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Van woke to his wife's elbow jabbing into his ribs. He blinked a few times before relizing that it was still dark out.
"What's wrong?" he asked sitting up quickly.
"The baby is coming." Hitomi gasped, "Van, get Merle and Pennin."
"But it's early." Van stood and walked over to where his wife was sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Almost two months, I know. But you tell your child that." Hitomi gasped and stood slowly, "It's coming soon."
Van dressed quickly but when he left the bedroom he was the picture of calm as he walked to his friend's bedroom.
"It's Hitomi." Van said quietly, opening Merle's door a few inches.
Merle was silent for a moment before saying, "You can count on me."
"I know." Van smiled, "You know what to do." Van closed the door and moved to Pennin's room where the silence inside told him that Pennin was already awake.
"I heard your door." Pennin said as Van peeked in, "I'll be there in a minute."
"Thank you." Van walked back to his room to find Hitomi standing with her hands clasped where Van guessed the baby had moved to. Her belly was suddenly a lot lower than it had been when they climbed into bed only a few hours ago.
"We have an hour or so before things pick up." Hitomi said, moving to grab her robe.
"That's perfect." Van latched the door behind him.
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Just after sunrise Kaitlyn woke sensing that something was wrong. It was too quiet and everynow and then she could hear one or two people rushing silently past her room.
Taking her time to dress and brush out her dark hair, listening the whole time, Kaitlyn felt like she was waiting for the world to explode. She was tense and on the edge of her seat when she finaly heard it.
A woman screaming in pain.
A woman screaming in labor.
Smiling happily Kailtyn walked out of her room and found her very frazzled looking father standing just outside of his room.
"Did you hear that?" he asked, looking as though he had thrown on the first outfit he could get his hands on.
"Yes." Kaitlyn's smile widened, "I knew Zaibach's anger would keep the Queen from throwing us out but I never dreamed we would still be here when she went into labor. Saves us a lot of trouble if you ask me."
"But how are we going to-?" Kaitlyn cut him off with a look and just in time. Merle came flying around the corner, her arms full of blankets.
"Is everything ok?" Kaitlyn asked, innocently, "I thought I heard a scream."
"Hitomi's in labor." Merle panted, "I was sent to get blankets. I don't know why we need so many. I mean it's one tiny baby, how many blanket could it need?" another scream from the next floor up had Merle sprinting for the stairs, "Gotta go!" she called back to them.
"Well, it looks like everything is falling apart. Normaly she wouldn't have told us so much." Karth looked very pleased, "If luck is with us it will go badly, leaving the Queen to weak to know what's happening."
"Shut up and go see if there are guards outside the room." Kaitlyn snapped. Nothing was certain yet, but if they played their cards right they would out of Fanelia by the end of the day.
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Dilandau didn't know why the Queen had asked him to guard her. Either she had more faith in him than anyone ever had or she wanted to keep him close under the watchfull eyes of the other guards.
Truth be told he was feeling a bit ill. With every gasp and scream from behind the closed door he felt his insides twist.
Zaibach would give anything to get their hands on that child. It didn't matter to them who was in the way- it would be soon, knowing Zaibach, that the first attempt to steal the child would come. Maybe that was why Hitomi wanted him around. He could recognize many of Zaibach's soldiers and would have an idea of how they would attack.
Hitomi had saved him from a terrible fate. Dilandau sat up a bit starighter as he thought about it. She had very little to go on when it came to trusting him but she had and then she had saved him. She didn't have to do it.
Looking around at the other men Dilandau felt honored to be there and knew that he now served Hitomi and Van. He would lay his life down for them and their babe.
He almost laughed thinking about what his reaction to all this would have been nearly 5 years ago. He would have killed Hitomi and the baby just to torture Van and now, thanks to some glitch in Zaibach's magic, he was ready to swear his life in service to this unborn child.
His thoughts darkened considerably thinking about his twin. She would at this moment be swearing her life to bring about the death of the baby about to be born in the room behind him, that is if it proved too difficult to kidnap the baby. If Zaibach couldn't control it theyw ould want it dead. His breakfast threatened to come up as he imagined her face shining in joy as she slaughtered the royals and took their child to be raised by Zaibach. The plan had originaly been to just kidnap the babe, but now he couldn't be sure. Zaibach may want the royals dead just so they could raise the only blood heir to the Fanelian throne.
A yell from the room behind him jerked Dilandau's thoughts back to the present. He would worry about Zaibach when the time came. He couldn't afford to be lost in thought if an attack came now.
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Kaitlyn walked the outside of the palace and frowned, seeing that there were guards on the balconies of the rooms around the Queen and King's bed chambers. And that annoying little Dragon was seated on the balcony leading to the bedroom.
Tar's eyes narrowed when he saw Kaitlyn and the lady quickly dropped a bow in his direction before hurrying on.
There were guards everywhere.
Karth rounded the corner looking grim, "There's no way into that room."
"Have you seen the King's blonde friend, Penning, or whatever his name is?" Kaitlyn asked, "Or his wife? His brother is also gone."
"King Van probably has them in the room with them. The sercurity is so tight I wouldn't put it past the King to place guards in the room as well." Karth scowled, "Things are looking dark for us indeed."
"Something isn't right." Kaitlyn walked away from her father, causing him to jog to catch up, " Things are too quiet. I'm not an expert on this but shouldn't there be a bit more chaos with the coming of the heir?"
Marching up to the guarded room Kaitlyn watched as the guards talked quietly among themselves while the screaming continued in the room behind them. One of them spotted Kaitlyn and her father and smirked.
"They couldn't have!" Kaitlyn screamed, an idea coming to her. She charged the room.
No one moved to stop her and she threw the door open to find Pennin, Merle and Aidren standing around a flushed Rosier who had been the source of the screaming.
"Took you long enough!" the woman yelled, "The king had a lot more faith in your intelligence than this. I'm not gonna have a voice tonight."
"They're not here!" Kaitlyn screamed.
"Of, course they're not." Merle laughed, "What do you think they are, stupid?"
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It felt as though they had been sitting there for days not hours. His legs were cramping and just as they swaying of the Airship was getting to him Dilandau heard the crying of a babe in the room behind him. The men around him fell silent as the crying continued for a minute before the King, pale but happy, opened the door carrying a small bundle.
"A daughter." Van smiled down at the fussing baby, "I have a daughter."
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A/N: Hope you all liked it. The next chapter may be a bit slow but bear with me.
And yes, I have a name for the little girl. It'll be in the next chapter.
Review! - I'm so sick right now. I have mono or something. Whatever sickness it is that gives you the little white dots in the back of your mouth and throat. I'm so tired but made myself get this whole thing done in one sitting. Send me reviews so I have something to read when I'm awake next.
As usual, ignore mistakes. You all are lucky just to have a chapter with how bad I've been feeling so just deal with my horrid spelling. I love you all for putting up with me for so long.