Evening My Lovelies :)
We've reached 350 review! *happy dances*
This chapter jumps a bit characterwise, much like yesterdays. The main reason for this being that I'm evil and want to keep you all confused and wondering :D
Notes On Reviews:
Deana: Thanks for the review - I know :D There's trouble brewing :D Enjoy the new chapter! x
Debbie (Guest): Thanks for the review - :) Glad you like Marie, she may show up again later. hmmm You'll have to read to find out if you're correct. Enjoy the new chapter! x
romirola: Thanks for the review - :D Congrats for catching up, hope you're liking it so far. Enjoy the new chapter! x
pain in the mikta: Thanks for the review - Haha :D Don't worry most of the questions will most likely be answered today. Enjoy the new chapter! x
watlocked: Thanks for the review - In all fairness you've all gotten off fairly easy in terms of cliffhangers these last few days so you had to know we were due one :D ... Well that and I'm an evil writer :D Enjoy the new chapter! x
Tidia: Thanks for the review - Some of your questions will be answered today :) Enjoy the new chapter! x
fariedragon: Thanks for the review - I've missed my cliffhangers :D Enjoy the new chapter! x
Helensg: Thanks for the review - More excitement to come :) Enjoy the new chapter! x
Issai: Thanks for the reviews - (chapter32) Glad you liked the banter, it was really fun to write so I'm really happy it was well received :) Yeah Aramis is such a loyal, dedicated man to offer to go and check them out lol. (chapter33) I was worried about writing Flea as it was the first time I've written her in a story. Most of your questions will be answered today so hopefully it'll help clear up some of your confusion. Enjoy the new chapter! x
Lilac Lavender: Thanks for the review - Yeah the mystery person was quite tempted to attack Porthos but it wasnt him who ended up targeted. Hmmm you're correct about your assumption as to who it was but I wont spoil who it actually was. Hope it wasnt too confusing. Enjoy the new chapter! x
As always many thanks and lots of love to you lovely people who follow/favourite/review/reads this.
Enjoy!
xxx
Chapter Thirty-Four: Ambush!
SOME TIME EARLIER
"Calm down D'Artagnan," mumbled Athos, his words slightly muffled by the fact his face was buried in his pillow. Normally he wouldn't be trying to sleep at such an hour but the young Gascon had suffered a violent nightmare the night before, bad enough that not only did it wake the three senior inseparables up but that it was terrifying enough for D'Artagnan to fall out of bed from.
"D'Artagnan!" he growled when his earlier words did little to calm the obviously worried young man in the bed next to him.
"S-Sorry," stammered D'Artagnan, still slightly panicky after the dream he had the night before. It now didn't help that two of his brothers had gone from the safety of their shared room.
Understanding D'Artagnan's thoughts, Athos's eyes softened, "They'll be fine D'Artagnan, Porthos already said he was meeting Flea away from the court so he's at no risk there and from what we saw several months ago I'm confident she wont do anything to hurt him."
D'Artagnan felt himself relax at his mentor's calm reassuring words. "And 'Mis?" he asked, desperately needing Athos to convince him that his brothers were fine.
To his surprise though Athos actually snorted in response. "Only trouble Aramis is in is from the jealousy of women and even then all he's risking is a slap."
Like he had hoped, his words drew a small chuckle from his young protégé. "For one who claims to be so charming he does get slapped a lot," grinned D'Artagnan as he thought of all the times his charismatic friend had been slapped by Constance whenever he annoyed her. His smile quickly faded as he thought of the fiery young woman he had come to love. She had decided to try again with her husband, not wanting to forsake the vows she made in front of God when they married. The pair had left several weeks before his capture to spend sometime away from the city... and him.
"Either that," Athos frowned, hating the look of sadness that passed over D'Artagnan's face, yet knowing where it came from. "Or he falls down the stairs from trying to run with his pants by his ankles and a broken leg."
The completely stoic delivery of Athos's words along with the long-suffering sigh that followed snapped D'Artagnan right out of his melancholy and had him laughing brightly, something that warmed Athos's heart to here.
He understood why his young friend was worried, he was too. Aramis had somehow persuaded Treville to let him investigate the brothels that were the closest to the garrison and while Treville had resisted initially he had relented on the condition that Aramis went with at least three other men. The brothels were not in the best parts of the city and having a broken leg would severely compromise the medic's fighting ability should trouble find him.
Of course their female-loving friend had jumped at the chance to go and had readily agreed to the condition, leaving shortly after Porthos.
This left the two musketeers alone and despite their best efforts to focus on other things, such as Athos's mission to get more sleep and D'Artagnan's attempt to remember where he knew those names from, neither man could do much of anything whilst their minds worried so... After all the last time the four of them had separated it led to their capture and subsequent torture.
Athos was about to attempt to reassure the boy further, knowing that it wasn't his strong suite but that the boy needed it when D'Artagnan's stomach let out a large growl, the Gascon being too shaken from his nightmare to even look at breakfast that morning.
Smiling softly at the look of complete embarrassment on his protégé's face Athos pushed himself up off the bed, wincing slightly as he bent to put his shoes on and the movement pulled on his still healing back.
"What are you doing?" asked D'Artagnan, looking slightly worried, though he knew his assistance would be unwelcomed and so remained where he was.
"Getting us some food," Athos explained, shrugging on a loose tunic as he spoke, "you stay there and I'll get Serge to make us something," he added, nodding at the boy as he turned to leave the room.
While Athos was out of the room D'Artagnan forced his mind to return to trying to remember where he had heard those two names before.
What's taking Athos so long, is he making the food himself or something? Ranted D'Artagnan in his mind, the young man both wanting his brother by his side and to have the man as far away from him as possible. Could have just gotten the food delivered up here when it was done, grumbled the hungry Gascon before he froze, the memory hitting him like a bullet.
"Oh God," whispered D'Artagnan, paling instantly as his eyes widened with horror… "Treville!"
Wasting no time D'Artagnan flung the blankets off of himself and swung his legs so they hung off of the side of the bed.
He then pushed himself to his feet, his whole body swaying dangerously as he did so. Unfortunately when he fell out of bed the night before D'Artagnan had landed hard on his healing bite wound, popping a few of the stitches so he's entire leg felt sore and weak. He really didn't know if he would be able to make it to the Captain's rooms in the state he was in, especially as this would be the first time he had tried walking, or in this case running, since being rescued. But he knew he had to try.
Not even bothering with shoes or a shirt D'Artagnan propelled himself out of the room, his whole body crying out in agony as injury after injury was aggravated and pulled.
He forced himself to ignore the pain though, the thought of his Captain pushing him forward.
Luckily for D'Artagnan since the incident at the well the whole city had been put on high alert meaning most of the musketeers were out on patrols and therefore leaving the courtyard deserted of all but a few who were too far away to even really notice him.
He then quickly found a flaw in his 'genius' plan that was the stairs he would have to climb to reach the Captain's office.
Despite practically collapsing against the banister every other step and looking very much out of breathe and like he wanted to cry, D'Artagnan did eventually manage to reach the top. Pausing to take in a much need gulp of air D'Artagnan then proceeded to fling himself at the door, screaming for his Captain as he did so.
Thierry couldn't believe he had allowed himself to be so stupid! He had gotten so wrapped up in his talk with Porthos that neither of them had spotted the ambush until it was too late and now here they were, the two of them against the group of five men.
Treville's gonna have my head for this! Grumbled Thierry as he brought his blade up to block a blow from his opponent, quickly following the move by kicking the man in his stomach, Well providing there's anything left of it for him to have once Aramis has gotten a hold of me!
A pained grunt from behind him instantly caught the musketeer's attention and pulled him from his musing.
"PORTHOS!" he cried, fear flooding through him as he saw his friend down on one knee, sword lying discarded by his side having been disarmed by his opponent targeting one of his obvious wounds.
"Oh you're gonna regret that!" snarled Porthos as he glared at the now smirking man in front of him and before either he or Thierry could react Porthos had thrown a dagger straight into the man's throat before gripping his sword and staggering to his feet.
"You good?" Thierry called over his shoulder, slowly making his way to stand back to back with the larger man as the remainder of their opponents began to circle them.
"'Mis is never gonna let me live this down," grumbled Porthos, parrying a blow with his sword.
Thierry snorted at the petulant tone Porthos's voice had taken before swiftly moving to block a blow aimed at Porthos's weaker side.
"Who the hell are you guys?" snarled Thierry, a dangerous smirk coming to his face as the man he was facing cried out in pain from a slash across his chest.
The question went unanswered and the fight continued for many minutes with little sign of ending. Thierry found himself worrying for Porthos as the man clearly began to show signs of fatigue. Both musketeers were now sporting several bleeding cuts, Thierry more than Porthos as he tried to shield the flagging man as much as possible.
To their credit though they had managed to take down three of their five opponents, which evened up the playing field nicely for the men.
Porthos had just raised his sword to block a blow when the man he was fighting seemed to finally realize that he had a broken wrist… honestly how none of the other men had noticed before that point was beyond him. Smirking dangerously Porthos's opponent pushed harder on their locked blades before quickly shooting his hand forward and grabbing the musketeer's injured wrist in a tight grasp.
Porthos's scream of pain was just the distraction Thierry's opponent needed to get under the musketeer's guard, plunging his sword into the man's side.
"THIERRY!" screamed Porthos as he saw his friend crumple to the ground. Eyes narrowing in fury the musketeer pushed aside thoughts or recognition of pain and launched himself at the man in front of him, using his weight and the element of surprise to unsteady the man just enough for him to drive his blade into his heart.
Whilst this was going on Thierry saw through his bleary, pain-filled eyes, his opponent raising a pistol in Porthos's direction. Unwilling to let his friend die Thierry used all of his remaining strength to kicked the man's legs out from under him, the shot then going off into the air and doing no more damage than scaring some birds.
Porthos had swung around at the sound of the gunshot to find the man Thierry had downed slowly getting back to his feet and glaring menacingly at his barely conscious friend.
Knowing he would not be able to get there in time due to the returned pain of his injuries Porthos took a risk. "Thierry!" he bellowed, sliding a dagger across the ground towards the musketeer's hand.
Not bothering to waste time asking questions Thierry grabbed the dagger and with the last of his strength he wildly slashed. As luck would have it one of those slashes caught his opponent's throat, killing him instantly.
Porthos wasted no time at this point and scrambled as best he could over to Thierry's side. His body protested the whole way and he could only imagine the further damage to his wrist this had done but pushed those thoughts to one side as he reached Thierry.
"Stay with me Thierry!" growled Porthos as he pulled off his headscarf and pressed it against the bleeding wound.
A small whine of pain was all he got in response but that coupled with the flutter of his eyes gave Porthos hope.
He froze however when he heard the clattering of boot coming towards them. Fearing it might be more of the thugs who attacked them Porthos moved in an attempt to shield Thierry from them as best he could, ignoring the sickening sense of déjà vu he got doing it.
Only when he saw who was running towards him however did Porthos truly allow the stress and effort of the day to really hit him as he collapsed on the ground by Thierry's head.
"D'ARTAGNAN!" cried Treville in surprise as the watched the young battered Gascon fly into the room, following the swing of the door, only to them crumple to the ground as the effort of the journey took it's toll on him.
"Are you okay?" Treville asked, rushing the D'Artagnan's side he began inspecting the boy for further injuries, sighing in relief when he found none. He raised his eyebrow questioningly at the heavily panting youth, knowing something must have happened for D'Artagnan to rush to see him like he had.
"Is something wrong with Athos?" He asked next having received an exhausted nod of confirmation from the Gascon in regards to his previous question about his health.
"Then wha-"
"I know!" panted D'Artagnan, using his good hand to grip the front of Treville's shirt.
"Know what?"
"How… I knew… The names."
"CAPTAIN!" called a voice, interrupting Treville from questioning D'Artagnan further.
"What is it Leroy?" Treville asked, silently telling the musketeer not to question the fact that D'Artagnan was lying on the floor in his office completely out of breath and slightly panicked.
"It's Cardinal Richelieu sir."