Chapter 14

Thanks to FizzWizz2011 for their review. I'm trying to develop Athos and Emma relationship; I don't think I did it before. Let me know what you think. Thanks to the followers and the one who favourited my story.

New Chapter, read, enjoy and review.

It was Aramis. We joined him at the window while the person he was shooting at fled away. We went back in and continued our research. Whoever made a mess in that chamber wanted to cover their tracks. Anyway our research led us to a Huguenot pastor. We also discovered that Jean de Mauvoisin bought six thousands of gunpowder three weeks ago. Our guess is he went radical and was planning to make a church explode. While Aramis and D'Artagnan went to the church to talk to the Huguenot priest, Athos and I went to see de Mauvoisin again. Jean's body was in the middle of the room. De Mauvoisin père was kneeling at the feet of his son's body with his hands joined together. He was telling us how unnatural it was for him to bury his son.

"A licence for the purchase of gunpowder, signed by your son." Athos showed him the licence.

"What was Jean involved in?" Mauvoisin asked.

"It is possible that he was plotting with the Huguenots fanatics to attack the catholics." Athos replied.

"My god. How many times did I beg him to break with Pastor Ferrand and his nest of vipers?" Mauvoisin said angrily.

"Perhaps he has second thoughts—and broke with the other plotters." I wanted to put Mauvoisin père at ease.

"Whatever my son did, I forgive him." Mauvoisin père retorted.

We left Mauvoisin with his sorrow and joined our two friends. Apparently, Pastor Ferrand was hiding something from us. We decided to return to the church at night.

"You know what, friends?" I whispered. "I don't go to church in daylight, not that often. But at night it's much more frightening. Can we come back later?" They just all stared at me. I followed to a door where D'Artagnan used that key again and this time it worked. We walked down a flight of stairs and arrived in a room full of gunpowder.

"A bomb making factory?" D'Artagnan asked.

"No, a printing press." Aramis answered. D'Artagnan drew our attention to a barrel. Aramis pulled the lid open and ink was pouring out. Athos opened another barrel but this time, powder was coming out.

"What are you doing here?" The priest asked us which caused us four to unsheathe our swords. The priest has a sword of his own.

"There are four of us, pastor." Athos warned him.

"You are outnumbered. I have God on my side." The Pastor answered.

"I hope he is good with a sword." D'Artagnan replied.

"Was that supposed to be funny?" I asked him. "Because clearly it wasn't."

"You lied to us." Aramis said before D'Artagnan could answer me. "You were in conspiracy with Jean de Mauvoisin."

"Conspiracy?" The Pastor seemed confuse. "I have a large congregation. That printing press is the only way to stay in touch with them." We all lowered our swords.

"Do you use gunpowder instead of ink?" Athos asked him. He didn't answer. We went out of the little dark room and went back at the main room.

"As God is my witness, this has nothing to do with me or my church." The Pastor provided as an explanation. "I preach reconciliation not hatred."

"Someone intend to blow up your church probably during a service." Aramis replied.

"In my opinion, this has everything to do with you and your church." I added.

"Catholics?" He inquired.

"Is it possible Jean was lying to you about his beliefs and infiltrated your church in order to destroy it?" Aramis questioned.

"Jean was no turncoat." Ferrand defended. "and he was a gentle soft hearted boy not an assassin."

"Then, why did he need a dozen barrels of gunpowder?" Athos questioned showing him the licence. The Pastor took it and examined it.

"This is Jean's name. But it's not his handwriting, it's his father's." The Pastor informed us.

Alright, I wasn't quite expecting that answer. Why would his father use his signature to buy a dozen barrels of gunpowder? This is just unbelievable. The day after we went back to visit de Mauvoisin père. His valet opened the door for us. And we all raised our swords in unison in front of him. We pushed him in the house. We asked him to open one of his master's cabinet. We examined all the letters that were in it and decided to show them to the Captain Tréville. They send me to fetch the Captain and we arrived an hour later or so. Mauvoisin pèrebought some houses in the Court of Miracles. The houses in the court of miracles has no financial value, so why by them? It's completely ridiculous. Those covered most of the part of the court. Mauvoisin père arrived and explained to us if the court wasn't there, those houses will worth a king's ransom. It threatened us with the Cardinal's name. Athos asked him if he forged the licence with his son's name. He didn't answer immediately but eventually he did. He did forge the licence with his son's name. And to think I was feeling sorry for him. Now, I just despised that man. What he did is punishable by death. Does that scare him? He doesn't seem so. He thinks he is protected by the Cardinal. His plan since the beginning was to blow up the court of miracles. This has nothing to do with religion, Pastor Ferrand was right. But you can't do something like that without a bit of help. The plan was to be executed at midday. The Musketeers, D'Artagnan and I rushed out of Mauvoisin's house to the court of miracles. We arrived at the court at miracles in no time. But it was too quiet; there were no one to be seen. We heard pistols being fired. We walked further into the court and there were, de Mauvoisin's men. They were all wearing masks. Aramis, Athos and D'Artagnan took care of them while I was to find the gunpowder barrels. There are a lot of shortcuts through the court. Once you know them you can go unnoticed. So, I ran through them. I found the barrels. They were already fused; I had to defuse them before those men set them up. When I arrived at the last one I saw a woman who were wounded, not far away from her there was Mauvoisin's valet. He was dead. I asked her if she did that but she assured me he was one of the musketeers. I stayed with her and helped her with her wound.

Porthos was back. Charon, the secret agent of Mauvoisin, was dead. And Flea, Porthos' lost flame, remained in the court of miracles and in Porthos' heart. De Mauvoisin père is the one who killed Jean. He left a note in which he confessed his crimes and killed himself. We were now back at the garrison. Athos was training me in swordfight. I have to improve my skills after what happened with Beauvallon. Remember when I said I could hold my ground in a swordfight, well, that was before training with Athos. I could hardly last five minutes in a fight with him. It was exhausting and difficult but I must get better in order to fight any new enemies that we might encounter in the future. I think that Athos might take pleasure in torturing me. I was sent to the ground for the hundredth time when I asked for mercy.

"Please, Athos can we stop for today?" I asked out of breath.

"If this is your wish." He presented his hand for me to take and helped me up.

"It is. Thank you." I said. "I know I have to be able to fight but can you please not kill me first." He chuckled.

"Anything for you, Emma." He smiled.

"You never said my name before." I remarked.

"No, I admit I never did." Athos replied.

"Why?" I questioned.

"I always called a woman by their title." He retorted.

"Are you warming up to my presence, then?"

"It is a possibility." Athos smirked.

We started to spar again, too soon for my liking.