Depart For Safety
Chapter 1: The Problem
It happened on a really cold day in October. [Wait what kind of script is this. I'm not supposed to say when it happened until the end. Besides I need to tell them who I am first. What do you mean they know who I am. You What!]. I see my friends (also known as traitors) have sent out my old recording which was not supposed to be sent out to pretty much every home. I'll have to deal with them later. So since you already know I'm a musketeer, and all that fun stuff. Let's just go on to the show. Look to the left, and pretend you see what I'm telling you. MY left. MY left. Idiot. Wait don't stop the recording, this is really important to me . . . I mean you guys out there, wherever you are. Just look to the left, remember my left.
Viveca, Renée, Aramina, and I came into the secret musketeer training quarters.
"You called us down?"I spoke the question.
"Yes." Madame Helene said, she sounded worried, and Madame Helene never sounded scared, "It appears that we are in the midst of a spy."
"What?" Aramina asked, "What spy, is he Phillipe."
"No, it seems to be someone else, but it maybe one of his men." Madame Helene explained, "Or someone else's."
"Whose?" I asked. Phillipe was the only one who wanted to 'get rid' of Louis. Oh yes, I'm on first-name terms with him, but it's only because I saved his life so many times (I lost count how many though). According to him . . . hey, those would be great lyrics to a song. Wait, where was I. I've gotten a short attention span ever since I met Louis. I've gotten selective hearing too, just to protect myself from his scientific lectures. With those accursed big words.
Madame Helene looked down, and sighed, something was troubling her far too much, "An old worst enemy." Why must you talk in riddles?
"Who would that be." Aramina asked, worried. She was undoubtedly the most thoughtful of us all. I try to act more like her, but people keep ticking me off. A.K.A Louis. He seems to take pleasure in making me mad. He's evil, but too lazy to become a tyrant. He's the laziest king in the history of kings when it comes to ruling the kingdom.
"Someone you wouldn't know of." Madame Helene, "a self-proclaimed assassin who killed Louis' parents."
"Wait, wait, wait." I said, "killed Louis parents? I thought they died of natural cause?"
"That's what everyone thinks." Madame Helene said.
"Wouldn't it leave a mark." I asked.
"The assassin killed them with a poison dart." Helene said.
"How do you know?" I asked. I swear Madame Helene is related to an all-knowing oracle/mystic person.
"I saw," Madame Helene said. "With my own eyes, I had been on the other side of the castle, cleaning the windows when it had happened."
"Where were the musketeers?" I asked. Surely there had to be someone who was there.
"At the moment, the musketeers were so in over their heads, they didn't put enough of them around the castle." Madame Helene said.
"Even if there is a spy, what do you want us to do about it?" I asked. She didn't expect us to, I don't know, stalk him or something. That would be a bit creepy.
"I want you to get him out of the country until it is safe to return." What? Are you mad. Do you think nobody will notice if Kingy suddenly disappeared, "No, I'm not crazy." That settles it. She's psychic, she reads minds, I don't feel safe around her anymore.
"Madame Helene, with all due respect, how are we supposed to get him out of the country?" Viveca asked. Yeah, what she said.
"And how will we know when it's safe to come back?" Aramina asked.
"And how do we know they won't follow?" Renee asked.
"You shall tell the musketeers that you are taking the prince to Venice, but you'll actually take him to Switzerland." Madame Helene took a breath. She's a fast-talker.
"Then what?" I asked.
"Let me finish." Madame Helene scolded me, glaring slightly, "you will send one carriage to Venice which will obviously be ambushed because you can't keep anything from spies. Then you four will depart at midnight with the prince. You will all be wearing a disguise."
"Which will be?" Viveca asked.
"Vive." We all said in union.
"What?" Viveca said, "Can I make the disguises?"
"Can you make them by tomorrow night?" Madame Helene asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I can certainly try." Viveca said.
"But you don't have to. I already have them made." Madame Helene said. She can sew?
"Where will the carriage be?" Aramina asked.
"In Gascony, I've arranged it with Corinne's mother the last time she had been here." She told mom before she told me! The nerve!
"And how do you know the spies didn't see you?" Renée asked. Yeah.
"We were outside the castle grounds, besides no one would actually expect an old woman to know their plot." Helene sounded so sure of her plan, it was hard not to believe her.
"How do you know when it's safe to come back?" I asked. That is the question.
"I'll send a friend of mine, her name is Geneva." Helene said. You know those moments when people know all the answers to your questions, and it's really annoying because you're trying to stump them. This is one of those moments. It's like Helene's done it all before. Has she done it before? Who knows, she's got a lot of secrets.
"Okay. We'll do it." Renée said. She's my co-leader . . . or is that Viveca. Wait, we're all co-leaders, I'm just the one that makes most of the decisions. After getting their opinion of course.
"Yeah, it'll be an adventure." Aramina said bubbly. She's always the optimistic one who likes to make poetry. Viveca agreed.
"It'll be fun." She said. Then, it dawned on me.
"Where are we taking him?" I asked. Switzerland, but where in Switzerland . . . no . . . no, please no, anywhere but there. She's evil.
"I believe you have a cousin living there, Corinne, right by the border," No, don't say it. Don't say it, "Aria is her name I believe," don't say it, "You'll be staying there." No! Has she met Aria, she's evil, she wants to take over the world. Okay, maybe not that evil, but I'm pretty sure she's still an evil genius.
"What?" I asked, everyone looked at me, "No. No, no, no, Aria's evil."
"No, she's not. She's a bit . . . sociopathic, I'll give you that," Madame Helene said. Lies, "but she's not evil, just a little eccentric." I started to protest, but before I could, Madame Helene started speaking again. Without pauses, "Okay, no questions, good. You'll depart at midnight." And she pushed down THE lever. I hate it when she does that, mostly because it opens a trap door in the floor and sends us to the kitchen.
I stood up from the kitchen floor, and hit my head against the pipe that I always hit my head against, "Oh come on!"
"Are you alright, Cori, do you need some ice on that?" Aramina said. She's the only one who could worry about something like this. She's probably the most sympathetic out of all of us.
"I'm fine Aramina." I said, holding a hand to where I hit my head. Who's bright idea was it to put a pipe there. This is one of the best made structures in France, and yet there's a pipe sticking out waiting to give someone a concussion. Stupid pipe.
"Come on let's go tell Louis about the plan." Renee said, and she walked out of the Kitchen door . . . but which door there's like forty three of them here. Seriously, only Renee has a good enough sense of direction to know exactly where everything is. Remember from my first recording when I said 'we've cleaned every inch of the place' I was lying turns out we only had the west side of the castle. Oh yes, there are other maids, we were called the West Wing maids. only person who actually knows where everything in this place is located is Madame Helene, but I think it's because she's worked here for the last forty-five years. How old is Madame Helene? Wait, off topic. Back to what we were talking about before . . . um . . . what were we talking about before? Oh, right we left the kitchen through the big door that had the word exit written on it in big red letters. We followed Renee to the courtyard where Louis was standing in all his glory. He was always here. At the moment he was writing something in his science journal thing. That's right, he was still a science nerd, knowing big words and stuff like that . . . you can really tell why I became a musketeer and not a scholar in that sentence. He turned around when he heard the door shut. Did I mention he was a gorgeous science nerd. This is coming from one of his sworn enemies. Fine, maybe not sworn enemies, we just didn't get along. Louis had really gotten better looking in the past two years. He had gone into sword-fighting after the little incident with his cousin, Phillipe. Phillipe. Evil man, evil.
"Renee, Viveca, Aramina," he smiled at them like they were best friends, then he looked at me and his smile changed to a smirk "D'Artagnon." Why'd they get to be called by there first name, and I get stuck with my last name. Oh right, he hates me. I save his life, and this is the thanks I get. Princes are evil. The one truth I can really rely on. Princes. Are. Evil. And my friend, Louis here is living proof. I'm starting to see why Phillipe hated him so much . . . then again, I don't, Louis was totally fine before, a bit dorky but nice, now he's annoying. Come to think of it I want the dorky, naïve pushover prince over the annoying, egotistical, gorgeous . . . whoa where'd that come from. Anyway, I liked Prince Louis more than King Louis.
"Louis, we need to talk to you." Aramina said in a slightly dramatic tone.
"Really?" Louis asked. No, we just came to see you because we need the fancy scientific name for a peacock. He smirked slightly. Wait is he playing with us? Is he? Is he?
"There seems to be a spy in the castle." Renee whispered. Do they not notice the evil smirk. He's evil! You can see it in his eyes! Evil, and lousy way of keeping it hidden, must run in the family.
"That's trying to kill me?" Louis finished for her. He's psychic. Who gave him that kind of power? The idiot. As if Louis doesn't already have enough power.
"How did you know?" Viveca asked.
"I doubt they'd come to steal our famous cookie recipes." Louis said. I would hate his sense of humor if it wasn't almost identical to mine.
"Yeah, so we don't have to worry about you getting traumatized after we tell you yet another person is trying to kill you." Corinne said.
"Probably not." Louis said. He acts like he encounters near-death experiences every day. Hey, isn't that my job. Apparently not since we never actually go through those near-death situations. That's right, we never get to do anything fun anymore. You guys call yourselves criminals. Please, the worst thing you've ever done is steal . . . and it's really getting on my nerves. Can't you like rob a bank or like be a spy or assassin or something! Not my fault that I thought being a musketeer would be more dangerous. I mean, you're protecting the King of France, tons of people want to kill him, but what do we get? People stealing stuff they could buy. I want some excitement. Well . . . now I got it. But I'm probably not going to see much, because I have to get the King out of the country, and to my evil cousin. Did I mention that she wants to take over the world? Well, she does! She's evil, I tell you, evil!
"There's a spy in the castle, yeah, and he's an assassin from who knows where who had killed your parents." Louis' face clouded over like someone had just brought up a bad topi . . . oh, yeah. I did bring up a bad topic, didn't I.
"My parents weren't killed, they died." Louis said, turning around. Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry. What am I saying? Louis is a complete sociopath. He doesn't care, he can't cry.
"Actually." I said.
"Why not just cut to it." He said.
"Can you meet us at the back entrance of the castle, and make sure you don't get spotted?" I asked.
"Why?" He asked.
"Because, you're leaving the country so you don't get killed by the spy." I answered dutifully. Louis may be knowledgeable, but he's the worst deducter in history . . . is deducter a word? It should be.
"I see." Kingy is using fancy wording to sound smart again. This should be illegal. Then again, he's the king so I guess that wouldn't count for him. Even if the people went against him, he's got awesome musketeers like us on his side, and no one can actually be stupid enough to think they can beat us. Was that egotistical? Do I care? Nah.
"Well?" I asked.
"I'm surprised, Corinne, you're actually asking for my opinion." He said.
"Yeah." I said, "What a shocker." It's not like I never . . . oh yeah. I never ask for his opinion. Well, that's because he's got bad judgement, for example he trusted Phillipe. I can almost bet that he'll go down in history as the man who had the worst judgement of the 19th century, not a good trait to have when you're the king.
A/N: Another one? Yes another story, I am terrible, but I just get too many ideas in my head that I want to write down. Not to worry, though, I'm still working on my other stories.