A Crow's End (Slow Updates)

⚔️Chapter Four⚔️

The moment the captain left the room, Robin went to the nearest window, grabbed some snow, and stuck it somewhat forcefully against the unconscious guard's cheeks.

It took about enough time for Robin to count to three, then the man's eyes opened. He looked over the prince, his gaze flickering back and forth until he finally focused on him.

The moment he did, what little color left in him drained. He started to try and move away, his feet slipping on the wooden floor in a scuffle to run, yet he found no grip through the bonds Andragoras secured.

Robin leaned forward. "If you fall backward, your head will strike the fire and I cannot promise I'll pull you out."

The guard stopped.

"Good." Robin gave the man no facial expression, kept his voice low and calm. "I will say this once and once only. You will answer my questions or I will take my sword and remove your fingers one by one, then your toes. This is not a threat. This is a statement."

The man's eyes widened. For a moment he looked almost like a boy. It made Robin wonder how old he really was, and how much of a monster he was for threatening a child. His sword was far from his grasp. Besides, he wasn't very keen on torture.

But there was no way he'd show that.

"Where are the others?" the guard squeaked out.

"Dead. I killed them. Captain Andragoras is much kinder than I am in sparing you." He frowned. The 'no expression' thing was broken fairly quickly. "Now, I'll make this simple to begin with. What is your name?"

"Tobias Lark."

"And how old are you, Tobias?"

There was no answer. Robin raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't expect you to get stumped on a question like that, Tobias."

Tobias shrunk back. He squirmed in his seat, averted his eyes. "I am seventeen, sir."

Seventeen. Seventeen.

Dear God, he was younger than Robin's own brother. The guard was a child sent on a man's mission. How did he even get involved? Andragoras would take no one less than twenty, himself an exception, due to the tendency for battle.

Seventeen.

The shock that rumbled through Robin's body was too strong to be hidden, and for the briefest moment it replaced the mask he'd worn so well until then.

Tobias noticed, though it seemed he mistook it for violence. "I promise sir, I had no intention on deceiving anyone-- if it wasn't for the reward I'd never have agreed, and I didn't know--"

Robin held up a hand, shutting the boy up immediately. He clamped his hand around one of the nearby chairs and swung it close to him, then sat. He'd never admit it out loud, but the ache in the side of his head from where the guard struck him grew larger by the second. Eyes level with the boy, the prince tried to think though what he could do next, change his direction of questioning. An adult, he would frighten. Damage.

A child?

The king would have disapproved him not taking a finger off by that point. Andragoras would have frowned upon him being eye level with a prisoner.

His mother would have smiled.

So, he envisioned her. Took her approach. She'd be calm, but stern. Truthful to a fault.

Make him understand what he'd done.

"Tobias, are you aware of what your actions mean? You do know what you have gotten yourself into, do you not?"