Part 2

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The chatelaine, Dieina, led the boys to a large and well appointed bedroom with a balcony that overlooked the courtyard. It was dominated by a single large bed with four posts and was heavily canopied, piled high with quilts and furs. Duo looked at it with a low whistle as he prepared to launch himself unto it. Heero caught him with practised grace and gave the woman a look that suggested that he couldn't take him anywhere.

The chatelaine, as she had been introduced to them, wore a simple black dress with a high collar with a silver chain that formed two loops about her breasts, serving as the waist of her gown. She had long black hair that was straight and loose down her back, but her skin was a golden colour, warmed by the firelight, and paler than Heero's, but her eyes were large and almond shaped, pulled tight at the corners, her mouth was wide and full as if designed to be kissed. There was something about her that suggested, however, that it was not in their best interest to even suggest that to her.

"Hey," Duo said taking in the dark red furniture and the heavy wood, the fireplace was larger than some safe house's they'd been in, "there's only one bed."

Dieina's expression remained unchanged. "It is cold in the Dathyl winter," she said calmly, "it is common for guests to bed down together, however if it is a problem I can arrange another room." Although her tone was even there was something about the way that she said it that suggested that arranging another room would be a problem that they really didn't want to bother her with.

"It's fine," Heero said politely.

"Between you and me," Duo said behind his hand to the Dieina, "Heero snores."

"It's not my place to judge, sir." Dieina said quietly. "If you require anything, just ring the bell, someone will answer. Now I will be going, unless there is anything else you require."

"That bed looks awfully comfy," Duo said with a sly glint in his eye.

"It's not my place to say, sir." Dieina's tone suggested that she was offended at the mere suggestion that the bed might not be comfortable. She had a rare gift of saying many things whilst not saying anything at all.

Duo took it as the opportunity to launch himself at the bed. "Hee-chan, it's super comfy, is this a down mattress?" He looked at the chatelaine carefully.

"Yes, sir. If that is all?" Although the question was loaded everything about it suggested that it better be all.

"Yes, thank you." Heero said escorting the woman in black to the door and closing it behind her. He looked at where Duo lay sprawled on the bed amongst the furs looking almost wanton and made a hn noise.

"Oh, come on," Duo said sprawling over the furs, "how often do we get the chance to live like kings?"

"We are unsure of our position here, we should start reconnaissance, this may be an Oz prison." He started opening the wardrobes and doors around the room to reveal a privy and a small room with a copper bath and a smaller fireplace.

"If so, I have to commend Generally Tries Harder on his cells, this is fabulous. It is like a five star hotel in medieval Europe."

"General Treize Kushrenada." Heero corrected automatically.

Duo just grinned at him. "Look, if it is an Oz trick to get information out of us they're being really sneaky, I mean their stage director hasn't missed a detail, this castle is tricked out like something in a picture book, I can't even hear the buzz of electrical wires, and there are no sockets anywhere I noticed. What can they learn?" Heero went pale at that.

"How we pilot the gundams." Heero answered quietly.

"We're stuck here, we know nothing about our hosts who say we're free to leave, we might as well make the most of it."

"I'll sleep on the couch," Heero said looking around the room, there was a small cushioned ottoman on the bed.

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The library at Halcyon was the wonder of Dathyl and the empire at the north, the books G had owned had been few and far between, most of his library stored on computer so Duo had no preparation for this. From floor to ceiling there were books, they were piled on shelves, in random mountains across the floor, on tables, and chairs, but they were not what transfixed him. In the centre of the room, as if the library was a frame, was a pane of glass dazzled him. At first he thought the figure illuminated by the moon was a ghost, a knight on the battlements who stared out of the glass with such sadness he felt the urge to cry as he slew the dragon beneath his feet.

"Who is he?" He asked his guide, thinking that Heero would be as dazzled by this as he was, that Heero would appreciated it. It had been Heero's idea after all to suborn a servant into bringing him here.

"That's Menelaus." The boy replied as if that answered anything at all, or as if he was an idiot that he didn't recognise the figure.

Menelaus amazed him in ways he'd never expected to be amazed. His beauty was like Heero's, he was tall and slender in a way that belied his strength with white pale skin and black hair. His eyes were green and narrow. He wore a silver cuirass with three long scratches along it where the long sinuous pearly purple dragon raked its claws across it. Yet Menelaus did not look at the dragon at his feet, he looked into the room, directly at Duo, one foot on the dragon's raised claw, the other on its craw, his black sword in the dragon's mouth, his red cloak torn to shreds, but a bloody line crossed his nose from forehead to under his eye, a scar that didn't disfigure him in any way. It was the kind of man that a boy could fall in love with, even if he was only a portrait on glass. It was the best kind of hero, Duo thought, one that could never let you down.

"Who was Menelaus?" He asked the ignorant servant that had led him here.

"He's a character in some book." The man shrugged. "Will that be all?"

"Yes, that's fine." He turned to tell the man to leave and stopped again, fixed in place by something else now. A painting of a woman in a white gown with her long white hair falling away from her face as she laughed. The woman was more beautiful than anything Duo had ever seen before, around her neck she wore a collar of diamonds, and the picture was animated and loved. Whoever painted it had loved that woman, he could see that. He wouldn't ask the servant who she was, he would either not know or be rude to him, but he would show this room of wonders to Heero, and if it was an Oz trap and they were holed up in Treize's castle as Heero continually pointed out, then the general was very lucky to be blessed with this room.

"Haunting, isn't he?" A woman said stepping out from behind Duo, her hair was a pale strawberry blond pulled away from her face by a crown of beaten gold leaves, and her dress was made of layers and layers of whisper thin silk. She looked more like she belonged in a forest than in this library, but as Duo looked closer he could see the tracery of scars that the bangles on her wrists couldn't quite hide and a strange dark blemish around her throat. "People have spent years trying to work out what went through the artist's head when he was created. Knowing the tragedy of Menelaus better than most I simply wonder if it is foreshadowing." She looked at Duo, "what do you think he regrets so vividly, sir?"

"War," He answered without thinking, "he regrets that he must kill something so magnificent." The hero on the dragon reminded him of Heero, he did what he had to do even though it tore him up inside.

"The women he killed the dragon for eventually betrayed him." The woman said, sitting down in one of the plush chairs. "Does that not colour your view of the dragonslayer?"

"No," Duo answered, still staring at the glass like it was alive. "He does what he has to do, even if it kills him."

"You have beautiful hair, sir, will you permit me?" She reached out to touch the braid but held her hand back until he gave her permission.

He snatched his hair away. "I'm sorry, it means a lot to me." He said, then lowered his eyes bashfully in front of this woman. He had never met anyone like her before, she dazzled and frightened him. "My guardian," he stopped, he had no idea why he had almost told her about Sister Helen.

"It is fine," she said patiently with a warm and gentle smile, a smile like Sister Helen's. "I am merely used to having my own way with such things, people defer to me, it is refreshing to find someone who does not, and merely not out of spite. I am Aeka, will you grace me with your name?"

"Duo," he stammered out.

She smiled again, aware of the effect she was having on him. There was no way she could not be aware of the effect she was having. "You must be one of Adam's demons, and I was told that the pair of you were hideously dangerous and I was to stay clear, instead I find that you are only a boy, though the way you carry yourself tells me you have seen horrors that none here can fathom."

Duo clenched at that. "I have seen worlds destroyed." He said firmly, "I have destroyed worlds."

At that Aeka touched the strange discoloration around her throat. "That I understand, master Duo." She smiled again, but it looked fake on her beautiful face, "Know that you are welcome here in Halcyon, and if any one questions you or your purpose tell them that the Lady Aeka gave you leave."

"Then are you a lady?" He asked.

Her answering grin took him by surprise, it was a conspirator's grin. "No, dear Duo, I am not a lady, I am a queen." She sat back into the cushioned chair that was behind her, "I am the Queen of Dathyl, hence I was told to stay away from the demons just in case they were a cunning plan to kill either myself or my husband."

"Heero thinks this is an Oz trap." Duo said, "he thinks that if we ignore it then they'll get bored and put us in a normal prison and we can escape."

"Do you do that a lot?" She asked, "escape from prison, I mean."

He flashed her his most mischievous grin, "only when we get caught." He said.