On the other hand, he did not doubt that she did want power—so why had she not ambushed him while she could? He felt a seed of hope sprout and shoot within him, but tried to ignore it; obviously there were things that were more important to her than power—but why should he presume that he was one of those things? Presumptuous indeed!
"Put up your weapons," he said to Leander. "Fall upon me again, and I will only steal her away again."
"Then we will only find you again!" Minerva said angrily. "There is not a foot of ground within this forest that our sentries do not see!"
"Thank you for the warning," Geoffrey said, with a courteous nod. "I shall take her far away from the greenwood this time."
Anger flared in the captain's face, but Quicksilver held up a hand to forestall her, saying quickly, "Peace, Minerva. I have no wish to ride that ghostly horse again! It was most unsettling, I assure you."
Minerva barked an order even as she sprang, and the Amazons were a sudden ring of muscle and steel enclosing their chief. "You must touch her to take her," Minerva snapped, "and if you attempt it, you shall die!"
Geoffrey stared at her for a second or two. Then his sword flashed out in three quick feints. Minerva parried the first two, then leaped to parry the third. Her women shouted and leaped out to surround Geoffrey and he sprang through the gap they had left, catching Quicksilver about the waist. But the feel of that supple body against his distracted him from his teleportation just long enough for Quicksilver to cry, "Hold!"
The bandits all froze where they were. Geoffrey wondered how often she could do that, before they ignored her command.
Then, to Minerva, Quicksilver said, "You may hold him off, my brave and loyal captain—or he may slip past your guard again, as he just has. I have no wish to feel the world turn inside out about me, or to have that blast deafen me. I gave my word, and I shall keep it!" She looked about her, eyes blazing. "So shall all of you! Aye, even you, my own brothers! I gave parole, and I shall go with him to Runnymede!"
"But he has broken his word," her brother protested. Quicksilver disengaged herself from Geoffrey's arm and stepped back to give him a long measuring look. "You have," she said, "and because of that, I shall break my bond in this much—I shall still go with you, but if I see a chance of escape, I shall take it."
The outlaws cheered.
"Myself!" Quicksilver shouted into their din. "Myself alone! I shall escape with no peril to anyone else, or I shall not escape at all!"
The cheer subsided into mutinous muttering. "Therefore begone!" Quicksilver commanded. "Back to the greenwood, and quickly, before the Crown's shire-reeve comes against you again, with a royal army!"
"If there is danger of that," said Leander, "we had best hold Laeg's castle, where we can defend ourselves better."
"Nay!" Geoffrey frowned. "It is Laeg's by right"' "Right?" Martin sneered. "You speak of Laeg and right in the same breath? There was never anything right in Count Laeg's life, least of all in his dealings with his peasants!"
"That is no reason to deny his son his inheritance!"
"You cannot know if you have not lived here," Quicksilver snapped. "The son's deeds are no better than the father's; he is a true branch of the bad tree, and thinks the peasants are his cattle—aye, and we yeomen, who are children of a squire, too."
Geoffrey turned to her, frowning. "Be that as it may, the law is the law, and I am sworn to uphold it!"
"Even when it is wrong?" Jory jibed.
"The law was made by the lords," Martin said with scorn, "and it serves their ends, not those of us common folk."
"If there is truth in what you say, I shall be your advocate among the lords and before the Crown, to see the law changed!" Geoffrey declared.
"And while you are advocating," said Minerva, "what will they do to us?"
Geoffrey turned to her with words of reassurance on his lips—but found himself suddenly seeing her not as an opponent, but as a woman of the commoners, vulnerable to a lord's whims, and realized that behind the sword and beneath the armor was a very desirable body. It struck him as curious that he did not himself desire it, though he was sure he would have before he met Quicksilver. Nonetheless, the new Count Laeg no doubt would, and would use her own body to punish her. Geoffrey's bold words of faith in the law, died on his lips. Instead, he said, "Right or wrong, the law must be obeyed. If it is not, we will have chaos, with every man's hand turned against every other's, and the women—caught between them in suffering."
"You say that to outlaws?" Leander scoffed. "Tell me, pray, what the difference is."
"And while you are debating it, Count Laeg will fall upon you," Quicksilver told them both. "Aye, brother, I think you will be safer in Castle Laeg while this bold champion debates our cause before the Crown."
"And tries your fate," Leander growled.
Geoffrey glared at him. "Will you not yield to the law?"
"Speak of that when the law has delivered its verdict," Quicksilver countered.
"What verdict?" Minerva demanded. "The only case that will be tried is whether or not you have slain a lord, Quicksilver, and stolen his lands—and we all know what the answer to that must be!"
The outlaws growled and pressed in.
"Yet you seem to think she was right in so doing!" Geoffrey called out. "Might not the King and Queen think so, too?"
The outlaws hovered, uncertain.
"Shall we not be tried with her, then?" Minerva demanded. "Even if we are not there?"
"We shall," Leander answered, "and an army sent against us if our sister is judged guilty. Nay, my sib, you must not go!"
The outlaws pressed in again, and Geoffrey gauged the distance between his arm and Quicksilver's waist. Looking up, he could see that Minerva was measuring it, too.
"I have sworn I will go with this man, and I shall!" Quicksilver called out. "Oh, I shall escape from him if I can—but I will not have you place your necks even further in the noose by assaulting a Gallowglass!"
"Hung for the sheep, hung for the flock," Leander answered, "even if the sheep was a rogue ram, and it was necessary to slay him to save our lives."
Geoffrey turned to him. "Is there a charge you would bring?"
Leander scowled. "What nonsense is this?"
"I have said I will be your advocate before the Crown—but I cannot be so, without a charge to prosecute or a cause to advocate! Do you accuse Count Laeg of breaking the law?"
A furious rumble went up among the outlaws, but Leander's eye caught fire. "Aye, we do, and our sister can give you a whole catalogue of his crimes—but the long and the short of it is this: that he has oppressed and exploited his peasants unmercifully, for his own pleasure and gain and not for their welfare, or the kingdom's."
"You charge, then, that he has been untrue to his vows as a knight, and as a vassal of the Queen?"
"As a knight, a thousand times over, for he swore to protect the weak from the strong, did he not?"
"He did," Geoffrey answered with full certainty.
"I charge that he has been the strong who has preyed upon the weak, and that his son has already done likewise! I charge that he has broken the law! And that in breaking it, he has left us no choice but to break it, too, or die at his hands! That the father has done this a thousand times in a thousand ways, and the son has already begun to follow his father's example!"
Quicksilver smiled, eyes glowing as she gazed at her brother, and even Geoffrey could feel the exaltation of her approval. Yes, the woman was a projective, and a powerful one, whether she knew it or not. For himself, he only nodded at Leander and said, "These are weighty charges indeed, and enough to justify unseating a lord—if they can be proved to be true."