I'm sorry this chapter is so short, but I don't have that much time at the moment. Hope you still enjoy it.
A few hours before…
It was comfortably warm in the small room the three shared, as the sun shone through the lonely window and heated up the stone walls. Aramis was still asleep, as he had been for most of the time. And Athos and Constance had become more and more nervous with each hours passing. Neither Treville nor Porthos or d'Artagnan had arrived yet. At least Porthos should have reached them already. Something was not right, Athos concluded. Having enough with sitting around, waiting and being a nursemaid he stood up from the chair he had occupied since yesterday evening.
"I'm going to find them." He announced into the oppressing silence, grabbing his weapon belt and pistol as Constance turned away from Aramis to face Athos with open concern on her face.
"Alone?"
Athos shrugged as he closed the belt around his waist. "Aramis is in no state to come with me. And I won't leave him behind all alone."
Constance sighed. She knew that Athos was right. She knew as well as he did that something was wrong. And she was as worried as he was. D'Artagnan was still out there. Alone, searched, maybe hurt.
"Go." She assured, a tight smile on her lips that didn't reach her shiny eyes. "But come back." She added just as Athos strode through the door.
He stopped in his tracks, lowered his head in a silent promise and then closed the door after he had left the room.
Athos settled his horse and left as fast as possible. Deciding that Porthos should have been closest to Troyes, Athos took the path into his should-be-direction. While one hand was tangled into his reins, spurring his horse to run as fast as possible, his other hand never strayed too far away from his gun.
He had barely ridden for an hour as he came by a small battlefield. Once Athos recognized bodies laying lifelessly on the ground he dismounted and hid his horse in a small forest. Blade in one hand and pistol in the other one, he slowly creeped closer. Crouching behind a tree, he felt enough covered to take a closer look to the scene. Two men, Red Guards he noticed, laid on the grass, small puddles of blood around them. One of them had a dagger stucking out of his eye, the other one a deep head wound. He gulped, his eyes roaming over the scene. But there was no Porthos. But if Porthos had won the fight he would have been here or at Troyes. Had there been more Red Guards? They surely wouldn't have let their dead comrades behind if they had gotten Porthos captured.
So there must have something else happened to his friend to delay his return. Careful, Athos creeped to the dead bodies. After he made sure that he was truly alone, he searched their bodies in the hope to find a hint to where Porthos was. Nothing.
Athos sighed and rose back to his feet, scanning the area. There was the small forest where his horse waited and open fields to the other side. A lake separating both areas.
Searching for more traces, Athos soon found a few footprints close by the lake, indicating that there had been a fight. There was also a big amount of blood, leading towards the water. A sickening feeling made itself known in his stomach as he followed the blood. It ended once the lake began, confirming his speculation. Whoever had been injured here was taken with the raging lake. Could it have been Porthos?
Looking around one more time to make sure he really did not oversee anything or anyone, Athos returned to his horse and mounted up again. He lead it along the lake, slowly as to not miss any new traces. Maybe whoever had fallen into the waters and crawled out of them a while later. It was minutes later as he found a body, crumpled, bloody and almost beyond recognition. Only the red cape indicated that it had been a red guard. Looking closer he found the tip of a blade still impaled in the mans upper body. It must have been broken as he had been carried through the lake. Only a few feet farther there was the hilt of the sword. Porthos sword, Athos noticed.
But still, there was no sign of said man. He let the corpse behind, following the lake further downwards. But after seeing how mangled the Red Guard had been, he feared of what he may find of Porthos.