Cloak and Dagger

Chapter 8

Relena sat quietly at the supper table, her hands clasped tightly on her lap. She barely touched her food, the fruity scent of decaying blood still heavy in her nasal cavities. She thought that she had spent enough time out in the clean air to wash away the scent of torture and the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, but seeing her brother laughing and presiding over the supper table brought it back in a wash of nausea so extreme she had clasp a hand over her mouth and pant in order to keep from vomiting. Milliardo had looked at her, toasting her with his wineglass, and drained the rich red liquid in a single gulp.

It was no wonder the food in front of her was as unappealing as moat sludge. She was seated between two of the king's advisors, and Relena was aware of the tight ranks between two of the men she had tried to implicate for treason. She was unsure whether her brother had done so on purpose, or if these men even knew, but she felt closed in, trapped with no escape, and she couldn't help but wonder if it was deliberate. It was easy to be suspicious of Milliardo, but far more difficult to give him the benefit of the doubt, or at least mere coincidence.

Out of the corner of her eye, Relena watched Heero as he silently ate a forkful of beef.

"Sister," the king called out from his position at the head of the table. Relena jerked, turning her head towards him with what felt like alarmed guilt. She hoped it looked more like she was startled.

"Yes Milliardo?" she asked sweetly, her nails digging into her palms as she tried for a look of innocence.

"Are you feeling well?" he asked, gesturing towards her plate. "You've barely touched your food."

In another time, he would have been asking out of concern for her health, and a small part of her wanted to believe that he honestly was. The rational side of Relena could see the game he was playing with her. "I'm feeling a little ill," she conceded, seeing that there was no way that she could claim to be fine when he had just openly drawn attention to the fact she wasn't.

"Well!" Milliardo pronounced. "I have an announcement that will cheer you up. We're hanging the traitors tomorrow!"

Relena definitely felt worse.

"So soon? What information could you get in a day?"

"Who said that," Milliardo demanded, his attention snapping away from her and towards the rest of the room. "Are you questioning your king?"

Everyone grew silent, staring steadily at their plates. Relena could see that the court was divided on whether they agreed, but none of them wanted to challenge Milliardo's opinion, especially when the subject already was on traitors. She could feel her stomach clench tightly in horror, but she didn't speak up and she didn't question. It was a full minute after Milliardo's attention was distracted by something one of the ladies by his side whispered to him that Relena allowed herself to look at Heero for his reaction. She could remember him and Duo being close, and she knew he must feel at least a fraction of the regret she did.

It surprised her greatly to find he was no longer at the table, though she couldn't recall seeing him move away from his seat. She had been watching him from the corner of her eye all evening, but she hadn't notice him leave. In fact, the last time she had seen him had been just before Milliardo had approached her with his little piece of news. It didn't really surprise her that Heero had used the distraction to sneak away. She would use one herself if she thought it would work. Instead, she remained seated, picking at a piece of bread with her fingers until it was decimated into a pile of tell-tale crumbs in her lap.

Half an hour later, once Milliardo had dismissed himself for other pursuits and the sauce covering the food on her plate had gelatinated into a mass gob of fat, Relena was finally able to slip away from the table unnoticed.

As one of the servants pushed her chair through the corridors, Relena was grateful that she hadn't insisted Hilde stay by her side through mealtimes. She couldn't imagine the scene the other woman would have made upon finding out her husband was sentenced to be executed on the morrow. Relena hoped that she could control the circumstances and gently break the news to Hilde herself instead of one of the other hired help passing on the sensational gossip.

"Thank you," she told the man pushing her chair as he approached the door to her bedroom. "I can take it from here." This servant knew better than to question her orders, for as soon as the words exited her mouth, she was left in the middle of the hallway a few feet from her door. She made a mental note to time it better next time, and rolled the chair up the last few feet. Opening her bedroom door was slightly more difficult, but she managed it with what was hopefully a subtle nudge from her foot.

"Is it true," Hilde demanded, approaching quickly from where she had been standing in front of the fireplace. For a moment Relena felt the irrational urge to reprimand her for showing her grief. For the second time that day, Hilde collapsed at Relena's feet, grabbing her slim hand urgently as she spoke. "He'll be hanged tomorrow?"

"Yes," Relena said quietly. "It's true."

"And you didn't do anything," Hilde accused, face turning from grief to fierce rage.

"That's true too," Relena said, pulling her hand away quickly. "I'm in no position to question his authority in such a matter. It serves me – and your husband – better if I'm complacent." Relena had to move her head back quickly to avoid Hilde's swing. She grabbed the brunette's arm, standing up and using the forward motion to trip Hilde to the ground. "Do not forget who you are speaking to," Relena hissed next to Hilde's ear, pushing her arm and stepping away from the scene. Relena grabbed a book off her shelf, arranging herself on the chaise in her sitting room and adopting an air of indifference. "You may go home for the rest of the evening if you wish," Relena said dismissively. "But I plan to go out later if you wish to stay.

.xXx.

It was the dead of the night before Relena moved out of bed, carefully listening to the noises around her. An hour after midnight the castle quieted down considerably as the night staff finished their rounds, and the day staff all stumbled back to barracks from a night at the tavern. When the only noise she could hear was the scurry of rats in the walls, she finally crawled under her bed and into the tunnels. Instead of turning towards the outer perimeter of the castle, she turned inwards towards the bowels, where things were forgotten and death permeated the air.

She knew of tunnels scratched out by hand, leading to cells within the jail, and as she bypassed these, she could smell the scent of rotting flesh and human waste even through stone. Relena ignored these passageways because some were even too narrow for her to fit through, and a healthy man would get hopelessly stuck. She also didn't use them because she didn't want the secret to be given away. Her heavy cloak protected her skin from the shocking drip of liquids, and the clammy slime of the walls and floor, but still she was chilled.

When Relena emerged from under the floor, she was a few feet away from the guard post in front of the cells. As she had arranged, the guards were sleeping off the cocktail of drugs she had put in their mead, but she was still incredibly careful as she slipped forward out from beneath the staircase leading downwards into the jail from the cellar of the castle. There wasn't even a whisper of sound besides the slight snore of one of the guards, and she moved forward rapidly, eager to complete her rescue mission and disappear into the walls. She was confident as she reached for the keys conveniently hanging on a hook outside the door.

So it came as a shock to her when someone hit her from behind, propelling her forward into the cold stone wall with a painful thump. She was sure her nose was broken from the sharp pain which exploded along her nasal bone. She remained silent as she was checked for weapons, thankful her hood hadn't shifted from her face, but she was sure it didn't matter. She wasn't aware of many people who could move that silently and quickly, and unless he had gotten rusty, her brother was one of them. She closed her eyes in shame, realizing that this whole thing had to be a trap as a hand gripped her shoulder, flipping her over in one sharp movement so her back was against the wall.

Relena had time to open her mouth in shock as she recognized Heero standing before her. "Fool," he hissed, lips crashing down on hers with a shocking intensity which hadn't been present in their last kiss. He bruised her mouth, and Relena was powerless against him. Her fingers grasped at his shoulder as he eased back, giving her lips one last, shockingly gentle taste. "Half the armed guard is waiting for you in there," he warned in a hushed voice, disappearing back into the shadows.

In the moment it took her to catch her wits, he managed to allude her, vanishing without detection just like he arrived. Torn, she glanced between the door to the jail and freedom, wondering if it was possible that Heero was lying. Anything was possible, she decided, especially after a kiss like that, but she was sure that this time he wasn't trying to mislead her. She followed quickly behind him in disappearing from the small corridor, aware that he was watching as she slid back into the hole beneath the stairs like a small rodent. It wasn't until she was blanketed in darkness, skulking away from her failed mission, did she realize that her hood was still firmly balanced over her face.

Unless Heero made it a habit of kissing cloaked vigilantes, he had already known who she was.

When, she wondered, had he figured it out? It was something she didn't have the luxury to dwell on, though that kiss wouldn't get off her mind. Half an hour later she crawled under her bed, utterly exhausted and spent from two long nights, and stayed sprawled on the floor for a moment, listening to her own harsh breath. She didn't know how she was going to come up with a new, workable plan in the hours of night she had left before the execution at dawn. Relena sniffed, barely keeping tears from flowing from her eyes. She didn't have time, and she didn't have the resources backing her anymore, but life would be a million times worse if her supporters were all killed off, and the ones left went into hiding out of fear.

Relena fell asleep where she was lying, her hand curled around the cuff of her dark, dirty outfit. When she awoke a few hours later it was still dark beneath the bed, and she was disoriented by the fact she felt refreshed when the world was still in night. It took her a moment to realize that the strange block of light in her vision was really coming from the open window and that she had slept in.

Relena gasped, banging her head sharply against the underside of the bed. "Did you hear that?" Someone asked.

"Yes," Hilde answered, "this room sometimes gets the noise from the kitchen during meal times. That's why you didn't set your mistress up in here."

Milliardo snorted. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood today. When my sister wakes up, tell her I want her by my side during the festivities." The tread of Milliardo's feet was heavy next to her head, and Relena realized that his approach must have been what woke her. "Come, Barton."

"I believe there is a small mouse under the bed," Trowa said quietly to Hilde, before he too moved from the room. It was discerning to hear him leave, Relena realized as she watched the two pair of feet leave the room from her vantage point. Milliardo walked with nothing to hide, but Trowa was soundless.

Hilde dropped to her knees, peering under the bed. Relena smiled sheepishly, and Hilde yipped and scrambled backwards.

Relena rolled out from under the bed, stumbling to her feet with some help from nearby furniture. She caught a glance of her reflection in the mirror, and winced at the heavy layer of grime over her face, an especially suspicious smear over her cheek.

"You smell disgusting," Hilde criticized, disapproval written over her features. "I was under the impression you were going to get Duo and the others out before the execution."

"It was a trap," Relena informed her, dabbing a clean cloth into the water and scrubbing at her face. "Do you think you could order a bath for me?"

"Do you think you could pretend to care?" Hilde retorted. "Everyone is under the impression that you're some kind of selfless goddess, and here you're worried about your looks when my husband is abou –."

Relena threw down her wet wash cloth. "Are you implying that I'm being selfish? You heard what my brother said. Do you think you could take a moment away from your own self absorption to realize that if I show up at the hangings covered in dirt that Milliardo will find out I can get out of this chair and order me a bath?" Relena finished, picking the soiled cloth up and tossing it out the window. It was less for effect than it was covering her tracks. She didn't want anyone to be able to trace dirty rags back to her room. She also knew she wouldn't be able to risk her bathwater turning murky when she sat in it.

Hilde huffed away, not realizing how lucky she was that Relena was a selfless person who understood grief. Relena scrubbed herself clean, removing her thief outfit and changing into a white nightgown before Hilde could return. The scent of moat water and decay still clung to her skin, and Relena knew that the bath was necessary if a waste of her time.

She allowed the servants who brought in the tub to transfer her from the bed into the water. The entire time she impatiently kept still, wishing she could pace off the nervous energy. Once she was alone in her room, the warmth of the tub dispelling the cold stiffness of her muscles from the chilly tunnels and her subsequent nap beneath the bed, Relena was finally able to think. She had planned to get the prisoners out of jail long before the actual hanging, but now that it was no longer possible, she wondered what was left.

She could, she supposed, send Hilde in as a decoy in her place and hope Miliardo didn't notice that the female by his side was not his sister. Then, she could dress up in her Justitia costume and use her bow and arrow to shoot down the ropes. If the only problem with that plan was the fact that she probably couldn't disable all the ropes in one shot, then she would have been lucky. As it was, there was a possibility that Milliardo would want them hanged one by one and then she would have to combat the guards. Or she could miss the ropes altogether and have an even greater dilemma.

Relena sighed, drawing her knees up to her chest. Her nightshift constricting around her legs reminded her that she wasn't supposed to be moving them, but there was no one around to notice, and she wasn't sure if she cared anymore. She felt vulnerable, like she had failed at everything already, though in truth she still had time. She kept her head on her knees until the wet material turned cool against her forehead. She didn't look up as the door to her bedroom opened with barely a creak and then closed again without any other noise.

"It was a trap," she murmured against the damp clothing. "I didn't even get in."

"How did you find out?" Trowa asked, taking a seat in her wheelchair. He took a moment to allow it to roll backwards, then scooted forward into the same position it had been in, his eyes on the wheels with interest.

Relena looked sharply up at him. "You didn't send him to warn me?"

Trowa stopped mentally calculating the construction of the chair and met her gaze. "Who?"

"Heero," Relena told him. "He was lying in wait for me when I reached the cellar corridor, and he practically tackled me before I could enter the jail. He told me that almost the entire guard was in there waiting for someone to try something."

Trowa paused in thought. "I didn't hear about that. I'll look into it."

Relena's head snapped back in surprise. "Are you saying that there might not have been a trap at all?"

Trowa remained silent.

"Why would he stop me, then?"

"There may have been a trap, just not the one he warned you about," Trowa said finally. He stood, the chair rolling away behind him. He turned to look at it, not familiar with things moving when he didn't want them to.

"What am I going to do," Relena moaned, allowing her head to fall back onto her knee.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" Relena asked, turning sharply to look at him. "We can't just let all those people die. They're yours just as much as they are mine." He had recruited her to her own army, after all, back when she was still struggling to walk after her 'accident'. Trowa had been the one who gave her a reason to get stronger.

"Nothing," Trowa reaffirmed, silently slipping out her door. Relena's bathwater was now cold and she was back to smelling like her normal self, but the stench of death was still hanging on the air.

©RelenaFanel.May2.2008