Chapter 10, Royally messed up
Flea spluttered in rage as he stared at the other general past the hissing mantis and the queen, the wine-colored eyes glistening with hatred.
"Why… you!" he finally managed to hiss.
Slash looked no more pleased, his white eyes narrowed and the thick lips withdrawn from his sharp teeth.
"Flea," he spoke without disconnecting his two rows of fangs, "you are under arrest for treasaugh!"
His announcement was cut off since he was sent flying backwards into the wall. The spread fingers on Flea's still raised hand twitched as the purple monster got to his feet, swearing in a forgotten language.
"You're not one to speak of treason, Slash!" the magician snarled.
He saw the movement from the corner of his eye and spun around, raising his other hand against the staff and the Masamune. But the mantis screeched and let Leene unceremoniously fall, diving between his master and the attackers.
Without thinking Janus released his weapon and dove for the shocked and trembling queen, knowing that he got under the sword arms of the insect but prepared to take that risk. Grabbing Leene's arms and dashing backwards he noticed to his further disbelief that the assassin was focusing completely on parrying the Masamune, ignoring the wizard completely. Normally not even an earthquake would have kept the transformed Mystics from a chance to wound their target.
Leaving the still pretty much paralyzed woman in the safety of the soldiers – who quickly closed their lines behind her as one of them led the queen to her husband – Janus reached out and silently called his staff to his hand as he swept back towards the two monsters and Frog again. Just as his fingers closed around the wood he saw Slash from the corner of his eye, the purple Mystic back on his feet and dashing forwards with his eyes set on the cornered couple.
Flea put his hand on the mantis' steel arm, his pretty face a mask of rage.
"Come and get me if you dare!" he snarled, disappearing in a bright light together with his ally.
Frog stumbled forwards and the Slasher cut through the bluish wisps of magic that remained for the brief moment after the teleportation spell had gone off. Janus just barely managed to avert the staff from its arc which otherwise would have left quite a mark on his short friend's back.
"Demons take that son of Lardon!" Slash cursed, punching the wall so that it left a small imprint in the unlucky stone.
While Frog straightened up and with a growl sheathed the Masamune, Janus took in a few breaths in an attempt to calm down while he glanced at the monster. Slash gave him a cold glare and let his sword slide into its sheath.
Turning away from the wizard, the swordsman addressed another part of the room.
"I apologize for the window, king Guardia," he said in a neutral voice, "I was in a hurry."
"That is quite alright, Slash," the king hoarsely replied, still pressing his trembling wife against his chest.
Janus let his staff disappear, glancing between his liege, Frog, and Slash.
"I feel as if I am missing something here," the wizard finally said.
"We have been on friendlier terms during thy time of absence," Frog shortly explained though he was still scowling at the place where Flea had been standing, "though Slash was not the help I would have expected either."
"I came here because your second royal wizard suddenly had our entire fortress shaking with a 'do you know what your crossdresser is doing?!'," the monster said, folding his arms across his chest and giving the ceiling a glare.
He sighed briefly and looked at the king again.
"I have been given the mission to catch Flea, king Guardia, for he is dead to the Mystics. This assault was an act he did on his own, and it will be added to his list of crimes, I assure you."
"Very well," the king rather absentmindedly replied, most of his focus still on Leene.
Janus regarded the monster for a moment.
"How long was I really gone?" he muttered, but natural thoughts of the queen got in between for any longer reverie.
Mentally slapping himself for being careless the wizard turned and quickly walked over to the royal couple, reaching out to carefully touch Leene's shivering shoulder.
"Powers of the world…"
Magic could do very little for the mind, but he could at least help the queen to calm her breath and slow her thundering pulse to a normal pace so that she would be able to regain herself quicker.
As the healing light gently showered Leene in its warmth, a little color returned to her face and she threw a weak but grateful glance at the wizard. But Janus' lips were pressed thin, his eyes hard as steel. Confusion at the expression clashed with her shaken state of mind and she simply couldn't bear to ask, leaning her head against her husband's calming heartbeat instead.
"My liege," Janus said in a stern voice as he backed off, pressing his fist to his heart and bowing briefly while he still moved.
Something in the wizard's voice awakened the king from his trance, and he looked up with a frown.
"Where are you going?" he demanded as the soldiers that had moved closer to the door warily backed away from the turning blue-hair.
"To kill Flea, my liege," Janus replied in the same voice without looking around.
"Halt thy steps, what art thou saying?" Frog called, leaping past the frowning and ignored Slash.
The door was already open and Lai happened to enter right then, pushing her way past the crowd of soldiers, servants and knights outside closely followed by Cered. Schala was just one step behind, as was Molor. The snake moved easier than his allies, not because of his convenient form but the mere presence causing people to make way.
"Move," Janus snarled, pushing his fiancée aside as she opened her mouth.
"Wha?" Lai managed as she was discarded.
"You could just follow their magic track and teleport after them, you know," Slash soberly pointed out.
"I'm not angry enough to be that stupid," Janus coldly informed without turning around, as gently as he could manage right then moving Schala sideways, seeming deaf to her questions.
His eyes met Molor's but before the snake could hinder the human kindred soul, a metal glove brashly grabbed the wizard's collar.
"One does not run off from a scene like this without permission, wizard," a chilly voice stated, the hand shoving Janus backwards.
The wizard stumbled but regained his balance a couple of steps back inside the room, with help from the staff and Cered's hand on his shoulder. And the fact that the hand in the glove kept its grip, sending flares through Janus' already misty brain as he lost his breath for a moment.
Angrily gasping for air he glared at the knight, grabbing the armored wrist with his free hand.
"Let go, South."
"Janus, calm down!" Schala called, but her voice seemed to come from afar.
All the wizard could see were the ice cold brown eyes that fiercely glowered at him without any triumph in a personal vendetta but pure hatred.
"I would have rather seen that my warnings about you being a danger to the throne had remained nothing but hot air, Janus!" the knight snarled.
Now that stroke a tender nerve. In fact, the nerve which had driven the wizard forwards in a short moment of blind rage. But instead of stringing the anger even more, the blow was a shattering one as the sin was exposed to all whom might have let it slide in the choking grip of anguish.
Janus' first, natural impulse was to plant his fist in the snarling face before him. But the wish was extinguished like the tree lit by a lightning bolt, only leaving a charred skeleton behind. His fingers sagged, the grip slipping from South's wrist and the staff falling to the floor.
His lips were parted, but he had nothing to answer with.
"Why Leene all of a sudden?"
"You'll suffer."
'You do win, Flea…'
"A peculiar custom," Cered's far-off voice reached out through the storm of raw self contempt, "to blame one who helped, for a crime another attempted."
With the metal clinking in protest South's fingers clashed when another man's hand took a hold of the grip and removed it from Janus' shirt.
"Dost thee hang the innocent child of a villain as well?" the warrior of Garadia coldly questioned.
"You very well know that I and Janus might have our disputes," South snapped back, "but this has nothing to do with that. Did you hear what Flea said about his reasons for killing the queen?"
"The queen is alive," Lai's voice growled, though the stitch of hesitance in her tone stung like a poisoned spear through the heart.
'Friend, listen to them,' Molor gently urged.
"Janus? What do you have to say yourself?" South demanded, his voice seemingly the only one that the wizard's pointy ears managed to properly register for his aching brain.
The silence couldn't have been as deep and long as it seemed, but right then logic made little sense.
Shaking his head though the movement ripped his dry throat, Janus made another stumbling movement towards the door.
A small hand wearing a leather glove caught his arm.
"I wouldst rather not see the mistake I made after Yakra's fall be made anew," Frog spoke sincerely, but Janus shook himself free with a dull, irritated grunt.
"You hold it right there, you moron!" Lai called, moving into the wizard's path with her palms turned to him.
His ruby eyes rested on her, and for a moment he had to fight to remember who she was.
Slender hands grasped his upper arms.
"Little brother…" Schala's soothing whisper flowed through his burning mind like a river through the desert.
'Friend,' Molor repeated, reaching out with his supporting presence to embrace the linked soul.
But again the wizard just shook his head, trying to free himself. Lai's hands on his shoulders helped Schala and Molor to stop him for another vital moment, however.
"The king has been trying to talk to you for a while, sweetheart," the female wizard said with gentle boldness, "one would think that those big ears worked better than that."
That worked better than a slap it seemed. Janus straightened up and turned to king Guardia, who hadn't moved much. Leene now stood beside him, but her husband still kept his right arm draped around her shoulders for support, as she still was a little pale. By now her eyes had regained their life however.
"Thank you, Lai," the king nodded, then turned to his first royal wizard, "and as for you, Janus, I was saying that you should calm down. I will not allow you to pursue Flea alone. It's too dangerous."
"My liege…" the wizard began.
"Where have your mathematic skills gone?" Lai snapped, "he's got five assassins, how do you plan to survive that on your own?"
Janus shook his head, glaring at the floor. He could hear Slash mutter in a low voice, idly guessing that he was reporting to Ozzie.
"I can't let him move this battle from the personal level," the blue-hair growled, "he has never attacked anyone else like that before… not after Thomas' death."
"Because you wouldn't let the assassins touch anyone else," king Guardia said in a softer tone, "but I know what you mean. However, I will not allow you to go alone."
His gaze turned to those he addressed next.
"Glenn, Lai. You go with him."
"Yes my liege," the two replied, something in their voices saying that they had expected it – or hoped.
The king gave Schala a brief smile as she placed her hand on her brother's shoulder again.
"You and Sir Cered are not within my jurisdiction," he said, glancing downwards for a moment, "and neither is Molor."
"Worry not, Your Majesty," Schala nodded, "I have no plans of staying out of this battle."
She turned her head to look at Cered, who grimly nodded.
Molor didn't even bother to reply.
"Then I can allow you to leave, Janus," king Guardia decreed.
"Yes, my liege," the wizard numbly said, finding no place to argue though 'Placing Schala in front of an assassin' was among the things he didn't feel a burning desire to do.
The king nodded and opened his mouth, but his order to send people away so that plans could be discussed less openly was disrupted by Slash.
"Excuse me, Your Majesty," the purple Mystic said with a glint of weariness in his eyes, "Skeeza says that she wants a word with your wizard."
Frog bristled slightly, though it seemed to be more reflex than anything else. King Guardia hesitated, looking at Janus for this decision. Exchanging glances with Lai and Schala, the wizard finally nodded.
"Very well," he said, holding out his right hand to Slash.
"Delighted," the monster dryly commented and grabbed the offer.
He glanced upwards while Schala's hand slid off her brother's shoulder.
"Get us out of here," left the purple lips.
Janus felt something warm wrap itself around his left ankle half a second before the flashing light of teleportation enveloped the two men. As it flashed away he looked down, already knowing what he'd see.
'Still need support,' Molor mildly chastised, gracefully letting go of the wizard's leg to curl up on the dark stone floor.
The wizard's lips twitched slightly, humor-less.
"That's the wrong magic-user, Slash," Ozzie's voice cut in, acidly.
Janus looked up, but the king of the Mystics had turned his attention to Molor.
"And now he's spawning, I see," the toadish beast dryly added.
"Skeeza's orders, Ozzie," Slash coldly replied, "and don't blame me for that pale reptile, he followed us."
Molor rose up until his head was at the same level as Janus' and Slash's.
"Don't tempt me to eat you," he hissed, "it would be a pain for Janus to heal my metabolism."
"Not only that should you try, I assure you," Slash snarled back, their heads almost clashing as they engaged a glaring contest.
Janus stepped away from the two, idly rubbing his forehead with two fingers. Ozzie glowered at him, several imps, freelancers and a pair of naganettes suspiciously standing around the floating king and watching the wizard's every move. The room was rather big and lacked windows, but lit candles on the wall and in a somewhat irregular circle on the middle of the floor lit up most things that needed to be seen. It was within the circle that the two warriors and the snake had emerged. Janus walked out of it while Slash and Molor continued to stare angrily at each other. Their personal chemistry didn't really seem to work out.
"What is it?" the wizard tiredly said, lowering his hand as he stopped just outside of the circle.
Ozzie angrily opened his mouth, but his wife's voice came in between.
"The men are, as usual, idiots."
Janus turned his head left and raised his eyebrows as he saw the queen of Mystics. Her flight was somewhat insecure, she seemed to stagger slightly through the air. And her right arm was in a sling, the hand limply hanging. Another naganette crawled after her, doing her best to keep the climbing-happy heir of the Mystic throne from crawling into her pink hair. The child hadn't grown much since the wizard had last seen him, and he vaguely recalled his guardians talking about Mystics and their slow aging. It was hardly enough to keep his interest though, as his state of mind still was rather wobbly.
"What happened?" he asked, trying to get a grip of himself though he clearly heard the weary tone of his voice.
Skeeza probably noticed, but she ignored it completely as she stopped beside her husband and spoke.
"Flea sent us a message, and I got in the way when the ghost assassin relaying it tried to get out," she summed up, "fell down a stair."
"He told us to go to hell and attacked you!" Ozzie growled.
The queen rolled her bead eyes.
"Fine, he did tell us to burn, but I got myself in the way. The poor thing was just trying to leave, get it through your thick skull."
A bell in the back of Janus' mind started ringing, kicking at the bitter mist that still remained and clouded his thoughts.
"I don't care!" Ozzie harshly snarled, waving his hands furiously, "Flea is a goddamn traitor!"
The Mystics muttered among themselves but didn't dare to make an input in the discussion. Janus glanced over his shoulder as he heard sensed that Molor moved, finding that Slash had left the staring contest and now was glaring at the floor with his lips almost pressed to a normal human size.
'Think,' Molor frowned, 'something wrong. I know too little of them.'
'Right…'
Janus fought to mentally slap himself out of the depression that still kept its chilly grip of him. He was better than this and he knew it.
'… That's it!'
"Flea was depressed…" he thoughtfully said, breaking through the mist.
"Eh?"
The monsters' beady, white, sharp, small and cold eyes turned on him, almost too quickly for people who heard such information about a traitor. The wizard could have sworn that he saw a glint of hope in Ozzie's eyes before they turned colder again after the surprise.
"He appeared more dead than alive," Janus evaluated, "when I told him that he had won, he seemed close to a breakdown."
"Suits him right!" the king snarled with a snort.
"Shut up, Ozzie," Skeeza snapped and turned to Janus, "really now… I'm not sure why Flea doesn't want anything more to do with the rest of us but if he's acting like that there must be something more to this. Not that we know much."
Her eyes narrowed.
"Slash reported that he had five assassins with him, is that true?" she demanded.
Janus rubbed his temple with a sigh at the thought of how lovely the battle would be.
"Yes… you know of the ghost creature and the mantis, then there was an invisible one, a giant lizard and a werewolf," he reported.
"Fantastic…" Ozzie growled, rubbing his head.
His glare at Janus was rather tired this time.
"Do you realize that he means business now?" the monster asked.
"What do you mean?" Janus frowned.
"There has never been more than one assassin at the time before," Slash grimly said, crossing his arms, "we kept telling him to send several at you at the same time, but no, no. He kept turning those who survived back into their original shapes, making a new one for each that failed."
"Aha."
The wizard slowly nodded. The information completely failed to surprise him – he had almost guessed as much long ago. It had just been a game to Flea.
"But now he really does want to kill me," he concluded.
He paused, bringing his hand to his face.
"Or rather, he was attacking queen Leene to make me suffer."
"Well, you did try to blow him up," Skeeza somewhat dryly said.
Janus snarled and let his hand fall.
"I'm going to kill that bastard!"
"He doesn't choose his targets well if I may say so," Molor commented, his forked tongue dancing.
"Killing Flea would be Slash's current task," Skeeza said before her husband even could consider speaking, "but we can't send him off to fight Flea with five assassins."
"I have allies," Janus shortly said, his hands clenching.
"That's good, but just to make sure…"
Slash wished that he could have been swallowed by the floor when his queen set her merciless gaze on him. Molor slapped his own forehead with the tip of his tail. Only Janus was taken by surprise as he had been lost in thought, but he was hardly happy either.
Everyone that were still left in the royal chamber looked up at the flash of light that reflected in the shards of glass that a servant was assembling from the floor with a broom. He was not the only one to jump.
Leene was now seated on the bed, the king sitting beside her worriedly. They would have to sleep somewhere else with the window smashed, of course. The room was already rather chilly with the night winds given free entrance through the hole.
"How did it go?" Schala quickly asked first of all.
Then she noticed someone and tilted her head slightly in hesitance.
Frog fought down a groan, but Lai openly smacked her forehead.
"Don't tell me…" she growled.
"Yes," Janus said in a tone that suggested that he had already vainly tried to argue against the whole thing, "he's coming with us."
"And don't you think for one second that I like it," Slash snarled.
"Don't worry, I think we're in agreement," Lai dryly said.