Stephen R. Lawhead - Scarlet (King Raven Trilogy, Book 2)

OTHER BOOKS BY STEPHEN R. LAWHEAD

KING RAVEN TRILOGY:

Hood

Scarlet

Tuck (Winter 2009)

Patrick, Son of Ireland

THE CELTIC CRUSADES:

The Iron Lance

The Black RoodThe Mystic Rose

Byzantium

THE SONG OF ALBION:

The Paradise War

The Silver Hand

The Endless Knot

THE PENDRAGON CYCLE:

Taliesin

Merlin

ArthurPendragon

GrailAvalon

Empyrion I: The Search for Fierra

Empyrion II: The Siege of Dome

Dream Thief

THE DRAGON KING TRILOGY:

In the Hall of the Dragon King

The Warlords of Nin

The Sword and the Flame

KING RAVEN: BOOK 2

STEPHEN R.

LAWHEAD

2007 by Stephen R. Lawhead

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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Publishers Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the authors imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lawhead, Steve.

Scarlet / by Stephen R. Lawhead.

p. cm. (King Raven ; bk. 2)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-59554-086-7 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-59554-089-8 (trade paper)

1. Robin Hood (Legendary character)Fiction. 2. Great BritainHistoryNorman period, 1066-1154Fiction. 3. WalesHistory10631284Fiction. I. Title.

PS3562.A865S28 2008

813'.54dc22

2008010535

Printed in the United States of America

08 09 10 11 RRD 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

To the dedicated

men and women at

UWMC and SCCA,

without whom...

PRONUNCIATION GUIDE

Many of the old Celtic words and names are strange to modern eyes, but they are not as difficult to pronounce as they might seem at first glance. A little effortand the following rough guidewill help you enjoy the sound of these ancient words.

Consonants As in English, but with the following exceptions:

c: hard as in cat (never soft, as in cent)

ch: hard as in Bach (never soft, as in church)

dd: a hard th sound, as in then

f: a hard v sound, as in of

ff: a soft f sound, as in off

g: hard as in girl (never soft, as in George)

ll: a Gaelic distinctive, sounded as tl or hl on the sides of the tongue

r: rolled or slightly trilled, especially at the beginning of a word

rh: breathed out as if h-r and heavy on the h sound

s: soft as in sin (never hard, as in his ); when followed by a vowel it takes on the sh sound

th: soft as in thistle (never hard, as in then)

Vowels As in English, but generally with the lightness of short vowel sounds:

a: short, as in can

: slightly softer than above, as in awe

e: usually short, as in met

: long a sound, as in hey

i: usually short, as in pin

: long e sound, as in see

o: usually short, as in hot

: long o sound, as in woe

: long o sound, as in go

u: usually sounded as a short i , as in pin

: long u sound, as in sue

: short u sound, as in muck

w: sounded as a long u, as in hu e; before vowels often becomes a soft consonant as in the name Gwen

y: usually short, as in pin; sometimes u as in pun; when long, sounded e as in see; rarely, y as in why

The careful reader will have noted that there is very little difference between i, u, and ythey are almost identical to non-Celts and modern readers.

Most Celtic words are stressed on the next to the last syllable. For example, the personal name Gofannon is stressed go-FAN-non, and the place name Penderwydd is pronounced pen-DER-width, and so on.

S o, now. One day soon they hang me for a rogue. Fair enough. I have earned it a hundred times over, I reckon, and thats leaving a lot of acreage unexplored. The jest of it is, the crime for which I swing is the one offence I never did do. The sheriff will have it that I raised rebellion against the king.

I didnt.

Oh, theres much Ive done that some would as soon count treason. For a fact, I et more of the kings venison than the king has et bread, and good men have lost their heads to royal pikes for far less; but in all my frolics I never breathed a disloyal word against the crown, nor tried to convince any man, boy, horse, or dog to match his deeds to mine. Ah, but dainties such as these are of no concern when princes have their tender feelings ruffled. It is a traitor they want to punish, not a thief. The eatin o Red Williams game is a matter too triflingmore insult than crimeand its a red-handed rebel they need. Too much has happened in the forests of the March and too much princely pride hangs in the balance to be mincing fair about a rascal poaching a few soft-eyed deer.

Until that ill-fated night, Will Scarlet ran with King Raven and his band of merry thieves. Ran fast and far, I did, let me tell you. Faster and farther than all the rest, and thats saying something. Heres the gist: its the Raven Hood they want and cannot get. So, ol Will is for the jump.

Poor luck, that. No less, no more.

They caught me crest and colours. My own bloody fault. Theres none to blame but the hunter when hes caught in his own snare. I ask no pardon. A willing soul, I flew field and forest with King Raven and his flock. Fine fun it was, too, until they nabbed me in the pinch. Even so, if it hadnt a been for a spear through my leg bone they would not a got me either.

So, here we sit, my leg and me, in a dank pit beneath Count de Braoses keep. I have a cellfour walls of stone and a damp dirt floor covered with rotting straw and rancid rushes. I have a warden named Guibert, or Gulbert or some such, who brings me food and water when he can be bothered to remember, and unchains me from time to time so I can stretch the cramps a bit and wash my wound. I also have my very own priest, a young laggard of a scribe who comes to catch my wild tales and pin them to the pages of a book to doom us all.