Sometimes Salvation is Found in Agony

Chapter Sixteen

The next morning was when the musketeers figured it would be best to go back down to the Bastille in order to search among the prisoners that had been captured from the camp after the battle, so for the night, Claudette took d'Artagnan's old room at Constance's and her husband's home, then spent most of the evening speaking with the woman of the house, who tried to break through the revolutionary's cold, hard exterior. Monsieur Bonacieux had long before gone to bed.

When morning came, the soldiers busied themselves to get ready to pick Claudette up before heading to the prison, all except Aramis, who quickly lay back down against the bed the moment he tried to rise. The ache he felt throughout his body was still too overwhelming and he could barely breathe.

"Are you all right?" Porthos asked in concern after he helped his friend lay back. "You shouldn't be forcing yourself to get up."

"Porthos is right," Athos responded as he finished putting on his boots and his weapons along his belts, then turned to look down at Aramis. "Stay here and try to sleep. You can't possibly be of any help to us."

D'Artagnan nodded in agreement as he replied, "We can handle Claudette and handle talking with Renee or the rest of them."

Aramis heard the young Gascon speaking, but wasn't listening as he simply stared at the man who had become their leader years ago and felt hurt at his words, though he didn't let it show as he finally spoke again saying, "Of course. I don't think I could handle riding a horse again for awhile anyway. Try not to be too rough on them. They will all get what they have coming to them soon enough."

"If you ask me, they'll long for the axe by the time we get through with them," Porthos said smugly. "Let's get out of here. The sooner we can find this, Renee, the sooner we can convince Claudette of the truth and then get this mission over and done with. I'm tired and getting cranky."

"When are you not cranky?" d'Artagnan asked jokingly.

Athos smiled and answered, "Only when he beats the Cardinal's guards at cards. Even when he eats and drinks he's miserable."

Porthos glared between his two friends mocking him and responded, "Very funny. Can we go now?"

"Yes Porthos, let's go," Athos replied as he began to walk out, followed by d'Artagnan, while Porthos looked back at Aramis and paused so that he could speak with him for a moment alone.

"I thought you were the one that was most anxious to leave?" Aramis asked him before he could say anything.

The larger man nodded, then answered, "I'll catch up to them in a minute, but I need to speak with you about something first and you're not going to want to hear it."

Aramis smiled at Porthos and then responded, "There will never be a time when you can't talk with me about something that is obviously so important, my friend."

"Queen Anne has asked me to speak with you about you going to see her, to meet with her so that the two of you can get past the strain that has fallen…" he began until Aramis turned his head away. "Listen, I tried to tell her that I knew there was nothing I could say to you that would convince you to go to her, but Aramis…"

"You know darn well that I can't just go and see her, to meet with her for any reason unless the four of us go together for a legitimate reason, or have you already forgotten about the trouble I've caused for us?" he cried angrily. "The Cardinal has eyes everywhere."

Porthos shook his head sadly as he replied, "You really need to have sense knocked into your head. Richelieu may be good at threats and extortion, but…"

Aramis quickly interrupted, "What extortion, Porthos?"

"Never mind that," Porthos quickly answered nervously and then started toward the door until he stopped. "Please, just think about how much better you will feel if you can resolve at least one good thing in your life by meeting with the Queen, no matter what it takes for us to help you to do it. She is in as much pain as you are. If you don't care for yourself anymore, then at least think about her."

"I think about her every moment of every day," Aramis responded sadly, then turned his head away again as he laid his body down fully against the uncomfortable mattress beneath him and his head down on his pillow and closed his eyes so that Porthos would leave without another word.

Meanwhile…

Renee finished changing, then turned to look at her appearance in a mirror inside a vendor's shop as she admired the new clothes that Cardinal Richelieu had given her a few bronze coins to purchase for herself, money that wasn't a part of the new salary that he had promised to pay her monthly.

For a moment, seeing herself wearing her new apparel made her think back to when the musketeer she now hated had been kind enough to give her what little money he was carrying with him at the time of their first meeting, but she quickly pushed the thoughts out of her mind when she remembered what she doing here now. She was ready for a change in her life and doing the Cardinal's dirty deeds was the only way she knew she was going to succeed, so she smiled and paid the vendor, then began to walk again through the square until she came upon Count Rochefort, who came riding toward her on his horse.

He grinned cruelly as he asked, "How does it feel to have all the things you've ever wanted?"

She replied, "I don't yet have everything I've ever wanted. I have yet to get revenge for the death of my brother. That musketeer is still alive. This, Rochefort, is only the beginning."

"You certainly appear to be adapting to your new life quite well, the Count answered as he admired her. "I've come to collect you. Richelieu would like to speak with you about your first assignment."

"You're giving me a new horse?" she asked as she looked up at the Count when a stableman walked over with another horse and handed the young woman the reins.

He asked in return, "Does this really surprise you?"

As she mounted and then began to follow after Rochefort, she responded, "All of this is going to take a lot of getting used to, that's all."

At the Bastille…

"Renee isn't here, which means that she's either dead just like our leader, or she managed to escape your attack," Claudette stated in frustration after she and the three musketeers finished searching the fortress built to lock away criminals of all kinds. "And I'm not sure if I was really hoping that she would be or not?"

"And why is that?" Athos asked. "Last night, you insisted that we take you to her. You were adamant to talk to her."

The woman looked between the men and replied, "Yes, well it appears that I may have been too quick to judge each of you before really taking the time to listen to what you have to say. Madam Bonacieux speaks very highly of each of you and I could see that she isn't a stupid woman. As I said I would, I will take you to Marseille whenever you're ready to leave. I want to find Marque. If you musketeers turn out to be the men you claim to be, then I will apologize to each of you by helping you to bring down the rest of our rebellion."

Athos looked over at d'Artagnan and smiled, as he understood that it was because of Constance that this woman had begun to come around, then back at Claudette as he answered sincerely, "It is good to hear you say that. We would hate to have to arrest you after all this trouble of getting to know you."

When the musketeers and Claudette finally arrived back at the garrison and walked inside their barracks, they found that Aramis was no longer lying down, nor was he anywhere else to be found. Then, d'Artagnan quickly ran out to go and search the stable nearby and when he came back, he shook his head.

"His horse is gone," the boy said worryingly. "You don't think…?"

"Think what?" Athos responded angrily. "That he wouldn't go off and try to find the rest of the people behind this on his own? Of course that's where he went; that fool! Actually, I'm the fool. I know what I said and I didn't mean it. Nor did I apologize."

Porthos swiftly replied, "He can't be that far ahead of us. Not in his condition."

D'Artagnan answered, "He must have left as soon as we did. He could be hours ahead. He may be in a bad way, but even so, Aramis is still stubborn. He was most likely overplaying how badly he was hurting."

"If anything, Aramis was underplaying how badly he's hurting," Athos continued sadly. "He's determined to finish this himself in order to make up for what he sees are his failures. I should have known he was going to do this. We've got to find him before he finds them."

"Or before they hurt and kill him," Porthos spoke again coldly. "If they don't catch him before we do, I swear I will kill him myself."