Crow stretched and wriggled on the floor while the knights began removing their armor, trying to find a comfortable position at the foot of the bed so that he wouldn’t wake up sore. He was vexed that William had the nerve to treat him like a dog, but since he was already here, he decided he might as well get some sleep. Unfortunately, his noble companions were making that task more difficult than it needed to be. The sound of their clanking metal plates would have kept even the heaviest sleeper awake.

He rolled onto his stomach, half tangled in the fleece blanket, and propped himself up on his elbows to watch the knights with an impatient look on his face. Naturally, William ignored him, but Abraxas became self-conscious. He nodded apologetically at the thief and hurried to take off his armor more quickly, managing to drop both of his vambraces in the process. Crow rolled his eyes. The boy was the clumsiest knight he’d ever seen. He wondered why he had chosen by the king to be part of this assignment in the first place.

Having focused most of his annoyance on the other men, he turned next to Penelope and then froze. During the time he had been staring at her comrades, she had removed all of her armor and let her hair down. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought he was looking at a different woman. His green eyes lingered on her figure. Without her uniform on, she was much smaller than he’d thought, and she was even… well… [i]feminine[/i]. He wasn’t sure why that surprised him, but even though she was wearing loose clothes, he could see the edges of attractive curves he hadn’t previously known existed. It surprised him that a woman as lithe as her had chosen to enter the king’s army.

When Penelope glanced at the men’s half of the room, Crow quickly averted his gaze, busying himself by adjusting the blanket William had given him and rolling onto his side. What did it matter if Penelope wasn’t as stocky as he’d thought? She was still his guard, and she still had the training of a proper knight. As far as he was concerned, she was still just an obstacle he needed to get past so he could escape back to the outer villages. He closed his eyes. If anything, he should have been pleased that she was softer than he’d expected. Now it would be easier for him to keep up his act of winning her over, because he could better imagine what she looked like underneath her armor when he was pretending to be interested in her.

With that thought in his mind, Crow drifted off to sleep.

--

From a young age, Crow had learned that sleeping deeply could be a life-threatening hazard. There were always knights and bounty hunters around who had been after the reward that the king had put on his head, so he had trained himself to be a light sleeper. The habit had kept him alive on a number of occasions, when his enemies had stumbled upon his hideout and he’d needed to escape quickly.

Tonight, it meant he was instantly awoken by the faint sound of creaking floorboards.

He opened one eye to see a shadowy figure moving silently towards the door and tensed instinctively. However, after a moment, he recognized the figure to be Penelope, so he relaxed again and lifted his head curiously. She looked like she was going somewhere.

“[i]Pst[/i],” Crow hissed, carefully sitting up from where he had been laying on the floor. Aware of each minute movement he made, he managed to keep his chains from rattling as he confronted the knight. “Where do you think you’re going?” he whispered, seeking her eyes in the darkness.