Chapter 31:
Having rested so infrequently of late, Esmeralda had fallen asleep swiftly. Images of Phoebus and Frollo and Quasimodo all struggling against one another swirled through her mind to the rhythm of the tambourine.
Pierre stood off to the side, looking agitated.
Esmeralda was more concerned with why it looked like Quasimodo was fighting against Phoebus. She had left her beloved with her friend so he would be safe, why would they be at each other's throats?
Djali was pushing her head against Esmeralda's arm urging her awake. She had long known that Djali had an almost spiritual sense of when things were going wrong, so she trusted her little friend's opinion. When she complied she heard a worrying uproar. The only time she heard the people shout like that was when they were about to hang someone…
Instantly her drowsiness evaporated, and she was on her feet. Desperate to reach the front of the crowd, she still only reached the outer crust of it when Clopin had his hands on the lever to snuff out his prisoners' lives.
"Stop!" was all she could say even before she realized that it was Quasimodo and Phoebus standing bound and gagged on the scaffold.
The mechanism had already been activated, she even heard it groaning into action, but Clopin stared at her in dismay, and did not pull the lever all the way.
"Are you ever going to let me hang someone?" Clopin pouted as she approached.
"Maybe another time," she said with a wave of her hand. "These men aren't spies they're our friends!"
"Well, why didn't they say so?" asked Clopin, feigning innocence as Esmeralda unbound their gags.
"We did say so!" Quasimodo and Phoebus chorused, angrily.
The moment Esmeralda unbound Phoebus, he lurched forward, and shouted, "We came to warn you! Frollo's coming! He says he knows where you're hiding, and he's attacking at dawn with a thousand men!"
All fatigue vanished from Esmeralda's limbs, and she gestured to the tunnels. "Then we must waste no time! We must leave immediately!"
Panic filled the court, but Esmeralda was filled with a sense of peace, instead. As she descended from the scaffold, she was glad that for once they were a step ahead of Frollo, and both Phoebus and Quasi were safe with her.
"You risked a lot coming here," she told Phoebus, though she was sure he'd had a full example of what he risked. "It may not exactly show, but we're grateful."
For a sublime moment in time, Esmeralda leaned into the hug of a good man that she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she could trust, who she loved so deeply she couldn't even believe it.
But he pulled back, and pushed Quasi toward her instead, and said, "Don't thank me: thank Quasimodo! Without his help, I would never have found my way here!"
She smiled softly at Quasimodo, who shyly accepted their invitation to bask in victory and friendship with them.
"I have a question for you…" Phoebus said, drawing her attention back to him. There was earnest anxiety in his eyes as he searched hers fro assurance. "It seems I am a persona non grata with the army now… as long as they don't assume I'm dead… and if you leave now, I may never see you again…" he cleared his throat while she stared at him and attempted to understand what he was trying to ask her. "That is to say… I would like to come with you."
Esmeralda knew Clopin was making a shrill noise and Quasimodo had gone stiff, but all she could focus on was Phoebus's eyes.
She reached up to his face, and whispered, "If you come with me, you'll have to marry me."
Even having said this, Esmeralda was stunned that she was even considering it. It was too soon, they hardly knew one another… Yet she had married Pierre on the spot and she didn't even love him, and they had gotten on well enough.
She saw Phoebus grinning, and despite it being lopsided, she knew he was still serious. "I would be honored, Esmeralda," he rumbled softly, leaning down to kiss her and putting his arms around her.
"Ha!" Clopin was laughing raucously, and pushed between them before they could kiss. At first, Esmeralda assumed that he was intent on stopping them altogether, but instead, he exclaimed, "We'll have our party after all! Hanging or wedding, I don't care!" His eyes glinted. "You're marrying our Esme, and that means you're still going to pay!"
"Hey!" Phoebus cried as Clopin had swiped his coin purse.
"Clopin!" Esmeralda scolded him.
"Now now, Esme, you've put us through enough, and remember tradition! He must pay the bride price!"
Esmeralda rolled her eyes and gave Phoebus a sympathetic look. "It'll stay in the family," she whispered. "I'm sorry that was your penalty for…" she blushed rather than mention what was actually happening.
It was so surreal, she wished Pierre was there to see, even though he would have written an annoying poem about it, at least she would have known it wasn't in her own head. She would never write a poem like Gringoire's!
Phoebus's hands were gripping hers, then, calloused and warm, strong but gentle, and just like the man himself. She looked up into his eyes, for she knew he was trying to reach her. "I am not from this world," he told her softly, "actually… I can't think of a time when our worlds have really crossed paths…"
"We will find our way," she assured him.
"I'm sure we will. But that isn't what I meant… I was just thinking… yesterday I was a respected captain of the guard, for all anyone knew prepared to marry the daughter of a wealthy family and continue my life in a very predictable fashion, but now…" he gazed adoringly down at her.
"Now you'll actually be happy," Quasimodo muttered with a hint of bitterness.
Esmeralda blushed to have forgotten that he was standing beside them. It was rather inconsiderate, so she moved swiftly to counteract it. "Quasi, you should come with us! You'll never have to return to Frollo, and you'll always be surrounded by friends!"
"I have friends in the bell tower…" he protested softly.
Esmeralda was taken aback at that. She hadn't seen anyone up there with him… What was he talking about?
Phoebus squeezed her hand. "Don't worry, Esmeralda," he whispered, "we'll make it look so exciting to him he won't want to return, then we'll get him." He winked at her and she grinned back. "Most people would say my life was just torn to pieces, but maybe that's a good thing."
"How is that?" Esmeralda asked, keeping her voice light so as to go along with Phoebus's ambitions for luring Quasimodo away with them.
"It's rejuvenating… to know that my life is starting over," Phoebus replied. He waggled his brows at her. "It must be something about being in the Court of Miracles."
"Oh, yes, the blind can see here, so I'm sure you're experiencing a miracle of your own," she nodded, but her smirk was firmly in place.
"And I have you to thank," he responded, and pulled her into his embrace.
"Are you sure you really want to…" she cleared her throat. "I wasn't entirely serious when I said you had to marry me. If you don't want to—"
He set a hand at the back of her neck and pulled her into a kiss, and that was her answer.
When they pulled back to breathe, Esmeralda said, "I always thought I'd spend my life alone."
"Would you prefer that?" Phoebus teased.
"Oh, certainly not. I pretended that it didn't b bother me, but it always has. I've always longed for romance… and look where I finally found it."
"Yes, I'm right here," Phoebus chuckled, and though Esmeralda only had eyes for him, he spared a glance for Quasimodo. "And now that Quasimodo is with us, we're a trio, and we'll make a great team."
Quasimodo shifted uncomfortably. "It's not really the same thing," he said quietly. "I haven't found a miracle, exactly."
"Friendship is a miracle for outcasts like us," Esmeralda reminded him, setting a gentle hand on his shoulder with her bangles clinking on her wrist.
"And we're going to lands abroad," Phoebus added. "That's a step up from living your whole life in a bell tower, isn't it? We'll share the adventure."
Clopin had been swinging through the scaffolding of the home he'd commanded for decades, and had even hung a lantern above Phoebus and Esmeralda with a crescent cutout on the side.
"This will have to be our moon," he said as the "moon" he'd caused to rise projected itself on the vaulted ceiling overhead.
Esmeralda could not help admiring it, and she whispered, "It's like we're actually seeing her… as if we were allowed to…"
Phoebus squeezed her hand, and without having to hear an explanation agreed, "Yes, she's beautiful."
"As long as we have a moon to wish on, the wedding is official," Clopin said, and Esmeralda raised a brow.
"I don't remember a moon when Pierre—"
"Hush!" Clopin chided. "Don't interrupt me!" He held up a jug, testing it in his hands, and finally tossed it over his shoulder, then eyed Quasimodo. "You're a church boy, so you're the closest we have to a priest," he said before he finally looked down at the jar he'd split into pieces. "One, two… a thousand shards! A thousand shards for a thousand years!"
It probably wasn't, but Esmeralda had to grin at how excited Clopin suddenly was.
His actions did beg the question, however, of why he hadn't gone to all this trouble over the marriage to Pierre? He didn't even like soldiers… Ah, but he knew Esmeralda was in love. It must be his gift to her, as well as an attempt to milk every last opportunity for a party out of these terrible circumstances.
Some caravans were already trundling down the caverns out of the city, and Esmeralda's heart went out to them, but she allowed herself to bask in the glow of her true wedding.
"Come!" Clopin shouted through her thoughts, and hauled Quasimodo between herself and Phoebus. "We must have the joining of the hands! The King of Fools will preside!"
Quasimodo stood awkwardly and bewildered, staring from Clopin to the bridal couple, and Esmeralda thought he must be crying in panic.
"There's no need to be nervous," Phoebus whispered, "we're putting on a show for everyone to feel better before they flee. It's our job to make it easier on everyone."
This seemed to finally convince Quasimodo, who took one of both their hands, and was just about to join them together when a sound disturbed the wedding party and the witnesses alike.
That instant of beauty was shattered the instant the Court of Miracles rang with a multitude of heavy, purposeful boots slowly marching toward them, echoing until they seemed to multiply to legions untold. The sound came from every passage, every angle of escape cut off by those unending thuds of leather and the answering clank of metal.
The degree of sheer unadulterated panic that followed was beyond Esmeralda's comprehension, except that her hand was in both Phoebus and Quasimodo's, and this grounded her. Even knowing that they had but one avenue for escape, people were racing against time to evade the inevitable, but very few of them did.