DISCLAIMER: I don't own this. If I had the great honor of even KNOWING Laguna, Link, Chichiri or Tasuki, I'd be off living the good life, supported by the rabid fangirls who paid me daily for pictures off the webcam. ;)
Sorry it's been so long from the last chapter to this one, folks. A thousand things got in the way. In return, this is a LONG chapter, something like four thousand words, which I hope you enjoy!
;)
Ja!
DIFFERENT SORTS OF FLAME
As soon as they were out of sight of the court, Link turned and faced the warrior with an ironic smile. "That was--effective. They now think you little more than a swaggering fool." He said softly, his lips barely moving.
Tasuki let out a low, throaty chuckle, and brushed the hair back from his face. "Hey, I know what ta do ta distract 'em." He said. "Now--we're bein' watched, right?" He caught the elf's nod in from the corner of his eye. "Awright. Let's...um." He yawned suddenly. "M' tired." He said, loud enough to be heard down the hall. "M' gonna go ta bed now, so I--" He drew back with a gasp, his hand flying to his tessen. "Who the fuck'r you?" He snarled, pointing the intimidating weapon at a shadow in the corner of the hall.
Link's eyes widened in startlement as a tall, slim man unfolded from the darkness. "Well met, warriors." Said a familiar voice. "Good e'en to ye both." The voice held a mocking edge, and Link's fingers unconsciously stroked the hilt of his sword. "Who are you?" He asked, repeating the seishi's question.
The man walked into the light, and both men recognized the face of the herald-guard who had led them to the Queen days before. "I am Alaric, cousin to Her Majesty, and a friend. We need to share speech."
The weight of the child in Chichiri's arms reminded him that he'd been walking for several hours. She still corrected his movement from time to time, leading him deeper and deeper into the Library--which, he had realized some time earlier, was a room easily as big as the castle above it. The books and papers still rose to dizzying heights in all directions from him, and occasionally he felt a twinge of longing--to be able to learn as much as was held here! So much knowledge! He sighed, and Aerdre stirred and looked up from his arms.
"What, Master Chichiri? Are you tired? We could sleep." He smiled down at her. "I could use a rest, no da. You still haven't told me where we're going, and my friends..." He shook his head, confused for a moment, and dizzy. "I have friends in the castle above, and by now will be worried, no da."
A shadow passed briefly over her pale face. "No they won't." she said quietly. "They've got a lot going on, themselves."
Chichiri stopped short. "Explain." He said gently.
All at once, the strangeness of the whole thing caught up to him. "Why am I carrying you?" he asked, still not raising his voice. "What are you doing here, and why have we not yet reached the end of the Library?"
Aerdre cringed.
"Are you angry?" she asked in a small voice.
"No, child. Just curious."
She took a deep breath. "I was watching you from the inside." She said. "When you sat there reading, I read you too. And I liked you. And I didn't want you to get hurt!" Her last word dissolved into a wail, and she sobbed into Chichiri's shirtfront. "I...heard...the...men." She managed. "Those Others that don't like anyone."
Chichiri's blood ran cold as the little girl gulped and shuddered. "Why would I be hurt, Aerdre?" he asked, brushing the hair from her face with one long-fingered hand. "Is there someone that wants to hurt me, na no da?"
Choking back tears, she nodded.
"And...does that person want to hurt my friends?"
She nodded faster, her hair flying. Chichiri sighed.
"All right, no da. Did you see the bad men?"
"N-no."
"But you heard them?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
She stiffened and said nothing.
"Aerdre?"
Chichiri turned and began to walk back the way they had come, crooning softly. "Nothing you could say would make me angry, no da. I know you just want to keep me safe. But I want to keep my friends safe, too, and I can't do that unless you tell me everything, na no da."
Laguna watched the warriors leave with mixed feelings. On one hand, he wanted to laugh, but he was sitting next to Julia and that would doubtless embarrass her. On the other hand, Tasuki was acting irresponsibly, as he seemed to do often. Silently, Laguna decided that he'd speak to the seishi later, and see if maybe he could get him to clean up his act a bit.
"Laguna?"
"Oh—what? I'm sorry, Julia, I was off in my own little world again."
She smiled at him and patted his hand. "I said, it's been suggested to me that, in honor of your arrival, I should have a dance. What do you think?"
Laguna blushed. "I can't dance." He murmured. She laughed, and the sound echoed from the high ceiling like a startled bird. "Oh, love, there is plenty else to do but that! Don't worry! I'm rather more worried about whether or not your friends will behave themselves." There was an edge to her sweet voice, and to his surprise Laguna found himself defending them. "Of course! This is all new to them, but they're not ignorant of courtly matters—and if Tasuki acts up, what harm would come of it? He has a noble heart."
Julia sighed. "Does he? I must confess that I've seen little evidence of that." She signaled for another glass of wine.
Tasuki settled into the brocade-cushioned chair with a heavy thump, and put both bootheels up onto the table. "Talk, then, damn it!" He snarled. "I don't like bein' surprised in the fuckin' hallway, all right? Speak yer piece and let me get ta bed."
Link smiled wryly. "I confess that my companion has the right of it. If we must have speech, why not in the dining hall where all can see and none can point fingers to shout conspiracy? This looks bad."
Alaric sighed, shaking his head, and took a chair himself. "I mislike worrying Her Majesty unnecessarily, and if this is something that can be handled by us, why should I do so?"
Tasuki laughed once, a short, derisive noise. "Enough with tha fuckin' language, pal. You've got two minutes."
The man nodded and bowed his head for a moment. "There is a plot to kill you all." At Tasuki's look, he held up a forestalling hand. "Doubtless this does not surprise you, but there is more to it than that. There is fear that you have come to take our Queen back to the land she was born in--Sir Laguna has some kindred history with her, and those loyal to her do not want to see her leave. And to those disloyal, you are support that they think she ill needs. You are not well loved in the Court, and any more time you spend here will not make you more so." He paused for a moment, choosing his words with care. "I don't much believe in gods." he said to Tasuki. "You and the monk are just priests, as far as I'm concerned. But--something is going on. Why have you come here? If you've come to take her back, why now instead of years agone, when she still was heart-whole in regards to this place?"
Tasuki shook his head. "Look, we're not gonna--"
"FIRE!"
The scream cut through the diplomatic words and startled the three of them into action. There was the sound of a panicked mob, the sound of many voices and feet.
The warriors raced from the room into the hallway, which was filled with greasy black smoke and running people. Tasuki growled. "How does a fire get so big, so quick, in a castle?" He muttered under his breath, pulling a scarf from his sleeve. Link had raced on ahead and vanished in the smoke, which was already so thick that it blotted out the light from the torches on the walls. The bandit looked sideways at Alaric, who nodded. "Let's get the people out. We can talk later." Tasuki grinned. "Damn straight. Ya gonna get Julia?" The man's eyes widened, and he tore off after Link.
"Fuckin' amateur." Tasuki said. Moving quickly, he grabbed a pitcher of water from its place on a hall table and soaked the kerchief, brought it to his face and knotted it tightly around his head.
Beneath it, he wore a grin his face hadn't used since Miaka was still in his world.
Laguna held Julia tightly, trying to steer her through the flaming wreckage toward the door at the other end of the broad feast hall. He'd been sharing the wine brought to Her Majesty, when all of a sudden someone had screamed something, and the high roof came down in an explosion of fire. The debris had shattered the square of tables and sent panicked courtiers fleeing in every direction--or, at least, the ones not trapped beneath fallen crossbeams the size of several horses.
Julia had been cracked across the head, and she was unconscious as her petticoats fused. Laguna tore them off of her, leaving her only in her shift, and hefted her into his arms.
As he moved, Laguna could see that not all of the huge roof had fallen in(Of course it hasn't, we'd all be dead, he thought rapidly), only a pair of crossbeams and the tiles and thatch that covered about a twenty-five foot stretch of the lengthy hall.
The stretch that had been above Julia and the highest ranking nobles. Laguna's political mind filed this all away as he made for the door, once leaping a three-foot high beam that crossed the width of the hall. For a moment he regretted giving up the usage of Guardian Forces, so many years ago--a water elemental would have been able to quiet the blaze before it could reach the rest of the hall, and then the rest of the castle.
Above him, the unbroken beams began to creak and complain. Putting on a final burst of speed that he knew he would pay for later, Laguna dashed through the open double doors.
he almost broadsided Julia's advisor, who came barreling down the smokefilled hall with a face full of rage. Seeing Laguna, he drew up short, gasping for air and getting a lungful of poisonous smoke instead. "She all right?" He asked shortly. Laguna nodded, not wanting to waste his breath. "Get her out of here, then." Alaric said, running back the way he'd come. Lips set in a grim line, Laguna shifted her in his arms and followed him.
Tasuki turned away from the main hallway as he came to it, his sharp ears picking up a noise that the frightened rabbits of the court didn't hear, or were too worried about their own skins to pay attention to. He strode to a closed door--something he remembered as being an ambassadorial suite, if his nighttime inspections of this floor were still straight in his mind. He tried the latch--it was locked. Behind him was a muffled crumping noise, and he threw himself to the floor as a wave of burning air and steam and smoke gusted through the hallway. The skin on the backs of his hands and his neck sizzled, and his hair blew into his face.
The warrior knew fire intimately, being so tied to it as he was, and that sound brought to his mind the vision of a roof falling from a height to shatter on the ground, throwing flaming wreckage in all directions, setting off the rest of the castle. With sudden clarity, he knew that the fire had been laid in the main hall, and that that hall had been destroyed--and that the rest of the castle would soon follow suit. Spurred on by that mental image, he leapt to his feet and knocked the door open with one snapping kick. The room was a finely furnished one, and some part of his mind was weighing the wall hangings and trinkets as a bandit would. None of the lamps in the room were lit, and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. "Hello?" He called. "Anyone in here?" He knew someone was, but the room appeared deserted. He walked quickly through it to the bedroom beyond it, taking in the high canopied bed, made of some dark wood(Tthat's gonna burn fuckin' HOT!, he thought)and the messy blankets on top of it.
Messy blankets. Ambassadorial room. But the Ambassadors were all at dinner, and they haven't had much time to leave...Fuck.
His sharp eyes had spotted a tiny hand, knuckles white, sticking out from under the bed. It was wrapped around the foot of the bed, holding on for dear life. He darted over to it and knelt, looking underneath the bed, his amber eyes alighting on a pair of frightened brown ones.
"Hello there." he said softly. "I can take you to safety. You want to come to me?" There was a whisper, and a child scooted forward, her nightgown covered in gray dust from the floor, and sat on her knees beside the bed. She was maybe seven years old, and her face was pale and serious. "I heard screaming." she said in a small voice. "It's not raiders, is it?"
"No, honey." Tasuki said, trying to appear like someone who the girl would trust. "Not raiders. It's just a little fire, so we're going to go down to the field where the horses are, all right?" Behind him, in the direction of the sitting room he'd come through, came the noise of burning. The child's lip quivered and a single tear rolled from her right eye, but she stood and nodded. "Right. No. Hang on." She stuck her head back under the bed and said something in a low voice. "Pull me out." she said loudly, muffled by the eiderdown and ebon wood between her and Tasuki. He grasped her by the waist and dragged her back, staring when he saw the even smaller girl in her arms. This one was no older than four, and she was weeping silently.
"Right, then!" Tasuki said. His eyes scanned the room and found the basin of washwater, and he grinned under the kerchief. "Fuck, yeah!" He ripped a pair of cotton sheets from the bed and poured the water over them. "Awright, girls. Wrap up." He bundled them each in a soaked sheet, leaving their legs sticking out below and room to the sides for their arms to hold him, and hefted them, one to each hip. "Ready?"
"Yes!" Came a chorus of sweet voices. "Let's go!"
Silently he praised Suzaku for giving him the gift of speed. He carried the girls into the sitting room in two long strides, his eyes widening in surprise at the fire already tearing through it.
Fuck. Hall's going to be too far gone, unless I run. Which way is out?
Mentally he saw the closest door, which would take them into a little courtyard, and from there to the grassy field where the horses grazed. Right. he said to himself. He took one deep breath of the room's air, which would be cooler than the air in the long hallway, and leapt through the door.
Chichiri jerked.
Something is wrong.
He looked at Aerdre, who had begun suddenly to shake. "I've killed you." she said in a horrified whisper. "The castle is afire." Chichiri turned and bolted back the way he'd come, holding Aerdre tightly. "It's too late!" She yelled. "Your only hope is to run further into the catacombs, try to wait it out." Chichiri laughed then, thinking Fool! Why, in times of trouble, are you suddenly so likely to forget all sense? Carefully, he set the little girl down, and pulled his kesa from its place on his back. He threw it on the ground and lifted Aerdre, dropping her into it. He'd thought of somewhere safe to send her--the very edge of the fallow field where the courtiers' horses grazed. He waited a moment, until he was sure she'd landed there, before thinking of another destination.
Tasuki
. he thought, pulling himself into the hat.Link's fingers danced over the ocarina. His narrow eyes saw the horses, clustered at the far edge of their safe field, and he played the begging-song that would call them to him. He held the gate open and sent his thoughts to them in as persuasive and compelling a fashion as he could manage.
Come, come bear those who care for you. Without people, your hooves will ache, no one will brush the burrs from your manes or feed you. Come, come carry them to safety.
As one, the herd of horses lunged, and raced toward him. He stepped aside, and they flew through the open gate and toward the burning castle. One of them--the lead horse, Link noticed--waited for him: He grasped its mane and swung himself up onto its bare back."Go!" he cried, and it moved beneath him.
Tasuki's lungs and eyes burned, and he could hardly see through the tears. The children held him tightly, one on each hip, their little hands fisted in his clothing. They coughed, too, and clutched him tighter.
"Tasuki, no da!"
He spun to track the voice. "Chichiri? Fuck, man, it's taken you long enough!" Chichiri was close to him now, and the monk reached out and took one of the girls. She struggled for a moment, blinded as she was by the damp sheet. "Shh, it's all right, no da." Chichiri said in her ear. He lifted her and turned to carry her piggyback, and Tasuki did the same with the other one. Tasuki shrugged in the direction of the door, and they raced on side by side, just like in the old days.
Laguna cursed in frustration. Twice now his way had been blocked by rubble too high to surmount, almost as though something was watching his attempt to save the queen with unsympathetic eyes. The air burned, and the room spun.
I'm suffocating.
The thought seemed alien to him--compared with all the ways he'd had to almost die in the past, fire was ridiculous. Finally a door appeared before him, and he kicked it open. Cool night air rushed in to meet the burning air of the doomed castle, and Laguna leapt forward into the night before the backdraft of fire could follow him. Julia coughed and protested weakly, and Laguna almost dropped her—She's all right, she's all right, she's all right!
his mind sang at her. But his relief was shortlived--the courtyard that he ran into was hemmed in by fire. "Will I never be free of it?" He cried."Laguna!"
His head snapped up at the yell.
"Laguna, I'm here!"
"Link! I'm trapped! Link!" Laguna bellowed, throwing all his strength into the cry.
"Stand back!" Link called. Laguna heard hoofbeats, and then watched as a huge horse vaulted the burning wall as though it was a foot tall. The elf was off the horse and lifting Julia from Laguna's unresisting arms before the man could blink. "I'll be right back for you." He said, somehow mounting with the semiconscious woman in his arms. The horse leapt the wall again, and Laguna heard them thundering away, and then the return hoofbeats.
"You're fast on that horse!" he said as Link appeared again. Without replying, the elf reached down and pulled him up behind. Laguna held tight and closed his eyes as he felt the muscles of the horse bunching in anticipation--then they were over the wall and to safety. They were at the edge of the horsefield; Laguna saw a knot of people at the other end, and Link rushed toward them. "I've got to go back." the elf said, depositing Laguna halfway there. "Help them."
In the direction of the castle, Laguna could hear men and women yelling for buckets. Grimly, he turned toward the people cowering at the edge of the field and went to help.
Tasuki and Chichiri left the girls with the people gathered in the field, and went back to join the bucket brigade. From there it became a nightmare: bending and lifting, passing on the huge and heavy buckets and watching as the water turned to steam before it could do any good. The entire westward side of the castle had been destroyed--the eastward side was mostly untouched, but the day-to-day living had taken place in the west. Face blackened by soot, hands torn and bleeding from the rough buckets, Tasuki turned to Chichiri in disgust. "This isn't fuckin' WORKIN', all right? We gotta do something else, damn it!" There was a hand on his shoulder, suddenly, and Tasuki spun to see a woman there in openmouthed wonder. "What is he doing?" she asked. Tasuki followed her eyes and saw Link, standing fifty feet off with his ocarina to his lips. His head was flung back, and he gazed into the sky.
He played a skirling few notes, simple but increasing in speed, and the sky changed. Clouds formed in an eyeblink, lightning danced above them. He played on, his music daring the wind to blow, and then a miracle happened.
"Fuckin' hell." Tasuki whispered, watching the first few fat raindrops falling from the sky. There was a pause as Link fell silent, and then the sky cracked open. Rain poured, so dense that it blocked out anything more than a few feet away. The castle vanished into the rain, and there was a great sizzling as the fire began to die. Link glared in the direction of the castle as another sound came, a roaring whoomph, and the rain falling glowed golden. The castle burned on. Link played the notes again, the raindrops grew to the size of a man's closed fist, and the glow dimmed. Steam rose and clouded the air, and it was as if the world had been holding its breath, and finally remembered to exhale. The sizzling itself quieted, and all that could be heard was the thundering rain and the cries of relief from the soot-covered people.
Tasuki watched Link in amazement. His blond hair was plastered to his face, and his green eyes blazed with their own fire.
"It was magic. The Song of Storms should have quieted it the first time." He coughed, doubling up, and Chichiri bit off a quiet exclamation. "You're going to be sick, no da." He said quietly. "Let's get the people into the eastward side, and see that the injured ones are dealt with, and then we can talk, na no da."
They didn't end up talking that night, though. By the time Tasuki fell into the cot laid out for him, in the new little room that the warriors would all share for now, the sun was up by more than an hour: as soon as his head touched the pillow, he slept.
