For the second time in her life, and Iris thought, the second time too many, Iris awoke to a tremendous amount of pain. She moaned pitifully as immediate tears sprung to her eyes.
'I am a princess, damn it!' She wailed inside her mind. ' I shouldn't have to put up with this shit!'
"You're awake," a voice came from near her.
It wasn't Dilandau and Iris thanked the Gods for that much at least. She didn't recognize the voice at first. In fact, when she cracked open her eyes, she didn't recognize her surroundings at all. She was leaning against a tree, with long grass up around her body. Iris blinked up at the sky, and instead of a roof, she saw the mystic moon shining down on her.
"What the…" Iris whispered.
"They knew." The voice said again. Iris recognized it now; it was Miguel who spoke to her.
Iris felt incredibly weak, and this fact baffled her. She couldn't remember a thing. The last memory she had was of Dilandau calling the slayers to his throne room and informing them of their battle.
She tried to turn her head, and failed, only able to turn her eyes in the direction of Miguel's voice. One knee was brought up and his arm was draped over it. He held a stick in his hand, and slowly rotated it over the fire.
"What do you mean?" Iris whispered weakly, her vision beginning to blur and spin.
"Freid. They knew we were coming. They were ready for us. They trapped us." Miguel pulled the stick out of the fire, examined what was on it, and then continued spinning it over the flames. "We had no choice but to retreat."
"Why…" Iris took a deep breath, wondering why it tired her so to speak. "Where's the Vionne?"
"They got to that too. The Vionne had to disappear because Freid's cruisers were going after it. It will send it's coordinates to us once the search has died down."
Iris suddenly realized how clipped Miguel's voice was. He was speaking to her as if she were some prisoner, not like the girl he kissed only a few nights before.
"Miguel, what's wrong-" Iris began.
"You should rest. Your injuries are very bad, and Dilandau told us to keep you alive." Miguel said quickly, cutting her off. He then walked away from her then, and over to where she could see the other slayers were sitting around a bigger fire.
'Injuries…?" Iris looked down and saw the blood that covered her torso and leg. She also saw the arrow that was still lodged above her knee. That sight made her wretch, and she would have vomited had there been anything in her stomach. Instead, her dry heaves caused her chest wound to start bleeding again.
The pain was so intense she nearly lost consciousness. She tried to move her hand to touch her chest in order to find her wound, but found she could not move her arm. She couldn't move either of them. She soon discovered she couldn't move at all.
Iris squinted down at her middle, and soon found the reason why she had felt like Miguel was talking to a prisoner. She was one. Iris had not been leaning against a tree, she was tied to it. Her wrists were bound and her arms were crossed over her chest, and then her entire body was bound around the tree. Her ankles were tied as well.
"What is happening?" Iris couldn't focus anymore. Everything that was happening in her brain was proving to be too much. The last thing she heard before she dropped back into the black oblivion was Gatti's voice.
"I should rip that arrow out of her knee and slit her throat with it…"
"Watch your mouth, Gatti. You don't know what Dilandau-sama would do if he heard you saying that." Chesta warned, biting off the rather overdone meat that Miguel had cooked.
"Yeah. He'd probably be pissed because he want's to do that himself." Dalet joked. He laughed when Gatti grinned and tossed a piece of meat at him.
"What is your problem, Chesta? Do you think that Master Dilandau is at all happy with the Princess? She betrayed him, Chesta. She betrayed Zaibach, and all of us. Do you know what happened to the last person who did that?" Gatti asked.
Chesta looked at him carefully. "No,"
"Well neither do I, because no one has ever dared to do it before."
"Or they just didn't live to tell the tale," Guimel said as he sat down by the fire with the rest of the slayers.
"We'll soon find out," Dalet said quietly.
"What do you mean?" Chesta asked.
Dalet motioned to the left. The dragonslayers all turned to see their leader come out of the forest carrying a medium sized deer-like (Do they have deer in Gaea?) creature over his shoulders. He dropped it next to them, splattering some of them with its blood. Of course they knew better than to complain, their captain was not in a good mood.
"Skin it, and start it cooking. It will take a while to roast." He wiped a bloody hand across his blood-spattered forehead and then dropped his hand to the hilt of his sword. "How is Viole?"
"He hasn't woken up yet, sir, but we've stopped his bleeding, and set his broken leg." Chesta offered while he and the others removed their daggers and set about preparing their dinner.
"Is she awake?" he asked quietly, his voice low and dangerous.
Everyone knew he was speaking to Miguel. He'd been the only one to go near her since they'd landed, not accounting that Gatti carried her there. They'd all been too afraid to be accused of treason along with her, so they avoided her like the plague.
When no one answered, Dilandau struck Miguel with his foot. "Miguel?" he barked.
"Yes, sir, she is." Miguel admitted quietly, silently asking Iris to forgive him.
"I want this ready when I get back." Dilandau started towards the tree Iris was tied to.
"Yes, Dilandau-sama," they all chorused quietly as they wordlessly went about their business of cleaning the animal.
Dilandau knelt next to Iris and sighed, closing his eyes. 'What a waste', he thought.
You can't kill her, Dilandau.
The voice didn't even surprise him. It usually popped up when his thoughts were on Iris. "I don't have much choice," Dilandau said, removing his dagger from its sheath and slicing the ropes that held her to the tree. He left her wrists and ankles tied, knowing it would be easier this way when she began to kick and lash out…and she would.
It is not your place to punish her. Her crime was against Zaibach, not you.
Dilandau laughed at that while he picked her up. "I am Zaibach, woman. And she is my slayer. I don't see how it cannot be my responsibility to punish her."
The voice hesitated, then spoke quickly. You won't go through with it.
Dilandau chuckled, placing Iris at the edge of the pond he'd just walked to as he kicked off
his boots, removed his armored jacket and his undershirt. "If you are truly trying to talk me out of this, the worst thing you can do is tell me that I won't do it. I will automatically have to prove you wrong. I'm surprised you didn't already know that," Dilandau added smirking as he picked Iris up and took her in to the water with him. "All-seeing-one."
Dilandau pulled Iris out into the pond and held her head above the water. She had been unconscious until the water had hit her, yet she was still too weak to struggle, so all she could do was lie still as Dilandau drug her out farther. She wasn't sure of her surroundings yet as she teetered on the edge of awareness. She only knew that she was moving, and at the moment, didn't care why.
I can see that you don't want to kill her, Dilandau. I can see your heart warming for her.
Dilandau managed to smile at that one. "Yeah, I know. And it pisses the hell out of me. Why does she make me feel this way?" he asked the voice, not knowing what else to do.
He'd had this battle with himself during his hunt for the deer(like thing) he'd killed for him and his slayers to eat.
Treason. It was serious. Too serious to go unpunished, yet he knew he wouldn't be able to kill her. He thought about letting Gatti have go at her, since Dilandau had noticed that Gatti did not really tolerate Iris all that well, but then he knew even as he thought it that he'd kill Gatti if he touched her. Like he'd killed the man in the guymelef that had dared to attack Iris, before she'd…
Dilandau clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes. What she'd done was unforgivable, he knew that. If he didn't kill her, then she'd never be allowed back in Zaibach again. Either way, he'd lost her.
'When did you ever have her?' he asked himself. 'When did you start wanting her?'
The moment she jumped on you with that dagger of hers. I remember, The voice chimed in, rather amused. I thought it was sick that you'd be attracted to someone who was trying to kill you, but then I remembered whom I was talking about. Now that I think of it, it's quite charming really…
"Shut up before I puke everywhere."
The voice laughed.
Iris opened her eyes. Voices were echoing around her, she couldn't quite hear them, and she soon discovered that was because her ears were underwater. Underwater?!
Iris gasped and Dilandau tightened his hold on her. She tried to swim by flipping over onto her stomach and kicking her legs, but there were two problems with that solution. One, Dilandau held her so that she could not flip over, and two, her legs were bound together.
'Ok,' she thought, trying to calm herself. 'No problem…'
Water got into her mouth when she tried to speak, and she began to sputter and cough. Dilandau raised her head up a bit more and pulled her deeper into the lake until he was chest deep in it. "Keep your mouth shut and that won't happen again." His voice was cold and hard as steel. Iris winced. This was not going to be good.
The arrow in her knee made itself known to her and Iris gasped. "Gods, what is that?" Iris gasped, breathless with pain.
"An arrow is embedded half-way through your knee joint. I wouldn't move around too much."
"An arrow? How the he-" Iris was cut off as her head was shoved underwater. Dilandau grabbed the arrow in her knee, shut his eyes, and wrenched it out. Air bubbles exploded to the surface of the water as the lake swallowed up Iris's scream of agony.
Dilandau clenched his jaw and sighed, waiting for the air bubbles to slow and lessen. When they stopped completely, he yanked her head to the surface. Iris's eyes were clenched shut and she gasped huge breaths of air into her lungs. She was biting her lip and forcing the air through her nose as she tried not to scream again. The water around them was beginning to turn red, and Iris shut her eyes again when she saw it in order not to pass out.
Dilandau began to move her, he stopped her from floating on her back and held her so that she was in front of him, and her back was to him. Her legs dangled uselessly in the water, and Iris didn't dare try to move either her injured leg or her good leg, for fear of feeling more horrible pain. She felt his hands at her waist as they began to lift up her soft undershirt. Her hands immediately went to his. "What…are you doing?" she asked, still weak with pain and fatigue.
Dilandau removed her hands from his and went back to his task of removing her undershirt. "The wound in your chest needs to be cleaned. Or would you rather die slowly of a horrible flesh eating infection? Now stop bitching at me and put your arms up."
Iris opened her mouth to complain, then sighed and put her arms up. Fine. If he wanted to take her shirt off, who was she to stop him?
Dilandau pulled the undershirt off and swished it around in the water, cleaning it as best as he could. He pulled it out of the water and wrung it. "Turn around."
Iris closed her eyes and steeled her nerve. If he wanted an eyeful, he was going to get one. But she was going to control this situation, not him.
She turned in the water, her eyes directly on his as she did. The water covered more than half of her chest, but he could see enough to not need his imagination. Dilandau was completely professional, much to Iris's dismay, and looked only at her wound. His eyes narrowed in concentration as he dipped her undershirt into the water and pulled it out, squeezing it and letting the lake water run over her wound.
Iris hissed as the water stung her marred flesh, and Dilandau's eyes flickered up to hers for a moment, then back down to her wound.
Iris didn't understand at all. He was being gentle. He was being careful and considerate.
He wasn't being Dilandau.
The moment Iris had awakened in the water, she thought her life was over. She thought Dilandau was going to drown her for what she had done in the battle. For trying to run away; for becoming a traitor. And when Dilandau had shoved her head beneath the surface, she knew she was going to die. But then he had removed the arrow from her leg, and now he was washing her wounds with hands as gentle as a mothers.
Iris hissed in pain again.
Well, almost like a mother's.
"What are you doing?" Iris asked, finally unable to take her confusion any more.
"I thought I'd explained this already-"
"Why haven't you killed me?"
Dilandau blinked, taken by surprise at her question. He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. "I don't know." He said quietly.
Iris's heart doubled in its speed. "W-what do you mean you don't-"
"I mean that I don't know, ok?" Dilandau shouted, shaking her a bit. "What were you thinking, Iris? How could you have just…I mean what made you think that you would be safe?" Dilandau asked her, incredulous.
Iris blinked, now her turn to be taken by surprise. "S-safe?"
"What in Gaea made you believe that those soldiers on that wall would believe you? That they would just let you in, no questions asked when you were wearing a fucking Zaibach uniform? Hm?" He continued to shake her shoulders in frustration until she winced as her wounds were jostled.
Memories came flooding back. "Those soldiers, they shot me," she whispered almost just to herself.
"Of course they shot you. An enemy was running straight at them. What did you think they would do?"
"I'm not their enemy! I'm not-"
"Yes you are, Iris. You are a Dragonslayer of the Zaibach army." Dilandau said coldly, releasing her shoulders. "At least, you were."
Iris swallowed, fighting to keep her head above water because he let go of her. "I was," Iris said, fighting the water.
Dilandau swam up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her head above water again. "You were, because most likely now you will be put to death."
Iris stopped fighting the water and held still in Dilandau's arms. The feeling of his bare arms around her bare middle was a bit unsettling to her. "I thought you said you couldn't kill me."
"I didn't say I couldn't, I said I didn't know why I hadn't," Dilandau said, turning her towards him. "And that doesn't mean someone else won't." He turned her all the way around and kept his arms around her and his eyes on hers. "Why did you run?" he asked.
"I was scared." Iris whispered.
"Of battling?"
"No. Of what I had become. I didn't want to kill, and especially not in the name of Zaibach." She looked up and saw anger flash in his eyes. She didn't want him to change back into the hardened Dilandau just yet, not when she was so close to getting under the shield he always had up around his heart. "Please understand, Dilandau. Would you feel right to battle in the name of another country? Would you kill in the name of my country? In the name of Rolowen?" Iris asked, begging him to understand his position.
"If that was the country I was loyal to. I would battle for whomever had my loyalty. You promised your loyalty-"
"I never-"
"You promised your loyalty when you accepted your position as a dragonslayer." Dilandau continued harshly.
"You will never understand the position I was forced into. I had no choice."
"No choice? Forced into?" Dilandau tossed back his head and laughed at her. "Please. Who forced you to jump into my guymelef?"
Iris lowered her head at that. He had her there.
"And you did have a choice about whether or not to become a dragonslayer." Dilandau pointed out quietly.
"Oh, yes. Death was such an appealing option." Iris rolled her eyes.
"But an option none-the-less."
"No, it wasn't. I couldn't leave Eric alone."
"And yet that is exactly what you were doing when you ran for the castle. You would have been safe behind the walls and Eric would still have been in Zaibach."
"No!" Iris demanded. "As soon as I made my identity made known, as an ally of Rolowen, they would have ordered you to give him up. With Freid's military prowess there is no way Zaibach would invite their attacks! You would have given up Eric."
Dilandau stared at her, a hint of sadness in his eyes. It faded quickly into bitterness and anger. "You had this all planned out didn't you? How long were you plotting against Zaibach? How long have I been harboring a traitor in my slayers?" Dilandau demanded.
Iris looked at him. "Take me back to the shore."
Dilandau narrowed his eyes at her. "You will answer your superior." He said dangerously.
Iris looked up at him, her eyes misted with tears. He was gone again. Lost behind his shield. "You are no longer my superior. You said so yourself. I'm not a slayer anymore, just a prisoner."
"Then I should just let you drown."
"But you won't," Iris ventured, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Will you?"
"What are you doing?" Dilandau asked, alarms going off in his head left and right.
"Trying to get though to you. Trying to get past this iron blockade you have surrounding you and your feelings." Iris brought her face closer to Dilandau's. "I want to know what you feel."
"Why?" Dilandau breathed, unsure of what to do, having never been in this situation before.
"Does it matter?" Iris asked, and leaned in to touch her lips to his. She felt Dilandau go completely tense, but he didn't pull away from her. She took this as about the best sign she was going to get, and so she pulled herself closer to Dilandau and tried to deepen her kiss.
Now her feelings were out in the open. Now she had to wait for him to respond; she was just afraid of what that response would be. He could reject her, or he could kiss her back.
And, of course, there was always the possibility that he would kill her.
Her heart leapt a bit when she felt his body relax, and then, slowly and full of uncertainty, his lips begin to move under hers. His hands went around her back and pulled her closer to him, bringing her bare chest up against his bare chest. This sensation was completely new, and Iris blushed furiously. She moved her hand to the back of his neck, and Dilandau fisted his hand in her hair. She felt his tongue touch her lips, and Iris lost sense of everything.
Suddenly Dilandau pulled away, and Iris opened her eyes, forcing herself back to the surface of her mind. "What's-" she asked, still a bit wobbly and giddy from the kiss.
She heard it then. Marching. And lots of it.
Iris turned from Dilandau's arms and looked towards the shore. She saw an army of men making their way to the shore of the lake, and many were holding onto dragonslayer hostages. The slayers that had been caught were bloody, and some unconscious, telling her there must have been a horrible fight.
Dilandau took off swimming for the shore, trying to reach his sword before the soldiers could, but he proved not fast enough.
"Hold it, Captain." A man grinned, holding his sword to Dilandau's throat just as he had climbed out of the water. "Just hold it right there."
Dilandau swore and rose slowly, the man's sword never leaving it's mark on his throat. Dilandau recognized the armor the soldiers wore. They were from Freid. "Let my slayers go," he warned in a hard voice.
The man laughed. "Now why in bloody hell would I want to do that? You just stay where you are, lad. Griscus, come here and restrain this boy for me please."
A large man came from the foliage behind Dilandau and wrenched his arms behind his back. Dilandau kicked his foot up behind him, and hit the man squarely in his balls. The big man doubled over and Dilandau fought free. Iris watched all this from the bank, struggling to get her undershirt back on. When she finally succeeded, she jumped out of the water and limped towards the fray as fast as her injured leg would allow.
Dilandau punched two more guards out of his way, but there were just too many of them. He fought like a demon, biting, punching, kicking, anything to get free.
"Stay still, damn you!" A voice called at him. Dilandau growled and fought against the soldiers. It took three of them to hold Dilandau still so that the man could get close enough to plunge a needle into Dilandau's neck. Dilandau roared at the man and fought for all he was worth, but the drug was quick, and he soon began to falter and weaken. "You'll pay for this…" he promised as the drug took a firm hold on him.
The last thing he heard before dropping completely out of consciousness was Iris yelling at the soldiers not to hurt him.
