At this news, The Tsar did let him go. The messenger dropped to the ground, landing on his backside. Without even bothering to get up, he crawled away in case The Tsar should change his mind.
"Not so impressive, after all," The Tsar countered, and forced a smile — though he couldn't help thinking it had taken all those tanks, armoured vehicles and men to bring down that one man.
"Can we be certain he's dead?" This came from Adele.
The Tsar glowered at her. "What is the matter? You seem disappointed."
She shook her head. "It's just that I hoped I might be the one to kill him."
The Tsar nodded, he could understand that. He'd never met the man and he wished he could have done the deed personally. Now they'd both have to settle for recovering the body and putting that head on a pike.
"Those left alive will return to the castle," Tanek said, showing no emotion concerning Hood one way or the other. Perhaps he didn't really believe it.
"But they will not be expecting us to be here. They will return, battered and exhausted, leaderless, demoralised, expecting a warm welcome… only to find guns jammed in their faces instead." It didn't worry The Tsar in the slightest. "We have more than enough men to stand against them, taking into account our new comrades from the cult and these prisoners."
As he waved a hand across to indicate the folk from the hotel, there was a sudden cry from one of them. A female cry. It was coming from a short woman dressed in scrubs, but with a Ranger's jacket on top. "Mary!" She'd broken ranks and was attempting to get to them, resulting in several automatic weapons being trained on her. But she was unarmed, and The Tsar was curious about who she was. He held up a hand to signal the men to hold their fire. She couldn't do much harm with the twins and Tanek standing so close by.
"Mary," cried the woman again, tears in her eyes. "Mary, what have they done to you?"
"And who might you be?" The Tsar asked.
She glared at him before answering. "Lucy Hill."
The Tsar looked across at Adele, who shrugged. She'd obviously not had much contact with this woman who'd been lumped in with the prisoners. Lucy took another step towards Mary, but it was one of the twins — Ying — who stood in her way this time, arms folded.
"Please," said Lucy, the tone of her voice changing from defiant to pathetic, "let me go to her. She's been training me as a nurse and-"
"Oh dear. If only you'd been here ten minutes ago," The Tsar cut in. "We have just learned that we have no further use for her. You see, Hood is dead."
"Robert?" Now the tears ran freely down Lucy's cheeks. "I don't believe you."
"Believe what you like. It is the truth."
Tanek placed a hand on Ying's shoulder, and was lucky the bodyguard didn't cut it clean off. "Let her go to the woman," he said, making it sound more like a command.
"But why?" asked The Tsar. "What purpose would it serve?"
He didn't answer, but that just backed up what The Tsar suspected. Tanek didn't believe Hood was dead either. He sighed and nodded for Ying to let the nurse through. What did it matter to him if Hood's woman was fixed up, only to be executed later? It was their time and energy they were wasting, not his.
Ying moved aside and Lucy went to Mary, immediately checking her over. Tanek moved to join her, but The Tsar was not quite finished with him yet. "I want to know where Hood's closest companions are," he told the giant, "that is your priority."
Tanek gave a brusque tip of his head, then continued on his path. Lucy said something to him The Tsar didn't quite catch, but the next thing he knew Hood's woman was being taken back up to the castle with the nurse accompanying her. Tanek and Adele followed on behind, but took a different route when they reached the steps, heading down instead of up.
"As useful as he has been, I think Bohuslav may have been correct about Tanek. The time is fast approaching when he will have outlived his usefulness. Do you not agree?" The Tsar said to Ying and Xue. The women concurred with silent nods. "And when that time comes, I will call on one of you to do the honours."
They both smiled at this, no doubt remembering the embarrassment of not being able to best Tanek back in Russia.
The Tsar would have smiled himself, were it not for the fact that he might have to give the same instruction about Adele, depending on where her loyalties lay. He hoped she would be sensible and see the benefits of life with him. Who knew, if she behaved herself and lived up to his expectations — in all departments — he might even give her this castle as a present. Call it her inheritance.
In the meantime they at least had something to celebrate.
The Hooded Man was dead. The Tsar was sure of it even if Tanek wasn't.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The man should be dead.
But instead of getting him back to Mary so she could treat his injuries, Bill had done as Robert requested. Once he'd cleaned up his wounds — stitching up the deep cuts in the shoulder and thigh before applying proper bandages and antiseptic — Bill had taken his former leader to Sherwood, bringing the Gazelle down in the car park of the old visitor's centre.
All the way here, Bill kept glancing over at him, as Robert drifted in and out of consciousness. One o' these times I'm going to look and 'e won't wake up, Bill thought. Robert was that bad. It wasn't like he hadn't seen Robert this way before, after an explosion at Mary's farm house. But even then he hadn't looked this ill, this close to the end.
Bill remembered them bringing Robert to camp — Jack carrying the man into his tent, Mary by his side, as she'd been ever since. Days later Bill was flying him into Nottingham for the final battle, where Robert took on the Sheriff alone. He shouldn't have been fit enough then, either. Shouldn't have recovered nearly as quickly as he did, even with Mary's attentions.
They'd been in Sherwood, though, hadn't they? Robert had been in Sherwood. So maybe he did have a point after -
Bill dismissed the notion. But he couldn't ignore the fact that the closer they flew to the forest the more Robert seemed to rouse from his stupor. He was muttering something, half dreaming, calling out Mary's name.
"Right, we're here," Bill informed him when the helicopter was down.
Robert lolled to one side. Then he opened his eyes wide and Bill saw him take a good look at the trees, before his eyelids began to flicker again and then close. Bill shook his shoulder gently.
"Let me take you back home, lad."
Robert coughed, then mumbled: "I am home." He was clawing at the door, fingers uselessly slipping off the handle.
Bill got out and went round. He opened the door and had to catch Robert as he fell out. "Judas Priest, yer in no fit state t'be goin' anywhere!"
Almost as soon as he'd said the words, he felt Robert stiffening, summoning strength from somewhere, forcing his legs to support him. Robert lifted his arm, pointing in the direction of the forest.
Bill had to half carry him down the path that led to The Major Oak. When they reached that ancient tree, Robert craned his head.
Then, nodding, he shooed away Bill's hands and leaned on the fence that surrounded it.
"Robert, come on. Enough's enough."
"Don't… don't try to… Bill, promise me you'll… stay here… The others… They'll… they'll be arriving soon…"
"What others?" Bill said, fearing he'd lost his mind completely.
"This… this is where it's going to happen… This is where they'll die unless…"
"Yer not makin' any sense, Robert."
"Promise me!" repeated Robert, his voice strengthening.
"Aye, all right. Bugger off, then!"
Robert was already pulling up his hood, and stumbling away, using the fence to keep him upright, then relying on nearby trees as he made his way into the forest. Bill nearly went after him, but something held him back. Something told him to go and wait with the Gazelle, even though he was almost certainly leaving The Hooded Man to die amongst the trees.