Authors note: This is dedicated to my dog, Wilbur, who was the inspiration for the story. If you can work out how an elderly whippet could inspire the following; I salute you.

Broken

Prologue

If he kept still the pain was manageable. If he kept still he could almost forget how much he hurt. So much of him hurt; his chest, his head, his shin, and his arm. His arm was on fire, pain radiated out from his forearm. Had he been unconscious, was he conscious now? He could not tell. He thought that his eyes were shut, it would probably hurt to try and open them. Keeping still was the best thing. He knew this because he had been told.

'Porthos, you need to keep your arm still…'

A voice next to him had said. He had no problem obeying.

'It's broken…'

That explained a lot.

'Keep still or you will make it worse…'

He knew the voice, he trusted the voice.

'Please listen to me…'

He did, he would have liked to respond but he had been told to keep still, that seemed more important.

'I'm not going to be here for much longer…'

Where were they going?

'Keep your arm still…'

He would. He would do as the voice told him to.

He felt a gentle weight on his wrist, it did not hurt, but felt reassuring. Keeping him grounded. Keeping his arm still. He had been told to keep his arm still.

He did not hear the trusted voice again. He continued to keep still, as he had been told, he did not know how long for.

Other voices he knew, but could not place, were talking now. Voices that he trusted.

Something, somewhere in his subconscious told him he was safe and he did not have to try to stay awake any more. He submitted to the painless call of unconsciousness.

MMMM

Chapter One

'Are you coming?' asked Aramis as he and Porthos walked to the door of the tavern. D'Artagnan indicated that he would catch them up, he was talking to a friend he had spotted across the crowded room.

Aramis nodded and followed Porthos out of the door. They walked slowly along the road towards the garrison, it was a clear calm night. The road was still busy with Parisians. The city never fully came to a standstill, there were always people wandering around. Whores plying their trade and beggars, who never disappeared, littered the sides of the road.

'Please sir,' said a small boy standing at the entrance to an alleyway.

Aramis looked over at the small lad. He was dirty and malnourished. Aramis hated that there was so much poverty and little he could do to help the people. The King just turned a blind eye. It was infuriating. Aramis approached the lad, fishing out a coin to hand to the lad as he did so.

'You are too generous, you know that,' said Porthos as he followed his friend to the alleyways entrance.

'I'm sorry it displeases you,' replied Aramis smiling back at him.

The lad took a few steps back, which was not surprising, with two musketeers approaching. They were fully in the alleyway when Aramis reached out to drop the coin into the lad's hand. He did not get the chance, the coin falling to the ground as several men grabbed him and shoved him hard into the wall of one of the buildings towering over the alleyway. The attack, so sudden and vicious that he had no chance to react. The men were coordinated. Just as Aramis opened his mouth to shout, the only avenue of defence left to him, a gag was used to stifle any cry he could make.

He struggled but was being held firmly by at least three men, his hat falling from his head as they did so. A fourth man had grabbed his arm and pulled it back behind him. Aramis was alarmed when he felt, what he guessed was, a manacle being snapped around his wrist, he tried to prevent his other arm being pulled behind him, but could not. He was soon rendered helpless, with both arms firmly held behind him by the manacles, which painfully pinched at his skin. The last thing he saw before a sack was pulled over his head, depriving him of his sight, was Porthos receiving the same treatment.

MMMM

Porthos was grabbed a fraction of a second after Aramis. He just had time to move forward a step as the first man had grabbed Aramis and pushed him into the wall when three men surrounded him. One swept his foot across Porthos legs and brought the big musketeer down to his knees. Porthos fought back hard, but received a punch to the side of his head which stunned him for a few second. Seconds that the men used to gag him and bind his arms behind his back. As his vision cleared Porthos watched as Aramis struggled against his attackers, they were using manacles to restrain him. Porthos noted that Aramis had also been gagged and that the men were pulling a sack over his head.

With his senses back to normal, after the punch, he began to struggle again, he made as much noise as he could through the gag, stopping only when he felt a gun being pressed into his side. He was hauled up onto his feet, the men holding him still.

One of the men leaned in close to Porthos' ear and said quietly, but firmly, 'be quiet, or I will shoot you in the gut and leave you where you fall…do you want that…do you?'

Porthos kept still, he was breathing hard from his exertions, but he understood the threat. He also understood that he was clearly not as valuable to the men as Aramis was. When the man had spoken to him he had been expecting him to threaten to shoot Aramis if he did not behave. The fact that they were prepared to leave him behind meant they did not need him. He was probably only being taken because he was there. They could not let him go if he were alive, and they probably did not want to leave a dead musketeer behind if they did not have to. Porthos did not want to be a dead musketeer either.

MMMM

D'Artagnan said his goodbyes to his friend and hastened after Aramis and Porthos. He spotted the two walking slowly along the road. Aramis was looking to his left and walking toward an alleyway reaching for something as he did so. D'Artagnan spotted the boy with his hand out retreating into the alleyway.

As his friends disappeared into the alleyway several men followed. A couple peeled themselves from the wall either side of the entrance and others walked with purpose from the road. D'Artagnan did not like the look of that. The men were clearly going to attack Porthos and Aramis. D'Artagnan quickened his pace, Porthos and Aramis were good fighters but against that many men even they would struggle.

As d'Artagnan approached he became aware of muffled shouts. He slowed at the entrance to the alleyway. He peered around the corner just in time to see the group of men bundling his friends away from the main road further down the alleyway. There were two men holding each of his friends who had their arms bound behind their backs. Sacks over their heads prevented them from seeing, they were being forced along by their captors.

Porthos and Aramis had clearly been taken by surprise, even though there were several men, too many to be taken on and win, he knew his friends would not have been captured so easily had they been given any kind of warning. This must have been a coordinated attack. But was it a targeted attack? They were used to being confronted, but to be taken was unusual. Were they being taken because they were musketeers or because they were Porthos and Aramis?

D'Artagnan followed the group along the alleyway, staying as far to the side as he could, keeping to the shadows. If he was going to help his friends he could not risk being caught himself. His best course of action was to follow and when he knew where they had been taken, return to the garrison for reinforcements.

He did not have to follow for long. At the end of the alleyway and across another main road he watched as the men took their captives into a house. The door firmly closed behind them. No one passing had paid much attention. At this time of night people did not interfere in others business.

D'Artagnan approached the house with caution. It was one of several in the road, the door was solid and the windows at the front a little too high for him to see into. He would have to make his way around to the back of the house. He thought about returning to the garrison straight away, but decided to at least ensure he was in the right place first. A narrow alleyway two house along took him to the rear of the building. He quickly made his way along it and towards the rear of the house his friends had been taken into.

There was a window low to the ground near to steps that led down from the rear door of the house. He crouched down and peered in, he could see a short corridor with two doors leading off it.

He was just in time to see one of the men open one of the doors and his friends being taken into the room beyond. The door was closed behind them, a few minutes later the men re-emerged. One was carrying the weapon belt belonging to Porthos, another had Aramis'. He could not see what had happened to his friends but guessed they were in the room.

The door was closed and bolts drawn across, a key also turned in the lock. The kidnappers clearly wanted to keep their victims contained. D'Artagnan watched as the men left the corridor and proceeded up a flight of stairs.

The rear door to the house opened. D'Artagnan pressed himself into the wall, keeping hidden in the shadows. One man stepped out and as each of the other men passed him he handed them money.

'Not a word to anyone. We know where you are.'

The man handing the money out had spoken sternly to each of the other men as they passed. Clearly the hired thugs were no longer needed and had been paid for their work.

Once the last hired thug had passed the man stepped back into the house and closed the door. No one had reappeared in the corridor below the window where d'Artagnan hid. He wondered if he dared try to get in through the window?

He pulled the frame up. It was old and gave into the pressure. He was able to jiggle the frame a bit and loosen it. The window opened quietly. With a last look around d'Artagnan lowered himself down. Landing softly on the floor below. The window fell back into place behind him. The key to the door was hanging from a hook. As he reached up for it thinking that he could just free his friends and they could escape through the window, he heard a noise at the top of the stair.

MMMM