"Are you harmed, your majesty?"
Aramis cast his eyes over the Queen. She was deshabille and her hair was still loose. Bereft of crown and beaded gown, she looked young and anxious, but seemed otherwise calm. The ideas which had spurred him to cover twelve leagues in a single day appeared unfounded. No knife, no poison, no push into a well had befallen her. Yet she was a prisoner, and must have suffered.
He crossed to her and took her hands. "Forgive me -" He inspected her face and arms with delicate fingers, gazed into her clear blue eyes. There was no sign of rough treatment, and Aramis breathed a sigh of thanksgiving.
"My ladies have been spirited away," Anne said. She withdrew from Aramis' touch and put her hand to her throat. She was not accustomed to being handled by coarsely-clad soldiers, yet under the circumstances, she could hardly complain.
"Help is coming," Aramis said, more with the intention of making this true than it being so. "For now you must escape from here." He passed his hand over his hair. He had ridden until full dark, then slept, under his cloak, in the woodland a mile from this castle. He crept to the walls before dawn, and began his ascent at daylight, assessing correctly that any prisoner would be here, in the most isolated part of Racaut's fortress.
"I cannot scale walls," Anne said. Aramis was clothed in tough leather, but still it bore scrapes and gouges from his climb. A queen's stamina is mental, not athletic.
"We can descend with this," Aramis said. He unlooped a coil of rope from around his torso.
Anne stared. "Did you not use a rope to climb up?"
"I'm not sure the duke would have held it securely." He busied himself tying the rope to various heavy articles of furniture.
He had climbed alone, then. No help, no protection from the death below. "Where are your friends?"
"In Paris, doubtless under orders to search in the wrong direction for you, your majesty."
"Then the King knows I am missing -" Hope sprang up. But this man had come alone.
"The King is advised by those without your best interests at heart." At the last word, he finished his work and advanced towards her, holding out his hand.
"Now?" She glanced about. There was nothing she need take, but to abandon Odette, the others -
"At once. Surprise is our only advantage. When you are safe, I will return for vengeance on this audacious duke." He lay his hand deliberately on the hilt of his sword.
"Then show me the way. And say a prayer for those I must leave here."
Aramis nodded, and crossed himself. Then he hung his hat on his sword, and sprang onto the window ledge. With a steady hand he lifted Anne to stand beside him. "Your majesty. Permit me -"
He slipped his arm around her waist, hooking the rope around them both. Anne was awkward for a moment, then practicality ruled. She arranged herself against his hip, her arms about his neck.
"Admirable," said Aramis. "Let's go."