Chapter 8 – Sleight of Hand

Kohza was asleep, then he was awake. There was no in-between. When he had been a rebel, he couldn't afford to wake up groggy and confused. Old habits died hard.

He dressed slowly; his body was still stiff and sore from yesterday's ride. As he put on his glasses, he considered that one thing was often gotten wrong; things rarely looked better in the morning. At least at night a person could hope it was all a dream.

He had no idea what to do for breakfast, but a rattling at the door indicated that someone already knew he was awake. Terracotta whirled in like a sandstorm, pushing a cart laden with every breakfast food imaginable.

"Good morning!" she boomed. "Breakfast is here."

The sheer quantity overwhelmed him and he spoke before thinking. "No one could ever be that hungry."

"You're welcome," Terracotta said ominously.

"Be easy on him. Not everyone can eat as much as my…er, other friends." Vivi stood in the doorway, Carue at her side as always. She nodded quickly at Kohza, indicating that no one suspected a thing.

Terracotta laughed. "Good point. Now those boy had appetites!"

"Yeah. Appetites…" Vivi repeated. Then she remembered why she was here. "Kohza, may Carue and I eat with you this morning?"

Kohza hadn't missed the number of place settings on the tray. "I don't think I have a choice."

Vivi began putting dishes on the table near the bed. Carue made himself comfortable by one of the chairs. "It's only a courtesy to ask."

"Only courtesy, of course," Kohza said sardonically. "And if I said no?"

Vivi whirled around, hands on her hips. "You don't want me here?"

"Not if you're going to be an ice princess!"

"'Ice princess?'" Vivi cried with outrage

Terracotta knew when to take her leave. She left the two of them facing off and closed the door behind her.

The latch clicked into place and Vivi grinned. "That'll give us peace for awhile."

Vivi finished setting the table. Kohza's glasses couldn't hide dark circles under his eyes and she wondered if his face looked ashen or if it was only a trick of the thin morning light. She didn't have to wait long for answers. He uttered a quick prayer when he took his seat, then immediately began telling her what he had learned the night before.

"I spoke with the friend. He received a message from people in the south. They have information for me but said it was too important to put in a letter, to important to even contact me directly. We're leaving for Nanohana tonight."

Vivi smiled. "I'll pack my bags."

He had expected a fight on this. "When I said 'we,' I meant my friend and I."

"I can't go?" Vivi asked.

He laughed. "You're the one person who can bring the entire royal army down on me. No, you can't go"

Vivi buttered her toast conscientiously. "They'll still look for you. There are very few places to hide out in the open desert."

"I'm counting on my sub-leader to mislead them," Kohza replied.

"If you're referring to me, you're counting on the wrong person," she said. "I'm coming with you."

"Vivi," he began, but she pointed at him with her butter knife and said, "I haven't been out of the capital since I've returned. This is the perfect opportunity to start my tour of Alabasta."

Kohza tried to play on her compassion. "Do you want to see me be-headed?"

"Father doesn't behead people. He covers them in honey and puts them in front of the flesh-eating ant hills," she said cheerfully. She was rewarded with a smile, but her next question was all business. "How were you getting out of Alubana?"

Kohza knew when to give up – or appear to. "First I have to get my horse out of the stable."

"That big black one? I've seen it. Pell's eagle eyes will spot you a mile away. You should think of a different way."

"I'm not leaving Temp." Tempest had been with him through the past two years and there were many skirmishes that Kohza might not have left alive had it not been for the speed, the strength and endurance of his horse. Kohza gestured at the spot bill duck. "Would you leave Carue behind?"

Carue returned Vivi's gaze with knowing eyes. He was far more intelligent than any horse. She almost said as much, but then she was struck with an idea.

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Later that night…

Igaram made one more round of the halls. The news from Urgano had him agitated and he couldn't even think of sleep at the moment.

A guard rushed to his side. "Vivi is missing! Carue isn't anywhere to be found!"

"Did you check Kohza's room?" Igaram asked immediately. He dreaded the answer.

"It's empty and the horse is gone."

"Damn that boy!" Igaram took his frustrations out on an innocent table. A short time later, he, Pell, Chaka, and Cobra were in counsel.

"If they went into the desert, their tracks will be easy to spot. I'll do sweeps around the capital," Pell offered.

"Don't tire yourself out," the king cautioned. "It has only been three months."

Chaka addressed the king. "I'll have the royal guard dispatched throughout the city."

"I'll get on the Dendenmushi and notify the army outposts in other cities – just in case they slip through our dragnet." Igaram counted on it; Vivi had been a BW agent for two years. She'd learned from the best of the worst.

Cobra nodded, content to leave the action to these men. They had many years of experience and he trusted them to find his daughter. That was assuming that she wanted to be found at all. The king smiled to himself, remembering how agitated she'd been at dinner.

Igaram fumed aloud in the hallway as the three men set off to begin their tasks. "But when did those two plan it? Kohza was in the library all day and Vivi went to the ma- ma – market with Terracotta."

Terracotta stepped in front of her husband. "It must have been when they had breakfast this morning."

"What are you doing here?" Igaram cried.

She snorted with disgust. "I sleep less soundly than I did before."

"We'll meet you at the barracks," Pell said quickly. He and Chaka begin moving down the hallway to escape the blast radius of the bomb known as Terracotta.

"You shouldn't walk around in a nightgown! It's disrespectable!" Igaram tried to bundle his wife out of the hall and, more importantly, out of his way.

""Disrespectable" isn't a word," his wife retorted, refusing to budge.

Igaram watched his subordinates beat a hasty retreat. Fired! Both of them! he thought angrily.

"What's going on? I don't want to have to find out from the papers tomorrow morning that you've gone missing." She frowned darkly.

"But I came back," he protested.

Terracotta shook her finger in her husband's face, narrowly missing his nose. "You came back because you couldn't sully the good name of your family and the centuries of duty it has given to the royal family."

"But, dear, I – "

"Don't 'dear' me. The thought of me certainly didn't stop you from sneaking off in the middle of the night two years ago now, did it?"

"That's not true." Igaram took her hand in both of his. "I was only thinking of you when I left."

She opened her mouth again, but he interrupted her. "And I came back for you, Terracotta. Stopping the rebellion, saving the country – that was so that I would know you would always be safe." He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. "Everything else was peripheral."

"When Chaka told me…the letter Vivi sent…" Her hostility, the shield she held up to save herself, melted. Terracotta rested her head on his shoulder and said quietly, "I wanted to be dead."

"I'm glad you're not. I would have come all that way for nothing," Igaram said, trying to lighten the mood. He was rewarded with a chuckle.

Terracotta pushed away and pointed down the hall. "Go on. They're waiting for you."

"You're the best, dear." Igaram planted a kiss on her forehead and raced after Pell and Chaka.

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It took Pell one hour to find them. They hadn't gotten very far and the tracks of the spot bill duck and the horse were painfully obvious in the moon lit sand. He swooped down in front of the racing animals, driving them back. They tried to make a cut to the left, but he had them blocked there as well. He swiftly changed forms, making a smooth transition from hawk to human and grabbed Carue's reins before he could flee.

"Your father is not pleased, Princess Vi -"

The sacks strapped in the saddles maintained a stony silence.

Pell shook his head. "Igaram's going to have you fricasseed, Carue."

[Author notes: I should have done this ages ago. First off, my eternal gracias to Sylph for beta-reading and general encouragement. Also thanks to all of you who took a chance with this story. It doesn't focus on the main OP crew, so I wasn't sure how many people would even want to read it, but some of you like it! Thanks for your support. I really appreciate it.

I'm getting requests for 'squish-able' moments with Vivi and Kohza. Hold onto your horses, my friends, it's on the books. How about this chapter's Igaram and Terracotta moment instead? (grin) I love Igaram too much.]