sherwood with Alan and Friar Tuck. Treize and Zechs are going back to the castle. Little John, Will and the Merry Men will be setting up a pleasant little diversion in the streets of Nottingham, and Wu-Fei, Roku and I will prepare to sneak into the castle. The Sheriff will probably expect something to happen after midnight, or even close to dawn, so let's jump the gun and really screw him up. We'll stage our rescue right at the end of the evening meal, when everybody's nice and sluggish.” He giggled maniacally. “This should be fun!”

Charged with their assignments, everyone prepared to get started, with only Quatre protesting.

“At least untie me first!”

“No way. I don't trust angry sorcerers.”

“Heero!”

“Give it a rest.” Heero scooped Quatre up and flopped him over one shoulder. “I'll let you ride my horse.”

“Gee, thanks!”

Meanwhile, deep under Nottingham Castle, Trowa sat against the driest wall of his dungeon cell with his legs stretched out in front of him and crossed at the ankle. A dozen or so mice ran back and forth across his legs, pausing every now and then to sit up on their hind legs and chitter at him with their whiskers twitching.

Trowa listened attentively. “I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm not sure they're going to feed me. If they do, I will be glad to share.”

All the mice stopped to chitter at him at once.

“Do they really? I can't say I care much for stale bread.”

A voice from the next cell interrupted him. “What are you on about in there? Have you cracked already, Robin Hood?”

“I'm not Robin Hood,” Trowa replied. “And the mice have just been telling me that prisoners are fed nothing but stale bread.”

“Aye, if we're lucky. Sometimes it's rotten potatoes. I think whatever they clean out of the kitchen that's deemed too spoiled for the pigs ends up here.”

“That sounds unappetizing.”

“No lie.” The other prisoner paused. “So you say you're not Robin Hood?”

“No. The Sheriff just mistook me for him.”

“That's too bad. I wouldn't mind meeting Robin Hood. He gave me old mum some coin once to buy bread. Decent fellow.”

“That he is.”

“Well, good luck to you. I hope they don't hang you.”

“Thanks and the same to you.”

Upstairs, Treize stood with his hands on his hips regarding Prince John with a slightly disappointed expression, but his voice was as silky smooth and patient as ever. “My dear Prince John, while I can certainly understand that your gambling loss is unexpected, surely any true gentleman would endeavor to settle the debt before leaving town. I do not know how much longer I will be in Nottingham myself. I would be terribly disappointed if our debt were to remain unsettled.”

Prince John frowned. “I intend to pay my debt Lord Treize. All I am saying is that I must return to London to collect it for you.”

“I see.”

Zechs stroked his fingers through his hair. “Perhaps some king of collateral would ease Lord Treize's mind, Prince John.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “I probably shouldn't mention this, but Lord Treize has a bad habit of skewering his debtors in duels.”

“A duel?!” Lady Margaret exclaimed, horrified.

Mayor DeBoers looked dumfounded. “You would dare to challenge His Highness to a duel?!”

“Of course not,” Treize replied in a tone so unconvincing that Mayor DeBoers lost all color from his face.

Prince John looked to be on the verge of apoplexy. “You… you… overstep yourself, Sir!” he spluttered. “I am a true prince of the Blood Royal! My person is inviolate!”

Treize inclined his head slightly. “Your Highness mistakes me,” he said in a faintly threatening tone. “And you misunderstand Count Zechs. I admit I do have a passion for dueling, but I only resort to that when there is no other recourse. Obviously, Your Highness would never renege on a debt, so I should have no reason to demand satisfaction face to face.”

Prince John began to wheeze. “I am sure we understand one another, Lord Treize. I shall have your money by morning.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

Prince John turned to Mayor DeBoers. “Lord Mayor, may we speak privately for a moment?” Prince John took the mayor aside and spoke to him quietly and earnestly. Mayor DeBoers grew paler and paler as they spoke. Finally, he nodded weakly and Prince John smiled.

Zechs leaned close to Treize and whispered, “I think Mayor DeBoers is about to make good on the Prince's debt.”

“I think so too,” Treize whispered back. “I wish him good luck recovering the money later.”

Zechs chuckled softly as he turned to Lady Margaret. “Well, all this talk of duels and demanding satisfaction has given me an appetite.” He offered her his arm. “Shall we dine?”

“Of course, my lord!” Lady Margaret slipped her arm through his and put her head close to his. “Lord Treize would not really challenge Prince John to a duel, would he?” she whispered.

“Absolutely not,” Zechs replied, sounding just as unconvincing as Treize had. “Although, admittedly, he has gone longer without fighting a duel since we've been in Nottingham than I can recall him lasting before. It really is a very bad habit with him. That's why I like to keep him busy with frequent, ah, practice sessions.” He smiled intimately at Treize and lowered his voice to a silky whisper. “I find if I keep Lord Treize well satisfied with a little man-to-man interaction, he is less inclined to engage in random duels.”

Lady Margaret drew in a long, deep breath. “You are talking about sword practice, I presume,” she said weakly.

“That's right,” Zechs purred. “Treize needs to unsheathe his sword at least once a day or he gets extremely grumpy. Some days, he quite wears me out.”

Lady Margaret began to fan herself.

“Will you sit beside me at dinner, my lady?” Zechs asked with the same seductive purr.

Lady Margaret managed a weak nod.

Treize stepped up on Lady Margaret's other side and took her free arm. “You are being naughty again, my dear Count,” he murmured to Zechs. “You will give Lady Margaret the wrong impression of me.” He put his lips next to Lady Margaret's ear. “Although I do confess I rather enjoy the intimate little contests Count Zechs and I have each evening before we go to sleep. He always pushes me to my limits when we, ah, cross swords.”

Lady Margaret's steps faltered and she slumped slightly, so that it appeared that only Treize and Zechs on either side of her were holding her upright. But for once, Mayor DeBoers appeared not to notice. He followed along behind the others, muttering to himself and shaking his head mournfully.

Prince John frowned as he marched along beside the mayor. “It would be more seemly for me to escort our hostess in to dinner.”

“What?” Mayor DeBoers mumbled. He looked up at his wife. “Oh, what does it matter?” he grumbled. “All of our guests will leave, and not too soon if you ask me, and then she will have to settle for her husband again.”

“Do you include me in that group?” Prince John exclaimed huffily.

Mayor DeBoers barely glanced at him. “Certainly not, Your Highness.” He managed to sound just as unconvincing as Treize and Zechs.

Prince John glowered at Treize's back. “This visit has been less satisfactory than I had hoped.”

“For everyone,” Mayor DeBoers muttered under his breath.

Behind them, Sheriff Mark just smiled. “But let us not forget our success in regard to putting an end to the pesky Robin Hood.”

“But it is not Robin Hood who sits in my dungeon right now,” Mayor DeBoers replied.

“But it will be, so enough,” the Sheriff answered. “Robin Hood fancies himself a gentleman. He won't let us hang an innocent man. I predict that he will try some rescue before dawn and I am fully prepared for that. I have men stationed all about the castle and at the city gates. By morning, we'll have Robin Hood and probably some of his men as well. So for now, let's enjoy a good meal and celebrate a little.”

Outside the castle, Duo, Wu-Fei and Roku huddled in the shadow of an empty booth on the common and studied the placement of the guards.

“I think the Sheriff suspects something,” Duo remarked.

“Possibly,” Wu-Fei agreed. “Ten guards seems a little excessive.”

“There's more than ten,” Roku said. “I can smell more inside, out of sight.”

“Now that is excessive.”

“Do you think dinner is over yet?” asked Roku.

“Treize said he'd signal us when dinner is over. I think it should be soon.”

“It's pretty dark,” said Wu-Fei. “How was he planning to signal us?”

“I see him,” Roku said suddenly. He pointed at the top of the castle wall. “He's up there.”

Wu-Fei squinted at the wall. “Are you sure? I don't see anything.”

“Yeah. Anyway, it smells like him too.”

“What's he doing?”

“Just leaning on the wall. Now he's walking away.”

“That's the signal,” Duo said. “Treize knew Roku was coming with us so we didn't plan anything dramatic. Wu-Fei, would you signal Little John, please?”

“Sure.” Wu-Fei stepped around behind the booth and shot a thin jet of flame into the air. An owl hooted in response. “Ok, they saw it.”

“All right,” Duo said. “Get ready Roku. You'll go as soon as the commotion starts. You go now, Fei.”

“Right.” Wu-Fei strolled away across the common toward the castle gates. The guards immediately came to attention.

“Halt! Who are you and what's your business?”

Wu-Fei stopped just out of spear reach. “I am a servant of Lord Treize, who is a guest of your master and mistress. I was attending to his business and now I've returned.”

The guards stared at him suspiciously. “In the middle of the night?”

Wu-Fei shrugged. “I had intended to return sooner, but I was delayed.”

A sudden shout, followed by the clash of steel on steel announced the start of the diversion. More shouts and cries rang out, with one voice carrying above the others.

“To arms! An assault! An assault on the gate!”

“That sounded like Little John,” Roku said.

Duo giggled. “Nothing like announcing your intentions to really get things going. You're on, little one.”

“Goody!” Roku sprang out into the open and transformed into a dragon. He leaped up into the air, flew over the wall and dropped down into the courtyard spouting flame and roaring. The resulting commotion was quite satisfactory.

“What's that?” cried one of the castle guards. “What's going on?”

“I think you have a dragon inside,” Wu-Fei remarked and he shot a long red tongue of flame at the nearest guard.

“Aiee!” the guard screamed and he leaped backward, dropping his spear so he could bat wildly at the smoldering spots on his clothes.

Wu-Fei raked all the guards with a little dragon fire and they scattered in panic. Duo dashed up beside him and they raced through the gate. In the courtyard, Roku was gleefully chasing guards in all directions, hissing fire at their backsides and swinging at them with his claws. He always managed to just miss, although a few guards had ragged tears in their uniforms and others showed singed spots. Those who were still in sight were desperately trying to climb the sheer castle walls because earlier escapees had barricaded the entrances to the castle and barracks.

Duo snatched his knife out of its sheath. “Knife, show me the way to Trowa's staff, please.”

The dungeon entrance is through that door on the left.

“Through there,” Duo pointed. “Roku, could you open that door please?”

Roku bounded over to the door and smacked it firmly. The hinges bent but the door held. He smacked it again and the top hinge broke. A third blow caved the door in.

“Thank you. Watch your tail. We'll be right back.”

Duo and Wu-Fei jumped through the broken door.

Turn right and then go down the first stair on the left. Go down three flights and turn left off of the landing. The item you seek is in the third cell on the right.

Duo followed the knife's directions with Wu-Fei on his heels. Outside the indicated cell door, he skidded to a halt. “Hey, Trowa, you in there?”

“Hey Duo. What took you so long?”

“We had to keep Quatre from blowing up the castle to come after you. Gimme a second with the door.” Duo produced a lock pick and quickly opened the door.

Trowa stepped out with a smile. “Thanks. This place is a little smelly. Apparently, the cells double as bathroom facilities.”

Wu-Fei wrinkled his nose. “I didn't need to know that.”

“You found me pretty quick.”

Duo nodded at the staff draped around Trowa's shoulder. “You've got a magical object, remember?”

“Oh, yeah. Your knife found us.”

“Shall we go?” Wu-Fei said. “We shouldn't leave Roku alone too long.”

“Roku?” Trowa exclaimed.

“He's keeping the guards occupied.”

The three of them raced back up to the courtyard to find Roku crouched on the wall above the gate, roaring furiously and shooting long jets of flame at anyone who ventured out of hiding.

Trowa laughed. “He's having a good time.”

“And Quatre was worried about me bringing him along,” Duo said. He waved at Roku.

Roku reared up on his hind legs, waved his claws, roared thunderously and sprayed a long arc of blistering golden fire into the night sky.

“That's to let Little John know we're on our way,” said Duo. He led the way out through the gate as Roku leaped off the wall, swooped once in a tight curve above the courtyard and zoomed off across the city. There wasn't a soul in sight outside the castle and they raced into the city unhindered. They arrived at the city gate to find Little John and Will Scarlett standing in front of the open gate with several of the Merry Men waiting outside.

“What happened to the guards?” Wu-Fei asked curiously.

“Well,” said Little John with a deep laugh, “they sent off for reinforcements when we attacked but the only man who showed up was screaming about a dragon burning down the castle. No one believed him until young Roku flew by. They've all run off to hide so we decided to open the gate in their absence. Shall we go?”

“By all means.”

The party fled through the gate and headed for Sherwood. At the forest edge, they found Roku in tiger form bouncing up and down on his paws.

“That was fun! Is it ok if I tell Mama about chasing the guards and singeing their butts?”

“Absolutely!” Duo said. He patted Roku on the head. “Maybe then he won't mind that he didn't get to blow anything up.”

When they reached camp, they found Heero sitting on Quatre, who was still tied up and was now wearing a gag.

“Um, Heero…?” Duo began

“He wouldn't quit speaking in Latin,” Heero said with a shrug. He nodded at Trowa. “I see you got him.”

“Yup. No problems. Maybe you should let Quatre up now.”

Heero glanced down at Quatre, who glared back at him furiously. “I'll let Trowa untie him. He still seems a little miffed.”

“Yeah, speaking of that…” Duo grinned sheepishly at Trowa. “Would you mind taking him somewhere else to untie him? He's kind of ticked off at the rest of us and maybe he'll calm down after you've had a chance to comfort him a little.”

Trowa smiled. “Sure.” He leaned over Quatre. “Everything's ok now, Quatre. I'll tell you all about it.” Heero moved aside and Trowa picked Quatre up. Quatre struggled angrily and tried to speak, but his words were muffled by the gag. “Why don't we discuss how they abused you later?” He carried Quatre out of the clearing.

Duo heaved a sigh of relief. “That's better. Quatre can sure get touchy sometimes.” He looked around the camp with a bright smile. “Now then, what's for dinner? I'm starved!”

“Me too!” Roku echoed.

Wu-Fei sighed. “Don't you ever think about anything but food?”

Duo winked at him. “Sure, but we'll get to that later. Hey Roku, I see a side of venison over there. Want to split it?”

“Yeah!”