Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ Beyond the Moon ❯ Feeding the Clues ( Chapter 11 )

Yuy, this took a long time! Sorry for the wait! I got started on an Inu Yasha project, and with building up schoolwork and finals coming.. I just didn't get started until my favorite song by Enigma got me going again. ^_^ Enjoy!

Beyond the Moon

Eleven

Van's first feeling upon entering consciousness was pain. Excruciating pain, which ran like a spider web all through his body, lighting his nerves on fire, and setting his brain on "scream." His vocal chords strummed and vibrated with his blood-curdling shriek, ricocheting off the very walls that surrounded him.

And suddenly, as if it had never existed in the first place, the pain went away. Van's arm throbbed of course, but the immense pain which had overcome his entire being only moments before slipped away like a forgotten nightmare that woke you up in a cold sweat. He sat up, his wide eyes slowly coming into focus.

At first, all Van could see was white. The walls around him were distant and gray, and the lights above him seemed to glow an immense, fluorescent white. His eyes slowly adjusted to the room, which turned out to be an especially luxurious suite of King Fassa's castle. That's where he assumed he was, anyway, if the Asturian coat of arms hanging on the south wall was any indication.

Van lay on a wide, thick-quilted, four-poster bed, with a deep blue canopy shielding the light from a high window on the wall. It seemed to be a little before midday, for Van had an incredibly good sense of direction.

He sat up, rubbing his sore neck and back, which were rock hard with tenseness. He slowly remembered the events of the previous night; previous night? Who knows how long he had been asleep. It could have been days ago that he woke up to find Hitomi missing and himself at the mercy of Dilandau's blade. Of course, it was a role which was quickly reversed when the king, an expert swordsman despite his injuries, led the ex-general in a mad search for his Hitomi.

Hitomi... Where was she now? If he was in Asturia... How had he gotten there? Questions ran through Van's mind, his mush brain having no luck in sorting through all of his thoughts. He collapsed tiredly on the bed, staring up at the canopy. His mind was a jumble, and all he could do was wait. His limbs were tired and his muscles rebellious; he had no options.

As if on cue, the door opened. Van sat up swiftly, a wave of nausea overcoming him and forcing him back down to the soft pillows. A servant woman entered, her head bowed so her bangs obscured her eyes. She held a tray in her hands and walked up to him, placing her wooden charge on his lap.

Van licked his lips, but looked helplessly at the servant woman. As if knowing his plight, she took the pillows out from under his head, propping them up against the headboard. He sat up lightly, the still shy-looking servant woman helping him to gain his balance.

"Thank you," Van said, looking at the appetizing bread rolls and beef and vegetable platter. The servant woman bowed, turning to leave. "Wait," he asked. She turned, still keeping her head bowed. "Where am I? How did I get here?"

She looked up, her deep blue eyes wide and frightened looking. Van almost dropped his tray in surprise as she walked towards him, sinking to her knees.

"Lord Van.. I.. Sir Allen brought you here.." she looked ready to break in tears. Blinking in confusion, the king touched her shoulder with one hand, bringing her sorrowful gaze to his. "There.. there's something wrong here! You cannot stay!"

"Why? What are you talking about?" Van asked as the servant woman's trembling hand pushed him away from her.

"Everyone who has been in Palas in the last few weeks have been.. have been possessed!" she whispered, coming closer. The king stared at her, his eyes slowly widening. "They took away Sir Allen! He is in the dungeon; they healed you, King Fanel, but they will do terrible things to you!" The servant woman uttered her last few words in a husky whisper, until she abruptly turned and fled from the room.

Van, not knowing what to think, ate his food in hopes it would help him clear his thoughts. Allen had brought him here? How did the knight find him? He had expected Dilandau to either have killed him or left him for dead in the forest.

When his head began to ache and wretch, he knew he couldn't think about it until he was rejuvenated. Diving into his food, Van focused on his fork and chopsticks.

***

Allen had woken up inside a dank, dark cell. He knew plenty well where he was, if the cursing guards were any indication: the dungeon. All he knew was that something was very, very wrong, and Van had been taken by the guards. With the king's injuries, Allen didn't want to think about what was happening to Van now.

The knight paced back and forth, every possible scenario running through his brain. So far, the only thing he could do was contemplate and conspire.

Peering through the bars of his cell, Allen noticed a guard leaning against the stone wall, barely visible in the almost nonexistent light in the dungeon. The guard looked asleep, which wasn't unlikely. Allen had known his men to sleep in the strangest positions; Gaddess had once been found snoozing hanging upside down from a chin-up bar. That little incident had finally given the knight reason to allow his men more than two hours of sleep a night.

Pulling his mind out of that familiar train of thought, Allen leaned against the bars of the cell. Van may have been his enemy, but now the knight's only responsibility was rescuing the no-longer-little king. He was surprised how much Van had grown when he saw him the first morning, but he supposed most people changed in eight years. Allen, strangely, felt the same as he did when Hitomi. It was only when she came back that he felt himself beginning to grow again.

"Do we even get food down here?" Allen asked, his strangely loud voice making an uncomfortable ringing sound on the walls. The dungeon, to the knight's knowledge, had not been used in years, especially after the throne was passed onto Dryden and Millerna.

He thought he saw the guard move slightly, but he determined that his mind was playing tricks on him when no response came.

"For you? Probably never. You should be dead already." The voice was deep and hollow, tinged with a bit of desperateness.

"But.. what do you mean? Why am I in a dungeon in Asturia?! I am a Knight of Caeli!" Allen insisted, rattling his bars for extra effect. The guard moved again, slowly coming closer into the light cast by a small candle on the ground. Allen shrank back when he recognized the face. "Jeno, what are you doing down here? I thought we had deployed you as a diplomat to Basram!"

Jerin nodded, his blue eyes reflecting the light. "I know. There is something very wrong with this place... When I came back from my latest trip, the streets were deserted. Captain Munos told me I had been demoted to prison watch!" His scowl deepened as he closed he came closer. Allen almost had to take a step back with the intensity of his ex-henchman's gaze. "I found you here. What happened, Sir Allen?"

Allen shook his head, leaning against the bars. "It's a very, very long story, but I can assure you I did nothing against Asturia, anything that would earn me a stay in the dungeon! This place hasn't been used in years!" the knight responded, glaring at the wall. Jerin nodded, looking back at the waning candle.

"Sir Allen, despite my loyalties to the kingdom, I will risk my life for you like I have many a time before," Jerin began. He raised his hand when Allen jumped forward, trying to interrupt. "And so, I will release you. But you must promise me not to mention my name, leave hastily, and return when you find out just what is going on around here." The blue-eyed, black haired man stepped back, a light clinking in the dark, barred door and a sudden creak signaling the knight's release.

Jerin pulled the door open, picking up a sheathed sword from the ground beside him. He reached inside the cell where Allen still stood, handing it to him. "You'll probably need this," the ex-soldier said. Allen nodded, hooking it around his waist and walking out of the cell.

"Good graces to you, Jerin. I thank you," Allen replied, patting his friend on the shoulder before turning on his heel and disappearing soundlessly up the illuminated stairway. Jerin sighed, closing the door and locking it. He had finally repaid his debt to the knight who had taken him in as a boy rogue and turned him into something. Jerin only hoped that his wife and daughter had not been victim to whatever had possessed Palas. With that thought, he went back to his post.

***

Celena had drifted off some time ago, and Dilandau had only managed to keep her on the horse by tucking her shoulder into a crook in his shoulder, his free arm tightly around her. It was a most comfortable position for him; her hair was soft and smelled lightly of some wildflower, and her small, warm hands curled around his large, cold ones sent chills up his spine.

It surprised him how curious he felt about her. They had not only shared each other's bodies, but minds and sometimes sight, smell, and touch. If they were close enough, Dilandau could often see through her eyes, feel what she felt, and taste what she tasted. It was an invigorating experience to be able to live through someone else, albeit occasionally boring or frustrating.

But with this ability, Dilandau had seen Celena change from a little girl to a woman, and he knew everything about her almost as well as she did. He would have thought it embarrassing if she didn't have the same intimate knowledge of himself. Just the thought that she was spying on him in some of his most... odd moments made an uncharacteristic blush rise to his face.

The sun now rose high in the sky as the pair's tired sorrel horse trudged through yet another marshy field. They had quickly passed where Van had collapsed, and now continued on in a straight line towards the mountains. Dilandau had discovered that whatever Van had been following moved in a perfect diagonal through the forest, and continuing in that direction had brought him to a new set of footprints. They had been following them for some time, and Dilandau was only slightly surprised in his weariness when they came upon a little cave.

"Celena..." he prodded, watching as her long, brown lashes fluttered open.

"Hmm?" she responded tiredly, rubbing her eyes. Dilandau put the reins in her hand and, sitting back to let her support herself, climbed off the horse. "Where ya goin'?" Celena asked, yawning.

"To investigate," he replied vaguely, peering into the relatively low cave. He walked in, examining two pairs of holes in the rock, one of which had cut ropes lying off to one side.

Dilandau moved a bit farther in, noticing little puddles of water near the wall. Hidden behind a rock was a little wooden bowl; picking it up to inspect it further, he noticed a familiar pattern in the way the bowl was etched.

Throwing the bowl to the ground, Dilandau spun on his heel and walked back out into the field, where Celena sat, watching him expectantly. Scowling, the albino jumped up behind her, surprising the exhausted horse. It jumped a bit, then dropped its head back down when it realized nothing interesting was happening.

"What did you find?" Celena inquired, giving him the reins once more as he clutched one arm around her waist.

Dilandau snorted, pulling the horse around roughly. "I have reason to believe the Hudo clan - the doppelgangers - took Hitomi for reasons unknown, and must have held her captive in this cave for some time." Glancing at the ground, Dilandau spurred the horse into a light gallop. "Their footprints are heading northeast; towards their main fortress." Celena merely nodded silently, leaning into his shoulder.

"Do you think Brother is looking for me? What about Van?" she asked, closing her eyes and exhaling deeply. Dilandau remained silent for a moment.

"If I know Schezar, he's probably turning the house upside-down looking for you, if he isn't still in Palas with Van. He may not even know you're gone yet," the albino told Celena, letting his chin rest on the top of her head. She nodded, sighing, letting herself rock against his chest with the fluid motions of their mount. The horse had long ago broken out in a sweat, and now tripped occasionally in the slightly mucky field they now passed through, following parallel to the mountains.

***

Hitomi's head lolled back and forth with the gait of the creature she now rode. Her hands barely held on to Nago's waist, and her mind seemed to have turned off from the utter boredom. Having no desire to speak and merely ignoring anything said to her, Hitomi didn't notice when Nago stopped trying to start a conversation altogether.

Only when a huge, shimmering waterfall came into her vision did Hitomi wake up her brain. She let out a gasp as she felt herself misted by a sheen of shimmering, tingling water. It sent chills up her spine, causing goosebumps to spread all down her arms. Her dress no longer cling to her, but was now getting drenched all over again.

"Where are we?" Hitomi cried over the roar of the falls. Still having no idea where she was, Hitomi raised her eyes too look around.

An immense cliff rose above them, tapering off into a flat plateau, which then dropped off below to a vast field of rippling green grass. The ocean could be seen off in the distance, curling around and disappearing behind the mountain that dwarfed them. Using a quick geographical calculation, she estimated that they were on the peninsula that could be seen from the shore in Palas. Falls surrounded them, cascading into immense pools of water that they now skirted.

Nago looked back, taking amusement in Hitomi's expression of wonder. "This is Hudogar, home of the Hudo clan's king," she shouted back, her voice practically drowned out by the immense thunder of the waterfall. Hitomi blinked, drawing her eyes away from the beautiful white cascades of the waterfall and to the plateau that rested only a hill away.

Sitting on the edge, obviously etched into the slope, was a large, majestic stone castle. It had moss growing all over the sides, allowing it to blend in fairly well with its wood and grass surroundings. The structure had no high terraces or defensive moats; it was obvious its protection strategy relied merely on remoteness. Rising up from the back of the garden spread out behind the castle and shrouded in tall, evergreen trees was a rocky cliff, joining the river fueling the waterfalls at the top.

Hitomi raised her eyes to the sky as they found a small dirt trail, climbing steadily up the slope towards the castle. The sky was blue and dotted with only a few stray clouds, and the pre-noon sun shone brightly. Hitomi guessed that it was late-summer or so, even though the temperature was relatively fair and mild.

She was so absorbed in the scenery, that she hardly noticed when they began to cross the huge field of tall grass leading towards the forest on the other side, which cozily surrounded the back of the castle. It didn't take long for them to reach the immense structure, and its sudden presence allowed Hitomi to inspect it.

It wielded no brightly colored banners or military terraces or towers. A simple albeit unnecessary drawbridge had been dropped in front of them, allowing the two scared benzas into the huge, stone arch of the castle. Hitomi remained silent, although she did become irritated at the irregular jumping of their flighty mount.

The inside of the castle dwarfed the relatively unimpressive exterior. The main room rose high above them, and huge candle-lit chandeliers hung from the painted ceilings. It reminded Hitomi of pictures she saw of ancient buildings in the more eastern world, complete with cherib-like figures depicted on the elegant images.

Looking around the room, Hitomi was surprised whoever ruled the castle would allow travel animals into the main hall; but seeing other larger benzas tied up to the walls with buckets of water and dried grasses confused her even more. An immense padded carpet crossed the room from the now closing drawbridge entrance and to the other side, where two stairways rose from the center out to separate wings on either side.

Hitomi's attention was drawn to the twin stairways as a tall, regally-clothed creature walked down the right flight of stairs.

"Emperor Azigom," Denongo said, quickly dismounting his benza and allowing two hunched over doppelgangers to take it away. "I have brought you the one you asked for, the woman from the Mystic Moon."

The emperor strode towards them, watching intently as Hitomi and Nago dismounted, their beast also being taken away by two cloaked servants.

"Ah, Hitomi!" the shrouded emperor said, his voice suddenly alighting in a familiar tone. Hitomi stared as he lifted the red hood, revealing bright blue eyes and chopped, blonde hair.

"Prince Chid?"