Disclaimer: Not mine.
"Wyatt?" She had been trying to catch up with him as he breezed through the corridors. He was usually nice enough to slow down for her while they walked together but not today. His legs were significantly longer than hers and it gave him an advantage in the sudden speed walking contest he seemed so intent on. She grabbed at him as they turned a corner. She managed to latch onto his sleeve and was dragged around as he pivoted, her free arm pin wheeling as her feet tried to stay under her. The tin man twisted his arm without blinking an eye and caught her around the middle before she could fall flat on her face. He steadied her as they moved forward. She spoke as she caught her balance. "Are you going to tell me why I'm chasing you down the hall?"
"If you were chasing me I would already be gone."
"Okay, ninja Cain."
"What's a ninja?" He asked as they started up a flight of stairs.
Scrambling up as fast as she could she grumbled. "A secrete and noble assassin of the night."
"No such thing as a noble assassin."
"Have you ever met a ninja?"
"Since I didn't know what that is I'm guessin' no."
"Then how do you know?"
"Nothin' noble about killin'. Sometimes it's a necessity. There isn't anything decent about it."
She sighed at his lack of openness on the subject of super cool ninjas even as she mentally applauded his thought process. "I can see we're getting off subject."
"Deeg, you can't stay on one when you try."
"Beside the point!"
"I hadn't realized you had one." They turned one last corner and she spotted his office in the distance. She really hoped he stopped moving once they got there. The dash had made her realize how out of shape she was. She needed to start running, or sparring with Glitch again, either or.
"I'll reiterate."
"You do that." He pulled his key out of his pocket and spun it around his hand as they got closer.
"What are we doing?"
"You gave me an idea."
"I noticed." He waved two guards away as they approached and the men saluted smartly before moving past them toward the stairs, his office was at the back of the long corridor. She had a feeling he often chased the palace guards away while he was working. Cain was so paranoid she would have been suspicious if he hadn't gotten everyone out of earshot. How crazy was that? Her being suspicious of him not being suspicious? That was messed up. So was being comforted that he was inherently and utterly distrustful of nearly every person on this and the other side of the rainbow. It also made her feel all warm and content that he did trust her. "What might that idea be pray tell?"
He unlocked the door and held it for her politely. She walked in and he shut and locked it behind them. She let her eyes scan the room briefly as she looked for anything that had been changed since she'd been here a few days ago and didn't see anything but a slightly shorter stack of papers sitting inside his in box. He went to a drawer and began shuffling around. "I think you're right."
"I usually am." She agreed cheerfully as she hopped up and sat on the edge of his desk. It always bothered him when she did that. Not that he ever showed it. But every time she sat on the edge idly swinging her legs his eyes would dart from her to the chair sitting across the expanse of wood, as if staring at the two of them hard enough would somehow float her over to it and keep her there. At some point it had turned into a game for her, as most things did. She wondered how long it would take him to simply ask her to sit in the seat. As soon as he did she would, but until then she thought she could hang out right where she was.
He shot her an amused look. "Sure you are."
She grinned cheekily. "What was I right about?"
"Overwhelmin' Vy-sor."
She had no idea what he was talking about. "That!" She snapped her fingers. "Of course. Overwhelming the bad guy. It was a brilliant idea in all respects. Let's go over it so I'm sure you have all the details right. Don't need any miscommunication. Could ruin my entire amazing, bad guy stopping plan of awesome."
He chuckled at her, totally aware she was lost, as he pulled a map out and stepped toward her. He pecked her on the lips and unrolled the sheet of paper. She twisted so she could see it and he sent her a calculating smile. "Do you know what's more terrifyin' than two powerful and magical princess?"
"You before you've had coffee?"
His lip twitched. "Three powerful and magical princess." His eyes glittered. "Or maybe four or five."
She saw what he was getting at. "You want me to make copies of myself?"
"And set them up in the right places to lure him out." The tin man indicated the map. It depicted central city and the surrounding area. His eyes were darting from place to place as he started to plan a strategy. She was sure he was working out where the best place to have Vy-sor ambushed would be. "He won't be able to resist gettin' at you." She could tell he was as close to maniacal giggling as he was ever going to get. "We'll inundate him with princess." The thought clearly brought him great joy as he pictured it. She had no doubt images of six DG's leaping crazily at the hapless man was almost too much for him to entertain.
Her forehead crinkled as she thought about that. "Wyatt…" She so hated to admit when she couldn't do something. Especially when he so rarely asked her to do anything. "I don't know if I can do that."
"Why?" He wasn't about to give up on this idea until he had all the facts straight.
She waved her hand slightly. "Making one copy is about as much delicacy as I can manage."
His forehead crinkled. "Delicacy?"
"I'm not sure if Az could do that either." She was seriously considering what this would take.
"You have more magic than you're sister."
She wasn't surprised he noticed that. Still, he didn't know as much about magic as she did. Not anymore. She had been studying hard. "It's not about the amount of magic. I'm a heavy hitter. I can't do things like that."
He eyed her. He wasn't putting together her small frame with the term 'heavy hitter'. "You lost me, Kid. What's the difference between the two of you?"
"What's the difference between you fighting and Glitch fighting? He turns into a dancer of doom and you dive in and clock a guy across the jaw." She mimicked one of his harsh punches with ease. He'd showed her a few things before sending her off to Glitch for training. He'd told her his type of fighting would be better for her. "In terms of magic I'm you and Az is Glitch. I can pack a wallop but I've got no finesse at all."
"You're saying I don't have finesse?"
She grinned at him and tugged him down by the edge of his collar so she could kiss him. When she pulled back she was smiling playfully. "Well… not in a fight."
His eyes flared with heat at the innuendo. "Flattery will get you nowhere, Princess."
"I disagree. I think with you it'll get me farther than you'll admit." She kissed him again and he relaxed into her for a moment before reluctantly pulling away.
"Deeg, I think this could work. Is there any way you could make this happen?"
"Maybe if Az and I work together. We were always stronger together." She rolled her shoulders. It always helped her do magic when she was stretched out. Even the thought of such a strong spell had her trying to loosen up. "You know I'll try but I can't guarantee this'll work. Even if we can get two or three illusions going at once I don't know how long we can keep them together before they disintegrate."
He cupped her face and smiled. "I know you can do this. If we plan it right you won't need to keep them goin' for long. An hour or two at most."
His confidence in her made her more sure about this. "Then we'll make it work. Even if it gives Toto an aneurism. He can't stand it when I improvise."
"The mutt lacks imagination." He said. He rarely had anything good to say about the man. More often than not he was simply silent on the subject of her teacher. She knew that wasn't a positive response for him. It was simply as tactful as Cain could be.
"Why don't you like Toto?" She asked curiously.
"I never said I didn't like Tutor."
She wasn't convinced. She might not be as good at reading people as he was but she could read him. "Wyatt?"
"He could have gotten us killed. He could have gotten you killed."
"That was years ago. Besides, he was trying to help, buying us time."
"So he says." The tin man had gone serious and she could sense the anger he was keeping under tight control. "But he could have told us. He could have warned us. He could have done something else entirely. Instead he decided to play both sides. If we'd been caught he would have most likely been freed. If we killed the witch he would be put back in a comfortable position with the reinstated queen. He didn't pick a side until I took the choice away from him."
"You don't trust him."
"Not at all."
"Do you hate him?"
His thumb ran over her cheek. "I still don't think you understand what you meant when you came back. You were hope, Deeg. You were the only hope anyone in the Outer Zone had in over a decade. A dead princess come back to life. Maybe the only one in the world with enough magic to stop the witch and set us free again. You were it. You were all we had. The only thing between us and an eternity of darkness and he would have traded you away to save his own skin. It wouldn't have just been us to suffer if the witch caught us. It would have been everyone."
She watched him quietly. She rarely considered what coming back here meant. She was either too busy with life or the thought was simply too overwhelming for her to deal with. She chose not to deal with it now either. Instead she focused on what Cain was and wasn't saying. "Why didn't you kill him? When we were in the forest and you found the disks? Why didn't you?"
"You told me not too." He answered simply.
"I didn't understand what was happening. You knew that. Why did you listen?"
He sighed before he answered. "You won't like my answer." She looked up at him, waiting. He gave into her silent prompt. "It was an order from my princess."
She turned her head away. She didn't know what she was feeling. Whatever it was it wasn't good. "I've never given you an order."
"Kid-" Catching the other side of her face he turned her head back as he crouched down in front of her. "-you know what I was like that first week. I wasn't…" He took a breath. "I wasn't stable. I could barely control myself. You were the only thing that was keepin' me from goin' on a rampage. When I caught Toto I didn't know Jeb was alive. All I knew was that my family was dead, the man that killed them was still alive, he was after us, I had been locked up for years, and you were the one that let me out. I don't know why you kept me sane. I don't know if it was your magic, or if you were the one that let me out, or if it was because you were a princess, or if it was because you were my friend. Maybe it was all of it tangled together. I don't know why."
"It wasn't supposed to be an order." She was seriously upset that he thought that. They were supposed to be equal. That was how it was. He was different than everyone else. Different than everyone else that thought she was some sort of magical saint sent from heaven. He knew who she really was. He knew she was klutzy and had horrible fashion sense. He knew she often cursed like a drunken sailor when she was frustrated and they were alone. He knew she had nightmares but wouldn't admit it. He knew how scared she was sometimes and never made her feel bad about it. He'd seen her drunk off her ass and with her head in a toilet. She didn't give orders to this man.
"I know it wasn't, Darlin'." He started stroking her face gently, affectionately. "But I couldn't tell up from down then. You told me not to hurt him so I didn't. At the time I told myself I was doin' my duty. I'd picked my side and it was you. You were my princess." There was emotion in his eyes she couldn't understand. "Of all the people you could have trusted I knew you'd picked me first. Even then. You put your faith in me. I'm not sure you can understand what that really meant to me." His fingers began to wind through her hair. "You were trustin' me to keep you safe but you were trustin' me to do what you thought was right. For me lettin' him live was the foolish thing. To you it was the only thing. If I hadn't listened it would have ended any trust we had between us. Your trust was all I had. I couldn't-" She saw him struggling. "-I couldn't admit that to myself. So I told myself it was an order. I let it be one. I couldn't handle it bein' anything else. Not then."
The knot in her stomach loosened a little. "Okay."
"I know you don't like that answer. I don't want you angry."
"I'm not angry. I understand what you're telling me. I just… I don't like the idea of you taking orders from me. It's not like that with us."
"I know." He leaned in a little cautiously and kissed her when she didn't pull away. "It's not. You're my anchor, Deeg. At the time I needed you to be the princess and nothin' else like you needed me to be a tin man and nothin' else."
"You were never just a tin man to me."
He nodded seriously. "It took me longer to catch up to you."
"It wasn't a race, Wyatt." They relaxed back into each other. She reached out and played with his shirt cuff. "I wasn't ready when we met either. I would have panicked if this started sooner than it did. You weren't the only one that needed time."
His hand slid fully into her hair. She leaned forward as he moved in and within seconds they were pressed against one another with their mouths locked. The tin man tugged her closer and she wrapped her legs around his waist and was reaching up toward the buttons on his shirt when he broke away. "Wait a second."
This man lacked a serious sense of fun. "Come on." She tugged him back. "We can be quiet. You locked the door. You know you want to be naughty."
He wasn't listening. "Do you hear that?"
She leaned back and listened. "I don't hear anything."
He put a finger on her lips and started looking around the office. He was frowning in confusion even as he caught her around the waist and set her on the floor. He gave her a gentle shove toward the door. "Go. Whatever it is doesn't belong in here."
The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she followed his direction. She knew better than to question Cain when he was nervous about something. He was right behind her and when they were next to the door she heard it to. "It's ticking." Like the clock in his living room. "Did you get a clock?"
"No."
"What else would be ticking-" She reached out to grab the door handle and the tin man grabbed her arm so hard and fast she was sure she was going to bruise. He yanked her backward and she stumbled into his chest.
"Don't!"
"What's the matter?"
"The damn door's been booby trapped!" She looked at it more closely and on the bottom hinge she saw a thin black wire.
She backed up farther as her stomach dropped. "What's it about to do?"
"I have no idea." His voice was tight with fear as he threw her behind him. "But we can't get out of here without it goin' off."
She eyed the door warily and then she noticed something else. Cold fear hit her. "The ticking is getting faster."
"It's on a timer. It must have activated when I locked the door." He was gripping at her hard. "Window!"
"We're eight stories up!"
"I don't see any other option!"
"Are you serious? I'm not hanging off any more buildings! Once was enough!" Spinning him around she threw her arms around him and closed her eyes. "Hold on to me!"
His arms clamped around her. "What are-"
She teleported them out of the room before he could finish the question. Her jumping trick was usually a lot smoother but she'd never dragged another person along with her before. She wasn't even sure she was supposed to be able to do that, but desperate times called for desperate measures. A strange sort of painfully cold wind tore at them for several moments as they were suspended in darkness and then they blinked back into existence on the other side of the door. They crashed to the ground in a painful heap. She let out a shout as her hip hit the hard tile even as Wyatt grabbed her and hauled her up. The two guards jumped at their appearance and he yelled at them. "Run!"
He hurled her to her feet and they both took off toward the stairs. The two guards were a pace or two ahead of them as they ran, Wyatt herding her in front of him. The four of them hadn't made it more than ten feet when there was a massive explosion behind them. It rocked the building and she turned her head in time to see a massive ball of fire billowing out toward them. Reacting on instinct she spun around the tin man in a single fluid move and raised her hand in the second she had before they were overwhelmed by heat.
She flared pure white as her magic erupted out of her. The shockwave hit her light and a second explosion folded in on the first as she forced it back. The walls around them began to crack from the strain as the energy tried to find any way to escape and she threw her other arm up in an effort to maintain the undefined magic she had hurled out. A non-specific spell was nearly impossible to control once it had been let loose but if this one escaped her control they were all going to die. Gritting her teeth she planted her feet and pushed forward physically and magically. Below her the floor let out a groan from the strain of it. The tile began to fracture and she hoped like hell that the energy didn't break into another level of the palace. Sweat erupted on her forehead from the strain and she felt the magic slipping around alarmingly as fire continued to roll against the wall of white magic that she'd created.
Knowing she couldn't hold it much longer she let out a second wave of energy, all the magic she possessed, and hurled it forward. It melded with the shield, giving it more of a purpose, and crashed into the fire. For a horrible second nothing happened. Then all at once her magic won out over the fire and flew forward, smothering the flames as it went. The light filled the hall and raced to the other end. There wasn't a chance to congratulate her quick thinking because her magic crashed into the end of the hall and through Cain's office before it ricocheted back. She hadn't thought to tell it to stop when it was done. Now the magic was going to keep going until it ran out of steam, extinguished every fire in a ten mile radius, or she stopped it. If she hadn't programmed the thing for destruction she would have let it go. The problem was it would most likely injure anyone near a fire. "Crap!" She shouted as she took a step forward and flared her palms open.
The magic slammed into her and she did her best to absorb it back. It mostly worked. She got the magic to stop but it threw her back like a shot out of a sling. She was flung past Wyatt and both guards and slammed into the tile on her back with enough force to knock all the air out of her lungs. She slid backward to the edge of the stairs and then tumbled head over heels down them. She heard Cain shout in fear as she bounced and when she hit a landing and was finally stopped by another wall she lay there on her stomach, crumpled up and stunned. That had hurt like a mother. And she still couldn't draw air into her lungs.
The tin man was down the stairs and next to her in moments and he turned her carefully onto her back. "Deeg? Sweetheart? Are you all right?"
She forced a small amount of air in at last. Looking up at him she wheezed. "Ow." He let out a short breath even as he started to look her over. She started to try to sit up and his hand settled over her shoulder to keep her down. "Stay still. Ozma knows what you may have scrambled in that." He turned his head and started to bark orders. "Go get Raw and the Consort! I want a full report on whatever the hell that was attached to the door in two hours and a full run down of what's been happenin' in this building by every guard on duty! Now!"
The two guards took off and he turned his attention back to her. "Where's it hurt?"
"Umm…" She thought about that seriously, then she wished she hadn't. "Everywhere but the top of my left ear."
"That was the craziest thing I've ever seen you do."
She was still wheezing. "I'll work on something crazier when the pain dulls to a low roar, kay?"
He stroked her face as worry settled over him. "You do that. Until then be still and focus on breathin'." Taking his advice she sent him a strained smile and let him keep watch over her. As his eyes scanned the area she decided she really needed an aspirin or something.
Author Note: Okay, another agent is looking at my book. I'm being cautiously optimistic. Send good thoughts toward me, or better yet the manuscript that is even now in the hands of the U.S. postal service.