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Little John and Merry had ridden out at dusk with their respective packets of evidence. Two of the four documents recovered from Locksley were already on their way to people who might help us.

Before handing over the financial record, I'd read it twice. Eleven warrants issued over fourteen months. Four private accounts at two London banking houses.

I could remember every number.

Unfortunately, remembering them wasn't the same as having the authority to investigate them.

Much's scouts returned before midnight with news I'd been expecting, although that didn't make it any easier to hear.

Fitzwalter's soldiers had entered Thornby and Edwinstowe that afternoon.

They'd confiscated grain, driven away livestock, and arrested eleven villagers accused of helping Robin's band.

A proclamation had been read in both village squares, offering a full pardon and forty shillings to anyone willing to identify members of the Sherwood company.

One farmhouse had been burned outside Edwinstowe.

Fortunately, the family had escaped before the soldiers arrived.

That was the only good news.

Fitzwalter had chosen to burn one house rather than the entire village, and I understood exactly why.

Destroying every home would've united the villagers against him.

Burning one and offering rewards to anyone willing to cooperate was a far more effective way to frighten people into betraying their neighbors.

Robin stood beside the fire when she heard.

"He's burning their homes because of me."

"He's burning their homes because he's losing control."

"That distinction won't mean much to the people standing in the ashes."

She was right.

I didn't attempt to argue.

An hour later, we gathered inside the shelter Robin used for planning.

Tuck and Alana joined us, and I spread the documents we still possessed across the wooden board serving as a table.

Robin folded her arms.

"Tell me the bad part."

"The bad part is that what we have isn't enough yet."

Tuck swore.

Alana remained quiet.

"We have the financial record showing where the seven thousand one hundred and forty marks went. We have Crane's statement identifying the men who ordered the records altered, and the council correspondence proving William tried to report the theft."

I placed Crane's statement on the table.

"But every one of those documents came from a hiding place at Locksley. They're being presented by an outlaw and a sheriff accused of treason."