Disclaimer: Blah, blah, fishcakes. Err, I mean, standard disclaimers apply.
Finally, progress. I think.
Oh, and can anyone tell me if the link to chapter 6 is broken? Someone mailed me that it is and I checked it but it was working so… thanks! (huggles)
Out of the Sea
By Ninetails
Chapter 9
Quaterina quaked as the footman helped her into the coach. Rashid climbed in after her and sat on the seat across from her, looking as nervous as she felt. Neither of them had ever been to the castle before and weren't sure what to expect.
The carriage started with a slight jolt, and Rashid smiled wanly at her.
"How do you think our Quatre is doing?" she asked Rashid.
He smiled. "I imagine he is well."
She had known him long enough, though, to read beyond the smile, and the look in his eyes was one of worry.
She was worried too. She didn't know anything about the marquis or his father, the duke. At least it's not the blacksmith's daughter, she reminded herself. She just hoped that Quatre was happy. The marquis seemed like a nice enough man, and he could offer Quatre so much.
They reached the castle in short order and were escorted quickly through it to their room. She heard Rashid muttering beside her the entire way.
The walls were of great stone blocks, the same as the rest of the castle. They were covered in tapestries, and the floors were covered with fur rugs. There was a large bed, two small sitting tables with chairs, and a standing wardrobe. A window in the room gave a splendid view of the village.
The servant deposited their bags, and, bowing, began to leave.
"Excuse me, could you tell us where to find our son, Quatre?" Quaterina asked before the man could leave.
"I will tell him that you have arrived, ma'am," the man said. "Dinner will be served in a quarter of an hour." He bowed then exited.
"It's bigger than our whole house," Rashid noted.
"It's bigger than three of our houses," Quaterina corrected him.
"It's too big. What does one do with all this space?"
she shrugged her shoulders. "I have no idea." She moved around, inspecting the bed and the other furniture. Everything was heavy-looking, made out of the finest wood.
"I guess we should find the Hall," Rashid noted.
Quaterina nodded, and they went out in search of dinner.
Quaterina was exhausted. She couldn't remember ever eating so much. As overwhelming as the food had been, though, sitting at the same table as the king had been more so. His Majesty was a surprisingly cordial host, able to engage them in a hearty conversation. He, too, was as handsome as they say he was. She sighed, looking down at her dress. She had been sadly out of fashion, especially compared with the other ladies in court.
"What do you think is going to be expected of us as the parents of a Royal Consort?" she now asked Rashid, back in their room.
He shrugged his broad shoulders. "I have no idea. Personally, I just hope to be left alone in our own little house."
She rolled her eyes at him in a teasing fashion. Rashid was plainspoken, and she knew he had been ill at ease all during dinner.
"What did you think of Duo?" she asked.
He stopped pacing and looked at her. "I think he reminded me a lot of our son," he said warily, taking a step closer to her.
"Me too. You don't think…"
"That there's a connection"? Rashid asked. "I don't know, but it makes me nervous."
"We always assumed that Quatre was one of a kind, unique."
"And now we're both wondering, 'What if he isn't?'"
Quaterina nodded.
He shook his head. "We have to ask Quatre what he knows of him."
Quaterina laughed nervously. "It's strange, but after all these years, I almost don't want to know."
"I understand," he said softly. "We know what we both think. Either we're about to lose everything we've believed for so long, or…"
"Or have it confirmed for us," she breathed.
Silence stretched between them. in their hearts they had believed that Quatre wasn't entirely human. Neither knew for sure what he was, but the thought of finding out was a bit overwhelming. Sometimes it's better to guess at the truth than know it. actually, what frightens me more is the thought that we might've been wrong all these years.
Rashid picked up a candle. "I'm going to take a look around before bed," he told her, exiting the room.
The spell was broken, and she laughed out loud. Whether he would say so or not, she knew he was nervous at the thought of sleeping in a place he did not know.
She heard running steps outside the room and turned just as Quatre burst through the door.
"Mama!"
Quatre rant into her arms and she could feel the tremors coursing through his body.
At last, when he had calmed down enough to let go of his stronghold on her, she gently let him go to look deeply into his distraught face. "Now tell me, child, what is it that is bothering you?"
"Mama, there's… just too much, I can't…" Quatre choked. She felt the sorrow in his eyes cut through her heart. She couldn't stand to see her child in pain. "Try, love, please – you used to tell me everything. Well, almost everything," she joked, waving a hand at their surroundings.
Quatre smiled a little at that, and it warmed Quaterina's heart.
"Mama, tell me about that night."
Quaterina frowned at him. "What night is that?"
"The night you and Papa found me."
Quaterina sighed. The time for avoiding the topic was over – it had to be, even she knew that. "It was Papa who found you. why do you want to hear it again?"
"I just do."
Quaterina's frown deepened. For years she had successfully avoided Quatre's many questions on the topic. She didn't have all the answers. her Quatre was grown up, though, and the time for questions had come. She wished she felt more prepared, but she wasn't. All she could tell him was what she knew, what she and Rashid has seen. So many nights Quatre has asked her for the details and Quaterina has skimmed over them. tonight, though, it might be different, it must be.
Quaterina sighed and her face grew very still. "It had been a beautiful day, the sun was shining, and the sky was the brightest blue you ever saw. There was not a cloud anywhere in sight. I remember thinking that there had never been such a beautiful day, at least not in my memory." She chuckled. "Even Master Padan was in a good mood."
Quatre chuckled at the mention of the dour old man. Quaterina laughed, and Quatre joined her. Finally, they quieted.
Quaterina sobered, remembering. "Even the ocean was still, as though it were holding its breath. It was Saturday, so your father didn't take the boat out until after lunch."
Quaterina stopped, remembering the feeling of trepidation she had when she saw Rashid off that afternoon. The day had been beautiful, but something had seemed amiss to her, something she couldn't explain.
Quatre sat with an expectant look at her, wincing at the memory. "And then everything changed, in a moment. The sky turned black, and the seas started boiling. The rain began to fall in great sheets, and you couldn't hear anyone speak for the thunder. It was so dark that even the lightning revealed nothing more than a step away from you. folks say it was the Devil's Storm. It destroyed half a village five days' walk from here. I was in the market and somehow I made my way home. Finally, a voice told me to go look for him. I walked to the beach and I saw him trying to drag the boat up onto the sand. He had fallen, and the boat was slipping back into the water. I put my hands over his and helped heave the boat backward to safety."
"Father made it home."
She nodded. "And when he did, he wasn't alone."
"I was with him," Quatre said, almost too quietly for her to hear.
Quaterina nodded. "Yes, you were."
"The storm came up so fast, I didn't even have time to start home."
Quatre jumped, and they both turned to see Rashid standing a few feet away. The light from the candle he was carrying cast shadows across his face but did nothing to hide his piercing eyes.
"I started to pull for shore as hard as I could, but the sea only swept me farther out. at one point I was sure I was going to die. I prayed for the Light to shine on my wife and keep her safe. It was at that point that I saw a light in the water. I rowed over and looked down in the water. I saw a little boy treading water."
Rashid moved and sat down on Quatre's other side. "Your hair was floating on top of the water, glowing. I pulled you into the boat. You weren't wearing a stitch of clothing, and when I tried to wrap a wet blanket around you, you just made a face and threw it off. Then I began to row again, harder than before. I knew the Light did not intend for me to die on that ocean. The Creator would not have led me to find you if He didn't want me to take you to shore. Eventually we made it to the beach. Quaterina found us and we ran home."
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing," Quaterina continued. "You looked about four. Everything about you was small and delicate except your legs; I've never seen legs that long on a child."
"And you eyes," Rashid added. "They were so big, and they seemed to glow with a luminous light."
"When Rashid set you down you didn't move, and you were so pale that I thought you were dead, drowned. But then you looked up at me and said something I couldn't understand. You didn't speak English. Not a word for almost an entire season. And then, when you did speak, the first word you said was 'Papa.' Then you spoke naturally, like you'd been learning all those words and saving them up."
"Your skin was so pale," Rashid added, "that when you held your hand up to the fire, it was as though I could see through it. we both could."
"We told everyone that you were the child of one of my cousins who lived in the village that was destroyed by the storm," Quaterina explained.
"And this pearl?" Quatre questioned, fingering the large pendant on his throat.
"You had that clutched tightly in your fist. I couldn't get it away from you until you fell asleep and your hand loosened," Quaterina explained.
Quatre sat quietly, as though he was absorbing the information. "Do you think I'm human?"
Quaterina shook her head slowly. "I don't know," she said, her voice a hoarse whisper. "I've never known and, Light, I've never wanted to know."
"It was safer that way," Rashid explained.
"The truth is, we didn't know and we didn't care if you weren't. We just knew that we were happy to have your, our beloved little boy, and we weren't going to let any harm come to you. Rashid was meant to find you, I have always believed that. We were meant to protect you, and I will believe that until my dying day."
"There's two other young men, they look like me," Quatre confided.
"I saw the one lad, Duo, earlier at dinner," Quaterina told him. "I noticed the resemblance and I confess I wondered if he was somehow related to you."
"What about the other man?" Rashid asked.
"I found him, a couple days ago, sitting by the sea. He claimed to know me, that I had been kidnapped as a child and he had been searching for me ever since."
"Not the man they caught who's been killing people?" Rashid asked, horrified.
Quatre nodded. "I haven't known what to think. I do know that what he said to me had the ring of truth to it."
Quaterina exchanged a glance with Rashid. It could be true, but the thought frightened her. What if their Quatre left? Worse, what if more people came looking for hi and whoever kidnapped him was among them? "Have you heard where they're keeping him?" she asked.
Quatre shook his head, and Quaterina sighed. "Then we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
Quaterina felt as though she'd blinked and three days had passed. She and Noin had become great friends, and had taken over all the preparations for the bonding ceremony. She spent a whole day discussing the royal banquet with the chef who was a delightful man. He even gave Quaterina some cooking tips that she planned on using at home.
Rashid spent his time scowling around and looking generally uncomfortable. If only Quatre were happier, Quaterina would have found the whole adventure wonderful. She hadn't been able to get the thought out of her head that Quatre might have been kidnapped as a child. That, coupled with the fact that Duo could very well be connected to Quatre's past, added to her unrest.
She made her way to Quatre's room to wake him for some final arrangements. "Tomorrow is the big day," she told Quatre as she woke him.
There were dark circles under Quatre's eyes that stood out in sharp contrast against his pale skin. "Are you all right?" Quaterina asked, sitting down beside him.
"I'm just having bad dreams," Quatre answered groggily.
Quaterina's heart filled with great sympathy. "It's normal to feel anxious before such a special event," she assured him. "Why, I didn't sleep for three days before your father and I were bonded."
"Truly?" Quatre asked. "Were you nervous?"
"Incredibly," Quaterina confided with a tiny grin. "I worried about all manner of things, but mostly whether I was making a huge mistake."
"But you didn't."
"No, I didn't. Your father is a wonderful man and I couldn't be happier." She gave Quatre's shoulder a squeeze. "It will work out for you, too. Now, up with you and let's see to what we have to see to."
She beamed as, later on, Quatre tried on the traditional bonding garb. He looked handsome and grown up. Her Quatre has grown up into a fine man.
Things are going even better than planned, Vanyel thought with satisfaction. As the manservant was putting the final touches on his clothes, he couldn't help but chuckle in satisfaction.
His father sat across the room, waiting for the servant to finish and leave. The two of them had much to discuss.
For the past five days he had managed to keep Quatre and Heero from speaking to each other, lest either figure out his deception. He felt a momentary twinge of regret. Quatre really was a remarkable young man, and very beautiful. Perhaps if he had met him under other circumstances… he shook his head. Under other circumstances he never would have looked at him since he was a commoner. No, Quatre was just part of the game he and his father had been playing for months. A game that would win them the throne.
It had been Vanyel's spies who had first discovered the unique relationship between Quatre and Heero. It had been his intention to find some way to exploit it, though the current turn of events surprised even him. Still, things were working out well. The prince was uneasy and off-balance. That made him vulnerable, and a decade of tournaments had taught Vanyel how to exploit vulnerability.
His father has been planning for years to kill King Treize and seize the throne. The day after next, years of planning would start to pay off. It was a shame, really, that he wasn't going to have an opportunity to have Quatre in his bed; he would be dead before sundown, after all.
The servant finished and, bowing, left the room. After a minute, Vanyel crossed to his father.
"Everything is in place," the duke said, a wicked gleam in his eyes. "In the morning, a dangerous criminal will escape and poison the king."
"The killer's connection to the prince will be discovered, and he will be killed."
"And after the others are dead, the throne will be ours."
Vanyel picked up a wine goblet from the table. "I'll drink to that," he said with satisfaction, and downed the clarrey in one swallow.
The duke lifted a glass as well. "Here's to us: What a fine pair of widowers we will be."
TBC
Author's Notes:
My cousins were confined to the hospital last Wednesday. I had to take care of the stupid little, err, I mean, poor little souls. Then, my other cousin and my little sis had fevers as well. And now, my five year old cousin was also confined. So, I had to take care of the miserable, err, I mean, distressed angels. I blame it on the weather. They spend half the time in AC'd rooms, then they'd go out to play in our playground under the sweltering sun. Geez. And I managed to catch the disease that's been lurking around the house so I feel miserable as well. That's one of the reasons why I wasn't able to update this week.
The other is the dreaded, plain, old, writer's block. Hence the shortness of this update. Whee. Err, I mean, GOMEN NASAI!
Oh, and have I ever mentioned that this'll be the last GW fanfic I'll write for a long, LONG time?
Replies to Reviews (Chapter 8): Um, hospital food for all? (snickers)
Hikaru … Gwaugh! I am SO sorry for taking too long with this chapter! It wasn't intentional, I swear! Waaaaaaahh! (runs away straight to a darned wall) Ehehehe, so sorry for forgetting what I told you two chappie replies ago and asking you to clarify. I'm glad you're enjoying making guesses as to what happens in this crappy fic. Thanks SO much for being the first reviewer of chapter 8! (huggles)
Pandora-chan Hehe, I hope you didn't mind a Quaterina-centric chappie! I would also write a Rashid-centric one but… it's too troublesome. (remember the writer's block thingie?) Hmmm… I have other plans for Duo and Quatre so stay tuned… if I ever get to write it, that is. Hmm… I wonder how Duo would "act-out" a sea witch… (starts getting images in her head and she falls down, giggling madly on the floor) Yup, 38 Celsius. See the effects of such weather? Almost everyone in the house is sniffling or coughing, but you didn't need to know that. Thanks SO much for reviewing! (huggles)
Amy Hirosaki Waaaahhh! I'm sorry for making you wait so long! The mysteries in this story will unfold soon, I promise… I hope. Waaaaaaahh! I am such a mean girl! Ehehehe, I'll try signing in at Gaia… someday. My net load's running low and I still have to upload this fic. My browser is uber slow. Oh well. Yup, I have all four books of the Artemis Fowl series! I have to say I liked the 3rd one best. Not gonna tell why… it'll be a spoiler. Peep S Prifles? Gomen, not familiar with it… 'Nyways, thanks SO much for the review! (huggles)
Mikki Amboree Hmm.. sorry for not writing anything more interesting in this chapter, maybe except for the last scene… (looks away, pondering) and I'm so sorry for not updating for a long time. 'Nyways, glad your SAT went fine! (not really familiar with it though…) Btw, Trowa? A murderer! … Maybe… Nyahahahaha! Okay, shutting up now. Thanks for the review! (huggles)
GundamPilot03 (sigh) Here's another Trowa-torture-free chappie for you… Sorry for taking too darned long. I'll get to writing as soon as I can. I hope. Hehe, I have a feeling that you're ready to bash Vanyel into the ground. (hands over a mallet full of nasty-looking spikes) Use this! Err, wait, don't! I won't have a villain to use! Hmmmm… your guess just might be right! I think. Hehe. Don't worry about the piccie. Just take your time and do justice to the gorgeousness that is Trowa. (drools) Trouble? Awww. Hope you're out of it already. (I think you are; this fic has taken that long) Thanks SO much for the review! And since I'm giving everyone hospital food, I snuck out a muffin just for you! Enjoy! (huggles)
Da-Ku Hisaki Waaaaaaaah! I'm so sorry for updating too slow! I'll get to writing the next chapter as soon as I can… or as soon as I get my butt out of "bum mode." … or as soon as I get out of my block… or… You get the picture, ne? Hehe, thanks for the review! (huggles)
emerald (sigh) Another one. I am SO sorry for taking too long! (tries to cower under chair) Poor Gundam Wing boys; the torture I put them through. I should be shot! (that way, I won't have to work on this fic no more! Nyahaha!) Hmmmm. Interesting theory. Let's see if the story works out that way, ne? Or you might be surprised… or irritated. Waaaaah! Gomen nasai! Hmmm.. there'll be more Trowa in a chapter soon to come. Demo, there's more Trowa angst too so… yeah. Wai! You're making something else that's related to Trowa! Please gimme a link (direct links don't work on though so I wasn't able to see the link you gave me) or mail me at jo(underscore)9tails(at)yahoo. Thankees for the review! And don't worry, English is my second language too! (huggles)
Ultra Rodimus Nyahaha! Poor Duo indeed! I really couldn't do anything with his braid (in fear of a beam cannon aimed at me via one "perfect soldier") so his voice had to go. And Trowa? My poor baby is all shackled up! I'm so sorry to do that to him but it was necessary for Vanyel's plot! Oops, I think that was a spoiler. Gomen nasai! (tries to hide under convenient mound of… cd cases) Gwuargh, I hate having writer's block! When I first started on this chapter, I spent three hours just staring at the title. Die writer's block die! 'Nyways, thanks SO much for the review and the sympathy! (huggles)
No one Awwww… I am SO sorry with the Heero, Quatre, Duo and (especially) Trowa torment! I should've picked "angst" for the genre… "dark" or "torture" works too. Waaah! It gets better, I promise! Really! I hope… 'Nyways, so sorry for taking too long to update and thanks for the review! (huggles)
Shadow fat … Nice, err, fantasy… I hope this fic didn't disrupt your two-hour lesson-absorbing. Wait, what was I thinking! I'm glad this fic saved you from a 2-hour Bio class! Nyahaha! Although I have to admit that Bio is one of my fave subjects… No, I am NOT a nerd. Eww… human tea bags! (looks suspiciously at Shadow fat and surreptitiously edges away) Aww, don't worry, that kiss was only a dream sequence. But you're right. Gross. Hmmm. Trowa's doing okay in the dark, musty, rat-infested dungeon with probably spare amounts of nutrition and oxygen not to mention interesting growths of amoeboid species in every crevice. Um. Yeah. Ehh? You like the 1x2 pair? I like it too, but my love kinda fluctuates from 1x2 to 3x4; now, my love is for 3x4, hence, this fic. I'm glad you like the 3x4 pairing. Gah. Your analysis made my head hurt. I think there was a complement buried in there… ehehehe, thanks! Awww, I love replying to your reviews! Although, I think I babble too much about silly stuff for anyone to actually appreciate my replies. (hides behind convenient see-through wall) Hmmm.. about your question… I think that her initial reaction was to be happy for her son since she knows that he's not happy with his other choice (Natasha) – she might be too excited for her son's sake too; besides, his suitor is a marquis. Can anyone refute the word of royalty? Of course – in pain of death. Hehe, Yup being the big sister helps A LOT in bratling situations. But when the 'rents are there… (sighs in frustration) Hehe, thanks SO much for the cool review! (huggles)
To think that in a month's time, I'm turning 19. I'm getting old! Waaaaah!
