XIV
Christmas.
Christmas like Fleance had never known it before. Three had not bothered getting any sort of Christmas decorations, so he and Irina and Hito had gotten up in the middle of the night and filled the main hallway with candles. Come daylight, though, the light did not show up like it was supposed to, and Three, after accidentally tipping one over and setting the carpet on fire, had them all smothered out with their fingertips. All three of them now sat by the fire while Three went to do business, nursing their blackened fingers and glaring into the flames.
“I miss Arthur,” Fleance muttered. Irina, instead of glaring, touched his hand lightly.
“Cheer up; he’s probably watching us right now.”
“Remember that one time we brought the human over?” Fleance asked suddenly. Irina looked over to Hito, who had started at the word ‘human’ and was now staring at Fleance intently.
“Human?” Hito mouthed. Irina looked around nervously to make sure Three hadn’t come home, and nodded.
“It was just after the war,” she whispered as Fleance blinked and then toppled over, fast asleep. “1945, the end…”
*
Christmas, 1945.
When the rest of the world was clearing up the ruins and nursing its wounds, the castle in Scotland, blissfully ignorant of its surroundings, was going about in the usual way. Arthur and Fleance and a very drunk British soldier were belting out Christmas songs at the top of their lungs, while Irina let off her steam through setting off firecrackers, Lia was cleaning the kitchen without being told to do so, and Three was passed out on the floor above so that he wouldn’t hear another verse of “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen.”
“Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,” the soldier – Johnson – cried out, throwing his arms around Arthur and Fleance to indicate the thousand ships, and then slumped over.
“Look, he’s asleep,” Fleance giggled.
“He is,” Arthur nodded. They exchanged a glance over the body.
“Let’s decorate him with Christmas lights,” Fleance suggested, grinning over his apple cider.
“Alright,” Arthur proceeded to strip the tree, but Fleance stopped him, disappearing and reappearing with a box of lights. Arthur stared for a moment. “When did we get that?”
“Three bought me some!” Fleance said happily.
“Oh,” Arthur frowned.
*
“You decorated a war soldier with Christmas lights?” Hito asked dubiously. Irina shrugged.
“It wasn’t me, it was them,” she said defensively.
*
“What are we supposed to do now?” Fleance asked, “Should we eat him?”
Arthur looked shocked. “No! He just came home from a war!”
“So we’re letting him go?”
“He has a family, One,” Arthur reminded him, tapping his foot.
“Oh…alright,” Fleance sighed, his hair flying up with the sigh, “But can he keep the Christmas lights, at least?”
*
“You know what we do, at home?” Hito asked, wisely dropping the subject.
“What?” she asked eagerly.
“Well…first, Yume goes out Christmas shopping,” Hito said, shaking his head, “She buys new lights every year, and new stockings, and enough candy to last another world war. And she buys so many presents for charity – about half of the donations come from us alone – and then on the 20th we all decorate the house.”
“What’s charity?” Irina asked.
“People who can’t afford presents – we give them charity so they can give something to their friends,” Hito said in surprise.
“Oh…how…nice…”
“Icarus keeps a tree in his forge,” Hito said, with a raised eyebrow.
“His forge?”
“He made all our weapons,” Hito said quietly, “Our swords all came from my brother.”
“Seriously?” astonishment caught in her voice, bringing out the Russian tint.
“Yep. Icarus would drag the tree out – I honestly don’t know how it keeps alive in the first place – and Shin and Shuichi decorate it. Actually, Shin decorates it, and Shuichi has to cook dinner with Yume.”
“Shuichi is the…lazy one?” Irina recalled.
“Yes,” Hito smiled. “He is surprisingly easy to get along with.”
“Because he’s asleep all the time?” Irina asked, rolling her eyes.
Hito laughed out loud. “You remind me of Megumi sometimes.”
“Really?” there was an edge to her voice.
“She would say the same thing,” he said hastily, but changed the topic again, leaning closer to her. “Should I continue?”
“Go on,” Irina said grudgingly.
“Shin decorates the tree, while Icarus goes to hammer the lights onto the roof and walls of our house,” Hito said. “Megumi shovels the snow and if she’s in a good mood, she builds a snow sculpture.”
“By herself?”
“No, no, Icarus helps her. Sometimes.”
“I see.”
“Shin goes out to help her, too,” Hito remembered, “Shin is a…he’s very…well, he has a lot of images in his head, he just doesn’t really know how to express them. But they make the grounds of our castle look very nice and magical.”
“Like wonderland?”
“I suppose,” he replied. “But inside, it’s warmer…and if Shuichi keeps the fire going it’s just as nice. He forgot one year, and we couldn’t light it up again, and we all froze.”
“Poor you,” Irina said, shaking her head.
Hito saw her lips curl, though, and continued. “Icarus and Yume always claim the spot next to the fire, and Shuichi always gets the largest couch, until Shin and Megumi make him move. They’re always together, the three of them, you know…”
“So what do you do?” Irina asked.
Hito shrugged. “I help wherever I can.”
“And where do you go?”
“Into the darkest corner of the room,” he admitted.
“Not good,” she said, frowning at him.
Hito mirrored her frown for a moment, then looked nervously at the fire, and then back at her, and then to Fleance, who was still asleep. “Come here,” he said quietly.
“What?”
“Come on,” he repeated, tugging her out of her chair and onto his lap. “You know, this is kind of how Icarus and –”
“But not as good as us, right?” Irina asked, cutting him off.
Hito stared down into her face, at how the firelight seemed to turn her eyes into liquid. “Not as good,” he agreed.
“Hito,” she said after a moment.
“What?”
“What if – what if we left, now?”
“Now?”
“Three is gone, Four is gone, and we could carry him,” she looked over at Fleance. Hito looked tempted for a moment, and then shook his head.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“They’re coming,” he said, looking straight into her eyes, “My family.”
“What?”
“I should have told you sooner –”
“Why didn’t you trust me?”
“I wasn’t sure…Three knows…”
“Three?”
“It’s Christmas,” Hito said insistently. “We’ll be safe, Irina. They’re coming…”
Irina sighed. “Alright, then,” she said, letting her head rest into the crook of his neck. “You’re warm.”
“I am?”
“It’s nice,” she said.
Hito didn’t say anything, but his arms wrapped around her, warm and safe.
*
The morning after.
They were all in a daze, the previous night having gone on like a golden, glorious dream that would never come back. Fleance fell into his cereal at least three times, confused and lost and scared. Irina was staring off into the distance at something only she could see, and Hito was staring blankly at her, tapping his finger once in a while on the table, while Three, the victorious one, hummed behind his morning paper. No one saw how Three’s eyes narrowed in on Hito’s face.
“Seven?”
Hito’s eyes caught Three’s eyes – blood red ones meeting coppery rusty ones. He stood up, scooting the chair backwards quickly so that it screeched against the floor. “Sorry,” he muttered.
“Seven, how about a walk with me? You look like you need a bit of fresh air…wouldn’t you say…Fleance?” Three looked at Fleance, whose head jerked up, who looked at Hito and then at Three.
“Seven can do what – what he wants,” Fleance muttered, head hitting the table again as his eyelids drooped in exhaustion and sustained fear.
Three grinned, a wild, feral grin, as he stepped outside and Hito followed, and then abruptly his grin dropped off his face like a dagger sinking into the floor. Foolish boy, he thought contemptuously. “I know what you are planning, Takeda Hito.”
The boy didn’t say anything in return, and Three felt a prickle of irritation running down his spine. Why wouldn’t Takeda Hito say a word? “Whatever revenge you are planning to take, abandon it now, or else I’ll destroy your entire family, and you will have nothing left.”
That, at least, got a reaction. Hito’s eyes narrowed into slits of rubies, and his fist clenched inadvertently at his side. Three tried hard not to show any signs of triumph. He had been right – the Takeda boy had been working for his family the whole time, with the one intention of destroying the Council – and he had found the stoic, emotionless Takeda Hito’s weak spot.
“You wouldn’t dare touch them,” Hito growled, low, and even while he was exulting in cold satisfaction he was taken aback by the controlled anger in the boy’s tone.
“I’d like to see you stop me,” Three sneered back.
For a split second, they were frozen in motion and place like ice blocks. And then Three sprang forward, in an action that could only be described as feline, his fingers ready to claw Hito’s eyes out. The only thing that saved Hito was his age – he dodged, even faster if that was possible, swinging Three around and causing him to miss, but getting hit in the process. The two fell back into stance, panting and glaring.
“You will regret the day you decided to defy me, Takeda Hito. I wonder who I should destroy first. That boy, Takahashi, perhaps?”
Hito’s eyes were almost closed against the sun and the anger, but glowing lines of red illuminated his face as Three continued, “Perhaps that girl, Two’s lover? She can join Two in the afterlife.”
“You have no right to mention any of their names,” Hito growled, and sprinted at him, again, much faster than any human could have done, but Three was not a human. Three blocked his fists, caught his arm and swung him around like he did Fleance, and then stepped back, sneering, as Hito clambered up unsteadily, his shoulders shaking.
“Touchy, touchy, aren’t you, Takeda Hito?”
Before Hito could muster up the energy to say anything, the doors of the castle opened and Irina stepped out, shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun in the sky and the sun on the snow. Three saw her mouth the name – “Hito?” – and take a slow step forwards.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Three hissed at Irina, the girl who owed him so much, who would have long died if he had not changed her.
“But I do,” Irina replied simply. Fury pressed down on him. The girl? The traitor? Was she the one who started the business of leaving?
“Takeda Hito, you will regret the day you ever met this Council.”
Hito stepped towards Three, too, a little shakily, even as the bruises on his arm mended.
“And Irina, Irina who I have protected and cherished for years. Is this how you repay me? With betrayal?”
For a second, Irina looked hesitant, but then Three saw her jaw tighten, and she opened her mouth to tell him, in Russian, in a voice as cold as the snow, “You have never protected and cherished me. You have taken away my father, my village, my life. You have taken too much away.”
Three let a harsh bark of laughter escape his lips, but Irina continued, in English for the benefit of the Takeda boy, “You have taken too much away.”
“Ungrateful wretch!” Three shrieked, realizing exactly who it was that had started the whole affair, and charging at them. Irina leapt out of the way by a hair, as Hito bore down on the offensive. Little by little, Three lost control of the fight, and he slipped in the snow.
Irina hesitated, her hand an inch away from his throat.
“Вы хотите меня убить?” Three asked, softly. You would kill me?
Irina hesitated even more, and the instant was enough for him to pull the dagger out of his sleeve, laughing an exhilarated laugh, and plunging the blade deep into her heart. “Вы потеряли шанс,” he said coldly, standing, brushing the snow off his shirt.
You are next, Takeda Hito.
He left Irina bleeding and gasping in the snow, and he left the boy staring at him, utterly helpless, and then he left altogether, disappearing back into the castle.
*
Up in the tower, at the window, Fleance was screaming, but no one heard. “Irina!”
Was Irina dying?
“Hito!” he screamed, but Hito didn’t hear him, or maybe couldn’t hear him. Why did Three kill her? Why did Three fight them? With a sob, he turned away from the window, to the bed, where he let himself drop.
Arthur was waiting for him, a frown on his face.
“WHY?” Fleance screamed at him.
“I don’t know,” Arthur closed his eyes. “Irina was just a pawn…a pawn…a pawn…”
“What are you talking about?” Fleance demanded.
“We are in a game,” Arthur said, “Of chess.”
“Chess?”
“You must not die,” Arthur said. “You are the king. And if the king dies, we lose. You have to stay alive.”
“What are you talking about?” Fleance repeated.
“Three is the Red Queen,” Arthur said, “And you are the White King.”
“I don’t understand chess,” Fleance said.
“The object of the game is to kill the king. You are the only king the red queen would kill. Three wants to kill you, but he has to work his way through the rest of us first. Do you remember Ishmael? Six?”
“Yes…”
“He was the first to go – the knight.”
“And you –” Fleance started, his voice higher than normal.
“The other knight. And Four, Four is the other pawn. Even a pawn can defend a king. Remember that. Keep her safe.”
“No one will find her,” Fleance promised.
“Good.”
“What am I doing here?” a new voice, a female voice, broke through. Fleance whirled around –
“Irina!”
“What am I doing?” she asked shrilly, “Where am I?”
“Relax,” Arthur commanded.
“T-T-Two?”
“Arthur,” he corrected.
“Whatever,” she dismissed him.
“Irina, you’re dead,” Arthur said bluntly.
“I’m what?”
“Dead.”
“How can I be?” she asked harshly, “When he is here?” she pointed to Fleance. “Unless…”
“I’m not,” Fleance said quickly, feeling more and more confused.
“Go back to sleep, Fleance,” Arthur said, “Irina and I will talk.”
“But…”
“Go!”
*
Leo…
Staring up at the ceiling of her tiny room, she realized that it was white. There was one lamp in the whole room, and it was flickering. There were no windows. She was a prisoner of the castle. The light of the lamp dimmed and brightened at regular intervals, which sort of felt like the sun outside.
Except there was no sun, now.
“Maybe I’m going crazy,” she muttered to herself. “I’m talking to dead people.”
No one responded, of course. Lia sighed, but did not move. Earlier, when she had cleaned and cleaned and cleaned until this place was spotless, she did not feel that anything was severely wrong. But now she thought about why One was trapping her in this place without a sun.
No one could live without a sun.
“Am I going crazy, Leo?”
She imagined that her sunny little brother was sitting on her bed, demanding her to tell him a story. “Once upon a time,” he would say.
“There was a princess,” she’d sigh.
“What did the princess do?” he would prompt.
“Why don’t you go play outside like a normal boy, Leo?” she’d ask him.
Sometimes she thought she saw Laurence, too, but he never spoke to her. But she’d talk to him, sometimes. “Why are you engaged?” she would ask him.
Most of the time, though, she closed her eyes and tried not to think. She let her mind wander wherever it wanted to wander, and sometimes she thought about the other members of the Council, such as Arthur. Who was dead. Irina, who was also dead. Three, whom she feared more than anyone else in the world, and Seven, who she never talked to, and Fleance. Fleance looked almost exactly like Leo, with different colour hair.
Maybe in another life –
“Four! Four, are you alright?”
There was a wild pounding on the door. Lia rose, alarmed, to open it, and Fleance burst in, pale. “You’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said, her eyes wide, “What happened?”
“Irina – Five – is dead.”
Silence.
“Sorry?” Lia asked, a bit uncertainly.
“Five is dead,” Fleance repeated, “Three killed her.”
Lia stared at him, blankly.
“Here,” Fleance produced a few food items from under his jacket. “I have to go. Three probably knows you’re still in the castle – he’s probably looking everywhere…”
“You don’t have to come here to see me all the time,” Lia said, “Just once in a while…so that I know you’re still alive.”
“Well, I have to keep checking so that I know you’re still alive,” Fleance pointed out, turning and leaving.
“Wait –” Lia called out, but he was already gone.
*
Thankfully, Three found him not the minute he came out of the door, but a few hallways from it. “And where do you think you’re going?”
“I…”
“You have caused me so much trouble,” Three hissed, slamming him into the wall. Fleance clenched his teeth and glared back at him.
“You’re the one stupid enough to listen to me,” he said.
“After I am finished with the Takeda boy,” Three said, his eyes livid, his face paler than usual, “I will enjoy killing you. I will enjoy ripping you apart, limb by limb, and ripping through you with my knife, and watching you bleed into the floor just like your knight did, begging for mercy.”
“Or maybe you won’t,” Fleance said, frowning and revealing the hidden dagger in his shoe. Three’s eyes widened.
“Since when did you have that?”
“Always.”
Three glared down at Fleance. Fleance glared back up. Several centuries flew by, and then with a shout of anger Three smashed his head into the wall, dropped him, and stalked off in disgust.
Fleance rubbed his eyes, standing up, letting his head come to a stop, letting the stars in his vision disappear. He took a deep breath. He had to stay alive, Arthur had told him. He had to stay alive to save this game, except it wasn’t really a game anymore.
It was his life. It was his life, and Lia’s life, and probably Arthur’s and Irina’s and Hito’s lives. For the first time in centuries, Fleance uttered a short prayer. Please God don’t let them die for me.
Then he walked, slowly, up the stairs, his face set in stone.
It was time to go. To hide. To hide from his death.
To fly.
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