Crow braced himself, not sure what to expect when William confronted Hartley. He kept his mouth shut, knowing the hot-headed knight would just get more upset if he tried to defend himself. Penelope was quick to explain the situation in his stead, although he didn’t find her description of the events very tasteful. Yes, Hartley had been a jerk for throwing him to the dogs, that much was true. However, he didn’t appreciate her comment about him being an idiot for stealing the money. He preferred to think of it as a precaution. They didn’t know if they would come across a situation where they needed more gold, and now they would never have to worry about it. If anything, he had done them all a favor.

William didn’t seem pleased to see that they had picked up another thief. This wasn’t surprising to Crow, since the knight could barely put up with him by himself. What did surprise Crow was William’s announcement that they would be bringing Hartley along as a captive. He groaned inwardly. The brat was going to get what he wanted, after all…

He met Penelope’s gaze when she complained to him that the trip would be longer now that Hartley was joining them. “That’s an understatement,” he muttered in return.

“Penelope,” William said. “I’ll ride in the cart for this next leg of the trip. I have some questions for our captive.” He glared at Crow. “And a few choice words for our resident criminal.”

“Lovely,” Crow whispered to the female knight. “Now I have two people to talk my ear off…”

As everyone took their positions in and around the wagon, Crow found his spot by the blanket pile once more. He laid down and closed his eyes, ignoring the lurch of the cart as William and Hartley jumped in after him. With any luck, the knight would choose to interrogate his new prisoner before he chewed Crow out for delaying the mission. But luck wasn’t on his side.

He grimaced as he felt a sharp prod in his side. He opened his eyes again to see William replacing his sheathed sword, which he had just used to prod the thief awake. “I’m not letting you sleep just yet,” the knight growled. He held out his hand, “First, you’re going to hand over that money you stole. We unfortunately can’t return it to its rightful owner, thanks to your antics, but I’ll be damned before I let you keep it.”

Crow eyed him in annoyance, “And what are you going to do if I refuse?”

“I can poke you with this again,” William rested a hand on the hilt of his blade. “Without the sheath.”

“Sure you will,” Crow rolled his eyes. “We both know you’re not allowed to harm me.”

“Who told you that?” the knight drew his sword and leveled it threateningly against Crow’s cheek. The cold metal bit icily against his skin. “You just need to be in good enough condition to steal for us. No one said I can’t cut you a little.”

“Alright, alright,” Crow yielded, leaning away from the weapon. He reached into his pocket and tossed William a coin purse.

“I remember Penelope mentioning more than one.”

The thief tossed him one more, “Here. Happy now?”

“Is that everything?”

“That’s all I could get before those knights caught me,” Crow lied. His eyes flickered briefly to Hartley as he silently prayed the boy would keep his mouth shut about the third coin purse. Fortunately, the other thief seemed distracted at the moment, as he currently had his head out the side of the wagon so he could keep talking to Penelope, who rode up front.

William held his gaze for a moment longer before he nodded, “Fine.” He reached out the front window of the wagon, handing the coin purses off to Abraxas. “Hold onto those for me until I can find time to count up what we have. I don’t want either of the thieves finding a way to steal them back from me while I’m in here.”

“Yes, sir,” Abraxas nodded, taking the money and stashing it away in his satchel.

Crow watched the exchange, letting out his breath in relief when William believed that those were the only two bags. He may have lost most of the money he had worked for, but the third and fattest coin purse lay safely tucked away in his tunic pocket.

“Now then,” William growled, raising his sword once again. “What should we do about the thief who delayed us by nearly getting himself arrested for stealing in a market?”

“Let him off with a warning because he’s sorry?” Crow tried with a shrug.

“I don’t think so,” William furrowed his brows in an angry glower. “You’ve caused us quite a bit of time and trouble, thief. You’re lucky I’ve been so merciful to you thus far… but you’re out of luck.” He reached into a nearby bag and pulled out a set of chain cuffs. “Remember these? I warned you that I would use them if you stepped out of line again.”

“Don’t you want to save those for Hartley?” Crow frowned, shifting farther away from the knight. “He’s your prisoner, after all. And I’ve already told you I’m not going to run away.”

“First of all, I don’t believe that for a second,” William said, moving towards him with the cuffs. “And second, this is about keeping you in line, thief. You’ve already proven to me that you’re incapable of behaving on your own, so now I’m going to make you. Now hold still!” He reached for Crow’s wrist, but the thief dodged his grasp by rolling to the other side of the wagon bed.

Crow hurriedly clambered to his feet, standing a bit unsteadily in the moving cart. “Come on,” he said, holding up his hands. “Let’s be reasonable here.”

“I’m done trying to reason with criminals,” William snapped. He jumped to his feet as well, brandishing his sword. “Stand down, or you’re going to hurt yourself, you idiot.”

At this point, Hartley had finally taken notice of the action in the wagon. He poked his head back inside, grinning wildly, “Fight! Fight!”

Crow shot him a glare before he turned back to William, “You know, I don’t normally care about what snotty nobles like you think of me, but I’m starting to get sick of the way you constantly treat me like a disobedient animal.” He reached down into the burlap sack that contained the knights’ spare weapons, drawing the sword he had toyed with on the first day of their journey. He raised the blade towards William. He may not have had the same level of skill with a sword as a knight, and he may not have had a particularly strong stomach at the sight of blood, but he wasn’t about to kneel and give William the satisfaction of chaining him up again.

“En garde,” Crow spat.

William lunged at him with surprising speed for his muscular build. Crow ducked to the side, narrowly avoiding the knight’s blade. He struck with his own sword, aiming for his opponent’s legs, but William was quick. The older man jumped back and rocked on his heels, wasting no time in springing at the thief with a counter attack. Crow rolled out of the sword’s path, but before he had time to recover, William was on him again with another swing of his weapon that forced him to dodge yet again. He cursed. The knight was incredibly talented, keeping him on a constant defense. He barely had time to find footing, let alone retaliate.

Crow’s eyes widened as the point of William’s sword slashed just a hair’s breadth away from his nose. He needed to find an opening… [i]There![/i] Between two of William’s attacks, he spotted an opening at about shoulder-height. The thief lunged forward, his sword sliding right through William’s defense so that the blade hovered next to his throat. The two men stopped, breathing heavily from the skirmish. Crow curled his lip at William, “Now, leave me alone.”

William snorted. Before Crow could react, the knight rushed toward him, tackling him to the floor. He felt his breath leave him as William pressed his forearm against his chest and raised his sword to his neck. William glared down at him with more hate than Crow had ever seen in him before. His heart raced in terror, [i]He looks like he’s actually going to kill me.[/i] He squeezed his eyes shut as he felt the knight’s blade sting the skin at his throat.