Shadows of Sherwood

Thankfully, Robyn is carrying food for Barclay, the man who scavenges the junkyard to get circuits, adapters, and batteries for Robyn. She distracts the dog with bits of bacon, and he grows quiet. However, the guards have already heard the dog, and call out for him. Robyn, who is adept at climbing walls and maneuvering in tiny spaces, quietly sneaks into the section where electronics are dumped. She finds Barclay hiding here.

Robyn hands Barclay a sandwich. Barclay tells Robyn he had hoped she wouldn’t be at the junkyard, as the shadows on the moon tell him it is a dangerous night. Barclay believes in moon lore, the ancient faith that most wealthy people in Nott City have forgotten. Barclay gives Robyn the voltage adapter she had requested, as well as an old-fashioned wired modem. When Robyn cannot identify the ancient equipment, Barclays says her father, a tech geek like Robyn, will be able to explain them better. Barclay asks Robyn to leave, as the guards are particularly dangerous that night. As she sneaks out of the lot, Robyn sees a procession of enormous trucks drive out, armed with men in dark-colored uniforms.

Robyn races toward Loxley Manor, the seven-bedroom home in the city’s wealthy Castle District that she shares with her parents. Her father is a member of the lower house of the Parliament while her mother, who has aristocratic lineage, is a member of the upper house. Robyn, who has an adventurous, daring spirit, reflects that she has never felt scared before, but tonight, she was frightened by the threatening men on the trucks. Robyn does not yet know that the men are linked with what will come to be known as the “Night of Shadows” (15). As Robyn heads home, the trucks, commanded by Sheriff Marissa Mallet, head to 14 homes in Castle District, including Robyn’s parents’. The men capture or kill all the residents. The only person missing from the sheriff’s list is Robyn, who is saved because of her secret run to lot 401. When the men report her missing to the sheriff, she bids them to take her to the manor.

Meanwhile, Robyn gets home to find the doors unnaturally open. She can see bloody handprints on the fridge and a huge pool of blood on the floor. She realizes something bad has happened to her parents. She dips her hand in the blood and washes it off, panicking.

As Robyn washes her hands in the bathroom, she can hear the sheriff and her men enter the house, looking for her. Remembering her father’s instructions in case of an emergency, Robyn sneaks away to her bedroom and presses a safe hidden under a picture. She retrieves the objects in the safe—a glass sphere, an envelope, and fingerless black gloves—and stuffs them in her backpack, which also contains Barclay’s modem. She jumps out of her bedroom window but breaks the sphere in half in the process. Gathering the halves, she speeds off.

Sheriff Mallet is unable to find Robyn. She lies to Governor Crown, the head of parliament who ordered the raids, that all the people on the list are accounted for. Crown appoints himself the de facto ruler of Nott City and promotes Mallet to deputy commissioner. After Mallet finishes talking to Crown over her PalmTab (a smartphone-like device), she cautions her men from ever revealing the truth about Robyn.

Robyn reflects that her father’s paranoia about the government coming for his family now makes sense. Her father would often make her practice the drill of jumping out of her window and sprinting across the manor lawn in case she ever needed to escape. Though the practice came in handy, the realization that her parents may be dead overwhelms Robyn. She forces herself to keep running, knowing her father would have wanted her to run into the surrounding Notting Wood, which borders all the districts of Nott City.

Robyn opens the envelope she gathered from the safe in the woods. Inside is a canvas map with markings, such as directional arrows, a DNA-like structure, and a cathedral. There is also a note from her father, telling her to always wear the gloves, as they will protect her. The envelope also contains something called “cash,” which her father says might come in handy. Robyn then examines the broken sphere, its halves joined by wires: The metal strip underneath the sphere is inscribed with the words “breath, blood, bone” (31). Robyn puts it together with her bleeding hands and blows the leaves off the sphere. The sphere then emits a life-size hologram of her father. However, as the sphere is broken, the sentences the hologram speaks are incomplete. Robyn can make out her father saying that she must not use her tag and that moon lore promises that someone will lead their people to light. Robyn must gather the elements and visit the shrines. She should consult the canvas map and follow its arrows. Unable to make sense of all the clues, Robyn walks on, entering the part of the forest known as Sherwood.

Sherwood forest borders Sherwood County, the poorest district of Nott City. Just as Robyn emerges onto the road, she is grabbed by two military police (MP) soldiers. Assuming Robyn is an urchin trying to escape Sherwood, the MPs put her in their truck to take her to the prison. On the way to the prison, Robyn notes Sherwood County is different from Castle District, its streets more crowded and its housing denser. At the jail, the warden is reading a fashion magazine, staring at a picture of stiletto heels. When she sees Robyn, she scans her for a tag—the ID chip planted into her hand, like all members of Castle District—but cannot locate it. Robyn realizes the gloves she is wearing have masked the tag. The warden is not surprised that Robyn is minus a tag since Sherwood people typically don’t have them. She puts Robyn into a tiny cell “with the street rats” (40).

A thin girl named Laurel is Robyn’s new cellmate. Laurel is younger than Robyn, and like Robyn, she has been brought in that day. Unlike Robyn, Laurel is from Sherwood and does not know her parents. Forced to live on her own, Laurel steals and scavenges to survive. Fending for herself has taught Laurel many skills, which she now uses to deftly untie Robyn’s bonds. Robyn tells Laurel she is hungry. She wishes they could go to a grocery store and use her tag to procure food: The ID chip also contains details of a person’s bank account. However, Robyn remembers her father’s injunction against using her tag. Laurel tells Robyn it does not matter because they will never get out of jail. They are to be disappeared.

Laurel explains the term “disappeared” to Robyn. Since Governor Crown appointed Marissa Mallet the new sheriff, Sherwood is on lockdown. All Sherwood’s prisoners, as well as suspected dissidents, will be disappeared, or erased from society, in what is known as a Purge. Robyn knows such disappearances were common 50 years ago when a faction of rebels known as the Crescent tried to overthrow the king. The king responded by ordering a Purge, murdering or capturing the rebel leaders, temporarily quelling the rebellion. However, the rebellion rose again, and after a 10-year struggle, Nott City became a democracy, ruled by an elected Parliament and a governor. Laurel tells Robyn the rebellion is still ongoing, which puzzles Robyn. Robyn thinks that since Nott City is a democracy, there is no need for a rebellion.

Suddenly, Robyn and Laurel receive a televised message on the public address system in their cell. Governor Ignomus Crown tells the citizens that Parliament has approved his request to restructure it, and all dissenting members have resigned from their posts. Law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear under the new regime, but troublemakers will meet a terrible fate. As the screen fades, Robyn fears the worst for her parents and begins to weep. She is sure they, too, have been disappeared.

Robyn decides she and Laurel must escape. Laurel tells Robyn she knows how to pick locks but does not have a thick enough hairpin. Robyn hands her one from her heavy braid. Laurel asks Robyn to wait till dinner since Laurel is really looking forward to the meal. When the meager meal arrives, Laurel scarfs it down, making Robyn realize that Laurel is starving. Afterward, Laurel works the padlock open with Robyn’s pin. The girls gather the ropes that had bound their wrists and knot them together. Laurel leads Robyn to a place where they can use the rope to climb into an overhead vent.

When Robyn reaches the vent, she accidentally knocks the unscrewed vent cover to the ground with a clatter, attracting the guards’ attention. She quickly pulls up Laurel, and the girls scamper into the tunnel behind the vent. When they reach the outer wall, they discover the vent there is screwed shut on the outside. Laurel bangs against the slatted metal cover with her hands and bare feet to work it loose. The slats break, and Laurel and Robyn manage to escape. Robyn asks Laurel how she knew about the presence of the vents. Laurel tells Robyn she did not, but her mantra is to expect things to work out, and they always do. Robyn decides to try Laurel’s way of thinking. She will choose to believe her parents are alive, and things will work out for her family.

Laurel leads Robyn into a house, where she has stashed a bag containing soap and a toothbrush. Laurel has such stashes across the city since she doesn’t have a home of her own. Robyn feels guilty when she compares Laurel’s life to her own. Laurel uses the outdoor hose to take a bath and suggests Robyn do the same so they can look respectable enough to visit the market to get clothes and food. Though Robyn takes a bath, she tells Laurel that she cannot wash her hair under the hose, as her washed hair would take forever to gather and plait. Robyn has only recently leant from her father how to braid her thick, beautiful, curly hair, which she has inherited from her paternal grandmother.

At the market, Robyn realizes Laurel’s idea of shopping is stealing things from the stalls of vendors. Robyn knows Laurel does not have any other option but feels guilty about taking the things. She vows to pay back the vendors when she has found her parents and things return to normal.

Laurel and Robyn change in the bathroom at the public library. Robyn has piled up her hair and hidden it under a green beret while Laurel wears a blue baseball cap. As they head out of the library, Robyn reads the bulletin board. She is shocked to find a wanted poster put out by the police for her and Laurel. The poster describes them as “street urchins” and gives their height, skin, and hair color, but thankfully it does not have their photos. Laurel guides Robyn to the food market, where MPs are confiscating produce from vendors for letting it fall into the street. Almost by reflex, Robyn filches a bag of oranges an MP has confiscated from a woman.

Laurel is appalled that Robyn stole the oranges within plain sight of the MP. Thankfully, he did not notice Robyn. Robyn distributes some oranges to children and homeless people on the streets. She and Laurel wander around, eating the rest. Robyn notices a hair salon that specializes in braiding. An old woman sits on the sidewalk outside the salon, her long, gray hair braided in the same style as Robyn. Robyn wants to stop to talk to the woman, but the gathering crowd behind her carries her and Laurel along. Robyn realizes people are being herded into a nearby market square. When they reach the square, a large man, carrying an enormous backpack, lays down the backpack so Laurel and Robyn can climb over it and see what is happening.

Sheriff Malett stands on a stage in the middle of the square. Screens around her show the images of alleged criminals wanted by the MPs. Mallet asks criminals present in the crowd to give themselves up, as MPs scan the crowds. A woman called Nyna Campbell is apprehended and brought to the stage. Nyna shouts “my blood, my breath, my bone” (77), just before Mallet hits and silences her. Nyna is taken away. Just then, two MPs barrel toward Laurel and Robyn.

Robyn is sure the MPs are coming for her, but they walk past her and Laurel to grab the big man standing behind them. The man’s name is announced as the fugitive Floyd Bridger. Bridger asks Robyn to run, but Robyn flings herself at the MPs. The crowd joins her and chaos ensues. Robyn runs off, hoping the crowd will help Bridger escape. She grabs his bag for safekeeping and takes Laurel along. Since the roads are being patrolled, Robyn thinks they should go through the woods to her house to seek answers.