Revenge

[Djaq]

Djaq was on her way towards the Sheriff's room. Her eyes blazed and her teeth were gritted as she stepped forewards slowly, her sword unsheithed. But her senses detected that she was close to something, or rather someone, and her curiousity just couldn't resist. She swung open the door in question, and swallowed hard when she saw what was inside. It was Basaam. The room was empty, and Djaq advanced, trembling slightly, towards her beloved uncle. She knelt down beside his lifeless body, and fought back the tears that were forcing their way forewards. She let out a small noise of distress, and lifted up a trembling hand to hold his. It was cold. She tilted her head in prayer, and sat in silence next to her friend, sniffing quietly.

[Allan A'Dale]

Allan nodded. "Yeah, bollocks to it. Can't be that many other guests here anyway, right? You got Isabella, she's not gonna be in. Bassam's not gonna care if we burst in on him. Should be fine. Guy and the Sheriff should be with Isabella; don't know who else would be here other than your common or garden boneheaded guard..." he paused, mind racing. Then a terrible thought struck him. "Christ's balls, Carter, what if we run into Prince John?"

[Isabella]

By now, Isabella had cautiously climbed the stairs and was making her way towards the Sheriff’s room. Fortunately for her, no-one but a few mud-coloured rats had crossed her path. She crossed the corridor as quickly and silently as she could, keeping to the shadows until she came face to face with the huge oak door that signalled the entrance to the Sheriff’s room. It was shut, which, she supposed, could be a good or a bad thing. It meant that there was someone alive to close it – but whether it was Djaq or the Sheriff, she would have to wait and see. She didn’t waste time knocking – if Djaq was there, she’d just take the opportunity to run – so she simply pushed open the door and swept brazenly into the room.

[Carter]

Carter opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. He hadn't thought that far ahead. "Well, if we bump into Prince John..." he started, "Then we're screwed." he finished simply. There were no two ways about it. "Let's just hope that Christ...and his balls...are on our side."

Carter turned back around and continued up the stairs silently. They had reached the upper levels. Carter couldn't help but grin at the luck they had had. He strode forewards cockily, before looking up at the ten strong group of guards that were hurtling towards them. "Ah." he said, unsheithing his sword with one elegant stroke.

[Roe]

Roe knew the sound of conflict when he heard it, and he moved rapidly toward it, while taking care not to be taken by surprise, he moved around a bend in the steps, and he saw the scene of conflict spread out below him. It was easy to see that Carter was taking more than his fair share, but even with the ability of the few outlaws that were there, they were heavily outnumbered.

Roe knew that his primary task was to be a spy, even more important than that was the preservation of as many outlaw lives as possible. To that end, these guards needed to be taken care of en masse. While smiling at Carter and nodding his head, he yelled out, "you've got them where you want them lads .... trapped with nowhere to go."

He then proceeded to sheath his swords and rolled a couple of barrels down the steps to break them up, while they were in the confined space of the stairwell, without causing the outlaws too much damage farther below. Following close behind, with his now unsheathed 2 swords, he proceeded to try and finish off as many of them as he could before they could regain their balance and composure.

[Allan A'Dale]

Allan shrugged. "Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Let's just hope Isabella's bending the Sheriff's ear already." He snatched his two short swords from their scabbards with a movement that was becoming more and more like second nature every day, and not for the first time, he was grateful that he'd taken to carrying a second blade. The first of them was already upon him, and he had no time to do anything but dodge to the left and stab the tip of his sword into the soldier's kidney as he rushed past.

[Carter]

Carter dodged the first soldier's blow, and finished him with a spinning kick. As the guard fell to the ground, he heard a familiar voice above him. It was Roe. Carter gave him a discrete grin back, and turned his attention back towards the guards. Roe's help would be much appreciated. Although, despite the fact Carter and Allan were heavily outnumbered, they had both gotten out of worse scrapes before.

Three more soldiers came charging towards him, and Carter snarled back at them, killing two of them with one stroke of his sword. By the time the third one reached him, he had lost his patience and simply punched him in the face, sending him sprawling to the floor unconscious. There were still plenty more to get through, but this was what Carter did best. Fighting.

[Roe]

Roe quickly saw that Carter and Allan were more than holding their own below. The barrels had had their desired effect, knocking the upper members over. This made them easy kills for Roe as he quickly swept down the steps picking them off one at a time. The confining area of the steps provided Roe with just enough room to brandish both of his longswords.

He noticed with a surprised approval that Allan was utilizing two shortswords. They were very useful ina confined place likethis and more than equalized the guards advantage of coming at the outlaws from an elevated position. Roe was contributing to the effort by basically eliminating the reserves and the shear numeric weight of the group of guards.

Most of his killing wounds were body shots delivered to guards that were sprawled out on the floor, however the last few were actualy engaging him before ended their misery with some deft slashes of his swords across their necks. Basically, between Roe from above, and Allan and Carter from below, they were making short work of the guards. It was just that Roe had no idea what reason Allan and Carter were there in the first place, and that they had to be someplace else relatively quickly.

[Sheriff Vasey]

Well that was certainly an annoying noise. What was that anyway? The Sheriff heaved one of his heavy sighs then dragged himself up out of his chair. All he could hear was shouting and yelling, what was so difficult about peace and quiet? He strode towards the door rather angrily, his brow furrowing further into the frown as he stopped just before the door..
There was a lot of shouting for just the usual problems with the guards. An almost growl of annoyance eminated from him as he psuehd the door open with some force. The two guards that were meant to be flanking his room's door were nowhere to be seen.

"Guards!" he yelled as soon as he saw they were gone.

"Guards!" he repeated, but yet again yeilding no answer.

He rolled his eyes, his shoulders dropping in an almost childlike manner. What was the problem now? The calculating side of his mind had a good guess. Some from of outlaw problem, as usual.
He made the decision of heading towards the castle courtyard, he was armed after all.

[Isabella]

Isabella was half-relieved, half-annoyed that the Sheriff was not in his chamber.
“Nothing can be simple, can it?” she grumbled to herself as she glanced round at the dark, empty room.
On any other occasion she would have been quite interested to poke around the Sheriff’s room, but not today. Today she had to keep him alive.
Even though he’s done nothing to deserve it, she thought irritably, sweeping out of the room and closing the door behind her.
She thought about what she had said to the two men, and remembered what she had decided with them:
"I'll look for the Sheriff in his chamber, and if he's not there I'll check in Basaam's room and my brother's, and then in the strongroom."
Without further ado, she headed towards Basaam’s room, creeping as silently as she could. She could hear the clash of metal on metal and the cries of falling men echoing down the corridor. She hoped desperately that the two men were alright, but knew that they must be involved in the fighting. If anything happened to them, she would hate herself for not being there to help. But she had a job to do, and right now, she had to find the Sheriff. With the corridor shadowy and inhabited with scuttling rats, it felt ghostly and unreal – as if she was walking in a dream. She reached the door of Bassaam’s room and thrust it open with a loud creak.

[Djaq]

The door to Basaam's room creaked open, and Djaq immediately reached for her sword that was currently lying on the floor, and jumped up. She swung her sword in the direction of the door, and clutched it trembling. It could be anyone behind that door. A guard, Guy, the Sheriff, or even Prince John. Djaq gritted her teeth just thinking about it.

As the door opened, Djaq saw it was only Isabella. She relaxed her muscles and gave her an exasperated look. "Isabella." she whispered feebly. She was relieved it was only Isabella, but a large part of her was crying out in anger, at the fact it wasn't the Sheriff. "What are you doing here?" she asked, gaining her composure, still clutching her sword for good measure. Perhaps Isabella had followed her as she ran to the castle just after they spoke at the Inn. But Djaq didn't know anyone was following her.

[Isabella]

Isabella was surprised that it was Djaq and not the Sheriff who was in Basaam’s room. After all, she was meant to find the Sheriff, the others had to find Djaq.
Darn it, she thought angrily, I can’t get to the Sheriff now – Djaq will kill him if I do. And I can’t leave her here to find the others. What do I do now?
Isabella decided to try and calm Djaq down. The men who were helping her were on their way to Basaam’s room, so it should not be long before they came to take Djaq home. If they survived the fighting, and hadn’t been captured by the Sheriff and his men.
“Djaq,” she said, pushing the door closed behind her.
She stayed by the door. She couldn’t risk Djaq rushing out.
“I came for you,” she said simply, “Please, put your weapon down. I’ll explain, I promise you.”
She looked into Djaq’s ebony eyes, willing her to listen.

[Roe]

Once Roe saw that the outlaws definitely had taken the advantage, he quickly and silently withdrew through a side exit. He had to preserve his role as the spy in the castle after all, didn't. Besides, if the outlaws or Robin had needed him some type of action they would have sent word, wouldn't they. Considering that, since he was not yet a trusted member of the gang, somewhat like Tuck's situation, it would potentially give them a way to keep him out of the primary action, and Roe went his way.

[Allan A'Dale]

Allan breathed a sigh of relief. The guards' numbers were seriously reduced now, and he and Carter were coming close to having the greater manpower. He'd caught sight of Roe out of the corner of his eye, and made a mental note to thank him later. The breathing room that his initiative had bought them had been crucial.

The soldier he was sparring with was fighting with less and less conviction. With the bodies of his former comrades around, his courage was obviously failing him. It was easy enough to dispatch him with a firm kick to the shin and an almighty blow on his head from the pommel of his left-hand sword. He looked around wildly for the next opponent, but none seemed to be forthcoming. He looked over at Carter, to see how his personal battle was going.

[Djaq]

Djaq scowled. "Why did you come for me?" she spat. "I don't want you here! Get out of my sight!" she stared at Isabella angrily, but her anger soon faded and she shook her head. "I'm sorry." she whispered, gazing back down at Basaam's lifeless body. It was too much for her, she looked away, and stood up, walking closer to Isabella. She sheathed her sword and let out a deep mournful sigh.

She was ready to listen.