23-Mar-2002
Twisted Fortune - An Escaflowne Fanfiction
By Bonnejeanne and Nixers
Contact: bonnejeanne@yahoo.com and nixerchan@aol.com
Warnings: Spoilers
Notes: Set a little over one year after Vision of Escaflowne's end.
Chapter Fourteen - Rites of Passage (cont)
Part 31
Gaddes watched Van and Serena part ways with a certain strange detachment. He, and he was sure a good deal of the other crewmembers, had witnessed Serena's lapse, something that hadn't happened in quite a while. There was also the matter of the too-pleasant smile on Allen's face when the source of the fit had become apparent.
The first mate turned slightly, a hand raking through his hair. "Was a nice sword," he commented casually.
Allen glanced up, his expression quite different from the pleasant mask, now that Van and Serena were heading away. "I'll get it back," he said. "Make the Crusade ready. We depart for Zaibach within an hour, at most two. As soon as I return."
"Retu...Ah, figured that," Gaddes said shaking his head. "She's ready to go now." He jerked his head back towards the airship. "I'll double check though."
Allen snorted softly, allowing a glint of humor into his cool blue eyes. "You do that."
He turned and crossed the space around the airfield, heading back into the castle proper, with a reasonable idea of where his quarry could be found. He'd spent the previous several days productively, making himself familiar with the environs.
He arrived at the stables only a short time later.
Kaerin was just parting ways and changing money with a young ratlike beastman. The other, either a stable hand or an owner scurried past Allen without a second look at the Knight, leaving Kaerin to walk towards the equine he'd just purchased, unwary of the newer presence in the stables.
"Deserting us so soon?" Allen said, leaning in the wide stable doorway with crossed arms.
The younger Knight froze before turning, a little stiffly to look at Allen. "It is hard to desert a place where one is not welcome," he replied, turning back to pick up a saddle blanket.
Allen sighed audibly. "These young Knights," he mentioned. "If anything, a bit too eager to take offense."
Kaerin settled the heavy blanket on the shoulders of the equine, silent a moment as he patted the beast's muzzle. "I haven't taken offense," he replied. "I'm just finished with what I came to do. If I have any eagerness, it's to put this all behind me."
Allen frowned, watching the young Knight. "I see. Then perhaps..." He straightened. "I was going to remind you of your agreement, to help on the trip, now that we can actually use it, but..."
Kaerin paused and looked at the Knight, giving the full impression of being thrown off balance. After a moment he looked from the equine waiting with a modicum of patience back to Allen, torn between his promise and his desire. "If I may be of use," he said slowly.
Allen returned Kaerin's look directly. "We're departing for Zaibach," he said quietly. "We're to meet Van and... my sister there. There may be an issue to resolve, I cannot at this moment be certain, regarding sorcerers..."
A quick flash of emotion accompanied the mention of the Zaibach sorcerers, but was hidden again before it could be easily identified. The Third Knight bowed his head slightly. "I've already offered my sword to you, direct it where you will."
"I don't know a great deal about the situation we are going into," Allen said. "But given your connection, I'd welcome your help. There are several considerations to be handled. From Asturia's aspect, it's more than desirable to avoid any outbreak of conflict. From my own... an opportunity to converse with those who so affected my family has its own appeal. Last, though Van is going, it is apparent to me that the errand is attributable to another..."
"My knowledge... is only as far as what my brother had written," Kaerin said. "You do understand though, that those who... affected, hold the entire nation." He gave something of a darker smile. "Otherwise I'd have had a conversation much like what seems planned long ago."
Allen frowned, and then nodded slowly. "I'll not miss this opportunity to acquire what knowledge I can, if nothing else," he said. "At one time I thought I could close the door on it all and it would be as if the intervening years had never happened... but that isn't going to be possible." His eyes wandered to an unfocused space for a moment before returning. "Dammit, Kaerin, they took her from here, not days ago. I can't leave that hanging over her head or mine."
Kaerin seemed to come to a decision and pulled the blanket from the equine, folded it neatly and put it back on the shelf. "I had also made a promise to your sister for what help I could," he volunteered. It was an uneasy feeling, giving away information he held private. "For her aide to my own kin.... I will give you what I can. The politics of Zaibach, from what I understand are worse than that of Pallas, and the reparations demanded have likely only intensified that. The sorcerers were at the hub of it, and if they survived, still are. If they think you are a threat or a power, don't be surprised if you are approached by them. Just make sure you aren't alone."
"Will you come?" Allen asked, taking the information seriously.
He hesitated a moment and then nodded. "I will need to arrange for a message to Freid, but it should not take long."
Allen acknowledged the agreement with a bow. "I'm grateful. If you need any assistance, Dryden Fassa can arrange anything here in very short order."
Kaerin nodded, again looking a little surprised at the gesture. "I wouldn't wish to impose for so simple of a correspondence. It is in truth little more right now, than to tell Freya that I am well and that I'd passed along her own message. It doesn't warrant royal attention."
"As you will," Allen said simply. "I have words of my own to exchange with the Regent. We'll depart when you return to the Crusade."
He bowed again, briefly, and left the stable.
Kaerin watched the Knight go still feeling off center from the whole affair. He looked at the lazy black eyes of the equine a moment, and shrugged. It would be a simple enough matter to get the paper, and giving the new horse to the messenger would assure more speed than likely the Regent's influence could. Resolved, he left the stables in the direction of the markets, noticing only vaguely that the sense of urgency he'd held had disappeared.
It was midday when the first sentinels saw the specter of the dragon on the horizon, approaching the walls of Zaibach's capitol city. The under-staffed, and for the most part, under-trained guards could only clutch their spears and other nearly useless weapons that had been left to them and wait.
The citizenry themselves, when the rumor of events spread, held a different sort of fear. There was no edge to the panic of actions, just a quick moving for shelter and sullen eyes watching, with hope or certainty that whatever happened the chances were that it was going to be some other side of the city, to some other house.
It was only when the dragon had circled, no aggression immediate that some traces of those barriers wore away. Murmurs passed through cupped hands that the dragon landed right in front of the triangular shape of the main fortress, and eyebrows raised at the mention of a red Alseides, an older model, but one thought to be also destroyed, had accompanied it.
The fortress guards however had been given direct orders from General Adelphos, almost immediately after the first sighting of the dragon, to be alert for the appearance of Captain Dilandau Albatou, and to bring the Captain and his companion immediately to the General.
And at the same time, an order was issued to the small core of the General's older, most trusted men, the Fortune Plains survivors, to seal off the sorcerer's enclave and begin taking "subjects" out, using any force required to do so.
As the footsteps of the two returning to Zaibach echoed through the halls, escorted by two guards leading the way, another sound on the other side of the complex played a counterpoint. The orders had been issued, had been set into action, but the veterans sent to do the work had encountered much more than was expected.
Minutes previously, Foruma had sat at his desk, a prim area, uncluttered and organized to the point of a compulsive air about it. He simply listened to the hurried reports of an apprentice, a younger man wearing the brown robes of one still learning the Arts. The man had been out in the gardens kept by the nobles, when he had seen the dragon on the horizon, and the red guymelef, both forgoing any attempt at stealth, nor showing any hostility at the other's presence.
One slim hand folded over the other, resting flat against the table top, waiting for the boy to finish the tirade, to realize that the silence was his dismissal. Foruma stood and swept past the hurriedly apologizing apprentice, without a second glance at him, intent on finding the three others who'd survived the war and the politics that came afterwards.
They alone knew the message that Locious had sent, apparently the last message if the reports were correct. Foruma simply nodded to each as he passed them, knowing in his wake that the four men would find an excuse to break away from their studies. The rest... would have to fend for themselves.
Adelphos received the two not in the room they'd spoken in previously, but on the wide walkway of an observation balcony, one equipped with distance lenses, communications receivers and possessing a vantage that provided one of very few angles that could be directed back at that part of the fortress given to the labs and technical areas.
Van walked beside the young Captain easily, with the attitude of an equal and the bearing of a warrior monarch. The absence of a familiar weight at his hip was an awareness that he exerted no small effort to appear oblivious to.
Dilandau had lost little of the fouler mood through the silence between the two men, and fell more easily into protocol to cover it. As both entered the presence of the General he stopped sharply at an attention that wasn't shown at their previous meeting with the General.
The General turned from his surveyal of something below, one eyebrow almost lifting. He returned the salute formally.
"Basram seems to be experiencing an unseasonable heat wave," he said, the harsh voice allowing a bit of satisfaction to be heard.
The Captain nodded, with a slight easing marked by a more typical expression. "A shame really. A country so near the water, you would think they'd have more measures against a little fire."
Adelphos nodded, watching the young soldier with the same penetrating intensity as on their previous meeting.
"Report," he said, dispensing with pleasantries.
"The border was breached with little resistance. We were brought before the King and his advisor under the pretense of being captured on petty grounds. The advisor was the target and circumstance led itself to our being alone for the advisor's interrogation of us. It failed," he said the last with a bit of a smirk. "There was also found to be a device there resembling the Fate Redirection Machine on a smaller scale. A few sabotages of the machine caused an explosion, and a cover for a successful retreat."
"How certain are you that the target was taken out? And the bombs..." the General inquired.
"The target was in the room at the time the explosions began, the chance of survival is almost nil. The bombs themselves were not located, and it could not be ascertained if there actually were any more made than the one used. The records and ability to make them, however were destroyed and unrecoverable."
The General listened, sifting the words. He finally grunted, probably about as much of an acknowledgment as would be forthcoming. He spent a moment studying the Captain.
"And now... you'll be leaving Zaibach service..." the General said, but it was so scrupulously neutral as to almost imply a question.
Dilandau had returned the Generals observation evenly. The question he'd slid around was unavoidable now. Instead, he responded with another inquiry. "If my own request has been carried out?"
The General's expression darkened slightly. He turned without answering and returned to the distance viewer he'd been looking through. After a moment, he said, "In progress. Half the prisoners have been recovered. The resolution will be final... it may take some hours."
The Captain nodded, a gesture unseen by the General. There was the soft scrap of sound as the boy, with obvious discomfort shifted his weight. "A better question would be, would I be released from service have I the desire?"
Adelphos turned away from the viewer to level his eyes at the Captain. He seemed to look very deeply into the garnet eyes. "I won't keep you unwilling," he said directly. And just as clearly, without a word, he said he wanted the Captain to stay.
Van hadn't shifted, or reacted to any of the interview thus far, but rather abruptly he leveled a brief bow at the General.
"I'm not needed here," he said quietly. "I'd be more useful assisting the completion of that task. You'll find me if you need to," he said, touching Dilandau very briefly on the arm. He was gone almost before the words had registered.
Once on the other side of the doorway to the balcony, he reached up, rubbing his temples, and took a moment, ignoring the watching guards, to compose himself. Then he turned to one of them and held out his hand.
"A sword," he said simply, the tone carrying the full weight of a command from a king.
The scarred guard attending the doorway looked the king over once, briefly. Mutely, the man drew his own, a battered but balanced blade, and held it to the king hilt first.
Van took the weapon and nodded curtly in what could be interpreted as thanks. Then he made his own way down the hallways on his way to the ground level and out. Suddenly he wanted very much to be in Escaflowne and carefully creating an unplanned entrance to the labs.
On the observation platform, Dilandau had watched the other boy's passage with a heavy mixture of confusion and cynicism. /And he dare accuse me of running,/ he thought, a grin twisting his expression. He didn't stop to consider what the king would be running from.
Sliding his glance back to the General, the immediacy of the situation returned to him. He stayed silent a moment considering. "Hours. It sounds like trouble is expected."
The General regarded Dilandau for a moment. "I'm quite prepared to empty the veins of every sorcerer in the wing," he said. "There are disadvantages to Zaibach's progress of course. Ones I'm prepared to accept."
"No new weapons, and not much of an army to speak of. What use would you have for me?" Dilandau asked, a considering gaze leveled at the General.
"You appear to be adequate with the existing ones," the General said dryly. "Faced with an invasion of our country? Not much. Were I mad enough to consider conquest, even less. For the game we will be playing in the next several years... yes, I'd have a use for you."
Dilandau's expression shifted into a concentrated frown, unused to the simple convenience of choice. Control was something that he'd fought for and now given it... "I'd need leave, taken as needed," he said, slowly.
Adelphos continued to regard the Captain, and his face, without shifting a single feature, managed to convey a slight sense of grim appreciation.
"Of course you would," he said, his low voice rusty with a tinge of amusement. "I admit, I have not allowed myself the luxury of simple curiosity in a long time, but you damn near make me rescind that decision."
Red eyes narrowed slightly at the undertone. The boy returned the statement by leaning back slightly a twist of a half smile returning to his face. "I didn't know you were so easy to amuse," he replied, almost sweetly.
"I'm not," Adelphos returned, his voice devoid of anything resembling any of the lighter emotions. What amusement he might have was certainly nothing very many others would have been able to recognize. "You've matured, boy, in spite of your continued tendency to cleverness. Take your leave. Give me a decision... later. Not too much later. The work won't hold for much longer."
With a vague wonder about the changes in the man in front of him, the albino nodded. "Understood," he said. "I don't think it should take long."
Adelphos acknowledged the Captain's words with a low grunt and then made a brief gesture, part salute, part dismissal.
Dilandau turned and left at that, pausing outside the doorway to glance at one of the guards. One eyebrow raised at the closest's lack of weaponry. Simply, he asked, "Which way?"
The veteran pointed with his chin in the direction of the access to the main gates.
Outside the sound of wide metal wings beating was audible even through the walls.
Recognition of the rhythmic noise came to him almost immediately as the albino neared the entrance way, growing surer from its familiarity with each step. Abandoning the reserve he'd affected, he drew the sword at his side and broke into a run, pushing his way roughly through the crowd of onlookers assembled at the entranceway into the light beyond.
Escaflowne was rising into the air, the king on her back, a naked sword stuck into his belt. His attention was fixed on an area of the fortress, the one that Adelphos had been watching.
Dilandau took a young guard, who stood gaping at the sight, by the fabric of the shirt, jerking him to the side. "Order a withdrawal of General's guards in that wing, no one else to leave. Run," he growled, pushing the guard back into the corridors beyond the gate behind him.
The guard stumbled off obediently, calling ahead of him.
Van's attention was fixed but something caused him to look down, seeing the diminishing figure, so distinctive even from a distance. Something he didn't quite recognize beat at his chest from the inside. /Free the prisoners,/ he thought, focusing. Escaflowne seemed to purr under him as if she approved the idea of even so limited a battle.
Within the doomed structure, the sound of the dragon's flight was drowned by the chaos within. The lower ranking wizards were disorganized at first, vulnerable in the absence of those that led the group. At the first approach of the older, skilled guards of the General, most had frozen, watching with grit teeth as the soldiers had invaded their territory. The order to release the subjects, the results of years of labor was not taken well.
The guards loyal still to the sorcerers, out of fear or duty, had waited patiently, pretending complacency until a signal, a sharp glance or slowly waved hand gave them permission. Soldiers of the same uniform crossed swords and bled each other while the robed men retreated, with the same cool demeanor, unhurried steps, as if even in that moment in control.
Out of sight, there were hurried motions to get what could be salvaged, and to find an exitway. The search for Foruma or any of the four high sorcerers was abandoned. Such loyalties did not last, if they were even there to begin with.
In another wizard's study, an ambitious younger sorcerer eagerly freed the contents of the desk, tucking papers and notes, when the sound of metal in motion and displaced air echoed over a suddenly eerily silent corridor. He looked up, papers fluttered and drifted to his feet, gained through freedom by nerveless fingers. A sudden, sick realization had dawned on him.
Metal claws dug into the wall, finding some invisible weakness that allowed the structure to be torn away, falling far below to a fortunately unoccupied patch of ground.
By the time the Captain made it through the mess, the white dragon perched in a gaping opening, her pilot no where to be seen
Ignoring the comments and stares of the onlookers, Dilandau picked his way over the rubble in the gap, sword still held ready in one hand. Unconsciously keeping as far from the dragon as possible, he walked into the shattered hallways, a small cackle of appreciation given as he regarded the damage. "Stylish, Van."
Few within had gone unscathed, chunks of falling rock or the rending claws of the dragon's attack or landing had taken its toll in blood and bruises. Under one of the larger chunks of ceiling there was only a torn scrap of cloth and a growing pool of crimson to mark where someone, guard or wizard, had been crushed so easily. A few groans of those nearby marked some who still lived, and a remarkable few of those who lay amongst the dead bore the deep slash of a sword's bite. The Captain hardly gave those too incapacitated for a challenge a second glance, instead, finding his way towards the holding cells, unconsciously watching for a red shirt amongst the dark blues and blacks.
He found the shirt and its owner in a small cell, the last one on a row. The others had been opened and the inmates were gone, carried out or walking, escorted by guards from outside the labs who were able to make it inside.
The last cell held a cot like most of the others, on which was a young boy, perhaps thirteen, his body still, eyes closed, face bruised by pain. He wouldn't need to be carried out. Van sat on the floor beside the cot, his back to the wall and his head down, the borrowed sword across his knees, still smeared a little with dark and drying fluid.
The Captain sheathed his sword as he entered, a little reluctant to put the steel away without use. With only a glance at Van, he walked with deliberation up beside the Fanelian. "Too far gone, I assume," he said at last, voice neutral as he looked at the still body of the teen. Crouching beside the cot, he lifted the boy's chin lightly with two fingers, noting the ugly purple splotch running beneath nearly translucent skin. "Vein collapsed, if he's alive it won't be long."
Van looked up vaguely, his eyes unfocused, almost dull. "Is it over then?"
Glancing sharply at the king, Dilandau considered for a moment. "Likely," he said, standing again. "There didn't seem to be much left for latecomers."
"Sorry," Van said, his tone somewhat devoid of expression.
The Captain stared at Van for a moment, before glancing towards the open doorway. "More bodies in armor than in robes," he mused, frowning slightly.
"He wasn't here."
Dilandau's attention returned quickly to Van. "Who wasn't?"
"Foruma."
Garnet eyes narrowed then widened. "This..." he said slowly, "Could be a problem."
The king didn't reply or look up. He seemed inclined to stay where he was, one gloved finger idly tracing a pattern in the dark smears on the sword across his knees.
The Captain didn't wait. Dilandau walked out of the room, his pace hurried. Glancing town each side of the hallways he caught sight of what he was looking for, a sorcerer, still alive though relying heavily on the guards who escorted him in restraints to even walk. Drawing his sword, he approached the trio with a feral grin, calling the men to a halt.
"Set him against the wall." Dilandau ordered the guards, the tone itself a dismissal. His eyes never left the pale, pain twisted face of the sorcerer.
The guards obeyed, withdrawing but only to the corridor.
He knelt beside the sorcerer, the flat of the sword laid almost as if resting against the man's shoulder, the razor edge of it pointed towards the neck. "For your sake, I hope you can hear me, because this is your one chance of survival," he purred. "I want to know the whereabouts of the sorcerers Foruma, Garufo, Kuaru and Paruchi."
The man blanched even more, what little blood there was in his face retreating. "...gone..." he squeaked, "...left us..."
The blade slid closer, the fine edge of it parting the cloth as if it weren't there. Skin broke as shallow rivulets of blood made their way from the still harmless scratch down the pale neck as the hard pulse beneath it pushed the flesh against the unwavering blade. "To where?" he asked. "And don't tell me you don't know. Where would they go?"
The man squirmed as much as he was able. His eyes showed white all around the irises and he clearly believed he would die in the next minute. A few sounds crawled out of his throat but he not only didn't know where they would go, he was too terrified to think of a bluff.
The albino let out a hiss of frustration, and glanced up at the guards just down the corridor, "Do we have other wizards alive?" he asked, returning his gaze to the one he held still.
One of the guards nodded. "Yes, Captain. All those below the third rank were taken into custody."
The grin on the boys face lost in feralness what it gained in a ruthless quality. "Very well. You're dismissed," he said to the guards without looking at them. He stood up and a flash of the sword opened the sorcerer's throat nearly from ear to ear. "And you are no longer useful."
With an air of finality, he turned sharply back to the direction in which he'd come, looking at the sword he held with a detached admiration, now that he'd put it in use. It had passed so cleanly as to not get even a drop of blood on its surface. Without a glance backwards, he sheathed the blade again and made his way back to the line of cells.
Van was still sitting where Dilandau had seen him last, as if his entry or exit had never happened at all. Hiding a growing pang of concern he went to the wall across from the king and sat against it, facing the other boy. He waited, for what he wasn't sure, but merely watched with unusual patience.
It took some moments but the presence of the albino seemed to seep into Van's awareness somehow and after a time he looked up. He blinked, as if pulling himself back from some far place. Then he looked down, where his fingers still idly traced patterns on what was now dying on the borrowed blade. Grimacing, he spat on his palm and began wiping the blade carelessly on his pants.
Dilandau watched this process with every appearance of disinterest. He cupped the side of his face in the palm of one hand, fingers curled tightly. "So, you left to do this?" he asked finally, curiosity in his voice belaying the cool expression.
Without looking up, Van nodded. Then he said, in a low voice, "I thought you'd prefer it if I wasn't there when you made your decision."
"What I don't understand is why my preferences should have a bearing on its outcome," Dilandau said, then dropping the hand against his face to his lap, he shook his head. "Never mind. It doesn't matter anyway. There was no decision. I simply asked for leave."
"Hn," Van said, still not looking up. "He wants you."
"He does. I wouldn't be here otherwise," Dilandau replied, the tone of voice was casual, almost dismissive of the matter.
Van didn't look up but his eyes flickered a look through the curtain of dark hair. "You don't know what you want, do you?"
The other boy glared at Van a moment before giving a shrug. "Everything has changed. I don't have a precedent for any of this."
Van nodded. After a moment, he got to his feet. He stuck the borrowed sword into his belt. "What now?"
"Do what you like," Dilandau said in place of an answer. "I doubt anyone will stop you."
Something flickered in cinnamon eyes, making then appear a bit more scarlet. He walked over to where Dilandau sat and reached down, pulling the taller boy to his feet. Without missing a beat, he pushed him back against the wall behind him and covered his mouth in a hot kiss.
A noise of surprise and momentary outrage was muffled by the kiss, and hands at first gripping the Fanelian boy's arms to free himself of the indignant treatment relaxed. Van could feel something of a smile curve the others lips before a brush of the other's tongue ran across his.
Van sucked that tongue into his mouth, continuing to press against the taller boy, his own hands sliding in a firm grip around Dilandau's waist. He tasted of heat and something a bit wild, a little dark, lying beneath a very fragile surface. It was something of a killing mood, but he was binding it as best he could, letting the edge of it move out. For all of that, there was a touch of sweetness, as he ran his tongue under the other boy's, dipping into his mouth and then darting away.
Dilandau withdrew slightly, his teeth caught and worked at Van's lower lip gently, just enough to feel the points without the bite. Pushing back farther, his hands slipped between their bodies to give him distance. Narrowed eyes searched the others face before curving into that same parody of a smile that he'd felt. "Trying not to fight?" He shrugged as much as the close embrace would allow, unjudging. "This doesn't seem the place though."
Van stared back directly, face unsmiling. "I don't know how much time I have left," he said softly. He reached up and drifted gloved fingers across the pale boy's cheek. "I don't know how long you'll stay." He dropped his hand, shrugging, letting his eyes drop as he leaned back, not without a certain amount of reluctance.
The albino had flinched visibly at the contact along the scar. "As long as I want to, I'd imagine. This is what you want from me?" The last was asked with obvious doubt.
Van looked up, his eyes vulnerable. " 'This'...? I..." he fell back on a shrug, a little helplessly. He swallowed and forced some control over himself from somewhere. "Yes, this... that... whatever I can get, I guess."
There was a moment of tense silence between them, something boiling behind red eyes. It disappeared under a casual flip of the hair, and arms crossed over his chest. "You don't have a clue either, really, do you?" He laughed a bit at that. "No more idea of what you want than I do."
"I know what I want," Van said, his voice low. "I just know I can't have it." His mouth pulled to one side, the expression a little too old on his young face. He took a step back, again showing a forced reluctance. "Since you don't care what I do, it hardly matters."
The other boy's expression darkened, but he made no protest. "Then maybe you can enlighten me," he began. Despite the casualness of the pose, there was an edge, almost visible tension to the boy. "Let's stop this pointless dancing and get right down to it. What do you want?"
"You."
"I gathered that," Dilandau replied, a brittle smile working a strange counterpoint with dark eyes. "Like how? Dead? Between the sheets? Broken? If you were going for confused, you sure as hell succeeded."
"I wasn't going for confused," Van said, one corner of his mouth twitching in a more natural touch of that occasional odd humor. "Or dead. Or... broken. The sheets..." his tanned cheeks flushed darkly but his eyes met the other boy's. "...I think I like, I think I could like... more... but if it doesn't please you, I'll live with it. If you leave, I'll follow you. Until you make me stop."
Dilandau searched the other boy's face as the implications began to set in, looking for any hesitation, any deception that he knew had to be there in the king's open expression. He looked away from cinnamon eyes, ruthlessly pushing aside his own panic, and other responses that he couldn't even begin to sort out. He wanted to just go with it, take up all the offers there, but it wasn't that easy. Couldn't be.
"We have to report that the four high sorcerers are missing first," he said, voice and expression dropping into the curt tones of orders. "After that.... we'll see."
Van dropped his eyes and nodded. "Your country, you lead," he said, repeating the phrase from that morning.
Dilandau watched the boy in front of him a moment longer before turning to lead the way back out. The other's pace was almost minutely slower but noticeable in its distraction. He stopped as they reached the most recently created entranceway, Escaflowne still perched almost primly amongst the rubble she had created.
The pause didn't last long, just a cursory sweep of the white metal, the curve of its breastplate before giving the machine a wide berth, a natural snarl aimed in its direction. He shook his head. "If a machine could look smug," he mumbled to himself, just under his breath.
Van glanced at the dragon melef neutrally. She seemed to look back at him unwinkingly, offering exactly the completion that was being denied by the tall boy. He ducked his head, all too aware that he had let himself turn to that comfort within recent moments.
"I should take her down," he said in a low voice.
The other boy paused and looked back, one hand resting on a large, almost boulder like slab of fallen concrete. He seemed to consider then nod. "I'm not sure of the labor melefs would be so delicate in removing it."
The white machine waited patiently. As if she were certain of winning this one. Van took the words as a dismissal and jumped to her back, taking the guidelines easily. The dragon turned to the opening and free fell out of it, wings catching the air to slow the decent. For a moment Van was seized with a very strong desire to fly, with no destination in mind. As he looked out across the sky, he saw sails approaching. The urge to run returned strongly, but he clamped it down and Escaflowne merely dipped back down to land near the red Alseides again.
Dilandau pushed away from the wall he'd leaned against to watch. Nothing rational explained the apprehensive anticipation of something that had flared a moment while the dragon had hovered, a steady, now familiar warmth at his chest had not died once since their arrival, it only intensified and subdued a bit. Frowning slightly at himself and nothing explicable, he hooked the jewelry with a finger to glance at it a moment, considering it, before returning it to hiding.
Ignoring the strange thought it provided, he pushed past the rubble and an off hinged door, intent on making his way to the entrance hall instead of directly to the General.
As he was leaving the area of the laboratories, a timid figure stepped out of a shadowed corner with a soft, "Captain..."
The albino blinked, turning sharply at both the tone and unexpectedness of the hailing.
The speaker was a young girl of one of the beast clans, barely a teen if that. She was dressed as a servant. Her hand was extended cautiously, with a small object.
He glanced again at her, some vague part of his mind wondering it if was a specter or after effect of one of those strange visions in Basram, before stepping forward cautiously. Determining, if nothing else, her reality, his face cleared and his hand extended towards hers.
She place the object in his gloved hand. It was a small, carved wooden charm on a leather thong, which he recognized instantly. "He says to tell ye, he's tracking.. tracking the biggest snake..."
Dilandau's hand closed over Jajuka's charm, and he nodded to the beastgirl. "Thank you. If you need a carrier's fee, I can have it arranged," he replied. The news was better, he was not looking forward to the inevitable explosion at the new report, but somewhere to start would temper it perhaps. Unable to offer the girl anything, he slid a sideways glance at the portal way, the entrance to a spiral stairwell leading downwards.
She shook her head shyly, drawing back deferentially. "Nah," she said softly. "I owes him. Bye, Captain."
Glancing down at the charm once before tucking it away and taking the route he'd intended, he shook his head again, taking the unscathed staircase quickly. /She's not the only one. Dammit. It was all easier, clearer when../ He cut off that line of thought with a growl and pushed past the guards manning the stairs with a sharp glance at both of them before moving on. He wasn't sure how the beastgirl had gotten there or planned to get out, but he knew they had always had their ways about that.
The hallway was in a remarkable state of disorder. The recent events seemed to have at least stirred people from the complacency that had characterized their first visit. It was unorganized but far more lively. A wry smile marked the thought. "And yet again, disaster begets inspiration," he murmured to himself, taking some amusement from the sight in front of him.
Finding Van in the mess was surprisingly easy, as if the first direction he picked was the right one. The Captain gave it no thought as he made his way through the crowds. Stopping before the shorter boy, Dilandau didn't bother to try and speak over the tumult, merely indicated which direction with a jerk of the hand and went to follow it himself.
Van rose easily and wasn't more than half a step behind the other boy at any time.
Once into clearer corridors, Dilandau had reached back again and pulled the other along side of him. "Not behind me," he said, the first trace of lighter humor since his return evident. "I thought we went over this."
Van shrugged, but the corners of his mouth lifted.
"It seems your quarry has not gotten as cleanly away from you as it appeared," Dilandau said quietly in the empty hallways farther away from the commotion in the front hall. "There might be an opportunity for you yet."
Van tilted his head, looking at the garnet-eyed boy. "For me? No longer interested..?"
The other returned the look. "Of course I am." He smirked. "But I wasn't the one who took out the roof looking for him. Though mind you, it made for a rather enjoyable spectacle."
Van shrugged. "You know where they went?"
"No, but I may soon." Dilandau stopped and pressed a button on a panel. A moment passed before the door hissed open, revealing a lift to higher levels. He stepped inside and waited for the doors closed behind them before saying simply, "I received a message from Jajuka."
Van's eyes widened slightly. Then he smiled.
The lift lurched and then hummed into motion. Dilandau glanced at the other boy, red eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "If you are still uncomfortable with such a meeting, I can show you where the quarters are," he offered, gauging the expression of his companion.
"Uncomfortable with what meeting?"
The albino snorted. "Don't start that again. You spent most of the last one a statue before practically bolting."
"I didn't want to be there if you said you were staying."
Dilandau looked about to say something but the expression disappeared as the lift jarred to a halt and doors opened again. With a vaguely troubled expression he lead the rest of the way to the observatory's base, giving a cursory glance at one of the guards. "He still there?" Dilandau asked, not feeling the compulsion to clarify who 'he' was.
The guard shook his head. He pointed to towards the room where they had met before, whose entrance was on the same level, slightly further down the hallway.
Dilandau nodded once sharply before turning to follow the directions given from the silent veteran. Further down the hallway and out of easy earshot, he slid another glance at Van. "I'd been meaning to ask you," he said, one eyebrow raised delicately. "How on Gaea you managed to get that sword from him."
"I asked for it."
"Must have been one hell of a tone of voice," he replied.
Van shrugged one shoulder, not sure how to reply, but finding that the words coming from the cool boy gave him an odd pleasure.
The guard posted at the door to Adelphos' office were not so amiable about the unscheduled interruption.
Dilandau growled at the impassive stances of the two, giving his protest simply as, "I think he would find this report important."
From the room beyond the large, heavy doors, there was a rumble of sound like a small earth tremor. No words were distinguishable in the bass tones, but they all but shook the portal on its hinges.
A moment later the doors rocked open and three men, all dressed in the uniforms of officers, came out, their faces pale as death, their steps stiff to the point of almost stumbling. Looking nether to the right nor left, they turned and made a way down the hall to exit in the direction of the deeper recesses of the fortress.
The expression on the Captain's face was only a few degrees short of gleeful. A quick moment was spent in composure before he took the opportunity presented by the open doors and distracted guardsmen to slip into the now vacated chambers.
"Now that was refreshing," Dilandau said as he entered. "I'd begun to wonder where all that rage had gone."
Adelphos looked up with narrowed eyes that seemed as if they could cut through armor plate.
"What do you want?" he growled, and it was a bit surprising that it was all he said. But it was patent that whatever extra favor Dilandau had earned in his eyes it was being tested at the moment.
"Nothing. Just passing along information. By appearances, you have the reports already, I've just came to add that at least one is being followed."
The General speared the Captain with a look that could have pinned Escaflowne to the side of a mountain. He did not waste time repeating anything, or asking for confirmation. After scouring Dilandau with his eyes, he snapped, "Leave cancelled. Get on it."
The Captain nodded and turned, seeing no reason to linger. The confusion and ill humor seemed to have drained out of the pale boy in the face of the much more familiar surroundings and happenings, as he rejoined Van in the hallways.
"Let's go," he said to Van, walking with a lighter step back the way they came.
Van fell into step, privately wondering if the strange tangled quest was ever going to achieve a conclusion.
THE END OF PART 31!