A/N: Thank you beeblegirl, Undertheoaktrees, pallysAramisRios, and SnidgetHex for reviewing!
Chapter 3
Athos rapidly paced a few steps back and forth in front of the seething mass of beetles covering the Louvre, wracking his brain for what to do. The dragons' attempts to dislodge the insects had so far been unsuccessful, and they couldn't risk more aggressive measures. Fire was out of the question, and they couldn't try clawing the beetles away without potentially breaking through a window or door and letting the insects inside. Athos could only hope they hadn't penetrated the palace interior already. Whether they'd been shut out or were simply in a holding pattern around the perimeter, the mass seemed to be holding steady where it was. Not that that helped them much.
Ninon stood back a few feet, clutching the clasp of her cloak beneath her chin, mouth pursed deeply. "I think I've read about something like this before."
Athos pulled up short and pivoted toward her. "What? Where?"
"I used to have an extensive library, remember? It was a text on Egypt, I think."
"What did it say?"
Her brow creased in thought for several long moments, but then she shook her head. "I can't remember. I'm sure I've come across a description of…this, though," she said, gesturing at the bizarre sight.
Athos started to scowl in frustration, but then straightened sharply. "Your library is still at your old house."
She arched a surprised brow at him.
"The Queen kept it open for your students after your disappearance, though it's since been left abandoned after the start of the war. But the books should all still be there—"
Ninon surged into action. "We can only hope."
Athos turned and whistled for Savron. The blue dragon backed away from the palace and shuffled over quickly. "This will be faster," Athos said, reaching for Ninon's hand.
She took it and climbed up into the saddle. All the Musketeer dragons had them on for guard duty, just in case of emergencies. Athos swung up behind her and slipped an arm around her waist, holding tight as Savron launched into the sky.
The flight to Ninon's old house was indeed quick, and within a few minutes they were landing in the empty yard out front. What once had bustled with activity now lay dormant and neglected. A lot of the house had been ransacked by the Cardinal, who had confiscated Ninon's wealth in the name of France's treasury. The library, though, had been rescued by the Queen, and after Richelieu's death, there shouldn't have been anyone left who cared to raid it. Or so Athos hoped as they pushed the front door open and ventured inside.
The air was musty, everything from the floor to the walls covered in a pasty layer of dust. Ninon made a beeline straight to the library where all her troubles had begun. The books were still there, shrouded in the same years' worth of dust and cobwebs.
"The section on Egyptian texts is over here," she said, crossing the room toward one of the many bookcases built into the circular walls.
Athos followed, and they began pulling tomes off the shelves. Dust billowed up at their disturbance, making them both cough.
"How many books on Egypt do you have here?" he asked dubiously, scanning the spines and noticing far too many strange titles. He didn't even know what they were supposed to be looking for. A book on Egyptian entomology?
Ninon shot him a wry look, then sobered. "Quite a few." She flipped open the tome in her hand, sneezing as dust puffed up in her face.
Athos opened the book he was holding, but a quick skim of its pages showed it was focused on Egyptian mythological deities. He slammed the volume shut and set it down. "Do you have any texts on magic?"
Ninon quirked a brow. "Uh, yes." She waved him toward another section. "But I don't think that's quite what we're dealing with."
"They certainly aren't normal," he replied, heading toward another set of shelves. He shouldn't have been surprised that Ninon would have had books on magic in her possession, even back before she'd been accused of witchcraft. To her, knowledge of everything, even the most arcane subjects, was valuable.
And if they found something to help them, Athos would never doubt such sentiment again.
They fell into silence as they threw themselves into the search, poring over book after book. Athos felt the pressure of time compressing against his chest. They had no idea if the people inside the palace were all right, or what the beetles might even be doing now. Or who was behind it and what it was meant to accomplish. If they didn't find something soon, he might get desperate enough to have the dragons start spewing fire at the beetles and hope they had enough refroidi on hand to put out the flames before the entire palace burned down.
"I found it!" Ninon eventually yelled.
Athos dropped the book he was reading and strode back over to her.
"I remembered correctly," she went on excitedly. "The beetles aren't magic, not exactly. They're the creation of an alchemist from the twelfth century." She tracked her finger across the page as she summarized its contents. "They were a weapon of terror and destruction and were controlled by an artifact that somehow stimulated the beetles into certain behavioral patterns."
Athos just looked at her blankly.
Ninon turned the book around to show him a picture of a cube box with notches all along the sides, some with crystal rods inserted into them.
"That's what controls them?" he asked skeptically.
"Yes. Something about harmonics that only the beetles can hear. If we find this artifact, we can stop them. Theoretically," she added with a grimace.
"Could it control them from Magnier's house? Or do we need to look closer to the palace?"
Ninon skimmed over the page again. "No, I don't think distance is a factor, not a great distance anyway. If Magnier is behind this, it could very well be there."
Athos nodded and turned for the door. He was going to find out if that was the case, and he wasn't going to ask nicely.
.o.0.o.
Porthos sprinted down the stairs to the lower level, throwing harried glances at every single window covered in the crawling beetles. So far he hadn't passed one that wasn't. He ran into d'Artagnan and Constance outside the throne room.
"I think we've shored up all the possible places the bugs can get in," d'Artagnan said breathlessly. "What about upstairs?"
"They're workin' on it," Porthos replied, equally distressed over this. "What the hell is goin' on?"
"We don't know." D'Artagnan looked at the windows and grimaced. "I'd say some kind of magical attack."
Porthos couldn't suppress a shudder and muttered, "I hate witches."
"Witches?" Louis's voice bleated behind him, and they all turned in alarm to see the King stumbling toward them. He was ghastly pale, and his bloodshot eyes kept darting around wildly. "Where are the dragons?" he shrilled.
"Can't see them through the bugs," d'Artagnan pointed out, his mouth pressing into a tight line. "We have no idea if they've been attacked."
Porthos's stomach did a flip at the thought.
"Why aren't they doing something about this?" Louis continued to shriek. "Burn these things!"
"Your Majesty, they can't set the palace on fire," Constance pointed out.
"They have to do something!" He spun in place, nearly toppling himself in the process.
"Your Majesty, please," Porthos said, reaching out to give him a steadying hand. "We should get you away from the windows."
"Find a room without a fireplace," d'Artagnan said in his ear.
Porthos cringed in disgust at that.
"Madame d'Artagnan!" a Musketeer cadet called, hurrying over to them. "We can't find the Queen, Aramis, or the Dauphin anywhere in the palace."
Porthos's brows shot upward. "What?"
Louis jerked ramrod straight. "My son is missing?"
The musketeers and Constance exchanged alarmed looks.
"The Dauphin wasn't with the Queen," Constance said.
"Maybe she went to get him and Aramis went with her," d'Artagnan hypothesized.
"And then went where?" she rejoined.
Porthos cast a look at the King before lowering his voice. "You think they could've gone outside?"
D'Artagnan shook his head. "Aramis wouldn't do that, not right now."
Louis grabbed hold of Porthos's sleeve urgently. "You must find my son! You- must…" A guttural cough punched its way up from his chest and he doubled over.
"Your Majesty!" Porthos gripped his arm and guided him into the nearest room where there was a chair. "Someone fetch Doctor Delacroix!" he ordered.
Louis clawed at his doublet. "Find…my son."
Porthos looked up at d'Artagnan and Constance, both of their expressions grim. They'd like nothing more than to find the Dauphin, Queen, and Aramis, but they couldn't exactly leave the palace right now.
Porthos wondered if that was the point—trap them all inside so whoever was behind it could get to the Queen and the Dauphin. He looked over at the crawling beetles that weren't only keeping them locked in here, but also preventing them from seeing what was happening outside. They were blind, trapped, and utterly helpless.
.o.0.o.
Little Louis was making fussy noises, and despite Anne's attempts to soothe him, he wouldn't settle. Aramis was tense, worried that it would draw the attention of the men somewhere in these woods looking for them.
"Shh, please," Anne begged softly, voice breaking as she shushed and rocked her son. His cries only grew louder.
Aramis holstered his pistol and turned toward her. "May I?"
She blinked, then passed the baby over. He kicked and wailed against Aramis's arms encircling his tiny body. Aramis tried singing to him, the same lullaby that had soothed him in the steam room when he'd been ill. The tune came out a bit haggard and rushed in his urgency and didn't have the same effect as it had then.
"He must be hungry or wet," Anne said. She looked at Aramis helplessly. "What are we going to do?"
He didn't immediately answer. The truth was he didn't know what to do beyond the simple evade and protect. Returning to the palace could be dangerous, given those bugs that had swarmed them in concert with the attempted kidnapping. The palace could still be covered in them, for all they knew, so they wouldn't find safety there. They couldn't risk going into the city or refugee camp where the Queen would be recognized, not that they could circle all the way around back that direction anyway. Aramis had no idea how many men would be scouring the woods for them.
He wished Rhaego was with them, but his dragon had been overwhelmed in the beetle attack and hadn't been in any position to notice their flight into the forest.
Anne's expression pinched in distress at Aramis's silence.
Then a twig snapped.
He had only a split second to thrust the Dauphin back into the Queen's arms and draw his sword, whirling as three men rounded one of the crumbling stone walls and charged into the ruins. Aramis threw his blade up to block the first blow, locking the swords at the hilt and using his body weight to propel the man back into the other two. It bought him an extra second to draw his pistol and shoot one of them before they could get back up. He then tossed the gun up to grab its barrel and clobbered the next man in the face with the butt. The heat from the recently fired pistol was just radiating through his glove when he dropped the weapon and swung his sword with everything he had. Driving his opponent back against the wall, he managed to disarm the man and then run him through.
"Aramis!" Anne screamed.
He spun and whipped out his second pistol to find the man he'd shot had gotten up and had been aiming a pistol at his back. Aramis dropped into a crouch and pulled the trigger at the same time he did, but the other man's reflexes had been too slow and his aim was still up for when Aramis had been standing. Aramis, however, didn't miss.
The man dropped for a second and final time, and Aramis quickly jogged over to the one he'd clobbered, killing him swiftly with a slice across the throat. When he stood back up, Anne had covered her son's face and turned hers away. Aramis grimaced at the bloodshed, however necessary.
"We have to keep moving," he said, retrieving his weapons.
Anne merely nodded shakily.
Aramis paused to consider their predicament, then wrestled his blue sash off. "Here," he said, draping it across her chest, over her shoulder, and under the other. He tied the two ends securely at her back, then gestured for her to hand him the Dauphin so he could settle the baby in the makeshift swaddling sling. It would make it easier to keep him secure if they were forced to run again.
Anne gave him a grateful look, which he returned with a sober one of his own. Then he ushered her out of the ruins and into the forest again. Their only option was to keep moving and hope help found them eventually.