And The Sky Is Limitless Part Five
May. 30th, 2011 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
laliandraUm, yeah, about the wait and the cliffhanger. I have nothing but my most abject apologies. I have had the dreaded job hunting and my beta had the dreaded Finals but it's pretty much my own fault. This chapter, I swear to god, has been the hardest part to write by such a long way. But now it is done. As ever, thank you to my wonderful beta ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
brimtoast for loving this chapter even when I didn't, and to novembersmith for letting me spam her with sentences on gchat when I was panicking and swiiftly for her superstar beta work.
For summary, rating, notes etc please see the Master Post
Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four
&&&&&
The Conway’s berth at the Port has always been their safe haven, the home they return to after battles and cross-continental message runs leave them ragged. But now there is a party of soldiers crowded round his gangway. Kris thinks he can just make them out in the distance, a dark shadow that grows larger the closer they get.
“We’ve got out of worse scrapes than this,” Katy says, coming to stand beside him.
Kris pulls his gaze away from the rapidly approaching - well, it’s hard to think of it as anything but an ambush, despite the warning. “You’re not really supposed to be up.”
“I think this is the kind of situation I should be around for,” Katy says, leaning back on the railing.
Standing tall with the wind whipping her hair back against a backdrop of blue, she looks like a figurehead of some mythical creature. “Seeing as it’s my ship they’re planning on seizing.”
“We won’t let them have it,” Kris says. They’re skimming across the bay now, clouds far above and the sea just feet below. Kris leans on the gate that will open to the gangway and feels like the keeper of an untouched paradise.
“Of course not,” Katy says, like she never considered any other option, which, knowing her, she probably didn’t. “I can stall them for a while with legal talk.” She cuts Kris off before he can protest. “You think anyone else on this ship has actually read the Fleet regs? I gave Matt a copy and he used it to to hold his door open.”
Kris has to smile, and give in. “You’re right. Of course. But... God... Do you think we can actually get out of this? Maybe there’s a loop hole?” He can feel the desperation clawing to get into his voice.
Katy says, “If you’re wanting to clutch at straws, here’s a likely looking one.” She bumps Kris’s shoulder with hers. He turns around.
“Kris, can I - can we talk?” Adam asks. He looks drawn taut by worry, a line tied too tight.
They’re within shooting distance of their dock, a measurement that’s sunk itself into Kris’s mind and become his default. He looks over at Katy. “Go,” she says, shooing them with her hands. “I’ll be fine, really, they’re hardly going to rough up an injured woman. And I’m not going to strain anything just by talking. Go.”
Adam pulls Kris down the stairs and into the first room below deck, which is the navigator’s space, mostly taken up by a large table covered in maps and illegible notes.
“Is everything alright? Is Allie...” Kris asks because he’d sent Adam to replace Katy on Allie watch which had served the double purpose of getting Kat up to date without alarming anyone and letting him have some time alone to try and solve this.
Adam’s expression is heartbreakingly fond. “She’s fine. She’s great. I’m supposed to be getting her something to eat, actually. I just, I didn’t want to say this in front of her, I’ve already had to tell her about the Court Marshall and. Fuck. She clearly hasn’t been eating or sleeping properly and...”
“She’s your baby sister,” Kris finishes. Allie may hold herself like the world is there for her amusement, but she’s so young, and she’s been held against her will for weeks. He knows exactly how Adam feels, stupid with the need to protect her.
Adam nods. “I don’t want to involve her any more than necessary, but I had this thought and...” He stops, takes a deep breath like he’s lining up a shot.
“So, I have this fantasy,” Kris says forlornly, “that you are going to say ‘Kris, don’t worry, I have come up with a plan that will get us out of this mess.’”
“Kris, don’t worry, I have come up with a plan that will get us out of this mess,” Adam repeats, eyes far too serious.
“Very funny,” Kris says, and scowls. “Don’t mock my fantasy, I’m fond of it.”
Adam reaches out and puts a hand on Kris’s shoulder. “Kris, don’t worry, I really do have a plan and it really will get us out of this mess.”
Adam’s hand is warm and his smile is sincere and Kris thinks what did I do to deserve you. “Explain,” he says, trying to hold his voice steady, iron out the helpless warmth, and ending up only a few degrees off commanding.
Adam slides his hand down to Kris’s back and guides him to the table, sitting down next to him. He takes a map out of his jacket pocket, one of Kris’s by the look of it. Smoothing it out in front of them, he says, “We’re going to be Court Marshalled, right? We don’t have time to prepare our defence, and we don’t have any way not to go. And we can’t show up without any proof that what we were doing was necessary, and we can’t not show up, because both of those end with unfortunate words like ‘Mutiny’ being bandied about, and no one wants that.”
“I know, Adam. Believe me, I know,” Kris says, a little more hard edged than he was expecting.
“But we do have proof. We have those prisoners."
Kris feels hope leap up into his throat. Then he remembers why he dismissed that option. "But we don't have time to go fetch them, or get a message from them or anything. We, the guilty party, have to show up at the Court Marshall tomorrow. There are soldiers here who are determined to escort us, and..." This is his limit, right here.
"I know, I know you wouldn't fire on them, even if you thought it meant we could get away."
It's a line in the sand at best, but Adam has him right - Kris couldn't cross it and still live with himself. He stares at the map, at the impossible distance to the Chantier Naval, the sinuous curve of coast as it opens up to the harbour of the capital, the lines marking out the walls of the Mansion and the Court.
"But if we split up, we could do it," Adam says, voice soft. "If we tell them that I'm to blame..."
Kris looks up and catches Adam watching him intently, as if he has a gun aimed right at Kris and might fire at any sudden movement.
"But you're not," Kris says, and then feels stupid because obviously. But he can't imagine letting Adam just go, after all that they've done, after all this.
"Well, yes, but they don't know that. If I go and claim full responsibility, they won't know what to do. There's no precedent for this kind of thing, and they've no proof against me in particular. There'll be chaos. And that will give you the time to go back, get those damn mercenaries and bring them to the court. Then we'll have a proper case to argue."
Kris studies Adam's face for the signs of a bluff, for the smooth veneer of courtly play, but there's nothing there but conviction burning bright in his eyes.
"But, then, isn’t that just giving them what they want?" he tries. "They’ve always been after you, we’re just collateral. And I can't just leave you to fight this alone. United we stand. Right?"
Adam's smile is strange, sad with hope. "Don't talk me out of your best shot of getting out of this. I'll be fine. This is the only way." He looks down at his hands, fingers tracing routes that go nowhere on the map, meandering spirals that the Conway would get dizzy following.
"Oh, like I could talk you out of anything," Kris says. It is a good plan, but he wants to try and make Adam reconsider anyway. That or bolt the door.
Adam says, quiet and simple, "You could." He doesn't look up, thankfully, because Kris is sure that he can't hide his reaction to that. It must be all over his face, plain as day.
He says, "But, will you be safe? I mean, we'll be much better off, but you’ll be..."
"I'm a Prince. There are rules. Don't worry about me, I just need you to concentrate on getting us our proof. Nothing else, just fly to the Chantier. I need to know that you will do that, keep the ship safe." Adam holds Kris's gaze, eyes dark and deep. "You can do that, right?"
"I can," Kris says, and it feels a lot like a promise made between them in this moment.
"Then I can make the trial go right," Adam assures him. "I've asked you to put your ship into dangerous situations far too many times. This time the Conway should take the easier part. I don’t want to think about the crew - Meg, Anoop, Katy - standing trial for their lives, do you? It’s been bad enough constantly worrying about being fired upon by another Fleet ship."
It's a good point, one of the more compelling of Adam's argument, and the thought of not fearing every speck on the horizon is almost too good. Kris feels slightly lightheaded at the possibility of flying free again.
"I'm not happy about it, but it is the best plan we have," he admits.
Adam says, "Well of course it is, I came up with it. Have I led you wrong before?” This is Adam too, Kris remembers, the Commander and feted military strategist. And he’s right, they have done this before, made the plan and defied the odds. Now he just has to stop the feeling he gets when he thinks about Adam stepping off the Conway and into Le Renard's waiting clutches.
“Kris,” Adam says. “We don’t have time. You need to say yes.” He’s right and so Kris does, says, “Okay, okay,” forcing out a smile.
Kris reaches out and puts his hand on Adam’s shoulder, mirroring his gesture from earlier. Kris’s palm is resting on the spot where the cold metal of the Upgrade meets the warmth of Adam’s body, the soft material of his jacket, which should seem strange but really, really doesn’t. "And to think," Kris says, "I only left you alone for five minutes. And you came up with a whole strategy."
Adam is quite still for a second, staring at Kris, one hand frozen halfway through some gesture, something loose and dismissive that had turned too focused, caught out. Then he stands, shakes his head, saying, “We'll need to move fast. You pack for me and I’ll go intervene with Katy and the soldiers.” Adam practically runs out of the door. Kris can’t do anything else but follow, caught up in his wake.
&&&&&
Kris puts the last of Adam's things into the case and snaps the buckles shut. Adam has some sort of combination lock on it, which Kris leaves undone. Adam has never used the lock while he's been here, case always open with clothes always spilling out of it, parts and books migrating out of it to the table and shelves. Kris tuts and goes to fetch the book that Adam's reading at the moment, one of the new ones on energy transfer which Adam has left over by the window.
The door clicks behind him and when he turns Adam is leaning on it, expression unreadable.
“How did it go?” Kris asks.
Adam exhales and seems to relax with it. He says. “Oh, fine. They bought it, I think. They’re soldiers, chain of command makes perfect sense to them.” Adam walks over, picks a shirt out of his case and starts to refold it. “The important thing is that you’re in the clear.”
Kris breathes out slowly. “And you will be too, in less than a week. Don’t forget that, okay?” He puts the book on top of the shirt which is now folded to meet Adam’s strange packing criteria. It looks pretty much the same as it had before to Kris.
"That's yours, by the way," Adam says, gesturing at the book.
"You can give it back to me when we meet again.” Kris knows that things won't be the same, but he’s fairly sure that will be allowed. Maybe he'll have to stop calling him Adam. He shuts the lid firmly.
"I should go.” Adam says, all in a rush. “I have to say goodbye to Allie before she falls asleep, and to the others."
Kris asks, "I don't warrant a goodbye?" He puts his hand on top of Adam’s case to stop him from picking it up.
Adam hesitates for a second, and seems to come to a decision. "You can’t think that," he says flatly. “You have to know you’re...”
"More," Kris says before he can think about it, stop his brain pushing it away like he's been doing since the day he met Adam, since the first time he got a stupid rush from saying his name. It’s the only word for it all, the way things have always been between them. Adam making him think more, feel more, want more.
Adam steps closer. "Then you do know it’s a stupid question."
It's been an awfully long time since Kris's heart has clenched like this, but this is what Adam does, after all. "I’m a little shocked that you're admitting it, though, when we were both doing such a good job of repression," he says.
Adam bows his head. Then, almost without looking back up, he reaches out and envelops Kris in a crushing hug. "In another life..." he says into Kris's hair.
"One with a better outlook?" Kris says. The stray ideas, the ones on the edge of his consciousness, that he has between one thought and another, between sleep and waking, all end like this. If Adam didn’t have a country and Kris didn’t have a ship, maybe they could see where this could go.
"Clearer skies and a following wind," Adam agrees. He presses a kiss to where Kris's hair meets his brow, and that's as much as they can have, in this life.
Adam stays like that - bottom lip warm on Kris's forehead, breath catching his hair - for a long moment. Kris wants to let him stay there but he can't - it would be damaging if they got used to it.
He steps back from Adam.
"You should go say your other goodbyes," he says.
Adam nods once, and then again firmer. “Meet me in Katy’s room? Allie will be wondering where I’ve got too, I’m supposed to be getting her more tea. You want some?”
Kris says, "I guess I can risk it. I'll bring your case up." That feels right, like closing the loop.
Adam smiles, says, "Quite right too, Captain Allen." And then he leaves.
Kris must have got used to there being more things in his room, Adam’s possessions mixed in with Kris's like they belonged there, because it feels emptier now. He sits on Adam's bunk for a few minutes, just to make sure that he's ready for what's coming.
In Katy’s room Allie greets him with a wave of a cup. She’s looking quite at home, wearing one of Katy’s nightgowns and sitting cross-legged on her bunk,.
“Adam made tea,” she says in mournful tones. She takes a gulp and makes a truly dreadful face.
Kris says, “Adam has many skills, but tea is really not one of them. I think he gets distracted by the water boiler.”
Adam narrows his eyes and Kris takes the cup he’s proffering.
“He is terribly easily distracted by shiny things,” Allie says with a sigh. “He nearly walked through a window once because he was dismantling this watch and wasn’t watching where he was going.”
Kris laughs. He often keeps an eye on Adam when he’s wandering starry eyed and contemplative about the deck, so it’s easy to imagine.
“Are we still playing this game?” Adam says, but he can’t hold the cross expression on his face for long. As soon as Allie smiles at him it dissolves into a helpless tenderness. He sits down on the bed and puts his arm round his sister, and she curls into him, cradling her tea carefully in one hand.
Adam drops a kiss onto her head and says brightly, “Drink your tea, before it gets cold.”
Kris has grasped for the mundane enough times to see what Adam is doing.
Kris says, “Yes, because the only thing worse than bad tea is cold, bad tea.” He drinks some more of his, which is, to be fair to Adam, not as terrible as Allie’s face would suggest.
Allie takes a begrudging sip and snuggles down into Adam's side, yawning. Kris can’t look at them without wanting to fix everything for them somehow, give them the merry life he had always thought they had. The one they deserve.
“I should go check on,” he waves his hand as if this will make him look and sound less vague, “things,” he finishes, brilliantly.
Lugging Adam's case up onto deck seems like a great idea until he reaches the top of the stairs. His crew are in a knot around the top of the stairs, looking defiant and bitter. The focus of their anger is the small cohort of soldiers that are waiting across the deck, unwilling to venture too far into what is obviously unfriendly territory.
The lieutenant gives him a smart salute. "Captain Allen. His Highness has informed us of what happened. I can only apologise for suggesting that either you or your crew could be involved in such actions."
Kris really wants to punch him, even though it's not the man's fault - this is the plan that Kris agreed to. But Kris hates making Adam into the guilty party, having him treated as such. He doesn't want Adam to have to stand alone in front of the Court, with people questioning his judgment. Not again.
He steps very deliberately away from the soldiers, joining his crew in their silent disapproval. When Adam comes up the stairs he looks wrecked, and the crew all gather round him, shielding him.
Kris asks, "Is Allie alright?"
Adam's face goes a shade paler. "She’s asleep." Kris takes a breath and doesn't reach for Adam like he so badly wants to. Adam loves in this all-encompassing way, stupid and fierce, and Kris wants to soothe him somehow, say, I know, I know. Me too.
Adam reaches down to the mess of belts at his waist and unhooks something from a chain.
“Here,” he says, holding it out to Kris on his open hand. “Just so you don’t think I’m making off with it.”
Kris looks at the difference cog from what seems like a lifetime ago. Adam kept it. He feels like he’s been punched in the stomach. Adam drops his gaze, something he’s done many times, and Kris wonders why he didn’t see before. The reason Adam can’t let his eyes meet Kris’s is because they betray him.
“Keep it,” Kris says. He curls Adam’s fingers back over the cog.
It has always been easy, disconcertingly easy, to touch Adam, so much so that Kris barely has to think about it most of the time, but this time might be the last. This time he wants to commit every detail to memory and he presses a little harder, focusing on the rough warmth of Adam’s skin beneath his own.
Then he lets his hand fall.
“A piece of the Conway to carry with me,” Adam says, expression still so blank that it could have been painted on. Then he wrenches his eyes up to meet Kris’s and there is a moment of stillness, like the breath before the cry of ‘charge!’ and Kris braces himself for the onslaught.
One of the soldiers coughs, loud in the quiet. They turn toward him, and the look and the silence and the moment are all broken.
“Good luck.” Kris salutes and manages to add, “Sire,” even though he’s sure his voice is giving himself away with the unsaid things crowding round that one syllable. He hopes Adam is as good as he usually is at hearing what Kris isn’t saying.
Adam says, “Thank you,” and then The Prince salutes Kris, formal and foreign.
“This way, Your Highness,” the lieutenant intones, gesturing at the exit.
Adam ignores him. He nods to Kris and the assembled crew, then sweeps down the gangplank. The company of soldiers trails after him looking confused and rather unsure, somehow reminding Kris of large, heavily armed ducklings.
He really needs to get more sleep.
Katy yells some orders and Kris joins in, getting them back underway. He feels like he is watching himself from outside his body, everything very distant until Katy slides her hand into his, and squeezes tight. “Come on, let’s get inside with the others. Things will seem clearer once you’ve had something to eat.”
Most of the crew are in the galley, talking a little too quietly for Kris’s liking. He should be setting a better example, but it’s hard to feel anything but defeated. Like they pushed themselves to beyond exhaustion and got shot at and nearly lost the ship, all for nothing. Adam is still gone and nothing is certain and Kris really hates to lose.
“Soup, Captain?” Scott gently moves Kris’s hands from the table and places a bowl in front of him, the warmth stealing up to Kris’s face.
Matt and Lil are having a conversation over at the next table that makes them both frown, look over at Kris, and then frown even harder. Katy eats her soup and doesn’t try to hide her concern when she catches Kris’s glances across their table.
Kris doesn’t realise that he has stood up until he registers the sound of his chair scraping against the floor.
“I’m going to go check on Allie,” he tells Katy, and everyone else by proxy. He can feel them listening.
“I’m sure she’s fine, she was fast asleep when I looked in on her,” Katy says.
“I know, but I can’t…” Kris can’t stay, he’s not doing anyone any good sitting here, one looking one step away from a breakdown. He can’t fake it, he’s not good enough, he’s not – oh, the irony – he’s not Adam.
“Good work today,” he says loudly. He leaves and almost runs to his cabin, shutting the door behind him as quietly as he can. He considers locking the door but doesn’t, instead turning round and leaning his back against it.
Allie is curled up on Katy’s bed under a pile of blankets, just a covered small shape and a mass of red hair. Kris very carefully lifts the chair up and places it by the side of the bed, close enough that he can hear her breathe, and keeps watch.
He must fall asleep, because when he next looks up it’s getting dark. Kris gets up and turns the lamp on, the ropes that hold the bed up casting long shadows on the wall.
Allie moves her head, revealing her face for a second before she nuzzles back under the blankets. It’s something that Kris has seen Adam do a hundred times, achingly familiar. It’s odd, now, seeing Adam in Allie; he’s got so used to recognising the Allie-things in Adam that it feels backward this way.
It makes him want to hug her tight, wrap her up and promise her that she’ll never come to any harm again. He settles for leaning over and tucking the blanket round her shoulders.
Allie shifts and mutters. Her eyelids flutter a couple of times, and then open.
“Hello,” Kris says, keeping his voice soft.
“Adam?”
“Afraid not. He had to go sort some things out in Court.”
Allie looks at him dazedly from under half-closed eyes for a second, and then she snaps awake. “What?” she asks, sitting up. “Oh my god, I am going to kill him.”
“He had to, Allie. You were asleep, but he had to go.” Kris feels like he’s talking to himself half an hour ago.
“I was asleep because he drugged me, that bastard. I’m going to kill him,” Allie shrieks, and Kris goes cold.
“Drugged you?” he breaks in, because Allie has started on a vivid description of the bodily harm that she is going to inflict on her brother and seems to be building up a head of steam. He puts a placating hand on her arm.
“He must have slipped something into my tea - dammit, I knew it tasted off - a sleeping pill maybe. So I couldn’t stop him,” she says, as if that makes any kind of sense at all.
“What? Why would he do that? He’s gone to tell them about what happened. We made a plan. We go get the prisoners, and in the mean time he goes to the court marshal.” The sleeping pills Adam got from the Chantier, a colder, rational part of his brain thinks, only they didn’t last as long as he thought they would.
“Court marshal?” Allie’s expression is harsh, worry coiled tightly in every line.
Kris says, soothing as he can, “Because Adam’s not to blame, he’ll be fine. They won’t do anything to him for ordering me to fire. He’ll be fine, Allie. I wouldn’t have let him off the ship, otherwise.” He’s gripping her arm, he realises, and tries to look nonchalant as he lets go.
Allie pushes her hair out of her face and she looks young and far too worn down.
“That is why he would do that to me,” she grinds out, and sighs, long, like she can’t believe the stupidity of the world. “That is exactly why. Because you wouldn’t have let him off the ship if you’d known, and I would have told you. Hell, I wouldn’t have let him off the ship. He’s gone to fall on his sword. Or shoot himself in the foot.”
Kris frowns at her and she makes a dismissive gesture with her hands, one that must be in the goddamn genes or something. “Whichever one is the stupid, pointlessly noble one. The one where they’re going to send him down for treason and Danny will get made Idol. That one.”
Kris’s stomach turns all the way over, he’s sure, a dull, sickening wave of nausea rolling out from there and submerging his whole body.
“But it wasn’t his fault, Allie. They can’t convict him. They won’t, it wouldn’t be fair,” he tells her. He wants to add but Adam said but he already sounds petulant enough.
Allie rolls her eyes, pulling off contemptuous quite well for someone in a nightgown.
“As if that matters. You know how The Mansion works. Besides, Adam hardly has to spin the story at all. You may be the Captain of this ship, but he is your Prince, your Idol, for all you knew. Technically if he had ordered you to shoot that tower…”
“But he didn’t order me, we decided,” Kris insists.
“No one at home knows about the two of you and your alliance thing. He can just tell them what they want to hear and there’s no one there to contradict him. They'll convict him for sure. Make an example of him.”
And then Kris gets it. First Adam gets the Conway as far away from the Mansion as possible while he goes back. Then he tells enough truth to make the doubters believe and Le Renard have an easy job getting rid of him. By the time Kris could even hear about this it would be too late. Gokey is The Idol, The Conway is saved, and Adam is… “What is the punishment for treason? For Princes, that is?”
“The usual,” Allie says, and Kris takes her hand, because the usual is too much to contemplate alone. The mental picture comes all too easily - Adam being led up the stairs, black hood over his head, hands shaking, back straight.
His voice sounds stretched thin as he says, “So you weren’t joking about the sword, then,” and he can’t quite bring himself to look at Allie.
“No,” she chokes out, with a terrible sob of a laugh. She squeezes Kris’s hand and he grips back, unsure what else do to.
“What are we going to do?” Allie asks him, looking up at Kris with big, hopeful eyes. As if he has some sort of answer. If only.
“It’s almost impossibly dangerous to go back now. If we go fetch the prisoners we’d be safe, but by the time we got back Adam would be…” He swallows, hard.
Allie says quietly, “I told you he was stupid,” tucking her hair behind her ear with a resolutely steady hand. “Stupid and noble, but that’s why we love him, I suppose.”
Kris can still feel Adam’s kiss, hidden in his hairline. It had felt like a blessing, but now it feels like goodbye. “I suppose,” he says absently.
“We have to turn round. It’s an awful plan. We have to stop him. Kris?"
He should be angry, he knows he should, because Adam tricked him, used everything he’d ever found out about Kris to manipulate him, picked out all of his blind spots. But he doesn’t. Maybe it’s exhaustion or maybe it’s shock, but Kris feels like he’s watching it all unfold from somewhere outside of himself.
“I don’t know,” he says. “I don’t know.”
&&&&&
Katy leans back, enthroned like a queen on the cushioned chair that had been a joint effort between Meg, Matt and Scott. She looks from Kris to Allie, each seated at one end of her bed, and then back again. She’s been doing that all throughout their story, attention flicking back and forth like she isn’t sure who she’s going to have to pull back from the edge. Who will fall first.
“Well, just when I thought things couldn’t get more complicated,” she says, and sighs. “That idiot, god.”
Allie looks extremely vindicated. It was Allie who made Kris go get Katy, going as far as stumbling to the door herself even though she only had a nightgown on.
Katy says, “I mean, we always knew that he could be...” she waves her hands around.
“Absolutely. I think it’s the Prince thing,” Matt agrees, though with what Kris can’t quite tell. “It makes him all...”
“Yes, exactly, what’s the word, something like altruistic only stupider,” Katy says.
“Chivalrous?” Matt offers, as Allie frowns and leans forwards like she wants in on their act.
“People,” Kris snaps. Everyone turns to look at him. And, oh yes, how could he forget. Adam may have his spotlight effect but Kris can do this, without even thinking, take the attention of a room and hold it. He is captain, cause and effect of his ability to do that. The certainty of it is in his bones, and just like that he comes back to himself, like an inhale of breath.
He says, “This is the choice that Adam has left us with. We either go back and get caught up in the trial ourselves, or we fly on and leave Adam to go to trial alone, possibly to be executed.” He has to force it out but he’s saying it. It’s reality. “And that’s not a call I want to make.”
Allie stares at him, aghast. “Kris,” she says, very soft, and the ‘s’ is dragged out with disbelief, disappointment. Like he’s letting her down. Fuck. “It’s Adam.”
Obviously it’s Adam.
Kris isn’t sure how it’s happened but he is sure that he’s in the situation he’s worked so hard to avoid. Where he wants. God, he should know better than this, because he knows what he’s like when he wants something, he’s stupid and reckless. All the things he cannot be, because he is Captain and he can’t be compromised.
But it’s Adam, and he already is.
He says, “My crew, their careers, their lives. They have families. God knows, I want to turn us around just so as I can find Adam and punch him in his stupid face, but... It’s not about what I want. We’ve already pushed our luck beyond it’s limit...”
Matt snorts. “Really, Kristopher Allen? Do I need to go through all of the many, many times that you’ve gone past the limit of our luck and into a place where you have no choice but to make your own. We all know what we’ve signed on for, what we risk by being in the Fleet. And if we have to do something dangerous to rescue the Commander from certain death than so be it. You know it’s not right to leave him there. You’ve always said we should listen to our instincts, and I’m pretty sure what yours say about Adam.”
“And you’re the one who’s always said that flying is all person should ever need,” Kris snaps. It’s all such a mess, this underhand war, pulling at threads until the world that you thought you knew unravels before your eyes. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on it, everything shifts again like shadows, impossible to grasp.
And then Kris realises what he’s said. Flying is all you need, forget falling for someone, that’s what Matt’s always said.
Kris says, “Um.” He turns to glance at Allie before he can stop himself, and she’s got her hands clasped over her mouth.
Katy frowns at him, then turns to look at Matt. He raises his eyebrows and makes a small, frustrated gesture with his hands.
Katy says, “I know...” and sighs.
Matt shakes his head at her, which seems to conclude whatever silent conversation they were having. He turns back and says, “If you thought we didn’t know, you’ve been a lot less subtle than you thought. Plus kind of stupid.” He’s slouching in his chair, as always, knowing Kris far too well and too easily.
“Matt,” Katy says reproachfully. She’s giving Kris her best pitying smile and Allie is staring at him and it’s awful. Kris feels like a spectacle, like all his secrets have been put on show for the world to gawk at. A study in mortification, starring Kristopher Allen and his stupid, stupid feelings.
He says, “Well, I’m glad it’s all so clear to you.” And maybe it comes out a little mean. He leans his head back against the wall. “This is exactly why I’ve... Why I’ve always tried not to...” He can make himself say that Adam might die but not how he feels about him, and isn’t that telling. And horrible. “I don’t know what I should do. We might as well just fly in circles.”
“Well, that’s because your plan has always been ‘Don’t fall in love,’ which was never going to be a workable way of living. And now it feels like your worst case scenario, a choice between your man or your ship, and it’s making you think in absolutes,” Katy says. Kris opens his eyes again, and she looks calm and maybe a little sad. Katy has never laughed at Matt’s jokes about love, never joined in the conversations that follow his declarations about not needing anything but their ship. “You want to do something stupid for him, but you aren’t. You made that call. There, dilemma over.”
Kris says, “Oh, so it’s that simple.”
Katy shrugs. “If you want it to be. And then we can actually do something about this.” She reaches out her hand, starts to lean forwards and then winces. Kris moves to the very edge of the bed and takes her hand in his as quickly as he can, so that she doesn’t injure herself just trying to comfort him. She says, “I don’t know how many times we have to tell you this, Kit, but you are not by yourself in this, like some... some lone wolf of the skies.”
Kris laughs at that. “Okay, tell me what you think,” he says, and he feels a little stupid, but that’s insignificant compared to how grateful he is.
Matt says, “I’m fairly sure that I speak for the crew when I say that the Commander is one of us. He’s the Conway’s, and he should be returned to her. It’s not just you who feels that way.”
“Oh!” Allie says. “Sorry, I didn’t want to intrude...”
“I wondered why you were being so quiet,” Kris says.
Allie hushes him. “It’s not really my place and obviously I’m so, so biased, but...” She beams at Matt. “I just. I don’t think you know how much it would mean to Adam to hear you say that.”
“It’s true,” Katy says. “So we have to find a way of getting him back. But we can do that without charging in all guns blazing, you know. I’d suggest putting the ship down somewhere on the coast, just a village somewhere, and then sending a small group to capital by land. Then no one will be expecting them, so they can get into the Court unnoticed and hopefully unharmed.”
“No member of my crew is breaking into the Court,” Kris says firmly. “No, Katy, don’t... I want to keep you out of it for as long as possible.” He squeezes her hand. “It’s a good idea, though. I could do it. One person won’t be noticed and if I’m caught, well, I haven’t put anyone but myself in danger. I’ll go.”
“We’ll go,” Allie says. Kris turns to say, no, are you crazy, but she holds up one hand imperiously. “I’m the Princess Select, Kris. I’m not under investigation for anything. In fact Lord Gokey has done nothing but play up my innocence. So you won’t have to break into anything with me around. I can order the guards to do pretty much anything I want.” She tilts her head. “Didn’t you know that?”
“Allie, I...” Kris starts, but she’s glaring at him, hard edged. “Do you know where they keep prisoners? Do you know how often the guard changes? Do you know how to get into the Mansion without having to state your business to an official? How many unlocked doors do you think there are in the place, because I know where all of them are and trust me, you won’t find them without me.”
Matt says, “Her highness makes a good point, Kris. Several, actually. But I really don’t like the idea of the two of you going off to take on the Court on your own.”
“Neither do I,” Kris admits. “But it’s the best we can do at short notice. This way only one person is in possible danger. And if anything goes wrong, well, then it’s up to you to decide what the next step is.”
“We’re the rescue party’s rescue party,” Katy says with a sigh. “Oh, great.”
&&&&&
No one stops them at the port, the street, or the Palace gate. Kris half wants someone to try, because he's been feeling angrier with every step and flooring some idiot would be just the right kind of release. This morning Katy had helped Allie twist her hair into some kind of complex, formal thing on top of her head, and she is wearing one of Lil's best dresses so she looks every inch her Royal Highness - unobtainably beautiful. It's damn well impossible not to think about Adam, and each time fear twists Kris's insides into a thousand knots like a line left loose in the wind.
He comes up short when a voice says, "Captain Allen? I’ve been expecting you..." Minister Cowell gives him a once over, as if he's weighing up whether Kris is worth another sentence. Whenever Kris has spoken with the Minister, he always seems to be looking at something slightly more interesting just over Kris’s shoulder. "And her Highness, naturally. This way, come along." He sweeps them both along after him by sheer force of personality. Or possibly ego.
"Wait," Kris says, as soon as he realises what's happening. "We were -"
"Come along, Kristopher," Allie interrupts, taking his arm. She has her head held high, and Kris knows that she plays this game better than he does, but he still wants to tell her to be careful with this one, he's tricky.
The Minister slows his pace a little to match the Courtiers walking beside them in the corridor.
“Kristopher, you’re not stupid. You didn’t think that you could land a Fleet ship within 50 miles of here and I wouldn’t find out,” he says. Kris hadn’t really thought much beyond getting Adam the hell out of there, but he should have known better. The Minister borders on omnipotent, sometimes.
"I'm sure that you weren't thinking of going to see Lord Gokey without discussing it with me first. Although I'm sure he has many things of interest which he would wish to share with you." Minister Cowell looks at them both with his own strange brand of intense disinterest. "Or that he could be persuaded to."
Allie says, "Things pertaining to my... to the upcoming trial, perhaps?" She's not like the Allie Kris knows when she talks to him.
"Perhaps."
Kris tries to keep in mind that the Minister was not on their list of enemies. He doesn't have to like the man, or even trust him, just has to be on his side. And also very ready to get both of them the hell out of here if he so much as blinks threateningly.
“I can’t be seen to be interfering with a legal trial. But then, our friends should not have been interfering with Fleet orders, the taking of prisoners or the succession. At least not without my permission.”
The Minister’s smile verges on mischievous and it’s suddenly easier to remember that Kris has never actually thought of him as a bad person.
A few people give Allie a puzzled look, which she doesn’t return. Allie says, “But you can help us.” Kris is waiting for the questioning inflection, but it never comes. She has fallen into step with the Minister so easily, a different person in a whole different world, and she owns every inch of it.
“Only Lord Gokey has both the knowledge and the key to where Adam is being kept. I am one of a select few who can get you in to see him. I am sure that you will find a way to make the situation mutually beneficial," The Minister adds.
Being circumspect is probably a good thing, but it would be very like Minister Cowell to talk like this just for the sake of it. He could just say that he is taking them to Daniel as a favour, but oh no, he has to be an unrelenting git.
"I'm sure we can," Kris says, fixing Minister Cowell with a cool, challenging stare. “If you stop talking and start helping us.” A very large part of him is sure that this is one of the worst ideas he has ever had and they are never going to find his body.
The Minister raises his eyebrows. "Well, obviously you will still need to convince Daniel to tell you, and not attract unwelcome attention as you go, but I know you both, and I would not allow you to try if I thought you would fail." Kris has never heard anyone go from disdain to grudging approval in the space of one sentence before.
“We can do that,” he says. There’s simply no way that they are leaving without Adam. Allie leans into him.
The Minister stops a man walking by, seemingly at random, and murmurs something into his ear.
He turns back to Kris and Allie. “The guards between the general Court and Lord Gokey’s residence will be called away. Once you are there, however, you will be on your own. Even I have limits.”
Allie says, “Well I never. And where can we find Daniel?” Names have power, Kris knows.
“The State Visiting Rooms,” The Minister says, disdainfully.
Allie sucks in a breath. “That bastard, those are for the Idol to use. Oh, I’m going to...” She looks around at the courtiers, the Minister. “Um. Yes.”
Minister Cowell actually smiles, then. “Please,” he says. “Don’t hold back on my account, your highness. I take it this means you know the way.”
&&&&&
Lord Gokey is sitting behind a desk covered in paper. He carries on writing, not looking up as he says, “Yes?”
“If this is your attempt to appear busy and important, it’s fairly poor,” Allie says, and that gets his attention.
“Allison?” he splutters. “What are you doing here? I sent you away, safe...”
Allie leans on the desk with one hand. “We’re here for my brother.” She shakes her head. “Honestly Danny, I know you’ve never liked him, but don’t you think this is going a bit too far?” She doesn’t say anything about the house that he trapped her in.
Kris strides across the room and holds out his hand. “I’m Captain Kristopher Allen of the Conway. I think you’ve heard of me?” He smiles pleasantly. “I know you’ve heard of my ship, because how else could you order it to be shot down?”
Lord Gokey says, “Captain Allen, I can assure you that I did no such thing.” He sits up a little straighter. “Furthermore, I am the Regent, I suggest you talk to me with a little more respect before I have you arrested. I don’t know what this nonsense is about your ship...”
“It’s not nonsense,” Allie interrupts. “Dan, either you’re lying or being lied to. Admiral Warwick ordered the Conway to be fired upon on sight, a ship carrying our people, your family. And that’s after they sent mercenaries after them, paid for by the state.”
Lord Gokey looks panicked, just for a second, before whatever horrible training they give royalty kicks in and his faces goes blank and inoffensive. “Well, I certainly knew nothing of this. That would not be the kind of action that I would sanction.”
“But you’re in charge, aren’t you?” Kris says, making the most of his standing position to look down at him. “Here you are, in the Idol’s rooms, all set to take the throne. Acting like you already have.”
Lord Gokey fiddles with his pen and seems to come to a decision in his head. “Sometimes I just sign things,” he says. “I didn’t even... I thought that Adam would stay fighting his stupid war and I could just start running the Kingdom properly. And then everything got complicated and they said, they promised they’d handle it. So, I just sort of... let them.” He turns to Allie. “I didn’t know, Allison, you have to believe me. There are letters in my desk that will prove it was all them, Le Renard. I just signed them.”
“Good. Now we’ve got that over with, tell us where Prince Adam is,” Kris says, and slides his Acoustic out of his belt. He’s done with this.
“I did what I had to,” Gokey protests. "We can't have his sort in charge. Put the gun away, Captain Allen, you’re not going to shoot a member of the royal family."
“Oh, I would,” Kris promises. “I’ve shot better men than you to protect what’s mine.” It’s only the truth, but that’s often the thing that scares people the most, in Kris’s experience.
Lord Gokey’s eyes go wide and horrified. He reaches into his pocket, slides a key across the desk. “That’s for the door. Everyone thinks he’s in the tower, but that’s just a diversion. To be on the safe side. He’s in the gunpowder room on this floor, it’s...”
“Two rights and the third door on the left,” Allie interrupts, proprietorially.
Gokey gives him a desperate look. “Don’t, please. You have to understand what Adam’s like. The way he was with that boy, who knows what the Court would be like with him in charge. You’re a good man, Captain Allen, a military man, a godly man. Surely you can see it would be best for people like us to be in charge.”
Kris looks at Lord Gokey, anchored to his desk, lingering distaste and fear still on his face from the thought of Adam. Is this the mundane face of evil, he wonders, scared men doing stupid things.
“If you think we’re anything alike, think again,” he says, because - screw polite and the consequences. “I could never even come close to what you did.”
Gokey flinches.
"We’re leaving now," Kris says, tiredly. "I really don't want to have to look at your face any longer." He feels the weight of Lord Gokey's betrayed gaze all the way to the door.
The door which Allie leads him to is in a plain back corridor. Clearly no one comes this way very often. The key that Daniel Gokey threw at him feels heavy in Kris's hand as he tries it in the lock. This could still be a double cross.
It opens onto a small passage, and the door at the end has a bar across it. Kris doesn’t think, just takes a run and barrels into it. The small wooden panel in the top buckles and falls out, into the room behind it. And, thank god, Adam is really in there standing in a defensive stance just to the side of the door.
“What are you doing here?” he says. Adam appears to be uninjured, at least, but something seems wrong. And then Kris notices it - they’ve taken his Upgrade.
“We’re the rescue crew,” Allie explains. The rest of the door is metal, the gap that was the wooden panel is too small to fit a person through, and the bar across the door is iron. Kris considers the door for a moment, but all he can really think about is how someone must have forced the buckles open, taken the Upgrade and left Adam there, defenceless.
“Those brackets holding the bar look fairly new, see, they’re only attached to the wall with basic one screws,” Allie points out. Kris nods, and pushes down on the bar. It shouldn't take too much effort to wrench it out of the wall. Adam comes up to the door, still a little wide eyed.
Kris says, “We can get you out of here. It’ll take a little time but it’s going to be a really good rescue, any minute now.”
Adam stares at them some more, and then he says, “This was not the plan.”
Allie assesses Adam for a second and then puts her arm through the gap and shoves him hard.
“That’s because, Adam, it was the worst plan in the history of the whole entire known world.”
Adam gives Kris a wounded look.
“You’ll get no sympathy here,” Kris says. He’s only sorry he didn’t get the first push.
Adam reaches out for Allie, who ignores him in favour of studying the lock on the door.
Kris feels so angry he’s not quite sure what to do with himself. “Let’s get you out of here, then we can talk,” he tells Adam, focusing on the bars, the surety of cold metal.
Adam says, “You’re actually going to break me out? Do you know how much trouble you’ll get in if you’re caught? What about the Conway?”
Kris says, “Well, you should have thought about that before you decided to run off and put us all in a position where this was the best option. We aren’t doing this for fun, Adam. We’re doing this because you made a really stupid choice.”
“Are you shouting at me? You hate shouting and you’re shouting at me for trying to stop you getting killed?” Adam asks, aghast, which is the outside of enough.
“No, I am not shouting at you. There can’t be any shouting or yelling or anything like that because no one is supposed to know that we’re here, you idiot.” Kris realises that he is gripping one of the bars so hard that his knuckles have gone white.
Adam huffs, angry and confused looking. He says, “But you are not-yelling in a somewhat scary way. Kris, you can’t be…”
Kris lets go of the bar and takes a step backwards, because being this close to Adam is a very, very bad idea. “I can’t be what, Adam? Can’t be angry with you for deciding to sacrifice yourself? For drugging your sister and lying to me? For nearly getting executed? I beg to differ.” His voice is a glass shard whisper by the end, thin and cutting.
Allie has one hand on Kris’s arm and one holding Adam’s through the gap, a buffer zone. Her gaze slides away from Adam, as if it hurts too much to see him and remember.
“I’m sorry,” Adam says, desperately. “Allie, I’m so sorry for that.” He puts his hand over hers. “But it was the only way. You were all there, on the Conway, and it was all my fault. How would you have felt in my place? Wouldn’t you have done whatever it took to stop the most important people in your life from being harmed?” He runs his fingers through his hair.
Kris’s heart doesn’t break, but there’s a crack, perhaps. Stupid, he reminds himself, stupid and damaging.
“And how would you feel if one of the most important people in your life tried to die for you?” he asks, simply.
“Oh,” Adam says.
“Indeed,” Kris says. He leans on the locking bar again, and it starts to move.
“Kris…” Adam starts. Kris looks up at Adam’s face, the upturned palm, the lack of Upgrade. It’s all terrifyingly vulnerable. Adam swallows and says, “I hope that you have a plan from here on in.”
Allie says, “Not really,” adding her weight to the bar. The left bracket gives a little more, lurching out of the wall.
“Well, Daniel said he was keeping all his correspondence in his desk. There’s got to be something there we can use. Could you get me there?” Kris asks. He keeps forgetting not to look at Adam; his eyes drag back every time. There had been a point, just a few seconds, when he had been certain that they were too late, and there would be nothing left of Adam but a name, a missing book and the memory of a chance not taken.
“Of course we can,” Adam says easily. “Oh, wait. Where?”
“The State Rooms,” Allie tells him, and they exchange a look that promises bloody vengeance.
The bar finally gives way under their combined weight, with a startling screech of metal. Kris wrenches the door open and then he and Adam just stand there, looking at each other. Allie pushes him out of the doorway with a deep sigh, punches Adam on the arm and then flings her arms around him. He picks her up and spins her, and when they stop Kris can see that Adam is saying, “Sorry, sorry, Allie, sorry.”
She hushes him, smiling up at him before she steps away.
“Come on,” she says. She takes Kris’s hand and the three of them set off at a run.
Part Six
brimtoast for loving this chapter even when I didn't, and to novembersmith for letting me spam her with sentences on gchat when I was panicking and swiiftly for her superstar beta work. For summary, rating, notes etc please see the Master Post
Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four
&&&&&
The Conway’s berth at the Port has always been their safe haven, the home they return to after battles and cross-continental message runs leave them ragged. But now there is a party of soldiers crowded round his gangway. Kris thinks he can just make them out in the distance, a dark shadow that grows larger the closer they get.
“We’ve got out of worse scrapes than this,” Katy says, coming to stand beside him.
Kris pulls his gaze away from the rapidly approaching - well, it’s hard to think of it as anything but an ambush, despite the warning. “You’re not really supposed to be up.”
“I think this is the kind of situation I should be around for,” Katy says, leaning back on the railing.
Standing tall with the wind whipping her hair back against a backdrop of blue, she looks like a figurehead of some mythical creature. “Seeing as it’s my ship they’re planning on seizing.”
“We won’t let them have it,” Kris says. They’re skimming across the bay now, clouds far above and the sea just feet below. Kris leans on the gate that will open to the gangway and feels like the keeper of an untouched paradise.
“Of course not,” Katy says, like she never considered any other option, which, knowing her, she probably didn’t. “I can stall them for a while with legal talk.” She cuts Kris off before he can protest. “You think anyone else on this ship has actually read the Fleet regs? I gave Matt a copy and he used it to to hold his door open.”
Kris has to smile, and give in. “You’re right. Of course. But... God... Do you think we can actually get out of this? Maybe there’s a loop hole?” He can feel the desperation clawing to get into his voice.
Katy says, “If you’re wanting to clutch at straws, here’s a likely looking one.” She bumps Kris’s shoulder with hers. He turns around.
“Kris, can I - can we talk?” Adam asks. He looks drawn taut by worry, a line tied too tight.
They’re within shooting distance of their dock, a measurement that’s sunk itself into Kris’s mind and become his default. He looks over at Katy. “Go,” she says, shooing them with her hands. “I’ll be fine, really, they’re hardly going to rough up an injured woman. And I’m not going to strain anything just by talking. Go.”
Adam pulls Kris down the stairs and into the first room below deck, which is the navigator’s space, mostly taken up by a large table covered in maps and illegible notes.
“Is everything alright? Is Allie...” Kris asks because he’d sent Adam to replace Katy on Allie watch which had served the double purpose of getting Kat up to date without alarming anyone and letting him have some time alone to try and solve this.
Adam’s expression is heartbreakingly fond. “She’s fine. She’s great. I’m supposed to be getting her something to eat, actually. I just, I didn’t want to say this in front of her, I’ve already had to tell her about the Court Marshall and. Fuck. She clearly hasn’t been eating or sleeping properly and...”
“She’s your baby sister,” Kris finishes. Allie may hold herself like the world is there for her amusement, but she’s so young, and she’s been held against her will for weeks. He knows exactly how Adam feels, stupid with the need to protect her.
Adam nods. “I don’t want to involve her any more than necessary, but I had this thought and...” He stops, takes a deep breath like he’s lining up a shot.
“So, I have this fantasy,” Kris says forlornly, “that you are going to say ‘Kris, don’t worry, I have come up with a plan that will get us out of this mess.’”
“Kris, don’t worry, I have come up with a plan that will get us out of this mess,” Adam repeats, eyes far too serious.
“Very funny,” Kris says, and scowls. “Don’t mock my fantasy, I’m fond of it.”
Adam reaches out and puts a hand on Kris’s shoulder. “Kris, don’t worry, I really do have a plan and it really will get us out of this mess.”
Adam’s hand is warm and his smile is sincere and Kris thinks what did I do to deserve you. “Explain,” he says, trying to hold his voice steady, iron out the helpless warmth, and ending up only a few degrees off commanding.
Adam slides his hand down to Kris’s back and guides him to the table, sitting down next to him. He takes a map out of his jacket pocket, one of Kris’s by the look of it. Smoothing it out in front of them, he says, “We’re going to be Court Marshalled, right? We don’t have time to prepare our defence, and we don’t have any way not to go. And we can’t show up without any proof that what we were doing was necessary, and we can’t not show up, because both of those end with unfortunate words like ‘Mutiny’ being bandied about, and no one wants that.”
“I know, Adam. Believe me, I know,” Kris says, a little more hard edged than he was expecting.
“But we do have proof. We have those prisoners."
Kris feels hope leap up into his throat. Then he remembers why he dismissed that option. "But we don't have time to go fetch them, or get a message from them or anything. We, the guilty party, have to show up at the Court Marshall tomorrow. There are soldiers here who are determined to escort us, and..." This is his limit, right here.
"I know, I know you wouldn't fire on them, even if you thought it meant we could get away."
It's a line in the sand at best, but Adam has him right - Kris couldn't cross it and still live with himself. He stares at the map, at the impossible distance to the Chantier Naval, the sinuous curve of coast as it opens up to the harbour of the capital, the lines marking out the walls of the Mansion and the Court.
"But if we split up, we could do it," Adam says, voice soft. "If we tell them that I'm to blame..."
Kris looks up and catches Adam watching him intently, as if he has a gun aimed right at Kris and might fire at any sudden movement.
"But you're not," Kris says, and then feels stupid because obviously. But he can't imagine letting Adam just go, after all that they've done, after all this.
"Well, yes, but they don't know that. If I go and claim full responsibility, they won't know what to do. There's no precedent for this kind of thing, and they've no proof against me in particular. There'll be chaos. And that will give you the time to go back, get those damn mercenaries and bring them to the court. Then we'll have a proper case to argue."
Kris studies Adam's face for the signs of a bluff, for the smooth veneer of courtly play, but there's nothing there but conviction burning bright in his eyes.
"But, then, isn’t that just giving them what they want?" he tries. "They’ve always been after you, we’re just collateral. And I can't just leave you to fight this alone. United we stand. Right?"
Adam's smile is strange, sad with hope. "Don't talk me out of your best shot of getting out of this. I'll be fine. This is the only way." He looks down at his hands, fingers tracing routes that go nowhere on the map, meandering spirals that the Conway would get dizzy following.
"Oh, like I could talk you out of anything," Kris says. It is a good plan, but he wants to try and make Adam reconsider anyway. That or bolt the door.
Adam says, quiet and simple, "You could." He doesn't look up, thankfully, because Kris is sure that he can't hide his reaction to that. It must be all over his face, plain as day.
He says, "But, will you be safe? I mean, we'll be much better off, but you’ll be..."
"I'm a Prince. There are rules. Don't worry about me, I just need you to concentrate on getting us our proof. Nothing else, just fly to the Chantier. I need to know that you will do that, keep the ship safe." Adam holds Kris's gaze, eyes dark and deep. "You can do that, right?"
"I can," Kris says, and it feels a lot like a promise made between them in this moment.
"Then I can make the trial go right," Adam assures him. "I've asked you to put your ship into dangerous situations far too many times. This time the Conway should take the easier part. I don’t want to think about the crew - Meg, Anoop, Katy - standing trial for their lives, do you? It’s been bad enough constantly worrying about being fired upon by another Fleet ship."
It's a good point, one of the more compelling of Adam's argument, and the thought of not fearing every speck on the horizon is almost too good. Kris feels slightly lightheaded at the possibility of flying free again.
"I'm not happy about it, but it is the best plan we have," he admits.
Adam says, "Well of course it is, I came up with it. Have I led you wrong before?” This is Adam too, Kris remembers, the Commander and feted military strategist. And he’s right, they have done this before, made the plan and defied the odds. Now he just has to stop the feeling he gets when he thinks about Adam stepping off the Conway and into Le Renard's waiting clutches.
“Kris,” Adam says. “We don’t have time. You need to say yes.” He’s right and so Kris does, says, “Okay, okay,” forcing out a smile.
Kris reaches out and puts his hand on Adam’s shoulder, mirroring his gesture from earlier. Kris’s palm is resting on the spot where the cold metal of the Upgrade meets the warmth of Adam’s body, the soft material of his jacket, which should seem strange but really, really doesn’t. "And to think," Kris says, "I only left you alone for five minutes. And you came up with a whole strategy."
Adam is quite still for a second, staring at Kris, one hand frozen halfway through some gesture, something loose and dismissive that had turned too focused, caught out. Then he stands, shakes his head, saying, “We'll need to move fast. You pack for me and I’ll go intervene with Katy and the soldiers.” Adam practically runs out of the door. Kris can’t do anything else but follow, caught up in his wake.
&&&&&
Kris puts the last of Adam's things into the case and snaps the buckles shut. Adam has some sort of combination lock on it, which Kris leaves undone. Adam has never used the lock while he's been here, case always open with clothes always spilling out of it, parts and books migrating out of it to the table and shelves. Kris tuts and goes to fetch the book that Adam's reading at the moment, one of the new ones on energy transfer which Adam has left over by the window.
The door clicks behind him and when he turns Adam is leaning on it, expression unreadable.
“How did it go?” Kris asks.
Adam exhales and seems to relax with it. He says. “Oh, fine. They bought it, I think. They’re soldiers, chain of command makes perfect sense to them.” Adam walks over, picks a shirt out of his case and starts to refold it. “The important thing is that you’re in the clear.”
Kris breathes out slowly. “And you will be too, in less than a week. Don’t forget that, okay?” He puts the book on top of the shirt which is now folded to meet Adam’s strange packing criteria. It looks pretty much the same as it had before to Kris.
"That's yours, by the way," Adam says, gesturing at the book.
"You can give it back to me when we meet again.” Kris knows that things won't be the same, but he’s fairly sure that will be allowed. Maybe he'll have to stop calling him Adam. He shuts the lid firmly.
"I should go.” Adam says, all in a rush. “I have to say goodbye to Allie before she falls asleep, and to the others."
Kris asks, "I don't warrant a goodbye?" He puts his hand on top of Adam’s case to stop him from picking it up.
Adam hesitates for a second, and seems to come to a decision. "You can’t think that," he says flatly. “You have to know you’re...”
"More," Kris says before he can think about it, stop his brain pushing it away like he's been doing since the day he met Adam, since the first time he got a stupid rush from saying his name. It’s the only word for it all, the way things have always been between them. Adam making him think more, feel more, want more.
Adam steps closer. "Then you do know it’s a stupid question."
It's been an awfully long time since Kris's heart has clenched like this, but this is what Adam does, after all. "I’m a little shocked that you're admitting it, though, when we were both doing such a good job of repression," he says.
Adam bows his head. Then, almost without looking back up, he reaches out and envelops Kris in a crushing hug. "In another life..." he says into Kris's hair.
"One with a better outlook?" Kris says. The stray ideas, the ones on the edge of his consciousness, that he has between one thought and another, between sleep and waking, all end like this. If Adam didn’t have a country and Kris didn’t have a ship, maybe they could see where this could go.
"Clearer skies and a following wind," Adam agrees. He presses a kiss to where Kris's hair meets his brow, and that's as much as they can have, in this life.
Adam stays like that - bottom lip warm on Kris's forehead, breath catching his hair - for a long moment. Kris wants to let him stay there but he can't - it would be damaging if they got used to it.
He steps back from Adam.
"You should go say your other goodbyes," he says.
Adam nods once, and then again firmer. “Meet me in Katy’s room? Allie will be wondering where I’ve got too, I’m supposed to be getting her more tea. You want some?”
Kris says, "I guess I can risk it. I'll bring your case up." That feels right, like closing the loop.
Adam smiles, says, "Quite right too, Captain Allen." And then he leaves.
Kris must have got used to there being more things in his room, Adam’s possessions mixed in with Kris's like they belonged there, because it feels emptier now. He sits on Adam's bunk for a few minutes, just to make sure that he's ready for what's coming.
In Katy’s room Allie greets him with a wave of a cup. She’s looking quite at home, wearing one of Katy’s nightgowns and sitting cross-legged on her bunk,.
“Adam made tea,” she says in mournful tones. She takes a gulp and makes a truly dreadful face.
Kris says, “Adam has many skills, but tea is really not one of them. I think he gets distracted by the water boiler.”
Adam narrows his eyes and Kris takes the cup he’s proffering.
“He is terribly easily distracted by shiny things,” Allie says with a sigh. “He nearly walked through a window once because he was dismantling this watch and wasn’t watching where he was going.”
Kris laughs. He often keeps an eye on Adam when he’s wandering starry eyed and contemplative about the deck, so it’s easy to imagine.
“Are we still playing this game?” Adam says, but he can’t hold the cross expression on his face for long. As soon as Allie smiles at him it dissolves into a helpless tenderness. He sits down on the bed and puts his arm round his sister, and she curls into him, cradling her tea carefully in one hand.
Adam drops a kiss onto her head and says brightly, “Drink your tea, before it gets cold.”
Kris has grasped for the mundane enough times to see what Adam is doing.
Kris says, “Yes, because the only thing worse than bad tea is cold, bad tea.” He drinks some more of his, which is, to be fair to Adam, not as terrible as Allie’s face would suggest.
Allie takes a begrudging sip and snuggles down into Adam's side, yawning. Kris can’t look at them without wanting to fix everything for them somehow, give them the merry life he had always thought they had. The one they deserve.
“I should go check on,” he waves his hand as if this will make him look and sound less vague, “things,” he finishes, brilliantly.
Lugging Adam's case up onto deck seems like a great idea until he reaches the top of the stairs. His crew are in a knot around the top of the stairs, looking defiant and bitter. The focus of their anger is the small cohort of soldiers that are waiting across the deck, unwilling to venture too far into what is obviously unfriendly territory.
The lieutenant gives him a smart salute. "Captain Allen. His Highness has informed us of what happened. I can only apologise for suggesting that either you or your crew could be involved in such actions."
Kris really wants to punch him, even though it's not the man's fault - this is the plan that Kris agreed to. But Kris hates making Adam into the guilty party, having him treated as such. He doesn't want Adam to have to stand alone in front of the Court, with people questioning his judgment. Not again.
He steps very deliberately away from the soldiers, joining his crew in their silent disapproval. When Adam comes up the stairs he looks wrecked, and the crew all gather round him, shielding him.
Kris asks, "Is Allie alright?"
Adam's face goes a shade paler. "She’s asleep." Kris takes a breath and doesn't reach for Adam like he so badly wants to. Adam loves in this all-encompassing way, stupid and fierce, and Kris wants to soothe him somehow, say, I know, I know. Me too.
Adam reaches down to the mess of belts at his waist and unhooks something from a chain.
“Here,” he says, holding it out to Kris on his open hand. “Just so you don’t think I’m making off with it.”
Kris looks at the difference cog from what seems like a lifetime ago. Adam kept it. He feels like he’s been punched in the stomach. Adam drops his gaze, something he’s done many times, and Kris wonders why he didn’t see before. The reason Adam can’t let his eyes meet Kris’s is because they betray him.
“Keep it,” Kris says. He curls Adam’s fingers back over the cog.
It has always been easy, disconcertingly easy, to touch Adam, so much so that Kris barely has to think about it most of the time, but this time might be the last. This time he wants to commit every detail to memory and he presses a little harder, focusing on the rough warmth of Adam’s skin beneath his own.
Then he lets his hand fall.
“A piece of the Conway to carry with me,” Adam says, expression still so blank that it could have been painted on. Then he wrenches his eyes up to meet Kris’s and there is a moment of stillness, like the breath before the cry of ‘charge!’ and Kris braces himself for the onslaught.
One of the soldiers coughs, loud in the quiet. They turn toward him, and the look and the silence and the moment are all broken.
“Good luck.” Kris salutes and manages to add, “Sire,” even though he’s sure his voice is giving himself away with the unsaid things crowding round that one syllable. He hopes Adam is as good as he usually is at hearing what Kris isn’t saying.
Adam says, “Thank you,” and then The Prince salutes Kris, formal and foreign.
“This way, Your Highness,” the lieutenant intones, gesturing at the exit.
Adam ignores him. He nods to Kris and the assembled crew, then sweeps down the gangplank. The company of soldiers trails after him looking confused and rather unsure, somehow reminding Kris of large, heavily armed ducklings.
He really needs to get more sleep.
Katy yells some orders and Kris joins in, getting them back underway. He feels like he is watching himself from outside his body, everything very distant until Katy slides her hand into his, and squeezes tight. “Come on, let’s get inside with the others. Things will seem clearer once you’ve had something to eat.”
Most of the crew are in the galley, talking a little too quietly for Kris’s liking. He should be setting a better example, but it’s hard to feel anything but defeated. Like they pushed themselves to beyond exhaustion and got shot at and nearly lost the ship, all for nothing. Adam is still gone and nothing is certain and Kris really hates to lose.
“Soup, Captain?” Scott gently moves Kris’s hands from the table and places a bowl in front of him, the warmth stealing up to Kris’s face.
Matt and Lil are having a conversation over at the next table that makes them both frown, look over at Kris, and then frown even harder. Katy eats her soup and doesn’t try to hide her concern when she catches Kris’s glances across their table.
Kris doesn’t realise that he has stood up until he registers the sound of his chair scraping against the floor.
“I’m going to go check on Allie,” he tells Katy, and everyone else by proxy. He can feel them listening.
“I’m sure she’s fine, she was fast asleep when I looked in on her,” Katy says.
“I know, but I can’t…” Kris can’t stay, he’s not doing anyone any good sitting here, one looking one step away from a breakdown. He can’t fake it, he’s not good enough, he’s not – oh, the irony – he’s not Adam.
“Good work today,” he says loudly. He leaves and almost runs to his cabin, shutting the door behind him as quietly as he can. He considers locking the door but doesn’t, instead turning round and leaning his back against it.
Allie is curled up on Katy’s bed under a pile of blankets, just a covered small shape and a mass of red hair. Kris very carefully lifts the chair up and places it by the side of the bed, close enough that he can hear her breathe, and keeps watch.
He must fall asleep, because when he next looks up it’s getting dark. Kris gets up and turns the lamp on, the ropes that hold the bed up casting long shadows on the wall.
Allie moves her head, revealing her face for a second before she nuzzles back under the blankets. It’s something that Kris has seen Adam do a hundred times, achingly familiar. It’s odd, now, seeing Adam in Allie; he’s got so used to recognising the Allie-things in Adam that it feels backward this way.
It makes him want to hug her tight, wrap her up and promise her that she’ll never come to any harm again. He settles for leaning over and tucking the blanket round her shoulders.
Allie shifts and mutters. Her eyelids flutter a couple of times, and then open.
“Hello,” Kris says, keeping his voice soft.
“Adam?”
“Afraid not. He had to go sort some things out in Court.”
Allie looks at him dazedly from under half-closed eyes for a second, and then she snaps awake. “What?” she asks, sitting up. “Oh my god, I am going to kill him.”
“He had to, Allie. You were asleep, but he had to go.” Kris feels like he’s talking to himself half an hour ago.
“I was asleep because he drugged me, that bastard. I’m going to kill him,” Allie shrieks, and Kris goes cold.
“Drugged you?” he breaks in, because Allie has started on a vivid description of the bodily harm that she is going to inflict on her brother and seems to be building up a head of steam. He puts a placating hand on her arm.
“He must have slipped something into my tea - dammit, I knew it tasted off - a sleeping pill maybe. So I couldn’t stop him,” she says, as if that makes any kind of sense at all.
“What? Why would he do that? He’s gone to tell them about what happened. We made a plan. We go get the prisoners, and in the mean time he goes to the court marshal.” The sleeping pills Adam got from the Chantier, a colder, rational part of his brain thinks, only they didn’t last as long as he thought they would.
“Court marshal?” Allie’s expression is harsh, worry coiled tightly in every line.
Kris says, soothing as he can, “Because Adam’s not to blame, he’ll be fine. They won’t do anything to him for ordering me to fire. He’ll be fine, Allie. I wouldn’t have let him off the ship, otherwise.” He’s gripping her arm, he realises, and tries to look nonchalant as he lets go.
Allie pushes her hair out of her face and she looks young and far too worn down.
“That is why he would do that to me,” she grinds out, and sighs, long, like she can’t believe the stupidity of the world. “That is exactly why. Because you wouldn’t have let him off the ship if you’d known, and I would have told you. Hell, I wouldn’t have let him off the ship. He’s gone to fall on his sword. Or shoot himself in the foot.”
Kris frowns at her and she makes a dismissive gesture with her hands, one that must be in the goddamn genes or something. “Whichever one is the stupid, pointlessly noble one. The one where they’re going to send him down for treason and Danny will get made Idol. That one.”
Kris’s stomach turns all the way over, he’s sure, a dull, sickening wave of nausea rolling out from there and submerging his whole body.
“But it wasn’t his fault, Allie. They can’t convict him. They won’t, it wouldn’t be fair,” he tells her. He wants to add but Adam said but he already sounds petulant enough.
Allie rolls her eyes, pulling off contemptuous quite well for someone in a nightgown.
“As if that matters. You know how The Mansion works. Besides, Adam hardly has to spin the story at all. You may be the Captain of this ship, but he is your Prince, your Idol, for all you knew. Technically if he had ordered you to shoot that tower…”
“But he didn’t order me, we decided,” Kris insists.
“No one at home knows about the two of you and your alliance thing. He can just tell them what they want to hear and there’s no one there to contradict him. They'll convict him for sure. Make an example of him.”
And then Kris gets it. First Adam gets the Conway as far away from the Mansion as possible while he goes back. Then he tells enough truth to make the doubters believe and Le Renard have an easy job getting rid of him. By the time Kris could even hear about this it would be too late. Gokey is The Idol, The Conway is saved, and Adam is… “What is the punishment for treason? For Princes, that is?”
“The usual,” Allie says, and Kris takes her hand, because the usual is too much to contemplate alone. The mental picture comes all too easily - Adam being led up the stairs, black hood over his head, hands shaking, back straight.
His voice sounds stretched thin as he says, “So you weren’t joking about the sword, then,” and he can’t quite bring himself to look at Allie.
“No,” she chokes out, with a terrible sob of a laugh. She squeezes Kris’s hand and he grips back, unsure what else do to.
“What are we going to do?” Allie asks him, looking up at Kris with big, hopeful eyes. As if he has some sort of answer. If only.
“It’s almost impossibly dangerous to go back now. If we go fetch the prisoners we’d be safe, but by the time we got back Adam would be…” He swallows, hard.
Allie says quietly, “I told you he was stupid,” tucking her hair behind her ear with a resolutely steady hand. “Stupid and noble, but that’s why we love him, I suppose.”
Kris can still feel Adam’s kiss, hidden in his hairline. It had felt like a blessing, but now it feels like goodbye. “I suppose,” he says absently.
“We have to turn round. It’s an awful plan. We have to stop him. Kris?"
He should be angry, he knows he should, because Adam tricked him, used everything he’d ever found out about Kris to manipulate him, picked out all of his blind spots. But he doesn’t. Maybe it’s exhaustion or maybe it’s shock, but Kris feels like he’s watching it all unfold from somewhere outside of himself.
“I don’t know,” he says. “I don’t know.”
&&&&&
Katy leans back, enthroned like a queen on the cushioned chair that had been a joint effort between Meg, Matt and Scott. She looks from Kris to Allie, each seated at one end of her bed, and then back again. She’s been doing that all throughout their story, attention flicking back and forth like she isn’t sure who she’s going to have to pull back from the edge. Who will fall first.
“Well, just when I thought things couldn’t get more complicated,” she says, and sighs. “That idiot, god.”
Allie looks extremely vindicated. It was Allie who made Kris go get Katy, going as far as stumbling to the door herself even though she only had a nightgown on.
Katy says, “I mean, we always knew that he could be...” she waves her hands around.
“Absolutely. I think it’s the Prince thing,” Matt agrees, though with what Kris can’t quite tell. “It makes him all...”
“Yes, exactly, what’s the word, something like altruistic only stupider,” Katy says.
“Chivalrous?” Matt offers, as Allie frowns and leans forwards like she wants in on their act.
“People,” Kris snaps. Everyone turns to look at him. And, oh yes, how could he forget. Adam may have his spotlight effect but Kris can do this, without even thinking, take the attention of a room and hold it. He is captain, cause and effect of his ability to do that. The certainty of it is in his bones, and just like that he comes back to himself, like an inhale of breath.
He says, “This is the choice that Adam has left us with. We either go back and get caught up in the trial ourselves, or we fly on and leave Adam to go to trial alone, possibly to be executed.” He has to force it out but he’s saying it. It’s reality. “And that’s not a call I want to make.”
Allie stares at him, aghast. “Kris,” she says, very soft, and the ‘s’ is dragged out with disbelief, disappointment. Like he’s letting her down. Fuck. “It’s Adam.”
Obviously it’s Adam.
Kris isn’t sure how it’s happened but he is sure that he’s in the situation he’s worked so hard to avoid. Where he wants. God, he should know better than this, because he knows what he’s like when he wants something, he’s stupid and reckless. All the things he cannot be, because he is Captain and he can’t be compromised.
But it’s Adam, and he already is.
He says, “My crew, their careers, their lives. They have families. God knows, I want to turn us around just so as I can find Adam and punch him in his stupid face, but... It’s not about what I want. We’ve already pushed our luck beyond it’s limit...”
Matt snorts. “Really, Kristopher Allen? Do I need to go through all of the many, many times that you’ve gone past the limit of our luck and into a place where you have no choice but to make your own. We all know what we’ve signed on for, what we risk by being in the Fleet. And if we have to do something dangerous to rescue the Commander from certain death than so be it. You know it’s not right to leave him there. You’ve always said we should listen to our instincts, and I’m pretty sure what yours say about Adam.”
“And you’re the one who’s always said that flying is all person should ever need,” Kris snaps. It’s all such a mess, this underhand war, pulling at threads until the world that you thought you knew unravels before your eyes. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on it, everything shifts again like shadows, impossible to grasp.
And then Kris realises what he’s said. Flying is all you need, forget falling for someone, that’s what Matt’s always said.
Kris says, “Um.” He turns to glance at Allie before he can stop himself, and she’s got her hands clasped over her mouth.
Katy frowns at him, then turns to look at Matt. He raises his eyebrows and makes a small, frustrated gesture with his hands.
Katy says, “I know...” and sighs.
Matt shakes his head at her, which seems to conclude whatever silent conversation they were having. He turns back and says, “If you thought we didn’t know, you’ve been a lot less subtle than you thought. Plus kind of stupid.” He’s slouching in his chair, as always, knowing Kris far too well and too easily.
“Matt,” Katy says reproachfully. She’s giving Kris her best pitying smile and Allie is staring at him and it’s awful. Kris feels like a spectacle, like all his secrets have been put on show for the world to gawk at. A study in mortification, starring Kristopher Allen and his stupid, stupid feelings.
He says, “Well, I’m glad it’s all so clear to you.” And maybe it comes out a little mean. He leans his head back against the wall. “This is exactly why I’ve... Why I’ve always tried not to...” He can make himself say that Adam might die but not how he feels about him, and isn’t that telling. And horrible. “I don’t know what I should do. We might as well just fly in circles.”
“Well, that’s because your plan has always been ‘Don’t fall in love,’ which was never going to be a workable way of living. And now it feels like your worst case scenario, a choice between your man or your ship, and it’s making you think in absolutes,” Katy says. Kris opens his eyes again, and she looks calm and maybe a little sad. Katy has never laughed at Matt’s jokes about love, never joined in the conversations that follow his declarations about not needing anything but their ship. “You want to do something stupid for him, but you aren’t. You made that call. There, dilemma over.”
Kris says, “Oh, so it’s that simple.”
Katy shrugs. “If you want it to be. And then we can actually do something about this.” She reaches out her hand, starts to lean forwards and then winces. Kris moves to the very edge of the bed and takes her hand in his as quickly as he can, so that she doesn’t injure herself just trying to comfort him. She says, “I don’t know how many times we have to tell you this, Kit, but you are not by yourself in this, like some... some lone wolf of the skies.”
Kris laughs at that. “Okay, tell me what you think,” he says, and he feels a little stupid, but that’s insignificant compared to how grateful he is.
Matt says, “I’m fairly sure that I speak for the crew when I say that the Commander is one of us. He’s the Conway’s, and he should be returned to her. It’s not just you who feels that way.”
“Oh!” Allie says. “Sorry, I didn’t want to intrude...”
“I wondered why you were being so quiet,” Kris says.
Allie hushes him. “It’s not really my place and obviously I’m so, so biased, but...” She beams at Matt. “I just. I don’t think you know how much it would mean to Adam to hear you say that.”
“It’s true,” Katy says. “So we have to find a way of getting him back. But we can do that without charging in all guns blazing, you know. I’d suggest putting the ship down somewhere on the coast, just a village somewhere, and then sending a small group to capital by land. Then no one will be expecting them, so they can get into the Court unnoticed and hopefully unharmed.”
“No member of my crew is breaking into the Court,” Kris says firmly. “No, Katy, don’t... I want to keep you out of it for as long as possible.” He squeezes her hand. “It’s a good idea, though. I could do it. One person won’t be noticed and if I’m caught, well, I haven’t put anyone but myself in danger. I’ll go.”
“We’ll go,” Allie says. Kris turns to say, no, are you crazy, but she holds up one hand imperiously. “I’m the Princess Select, Kris. I’m not under investigation for anything. In fact Lord Gokey has done nothing but play up my innocence. So you won’t have to break into anything with me around. I can order the guards to do pretty much anything I want.” She tilts her head. “Didn’t you know that?”
“Allie, I...” Kris starts, but she’s glaring at him, hard edged. “Do you know where they keep prisoners? Do you know how often the guard changes? Do you know how to get into the Mansion without having to state your business to an official? How many unlocked doors do you think there are in the place, because I know where all of them are and trust me, you won’t find them without me.”
Matt says, “Her highness makes a good point, Kris. Several, actually. But I really don’t like the idea of the two of you going off to take on the Court on your own.”
“Neither do I,” Kris admits. “But it’s the best we can do at short notice. This way only one person is in possible danger. And if anything goes wrong, well, then it’s up to you to decide what the next step is.”
“We’re the rescue party’s rescue party,” Katy says with a sigh. “Oh, great.”
&&&&&
No one stops them at the port, the street, or the Palace gate. Kris half wants someone to try, because he's been feeling angrier with every step and flooring some idiot would be just the right kind of release. This morning Katy had helped Allie twist her hair into some kind of complex, formal thing on top of her head, and she is wearing one of Lil's best dresses so she looks every inch her Royal Highness - unobtainably beautiful. It's damn well impossible not to think about Adam, and each time fear twists Kris's insides into a thousand knots like a line left loose in the wind.
He comes up short when a voice says, "Captain Allen? I’ve been expecting you..." Minister Cowell gives him a once over, as if he's weighing up whether Kris is worth another sentence. Whenever Kris has spoken with the Minister, he always seems to be looking at something slightly more interesting just over Kris’s shoulder. "And her Highness, naturally. This way, come along." He sweeps them both along after him by sheer force of personality. Or possibly ego.
"Wait," Kris says, as soon as he realises what's happening. "We were -"
"Come along, Kristopher," Allie interrupts, taking his arm. She has her head held high, and Kris knows that she plays this game better than he does, but he still wants to tell her to be careful with this one, he's tricky.
The Minister slows his pace a little to match the Courtiers walking beside them in the corridor.
“Kristopher, you’re not stupid. You didn’t think that you could land a Fleet ship within 50 miles of here and I wouldn’t find out,” he says. Kris hadn’t really thought much beyond getting Adam the hell out of there, but he should have known better. The Minister borders on omnipotent, sometimes.
"I'm sure that you weren't thinking of going to see Lord Gokey without discussing it with me first. Although I'm sure he has many things of interest which he would wish to share with you." Minister Cowell looks at them both with his own strange brand of intense disinterest. "Or that he could be persuaded to."
Allie says, "Things pertaining to my... to the upcoming trial, perhaps?" She's not like the Allie Kris knows when she talks to him.
"Perhaps."
Kris tries to keep in mind that the Minister was not on their list of enemies. He doesn't have to like the man, or even trust him, just has to be on his side. And also very ready to get both of them the hell out of here if he so much as blinks threateningly.
“I can’t be seen to be interfering with a legal trial. But then, our friends should not have been interfering with Fleet orders, the taking of prisoners or the succession. At least not without my permission.”
The Minister’s smile verges on mischievous and it’s suddenly easier to remember that Kris has never actually thought of him as a bad person.
A few people give Allie a puzzled look, which she doesn’t return. Allie says, “But you can help us.” Kris is waiting for the questioning inflection, but it never comes. She has fallen into step with the Minister so easily, a different person in a whole different world, and she owns every inch of it.
“Only Lord Gokey has both the knowledge and the key to where Adam is being kept. I am one of a select few who can get you in to see him. I am sure that you will find a way to make the situation mutually beneficial," The Minister adds.
Being circumspect is probably a good thing, but it would be very like Minister Cowell to talk like this just for the sake of it. He could just say that he is taking them to Daniel as a favour, but oh no, he has to be an unrelenting git.
"I'm sure we can," Kris says, fixing Minister Cowell with a cool, challenging stare. “If you stop talking and start helping us.” A very large part of him is sure that this is one of the worst ideas he has ever had and they are never going to find his body.
The Minister raises his eyebrows. "Well, obviously you will still need to convince Daniel to tell you, and not attract unwelcome attention as you go, but I know you both, and I would not allow you to try if I thought you would fail." Kris has never heard anyone go from disdain to grudging approval in the space of one sentence before.
“We can do that,” he says. There’s simply no way that they are leaving without Adam. Allie leans into him.
The Minister stops a man walking by, seemingly at random, and murmurs something into his ear.
He turns back to Kris and Allie. “The guards between the general Court and Lord Gokey’s residence will be called away. Once you are there, however, you will be on your own. Even I have limits.”
Allie says, “Well I never. And where can we find Daniel?” Names have power, Kris knows.
“The State Visiting Rooms,” The Minister says, disdainfully.
Allie sucks in a breath. “That bastard, those are for the Idol to use. Oh, I’m going to...” She looks around at the courtiers, the Minister. “Um. Yes.”
Minister Cowell actually smiles, then. “Please,” he says. “Don’t hold back on my account, your highness. I take it this means you know the way.”
&&&&&
Lord Gokey is sitting behind a desk covered in paper. He carries on writing, not looking up as he says, “Yes?”
“If this is your attempt to appear busy and important, it’s fairly poor,” Allie says, and that gets his attention.
“Allison?” he splutters. “What are you doing here? I sent you away, safe...”
Allie leans on the desk with one hand. “We’re here for my brother.” She shakes her head. “Honestly Danny, I know you’ve never liked him, but don’t you think this is going a bit too far?” She doesn’t say anything about the house that he trapped her in.
Kris strides across the room and holds out his hand. “I’m Captain Kristopher Allen of the Conway. I think you’ve heard of me?” He smiles pleasantly. “I know you’ve heard of my ship, because how else could you order it to be shot down?”
Lord Gokey says, “Captain Allen, I can assure you that I did no such thing.” He sits up a little straighter. “Furthermore, I am the Regent, I suggest you talk to me with a little more respect before I have you arrested. I don’t know what this nonsense is about your ship...”
“It’s not nonsense,” Allie interrupts. “Dan, either you’re lying or being lied to. Admiral Warwick ordered the Conway to be fired upon on sight, a ship carrying our people, your family. And that’s after they sent mercenaries after them, paid for by the state.”
Lord Gokey looks panicked, just for a second, before whatever horrible training they give royalty kicks in and his faces goes blank and inoffensive. “Well, I certainly knew nothing of this. That would not be the kind of action that I would sanction.”
“But you’re in charge, aren’t you?” Kris says, making the most of his standing position to look down at him. “Here you are, in the Idol’s rooms, all set to take the throne. Acting like you already have.”
Lord Gokey fiddles with his pen and seems to come to a decision in his head. “Sometimes I just sign things,” he says. “I didn’t even... I thought that Adam would stay fighting his stupid war and I could just start running the Kingdom properly. And then everything got complicated and they said, they promised they’d handle it. So, I just sort of... let them.” He turns to Allie. “I didn’t know, Allison, you have to believe me. There are letters in my desk that will prove it was all them, Le Renard. I just signed them.”
“Good. Now we’ve got that over with, tell us where Prince Adam is,” Kris says, and slides his Acoustic out of his belt. He’s done with this.
“I did what I had to,” Gokey protests. "We can't have his sort in charge. Put the gun away, Captain Allen, you’re not going to shoot a member of the royal family."
“Oh, I would,” Kris promises. “I’ve shot better men than you to protect what’s mine.” It’s only the truth, but that’s often the thing that scares people the most, in Kris’s experience.
Lord Gokey’s eyes go wide and horrified. He reaches into his pocket, slides a key across the desk. “That’s for the door. Everyone thinks he’s in the tower, but that’s just a diversion. To be on the safe side. He’s in the gunpowder room on this floor, it’s...”
“Two rights and the third door on the left,” Allie interrupts, proprietorially.
Gokey gives him a desperate look. “Don’t, please. You have to understand what Adam’s like. The way he was with that boy, who knows what the Court would be like with him in charge. You’re a good man, Captain Allen, a military man, a godly man. Surely you can see it would be best for people like us to be in charge.”
Kris looks at Lord Gokey, anchored to his desk, lingering distaste and fear still on his face from the thought of Adam. Is this the mundane face of evil, he wonders, scared men doing stupid things.
“If you think we’re anything alike, think again,” he says, because - screw polite and the consequences. “I could never even come close to what you did.”
Gokey flinches.
"We’re leaving now," Kris says, tiredly. "I really don't want to have to look at your face any longer." He feels the weight of Lord Gokey's betrayed gaze all the way to the door.
The door which Allie leads him to is in a plain back corridor. Clearly no one comes this way very often. The key that Daniel Gokey threw at him feels heavy in Kris's hand as he tries it in the lock. This could still be a double cross.
It opens onto a small passage, and the door at the end has a bar across it. Kris doesn’t think, just takes a run and barrels into it. The small wooden panel in the top buckles and falls out, into the room behind it. And, thank god, Adam is really in there standing in a defensive stance just to the side of the door.
“What are you doing here?” he says. Adam appears to be uninjured, at least, but something seems wrong. And then Kris notices it - they’ve taken his Upgrade.
“We’re the rescue crew,” Allie explains. The rest of the door is metal, the gap that was the wooden panel is too small to fit a person through, and the bar across the door is iron. Kris considers the door for a moment, but all he can really think about is how someone must have forced the buckles open, taken the Upgrade and left Adam there, defenceless.
“Those brackets holding the bar look fairly new, see, they’re only attached to the wall with basic one screws,” Allie points out. Kris nods, and pushes down on the bar. It shouldn't take too much effort to wrench it out of the wall. Adam comes up to the door, still a little wide eyed.
Kris says, “We can get you out of here. It’ll take a little time but it’s going to be a really good rescue, any minute now.”
Adam stares at them some more, and then he says, “This was not the plan.”
Allie assesses Adam for a second and then puts her arm through the gap and shoves him hard.
“That’s because, Adam, it was the worst plan in the history of the whole entire known world.”
Adam gives Kris a wounded look.
“You’ll get no sympathy here,” Kris says. He’s only sorry he didn’t get the first push.
Adam reaches out for Allie, who ignores him in favour of studying the lock on the door.
Kris feels so angry he’s not quite sure what to do with himself. “Let’s get you out of here, then we can talk,” he tells Adam, focusing on the bars, the surety of cold metal.
Adam says, “You’re actually going to break me out? Do you know how much trouble you’ll get in if you’re caught? What about the Conway?”
Kris says, “Well, you should have thought about that before you decided to run off and put us all in a position where this was the best option. We aren’t doing this for fun, Adam. We’re doing this because you made a really stupid choice.”
“Are you shouting at me? You hate shouting and you’re shouting at me for trying to stop you getting killed?” Adam asks, aghast, which is the outside of enough.
“No, I am not shouting at you. There can’t be any shouting or yelling or anything like that because no one is supposed to know that we’re here, you idiot.” Kris realises that he is gripping one of the bars so hard that his knuckles have gone white.
Adam huffs, angry and confused looking. He says, “But you are not-yelling in a somewhat scary way. Kris, you can’t be…”
Kris lets go of the bar and takes a step backwards, because being this close to Adam is a very, very bad idea. “I can’t be what, Adam? Can’t be angry with you for deciding to sacrifice yourself? For drugging your sister and lying to me? For nearly getting executed? I beg to differ.” His voice is a glass shard whisper by the end, thin and cutting.
Allie has one hand on Kris’s arm and one holding Adam’s through the gap, a buffer zone. Her gaze slides away from Adam, as if it hurts too much to see him and remember.
“I’m sorry,” Adam says, desperately. “Allie, I’m so sorry for that.” He puts his hand over hers. “But it was the only way. You were all there, on the Conway, and it was all my fault. How would you have felt in my place? Wouldn’t you have done whatever it took to stop the most important people in your life from being harmed?” He runs his fingers through his hair.
Kris’s heart doesn’t break, but there’s a crack, perhaps. Stupid, he reminds himself, stupid and damaging.
“And how would you feel if one of the most important people in your life tried to die for you?” he asks, simply.
“Oh,” Adam says.
“Indeed,” Kris says. He leans on the locking bar again, and it starts to move.
“Kris…” Adam starts. Kris looks up at Adam’s face, the upturned palm, the lack of Upgrade. It’s all terrifyingly vulnerable. Adam swallows and says, “I hope that you have a plan from here on in.”
Allie says, “Not really,” adding her weight to the bar. The left bracket gives a little more, lurching out of the wall.
“Well, Daniel said he was keeping all his correspondence in his desk. There’s got to be something there we can use. Could you get me there?” Kris asks. He keeps forgetting not to look at Adam; his eyes drag back every time. There had been a point, just a few seconds, when he had been certain that they were too late, and there would be nothing left of Adam but a name, a missing book and the memory of a chance not taken.
“Of course we can,” Adam says easily. “Oh, wait. Where?”
“The State Rooms,” Allie tells him, and they exchange a look that promises bloody vengeance.
The bar finally gives way under their combined weight, with a startling screech of metal. Kris wrenches the door open and then he and Adam just stand there, looking at each other. Allie pushes him out of the doorway with a deep sigh, punches Adam on the arm and then flings her arms around him. He picks her up and spins her, and when they stop Kris can see that Adam is saying, “Sorry, sorry, Allie, sorry.”
She hushes him, smiling up at him before she steps away.
“Come on,” she says. She takes Kris’s hand and the three of them set off at a run.
Part Six
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Date: 2011-05-31 12:39 pm (UTC)Fun fact! When I was plotting this fic out I had all the scenes summed up on little post-it notes and there is one that just says, "MAKE OUT?!"