Twisted Fortune - An Escaflowne Fanfiction
By Bonnejeanne and Nixers
Contact: bonnejeanne@yahoo.com and nixerchan@aol.com
Warnings: Spoilers for the entire series, (nothing else yet)
Notes: Set a little over one year after Vision of Escaflowne's end.
Chapter One - Fights and Flight - continued
Getting to the room was easier than she had expected. She put to proof all of her arguments to Allen about the troubles with dresses, taking obstacles with almost childlike joy and ease. She had startled more than one servant with her unusual appearance and speedy passage, but she knew they either didn't know who she was or wouldn't tell until it was too late.
Van's room, when she found it, was rather Spartan and unlived-in in its appearance. A simple change of clothes and a light smell of wood and loam were the only signs that anyone was in it at all. Closing the door behind her, she mused, "I wonder if he even demanded that it be simple," remembering the differences between her own and Allen's ornate rooms.
Moving quickly, she spotted the pouch and snatched it up. Taking just a brief moment to switch into her tunic (and borrow a pair of Van's boots. For a wonder, they were only slightly loose on her), she headed back to the hallways, pausing only to take in the scent one more time before making her way back to the bazaar. The mental picture of Van standing, staring down a dragon in the middle of the biggest street in Asturia, was somehow just as amusing as it worried her.
Now to find a merchant who'd part with their wagon for a nice hefty pouch of Fanelian gidaru and no questions....
By the time Serena made it to the spot where she'd left the boy and his dragon, she discovered neither was in evidence.
She stood, stupefied in the middle of the roadway. "Where in Gaea.... There's no way a dragon can just disappear!" she frowned.
One of the pieces of the broken board had been pulled out of the pit and placed on the ground where they had been standing.
Her eyes followed the "point" of the board to the wide alleyway leading off the main road. "Clever Van," she drawled, an appreciative smile curling her lips as she took off in pursuit her eyes carefully looking to pick out further signs of his direction.
The signs included scuffed alley walls and a few broken awnings here and there, leading roughly in the direction of the city gate.
Finally noticing the pattern of roadways and where he was headed, she broke away from the marked trail, intent on fulfilling her end of the bargain. Perhaps not as reliable as her family's coachmen and their services but she'd managed to overhear enough, if not from the servants, then from Gaddes' men.
The only torches still burning, in the part of the city dealing in land transport, were at a rather run-down place, owned by a man a bit too skinny and twitchy to evoke trust at first sight. Keeping her hand close to her belongings, she hailed the owner. "I'm looking for something in the way of a large wagon, oh say something that could carry about a half, maybe a whole piezo perhaps, to take off your hands. Do you have anything of the like?" (
Scratching the underside of his chin, the man looked her over, frowned, then smiled. "Large wagon.. hmm... might have one tomorrow. Can ye pay?"
"As well as anyone. Though I could really use it tonight." She palmed a few coins into her hands, hoping the glint of gold would have the right effect.
"Well ye see, there's a slight problem in that it's full of another party's goods," he said, eying the gold. "He's comin' to unload it tomorrow. I'd have ta unload it tonight, and my back... ye know how it is..."
A few more coins were added to the already generous pile. "But surely it can't be too much of a trouble," She lowered her eyes to the side, and dropped her voice. "I'm sure a few little boxes aren't going to hurt your back all that much?"
The man twitched slightly and said, "Well... I might get my nephew to help me... but he'll want something to eat and that boy eats like a beastman..."
Serena smiled, fighting down the irrational need to go have a bath after being in the other man's company for any amount of time. With an internal sigh at their rapidly depleting pouch, she nodded. "Oh, I'm sure a meal or two could be arranged, if the service is prompt, of course."
"Never mind the meal, just add another coin or two and I'll take care of it," the man said, grinning, showing uneven teeth. Once he decided to make the bargain, he worked as fast as a rodent, and disappeared. There was a sound from inside the large tackroom of things being moved, and shortly the wagon, pulled by a single sturdy but unattractive equine appeared from behind the building.
The man jumped down and held out a narrow hand.
Careful not to make contact, she dropped the coins into the waiting palm and nodded her thanks. She turned to take the lead on the horselike creature.
She'd gotten no more that a few yards from the man's establishment when a low whistle came from the deep shadow by the city wall.
Unconsciously taking a guarded stance, she peered into the murk, making no move to retreat or to advance.
Van stepped out of the shadow. He looked the wagon over and nodded.
The tension drained out of her at the sight of her impromptu companion. Shaking off the shudders the thin man had given her, she handed the leadline to Van and hopped up onto the edge of the wagon, taking up a position at the head of the battered craft.
Almost as an afterthought, she handed the pouch back to Van as well. He took the pouch absently.
"Where's the big guy?" she whispered softly.
Van jerked his head back towards the wall. There was more than enough shadow to conceal the beast, though once her attention was directed she could see the gleam of an eye, blinking once in that bottom-to-top reptilian fashion that could be so disconcerting.
She made a face slightly, Lizards she had no problem with, but something about dragons made her uneasy. "Can you do that trick to get him on the wagon?" She eyed the flatbed behind her. The thick timbers should hold, but she wasn't sure if the single horse could pull the beast.
Van handed the reins back to Serena. He took a couple of deep breaths, and for the first time a close observer might be able to spot a definite weariness somewhere behind his eyes. His reserves were being tapped fairly deeply. It wasn't the physical activity, it was the mental strain, but he turned without a word and went back to the young dragon.
Some short time later, the beast waddled up to the wagon, and after a rather long pause in which Van stared eye to eye with it, there was a sudden hop, a bare fraction of the deadly spring a healthy dragon would have been capable of, but it got the creature into the back of the wagon. The equine snorted and plunged, almost jerking the lead from Serena's grasp.
Scowling, she wrapped the leather lines around her hand as she sought to calm the unsettled beast tethered to the cart. After a moment of firm tugs and soft words, it settled down, despite the warning hisses from the dragonling behind her. "Van?" she half turned in her perch, realizing she hadn't seen movement from the young king since the dragon had taking its "seat."
Van pushed himself away from the side of the wagon where he'd been leaning. He climbed up into the box beside her.
Clucking her tongue, she set the equine in motion. The sturdy beast set its head low and her prodding and dug its hind legs deep into the packed dirt of the road. After a uncertain moment, the wagon gave a loud groan of metal fastenings and stressed timber, and the cart moved out, inching forward towards the city gates.
Letting out a breath she hadn't known she was holding, she looked at Van out of the corner of her eye. "You okay? You look...... dimmer, I guess."
A look under dark hair, then he shook his head. "Fine," he said. He leaned over the back of the seat, finding a covering there, and pulled it across the dragon, who improbably had settled quiet down.
Van turned to Serena. "Thanks." He looked her over almost too closely, noting the change of tunic and recognizing the boots, but he didn't say anything about them. "You'd better run if you're going to get back to the Palace."
Serena's hands tightened slightly around the reigns. "I don't know, it's a nice night for a ride don't you think?"
He looked at her for a long time without answering, but made no move to take the reins from her hands as they moved forward.
"After all," she started, her voice a little tight and brittle sounding, "You need some sleep, and I'm still fresh, I can watch old slowpoke here, and maybe catch a ride back in the morning..."
Van continued to watch her without speaking. He was thinking about Gaddes' words about old friends coming to blows. It was probably beyond that stage already.
Finally unable to take the silence, she looked up at Van, her eyes holding something akin to helplessness. "I don't want to go back. Even he said I'm in the way." she said, paraphrasing unconsciously; her mind had long since leapt to conclusions as she had brooded over it. "Anyway, no fair giving one their freedom and putting the other back into her cage." She turned sharply back to the roadways. The gates were in sight and steadily, if slowly, approaching.
Van's eyes widened. He waited another beat and then said softly, "He loves you."
"No, he loves a memory. He /protects/ me."
Van looked down at the floor of the box for a minute. Then he turned in the seat and looked at her. "Who... are you? Serena?"
"Any other time, I'd say you answered your own question." She still kept her eyes averted from the reddish brown of Van's. "But I'm not sure what you are asking me... so I don't know what to answer...." she shrugged, jerking her shoulder gracelessly.
Van's hand moved and one gloved finger reached out very lightly and traced a vertical line down the smooth surface of her right cheek.
She flinched lightly but didn't move back. She merely peered through the dim light of the street's lanterns at him in confusion.
Van was as confused by his own thoughts as she was by his actions.
"The gate..." she said softly, prompting him for an answer. The night shift of guards was in sight and watching their approach with a mixture of boredom and wariness.
It took a minute for Van to realize that she was... asking his permission. It was extremely clear to him what he should do - send her back to her brother, to be... protected. To keep whatever might be sleeping inside her asleep. And if he'd been secure in his assumption that the peace was going to last forever, that's exactly what he would have done. It was Allen himself who had planted the seeds in Van's mind that some echo of the unrest of the past was inevitably going to return.
"Do as you wish," he said.
Slumping against Van's side in relief, she smiled. Pushing the plodding equine to a faster pace of turtles speed, she rumbled up to the gates.
"Ma'am, Sir." One guard said, tipping his hat.
Van acknowledged the guard's salute, without volunteering anything on his own behalf. He rested on hand lightly over the tarp and the other crept up to the dangling object under his shirt.
One man walked lazily around the side of the wagon. "Anything you'd like to claim as exporting from Asturia?" the guard asked with obvious disinterest.
"Nothing," Van answered. He quite clearly considered the dragon Fanelian so his conscience was clean as a whistle... well, there was Serena... better not think about that.
Serena smiled at the wandering guard, waving to catch his attention. "We're just taking a few purchases from the bazaar back home. Surprise the folks, you know."
The guard glanced up and smiled back. He noted her boyish attire but shrugged it off. She was probably just from Ezgardia. The women dressed oddly there. "You live close? Traveling at night's not the safest."
Following on an impromptu urge, she linked her arm through Van's. "Oh, we'll be safe," she purred.
Van looked a bit startled, or would have looked more so if he wasn't concentrating so hard on keeping the dragon still and quiet. As it was, he jerked a little when she slid her arm in his but settled quickly.
The guard covered a snort to himself. That country-looking boy obviously had his hands way too full with the spitfire miss. "As you say," he answered and stepped back from the gate.
Waving at the two men with a devil may care grin, she snapped the reins and set the equine into motion again. The guards pushed the gate closed behind the slow moving cart, but not before a quick commentary floated up to them. "Newlyweds can be so cute. Shame they'll settled down into Married." The other guard grunted his assent before turning back to his post.
Serena glanced back over her shoulder at the gates with wide eyes, before biting her lip to keep herself from breaking into laughter. "Oh sweet Gaea, if I had known it was this easy..."
Shoulders slumping slightly as he relaxed his concentration, Van looked over at Serena. "...you would have what?"
Serena blinked turning to look at Van. "I don't know," She grinned, her eyes meeting Van's steadily, "I've always dreamed about it, but the idea to DO it never occurred to me until now." She paused, glanced downwards, then back up to him. "...thanks... really, thanks."
He watched her steadily. "I don't know what I'm doing," he said. "Allen is my friend. Was.. my friend. He won't forgive this."
"Nah, he just won't know that you are involved if I can help it." Serena set her jaw. "He'd more likely to think I took off then anything else. No use dispelling his illusions, ne?" She grinned suddenly. "And you won't be lying... I got curious and followed you. Who needs all the details clouding the story up?"
Van didn't even bother to shake his head. "He'll know. And I won't deny it."
She sighed in frustration. "I'm old enough to make my own decisions. I.... I refuse to be treated as less than an adult anymore."
Van had been given the responsibilities of an adult since he was about ten. He'd become king of Fanelia at fifteen. And he could not look at Serena without consciousness of so many other things that seemed to be lost in the past but for him were very real.
"He's afraid," he said calmly.
"Well so am I. My hearts beating so hard I can hear it. I've never.... this is all new. But he's running from whatever scares him and he wont talk to me about it. And if anyone else knows, they won't talk either. So I'm facing my own, I ...can't wait for him to get over his own because I don't think he will."
"He's afraid you'll turn into someone else."
She blinked at Van. "You know that sounds crazy?"
Van simply looked at her, resting his chin in one hand, propped on the back of the box seat.
Giving him a troubled glance, she turned back to the road. "I'll keep a watch out. You should get some sleep."
Van watched her for a little while longer, thinking about trusting his life to Serena Schezar. His eyelids closed slowly but he remained sitting, only slouching down a little as the wagon moved along the dark road.
Serena settled back in the box, her eyes scanning the road as she felt her companion relax. Steering the equine along the smoothes patches in the rutted road she could find, she felt a slow, true, smile curl across her lips.
/Free!/
END OF PART 3!