The Kidnapping of Katarina

Make a bad one good, make a wrong one right

Power of love will keep you home at night

~ Huey Lewis

Chapter 2

Revenge does not long remain un-revenged. ~ German Proverb

The academy grounds did include several areas that had been set aside for future expansion. In the meanwhile they'd become heavily overgrown and in one section there was a small forest. It was dense enough that one could hide a body there, so when Leon was volunteered to search it in case Katarina was stuck there somehow (no one quite dared to say 'dead' around her admirers), he'd made a point of choosing a partner that he was reasonably sure wouldn't kill him and hide the body.

Granted, if Scarlet decided he was punching bag material there was a very good chance that Leon would wind up dead. He didn't have the ability to magically reinforce himself, after all. But on the other hand, hiding the body wouldn't be her style at all.

"Do you expect to find my cousin here?" she asked, picking her way through the undergrowth so neatly that not so much as a leaf clung to her.

Leon was having a bit more trouble and angled sideways to avoid getting caught on a bush of something thorny. "Fairly unlikely, but it doesn't hurt to be thorough. And Keith isn't the only one who seemed to have gotten it into their head that I'd run away with her."

"Wouldn't you?"

Leon paused and looked at Scarlet's deadpan expression. It was often hard to tell when the girl was genuinely being naive, simply misunderstanding… or setting you up for a punch-line. "In the extremely unlikely event she wound up in trouble she couldn't deal with just by talking to her loving family and friends, I'm sure I could find her a nice quiet island to grow vegetables on," he answered at last.

Scarlet nodded in satisfaction. "Then their fears aren't unreasonable."

"They aren't worried as much about my running away with her as much as it is the prospect of my doing the things with her that they'd do if they were eloping with her."

"What sort of things would those be?"

"Do you really want me to explain what Prince Gerald is eager to do with his fiancee in private?" he asked. "Because I'm pretty sure that Keith or Mary could give you much more lurid descriptions."

Scarlet's face could have been carved from ice for a moment. "Excluding her fiance."

Leon sighed. "In the case of the two people I mentioned, perhaps more or less the same."

"Mary is also a girl."

"That still leaves a lot to work with," he told Scarlet. "Short of 'having children' together, there's not much a woman can't do with another woman that a man can."

"Really?"

"I don't speak from personal experience, since I'm obviously not a woman myself, but there's a considerable body of literature if you know where to look. Ask Sophia if you don't and if you're curious."

That would be a funny conversation. He'd probably want to be well away from Sophia and her brother when that was going on.

Scarlet nodded, which ever so coincidentally took her head beneath the bough of a tree as she walked onwards. "Would Sophia have similar plans for Katarina?"

"I think she'd want to take her brother with them so he could do that part for her, while she'd be on a happy adventure with Lady Katarina - or just reading about them."

"That might make my cousin very happy," the silver-blonde girl decided. "Lord Ascart is much admired."

Leon nodded. "But he's probably too loyal to his good friend Gerald to go along with that. Honestly, I think their lives would be much less complicated if they just had an orgy to find out who's actually as enthusiastic about what they have in mind as they think they are. But if I suggested that then a long list of people would probably kill me and hide my body."

Scarlet patted him reassuringly on the arm. "I wouldn't."

"I appreciate that, Scarlet. You're a good person."

"Master," Luxion interjected. "I appreciate that I'm interrupting your pre-reproductive efforts with this woman, but someone is breaking into Gerald Rafa Stuart's dorm room. I believe they are delivering a ransom note."

Leon paused, eyes somewhat crossing at the two dissonant messages. He really wished Cleare hadn't put that thought into whatever passed for Luxion's head. "Who?" he subvocalized.

"Who are you asking?" Scarlet asked him.

"Lafan's slave." Luxion felt the word applied more accurately than the 'contract-servant' term used in polite society.

"I'm the only one here," the girl added. "But you asked 'Who'?"

Leon stared at Scarlet. Had he spoken out loud by mistake? "Luxion?" he asked, making very sure that he was only subvocalizing.

Scarlet looked around. "Who is Luxion, and where are they?"

...she was probably enhancing her senses with magic somehow and could hear even his subvocalizing, Leon realised. Dammit! "Luxion is my… well, familiar would be the closest word."

"I haven't seen them?" she observed. "I didn't know you even had a familiar."

"Luxion is very shy," he explained. "I can talk to them at a distance - it just let me know someone just broke into Prince Gerald's dorm."

Scarlet nodded and started retracing her steps. "Do you think it's connected? And why do you call Luxion 'it'?"

"Because Luxion has no preferred gender identity, so I respect its preferences," Leon explained. Getting into an AI's nature would be a conversation for later or possibly never. "And even if it's not connected, we should at least check."

What would Nanaka be doing breaking into Gerald's room? Leon didn't know much about the demihuman - he'd assumed that this abduction was more or less the same one he'd anticipated that Katarina would experience in the books and so far the data relayed from her transmitter was bearing that out: Selena being the abductor was right, and someone manipulating her to do this would fit what he'd learned so far.

Scarlet caught hold of Leon. "We won't get there in time at this rate."

"What do you…?" he started to ask and then she swept him off his feet into a princess carry and started running quite unreasonably fast, bounding over obstacles - fences, hedges, people…

"Eeep." Leon muttered and made sure he had one arm wrapped around Scarlet's slim shoulders. If she slipped and dropped him then he'd need Olivia to put him back together again.

Scarlet seemed to be making very little effort, which just underlined how talented she was at magic. I have no idea where she came from - she wasn't in either series, Leon thought, but I'm glad she's on my side.

"None of Lafan's admirers have rooms in the same building as Prince Gerald." Scarlet hopped up and over a six-foot tall rose trellis, apparently unbothered by her skirts flaring up around her as she dropped down onto the other side. "So long as we catch the servant leaving, we have cause to detain him."

"But not to enter Gerald's room," Leon noted. "Luxion, did he leave something?" He didn't bother to hide the question from Scarlet.

"Yes master, a letter on the prince's desk. He's now leaving the suite."

"Luxion says something was left behind." He saw Alan emerging from the event hall, accompanied by his fiancee and Scarlet's twin sister. "Drop me here, Alan can let us in. I'll fill him in."

Scarlet took Leon at his word and literally dropped him on the path, then bounded over towards the dorm building.

"Leon, what's going on?" Mary demanded, managing to demurely but still quickly cross the distance as Leon climbed to his feet. "Were you and Scarlet not checking the woods? Did you find Lady Katarina?"

"Someone just broke into Prince Gerald's rooms to leave a letter," he explained. "Scarlet's going to try to catch them, but I can't just go in and see what the letter is."

Mary's eyes narrowed sharply. "A ransom note!" she exclaimed. "I knew Lady Katarina had been kidnapped."

You thought I'd stolen her away to a private love-nest, Leon thought.

"But weren't you worried she'd eloped with Leon?" asked Violette.

Mary smiled in a way that made Leon wary. "We should go to Gerald's room right away. Alan!"

"I'm coming," the prince agreed. "Do you think Scarlet's alright?"

"You don't know her very well," Leon said drily.

Sure enough, they arrived to find that Scarlet was having no difficulty keeping the demi-human from escaping. Admittedly, she'd done this by ramming him head-first through a wooden fence, but he wasn't going anywhere. He also seemed mildly concussed as he hung there, arms pinned at his side, dog-eared head dangling on one side and his legs (bared by his shorts) limp on the other side.

"He tried to get away," Scarlet explained calmly. "I didn't let him."

"Is he alive?" Alan asked warily.

"He seems to be breathing." The girl sounded more or less indifferent. "Demihumans are quite sturdy. We can ask his mistress or Miss Campbell to heal him if he isn't able to answer questions soon."

"Do you think he'll be co-operative?"

Mary was continuing to smile, so Leon drew Violette's attention to this. "I don't think it'll be a problem, between us we can be quite convincing."

"Please make sure he doesn't go anywhere," Alan asked and then led them inside. "I'm going into my brother's room," he told the concierge. "Your spare key, please?"

"Did the boy who was just here ask for that?" added Violette as the man checked the board behind him for the right key.

"No, Lady Ades. I don't know who he was visiting."

"My brother's room," Alan said flatly.

Leon was wondering if Jenna would get the key to his room as easily as this. He hadn't been that happy with his room's security before but now he was doubly glad he didn't keep anything irreplaceable there.

"Not without this key, he wasn't," the concierge insisted.

"We'll see." The prince's tone was ominous. When they all trooped up to the right floor, Gerald's door was locked. "You're sure about this?" Alan asked. "If that kid was just delivering a note to someone else, Lafan will be able to lodge a complaint against Scarlet."

Leon nodded. "I have a reliable source."

Unlocking the door, Alan stepped inside. "Did this source say where?"

"On the desk, I believe."

Alan disappeared from view and there was a muffled curse word. A moment later, he emerged, an envelope in his hand. "It was right there. Do you think we should open it?"

Mary snatched the letter, snapped the blank seal and unfolded the contents of the envelope before anyone could stop her. She scanned the contents and then passed it to Alan. "If we ever want to see Lady Katarina again," she declared, "Prince Gerald must renounce any and all claim upon the throne. If he doesn't… well, they don't say."

"No need to."

Alan clenched his fist around the letter. "I'm going to kill them," he declared. "Julius has gone too far."

"Hold your horses," Leon warned. "Let's question the little fellow first. Just because he's contracted to work for Lafan doesn't mean that he was actually acting on her behalf this time."

"No! Nanaka!" Marie wailed as she saw her servant tied to a chair in the meeting room of the Student Council wing. Nicol had been more than happy to agree that they could use the council's resources to help track down where Katarina was.

Still napping, according to Luxion's report. So she was probably safe - although two drones had been re-allocated and would be inside the Berg mansion within the hour just in case some more direct intervention was needed.

Leon folded his arms and moved to block Marie when she rushed to try to untie the little demihuman. "Don't do that, Lafan. Your servant was caught escaping after he left a ransom note behind in Prince Stuart's room. At the minimum, he's broken into another student's suite."

And as it was a prince's suite, there might actually be consequences for that. There was still a very mysterious lack of reputable witnesses to who had torn Leon's room apart at the end of the previous term.

"You beat him, you brute!" Marie exclaimed, tears forming at the corner of her eyes.

"No, that was me," Scarlet explained laconically.

"You can't beat another student's servant!" Julius protested.

Gerald glared at him. "Evidently we can - and when that servant is implicated in the abduction of a duke's daughter, perhaps we should." He pointed at the letter on the table. "At the same time that Lafan's servant was in my dorm, someone entered my room and put that on my desk. It requires me to renounce any claim on your father's throne in exchange for the return of Katarina. That seems as if it might align with your interests."

His cousin bristled. "As long as I'm with Marie, I don't care about the throne."

"That seems like an objectively good reason to separate you then," Alan drawled, a dangerous light in his eyes. "But setting aside your qualifications to rule - who else would have a motive to attack Gerald's claim? Speaking for his brothers, none of us particularly want the job - it's a thankless task at best."

Jilk crossed his arms. "Having defeated Julius in a duel and had him removed from succession, it might be argued that this is an attempt to frame him for an attack on you, to further disgrace and prevent his reinstatement."

"If anyone is inclined towards dirty tricks, it's you," Gerald snarled at Jilk.

Leon cleared his throat. "Let's start by waking the servant up and asking him some questions. Lady Lafan, as long as you don't free him I see no reason you can't attend to his wounds."

The little blonde huffed and went to Nanaka, placing her hands upon his head. "Don't worry, Nanaka. We'll clear this up and get you out of here." Light flickered around her hands and after a long moment, the demihuman's dark eyes blinked, orientating himself.

"Mistress?" he asked. "Why am I tied up? Is this a game?"

"That'll be enough," Leon told Marie.

When the girl tried to stand defiantly by Nanaka, Katarina's maid Anne took the young lady by the shoulders and pulled her away.

"Take your hands off her!" Greg demanded, hands bunched into fists.

Keith moved to block him. He'd formed a golem of earth and it was following him around. Now it looked over the muscular student. "If you had any hand in my sister being kidnapped, I'll repay you a thousand times," he threatened flatly.

"Who cares about that dopey broad?" the redhead demanded.

"Greg!" Chris, for a wonder, reached out for his friend's shoulder. "We would be as worried if it was Marie missing."

"That doesn't mean she should be kept prisoner," the other boy demanded.

Leon shook his head. "She's not. But I don't want her untying her servant." At his signal, Anne released her hold on Marie, giving her a little push over towards Greg, who hugged her and half carried her back to their little cluster - who proceeded to stand protectively around her.

"Nanaka can't have done anything to Lady Claes, he's just a little boy!"

"Let's find out." Leon leant over the bound demihuman. "Now then, you were in a student dorm. Would you care to make this easy on yourself and tell me who gave you the ransom note to deliver?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

Leon sighed. Quite sincerely. He wasn't an interrogator, or a torturer. And he knew pretty much where Katarina was and who was behind this, so this was unnecessary except to dig out some convincing reason to explain how he knew this. "So, were you bribed somehow after entering Lafan's service or did your actual employer set these idiots up to buy your contract?"

"What?" The demihuman went wide-eyed. "Mistress, what is he talking about?"

"Lafan isn't going to help you. She can't. Your employer isn't going to help you - unless you think tying up a loose end that could incriminate them is helpful." Leon rested one hand on Nanaka's head and then ran one finger deliberately back and down the boy's spine, going as far as his collar. Emphasising his helplessness. "And the people who are frantic with worry over Lady Claes' wellbeing… they're not going to help you either."

"I don't know where the idiot is!"

There was a solid thunk as a fist smacked into Nanaka's face, followed by two cries of pain.

Leon blinked and looked at Anne as the maid shook her hand in evident pain. She'd had her thumb inside her fist when she punched the boy, who was now on his back, the chair having toppled backwards onto the floor. There were traces of blood beneath his eye, the result of the blow.

"Anne…" Scarlet took the maid and pulled her back. "Always keep your thumb on top of your fingers when you punch someone." She gripped the wounded hand, immobilising the thumb. "Mmm. That will need healing. Lafan, take care of it."

"Why should I…" Marie broke off at the sight of Scarlet's gimlet eye and cringed. "Alright, alright!"

Leon lifted the chair upright as the viscount's daughter started healing Anne's hand. "I'd say I was sorry, but you kind of had that coming." He tapped his thumb against the welling scratch on Nanaka's face. "The thing you need to remember is, I'm the nice one here. I just want some information, so Lady Claes is home and safe, and the one behind all this can be dealt with. None of this is personal for me."

Then he gestured towards Gerald. "Of course, the prince here loves his fiancee very very much. And her brother is upset as well. And then there are her other friends and family."

"I can punch him again," Scarlet offered, turning back to Leon.

"Let's leave that in reserve. You might kill him."

"I can hold back!"

"Can, yes. Would… that's open to question," Gerald pointed out. Then he wreathed his hand on fire. "On the other hand, my father left extensive notes on how much of the human body can be burned without causing immediate death. Until now I've always considered that to be a shameful part of my family's past. But now I'm beginning to think he might have had a point."

Leon chuckled a bit nervously. "I'm going to be honest, kid. I don't think they have much patience left. Do you really think whoever paid you for this sees you as anything but an expendable asset that's already been expended?"

"I never laid a finger on the… on Lady Claes!" Nanaka screamed.

"I do think that I believe you." And then Leon leaned in and whispered. "But that's not the whole truth, is it? Last chance before I let the others get at you."

"It's true! It's true!" Nanaka writhed in the ropes. "I led her out of the event hall. I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Don't hurt me!"

Marie squeaked in alarm. "N-Nanaka?"

"I borrowed a maid's uniform and drew her out for them," the demihuman confessed. "They promised she won't be hurt!"

Gerald brushed Leon and grabbed the little contract servant by the shirt. "Who promised!? And where is Katarina!?"

"She-she… They said they'd take her to Duke Berg's mansion!" Nanaka blurted.

"Duke Berg?" Mary exclaimed. "What does he want with Katarina?"

"The duke isn't even in the capital," Clarice added. "He went back home weeks ago - it's only Lady Berg living there."

"Oho." Brad snickered. "What was that about your brothers not wanting the throne, Prince Gerald? And now your fiancee's been taken away by Prince Ian. I guess he couldn't use the Stuart mansion, but his fiancee wouldn't question him bringing another woman to her home."

"Do you know how little difficulty I'd have getting a disowned son expelled and sent off to fight on the frontiers?" asked Gerald conversationally, leaving Brad white-faced.

"Selena wouldn't hurt a fly," Mary murmured. "But if Nanaka's right and the plan wasn't to actually hurt Katarina..."

Alan nodded. "She'd know Gerald wouldn't hesitate to renounce the throne for Katarina. And even if he didn't, she could ask the Claes to renounce the engagement, which would remove any support from them if Gerald made a bid for the throne."

"And most of the major houses with unmarried daughters would be wary of forming another alliance if Gerald wrote off one fiancee already," his fiancee continued. "If we accept the premise that he and Ian are contending for the throne, this would make sense."

"Except that we're not!"

Leon shook his head. "You may not want it, but King Roland is at least keeping the option open." Luxion's spying had told him that much. "And there are noble families who would be very interested in advancing their prospects by making the right alliance - assuming that they knew which alliance was right. There are factions assembling themselves around you and your brothers whether you want them to or not."

"This is all your fault, Julius," the blond prince accused.

His disgraced cousin looked offended. "So you get to be with the woman you love but I cannot? Why should I accept the throne at that price when you won't?"

Alan winced. "I hate to say it, Gerald… but just this once - he's right."

"None of this matters!" Mary exclaimed, half-turning to watch as the door began to open. "We know where Lady Katarina is so we have to go and rescue her!"

Nicol Fia Ascart entered, one firm hand on the shoulder of a familiar half-elf. Familiar to Leon, at least. "There is some disagreement on that," the student council president declared in a neutral voice.

"Who are you?" Mary demanded, scowling at Kyle.

"I'm a messenger from the Ministry," the boy explained hastily. He scanned the room and locked eyes with Leon. "I should have known this involved you, Bartford."

Leon bowed slightly in acknowledgement of the hit. "He is who he says he is," he confirmed. "I believe he's Director Smith's aide." It was a more polite term than gofer.

"What the hell is an aide?" Greg asked suspiciously. "He's awfully young to be the Director's… you know."

Kyle and Nanaka appeared to be of a similar age, although Leon supposed that the demi-human was probably older than he looked. "Dog-robber," he clarified.

"I do not!" protested the elf.

"Has she asked you to rob a dog for her?"

"No…"

"Could you see her doing so?"

Kyle made a disgusted face.

"Why didn't you just say gofer?" asked Greg.

Brad Fou Field patted the muscular boy's shoulder. "Bartford was trying to sound classy. We should support his aspirations."

"As amusing as the byplay is," Gerald noted rather irritably. "Why are you saying we shouldn't rescue Katarina, Nicol?"

With admirable fortitude, the older boy didn't quail under the looks he was getting, instead gesturing for Kyle to explain.

"The ministry has an agent in the Berg mansion protecting Lady Claes," the little elf explained hastily. "But there's a dark mage present so anyone sent there might be placing themselves in great danger."

"But that means that Lady Katarina is already in great danger!"

Leon cleared his throat. "As I understand it, dark magic draws upon the target's darker urges - anger, resentment, that sort of thing. Isn't that right, Scarlet?"

"It's not a well understood field," the silver-blonde young woman noted cautiously, "But that is what the records available suggest."

"Ah!" Mary gasped. "I see." Then she frowned. "I still want her rescued as soon as possible."

"What do you see?" Alan asked.

"Lady Katarina doesn't have any darker impulses," the other girl explained matter-of-factly.

"Because of course, Gerald's fiancee is some perfect paragon?" Julius observed sharply.

"It's how you talk about your former paramour," Gerald replied. "Or she would be former if you kept your word."

"That's one for your side," his twin noted. "Actually, two."

The third of the Stuart brothers buffed his fingernails briefly on the front of his jacket. "And why can't this agent rescue Katarina?" he asked Kyle.

"Uh, it's believed Lady Berg is being controlled by the dark mage," the boy said apologetically. "But the mage is themselves working for a third party. Our agent wants to find the mastermind to ensure that the plot is entirely resolved."

All eyes went to Nanaka.

"Were you holding out on us?" Leon asked the boy pleasantly. He extended one hand as if to restrain Scarlet (who, to be fair, was pulling on her favourite gloves). "I can only restrain her so long, you know."

"Please, Lord Bartford." Anne surprised them all by speaking up. "I believe you've had your chance to make this kidnapper talk. I suggest that anyone of a nervous disposition leave the room."

"I'll be right outside!" Kyle answered and bolted.

Marie cleared her throat. "Uh… what he said." She hustled to the door, followed by her admirers. No one else seemed inclined to follow, but some eyebrows were raised as Anne produced what looked like the bastard offspring of forceps and a pair of pliers from a discreet corner.

"Do I want to know what that is?" Leon enquired.

"Please hold his head steady," the maid requested. As Leon complied, grabbing hold of Nanaka's head by both sides, the woman moved to stand in front of the demihuman, holding the device in view. "The tool is designed to be inserted into the body through a natural orifice to make slight… surgical alterations. Errors in its use are said to be excruciating. Normally I wouldn't dream of using it with my thumb in this condition." Her right thumb was still visibly swollen despite Marie's attention. "But in this case, that hardly matters."

"W-wha, no you can't do that!" Nanaka tried thrashing. "Help! HEELLP!"

Deirdre Fou Roseblade popped her head around the door. "What's going on… Leon, are you torturing that boy?"

Leon looked down at how he was pinning the servant in place. "...no."

"YES! HELP!"

The blonde practically bounced into the room. "Oh, I love torturing people." Leon wasn't sure if she was just playing up to her reputation, trying to help or just genuinely being sadistic. Possibly more than one of those things.

Whatever it was, Nanaka wet himself as he realised he'd made a terrible mistake. "I meant help ME!"

Deirdre gave him a bemused look. "You were plotting against my co-star in yesterday's play. Why would I help you?"

Anne ignored this byplay (and the smell) and dropped to one knee in front of Nanaka, squinting up at his face and then angling the tool she held, raising it carefully until the tip was about to enter his left nostril.

"IT WAS THE MARQUIS!" the demihuman shrieked. "THE MARQUIS! Don't hurt me!"

"There are six marquis in the kingdom," Mary pointed out coolly. "Five if we discount Lord Dieke's missing father, which I suppose we shouldn't. Be more specific."

"Mason! It's Mason, he set me up as his inside man months ago!" Nanaka babbled, eyes fixed on the tool that Anne had yet to retract. "He wants to get Prince Gerald out of the way, and then incriminate Prince Ian for the abduction - clearing the way for Duke Jeffrey."

"My brother would never agree to that," snapped Gerald.

"He doesn't know! He's to be the Marquis' puppet!"

Alan looked intrigued. "That's almost smart. I mean, if you take Jeffrey at face value. But what was he going to do about me?"

"...who are you?" Nanaka asked, apparently honestly puzzled.

"My twin brother," Gerald explained, patting Alan consolingly on the shoulder.

"Uh… I don't think you were ever mentioned." The boy's eyes were still wide. "I swear, I never heard a thing about you."

Alan scowled. "I could totally be a contender for the throne if I wanted to."

"It's very lucky that you're not," Mary said consolingly. "Now someone put this spy somewhere secure while we rescue Lady Katarina. I have some things to say to this agent of the ministry."

Scarlet grabbed Nanaka, still tied to the chair. "Where shall I put him, Lord Ascart?"

"We have a dungeon in the basement." The older boy offered her a key.

"Why does the student council have its own dungeon?" Leon asked.

"For their own prisoners," Deirdre explained slowly, as if to someone not quite bright. "Really, I thought you were sharper than this. Do I get to torture him now?"

"Not just yet, depends if he was hiding anything else."

Nanaka shook his head. "I'll confess!" he promised. "I'll tell you everything I ever did for Mason, just don't let that crazy maid at me."

"That depends how you behave," Scarlet warned, carrying him out.

Deirdre gave Anne a glance and then looked at the relieved captive. "Wait, you mean she's more intimidating than I am?" The blonde followed Scarlet, trying to get Nanaka's attention. "You take that back!"

Leon pinched the bridge of his nose and watched what seemed like half the student council stream out of the room, in search of carriages to take them to the Berg Mansion. Anne seemed just as spent, still knelt in front of him.

"Am I... interrupting anything?" Hertrude asked, entering the room. "Everyone seems to be in a… oh my."

Realising what having a maid knelt in front of him looked like, Leon groaned. "No, your highness. Anne is Lady Claes' personal maid. She was just cleaning up some trash that was involved in the kidnapping."

"Ah. Good." The princess nodded. "I was concerned about my security."

"What is that, anyway?" Leon asked, eyeing the tool that Anne had now started carefully removing her swollen thumb from.

"It's used to remove nasal hairs," the maid replied tranquilly. "Would you like a try?"

"I'll pass, thank you."

"Lady Claes."

Katarina rolled over. "Another few minutes, Anne." That never worked, but she was constantly hopeful.

A tentative hand grasped her shoulder. "Lady Claes."

Mmm. It was so warm and comfy here. She shifted over further and felt something hard pressing against her outer thigh, as if something had been left on the bed with her. Had she taken snacks to bed with her again? "Wha-?"

Opening her eyes, she was surprised to see that it was late in the day, the sun beginning to lower. Oh, and this wasn't her bedroom…

The events of earlier in the day filtered back to her and Katarina realised she'd fallen asleep fully clothed. Rolling over had pressed the contents of her pocket against her thigh. "Oops."

"Shhhhh!"

Katarina turned the other way and saw Selena Rafa Berg looking at her nervously. "Shhh?" she asked.

The other woman pressed a finger against her lips. "I'm not supposed to be here."

Oh, like hide and seek. Or sneaking cookies from the kitchens with Keith, back at home. "But isn't this your home?" she asked in a low voice.

"Yes, but I sort of…" Selena looked guilty. "I agreed that you didn't need to know something but I still think that you should and…" she paused and thought about that. "Oh, I'm doing a terrible job of this," she whispered.

Katarina gave her a quick hug. "Is there something I can do to help?"

"Uh, you realise I kidnapped you? That you're a prisoner?"

The girl nodded, deciding not to mention that really this was much more relaxing than the academy. No one would expect her to know anything from today's classes. Although… she probably should worry about that ransom business, but that could wait. "That's no reason for me not to be nice to you."

Selena smiled wanly. "You're just as kind as everyone says you are. I'm sure that this will be over soon, and then you can be together with Gerald and I'll never bother you again."

"Um…" Katarina tried to tidy her hair to buy time, but had a feeling she was making a mess of it. "I don't understand. Why did you kidnap me?"

Selena took a deep breath and sat down next to Katarina, clutching her hands together before her and looking down at them. "I'm afraid my engagement to Ian isn't like yours to Gerald. I love him, of course - how could I not. But I've always known I wasn't good enough for him."

That sounded a lot like Katarina's engagement to her own mind. After all, Gerald was just using the arrangement to keep other girls away until he found someone he did love.

"Until lately, I thought that it might be alright," Selena continued. "But after Prince Julius was disinherited, Ian became a candidate to be the king. And I could never be queen."

"I think you could be a good queen." Selena was pretty, and ladylike, and all the things Katarina was not.

The older girl shook her head lightly. "I'm nervous all the time, I can barely talk to people. Besides, I'm not very clever and my magic isn't very strong. I'm just holding Ian back. And really, everyone knows that it's going to be Gerald or Ian who'll be the next king. Alan is more interested in his music, Layne is too young and Jeffrey is too… Jeffrey."

Katarina nodded. That wasn't quite what her mother thought about the other princes, but it was pretty close. And that was why mother wanted to break off the engagement with Gerald right away. But she'd never heard anything bad about Selena.

"Anyway." Selena clenched her hands into fists. "I thought that I should at least do something useful for Ian. So I've sent Gerald a ransom note asking him to renounce the throne in return for your… return," she finished awkwardly.

"...what if he doesn't?" asked Katarina.

Her companion gave her a puzzled look. "But of course he will."

"I don't think he's very interested in the throne, but he'd probably take it as a challenge," she pointed out. "And it's not as if he's in love with me."

"Lady Katarina, everyone knows Gerald loves you dearly," Selena told her carefully. "You're a perfect couple. I only hope that Ian one day finds someone that he cares for just as much."

Katarina rubbed her head. It was hard to explain how Gerald was a blackhearted prince when no one knew about the game. She'd tried writing everything out, covering it for Sophia as a romance novel, but it turned out that writing a whole book was actually hard.

"But aren't you engaged to Ian?"

Selena shook her head. "Ian has nothing but contempt for me, Katarina. Once Prince Gerald has renounced the throne, I'll turn myself in and take full responsibility. He'll be free to break off the engagement, no one could possibly blame him, and the path for him to be king will be open."

Katarina gasped. "I'd never heard that Ian was cruel to you, Selena!"

"Cruel?" The girl shook her head. "No, he's never cruel."

"But you said that he held you in contempt."

Selena studied her hands. "Whenever we're together he avoids my eyes. Or touching me except when he has to. It's kind of you, but you must have heard the other girls at school who were there with me. He's a great man and needs someone special with him, not a failure like me."

Katarina reached over and took Selena's hands. "But has he ever said that, or was that what you heard from other girls? No one's said anything to me like that about you." Gerald didn't love her and still spent time with her, so Ian not touching Selena probably didn't mean what the other girl thought. Maybe he was just shy? That would make sense - Gerald didn't get shy around her, because he wasn't in love with her. But Ian not meeting Selena's gaze was probably because he was afraid of his own feelings.

"But it's true!" Selena exclaimed, and then clasped her hands over her mouth.

"Lady Berg," a voice asked from behind the door. It was the butler.

Katarina burst to her feet and grabbed the chair at the dresser. Putting it under the door handle, she was just in time to block it from being opened.

"What are you doing?" Selena asked.

"Well, you don't want him to come in, right?"

Selena looked indecisive. "Rufus is helping me, I couldn't have done this without him."

"Ah, like Leon helped me during the duel," Katarina realised. Wait, when she was thinking earlier she hadn't considered that: what would Leon do?

Well, he'd…

Katarina rushed to the bed and started emptying her pockets.

"Lady Claes, Lady Berg," Rufus declared from outside the door. "I'll have this door open in a moment, don't be alarmed."

Scooping the last items out onto the bed, Katarina grabbed the cabinet next to the door and heaved. With a crash it fell over and she dragged it into the space between the chair and her bed. With the cabinet on the floor, it filled the space so that the chair couldn't be pushed back and thus the door wouldn't open.

"What are you doing?" Selena exclaimed. "Lady Katarina?"

Among the contents of her pockets, now spilled out on the bedsheets, Katarina found something the size of a pen. "We're going back to the academy!" She twisted the device until it clicked and then pushed down the top. Waving it majestically, Katarina declared: "Big Stein, I choose you!"

"What are you doing?"

"Wait for it…" Then the girl frowned. Actually, she didn't know where Leon kept the Big Stein when he wasn't using it. It wouldn't get here right away. She sat down on the bed next to Selena, pulled some candy out of the debris that had accumulated in her pockets and offered one to the girl. "So how do you feel about Prince Ian?"