Frollo had left for the stables for most of the day afterwards. As he stood near Ultio and petted her to reaffirm his role as a leader willing to pay her to do as he asked, she shoved her large nose at his crotch. "Stop that, bad horse!" he yelled. He should barely be conscious of that part of his anatomy; his horse definitely shouldn't be at all.
Ultio, worried that the human that she had allowed to be lead stallion had found a female to jump on while he should have been concerned with monitoring the rest of the herd, decided to investigate what was going on the best way she could. She was a boss mare and any male who was going to be above her was going to share the duty of leading and protecting the herd, not getting distracted and messing with female's behinds and it didn't matter what species he was. Soon she forgave him for his transgression, upon learning the circumstances. She didn't understand how humans worked that way and didn't care, but whatever human mare he'd been with had started it herself. He was a very good boss stallion indeed, even if he was tiny and scrawny and looked funny.
Ultio leaned forward and curled her neck and head around his in the equine equivalent of a hug. She apologized for thinking he was like all the pathetic males she'd known.
Claude sighed. "Women." Did all of Paris have to know?
"Uh, sir?" Phoebus asked behind him, tentatively entering the stables. Claude was glad the horse had moved its head. Considering the captain talked to his horse and expected an answer half the time, being hugged was hardly something Claude felt he should be embarrassed by. "Yes, what is it?" he asked, focusing on his horse and telling it he liked it better than the captain by doing so.
The horse approved and nickered happily and teasingly about it.
"There's some loud argument over at the hospice about that kid you had with you a while ago."
"Tell them it's perfectly fine, but that they're all too stupid to be handling it," Claude said. "and that I'm not going to go there unless I have to arrest one of them." Arresting Jacques would just be silly, arresting the gypsy would ruin his plans, but arresting the archdeacon might be fun. Besides, it was his dumb idea that led to this.
"Where are you going to be?" Phoebus asked.
"Somewhere else," Claude answered, grabbing Ultio's saddle. "And if I catch you or anyone else giving me strange looks, you are to walk Gaetan's horse around Paris s punishment."
……………….
"Quasimodo, I don't like this," Gaetan whispered as he slowly led her backwards. He had his hand over her eyes and his other one was leading her backwards. "It's too much like the Court of Miracles, please…"
"I'm right next to you," he said. "Here." He lifted his hand from her face, but kept hold of her hand.
They were standing under the bells, the largest one there was, in fact, Big Marie. The bell was so tall that the top of the cone vanished into shadow like the ceilings in the rest of the church. It was so massive the air around them smelled of iron. At first, Gaetan felt the thing was a giant cage or a mouth reaching out to them and cringed against Quasimodo, but her curiosity slowly overcame that idea. How could such a massive thing be made out of a solid piece of metal? How did it get here? How did it stay up purely by a rope? There was no mystery to the windows depicting saints or the tall carved arches or the millions of statues glued to the side of the cathedral. No Devil-magic could have shaped this secluded part of Notre Dame like this. It was nothing more than an inconceivable amount of metal suspended in an infinite amount of air. The size was overwhelming. How could it be moved by mere human hands? Of course, only someone who had lived his whole life beneath the grace of a monument to the Holy Virgin could wield it to make it call out to all of Paris.
"See, they won't hurt you," he said, his voice echoing, seemingly spiraling up into the nothingness at the top of the bell. He sat down on the criss-crossing beams, careful of where there were none. "They're my best friends—besides you, of course."
"You really love the bells, don't you?" she asked, carefully sitting down with him, dangling her feet over one of the beams. He could see something alive in the cold vessels of metal and emptiness that she couldn't. She could see the magnificence of them, but they were still lifeless objects.
"Frollo gave me permission to ring them every day on my birthday. I mean, he asked the archdeacon of course but… it's like they're a present from him," he said. "When I was very young, he told me they were what angels sounded like. I still believe that. Except her." He pointed straight up. "She must be what God sounds like."
Gaetan look up and wondered what that particular bell sounded like. She'd never paid attention to the bells before, even after meeting him, but just like everyone in Paris, they were part of life and when they went silent, it was a bad omen. That was what she'd come here for. Not the bells in particular, but some sort of sign that there was no danger in revealing her secrets, and signs only came from God. "No wonder I couldn't hear them down in the Court of Miracles."
"Then it's time you did," he said. He picked her up off the beam she sat on and set her down on the solid floor away from the bell. She couldn't be underneath the bells with them swinging around. But then, he remembered that Frollo, as much as he liked to hear the bells, liked to hear them from a distance. "You should stand back."
Gaetan stood behind the ladder as Quasimodo rang the bells. But it was more than just the sound of unfeeling metal striking more cold metal. He could make the bells sing. The bells were more than just music. They were power. It was the voice of God and Gaetan thought of everyone who had made it possible to hear him again and for the first time in her life, even if she never went back to any of it, even if it was ripped away again at that moment, she felt truly blessed.
………………….
Claude himself had been looking for a sign. He had to leave his two dogs to each other long enough for them to settle down, but he couldn't have Gaetan thinking she could avoid telling him. Everything she knew belonged to him. His pets were not to have secrets of their own. He owned them. He kept their souls safe by teaching them what was proper and who to avoid. He owned their bodies and they were his to throw at his enemies when and how he wanted. He most certainly owned their minds or he'd have found ones without them.
The bells were his signal to return to the Cathedral. It was time to find out exactly what she knew and use it to his advantage. Paris was his city to protect and watch over and now he'd know the last and darkest of its secrets.
………………
Gaetan and Quasimodo were sitting on the railing of the balcony that overlooked Paris. To them, there was nothing different about it. They could see no missing gypsies, or even the only two that were about in the city. They could see Frollo approaching, but they could not see how his arrival would change the city. They could not see the Court of Miracles or even how he'd find it from what she knew of it.
Gaetan turned to get up, but Quasimodo put his hand on her shoulder and stopped her. So long as Frollo could find him, Quasimodo could be where he wanted while in the bell tower when his master arrived. Often, Frollo would surprise him by sneaking up on him, but the boy was sure those times were all just coincidental.
"Gaetan, you remember your promise, do you not?" Claude asked behind them soon enough.
She turned around on the railing. For some reason she'd been more afraid of the bells than of falling off the church, even while Quasimodo taught her how to climb. "But I don't know where the Court of Miracles is," she said. "I really don't."
"You know far more than you think," Claude said, bending down to touch her cheek just slightly with his middle finger. "Do not tell me what you don't know; tell me what you do know. For instance, what about that man with the frightening puppets? Something disturbed you about him last night talking with Esmeralda. What is it about him that unnerved you so?"
"But you said you'd set him free," she whispered.
"And I did," Claude said, kneeling in front of her. "But I also know about him and your mother. As much as it must hurt you to know this, she is in the Palace of Justice. The night you were found she attacked your dear friend Quasimodo. If it were not for my soldiers, he would have died on the streets. I'm sure she only meant to protect you, but don't you see what that gypsy has done? He's sent your mother to jail and nearly killed your only friend. You said he was an innocent gypsy and I believed you. Whatever else you tell me about him I will believe as well. Is he in some sort of danger? Is he worried for someone else, perhaps?"
Gaetan just blinked at him, wondering just what to say. She opened her mouth, but a tiny strangled squeak was all that came out.
"You can tell me," Claude said. "He is not one of those awful people who attacked you, is he?"
"No!" she suddenly cried. "No, he saved me from… he… He was nice to me. None of this was his fault. He told them all to stay away from me, but half of them wouldn't listen!"
Frollo's hand fell away in shock.
Quasimodo took hold of Gaetan's arm tightly. He had learned the virtue of silence around his master and reminded himself of it when he heard of the woman in the alley being Gaetan's mother. He wanted to calm his master as he saw Frollo's brows furrowing, but knew it was impossible for anyone to do so. Instead he decided to be an anchor in case Frollo or Gaetan, who was trying to pull away from him, forgot where she was sitting.
"You mean to tell me you have met the leader of the gypsies?" Claude screamed, rising to his feet. Surprisingly, that was as long as his anger lasted. He wondered if the gypsies were far more effective than he thought and actually had tortured her into submission or if he had intimidated her too much with his stories.
Gaetan nodded and swallowed audibly. "But half of them are too angry with him to listen. They're afraid of him, but… They were the ones who grabbed me. They wanted to kill me, but he wouldn't let them. They… They thought he wasn't looking and… they said awful things about you… they said you… they said you did the same things that they were going to do. He saved me, master. He saved me from them and he brought me back. He tried to bring me to my mother. He can tell you where the Court of Miracles is, but he is innocent."
"You must have been concerned for her safety, knowing the danger that man posed to her," he said, pretending to brush away his anger with newfound understanding.
"I was worried for you, master," she said. "I thought that if you knew while he was in jail, Esmeralda would go after you. I thought that if she could trust you I could protect you from her."
Claude smiled. One of his dogs had dug up his tulips to give it to him as a gift at the dinner table. Well, it was a well-intentioned present and he did have the flower by the roots. "You do not need to protect me from Esmeralda, Gaetan. Good boy," he said, placing his hand on her head and petting her ruffled hair. He turned to Quasimodo to do the same. "I am so very glad you two are such good friends." He did not want to know what Hell he would have to deal with if they hadn't. "Gaetan, you are to stay here until I return."
He left his dogs alone. They had their own yard to dig up.
………………..
Clopin grumbled as he did what he could to fix up his puppet stand. He'd need money to fix the broken wheel and the roof. Why did so many problems of his require money? He'd sold his own gold earrings and used old brass ones instead to afford to give Prince his little ones and he still needed more. Why, of all people, did Frollo want money? Sure it was a more cheerful alternative to paying in blood, but he had blood on him. Money was a lot more difficult. Considering all the trouble that man gave him, he wouldn't be surprised if Frollo had let loose another horse in the city which had caused the damage the cart.
"Clopin?" he heard someone exclaim behind him.
He turned around and saw the last person he expected to find, and the best person to find in his opinion. "Esmeralda?" He leapt over the ledge and embraced her, happy to feel her arms around him. "You're alive!" he yelled happily, holding her by the shoulders to make sure he wasn't mistaken, despite her hug. "You're alive? Why are you alive?"
"He got his apprentice back, Clopin—" Esmeralda tried to explain.
"Oh good, you can stop trying to going out with him now," Clopin said happily.
"Clopin, will you listen to me?" Esmeralda asked. "I married him—"
"I know that technically puts a stop to going out with him but that's not what I meant… wait, you mean as in past tense?" Clopin shrieked. "How could you?"
"Because he'd kill every single gypsy in Paris starting with you!" she explained.
Clopin stopped interrupting. Most likely it would start with Prince and Giselle, which would be worse.
"Clopin, listen. It's some sort of peace settlement. He'll leave us all alone if we leave him alone, but he'll kill us all if we go against him. Do you understand?"
"I understand that we're all doomed," he replied. "They're all a bunch of crazies, Esmeralda! Well, half are, the rest are just scared. I can't control them. I mean, I might be able to keep them down for a few days, but they'll probably just go out and do it all over again and I don't even know what all they did the first time."
"They abducted that poor boy!" Esmeralda said.
"Yes, well I know that… and the other details about the kid. I pulled the damn guy off of… him. I meant how'd they get the kid away from him without Frollo following?"
"He was distracted," Esmeralda grumbled. Why did everyone have to make this look like it was her fault?
"What did you do, take your top off?"
"Hey, they shot at me too!" Esmeralda shot back.
"What are you talking about? Who shot at you? You and who?" Clopin asked, gesturing wildly with his hands. "Never mind, I think I just figured it out. Just tell me he didn't follow up on that promise of his about the kid…"
"He didn't," she said. She did… sort of.
"Oh, Esmeralda, it's my fault. As backwards as these people are, they still need a father's consent to marry his daughter. I signed you away in exchange to know how to take care of Prince and now he's got him and Giselle!" Clopin hung his head. Those horrible people were right about him. He was a bad leader and shouldn't be listened to.
"About Giselle," Esmeralda said, putting her hand on his shoulder. "You never told me she was a harlot!" Esmeralda shook him as hard as she could.
Clopin waited for her to stop shaking him and let go to explain. "It's not like she likes her job," he said, rubbing his neck. "And even if she did, we could've worked something out. I don't see what it has to do with anything anyway. She's still a great person and a lot better with our kids than me and she nearly killed hers…"
"She… wait, what?" Esmeralda asked.
"It's not may fault!" Clopin defended. "She had that kid years before I met her and the father ran off like a coward. Funny thing about the kid…"
"Clopin, I know about Gaetan," Esmeralda scoffed, crossing her arms.
"Gae—How—? …Right," Clopin mumbled. "This is all sorts of messed up. If you ever learn to write, draw me a chart or something."
"Clopin, why didn't you tell me?" Esmeralda asked. She really was trying to be concerned about him and everyone else.
"What, you couldn't tell she was a girl either; you wouldn't have been much help," he said. "Plus I was in enough trouble over Giselle. I was lucky they weren't going after her. I know four thousand people would be a lot better than one at finding a little girl on the streets, but I didn't trust what they'd do with her then and I don't trust them with anything now."
Esmeralda wanted to continue their conversation, but she was interrupted as someone grabbed Clopin and yanked him out of the puppet stand.
"Hey, you can't treat me like this!" he complained to several soldiers, who immediately thrust spears in his direction as a warning. "Then again, if you put it that way, you have a point."
Esmeralda spun around. Frollo was on another giant horse, this one looked like it wanted to give her attitude as well, with more soldiers behind him, all of them standing at attention. "Esmeralda, go home!" Claude ordered her.
Esmeralda stood where she was in shock. "What happened?" she asked meekly. She was allowed outside. All she was doing was talking. Surely none of that could have counted as breaking their pact. Had there been another attack? If so, why hadn't Clopin heard of it? Or was that how much he was losing control over everyone? What was going on?
"I said go home. Now!" he yelled.
Esmeralda ran down the street as fast as she could and didn't look back.
"But you said I was innocent!" Clopin complained. Why did all his attempts at helping others have to be suicidal these days?
"And you are," Claude said calmly, riding up closer to Clopin, but not disturbing the ring of soldiers. "But that woman you were so concerned with still isn't. I thought you might want to hear what will get her out of jail. I'm sure you can come up with it easily. Esmeralda must have told you about the truce between us. You have one day to show me where the Court of Miracles is or I have my men lawfully exterminate your lot wherever they stand for an act of aggression against our pact and your woman dies by crushing."
Clopin said nothing. He was too sunned to speak. Had he saved anyone in all this? Gaetane—Gaetan seemed well, although he hadn't seen her since the night of his arrest. Esmeralda was alive and unharmed, but she was married to Frollo. That had to be the worst torture there could be for a gypsy. Frollo practically owned Giselle and Prince as well now.
"All I want are those guilty of conspiracy against my apprentice," Claude said. He wondered if he'd managed to overwhelm the gypsy and he was temporarily catatonic. He'd pushed people too far with torture in his early years and that had set interrogations back days. He sighed. "Do I make myself clear?"
Clopin nodded.
"Good." Frollo waved to his soldiers and they lowered his weapons and backed away. "However, if I even suspect you're up to one of your gypsy tricks, you will never see that baby again." He waved his soldiers to leave and rode off.
Clopin slumped against his puppet stand and slid to the ground.
After everything he'd done for everyone, all he had to show for it were brass earrings and a smelly hat with mystery stains everywhere. No money, no family, no luck, no friends… now Frollo wanted to steal his people away? They were all he had. He was all they had. He couldn't give them up, no matter what.
Could he send every single one of them, men women and children, the good and the bad to the gallows or the press or the stake? He wouldn't have it anyway, but did that mean he could just throw it all away?
How could he question Esmeralda like that? She came to him as the only person who'd give her a chance after what she'd done. This truce must be public for Frollo to be throwing it around and all marriages were announced to the city. Everyone must know by know that she'd married the enemy and consequently she'd been banished from the court. She knew this would happen and she married him anyway to protect them.
Right now, dying for what was right seemed so much easier than living for it.
"I don't have a choice, do I?" he asked himself.
The loud peal of the evening bells rang through the purple air.
"Shut up, I wasn't talking to you."
