Of Dragons and Destiny

by The Narrator

To whom is allegiance owed? The Empire or the Lady? Colin must choose his path as the War of Destiny begins in earnest...

6. Festival

Disclaimer: I do not own Tenkuu no Escaflowne.

Of Dragons and Destiny: Chapter V

Festival

"O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright… I ne'er saw true beauty till this night."

~Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet"

            The door to the common room creaked open slowly, drawing fourteen pairs of anxious eyes to the figure standing motionless in the shadows of the corridor beyond.  Where the room had once been filled with subdued conversation, tense silence now reigned.

            "Well?" Chesta burst out, unable to bear the waiting any longer, "What did he say?"
            Wordlessly, Gatti entered the room, his head bowed, not looking at his comrades.  He slumped into the large comfortable chair before the fire and stared into the flames, his face as expressionless as stone.

            "Did you get it?" Migel asked, getting up from his place by the window.  The grey afternoon outside and the late autumn drizzle no longer held his interest now that his future happiness depended on the news Gatti had yet to reveal.  All of the Dragon Slayers moved to cluster around their chosen messenger.

            "Gatti, what's wrong?" Raul managed to whisper, "It's bad, isn't it?  Come on you can tell us."

            Colin bit his lip and regarded his friend.  Why can't he just tell us?  We were prepared for the worst; he's only making us feel worse by delaying the inevitable.  Gatti's head sank to his chest and his hands covered his face.

            "Oh, no!" moaned Yan as Gatti's shoulders began to shake, "Please say it isn't so!"
            "I'm sorry guys," Gatti said, his voice muffled by his hands, "but you only have one hour to pack your bags before the wagons leave for town!"

            A fly would have been ecstatic over the plethora of open mouths available to him.

            "You…you…!" Raul gasped after a very pregnant pause.  Gatti's hands dropped slowly from his face, revealing a huge grin that reached all the way to his eyes.

          "Got ya!" he crowed.  He glanced around at his fellow Dragon Slayers.  "What are you guys waiting around here for?  We have a four-day leave and only one hour to get ready!"

            "Chesta, would you mind…?" Raul asked in a flat voice, not taking his dangerous amber eyes off of Gatti.

            "Not at all," Chesta replied in the same tone.

            "Colin?"

            "No objections from me."

            "Anyone else?"

            "Nope."

            "None here."

            "Go right ahead, Wakiza."

            "Raul? Guys?" Gatti asked, licking his lips and darting nervous eyes from face to implacable face as he sank further back into the chair, desperate to disappear into the fabric.

            "AAARRGH!"  Raul screamed and pounced on his friend, knocking the chair backwards.  He and Gatti were unceremoniously dumped onto the hard wooden floor with a crash that rattled their bones.  They rolled a fair distance before stopping, the former on top of the latter.

            "Don't you ever do that again!" Raul yelled, smacking Gatti in the head with a cushion he had miraculously managed to grab and hold onto.

            Gatti raised his hands to defend himself, but he was laughing so hard that he absorbed a large part of the blows on his face.

            "Should we do something?" Chesta asked.

            "Nah," Colin shook his head, "Raul will stop when he gets tired."

            Colin's prediction was soon fulfilled as Raul gave Gatti one last, half-hearted whack and rolled off of him, panting heavily.  The four friends were the last ones left in the room as everyone else had hurried away to get their things together.

            Gatti was still laughing rather weakly as he rose to his feet.  "Come on," he said, holding out his hand to his prone friend, "All the other guys are getting their stuff.  We don't want to be left behind, do we?"  Raul glared but took Gatti's hand. By the time he was on his feet, he too was grinning at the thought of freedom.

            "That was a good trick," Chesta admitted as they made their way back to the room.

            "I'm a gifted actor and I never saw through it," Raul said, giving his highest praise as both a renowned trickster and consummate actor.       

            "All in the spirit of Aratás," Gatti said cheerfully, preening at bit at the praise he was receiving.

            "But do that again," Colin warned as he and Chesta opened to door to their room, "and I'll take the pillow from Raul and do the job myself."

            "Fine, you get the pillow, I'll get my sword," Gatti shot back before disappearing into his room, which was next door to Colin's.

            Colin entered his room to find Chesta in a whirl of activity. 

            "Come on, Colin!" Chesta exclaimed as he dumped several clean shirts into his traveling case, "We've got to hurry if we don't want to be left behind!"

            "We do have an hour you know."

            Chesta spared a half-second to glare at Colin.  "I haven't seen my family for six months and if you want to spend furlough at my house, you'd better get your rear in gear!"

            Colin sighed and began piling uniforms and other necessities into his overnight bag.  Can't believe we have to wear our uniforms whenever we leave base.  At least everyone will know who we are and treat us with the respect the best soldiers in Zaibach deserve.  He heard Chesta impatiently tapping his foot behind him.  Ah, well, can't blame the kid.  I can't imagine being only ten miles from my parents and not being allowed to see them.  And we've been stationed here for almost a month now.

            "Done," Colin said, as he hooked his bag closed and slung it over his shoulder.  Oof, damn, this is heavy.  Good thing I won't have to pack my spare armor, too.

            "I've been thinking," said Chesta as they started for the door, "I really should invite Gatti and Raul to my house, too.  I'm sure my mother won't mind and with the festival and all, it would be hard to meet up with them."

            "Good idea," Colin said and knocked on the door to their friends' room.  When no one answered after several seconds, Colin opened the door himself.  "Hey, Gatti, Raul, Chesta wants to…ah!"  A hideous beast, with wild greasy hair and a snarling mouth, was lurking behind the door and it launched itself straight at Colin, knocking him into the wall behind him.

            "Got ya again!" Colin heard the monster say, without moving its lips.

            "Wha…Raul, get off!" Colin yelled and threw the boy off.  Gatti and Raul were rolling on the floor with laughter and Chesta was trying very hard to smother his own snickering.  "NOT funny!" Colin exclaimed and jerked Raul's mask off of his head.

            "Hey, watch it!  I had to special order that mask and it only came in yesterday!"

            "Good idea.  With that face of yours, you were probably desperate to cover it up."  Colin tossed the rubber mask back to his gaping friend.

            "Oooo, he got you with that one!" Gatti said.

            "Do you guys want to come and stay at my house for the festival?" Chesta asked before Raul's temper got the better of him.  Gatti and Raul looked at each other.

            "Might as well," Gatti said, "The inns are probably full by now and we'd be lucky if we could get a room at the ZYO."

            "Plus we'd be getting free food," Raul agreed.  He looked at Chesta.  "We'll come."

            "Good, but you'd better pack quickly.  We might miss the wagons."

            "Chesta, we nearly have an hour before we're supposed to be at the staging area."

            "Don't mind him; he's been like this ever since we knew we were on leave.  Try to hurry though, before he keels over from a heart attack or something."

            The wagons stopped in the main square of the town and fifteen boys in dark blue armor and black uniforms, complete with gold trim, piled out, shouting and talking excitedly like children let out on holiday.  The four friends paused a moment in the square to allow Chesta to get his bearings.

            "See you at the festival!" Raul shouted to their rapidly scattering compatriots.

            "At least it's stopped raining," Gatti said, "I would hate to think that they couldn't get the bonfires going."

            "Or even worse, cancel the dancing!" Raul exclaimed, horrified at the thought, "Imagine, all that food going to waste!"
            "You're always thinking with your stomach," Chesta grumbled, "All right, let's get going!"

               Colin was not paying attention.  He was dazzled by the sights and sounds and smells of the town getting ready for the harvest festival.  The sky was a piercing azure blue with cottony clouds scudding across its breadth in the brisk autumn breeze.  Bales of golden hay were piled all over the cobble stone square, giving off the sweet scent of sun-warmed clover.  Colin could also discern the spices used in baking: cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger root.  People called back and forth as they hung yellow-gold, orange, and brown bunting between the buildings or stacked cords of wood for the bonfires that would take place outside of town later that night.  Every door was decorated in harvest colors, with a sheaf of wheat hanging from the lintel for good luck in the next harvest.  Here and there was a splash of solemn black, a reminder of the coming winter and a warning to bring in the harvest quickly.  Above it all, a band was playing a lively old-style dance tune, warming up for that evening's festivities.  This all-out preparation and celebration was new to Colin; Aratás was celebrated all over Zaibach, but in the modern, industrialized cities, it was a tradition without meaning, an excuse to celebrate without really knowing why one was supposed to be happy.  Colin had a sense of going back into the past, back before there was a time that his people had relied on machines of steel and the sterile ways of urban life.  Here, the earth was living and growing and the very stones had a vitality alien to the cold impersonal dwellings Colin was familiar with.

            Staring about himself like a child, Colin saw a familiar sight: a man selling masks from his cart for the masquerade and revelry that was an integral part of the harvest festival.  Colin realized with a start that he had no costume and it felt wrong to go to the festival without one.  At home, his father had quickly disposed of the "childish practice" of dressing up and going wild during Aratás, but his father held no power here.  Colin had retreated to a time when simple pleasure took precedence over filial ambition.  Before he could make his way through the busy crowd over to the cart, someone caught hold of his elbow and he heard Chesta's voice saying something in his ear.

            "What was that?" Colin said, shaking his head as though he had been woken up from a dream.

            "I said, quit gaping like a fish and come one!" Chesta ordered impatiently.  As if afraid Colin would wander off, Chesta kept hold of his friend's arm and lead him like a wayward child to where Raul and Gatti were waiting.

            "Found him," Chesta said, "He was still standing where the wagons dropped us off."

            Raul rolled his eyes, but neither he nor Gatti said anything.  They followed Chesta down a narrow, dog-leg alleyway, over a picturesque stone bridge and finally to the stoop of a townhouse that was a model of middle-class respectability.  Colin quietly absorbed the sight as Chesta raised the black iron knocker.  The house, like its immediate neighbors and the rest of the buildings in the town, was of the white plaster and dark timber variety that had been popular in Zaibach architecture for many generations.  The roof was of dark slate, pitched at a very high angle, like the witches' hats in childhood fairy tales.  The lead-paned windows were made up of palm-sized circles of thick glass that captured the yellow light of the late afternoon sun and held it somewhere inside so that they could shine like diamonds.  It was not even close to being as grand as Colin's family manor, but even the outside felt more like home than those magnificent cold halls had ever been.

            The door opened slowly, almost hesitantly, drawing Colin's attention to it.  A girl stood in the portico, gazing out at them with wide, curious eyes.  Colin had to restrain himself from gasping at the sight of her.  Raul and Gatti reacted in much the same manner and they stared, unable to speak.  Her long blond hair was pulled back in a demure braid, but it caught the light of the sun and gleamed gold in its radiance.  Her eyes were like twin sapphires, but instead of the cold fire of those gems, they were warm and open, the eyes of a pure-hearted innocent.  A smattering of freckles across her nose and cheekbones showed that she was unafraid of the sun, though her skin was the shade and smoothness of the seal case that hung from Colin's neck.  A faint rosy shade, the color of the simple dress she was wearing, blossomed on her cheeks as she felt the boys' stare.

            "Can I help you?" she asked them.

            Chesta stepped forward.  "It's me, Alethea.  You mean you don't recognize your own twin?"

"Chesta?" Alethea gasped.  With a cry of joy, she hugged her brother, nearly taking him off of his feet.  "Why didn't you write and tell me you coming for Aratás?" she exclaimed.

            "Can't…breathe…" Chesta wheezed, turning slightly blue.

            "Oh, I'm sorry!" Alethea cried and released him.  "Are you all right?" she asked anxiously.

            Chesta nodded, taking in deep breaths.  He pointed to his friends, who were still staring at Alethea.   "These are friends of mine.  Alethea, meet Colin Delios, Gatti Leala, and Raul Wakiza.  Guys, this is my sister, Alethea Thuban."

            "Hi," Raul managed in a strangled voice.

            "Um, nice to meet you," Gatti mumbled, blushing and unable to meet Alethea's eyes.

            Colin simply gaped at her until Chesta elbowed him in the ribs and asked, "Are we allowed to come in now?"

            "Oh, of course! Come in, come in!" Alethea said and turned to the house to call out, "Mom!  Cora!  Corwin!  Chesta's come home and he's brought some of his friends!"

            Very cute, Colin.  So she's the most beautiful girl you've ever seen in your life and you can't even say a word to her.  You don't know a thing about her.  You've stood up to Lord Dilandau and defied Zaibach and you can't talk to a girl.  Stupid, stupid, stupid!

            While Colin was thus employed in berating himself, the Dragon Slayers crowded into the narrow foyer.  "I'll go get everyone," Alethea told Chesta, and disappeared down the hall.

            "Take off your boots," Chesta hissed as he bent down to undo his clasps, "My mom hates it when people come into her house and walk all over her floors with shoes on!"

            The other boys hastened to obey.

            "Why didn't you ever tell us about your sister?" Raul asked accusingly.

            "I already told you I had a twin sister," Chesta said artlessly, slipping his boots off and putting them aside neatly, "What else was there to tell you?"

            "Why didn't you tell us that she's so…so…?" Raul trailed off under Chesta's intense look.

            "Beautiful," Colin blurted.  Oops.  Chesta's eyes narrowed dangerously.

            "Chesta!" A woman came sailing down the hall and swept Chesta into her arms, covering him with kisses.  Colin breathed a sigh of relief; Chesta was evidently quite protective of his sister, for obvious and very good reasons.  The woman was not much taller than Colin and nearly twice as broad.  Her blond, grey-streaked hair was swept into a bun on the top of her head and curly strands formed a halo around her rosy, smiling face.

            "Chessy, Chessy, Chessy!" shrieked two small fair-haired children who could not have been more than seven or eight.  They latched on to Chesta's legs and held on like barnacles to a ship's hull.

            "And who are these young men?" Chesta's mother exclaimed, letting go of Chesta and leaving him to the mercy of the children, who began climbing on him while continuing their shrill mantra.

            "Let go, Corwin!  Mom…ouch!  Cora!  That's Gatti, that's Colin, and that's Raul.  A little help here?" Chesta begged, attempting to pry the little girl off of his shoulder armor.

            "Chesta!  Be nice to your brother and sister!  They haven't seen you for months," Chesta's mother scolded, "Corwin, Cora!  Don't tear your brother apart or he won't come home again!  Go back to the kitchen and help your sister with the cookies."

            "Cookies, cookies, cookies!" the children shrieked and ran down the hall, presumably towards the kitchen.

            Chesta's mother watched them scamper away and shook her head.  "They're so excited about the festival already, and with you showing up, they're going to be uncontrollable," she sighed.  When she turned back to the boys, her face was beaming.  "Could you tell me your names again?" she asked, "I didn't quite catch them the first time."

            "I'm Gatti Leala."

            "My name's Colin Delios."  Colin bowed a short, polite bow.

            "I, Madam Thuban," said Raul in a grand voice, executing an elaborate bow, "am know as Raul Wakiza, son of Han Wakiza, officer in His Imperial Majesty's Dragon Slayers."  He took Madam Thuban's flour-dusted hand and kissed gallantly, like a knight.

            Madam Thuban giggled like a maiden.  "Aren't you the sweetest!" she exclaimed.  Gatti pointed his finger into his mouth and pretended to gag.  "I'm so glad all of you could come and spend the festival time with us.  I've read so much about you in Chesta's letters.  Won't you come to the kitchen and have something to eat?"

            "It would be an honor, madam," Raul said, still speaking in his affected voice.  He took Madam Thuban's arm and pretended to escort her to the kitchen.  Chesta, Colin, and Gatti followed, shaking their heads over Raul's ridiculous behavior.

            "Cora, don't eat the orange sugar!  It's for the cookies!" Alethea exclaimed.  Colin, who had been engaged in decorating "wheat-sheaf" cookies with yellow sugar, looked up and laughed at the sight of the little girl, her sticky hands and mouth stained orange by the dye in the sugar, sticking her tongue out at her exasperated older sister.  When she heard Colin's laughter, she grinned mischievously.

            "Eating the sugar's the best part," she whispered to him, once Alethea's back was turned.

            "I know," he whispered back.  To prove it, he took a spoonful of his own sugar and put it in his mouth and crunched on the crystals with a gusto that made Cora giggle.

            "Euargh!" Gatti groaned, "That's disgusting!  You're going to end up more hyper than Raul!"

            "Did someone call me?  Huh, huh, did they?" Raul chattered as he flew through the kitchen, Corwin on his heels.  The Dragon Slayer dodged around Alethea, who was taking a sheet of orange-besprinkled cookies from the oven.  Alethea gave a short scream as she almost dropped the hot metal sheet.  Her outcry distracted Raul for a split second, time enough for Corwin to catch up to him.

            "Tag, you're it!" the little boy yelled, and bolted out the back kitchen door into the courtyard beyond.

            "Sorryaboutthecookiesexcusemei'vegottotagyourbrotheritagainbye!" Raul called out to Alethea as he sprinted after Corwin.  A few seconds later, everyone in the kitchen heard a high-pitched shriek and Raul crowing, "Ha!  You're it again!  Hey, no 'tag backs'!  Come back here, you little…!"

            "I want to play with Raul, too!" Cora declared and abandoned her "decorating."  She darted into the courtyard, yelling, "I'm playing, too!  I'm playing, too!"

            There was an awkward silence in the now-quiet kitchen.

            "Um, is your friend always like that?" Alethea asked.

            "Who's always like what?" Chesta walked into the kitchen and snagged one of the oven fresh cookies from the wire cooling racks that were laid out on every counter.  "I finished putting everyone's stuff in my room, but I'm afraid it's going to be a little crowded.  Corwin's already had to move out to a pallet in my parents' room.  Hey, good cookies, Thea."

            "Thanks.  Mom put me in charge of the cookies this year so that she could concentrate on her pies for the contest.  She made dried alma and sourberry pies," Alethea said, wiping one hand on her apron and pointing toward the pies cooling on the windowsill by the door with the other.

            "Does that mean we're not going to be able to eat any of them?" Chesta asked, crestfallen.

            "She baked two for the family, but judging from the way your friend inhaled the caramels and the cookies, I don't think we'll have enough.  The caramels are practically gone."

            "Which one ate the caramels?" asked Chesta, narrowing his eyes at Colin and Gatti.

            "It wasn't us!" Gatti exclaimed, raising his hands defensively.

            "It was Raul," Colin told Chesta.

            "Where is he anyway?"

            "Outside with your brother and sister."  Chesta walked to the window and peered out into the courtyard.

            "What the…hey, guys!  You've got to see this!"  Chesta was laughing so hard he almost knocked over one of the pies.  Colin, Gatti, and Alethea hurriedly joined him at the window.  There was Raul, rolling around in the dirt and laughing his head off as Cora and Corwin crawled all over him, tickling him and giggling hysterically.  They stared for a split second before they too were consumed by laughter.

            "I didn't know Raul was ticklish," Colin said when he could talk again.

            "Ha ha!  Woo hoo…neither did I," Gatti said, wiping a tear from his eye, "And I've known him practically since day one of basic."

            "That was so cute!  He's very sweet, even if he's a little weird," Alethea said, drifting back in the direction of the oven.  Colin retrieved his sheet of cookies from the table and handed them to her.

            "These are ready to go in now."  He eyed pile of dirty baking dishes in the sink that overflowed onto the counter.  "Do you…need some help with the dishes?" he mumbled and blushed.

            "Would you?" Alethea asked gratefully, giving him a tired smile that made his already pounding heart leap into his throat.

            Colin swallowed, trying to force down the heat and deeper blush that was rising to his face.  "Su…sure," he stammered, and walked over to the sink.  How hard can this be?  All right, so you're using a sink and soap instead of a convenient river; it can't be that much different.

            "You do know that Colin's fallen real hard for your sister, don't you?" Gatti whispered to Chesta.  Chesta clenched his jaw, but said nothing.  "He's your friend, Ches, and he's a good guy.  You know that more than any of us; he wouldn't do anything…ungallant."

            Chesta looked over his shoulder to where Alethea was laughing about the deluge of water Colin had somehow managed to splash all over his uniform while trying to figure out how to fill the sink and clean the dishes at the same time.  His hard expression softened somewhat.  "What about you and Raul?" he asked, looking back to Gatti, "I saw the look on your faces when she opened the door."

            "Well, I won't deny she's cute," Gatti conceded, "but you know I'm already betrothed to Astrea and I won't be unfaithful to her, even if it happened when we were babies.  As for Raul…he's got a girlfriend back home and I certainly wouldn't trust him with my sister, if I had one.  Besides, you saw the look on Colin's face when he saw her.  I mean, he was speechless!"

            "All right," Chesta sighed, then smiled.  "How are we going to do it?"

            "Do what?"

            "Get them together of course!  What have we been talking about?"

            "Oh, yeah.  Hm, the best place to do it would be at the festival, during the dance tonight.  You could have Colin cut in while I'm dancing with her and…"

            "Wait!  Why are you going to be dancing with her?"
            "Don't be so darn suspicious!  I belong to Astrea, remember?  It's just a good way to guarantee that Colin gets to dance with her."

            "Just checking.  But Colin can barely talk to her.  How's he going to ask her to dance?"

            "Work with him, but don't make it obvious."

            "And how am I supposed to that?"

            "I don't know!  I'm not omnipotent!"

            "Hey, Ches," Alethea interrupted, "Guess who the festival queen is this year."

            "You mean you aren't?" Chesta replied.  Colin looked up from the sink and stared at Alethea because she wasn't looking at him.  Chesta could barely contain his laughter at his friend's huge, star-struck eyes.  If there had been any doubt in his mind concerning Colin's affections for his sister, they had been thrown to the wind.

            "I didn't even put my name in for nomination," Alethea said, "I think it's a silly game for girls who have nothing better to do than primp in front of a mirror and babble on about clothes."

            "Sounds like Dalet Shahnaz, doesn't it?" Gatti remarked, "Speaking of which…"

            "Who is the festival queen, since I have no idea?" Chesta asked.

            Alethea smiled knowingly.  "It's Diana Zelgai."

            "Diana?" Chesta gasped.

            "Who's Diana?" Raul asked, coming in from the courtyard covered in dust and Cora and Corwin hanging from his arms.  He took one look at fierce red blush on Chesta's face and grinned.  "Oh, I see!  That Diana!"
            "What's that supposed to mean?" Chesta snapped, blushing even more fiercely.

            "Nothing, nothing at all," said Raul innocently, "I just think it's so sweet that you named your guymelef after her."

            "Ches, really?" Alethea exclaimed with a mischievous gleam in her eye, "Wait until Diana hears about his!"

            "Chesta likes Diana!  Chesta likes Diana!" Cora chanted.

            "Girls?  Yuck!" Corwin declared, wrinkling his nose.

            Alethea laughed.  "She's been asking after you, you know."

            "She has?" Chesta asked eagerly.  Raul snorted and Chesta glared at him.

            Alethea nodded.  "She was hoping that you would be home for Aratás.  She said that if you came to the festival that you should wear the costume of a Knight Caeli so that she would have a fit escort as a queen."

            Colin made a choking sound that nobody heard and nearly dropped the bowl he was rinsing.

            "Besides," Alethea continued, "Diana and I already took the liberty of getting the costume together.  You wouldn't waste our hard work, now would you?"

"But, but…" Chesta faltered.

            "Come on, Ches!  It won't be too hard to just go up to the girl and ask 'May I have this dance?' when you already know she likes you," Raul encouraged, slapping him on the back.  Chesta, already mortified, returned the gesture with additional vehemence.  Unfortunately, this caused a huge cloud of dust to billow up and make Gatti sneeze…right on the pies.

            "Oops.  Um, let's pretend that never happened," Gatti said nervously, looking at his friends.  They nodded, white-faced.

            "There you are!" Madam Thuban exclaimed, coming into the kitchen with an armload of old clothes smelling strongly of cedar, "Chesta, I found these up in the attic.  If you friends want to dress up for the masquerade, they can use these."

           "Hey, Mom, guess what?" Cora piped, "Gatti…mfph!"  Raul had quickly clapped his hand over the little girl's mouth.

            "Heh, heh.  Now Cora, didn't Gatti just tell you that he wants his costume to be a surprise?"

            "Cora!  What have I always told you?" Madam Thuban scolded, "Just because it's true doesn't mean it has to be said."

            Cora wriggled out of Raul's grasp.  "But, Mom…!"
            "No 'buts!'"

            "But…"

            "Cora," Madam Thuban said warningly.

            Cora, realizing that discretion was the better part of valor and that the news of Gatti's little accident would have to wait, sighed and said meekly, "Yes, mother."

            "Good girl," said Madam Thuban with a smile.  She looked out the window at the waning afternoon light.  "Goodness, it's almost eventide!  Cora, Corwin, you'd better get into your costumes now if you want to go alming!  Papa said he would meet us in the town square afterwards for the festival."

            "But I want to be a Dragon Slayer!"  Corwin whined, "Like Raul!"

            "Honey, we already decided that you would be a soldier.  You wanted to be a soldier all year, and now you want to be a Dragon Slayer?"  Corwin nodded stubbornly, his face streaked with tears.  Madam Thuban sighed.

            "I don't think we can find a Dragon Slayer uniform so close to alming," she told her son, "Hardly anyone knows what they look like."  Corwin's face scrunched up dangerously.

            "Why don't you let him wear your armor?" Alethea whispered to her brother, "You're not going to be using it tonight."

            Chesta shook his head.  "I'm not supposed to take it off at all, and besides, he might damage it."

            "Here," Colin said, slipping out of his uniform coat.  The bulky shoulder armor was attached to it by various ingenious hooks and catches, which he undid as swiftly as he could.  The armor, crafted of a super-light and flexible alloy, could be expanded or reduced to fit its wearer's needs.  Colin deftly adjusted it, making it the smallest size he possibly could.  "If he has a long black coat, we could probably find a way to attach this to it.  I'll see what I can do about these greaves, but the gauntlets are definitely out; he'll have to wear gloves of his own."

            "He has just the thing to make it work!" Madam Thuban exclaimed with relief, "Alethea, go get Chesta's old winter coat from the closet, the one with the gold trim and buttons.  There is a pair of knitted gloves in one of the pockets."  Alethea nodded and hurried to do her mother's bidding.  She flashed a smile at Colin before vanishing down the stairs.

            "I'm so sure he had not ulterior motives whatsoever," Raul remarked to Gatti.  They had been watching the scene through a crack in the door to Chesta's room, which was right across the hall from the room the younger children were using for their changing purposes.

            "Since when has a person done anything purely out of the goodness of his heart?" Gatti asked pragmatically, examining himself in the small mirror hanging on the wall above the wash basin.  He slipped the hood of the heavy winter cloak over his head and picked up Chesta's father's old cane.  "Look, all I have to get now is a white mask and I'll be the Ghost of the Theatrehouse."

            "Hm," replied Raul, not really listening.  He was too intent on his spying.

            It was a perfect opportunity to inform him of their plans to bring Colin and Alethea together.  "So, what do you think of Alethea?"

            That got Raul's attention.  "What do you mean, 'What do I think'?" he asked, spinning away from the door.  He stared at Gatti for several moments.  "Are you asking me this because you want to go after her?  Well, too bad, because I think I like her!"

            "Chesta and I think Colin is sort of…in love with her."

            Raul looked at him blankly for several moments, then burst out laughing.  "Will you shut up!" Gatti hissed, pulling Raul away from the door, "Chesta and I are going to try and get them to dance together at the festival tonight, because it's obvious that Colin won't do it himself.  He can barely talk to her."  He frowned hard at Raul.

            "All right, fine," Raul said reluctantly, "I'll go along with it if only because I want to be there when Colin tries to get up the nerve to ask her to dance."  He sighed.  "I guess I'll just have to settle for the festival queen…"  Gatti shook his head.  "What?!  Who's got a claim on her?"

            "Chesta."

            "Drat!  Well, I guess since I'm a guest in his house, I should give him a chance…"

            "Your sentiments of friendship are so admirable," Gatti said, rolling his eyes.

            "'All's fair in love and war,' as the sages say," Raul said with a shrug.

            "Raul! Raul!" Cora yelled, skipping into the room, "Do you like my princess dress?  Do I look pretty in it?"  She twirled about in the middle of the room, causing her bright pink gauzy skirts to flare out like the petals of a flower.  The bodice of the dress was made of the same material and on top of her wild flaxen curls was perched a paper crown with jewels drawn on it with wax color-sticks.

            "Speaking of love," Gatti said, grinning.

            Raul couldn't make an appropriate response in front of an innocent, so he pretended to ignore Gatti as he knelt down Cora's level.  "All right, turn around slowly, so I can see it better."  Cora nodded and with a seriousness that only children can muster, pivoted slowly in place.  Raul held his chin in his hands and narrowed his eyes as if he was critically examining the dress.

            When Cora was again facing Raul, he exclaimed, "Stop!"  in a voice that sounded exactly like a foppish, affected member of high society.  "Eet eez zimply too be-u-tiful for words!  My dahling, you are a prinzess whose splendor exceeds the beauty of all noble ladeez that I have had zee pleasure of meeting!"

            Cora beamed and giggled and threw her arms around Raul's neck.  "If I give you some of my alms tonight, will you dance with me at the festival?"

            "Well…"

            "I'll give you all of my caramels."

            Raul shot Gatti a helpless look.  Gatti spread his hands and grinned, sending a very clear, "what do you expect me to do about it" message.

            "All right, the caramels cinched it," Raul said.

            "Yeah!" Cora cheered and ran across the hall, "Mom! Mom! Raul said he would dance with me at the festival tonight!"

            "That's wonderful!" Alethea exclaimed, mounting the last step.  Before she turned into the other room, she winked playfully at Raul.  "What did she promise you, all of her caramels or something?"

            "Er, something like that," Raul muttered, before shutting the door.  "Not a word," he said menacingly to Gatti and put on his mask, "not one word."

            "Of course not," Gatti said, a solemn expression on his face, "You know, Ches might have a problem with you dating his little sister, even if you do make a cute couple!"  He was out of the room and down the stairs before Raul could pick up his sword.

            The first stars were already in the sky when they began making their way to the town square.  Everywhere, torches and braziers were being lit to ward off the coming night.  Madam Thuban kept a firm hold on Corwin, who seemed determined to dart away from the group as soon as he could so as to engage in the revelry as he saw fit.  Behind them walked Chesta and Alethea, Colin hanging back just enough to be out of Alethea's peripheral vision.  All three carried at least one of Madam Thuban's prize-winning pies.  Gatti and Raul brought up the rear, Cora clutching Raul's hand and bouncing along, chattering happily.

            "Dame Frances thought my costume was the prettiest one she had seen all night. And Lily and Gertrude were so jealous, 'cuz they had to dress exactly alike and you know what they were?  They were cat people!"

            Raul groaned softly beneath his mask.  "Aw, quit your whining," Gatti muttered aside as they emerged in the town square, "You're getting at least three handfuls of homemade caramels for this.  Besides, I doubt Chesta's mom is going to let her two little darlings stay up past the third watch."

            "That's true," Raul said, perking up noticeably.

            "Now remember, Corwin, Cora," Madam Thuban said, "I don't want any grumpiness when I wake you up tomorrow morning.  You asked to stay up for the entire festival and you had better be cheerful because you are big now."

            "Yes, Mother!" Cora and Corwin chorused sweetly.

            "Now, go and find your Papa."

            "Yay!" 

"Come on, Raul, I want to introduce you to my Papa!  He's on the festival committee this year."

Gatti heard a distinct whimpering noise emanating from the horrifying visage Raul wore in place of his own as he was dragged away by his eager dance partner for the evening.

"I think Cora is a bit infatuated with him," Alethea remarked, "Isn't it the cutest thing you've ever seen?"
            The three Dragon Slayers glanced at one another and tried very hard not to burst out laughing.

"Maybe we should arrange an appointment with the match-maker," Gatti said thoughtfully as Chesta, Alethea, and Colin set the pies on the rough board table that had been set up in the east quarter of the square for the pie-judging contest.

"What do you say, Mom?"

"Oh, now really, Ches, stop being so silly!  Thank you for your help children.  Why don't you go and join the party?" Madam Thuban suggested, waving at the bustling square, "I've got to stay here and talk with the judges."

"See you later, Mama!" Alethea called as they began walking toward the dancing area across the square.  To their right were the food and ale and cider stalls, to their left, peddlers had set up their carts, selling all sorts of masks and brightly colored scarves and the like.

"Hold on a moment," Gatti said, "I need a white mask.  You'd better come too, Ches."

"I had?"

"Yes, you need a white scarf of some sort to make your costume realistic."

"I do? But…"

"Come on, Thuban!"  Gatti caught hold of his friend's sleeve and began pulling him toward the nearest cart.

"We'll wait for you over by the queen's throne," Alethea said, pointing to where an enormous chair, surrounded by bales of hay and bright almas and sheaves of wheat, stood on a raised platform beside the center fountain, "And please hurry, Ches, Diana said she would meet you there before she was crowned."

"All…all right," Chesta stuttered, blushing again and turning back to the cart so his sister would not see.

"Come on, Colin," he heard her say and looked over his shoulder to see his friend being led away by his sister.

"Whew!" Gatti exclaimed, watching the pair vanish in the crowd, "That worked out quite nicely, if I do say so myself."  He picked up a white mask and held it over his eyes.  "You can be really dense sometimes, you know."

"What?!" Chesta exclaimed indignantly.

"We're trying to get them together, remember?" Gatti said in a frustrated voice.  He tossed a filmy white scarf at Chesta.  "This will do for you," he said, and handed over a couple of coins to the cart's owner. 

Chesta waved to Myr, Migel, Cyril, and Damon, who were at another cart looking at demon masks.  "Of course I remember," he said, "I just didn't know we had started yet."  He wrapped the scarf several times around his neck and tied it in an over-hand knot.  Nervously, he brushed some dust off of his long blue vest.

"We should try to see if Colin can get up enough nerve on his own to ask her to dance, though I don't think it's likely," Gatti said with a sigh, slipping on his mask.  They began walking in the direction of the throne.  "I thought the boy was going to be a Knight; they're supposed to be pretty handy with the ladies."

"Don't remind me," Chesta groaned, wiping the sweat off of his palms.  He had already spied of familiar face, talking with Alethea.  Colin stood off to one side, looking like a nervous shadow in his bandit's costume.  He fidgeted, adjusting the black mask that covered half of his face and concealed his light brown hair.

"Your sister's costume's really cute," Gatti remarked, noting Chesta's unease.  He slowed down a bit so as not to leave his friend behind.  "What's she supposed to be again?"

"A Shield Maiden," Chesta mumbled, "She figured that if I was going to be a Knight Caeli, she should go as some sort of female counterpart."

"Uh huh," Gatti nodded, looking at Alethea's white dress and grey satin vest.  Her hair was loose and flowing and she looked simply stunning.  "No wonder Colin's having a hard time of it.  Well, no use hanging back.  Come on Ches!"  He jerked Chesta forward.

"Hey!" Chesta cried.

"Chesta!  It's so nice to see you again!"

"H…hello Diana."

"I see you told him about the costume," the festival queen said to Alethea, "Was it too hard to convince him?"

"Not at all," Alethea said with a grin, "And I suppose it's just coincidence that your dress happens to be of the same colors."

"Oh, this?" Diana asked, touching the voluminous blue skirt, "It's something my mother wore when she was…anyways, Grandma was only too happy to make some adjustments for me to wear it.  Can you believe I'm shorter than my mother was?"

"Not many people would find that hard," Alethea cracked.

"Hey, stop picking on the short people!" Diana cried, tossing her mane of black hair, "You aren't much taller than me, missy!"

"I'm petite, you're short; there's a difference."

"You know, denial is the first step on the way to acceptance," Diana shot back.  Alethea raised an eyebrow and folded her arms.  "Never get in a duel of words with a master," Diana crowed, "even if she is short!  Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to steal your brother away; the band's playing my song.  Come on Ches!"  Chesta sent a desperate look to his companions as he followed his willful queen.

"It's so annoying when she gets the better of me like that," Alethea said, a rueful smile on her face as she watched her best friend and her brother begin to dance, Chesta following Diana's lead.  She shook her head.  "I guess I should be used to it by now."

Gatti had been staring at Colin, trying send some sort of mental command to get him to ask Althea to dance, but he just stood beside Alethea like a mute statue. 

She's standing right next to me!  She's standing right next to me!  Should I ask her to dance?  What if she says no?  What if someone else asks to dance with her before I can?  What if she says yes?  Should I take her hand or something when I ask?  Damn it, my palms are sweating!  Be a man, Colin, just ask her!

"Alethea…"  Was that my voice?  Gaea, I sounded like a little girl!

"Colin, will you dance with me?" Alethea asked, taking Colin's gloved hand in her own.

"Sure," Colin replied, sounding immensely relieved.  Alethea smiled a small secret smile that only Gatti noticed and she and Colin twirled away, Colin dancing quite well and managing to lead.  Or perhaps Alethea was letting him.

"Hm, seems like the little lady was a couple of steps ahead of us on that one," Gatti remarked to himself, looking after them.  He saw Alethea and Diana guide their respective partners toward each other as the band began a reel.  The couples on the dance floor formed two lines, the men facing the women.  Gatti smirked when he saw a monster in a black cloak bowing dramatically before a pink sugar-spun princess, who could hardly contain her giggling as she curtsied in the prescribed manner.

"Um, excuse me," a voice said behind him.  Gatti turned.

"Yes?"

Slender hands nervously played with the cloth of a green dress the color of pine needles.  Hazel eyes looked up shyly into his.  "Would you…like to dance with me?"  The last words came out in a rush.  Her face was framed by a fall of oak brown hair crowned with a woven coronet of ivy.

Gatti had a momentary pang of guilt as he held out his hand, but he was still a bachelor.  "Of course.  What's your name?"

The girl blushed as he escorted her out onto the dance floor to join the other dancers.  "Luma," she said, smiling.

"I'm Gatti," he replied as they joined hands.  The music played high and sweet, mingling with the laughter of the revelers.

"I like shider," Raul slurred, his mask pushed up like some bizarre hood, "Isht good."  He drained his mug, almost falling backwards off the log they were sitting on.

"You're drunk," Chesta stated and began giggling hysterically, his face a bright pink.

"Sho are you," Raul said, laying a heavy hand on Chesta's shoulder.

"Oh, look at the pretty fire!" Diana exclaimed, hanging onto Chesta's other arm and pointing a wavering finger at the bonfires that roared and crackled not ten paces away, towering above them to blot out the stars.

Gatti was morosely examining his empty mug as he leaned against a convenient stack of wood.  "All gone," he mourned, turning it upside down.

"I think someone put some extra alcohol or something in the cider," Alethea whispered aside to Colin, her face the same rosy shade as her twin's.  Colin nodded.  So far, all he had drunk was one mug of the cider, but his friends had to be on at least their fourth or fifth.  Judging from the way it was affecting them, abstinence seemed like a good idea.  It's a good thing that everyone is at least as drunk as they are, or this would be pretty embarrassing.  The band had relocated to the outskirts of town when the bonfires started and were now playing a fast-paced dance tune for those still sober enough to stand on their feet.  Cora and Corwin had collapsed from exhaustion before the third watch had even been set; Madam Thuban had obviously been prepared for this, for she smiled as she and her husband each took up one of the sleeping children.  "Have fun at the bonfires!" she had called out to them before turning for home and bed.  Alethea leaned against Colin, her head on his shoulder, her face softened by the flickering light of the bonfire.  Her eyes began to close.  Colin put an arm around her.  She's letting me hold her!  Good thing I haven't had much of the cider or I might forget this by tomorrow.  Then again, probably not.  I wonder why I've fallen for her so quickly.  It's not just because she's so pretty, but there's also who she is.  I'm feeling like I've known her years instead of hours…  As Colin ruminated over the sometimes bizarre workings of Love, he caught a glimpse of flame-tinted silver out of the corner of his eye.  Startled, he focused on it.  Am I seeing things?  Tendrils of short silver hair glinted above a face concealed by a flame demon's leering countenance that stared intently at its fierce element.

"Alone!  No!  Please!"  Celena?  But that's impossible…she's couldn't be here…Lord Dilandau?  It must be him, but why do I hear her voice?  Could they share something, some feeling that makes loneliness a terror for them?  Perhaps it's only wishful thinking, but I must be right.  That explains why Lord Dilandau's always so reluctant to give us leave; he can't stand being alone.

Alethea opened her eyes when she felt Colin's body stiffen.  She stared up at him, but his face was turned away, his eyes fixed on some person or something beyond the flames.

"What is it?" she murmured.

"Lord Dilandau."  The name escaped unbidden from his lips.  "My commander…he's over there."

"Where is he?" Gatti asked, sitting bolt upright, disbelief ringing in his voice.

"Right there," Colin said, indicating with his head, "The one dressed like a flame demon."

"Oh, shit!" Raul gasped, "What do you think he wants?"

"I don't know," Colin answered, "He's just standing there, staring at the fire."  Alone.  Alethea struggled to her feet.  "Where are you going?"

"To ask him to join us," she replied and began walking in Lord Dilandau's direction before anyone could do or say anything.

"Stop her!" Gatti gasped.

"What's wrong?" asked a bewildered Diana, "She's just asking him to join us.  It's not like she's inviting the Evil One to dinner."  The three boys glanced at each other with wide, panicked eyes.  "Right?"

"On your feet everyone!" Alethea ordered, standing before them apparently unscathed.  Behind her stood the flame demon.  "We're going to start a fire ring.  You'll join us for that, won't you?" she asked the demon, who nodded wordlessly.  "Come on, guys, it'll be fun!"  Colin rose slowly, trying very hard not to gape.  Raul and Ches were not quite as successful.  Alethea linked arms with him and the demon, who had yet to say anything.  Diana took the demon's other arm, Chesta on her free side, then Luma, then Gatti.  Raul grabbed a passing maiden in the garb of a wolf person and began bellowing, "Fire ring!  Fire ring, everyone!  Anybody who can stand on their feet had better join in!"  His voice carried quite well and the band obliged him by striking up the haunting melody of the fire ring dance, a flute's song melding with the subtle thrumming of a harp.  There were shouts and catcalls as the townspeople joined the small group, which soon enclosed the bonfire.  The melody gained speed as the drums and other strings joined in and the ring began circle the flames, first in one direction, then the other.  Soon the pace was so ferocious that some dancers fell to the side, laughing at their failure to keep up.  The band ended with one final flourish and those still on their feet collapsed, giggling and calling to those who had fallen out before the end.

The demon looked to either side, absorbing the sight of Colin, Alethea, and the others laughing, their faces red and shining, the light of joy in their eyes surpassing the brilliance of the fire.  If anyone had been listening quite closely, they might have heard the sound of a choking sob quickly swallowed, followed by a deep sigh.  Like a shadow, the demon slipped away, his passage witnessed only by one pair of compassionate eyes.  Good night, Lord Dilandau.  I hope, for at least this small space of time, you were happy and knew you were not alone.  Of course, you will never be alone as long as anyone of us has breath in his body.

"He looked so lonely," Alethea whispered to him, "I just couldn't leave him like that.  I know something about what he's like from Ches, and he just sounded like a person in need of friends."

Your heart has Love enough to keep even the loneliest soul from despair.  That is why you are beautiful.  "Have I told you…how beautiful you look tonight?" Colin asked.

"Not in so many words," Alethea responded with a quiet smile, "but thank you."

"What are you doing, Colin?"

"Writing a letter."

"To who?"

"What does it matter?  Leave me alone!"

"Oh he's blushing, I know who it's for!"

"Shut up, Gatti!"

"Hm…no.  Hey, Raul, Ches, Colin's writing to…mphf!"

"Shut up!"

"That's so cute!  Let me see it!"

"Hey, give that back, Raul!"

"Over here, Raul!  She's my sister!"

"'Dear Alethea'…you couldn't come up with a more creative beginning?  You know, 'Dearest Alethea' or 'My Dearest Heart' or something like that?"

"Raul, I'm warning you…"

"'I am writing to you from my new post on the Vione, one of Zaibach's floating fortresses…'"

"Couldn't you be a little more romantic?  You should write, 'Winter on the Vione is cold, even though I am high above the clouds, for the sun has no warmth when I am not with you.'"

"Hey, that's pretty good, Gatti."

"Come on Colin, write that down!"

"All right, all right."

"And put down that part about 'My Dearest Heart ' at the beginning.  Alethea would like that."

"How do you know?"

"I'm her brother, I've heard her and Diana talking about stuff like that."

"Oh, yeah."

"What were you doing spying on your sister and her friend?"

"Er…"

"Um, what should I put next?"

"How about, 'I long to see you again, for you are the first person whose face I recall whenever I think of those who I have left behind.'?"

"Good.  Got it. 'I remember how we danced during Aratás and I smile when I remember the way your face shone like the sun in the light of the bonfire.'"

"I think he's got it!  Now write, 'But the sun pales in comparison to your beauty if I am to speak truthfully.'"

"Gatti, how much experience have you had in writing love letters?"

"More than Colin and that's what matters.  Hey, what are you doing now?"

"'I am a poor writer of letters, as you can obviously tell by the clumsy way these words speak to you.  I only hope that you can hear my voice through them and smile fondly at the memories we share.'  I'm not so good with prose, so I'm just going to finish with a poem."

"Well, get on with it!"

"No way!  I thank you for helping me write, but when I write a poem for someone, it is shared between me and that person alone."

"Uh oh, he's got that stubborn look in his eye.  We'd better leave the poet to his sonnet or whatever he's going to do."

"Thanks, Ches."

"Hey, no problem.  Just try not to be too mushy."

"Got it."

The stars did not shine the night I loved you

for they would have been shamed.

I saw your heart that night, a bright jewel more

brilliant than their light named

to be the purest by the poets of old who had

not held your hand or felt your

gentle head in slumber against their shoulder.

In Love, none has more

in their heart than you, sweet lady, Love freely

given to all who come to you.

My humble heart beats with yours, even though

we are far apart; one beat for two

souls, one light for two eyes that search the skies

for that perfect shining star.