To Dark Angel66:  Thanks so very much for your review (my first, and not a flame – yay!)  This chapter is for you, I hope you like it.

Disclaimer:  Guess who owns Escaflowne.  If you guessed a) me – you are wrong.  If you guessed b) you – well, you might be right, or if you guessed c) a small pink cardigan – the please make you way to the nearest mental institute where they would be more than happy to make you comfortable.

Chapter 3 – The Attempt

They crept noiselessly through the palace grounds, slipping past guards when it was possible and silencing them when it was not.  They had entered the building through an open window in the kitchen and from there, Carlo took the lead.  He led Sienna through wide, grand passages and progress was slow but steady.  There were only a few guards patrolling and it was easy to hide by blending in amongst the shadows.  Eventually Carlo indicated a grand set of double doors to Sienna with a quick nod of his head and she nodded grimly back.  Carlo indicated that he was going to carry on to the Princess's room and stealthily carried on.  Sienna made her way over to the doors and gently tested the handle.  It made no noise at all as she turned it and slipped in through the small gap.

Once in the bedroom, she looked dispassionately at her subject and pulled out a small, blackened blade.  She silently crept over to the sleeping figure and stopped, there she closed her eyes and emptied her mind.  There was a soft sigh as Sienna completed her work and then silence reined again.  The familiar feeling of regret and sadness washed over her but she was too used to it by now to let it affect her.  "Ok," she thought to herself, "this room is on the second floor so the window is probably the best means of escape."  She crossed lightly over to the window and cautiously opened it up, mindful of any squeaking the metal may make.  Looking directly below the window she saw grass, the perfect landing ground.

Taking out a small grapple hook that had a length of rope attached to it, she secured the hook to the sill and lowered the rope out the window, listening at all times for anything unusual.  Satisfied, she swung herself out of the window and carefully lowered herself down the rope.  She dropped lightly to the ground and looked around for the palace gazebo where she and Carlo had agreed to meet up. 

Suddenly, voices rang out loudly within the palace itself.  Sienna crouched down low and flattened herself against the wall.  Lights started to come on rapidly around the building; she was just about to fall back to the darker safety of the garden when she heard voices inside.

"…attempt on Princess Millerna."

"What?!"

"Yeah, luckily Commander Schezar was nearby and he managed to kill the assassin."

"He killed him?  But how can they interrogate a dead body?  That was careless of Commander Schezar."

"Yeah well, there will probably be a few questions asked about that.  Not least the question of what the hell was he doing near the princess's room in the first place when he is meant to be stationed in his barracks."

"Oops" said one of the voices

"You're not kidding!  When the King finds out, he's…"

Sienna didn't hang around to find out anymore, she quickly headed towards the sanctuary of the palace gardens.

When she was deep within the grounds, she found a small fountain and quickly washed off the dark smudges from her hands and face.  Next she ducked behind a bush and pulled off her black tunic top and turned it inside out so was now blue in colour.  When she put it back on, she looked like a palace servant and so, found it fairly easy to slip away into the anonymous streets of Palas.  When she felt that she was a respectable distance away from the royal house she ran as fast as she could to the outskirts to the west of the city.

Her throat constricted when she thought of Carlo but she forced herself to stop that train of thought.  All effort needed to be aimed at getting to the retrieval point.  She redoubled her efforts and sprinted on.

She eventually came to the edge of the forest and scanned its borders, looking for any depressions in the ground that might indicate a large weight under stealth.  She saw a likely looking area and made her way towards it, when nothing happened she coughed twice loudly and looked pointedly at the seeming empty space.

About 20 feet above her head, a large guymelef arm appeared out of thin air.  Sienna was surprised to note that it was blood red in colour, there was only one person she knew who piloted a red guymelef but surely he wouldn't be doing anything so beneath him as a simple retrieval mission?

"Where's the other one," Dilandau's distinctive voice rang out, obviously irritated, "I was told there would be two of you."

The red arm lowered itself to the ground allowing her to jump on.  There was no hand on this guymelef for her to crouch into so she sat in the crook of the elbow and hunched up miserably.

"He didn't make it" Sienna said tightly.  Her throat felt too small and narrow and speaking normally was an effort.

"So you're just going to leave your man there?  How very commendable of you commander." Dilandau spat the words with venom.

Sienna jumped up, her eyes were glittering dangerously "If I thought he was alive then I would do everything in my power to get him back.  There is no benefit in bringing back a corpse, Lord Dilandau." She put emphasise on the word Lord and was careful not to make it sound too mocking, but not careful enough though.  The guymelef's other arm came up and a crima claw slowly unsheathed itself, making its way to her throat.  It stopped with barely an inch to go before it would pierce her skin.

"I do hope you're not being cheeky," Dilandau said silkily, "I'm sure you know that any cheek to a superior officer can be punishable by death?"  The claw slid out a little bit further until it was pressed lightly against her skin. 

Sienna calculated her odds of getting out of her current vulnerable position, and she was pretty certain she could do it; but then, she had to rely on Dilandau to get her back to the Vione.  "Dammit," she thought to herself, "I've got to back down to him."

"If you have taken any offence to my words my lord," she said head bowed, "then obviously I must apologise."

Dilandau chuckled to himself, this was more like it – she was meek and humiliated and he rather liked her like this.  He'd have to find another opportunity to do it again. 

The crima claw sheathed itself again before the guymelef kicked off the ground, hovered a second whilst transforming into flying mode, and then headed back towards the Vione.  Sienna pushed herself further down into the crook of the great guymelef's elbow and hung on for dear life.