Sometimes Salvation is Found in Agony

Chapter Eighteen

Present…

Inside the tavern in Marseille, Aramis was speaking with the small group at a table in the corner as he opened his coat, lifted his shirt, and then turned around, revealing multiple scars from a severe whipping across his back, then turned to face them again to reveal an ugly wound in his left shoulder, as well as a few more lashes across his chest, and he finally spoke again saying coldly, "Richelieu is responsible for this being done to me, as well as much, much more. I am not, nor was I ever one of the Cardinal's Red Guards, so believe me when I say, I hate the man with my whole soul and will fight through hell itself again in order to make the bastard pay for destroying my life. You want him dead, I can make that happen. What do you say?"

"I say, let's see what you've got," a woman replied as a smile appeared on her face, then invited the stranger to have a seat once again. "If we like what we see, then you have yourself a job. What is it we should call you?"

"For now, you can just continue to call me whatever you like," the stranger answered as he finally sat down as the woman asked. "If we become friends, as I hope we will, you may eventually be able to call me by my real name."

One of the men glared at Aramis as he responded, "You seem awfully sure of yourself, but you don't appear to be able to do much of anything right now. You don't look so well."

The musketeer turned to the man who spoke up and replied smugly, "I'll admit, I'm not fully up to par right now. That's thanks to what's been done to me, but then we aren't planning to kill the Cardinal tonight or for at least another few days now, are we? I promise you, I'll be ready by then."

"If you expect us to agree to this arrangement, then you ought to expect that we'll be requiring you to prove you have what it takes to kill," the other man continued.

"I would expect nothing less," Aramis answered coldly. "Have you got a specific target in mind, or shall I just choose one at random?"

The woman leaned forward until her nose was almost touching his and responded, "We will worry about that soon enough. For tonight, you can come home with me and we can get to know one another."

Despite wanting to pull away when she began to kiss him tenderly on his lips, as he was repulsed by the thought of kissing a woman who wasn't Anne, especially a woman who was as evil as this woman was, Aramis allowed her to do so anyway because it was necessary to please her and the men sitting there with her.

Before she let up, two other men and another woman walked over and stood before the table, as one of the men spoke up asking angrily, "Ines! What's going on here? Who is this man?"

"Someone who's going to help us to get everything we want," the woman now identified as Ines replied without looking away from the musketeer, while Aramis turned his head to look at the new arrivals to the group of criminals coming together. "For now, he has no name, but he has courage and a hate for the Cardinal that matches ours."

"He doesn't look well," another of the men spoke as he suddenly grabbed Aramis by his shirt and pulled him roughly to his feet, causing him to grunt in pain, then the man stared at him, waiting for him to speak. "Well, what's wrong with you? You look terrible."

Aramis pushed the man off of him, then answered, "I was recently wounded and beaten thanks to Cardinal Richelieu, then left for dead. I managed to survive and made my way here, away from the villain's eyes and ears, and found myself fortunate to run into your little troupe. I am not myself now, as I told the others, but I will be ready to strike the monster dead when called upon to do so."

The second woman asked coldly, "And what makes you think that we can't do what you're suggesting. Why should we entrust you to kill the Cardinal when it would be just as simple for us to take him out."

"Because, you think this task is going to be simple," the musketeer responded steadfastly. "That is why you will fail. Killing a man is never simple and killing a man such as Cardinal Richelieu, who is King Louis' most trusted, is nearly impossible. You want to know why I am confident that I can accomplish this? It's because I was once a musketeer. Thanks to the Cardinal, I am no longer, though I can still get close enough to him to strike him down, as I know his routines and I know how to move in and out of the palace without being discovered. He destroyed everything that I once was, so I have vowed revenge to see that he pays with his life. If this doesn't convince you that I am sincere, then nothing I say ever will and I shall find my own way."

"Well, I'm certainly convinced," the woman who had taken an immediate liking to Aramis replied as she moved to stand up beside him. "What do you think Marque? Those we sent to Paris have obviously failed their mission since we've had no word from them since you spoke with Claudette nights ago. They're all most likely dead. We need a new plan and so far, we haven't been able to come up with anything better."

Aramis said nothing as he listened to the woman speak, though he knew the truth of what really happened, then Marque, who was one of the latest arrivals, answered, "Renee, Reynard, or Claudette would never fail me, but if I find that they're dead, or have been imprisoned… If this musketeer can prove he speaks the truth, I think we should listen to what he says and come up with a plan that will work around him. What do you say, Valentin?"

It was then the man appearing to be in charge of the entire revolution spoke up as he responded, "I do like this man's conviction. I want to see him kill someone who has been another enemy of ours first. If he doesn't get killed first and succeeds, then I say we have found our lead assassin at last."