Treize stared out across the plains that were currently covered in a vast, rolling fog, and fought the urge to be sick. Kings weren't supposed to be upset by something as simple as odd weather, even if he did know that this was very, very odd weather, and completely unnatural. He could feel it pressing against his mind, even here in the towers of his castle, which was as far from it as it was possible to get.
The fog hadn't entered either the city or his castle yet, but he had no doubts that was because the fog wasn't supposed to come in, not because it couldn't. It was... it was somehow searching for something, and it knew that its quarry wasn't here, so they were left alone. But it's very existence grated on his nerves, because he could feel the constant pressure in his mind, shouting how unnatural it was to the entire world, if they could only hear it. Even normal humans were beginning to feel it, after almost two days of the stuff.
Then, as he gazed at the rolling fog, the pressure on his mind suddenly disappeared, and he gasped, almost stumbling. After two days of it, the cessation of the pushing was almost a physical sensation. The fog began to thin, and within twenty minutes it was completely gone. Treize felt a hint of panic begin to grip him. Either it found them or it gave up. It has to be the latter - they wouldn't fall so easily. After all these centuries, they couldn't.
"Sire!" shouted a messenger. "We've had word of strange occurrences in the forests! Right before the mist disappeared!" a messenger came running up the steps to the tower.
"Strange occurrences? What do you mean?"
"Well, sir... it seems... well, there are reports of..." suddenly the messenger was hesitant to give him information.
"Well... what is it?"
"Faeries, sir."
"The escaped prisoners?"
"No sir. They aren't... they're smaller..."
Treize suddenly realized what was bothering the man. "You can say it. It's all right. They're real faeries, aren't they?"
"Yes sir," the man said, looking relieved.
"What are they doing?"
"Just watching, for the most part, sir, but we've sent a couple of people up to the edge of the forests, and they can see lights inside. Like spell-casting, sir."
"Why would the faeries be spell-casting?" Treize asked, more himself than anyone else, but the messenger heard him.
"I don't know sir, but they're exhibiting this activity from one end of the kingdom to the other, and presumably outside the kingdom, as well. It all started at almost exactly the same time."
"So they're communicating, somehow, and something has set them off," Treize mused to himself, thinking over the little he knew about the actual faeries, not the human mages he'd captured before. There was no mention of them in the prophecies, but the prophecies couldn't tell him everything. As far as he knew, the faeries hadn't acted all together or in such an obvious manner in hundreds of years. It must be obvious if they were leaking enough energy for normal humans to see.
Treize was not a big believer in coincidences, and even if he had been, that they would start acting so strangely just when the prophecies started coming into effect was an awfully big coincidence. He cast one last glance down at the walls of his city, and at the plains beyond them, which were now clear of fog. He smiled indulgently as people streamed out of the city gates and into the fields, imagining that he could hear their joyous cries of relief, after being trapped in the city for two days with that evil stuff lurking outside.
They think it's over, but it's only just begun. He shook his head slightly and headed down to his library to see what he had on true faeries.
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Two nights later they left the faeries' home, or glen, as Duo called it. The faeries had repaired the chains of their necklaces that Duo had broken when he ripped them off their necks, and had added a second pendant to each of their necklaces, a perfectly round circular black stone. Quatre had examined them, and said that he could feel very powerful magic in them, but didn't know what it was. Duo, of course, had said that it was because that was faery magic, not human. The faeries had never quite gotten used to the presence of the humans, and were a little too eager in sending them off.
Some of the younglings accompanied them a few miles out of the glen, but left them long before they reached the edge of the woods. It didn't matter - Duo swore up and down on some god he called 'the Lady' that he knew the way out of the forest, and back to the road. With any luck they'd catch up with the circus caravan where the new detour met up with the old overgrown road. They probably wouldn't even have lost much time, because of the way that they could travel in the forest.
Trowa wasn't sure what he thought about all of this. He'd seen a lot of strange things in his life, but few of them matched what he'd seen on this short trip already. The power within him was growing - he could feel it - but what that meant he wasn't ready to ask yet.
After an hour or two of walking, they came to a river. It wasn't particularly wide, but it was fairly deep and running quite quickly. Without a word Trowa waded in and swam across, keeping a sharp eye on Catherine, who he knew was less than a great swimmer. She'd been holding up rather well, considering the circumstances, although he caught her staring at his ears from time to time, a frightened look on her face, and he'd seen the sigh of relief she gave when they put the pendants back on.
He was so focused on Catherine that he didn't realize until he got to the other side that Quatre wasn't with them. As they stood, dripping, on the bank, he was still standing on the far side, staring at the water with a helpless expression.
"Hey, Quatre! Come on over!" Duo shouted. It wasn't really necessary, the river wasn't that big. "The road's less than a mile from here!"
"I can't!" Quatre shouted back.
"Why not?"
"I can't swim!"
Duo snorted, grinning broadly. "How can that be? With all the traveling you've done, all the training... someone must have taught you how to swim!"
"I grew up in a desert!" Quatre snapped, sounding as if he was going to lose his temper for the first time since Trowa had met him. "I never learned how to swim, because there wasn't any water! Besides," he added sheepishly. "I'm afraid of the water."
Duo started chuckling under his breath, but he didn't make any more sarcastic comments as Quatre went back to staring mournfully at the water.
Without really thinking, Trowa reached for his power and directed it downward, into the ground. A sheet of rock shot out from his side of the bank, right below his feet, and stretched straight across the stream, plunging back into the earth right in front of Quatre's feet. "Come on over," he called, while Quatre stared at the bridge he'd just made, eyes wide as saucers.
Quatre stared at him, swallowed, and then took a hesitant step out onto the bridge, testing its strength with his full weight. When it didn't collapse, he took another step, then another, and then ran the rest of the way across the bridge, his face very pale. He heaved a great sigh of relief when he reached the other side.
"Ah, Trowa?" Duo said hesitantly.
Trowa looked at him.
"The faeries don't like to leave any, um, manmade constructions in their forests, nothing that would make it easier for humans to get across. Could you..." he made a gesture with his hand towards the flat stone bridge. Trowa nodded and called on his power once again, and the bridge dissolved away to sand in front of their eyes, leaving no evidence behind of the bridge he'd just made.
"Yeah, thanks," Duo said, staring at the empty space above the river. "Hey! Why didn't you do that before we all jumped in and got wet?!" he asked.
Trowa shrugged. He didn't really like showing his power in front of other people, even if he thought he could trust them. But Quatre really had been scared, he could feel it, and it had been the easiest way available at the time.
"Trowa!" Catherine gasped. "You did that?"
Trowa shrugged and nodded slightly. The Ringmaster smiled. "You always did have a way with the animals. If you ever want to talk about it, I'd love to hear." There was no hint of curiosity in his voice, he wasn't attempting to get Trowa to tell him anything, it was just a straightforward offer. Trowa nodded again. He doubted he'd ever want to talk about it, and if he did, it would be with Quatre, but the offer was kind nonetheless. Catherine stared at him, then shivered and started off down the faint path.
The others started off as well, but Quatre caught his arm and held him back, until they stood by themselves by the river. "Thank you," Quatre said softly.
Trowa snuck a glance at the smaller boy, and to his astonishment saw that Quatre was staring at him with something like longing in his eyes. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second, then they both froze, staring at each other. Finally Trowa turned his eyes away. "You're welcome." He turned and would have headed after the others, but Quatre's hand suddenly snuck into his own, and he froze, looking down at their clasped hands. Then he looked up and at Quatre's worried face. His lips quirked slightly, and he squeezed Quatre's hand gently.
Quatre's face lit up like the sun, and he squeezed back. Then they headed off after the others.
-------------------------------------------
A few weeks later, as they were approaching the border to the Sank kingdom, Wufei started as he saw the patterns of magic in the world being disrupted again. He froze in his seat as the wave of energy washed over the caravan, tensing as it touched his skin, and felt the tingle from the black circular stone the faeries had given them, as it somehow masked their presence from the spell that searched for them. He still was examining the strange magic in those stones - faery magic was unlike anything he'd ever seen, and he'd seen a lot.
Quatre, magic rolling off him in waves like a miniature sun, suddenly appeared walking at the side of the wagon, his face worried. "Did you feel that?" he asked quietly. "That was the third time today. They're increasing."
Wufei didn't feel the need to respond to such an obvious statement. The first spell searching for them had come at the end of the first week after they left the faery woods. Then there'd been nothing for several days, then another. Eventually they started coming every day, and then multiple times a day. Three was the most he'd felt in any one day.
Quatre watched him anxiously for a while, but when it became clear that he wasn't going to speak, let himself fall back several feet, out of easy talking range. Wufei continued his ruminations in silence, only vaguely noticing when they stopped while the Ringmaster spoke with the border guards to make sure they were allowed into the Sank kingdom.
:We'd better get into the back of one of the wagons,: Trowa said into his mind, and Wufei could tell by the 'tone' that the comment was addressed to them in general. Grumbling to himself about intrusive foreigners who couldn't keep their thoughts to themselves, Wufei turned around and slid off his seat and into the back of the wagon, where he wasn't visible from the outside. A few seconds later Quatre climbed in from the back and sat down opposite Wufei, leaning against the side of the wagon. He was, mercifully, silent. It was almost unbearably hot in the wagon.
A few seconds after that Duo came flying into the wagon. He was actually holding his braid in one hand, and he cradled it protectively against his chest. He looked frantically around the wagon, spied Quatre, and scuttled across the floor to crouch behind the blond boy. "Protect me!" he cried, and Wufei sensed that his fear was greatly exaggerated, but not entirely fake.
"Duo, what did you do?" Quatre asked in a suffering tone of voice. "Is it Heero again..." he trailed off as Heero threw aside the flap at the back of the weapon, his cobalt eyes attempting to burn holes through Duo through force of will alone. The problem with that was that, with one of them, it actually might work.
Then Heero climbed out of the glare of the sun, and Wufei's jaw dropped open. Heero moved slowly towards Duo with all the stealth of a trained warrior, his hands clenched into fists at his side. But what caused all the surprise was Heero's hair. Heero's bright green hair.
If Duo had tried such a thing as that with his hair, Wufei would have gladly roasted him alive. Well, maybe not roasted, but he would have burned off that braid of his without a second thought. But what was very disconcerting was the little sparks of energy that were gathering around Heero's clenched fists and falling to the floor. "Duo," Quatre said in a strained voice. "What did you do to his hair?"
"It's nothing! Just a faery trick! See?" Duo flicked his hand, and a wave of blackness shot out from him and washed over Heero, whose hair returned to a normal color. "See? No harm done. Just a little joke. Harmless... right Heero?"
Heero growled something intelligible at him, but Wufei noticed with some relief that the sparks had stopped falling from his fists. Then something in Heero's face changed slightly, and he suddenly leaped at Duo, knocking over Quatre in the process and grabbing Duo's braid in one fist. He bent over it for several seconds as Duo struggled to free himself, keeping up a steady stream of curses, pleading, and half-hearted threats. Then there was a flash of white magic energy that poured out of Heero's hand for a minute, then he released Duo's braid with a slight smile on his face.
Duo's hair was a bright pink that couldn't possible exist in nature. It almost glowed. Duo let out a startled squawk of dismay. "My hair!" he shouted. "What have you done to my hair!"
"Turnabout's fair play," Quatre remarked mildly, sitting up. Only now did Wufei notice that Quatre had had his hand raised the entire time, ready to strike down either one of them if the quarrelling got out of hand. They'd all been teaching each other after they left the faery forest, and if none of them (with the possible exception of Quatre) were comfortable with it, they were all learning a lot.
"Quatre?" Trowa asked, suddenly appearing at the front of the wagon. He climbed in beside the blond boy as Catherine climbed up into the driver's seat of the wagon.
"I'm fine," Quatre told him before they could say anything else, and Wufei averted his eyes as Trowa sat on the wagon floor next to Quatre, putting one arm around the smaller boy. They'd become more open about their obvious affection in the last few weeks, which didn't bother Wufei, as long as they stayed away from him. He frowned slightly as Quatre let out a little sigh of contentment, snuggling up against Trowa, who smiled slightly, his only concession to his feelings. Well, at least they weren't as loud as Heero and Duo. Well, as loud as Duo, anyway. Heero was guilty only by association, and because his continued silence seemed to push Duo to further and further lengths to break it. Hence the current hair episode.
Wufei closed his eyes and automatically blocked out the sounds of Heero and Duo bickering - again, it was really Duo talking and Heero sitting there with a smug expression on his face as Duo discovered he couldn't override the spell. Once they were filtered out of his consciousness, he turned back to a problem that had been plaguing him for days - one that the recent episode had reminded him of. With all the other magic users he'd ever seen, the color of their magic depended on the spell they used. Not so with himself or his companions.
No matter what sort of magic they did, their magic remained a single color, at least to his eyes. Different colors for all of them, too. His own magic was always red, Trowa's was green, Quatre's was yellow, Heero's was brilliant white, and Duo's was always that black. The blackness disturbed him for no reason that he could think of, except that in others, black magic was always associated with death. Which made sense - Duo derived his power from death, through no fault of his own, so Wufei shouldn't hold it against him, right?
Maybe it was that Duo seemed so calm about it, so accepting about the horrible nature of his power, and he seemed so jovial about the whole situation. He really did sometimes seem to be the mythical God of Death from Wufei's homeland. Wufei bowed his head in respect for those who had died and silently commended their spirits to Shinigami. But he was just another man, right?
Wufei was forced to conclude that none of them were 'just another man', even him. He could not be the pure warrior he wished to be, not while he had the taint of magic on him. Warriors didn't suddenly lash out with fireballs flying from his fingertips when they were disarmed by an honorable opponent. He'd managed to change his target, so the fireballs slammed into the ground in front of the man instead of into his chest, but he'd been so startled that he'd abandoned the fight entirely, not even giving Wufei the option of an honorable death. He hadn't had a formal battle since then, and wouldn't, couldn't, until he could be sure that he wouldn't resort to dishonorable magic if his life was threatened.
The wagon had started rolling again, and they all stayed very quiet as they passed the border guard. The chances were slight that he would recognize them as the escaped 'faeries' - after seeing the real thing he would never be able to refer to them as 'faeries' without a smirk - but given their luck so far, none of them were willing to take that chance. "Good morning," Catherine said pleasantly, and someone responded.
Suddenly Wufei stiffened as the entire wagon was filled with a powerful magical presence that looked like a diffuse fog to his eyes, but was probably invisible to anyone else, and something like bells sounded in his mind. Then it was gone. He blinked and looked around the room, and found that everyone else was doing the same thing.
:Did anyone else hear the bells?: Quatre asked in a silent whisper, mindful of the border guard still outside.
:Yeah. I've never felt or heard anything like THAT before,: Duo said.
:What do you think it means?: Quatre asked.
:We're on the right track,: Trowa said with quiet confidence. :We're doing what we're supposed to, whatever that means.:
They all fell silent again, examining their memories of the event. Wufei was thinking about something else, however. Every now and then, each of them would suddenly speak up with some bit of knowledge about what they were doing or what was coming that they had no way of knowing. They were absolutely certain of their knowledge, a fact which was mocked by the others until they too, got the mysterious knowledge in their minds. Quatre had been the first, with the knowledge that the caravan was there for them, but since then they'd all experienced it. It was extremely irritating, the feeling that they were being herded along like a bunch of sheep.
There was no help for it - at least not now. But if he had the chance, he'd get rid of his magic without a second thought. It had been a burden for many years now, and useless in his quest to avenge his clan, his wife... he automatically pushed away the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him at the thought of the deaths that had sent him on this crazy journey in the first place. Duo was not the only one with a legacy of death. With those dark thoughts to keep him company, Wufei sat silently as they traveled into the Sank kingdom.
But a part of his mind couldn't help but wonder if he really would be better off without his magic...
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Trowa peered cautiously around a corner, then went back to watching the others. They'd helped raise the tents this morning, then Catherine had shooed them away, encouraging them to take a look around the capital city of the Sank kingdom. Since they were going to be here for several days, there really was nothing for them to do. Strangely enough, he felt no compulsion to continue moving, as they had for the last few months, ever since they escaped. We're supposed to do something here.
But he'd had an uneasy feeling ever since they left the circus, a feeling he couldn't shake despite the fact that none of the others felt anything. Right now Duo was demonstrating his pocket-picking skills on Heero while the dark-haired boy glared at him and Wufei lectured quite loudly about how dishonorable theft was. Sometimes Trowa found Wufei's ideas about honor almost laughable. It was quite obvious that, like Quatre, Wufei had never missed a meal in his life before he was captured by Treize. It was easy to condemn all thieves when you had enough to eat and not starve or freeze to death. Trowa knew that Duo had stolen before, both for himself and for others. It wasn't always dishonorable. The things he'd done in his past were far less honorable than steeling a loaf of bread.
"Is something wrong?" Quatre asked, coming over. His hand twitched, as though he might reach for Trowa's hand, but he finally left it at his side. Trowa was both relieved and disappointed - relieved because they didn't want to draw attention to themselves at all and because he wasn't quite ready to show that sort of emotion in public, and disappointed because he liked holding Quatre's hand.
"Nothing," he murmured, glancing around warily once again. He still couldn't get used to seeing Quatre and the others with human features, especially now. Something had happened to his eyes in the last few days, and he was seeing *through* the illusions that Quatre had built from time to time, which had him concerned at first that something was wrong with the spells, but experimentation had shown him that it was just him. The spells themselves were solid, it was something he was doing to see through them.
"At least Heero finally turned Duo's hair back to normal," Quatre said with a slight smile, and something in his voice caused Trowa to turn and stare at him.
"You knew how to change his hair back," Trowa stated after a moment's thought.
"I figured it out after the first day," Quatre said with a little shrug. "Heero made a little gesture as he was doing the spell. We didn't notice it at the time, but in order to undo the spell you have to do the same gesture again." He shrugged self-deprecatingly. "It wasn't that hard, but it kept Duo busy, didn't it?"
Duo's hair had remained bright pink for almost a week, right up until they had entered the capital city of Sank. No amount of pleading or spell casting on Duo's part had returned his hair to normal, and Heero went around with that smug smile on his face for several days, finally relenting when Wufei acidly pointed out how noticeable the hair was, and that they really didn't want to attract attention.
"You knew and you didn't tell Duo?"
Quatre's smile broadened slightly. "And ruin their fun?"
Trowa shook his head slightly, amazed and amused by his love's antics. The others seemed to be of the opinion that there was nothing there but the polite exterior he always wore, although that was merely the most visible part. Other things, like this strange sense of humor, were popping up more and more frequently in his presence as Quatre relaxed from his formal pose.
"I'd really like to look around the shops," Quatre said with an engaging smile. Manipulative little beast, he knew exactly how cute he was, and how it affected people of either sex, and used it to his advantage. "I was never allowed anywhere without an escort of guards when I was the heir, I've never been able to just walk around by myself." He turned aquamarine eyes on Trowa, and for a second he looked through the illusion again and saw the huge eyes that Quatre normally had, not the little ones he wore when he looked human.
He smiled and nodded agreement. Quatre's face lit up and he darted around the corner. There was a loud exclamation and a thud, and when Trowa looked, he saw Quatre sitting on the ground in front of two very startled-looking soldiers. Two soldiers in Oz uniforms. Trowa swallowed involuntarily, firmly telling himself that there was no way that they could recognize them, that the illusions were holding firm. "Watch where you're going, kid," one of the soldiers said with a smile that belayed the gruffness of his voice, and he extended a hand to Quatre, pulling him to his feet. There was no sign that he'd recognized the fugitives.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry!" Quatre exclaimed. "My apologies! I wasn't watching where I was going and..." he trailed off as the soldier who'd pulled him to his feet suddenly stared at him.
"Master Quatre?" he asked, horror tingeing his voice. "But I'd heard that you'd been captured by Treize..." he suddenly cut himself off, his eyes immediately traveling to his companion.
"The Quatre that we're looking for?" the man asked, beady eyes bright. He grabbed Quatre's arm. "You're not going anywhere, faery," he growled, greed evident in his eyes.
"Hey! Let him go!" Duo shouted, and Trowa resisted the urge to groan. There went any chance that they'd think that he was alone here, giving them a chance to break him out later.
"There's the rest of them!" the second soldier shouted.
"Come on! They're just a bunch of kids," the first soldier pleaded. "He just looks a little bit like Quatre. Look at his ears! He's not the one we're looking for!"
"You should know better than anyone that these creatures," he gave Quatre a harsh shake. "Can disguise themselves using magic. For Lord Treize!" he shouted, louder this time. "The prisoners are here!"
Quatre suddenly brought one hand up directly into the soldier's face, but just before his hand touched, there was a bright flash of light. The man cried out in fear and pain, covering his eyes, and in doing so, he let go of Quatre, who hastily backed away. Almost instantly the first soldier tackled the second. "Run Master Quatre!" he shouted, wrestling his companion to the ground. "There are others coming!"
They didn't hesitate - they all took off running, not to the circus, but in the opposite direction. Quatre shouted, "Thank you!" over his shoulder as they ran, but even he didn't pause in the slightest as Duo led them through the twisting streets.
"Shit!" Duo exclaimed as they ran into another group of Oz soldiers, eight of them this time, running through the streets with swords drawn, obviously looking for them. And, of course, Duo's exclamation brought the soldier's attention right to them. Duo spun and headed off down another street, keeping up a steady stream of curses on the sub verbal level. Trowa caught sight of one of the soldiers holding another damned searching crystal like the ones he and Quatre had stolen and smashed - where had he gotten more?
Over the next half hour, due mostly to Duo's intimate knowledge of the streets, they managed to stay ahead of the full regiment of guards that were following them, and had even managed to loose them temporarily, but they had a problem. :They've got us boxed in,: Duo told them silently, so odd conversations or whispering wouldn't draw attention. :I've seen them do it before. They've sealed off this part of the city, and they've got us surrounded. It's only a matter of time until they catch up with us.:
:What can we do?: Quatre asked, his mental voice showing none of the hard breathing he was currently doing.
:I don't know. I've gotten out of this sort of situation a couple of times by staying ahead of them and out of sight until they gave up because it wasn't worth the effort.:
:I don't think that's going to work,: Wufei remarked sarcastically.
:Me neither. Give me a second. One time I got away by going across the rooftops, but that was in a little town, I don't think that'll work here. I'm about to run out of ideas, guys, anyone else?:
There was a silence, long enough to tell Trowa that they were out of ideas, too. His fist tightened around one of his knives. He was not going to be treated like an animal ever again. He wasn't afraid of showing his powers here, his true powers. The soldiers would never know what hit them. He saw from the looks on their faces that the others were feeling the same way.
:What say we kill some Ozzies?: Duo suggested with a mean grin on his face.
:Wait a second!: Quatre exclaimed. :What day is today?:
:It's the eighth day of the fifth month,: Trowa told him.
:No, the day! Of the week!:
:It's restday, of course,: Duo said with the attitude of someone who couldn't believe he was being asked a question like that.
:Great! Come on, I've got an idea!: Quatre practically shouted, and then took off again, running... well, straight for something.
:Where are we going?: Duo asked as they picked up another group of Oz soldiers on their tail.
:The Queen always holds a general session open to the public to handle disputes on restdays,: Quatre replied, turning the corner.
:Wait a second! You want us to go to another ruler?! She's just going to lock us up like Treize did!:
:No, she's different, and besides...: Quatre trailed off, because the soldiers were getting closer. Suddenly he skidded to a stop in front of a large gate and pounded on it. "Sanctuary!" he shouted. "We claim sanctuary in the name of the Queen!"
The gate's guards exchanged a startled look, then saw the Oz soldiers running up behind them, and hastily opened the gate. The five boys slipped through and into a large courtyard, and the gate was slammed in the face of the Oz soldiers.
"Let us in! We are on official business in the name of King Treize!" one of the soldiers demanded. "Those men belong to King Treize!"
The two guards exchanged a curious look, then one of them hesitantly turned to Quatre. "We don't want a diplomatic incident..." one of them started, but trailed off when Quatre turned those blue eyes on him.
"You gave us sanctuary," he said firmly. "We wish a hearing before the Queen and will accept her decision in the matter."
The guards exchanged another glance, not looking at all happy with the matter.
"The law..." Quatre prompted, getting a slightly irritated look on his face. He drew himself up to his full height, which wasn't particularly impressive, but somehow he managed to look more than a little imposing. "The law says that we must be granted a hearing once sanctuary has been claimed."
The guards exchanged one more glance, then one of them turned to the soldiers fuming on the other side of gate. "These people have claimed sanctuary..."
"They aren't people!" one of the guards exploded. "They're a bunch of fucking faeries!"
The guard looked back at Quatre, who raised his eyebrows. The guard sighed, looked at the sky as if asking the gods why they were doing this to him, and then turned back to the soldiers. "You'll have to choose a few among you to represent your cause before the Queen. If she rules in your favor, you'll have our aide in apprehending them and transporting them back to Oz."
"This is ridiculous!" exploded the same guard.
"And if I were you, I wouldn't pick him. The Queen has a short temper when it comes to manners," the guard warned, while Trowa hid a smile. They definitely had the advantage there. Quatre could probably be polite to a grisly bear that was attacking him. And he did seem to know what he was doing.
As the soldiers conferred among themselves, Duo asked, :So how we going to escape from these bozos before they take us to the Queen?:
:We're not,: Quatre replied.
:What?!:
:I think the Queen will protect us.:
:Do you have a reason to think that, or are you just winging it?: Duo demanded nervously.
:I met her once when I was a child. She has a reason to defy Treize...: he cut himself off as the guards admitted five of the soldiers through the gate. The one who had exploded twice was not one of them, although he growled at Quatre through the gates, and Trowa moved closer to Quatre, placing a protective hand on his shoulder.
"This way, sirs," one of the guards said, taking a firm hold of Quatre's arm and leading him across the courtyard. Trowa wondered why he didn't protest, until he saw that one of the soldiers was receiving identical treatment from the other guard, as two more guards moved to take their places. The hand-on-the-arm thing must be some sort of tradition.
Quatre smiled reassuringly at Trowa as they walked across the courtyard and into a large room with a high, vaulted ceiling. There were a crowd of people at this end of the room, but at the end Trowa could see a large open area with a throne in front of it. A woman with blond hair sat on the throne, listening with every appearance of interest to the two people in the center of the open area. What was surprising was how young she was - she couldn't be any older than Quatre himself. As they got into a line at the instructions of the guard who still held onto Quatre's arm, Duo asked, :How long ago, exactly, did you meet her?:
:I believe I was four.:
:How old was she?!:
:Four, of course. She's our age.:
:You're risking our lives in the hands of some girl you haven't seen in over ten years?!: Duo sounded faintly hysterical.
:I told you, she has reason to defy Treize, her brother... Oh, I almost forgot! Take off your pendants. I want her to see what we are.:
:Are you crazy?:
:We trusted you in the faery forest,: Quatre pointed out. :I know what I'm doing, I think.:
:Very reassuring,: Duo growled, but he removed his pendant with the others. There were a number of gasps around them as people saw their appearances change, and the guard who was holding onto Quatre's arm looked absolutely miserable as his fingers tightened around Quatre's arm and he tried to back away at the same time. Quatre smiled faintly at him.
:See that guy over there?: he asked, gesturing with a slight nod of his head to an opulently dressed man sitting in a chair at the edge of the cleared area, looking bored. Two Oz soldiers stood at attention behind him.
:Yes.:
:Watch him when we go out there. That's Oz's ambassador. His reaction ought to be funny.:
Trowa was glad that Quatre found the situation amusing, but he wished that the blond was taking it a little more seriously.
The Queen said something to the two people in the clearing, and they got up and walked away. The guard holding Quatre's arm suddenly moved forward, pulling Quatre into the open area, and the others followed. The other guard pulled the Oz soldiers into the open area, but they were careful to keep the two groups separate. "Your majesty," one of them said, and they both bowed. "These five..." he indicated the mages, "request sanctuary from you. The soldiers of Oz claim that they belong to King Treize of Oz. Both parties have agreed to put the matter in your hands." The guards bowed again and stood at attention between the two parties.
One of the guards made a rude sound and muttered something about not having a choice in the matter, and Trowa sensed that Duo was about to respond, but before he could, Quatre said, :Don't say anything, Duo. Just let me talk and behave.: He said it more fiercely then Trowa could remember him being before, and Duo actually subsided.
"What is this?!" demanded an angry voice, and Trowa's attention was brought back to the Oz ambassador, who had suddenly noticed who and what they are. "These creatures belong to Oz! I demand that you turn them over to my lord's men at once!"
The Queen gazed at him coldly. "They have claimed sanctuary from me, and they will be heard. I do not appreciate having my authority questioned in my own court."
The ambassador realized that he had probably gone too far, and bowed awkwardly. "My apologies, your majesty. I was merely... surprised. I have the utmost confidence that you will come to a fair and just ruling, and turn them over to Lord Treize."
"Indeed," the queen remarked.
Quatre apparently decided this was the appropriate moment to speak, and took a single step forward. "Your majesty," he began, and then bowed smoothly, putting the ambassador's effort at grace to shame. :Bow!: his thought lashed out at them, and they all bowed, not as nicely as Quatre, but they all managed some level of grace. "Please. We ask for sanctuary in your land from an unjust persecution by King Treize of his own people." That was the first time Trowa could ever remember hearing Quatre refer to their captor by his title.
The ambassador sputtered. "They are criminals, your majesty!" he exclaimed. "Filthy criminals who escaped imprisonment and fled to your country to cause more trouble!"
"I was under the impression that Treize doesn't even consider us human," Quatre said quietly, without taking his eyes off the queen. "How can we be criminals? I've committed no crime that I know of." Trowa noticed that he carefully avoided saying that none of them had ever committed a crime. Quatre was, in fact, probably the only one of them who'd never committed a crime previous to his imprisonment, but none of their crimes had warranted the treatment they'd received.
"I must admit that I am surprised to see the heir to the Winner family being hunted down as a common criminal," the queen said in curious tones.
Quatre smiled briefly, although Trowa saw the pain in his eyes before he bowed again, just as smoothly as the first time. Trowa wondered idly if Quatre was capable of an ungraceful move when he was on stage, as he obviously was now. "Unfortunately, due to the laws of Oz, mages like myself are not considered citizens, so I have been disinherited. I am no longer the Winner heir."
The Queen didn't comment, merely looked back that the ambassador, who was becoming more and more flustered as Quatre spoke in that ultra-refined voice, still smiling pleasantly as if he were discussing the weather and not fighting for their freedom. For the first time Trowa could see why Quatre wasn't entirely disappointed at not being heir anymore - it was his father's rejection and refusal to fight Treize that hurt him, not loosing the power.
"They are not citizens, it is true, they are dangerous animals, but they were being held in custody by Treize," the ambassador said with a wily glint in his eyes as he recovered some of his composure. "They broke out of the prison and killed several guards on their way. Both are serious crimes. They must be brought back to Oz to face justice."
:That lying son of a bitch!: Duo exclaimed, furious.
:People lie. Deal with it,: Heero told him.
"I'm afraid that I don't remember fighting any guards as we escaped from the compound where we were wrongfully imprisoned," Quatre said easily, ignoring the mental argument that he had to be able to hear.
"Wrongfully imprisoned?" the Queen asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We were imprisoned because we're mages," Quatre clarified, still not looking at the ambassador.
"The internal affairs of Oz are not of concern to the Sank kingdom," the ambassador said stiffly, but he seemed upset about something.
:Got him!: Quatre exulted in his mind.
"That is where you are incorrect, ambassador," the Queen said coldly, rising. She was even smaller than he'd thought. "I wish to make it known publicly that the Sank kingdom takes exception to King Treize's current policy of imprisoning innocent mages who have the misfortune to stumble into his kingdom. I also wish to make it clear that I, personally, dislike the man responsible for cheating my brother out of his inheritance, and while the Sank kingdom might have humored Oz by not putting a mage on the throne, that in no way means that we feel the same way about mages. Quatre, you and your friends may stay in Sank for as long as you wish, under my protection. Any attempt by Oz soldiers to take you out of the kingdom will be viewed as an act of aggression against the throne."
"Thank you, your majesty," Quatre said, bowing, as the ambassador withdrew to his seat, looking very angry.
"This way, please," said an elderly man in some sort of uniform, and they followed him out of the main chamber and into some sort of large waiting room, elegantly furnished. "Quatre, it's good to see you again," the elderly man said with a smile. He squeezed Quatre's shoulder. "Although I wish it could be under better circumstances."
"It's good to see you too, Pagan," Quatre said with another smile. "And I owe a lot to Relena... excuse me, Queen Relena. We can't thank you enough for your aid."
"Don't mention it, and Relena would be horrified to think that one of her few friends was calling her by her title. I know she's been looking for an excuse to publicly denounce Treize for what he did to master Milliardo for months now. You just gave her the perfect excuse." Pagan smiled. "She'll be out in a few minutes. She wants to talk to you."
"Yes, I'd guessed that," Quatre said with a smile, then silently he said, :This is Pagan - he's worked for the Peacecraft family for his entire life. He's very wise, even if he hides it well, so be careful what you say around him, if you have any secrets.: Quatre paused, then said to Trowa alone. :That was rather foolish of me, wasn't it? We all have secrets, now.:
:It's all right.:
Then a second door opened and the Queen came walking in, a broad smile on her face. "Quatre! It's good to see you again!" she exclaimed, sounding very much like a little girl for a few seconds as she embraced a very startled-looking Quatre. "I'm so sorry to hear about your father," she murmured.
"It's all right, Relena," he said, carefully putting her at arm's-length. "I... was sorry to hear about your brother. Do you know where he is now?"
Suddenly her expression became guarded. "No, he left right after turning over the throne to me."
:Her brother was heir, like me, and he's also a mage, like us. But he didn't hide it, because they don't look at us the same way as in Oz. But Sank is a small kingdom and Oz is almost an empire, and Treize pressured Sank until they had to give the throne to someone else. So Milliardo turned over the throne to his younger sister and disappeared so that Treize couldn't cause any more trouble,: Quatre explained.
"I'm sorry," Quatre repeated.
"I... you look... I never knew," she said, staring at his ears.
"I know. I was living in Oz, I had to hide it," he explained. "No one knew."
She nodded, her gaze traveling around the room. "Who are your friends?"
"They were imprisoned with me - we escaped together," Quatre said truthfully, leaving out almost everything else. "This is Duo, Heero, Trowa, and Wufei," he introduced them, leaving out last names and any explanations.
Based on her performance in the throne room, Trowa had assumed that she was a very strong-willed, remarkable young woman. He was now forced to rethink his opinion - maybe strong when it came to state matters, but still very much a child in other things. Her eyes glazed over and a dreamy smile appeared on her face as she looked at Heero, whose eyes widened in alarm and he actually backed up a step. Trowa couldn't hide a smile at the sight of the utterly unflappable Heero put on the defensive by a teenage girl.
Then again, an assassin would face danger all the time, but almost never girls. Same thing could be said for me. I don't know what I would do if a girl started looking at me that way. Probably ignore her. That was the way he dealt with most things that made him uncomfortable. But that led to another uncomfortable thought - why was it that he loved Quatre? He'd seen enough of the world to know that though those pairing were not uncommon, they were not normal, either. He thought he loved the blond boy, but everything inside of him had been dead for so long, he couldn't be certain.
Pagan finally ended the awkward silence that Relena's staring was making, but his topic of conversation was hardly better.
"We've heard some horrible stories about what was happening to the mages within Oz's boarders," Pagan said. "Perhaps you can tell us. It must not have been as bad as it sounded."
"I'm afraid it was worse. We were imprisoned, treated like animals..." Quatre shook his head as Relena finally regained her composure.
"That's horrible! But I'm not sure this is much better. You'll practically be prisoners here as well. I can protect you as long as you're in the palace, but once you leave... the ambassador will already have bought enough plain street clothes to outfit all his men, and if they're not wearing their uniforms, I can't stop them."
"Why are there so many Oz soldiers here?"
"One of Treize's advisors is in the city, supposedly to investigate possible trade options, but she's a spy," Relena dismissed the story with a wave of her hand.
"Who?"
"Her name is Lady Une."
Trowa stiffened involuntarily, and Quatre gasped.
"You know her?"
"She's Treize's top assistant," Quatre said, abandoning the formal names again. "What is she doing here?"
Relena frowned slightly. "Pagan, didn't you say something about her spending a lot of time in my library?"
"Yes, Lady. She's spent quite a bit of time there, searching through some of our oldest documents."
Relena's eyes opened a little wider, and suddenly she was the Queen again, not a foolish mooning girl. "The documents that Zechs..." she trailed off, but Pagan nodded in response to whatever she was saying. She shot a sharp look at Quatre. "There is more here then you're telling me."
Quatre smiled pleasantly, the same smile that he'd used in the throne room, the fake one. "That's entirely possible, your majesty."
"You gave your word to the guards that you'd accept my judgment today. What would you have done if I'd decided against you?"
"Run away, most likely."
"You'd never be able to escape."
"We have certain advantages," Quatre said, holding up a glowing hand.
"The Quatre Winner I knew as a child would never go back on his word."
"I am not Quatre Winner. I am Quatre, escaped faery-slave. I do what is necessary to survive. I'm sorry."
Relena's face softened slightly at the last words. "I don't suppose you'll be staying very long, will you? If you can..." she made a vague gesture with her hand, probably indicating some sort of spell casting. She looked very disappointed, and Heero looked relieved. "If... if its not too much trouble, I wish you'd stay around for a little while, at least until my... until one of my aides returns from a trip."
"We'll stay," Wufei suddenly spoke up in a voice completely unlike his own. He blinked several times. "I didn't say that!" he said in a furious voice.
"Why do we have to stay?" Quatre asked, an intent expression on his face.
"It's the damned libraries," Wufei growled, still furious. He rubbed his temples, eyes blinking rapidly as he processed the new information that had just appeared in his head. They all waited patiently, knowing what it was like, while Relena looked between them with an expression of bewilderment on her face. "That's why we're here. There's something in them... I don't know!"
"The same thing that lady was looking for?" Duo asked suddenly, looking around the room.
A silence met him, finally broken by the young queen's voice. "There's a lot you're not telling me, and I'm not sure if I want to know. My... aide specializes in the documents and scrolls that Lady Une was searching through, and I know he's removed a few for reasons that I did not understand. You are free to look through them yourselves, of course, but he will be returning in a week, and I believe he'd like to talk to you."
It was Quatre, of course, who graciously accepted her invitation, but that didn't hide the frustration and anger they all felt. It wasn't as if they had a choice in the matter.
The fog hadn't entered either the city or his castle yet, but he had no doubts that was because the fog wasn't supposed to come in, not because it couldn't. It was... it was somehow searching for something, and it knew that its quarry wasn't here, so they were left alone. But it's very existence grated on his nerves, because he could feel the constant pressure in his mind, shouting how unnatural it was to the entire world, if they could only hear it. Even normal humans were beginning to feel it, after almost two days of the stuff.
Then, as he gazed at the rolling fog, the pressure on his mind suddenly disappeared, and he gasped, almost stumbling. After two days of it, the cessation of the pushing was almost a physical sensation. The fog began to thin, and within twenty minutes it was completely gone. Treize felt a hint of panic begin to grip him. Either it found them or it gave up. It has to be the latter - they wouldn't fall so easily. After all these centuries, they couldn't.
"Sire!" shouted a messenger. "We've had word of strange occurrences in the forests! Right before the mist disappeared!" a messenger came running up the steps to the tower.
"Strange occurrences? What do you mean?"
"Well, sir... it seems... well, there are reports of..." suddenly the messenger was hesitant to give him information.
"Well... what is it?"
"Faeries, sir."
"The escaped prisoners?"
"No sir. They aren't... they're smaller..."
Treize suddenly realized what was bothering the man. "You can say it. It's all right. They're real faeries, aren't they?"
"Yes sir," the man said, looking relieved.
"What are they doing?"
"Just watching, for the most part, sir, but we've sent a couple of people up to the edge of the forests, and they can see lights inside. Like spell-casting, sir."
"Why would the faeries be spell-casting?" Treize asked, more himself than anyone else, but the messenger heard him.
"I don't know sir, but they're exhibiting this activity from one end of the kingdom to the other, and presumably outside the kingdom, as well. It all started at almost exactly the same time."
"So they're communicating, somehow, and something has set them off," Treize mused to himself, thinking over the little he knew about the actual faeries, not the human mages he'd captured before. There was no mention of them in the prophecies, but the prophecies couldn't tell him everything. As far as he knew, the faeries hadn't acted all together or in such an obvious manner in hundreds of years. It must be obvious if they were leaking enough energy for normal humans to see.
Treize was not a big believer in coincidences, and even if he had been, that they would start acting so strangely just when the prophecies started coming into effect was an awfully big coincidence. He cast one last glance down at the walls of his city, and at the plains beyond them, which were now clear of fog. He smiled indulgently as people streamed out of the city gates and into the fields, imagining that he could hear their joyous cries of relief, after being trapped in the city for two days with that evil stuff lurking outside.
They think it's over, but it's only just begun. He shook his head slightly and headed down to his library to see what he had on true faeries.
----------------------------------------
Two nights later they left the faeries' home, or glen, as Duo called it. The faeries had repaired the chains of their necklaces that Duo had broken when he ripped them off their necks, and had added a second pendant to each of their necklaces, a perfectly round circular black stone. Quatre had examined them, and said that he could feel very powerful magic in them, but didn't know what it was. Duo, of course, had said that it was because that was faery magic, not human. The faeries had never quite gotten used to the presence of the humans, and were a little too eager in sending them off.
Some of the younglings accompanied them a few miles out of the glen, but left them long before they reached the edge of the woods. It didn't matter - Duo swore up and down on some god he called 'the Lady' that he knew the way out of the forest, and back to the road. With any luck they'd catch up with the circus caravan where the new detour met up with the old overgrown road. They probably wouldn't even have lost much time, because of the way that they could travel in the forest.
Trowa wasn't sure what he thought about all of this. He'd seen a lot of strange things in his life, but few of them matched what he'd seen on this short trip already. The power within him was growing - he could feel it - but what that meant he wasn't ready to ask yet.
After an hour or two of walking, they came to a river. It wasn't particularly wide, but it was fairly deep and running quite quickly. Without a word Trowa waded in and swam across, keeping a sharp eye on Catherine, who he knew was less than a great swimmer. She'd been holding up rather well, considering the circumstances, although he caught her staring at his ears from time to time, a frightened look on her face, and he'd seen the sigh of relief she gave when they put the pendants back on.
He was so focused on Catherine that he didn't realize until he got to the other side that Quatre wasn't with them. As they stood, dripping, on the bank, he was still standing on the far side, staring at the water with a helpless expression.
"Hey, Quatre! Come on over!" Duo shouted. It wasn't really necessary, the river wasn't that big. "The road's less than a mile from here!"
"I can't!" Quatre shouted back.
"Why not?"
"I can't swim!"
Duo snorted, grinning broadly. "How can that be? With all the traveling you've done, all the training... someone must have taught you how to swim!"
"I grew up in a desert!" Quatre snapped, sounding as if he was going to lose his temper for the first time since Trowa had met him. "I never learned how to swim, because there wasn't any water! Besides," he added sheepishly. "I'm afraid of the water."
Duo started chuckling under his breath, but he didn't make any more sarcastic comments as Quatre went back to staring mournfully at the water.
Without really thinking, Trowa reached for his power and directed it downward, into the ground. A sheet of rock shot out from his side of the bank, right below his feet, and stretched straight across the stream, plunging back into the earth right in front of Quatre's feet. "Come on over," he called, while Quatre stared at the bridge he'd just made, eyes wide as saucers.
Quatre stared at him, swallowed, and then took a hesitant step out onto the bridge, testing its strength with his full weight. When it didn't collapse, he took another step, then another, and then ran the rest of the way across the bridge, his face very pale. He heaved a great sigh of relief when he reached the other side.
"Ah, Trowa?" Duo said hesitantly.
Trowa looked at him.
"The faeries don't like to leave any, um, manmade constructions in their forests, nothing that would make it easier for humans to get across. Could you..." he made a gesture with his hand towards the flat stone bridge. Trowa nodded and called on his power once again, and the bridge dissolved away to sand in front of their eyes, leaving no evidence behind of the bridge he'd just made.
"Yeah, thanks," Duo said, staring at the empty space above the river. "Hey! Why didn't you do that before we all jumped in and got wet?!" he asked.
Trowa shrugged. He didn't really like showing his power in front of other people, even if he thought he could trust them. But Quatre really had been scared, he could feel it, and it had been the easiest way available at the time.
"Trowa!" Catherine gasped. "You did that?"
Trowa shrugged and nodded slightly. The Ringmaster smiled. "You always did have a way with the animals. If you ever want to talk about it, I'd love to hear." There was no hint of curiosity in his voice, he wasn't attempting to get Trowa to tell him anything, it was just a straightforward offer. Trowa nodded again. He doubted he'd ever want to talk about it, and if he did, it would be with Quatre, but the offer was kind nonetheless. Catherine stared at him, then shivered and started off down the faint path.
The others started off as well, but Quatre caught his arm and held him back, until they stood by themselves by the river. "Thank you," Quatre said softly.
Trowa snuck a glance at the smaller boy, and to his astonishment saw that Quatre was staring at him with something like longing in his eyes. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second, then they both froze, staring at each other. Finally Trowa turned his eyes away. "You're welcome." He turned and would have headed after the others, but Quatre's hand suddenly snuck into his own, and he froze, looking down at their clasped hands. Then he looked up and at Quatre's worried face. His lips quirked slightly, and he squeezed Quatre's hand gently.
Quatre's face lit up like the sun, and he squeezed back. Then they headed off after the others.
-------------------------------------------
A few weeks later, as they were approaching the border to the Sank kingdom, Wufei started as he saw the patterns of magic in the world being disrupted again. He froze in his seat as the wave of energy washed over the caravan, tensing as it touched his skin, and felt the tingle from the black circular stone the faeries had given them, as it somehow masked their presence from the spell that searched for them. He still was examining the strange magic in those stones - faery magic was unlike anything he'd ever seen, and he'd seen a lot.
Quatre, magic rolling off him in waves like a miniature sun, suddenly appeared walking at the side of the wagon, his face worried. "Did you feel that?" he asked quietly. "That was the third time today. They're increasing."
Wufei didn't feel the need to respond to such an obvious statement. The first spell searching for them had come at the end of the first week after they left the faery woods. Then there'd been nothing for several days, then another. Eventually they started coming every day, and then multiple times a day. Three was the most he'd felt in any one day.
Quatre watched him anxiously for a while, but when it became clear that he wasn't going to speak, let himself fall back several feet, out of easy talking range. Wufei continued his ruminations in silence, only vaguely noticing when they stopped while the Ringmaster spoke with the border guards to make sure they were allowed into the Sank kingdom.
:We'd better get into the back of one of the wagons,: Trowa said into his mind, and Wufei could tell by the 'tone' that the comment was addressed to them in general. Grumbling to himself about intrusive foreigners who couldn't keep their thoughts to themselves, Wufei turned around and slid off his seat and into the back of the wagon, where he wasn't visible from the outside. A few seconds later Quatre climbed in from the back and sat down opposite Wufei, leaning against the side of the wagon. He was, mercifully, silent. It was almost unbearably hot in the wagon.
A few seconds after that Duo came flying into the wagon. He was actually holding his braid in one hand, and he cradled it protectively against his chest. He looked frantically around the wagon, spied Quatre, and scuttled across the floor to crouch behind the blond boy. "Protect me!" he cried, and Wufei sensed that his fear was greatly exaggerated, but not entirely fake.
"Duo, what did you do?" Quatre asked in a suffering tone of voice. "Is it Heero again..." he trailed off as Heero threw aside the flap at the back of the weapon, his cobalt eyes attempting to burn holes through Duo through force of will alone. The problem with that was that, with one of them, it actually might work.
Then Heero climbed out of the glare of the sun, and Wufei's jaw dropped open. Heero moved slowly towards Duo with all the stealth of a trained warrior, his hands clenched into fists at his side. But what caused all the surprise was Heero's hair. Heero's bright green hair.
If Duo had tried such a thing as that with his hair, Wufei would have gladly roasted him alive. Well, maybe not roasted, but he would have burned off that braid of his without a second thought. But what was very disconcerting was the little sparks of energy that were gathering around Heero's clenched fists and falling to the floor. "Duo," Quatre said in a strained voice. "What did you do to his hair?"
"It's nothing! Just a faery trick! See?" Duo flicked his hand, and a wave of blackness shot out from him and washed over Heero, whose hair returned to a normal color. "See? No harm done. Just a little joke. Harmless... right Heero?"
Heero growled something intelligible at him, but Wufei noticed with some relief that the sparks had stopped falling from his fists. Then something in Heero's face changed slightly, and he suddenly leaped at Duo, knocking over Quatre in the process and grabbing Duo's braid in one fist. He bent over it for several seconds as Duo struggled to free himself, keeping up a steady stream of curses, pleading, and half-hearted threats. Then there was a flash of white magic energy that poured out of Heero's hand for a minute, then he released Duo's braid with a slight smile on his face.
Duo's hair was a bright pink that couldn't possible exist in nature. It almost glowed. Duo let out a startled squawk of dismay. "My hair!" he shouted. "What have you done to my hair!"
"Turnabout's fair play," Quatre remarked mildly, sitting up. Only now did Wufei notice that Quatre had had his hand raised the entire time, ready to strike down either one of them if the quarrelling got out of hand. They'd all been teaching each other after they left the faery forest, and if none of them (with the possible exception of Quatre) were comfortable with it, they were all learning a lot.
"Quatre?" Trowa asked, suddenly appearing at the front of the wagon. He climbed in beside the blond boy as Catherine climbed up into the driver's seat of the wagon.
"I'm fine," Quatre told him before they could say anything else, and Wufei averted his eyes as Trowa sat on the wagon floor next to Quatre, putting one arm around the smaller boy. They'd become more open about their obvious affection in the last few weeks, which didn't bother Wufei, as long as they stayed away from him. He frowned slightly as Quatre let out a little sigh of contentment, snuggling up against Trowa, who smiled slightly, his only concession to his feelings. Well, at least they weren't as loud as Heero and Duo. Well, as loud as Duo, anyway. Heero was guilty only by association, and because his continued silence seemed to push Duo to further and further lengths to break it. Hence the current hair episode.
Wufei closed his eyes and automatically blocked out the sounds of Heero and Duo bickering - again, it was really Duo talking and Heero sitting there with a smug expression on his face as Duo discovered he couldn't override the spell. Once they were filtered out of his consciousness, he turned back to a problem that had been plaguing him for days - one that the recent episode had reminded him of. With all the other magic users he'd ever seen, the color of their magic depended on the spell they used. Not so with himself or his companions.
No matter what sort of magic they did, their magic remained a single color, at least to his eyes. Different colors for all of them, too. His own magic was always red, Trowa's was green, Quatre's was yellow, Heero's was brilliant white, and Duo's was always that black. The blackness disturbed him for no reason that he could think of, except that in others, black magic was always associated with death. Which made sense - Duo derived his power from death, through no fault of his own, so Wufei shouldn't hold it against him, right?
Maybe it was that Duo seemed so calm about it, so accepting about the horrible nature of his power, and he seemed so jovial about the whole situation. He really did sometimes seem to be the mythical God of Death from Wufei's homeland. Wufei bowed his head in respect for those who had died and silently commended their spirits to Shinigami. But he was just another man, right?
Wufei was forced to conclude that none of them were 'just another man', even him. He could not be the pure warrior he wished to be, not while he had the taint of magic on him. Warriors didn't suddenly lash out with fireballs flying from his fingertips when they were disarmed by an honorable opponent. He'd managed to change his target, so the fireballs slammed into the ground in front of the man instead of into his chest, but he'd been so startled that he'd abandoned the fight entirely, not even giving Wufei the option of an honorable death. He hadn't had a formal battle since then, and wouldn't, couldn't, until he could be sure that he wouldn't resort to dishonorable magic if his life was threatened.
The wagon had started rolling again, and they all stayed very quiet as they passed the border guard. The chances were slight that he would recognize them as the escaped 'faeries' - after seeing the real thing he would never be able to refer to them as 'faeries' without a smirk - but given their luck so far, none of them were willing to take that chance. "Good morning," Catherine said pleasantly, and someone responded.
Suddenly Wufei stiffened as the entire wagon was filled with a powerful magical presence that looked like a diffuse fog to his eyes, but was probably invisible to anyone else, and something like bells sounded in his mind. Then it was gone. He blinked and looked around the room, and found that everyone else was doing the same thing.
:Did anyone else hear the bells?: Quatre asked in a silent whisper, mindful of the border guard still outside.
:Yeah. I've never felt or heard anything like THAT before,: Duo said.
:What do you think it means?: Quatre asked.
:We're on the right track,: Trowa said with quiet confidence. :We're doing what we're supposed to, whatever that means.:
They all fell silent again, examining their memories of the event. Wufei was thinking about something else, however. Every now and then, each of them would suddenly speak up with some bit of knowledge about what they were doing or what was coming that they had no way of knowing. They were absolutely certain of their knowledge, a fact which was mocked by the others until they too, got the mysterious knowledge in their minds. Quatre had been the first, with the knowledge that the caravan was there for them, but since then they'd all experienced it. It was extremely irritating, the feeling that they were being herded along like a bunch of sheep.
There was no help for it - at least not now. But if he had the chance, he'd get rid of his magic without a second thought. It had been a burden for many years now, and useless in his quest to avenge his clan, his wife... he automatically pushed away the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him at the thought of the deaths that had sent him on this crazy journey in the first place. Duo was not the only one with a legacy of death. With those dark thoughts to keep him company, Wufei sat silently as they traveled into the Sank kingdom.
But a part of his mind couldn't help but wonder if he really would be better off without his magic...
---------------------------------------
Trowa peered cautiously around a corner, then went back to watching the others. They'd helped raise the tents this morning, then Catherine had shooed them away, encouraging them to take a look around the capital city of the Sank kingdom. Since they were going to be here for several days, there really was nothing for them to do. Strangely enough, he felt no compulsion to continue moving, as they had for the last few months, ever since they escaped. We're supposed to do something here.
But he'd had an uneasy feeling ever since they left the circus, a feeling he couldn't shake despite the fact that none of the others felt anything. Right now Duo was demonstrating his pocket-picking skills on Heero while the dark-haired boy glared at him and Wufei lectured quite loudly about how dishonorable theft was. Sometimes Trowa found Wufei's ideas about honor almost laughable. It was quite obvious that, like Quatre, Wufei had never missed a meal in his life before he was captured by Treize. It was easy to condemn all thieves when you had enough to eat and not starve or freeze to death. Trowa knew that Duo had stolen before, both for himself and for others. It wasn't always dishonorable. The things he'd done in his past were far less honorable than steeling a loaf of bread.
"Is something wrong?" Quatre asked, coming over. His hand twitched, as though he might reach for Trowa's hand, but he finally left it at his side. Trowa was both relieved and disappointed - relieved because they didn't want to draw attention to themselves at all and because he wasn't quite ready to show that sort of emotion in public, and disappointed because he liked holding Quatre's hand.
"Nothing," he murmured, glancing around warily once again. He still couldn't get used to seeing Quatre and the others with human features, especially now. Something had happened to his eyes in the last few days, and he was seeing *through* the illusions that Quatre had built from time to time, which had him concerned at first that something was wrong with the spells, but experimentation had shown him that it was just him. The spells themselves were solid, it was something he was doing to see through them.
"At least Heero finally turned Duo's hair back to normal," Quatre said with a slight smile, and something in his voice caused Trowa to turn and stare at him.
"You knew how to change his hair back," Trowa stated after a moment's thought.
"I figured it out after the first day," Quatre said with a little shrug. "Heero made a little gesture as he was doing the spell. We didn't notice it at the time, but in order to undo the spell you have to do the same gesture again." He shrugged self-deprecatingly. "It wasn't that hard, but it kept Duo busy, didn't it?"
Duo's hair had remained bright pink for almost a week, right up until they had entered the capital city of Sank. No amount of pleading or spell casting on Duo's part had returned his hair to normal, and Heero went around with that smug smile on his face for several days, finally relenting when Wufei acidly pointed out how noticeable the hair was, and that they really didn't want to attract attention.
"You knew and you didn't tell Duo?"
Quatre's smile broadened slightly. "And ruin their fun?"
Trowa shook his head slightly, amazed and amused by his love's antics. The others seemed to be of the opinion that there was nothing there but the polite exterior he always wore, although that was merely the most visible part. Other things, like this strange sense of humor, were popping up more and more frequently in his presence as Quatre relaxed from his formal pose.
"I'd really like to look around the shops," Quatre said with an engaging smile. Manipulative little beast, he knew exactly how cute he was, and how it affected people of either sex, and used it to his advantage. "I was never allowed anywhere without an escort of guards when I was the heir, I've never been able to just walk around by myself." He turned aquamarine eyes on Trowa, and for a second he looked through the illusion again and saw the huge eyes that Quatre normally had, not the little ones he wore when he looked human.
He smiled and nodded agreement. Quatre's face lit up and he darted around the corner. There was a loud exclamation and a thud, and when Trowa looked, he saw Quatre sitting on the ground in front of two very startled-looking soldiers. Two soldiers in Oz uniforms. Trowa swallowed involuntarily, firmly telling himself that there was no way that they could recognize them, that the illusions were holding firm. "Watch where you're going, kid," one of the soldiers said with a smile that belayed the gruffness of his voice, and he extended a hand to Quatre, pulling him to his feet. There was no sign that he'd recognized the fugitives.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry!" Quatre exclaimed. "My apologies! I wasn't watching where I was going and..." he trailed off as the soldier who'd pulled him to his feet suddenly stared at him.
"Master Quatre?" he asked, horror tingeing his voice. "But I'd heard that you'd been captured by Treize..." he suddenly cut himself off, his eyes immediately traveling to his companion.
"The Quatre that we're looking for?" the man asked, beady eyes bright. He grabbed Quatre's arm. "You're not going anywhere, faery," he growled, greed evident in his eyes.
"Hey! Let him go!" Duo shouted, and Trowa resisted the urge to groan. There went any chance that they'd think that he was alone here, giving them a chance to break him out later.
"There's the rest of them!" the second soldier shouted.
"Come on! They're just a bunch of kids," the first soldier pleaded. "He just looks a little bit like Quatre. Look at his ears! He's not the one we're looking for!"
"You should know better than anyone that these creatures," he gave Quatre a harsh shake. "Can disguise themselves using magic. For Lord Treize!" he shouted, louder this time. "The prisoners are here!"
Quatre suddenly brought one hand up directly into the soldier's face, but just before his hand touched, there was a bright flash of light. The man cried out in fear and pain, covering his eyes, and in doing so, he let go of Quatre, who hastily backed away. Almost instantly the first soldier tackled the second. "Run Master Quatre!" he shouted, wrestling his companion to the ground. "There are others coming!"
They didn't hesitate - they all took off running, not to the circus, but in the opposite direction. Quatre shouted, "Thank you!" over his shoulder as they ran, but even he didn't pause in the slightest as Duo led them through the twisting streets.
"Shit!" Duo exclaimed as they ran into another group of Oz soldiers, eight of them this time, running through the streets with swords drawn, obviously looking for them. And, of course, Duo's exclamation brought the soldier's attention right to them. Duo spun and headed off down another street, keeping up a steady stream of curses on the sub verbal level. Trowa caught sight of one of the soldiers holding another damned searching crystal like the ones he and Quatre had stolen and smashed - where had he gotten more?
Over the next half hour, due mostly to Duo's intimate knowledge of the streets, they managed to stay ahead of the full regiment of guards that were following them, and had even managed to loose them temporarily, but they had a problem. :They've got us boxed in,: Duo told them silently, so odd conversations or whispering wouldn't draw attention. :I've seen them do it before. They've sealed off this part of the city, and they've got us surrounded. It's only a matter of time until they catch up with us.:
:What can we do?: Quatre asked, his mental voice showing none of the hard breathing he was currently doing.
:I don't know. I've gotten out of this sort of situation a couple of times by staying ahead of them and out of sight until they gave up because it wasn't worth the effort.:
:I don't think that's going to work,: Wufei remarked sarcastically.
:Me neither. Give me a second. One time I got away by going across the rooftops, but that was in a little town, I don't think that'll work here. I'm about to run out of ideas, guys, anyone else?:
There was a silence, long enough to tell Trowa that they were out of ideas, too. His fist tightened around one of his knives. He was not going to be treated like an animal ever again. He wasn't afraid of showing his powers here, his true powers. The soldiers would never know what hit them. He saw from the looks on their faces that the others were feeling the same way.
:What say we kill some Ozzies?: Duo suggested with a mean grin on his face.
:Wait a second!: Quatre exclaimed. :What day is today?:
:It's the eighth day of the fifth month,: Trowa told him.
:No, the day! Of the week!:
:It's restday, of course,: Duo said with the attitude of someone who couldn't believe he was being asked a question like that.
:Great! Come on, I've got an idea!: Quatre practically shouted, and then took off again, running... well, straight for something.
:Where are we going?: Duo asked as they picked up another group of Oz soldiers on their tail.
:The Queen always holds a general session open to the public to handle disputes on restdays,: Quatre replied, turning the corner.
:Wait a second! You want us to go to another ruler?! She's just going to lock us up like Treize did!:
:No, she's different, and besides...: Quatre trailed off, because the soldiers were getting closer. Suddenly he skidded to a stop in front of a large gate and pounded on it. "Sanctuary!" he shouted. "We claim sanctuary in the name of the Queen!"
The gate's guards exchanged a startled look, then saw the Oz soldiers running up behind them, and hastily opened the gate. The five boys slipped through and into a large courtyard, and the gate was slammed in the face of the Oz soldiers.
"Let us in! We are on official business in the name of King Treize!" one of the soldiers demanded. "Those men belong to King Treize!"
The two guards exchanged a curious look, then one of them hesitantly turned to Quatre. "We don't want a diplomatic incident..." one of them started, but trailed off when Quatre turned those blue eyes on him.
"You gave us sanctuary," he said firmly. "We wish a hearing before the Queen and will accept her decision in the matter."
The guards exchanged another glance, not looking at all happy with the matter.
"The law..." Quatre prompted, getting a slightly irritated look on his face. He drew himself up to his full height, which wasn't particularly impressive, but somehow he managed to look more than a little imposing. "The law says that we must be granted a hearing once sanctuary has been claimed."
The guards exchanged one more glance, then one of them turned to the soldiers fuming on the other side of gate. "These people have claimed sanctuary..."
"They aren't people!" one of the guards exploded. "They're a bunch of fucking faeries!"
The guard looked back at Quatre, who raised his eyebrows. The guard sighed, looked at the sky as if asking the gods why they were doing this to him, and then turned back to the soldiers. "You'll have to choose a few among you to represent your cause before the Queen. If she rules in your favor, you'll have our aide in apprehending them and transporting them back to Oz."
"This is ridiculous!" exploded the same guard.
"And if I were you, I wouldn't pick him. The Queen has a short temper when it comes to manners," the guard warned, while Trowa hid a smile. They definitely had the advantage there. Quatre could probably be polite to a grisly bear that was attacking him. And he did seem to know what he was doing.
As the soldiers conferred among themselves, Duo asked, :So how we going to escape from these bozos before they take us to the Queen?:
:We're not,: Quatre replied.
:What?!:
:I think the Queen will protect us.:
:Do you have a reason to think that, or are you just winging it?: Duo demanded nervously.
:I met her once when I was a child. She has a reason to defy Treize...: he cut himself off as the guards admitted five of the soldiers through the gate. The one who had exploded twice was not one of them, although he growled at Quatre through the gates, and Trowa moved closer to Quatre, placing a protective hand on his shoulder.
"This way, sirs," one of the guards said, taking a firm hold of Quatre's arm and leading him across the courtyard. Trowa wondered why he didn't protest, until he saw that one of the soldiers was receiving identical treatment from the other guard, as two more guards moved to take their places. The hand-on-the-arm thing must be some sort of tradition.
Quatre smiled reassuringly at Trowa as they walked across the courtyard and into a large room with a high, vaulted ceiling. There were a crowd of people at this end of the room, but at the end Trowa could see a large open area with a throne in front of it. A woman with blond hair sat on the throne, listening with every appearance of interest to the two people in the center of the open area. What was surprising was how young she was - she couldn't be any older than Quatre himself. As they got into a line at the instructions of the guard who still held onto Quatre's arm, Duo asked, :How long ago, exactly, did you meet her?:
:I believe I was four.:
:How old was she?!:
:Four, of course. She's our age.:
:You're risking our lives in the hands of some girl you haven't seen in over ten years?!: Duo sounded faintly hysterical.
:I told you, she has reason to defy Treize, her brother... Oh, I almost forgot! Take off your pendants. I want her to see what we are.:
:Are you crazy?:
:We trusted you in the faery forest,: Quatre pointed out. :I know what I'm doing, I think.:
:Very reassuring,: Duo growled, but he removed his pendant with the others. There were a number of gasps around them as people saw their appearances change, and the guard who was holding onto Quatre's arm looked absolutely miserable as his fingers tightened around Quatre's arm and he tried to back away at the same time. Quatre smiled faintly at him.
:See that guy over there?: he asked, gesturing with a slight nod of his head to an opulently dressed man sitting in a chair at the edge of the cleared area, looking bored. Two Oz soldiers stood at attention behind him.
:Yes.:
:Watch him when we go out there. That's Oz's ambassador. His reaction ought to be funny.:
Trowa was glad that Quatre found the situation amusing, but he wished that the blond was taking it a little more seriously.
The Queen said something to the two people in the clearing, and they got up and walked away. The guard holding Quatre's arm suddenly moved forward, pulling Quatre into the open area, and the others followed. The other guard pulled the Oz soldiers into the open area, but they were careful to keep the two groups separate. "Your majesty," one of them said, and they both bowed. "These five..." he indicated the mages, "request sanctuary from you. The soldiers of Oz claim that they belong to King Treize of Oz. Both parties have agreed to put the matter in your hands." The guards bowed again and stood at attention between the two parties.
One of the guards made a rude sound and muttered something about not having a choice in the matter, and Trowa sensed that Duo was about to respond, but before he could, Quatre said, :Don't say anything, Duo. Just let me talk and behave.: He said it more fiercely then Trowa could remember him being before, and Duo actually subsided.
"What is this?!" demanded an angry voice, and Trowa's attention was brought back to the Oz ambassador, who had suddenly noticed who and what they are. "These creatures belong to Oz! I demand that you turn them over to my lord's men at once!"
The Queen gazed at him coldly. "They have claimed sanctuary from me, and they will be heard. I do not appreciate having my authority questioned in my own court."
The ambassador realized that he had probably gone too far, and bowed awkwardly. "My apologies, your majesty. I was merely... surprised. I have the utmost confidence that you will come to a fair and just ruling, and turn them over to Lord Treize."
"Indeed," the queen remarked.
Quatre apparently decided this was the appropriate moment to speak, and took a single step forward. "Your majesty," he began, and then bowed smoothly, putting the ambassador's effort at grace to shame. :Bow!: his thought lashed out at them, and they all bowed, not as nicely as Quatre, but they all managed some level of grace. "Please. We ask for sanctuary in your land from an unjust persecution by King Treize of his own people." That was the first time Trowa could ever remember hearing Quatre refer to their captor by his title.
The ambassador sputtered. "They are criminals, your majesty!" he exclaimed. "Filthy criminals who escaped imprisonment and fled to your country to cause more trouble!"
"I was under the impression that Treize doesn't even consider us human," Quatre said quietly, without taking his eyes off the queen. "How can we be criminals? I've committed no crime that I know of." Trowa noticed that he carefully avoided saying that none of them had ever committed a crime. Quatre was, in fact, probably the only one of them who'd never committed a crime previous to his imprisonment, but none of their crimes had warranted the treatment they'd received.
"I must admit that I am surprised to see the heir to the Winner family being hunted down as a common criminal," the queen said in curious tones.
Quatre smiled briefly, although Trowa saw the pain in his eyes before he bowed again, just as smoothly as the first time. Trowa wondered idly if Quatre was capable of an ungraceful move when he was on stage, as he obviously was now. "Unfortunately, due to the laws of Oz, mages like myself are not considered citizens, so I have been disinherited. I am no longer the Winner heir."
The Queen didn't comment, merely looked back that the ambassador, who was becoming more and more flustered as Quatre spoke in that ultra-refined voice, still smiling pleasantly as if he were discussing the weather and not fighting for their freedom. For the first time Trowa could see why Quatre wasn't entirely disappointed at not being heir anymore - it was his father's rejection and refusal to fight Treize that hurt him, not loosing the power.
"They are not citizens, it is true, they are dangerous animals, but they were being held in custody by Treize," the ambassador said with a wily glint in his eyes as he recovered some of his composure. "They broke out of the prison and killed several guards on their way. Both are serious crimes. They must be brought back to Oz to face justice."
:That lying son of a bitch!: Duo exclaimed, furious.
:People lie. Deal with it,: Heero told him.
"I'm afraid that I don't remember fighting any guards as we escaped from the compound where we were wrongfully imprisoned," Quatre said easily, ignoring the mental argument that he had to be able to hear.
"Wrongfully imprisoned?" the Queen asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We were imprisoned because we're mages," Quatre clarified, still not looking at the ambassador.
"The internal affairs of Oz are not of concern to the Sank kingdom," the ambassador said stiffly, but he seemed upset about something.
:Got him!: Quatre exulted in his mind.
"That is where you are incorrect, ambassador," the Queen said coldly, rising. She was even smaller than he'd thought. "I wish to make it known publicly that the Sank kingdom takes exception to King Treize's current policy of imprisoning innocent mages who have the misfortune to stumble into his kingdom. I also wish to make it clear that I, personally, dislike the man responsible for cheating my brother out of his inheritance, and while the Sank kingdom might have humored Oz by not putting a mage on the throne, that in no way means that we feel the same way about mages. Quatre, you and your friends may stay in Sank for as long as you wish, under my protection. Any attempt by Oz soldiers to take you out of the kingdom will be viewed as an act of aggression against the throne."
"Thank you, your majesty," Quatre said, bowing, as the ambassador withdrew to his seat, looking very angry.
"This way, please," said an elderly man in some sort of uniform, and they followed him out of the main chamber and into some sort of large waiting room, elegantly furnished. "Quatre, it's good to see you again," the elderly man said with a smile. He squeezed Quatre's shoulder. "Although I wish it could be under better circumstances."
"It's good to see you too, Pagan," Quatre said with another smile. "And I owe a lot to Relena... excuse me, Queen Relena. We can't thank you enough for your aid."
"Don't mention it, and Relena would be horrified to think that one of her few friends was calling her by her title. I know she's been looking for an excuse to publicly denounce Treize for what he did to master Milliardo for months now. You just gave her the perfect excuse." Pagan smiled. "She'll be out in a few minutes. She wants to talk to you."
"Yes, I'd guessed that," Quatre said with a smile, then silently he said, :This is Pagan - he's worked for the Peacecraft family for his entire life. He's very wise, even if he hides it well, so be careful what you say around him, if you have any secrets.: Quatre paused, then said to Trowa alone. :That was rather foolish of me, wasn't it? We all have secrets, now.:
:It's all right.:
Then a second door opened and the Queen came walking in, a broad smile on her face. "Quatre! It's good to see you again!" she exclaimed, sounding very much like a little girl for a few seconds as she embraced a very startled-looking Quatre. "I'm so sorry to hear about your father," she murmured.
"It's all right, Relena," he said, carefully putting her at arm's-length. "I... was sorry to hear about your brother. Do you know where he is now?"
Suddenly her expression became guarded. "No, he left right after turning over the throne to me."
:Her brother was heir, like me, and he's also a mage, like us. But he didn't hide it, because they don't look at us the same way as in Oz. But Sank is a small kingdom and Oz is almost an empire, and Treize pressured Sank until they had to give the throne to someone else. So Milliardo turned over the throne to his younger sister and disappeared so that Treize couldn't cause any more trouble,: Quatre explained.
"I'm sorry," Quatre repeated.
"I... you look... I never knew," she said, staring at his ears.
"I know. I was living in Oz, I had to hide it," he explained. "No one knew."
She nodded, her gaze traveling around the room. "Who are your friends?"
"They were imprisoned with me - we escaped together," Quatre said truthfully, leaving out almost everything else. "This is Duo, Heero, Trowa, and Wufei," he introduced them, leaving out last names and any explanations.
Based on her performance in the throne room, Trowa had assumed that she was a very strong-willed, remarkable young woman. He was now forced to rethink his opinion - maybe strong when it came to state matters, but still very much a child in other things. Her eyes glazed over and a dreamy smile appeared on her face as she looked at Heero, whose eyes widened in alarm and he actually backed up a step. Trowa couldn't hide a smile at the sight of the utterly unflappable Heero put on the defensive by a teenage girl.
Then again, an assassin would face danger all the time, but almost never girls. Same thing could be said for me. I don't know what I would do if a girl started looking at me that way. Probably ignore her. That was the way he dealt with most things that made him uncomfortable. But that led to another uncomfortable thought - why was it that he loved Quatre? He'd seen enough of the world to know that though those pairing were not uncommon, they were not normal, either. He thought he loved the blond boy, but everything inside of him had been dead for so long, he couldn't be certain.
Pagan finally ended the awkward silence that Relena's staring was making, but his topic of conversation was hardly better.
"We've heard some horrible stories about what was happening to the mages within Oz's boarders," Pagan said. "Perhaps you can tell us. It must not have been as bad as it sounded."
"I'm afraid it was worse. We were imprisoned, treated like animals..." Quatre shook his head as Relena finally regained her composure.
"That's horrible! But I'm not sure this is much better. You'll practically be prisoners here as well. I can protect you as long as you're in the palace, but once you leave... the ambassador will already have bought enough plain street clothes to outfit all his men, and if they're not wearing their uniforms, I can't stop them."
"Why are there so many Oz soldiers here?"
"One of Treize's advisors is in the city, supposedly to investigate possible trade options, but she's a spy," Relena dismissed the story with a wave of her hand.
"Who?"
"Her name is Lady Une."
Trowa stiffened involuntarily, and Quatre gasped.
"You know her?"
"She's Treize's top assistant," Quatre said, abandoning the formal names again. "What is she doing here?"
Relena frowned slightly. "Pagan, didn't you say something about her spending a lot of time in my library?"
"Yes, Lady. She's spent quite a bit of time there, searching through some of our oldest documents."
Relena's eyes opened a little wider, and suddenly she was the Queen again, not a foolish mooning girl. "The documents that Zechs..." she trailed off, but Pagan nodded in response to whatever she was saying. She shot a sharp look at Quatre. "There is more here then you're telling me."
Quatre smiled pleasantly, the same smile that he'd used in the throne room, the fake one. "That's entirely possible, your majesty."
"You gave your word to the guards that you'd accept my judgment today. What would you have done if I'd decided against you?"
"Run away, most likely."
"You'd never be able to escape."
"We have certain advantages," Quatre said, holding up a glowing hand.
"The Quatre Winner I knew as a child would never go back on his word."
"I am not Quatre Winner. I am Quatre, escaped faery-slave. I do what is necessary to survive. I'm sorry."
Relena's face softened slightly at the last words. "I don't suppose you'll be staying very long, will you? If you can..." she made a vague gesture with her hand, probably indicating some sort of spell casting. She looked very disappointed, and Heero looked relieved. "If... if its not too much trouble, I wish you'd stay around for a little while, at least until my... until one of my aides returns from a trip."
"We'll stay," Wufei suddenly spoke up in a voice completely unlike his own. He blinked several times. "I didn't say that!" he said in a furious voice.
"Why do we have to stay?" Quatre asked, an intent expression on his face.
"It's the damned libraries," Wufei growled, still furious. He rubbed his temples, eyes blinking rapidly as he processed the new information that had just appeared in his head. They all waited patiently, knowing what it was like, while Relena looked between them with an expression of bewilderment on her face. "That's why we're here. There's something in them... I don't know!"
"The same thing that lady was looking for?" Duo asked suddenly, looking around the room.
A silence met him, finally broken by the young queen's voice. "There's a lot you're not telling me, and I'm not sure if I want to know. My... aide specializes in the documents and scrolls that Lady Une was searching through, and I know he's removed a few for reasons that I did not understand. You are free to look through them yourselves, of course, but he will be returning in a week, and I believe he'd like to talk to you."
It was Quatre, of course, who graciously accepted her invitation, but that didn't hide the frustration and anger they all felt. It wasn't as if they had a choice in the matter.