Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Of Courtesans and Corsairs ❯ Chapter 5

Queen Relena's royal litter came to a halt before the port just as the Pirate Prince set foot on the planks and departed from the rowboat sent from his ship. "Your Highness," the braided corsair said with an elegant-yet-fake bow. "I trust I find you well?"

The Queen parted the curtains of her litter and nearly fell out in her surprise. "Who are you?!" she demanded, her golden slippers landing delicately on the slimy, fish-reeking cobblestones. "I demand an answer! Where is the Pirate King?!"

"With all due respect, Your Majesty, you're looking at him." Duo swallowed back his revulsion for the prissy female before him and flashed a devil-may-care grin. "The late Pirate King Dekim unfortunately cannot fulfill the task you asked of him, but I have come to assure you that the mission given shall be completed, and that the reward is to be paid to me and my crew. I also have come to hammer out the last of the details, if you will."

"Is that so?" Relena asked, then began to slide on the cobblestones as she stepped toward the dock. Her entire demeanor changed to one of gracious hospitality, but Duo had already known enough to make a mental note to avoid business with her in future. He had only come because this task paid damned well, and his crew liked cushy kidnapping tasks that paid damned well. "Won't you and your men join me at the palace for the midday meal? I feel it is best to discuss such matters when one is well fed and watered."

Duo smiled and bowed again. "It would be an honor, Your Majesty," he said, then turned to his men as the litter was reloaded and left. "Call the boys from the ship and tell them I'll be with this Queen. Take all that you can carry without looking like complete idiots."

"Aye, Sir!"

Duo grinned and watched the rowboat return to the Ave Maria, then led his men to the palace the moment they all were ashore. He had no doubt that his men would loot and pillage the entire Sanq palace from under the nobles' powdered noses, and they knew how to smuggle only what they could carry and conceal in their clothes. His mind went to a time in his youth when he found one man had stowed and entire crystal chandelier in his shirt, and how no one was the wiser of it. Dekim had called the man a fool, but his greed won him over all the same.

The meal awaiting them at the palace was a fanfare of culinary delights, but the pirates had easily turned it into a food fight within minutes of filling their gullets with it. Duo roared at them to clean up their acts when the Queen passed, but encouraged them to commence after he left for his audience with the Queen.

Queen Relena led him to a parlor filled with various hues of pink and gossamer, a sight Duo prayed he would never see again. If not for his determination to get the mission's specifics, he would have gone into an epileptic fit at the amount of sparkles and pinks surrounding him, all but suffocating him. <Please let's get this over with quickly,> he begged to every god he could think of.

"Please won't you have a seat?" Relena said, indicating a small chair in front of a table of sweets and a tea service. Duo sank down with little to no grace of any sort and helped himself to a chocolate-dipped biscuit, allowing the flavor to be absorbed by every inch of his tongue while Relena talked and tea was poured. "I trust Dekim left no information of this task, Sir?"

Duo nodded and popped the rest of the biscuit in his mouth. It tasted all right, but Duo had definitely tasted better. "My late father said only that the objective was to be found in LaGrange, and that I am to capture and kill them. He also left out a map and a letter in your *unique* handwriting" <pure chicken scratch!> "explaining when and how to go about this capture. You'll have to excuse me, but I have no clue as to who I'm capturing."

"His name is Heero, and he is never too far from my betrothed, the High King of LaGrange. That whore has been the bane of my existence ever since I received news of his arrival in LaGrange! He has poisoned my new husband's mind and I will no longer sit idly by and watch!" Relena stamped her foot beneath the table, making the plates bounce.

"How will I know it is he I am to capture?" Duo inquired.

Relena calmed herself and looked to Duo. "He will be garbed in a simple white robe, but he will have a yellow sash about his waist. Also, he will be in attendance at the feast, holding the Crowned Prince in his lap and sitting to the right of the King. I will be to the left, and I will have slipped a drought in his wine to render him immobile. You will have no struggle with him, I assure you."

"And his manner of death?"

"Anything you choose, provided you take him well out of the country before hand. It would show up poorly on us both if Heero's body were to be recovered on LaGrange land or Sanq soil."

"Consider it done, madam." And with that, Duo stood up and made for his departure. Suddenly struck with inspiration, the Pirate King turned back and bowed. "With all due respect, Majesty, I fear the expenses to launch such an operation will be frightfully costly, more than a pirate like myself can-"

Relena sighed. "Half now, half later?"

Duo nodded. "I take it you spoke directly to my father for this transaction?"

"How could I forget him? Shrewd as the day was long, I swear…I mean, he was a true businessman." Relena gestured for Duo to leave, cradling her forehead in her other hand. "Speak to my Chamberlain Pargan, Sir. He shall settle every expense you should think to have settled. Good day to you."

"And a fine day to you as well, Milady," Duo bowed gracefully and stepped out, murmuring as the door shut behind him, "you're gonna need it, Milady."