Page 31 of Robin and Marian
Cheers erupted as torches plunged into the hay stuffed into the wheel and caught fire. Robin slowly followed after Marian as it was launched down the hill. The sounds echoed up to him like they were warped. The crowds watched it roll with shouts and screams, though it came just short of the creek below, spinning on its side, then toppling flat to the ground, burning like a small bonfire. Bad luck. But when it came to luck, this town attempted to make their own. Another wheel was put into place on the launching pad so Nottingham could go at it again.
At the signal from Richard, it was launched. Only this time, something went wrong. Instead of a smooth release, the arm caught one of the spokes and the wheel veered a sharp left, straight to the wagon of hay where Scarlett stood waiting for her husband. Marian had almost reached her, her white skirt blowing over her legs. Time stood still.
“Scarlett!” he shouted. “Marian! Run!”
His sister scrambled to the side as the wheel hit the hay and caught fire like kindling in a bonfire. It ignited the hay underneath her feet, the flames catching the black silk of her dress.
Robin raced over the uneven ground, wrestling through the orange mesh barrier—the limited use of his hand getting in the way this time. He wasn’t close enough to stop any of this. Marian threw off her red jacket and tackled her friend with it, rolling over the ground to extinguish the fire. He let out a relieved shout.
Still, the fire was out of control, and he ran through it to tug them both to their feet, grimacing a little at the answering pain in his wrist. Scarlett leaned heavily on his shoulder.
“This way!”
He led them up the hill, away from the danger. Swiveling, he saw that it had spread through the dry weeds to the ski jump. The iconic structure wouldn’t stand a chance, not with all the wood planking from the 30’s. And they could’ve been up there! It consumed the stairs first, roaring like a starving beast.
It was then they heard the scream. Midge! Robin’s eyes met Marian’s horrified gaze. Alan was wrong. He wasn’t at the lighting station. The little spy had been up there in the ski jump with them the whole time, and now he was stuck up there, but where? The construction deck? Screwing up his eyes, Robin felt a stab of panic when a blast of light illuminated the small frame of the boy dashing across the precarious slope.
Scarlett let out a heart-wrenching scream and tried to run through the maelstrom to get to him. He grabbed her. “Stay! Stay!” She hit at him, screaming. “No!” he told her. “I’ve got it.”
“You’re hurt!” she shrieked.
“My wrist’s not broken. It’s… let me do it. Please!”
“Go, Robin! Go!” Marian shouted.
It was all the impetus he needed. He knew the layout after he’d gone up earlier. He hadn’t known it, but he’d scoped out all the ways to get up the structure without those stairs. It was risky, but not impossible. Pushing down the orange mesh again, he studied the steel towers, from the tallest to the lowest. The fire had cut off Midge from the easiest way out. The kid had moved past the construction dock, staring down at the flames munching greedily on the dry bones of the stairs.
Robin’s hands landed on the lowest steel rung that made up the middle tower, squinting at the pressure against his wrist. He’d be closer to the flames than at the highest tower, but Robin was working against time and needed to reach the top faster. “Midge!” he called. “Get over here!”
Midge rushed to where Robin was coming up and stared over the sides that made up the railing. Robin climbed through the crisscrossed beams making up the cage of the tower like a lattice—as easy as returning to his bedroom window after sneaking out when he was a kid—of course, then he’d had the full use of his limbs.
His left wrist ached, and he fought through the pain, keeping his mind on reaching his uncle until he caught sight of the fire beneath him. It had jumped from the stairs and rushed towards him, cutting off his retreat. He’d have to find another way out.
Scaling to the top of the platform, Robin jerked just as the heat from the flames licked below his feet, and he unceremoniously knocked his head into a ceiling of wood. The planks were warped and old, and so, gripping a cross section of the steel column with his right hand, Robin kicked upwards at the boards. Midge shouted out on the other side and backed up so Robin could force his way through. He eased through the splintered planks, shooting a glare at the boy. “A hundred bucks wasn’t good enough for you?”
“I’m sorry, Robin! I’m sorry!”
Robin reached out, seeing Midge past the trickster tattoo on his forearm. Midge grasped onto his hand and tugged him free. As soon as Robin found his feet, he pulled his uncle to him, his neck straining as he tried to work out the best way to escape. The whole lower end of the ski jump was awash in a ball of flame. It raged in the tower below them, blistering hot. Robin dragged Midge further up the ski jump as the blaze ate the entire structure behind them.
They’d have to go higher and take the toughest descent down the tallest tower—but only if the fire didn’t reach them. They’d have to outrun it. The planks on the platform were dry and brittle and cracked beneath them at every step. Robin was too heavy carrying Midge on his back, so he set him down carefully. “C’mon, c’mon, I’ll follow you up. Hold on to the sides.”
He guided Midge ahead of him. The wood was more fragile up here. The closer they neared to the end, the more it felt like standing on the top of a rollercoaster. As soon as they reached the highest point—a breathtaking fifteen stories high—Robin threw his boot against the boards and crunched a hole through it, seeing the steel of the tower frame below. He felt sick seeing how far down it was.
He dropped to his knees and his hand cried out in protest when it made contact with the platform. His eyes lifted to Midge’s. He wasn’t sure if he could hold the boy while climbing down with his useless wrist. “You ever do monkey bars?”
Midge’s eyes filled with terror. “I’m here with you,” Robin reassured him. “I’ll show you how.” He ducked down the hole first, holding to the beams. A shock of pain shot from his hand to his forearm, and he knew he had to talk the boy into following him. “Pretend you’re at the pool! You’re climbing a ladder to make a dive.”
“We’re climbing down!” Midge argued.
Robin’s eyes veered to the flames behind the boy. “There are girls! Lots of girls. You’re a loser if you can’t do it.”
Midge was after him in an instant, climbing through the cage of bars. “See? It’s easy. It’s easy!” Robin shouted. If they didn’t concentrate on how high they were… or the vortex of flames eating away at the other towers, threatening to make the leap to finish them off at any moment.
The beams shuddered under their feet and hands. Robin’s heart gurgled into his gut as the cage around them wobbled and then the wooden platform above them tore away from the rest of the burning supports. Its monstrous weight pressed against the last remaining tower—the one they were currently descending. The steel beams groaned and leaned like the Tower of Pisa.
Midge froze, not able to move aside from the trembling in his limbs. There was no time to fight with him. “Get on my back!” Robin shouted at him. “Get on!” Fortunately, the order spurred Midge to wrap his arms around Robin’s neck. Gritting his teeth against every objecting part of his body, Robin threw the last of his strength into the last two stories, feeling the heat of the fire on all sides until he couldn’t outrun it anymore and he dropped the last ten feet, landing on his left arm. His wrist cracked painfully against the dry debris and dirt.
He felt Midge getting dragged from him and the hands at his back as they hauled him to his feet and away from the heat. Someone yanked back his wrist and he cried out. “No! I think it’s broken.”
