[tegoshi/becky, yoko/kame, shige/pi] atlas

[songbirdspeaks]

Title: Atlas
Pairing: Tegoshi Yuya/Becky, Yokoyama You/Kamenashi Kazuya, Kato Shiegaki/Yamashita Tomohisa, past Akanishi Jin/Becky; Tegoshi Yuya & Kamenashi Kazuya friendship, Tegoshi Yuya & Kato Shigeaki friendship
Rating: R for violence
Word count: ~17500
Warnings: Steampunk-fantasy AU
Summary: Becky is a tempest, and Tegoshi is caught in the eye of the storm.
Author's Notes: For Katy during White Day 2012. Thank you to Livy for her fantastic, last-minute beta work.
IMPORTANT LATIN WORDS THAT MAY BE HELPFUL: Insula means island, pugnaculum means fortress.


Tegoshi knows what they say about his meteoric rise to second-in-command at the prison fortress and training facility Insula Gratia, largely that his command post is from time spent on his knees in front of Captain Kamenashi, but he's spent his entire life not caring what other people think, so he ignores the gossip that swirls into silence whenever he comes in from morning training exercises to swallow down whatever swill they're serving for breakfast that day and goes back out to train the newbies. He's sure there's a pile of paperwork and disciplinary sheets needing his attention on his desk--there always are, with a force as big as the one stationed at Gratia--but if working for Kamenashi is largely a chore of constantly trying to measure up (and it is, Tegoshi is always trying to be good enough for the trust the Captain puts on him), at least he takes care of most of the paperwork, when Tegoshi's not interested in doing it.

The new troops are idiots, as always, but they seem to have finally started catching onto Tegoshi's brisk command of how to use the flintlock and gunpowder of their work, and Tegoshi is largely satisfied when he lets them go for lunch. The afternoon will be held up by the other instructors, and Tegoshi takes the time to go up to his office for the first time in a day and a half.

The large oak double doors that are the entryway to the Captain's office are thrown wide open, and from within Tegoshi can hear Kamenashi talking to his aide in the even, clear tones that mean he's reached the end of his patience. Tegoshi steps inside, smile set across his face, to drag Kame's attention away from the hapless secretary. "Captain," he says, and Kame's eyes flick at him, over the fitted gray-and-red lines of his training uniform and the shiny black buckles of the boots Tegoshi had taken the time to wear over his pants, and the Captain dismisses his aide with a flick of his hand. The young man, looking like the charcoal uniform of his rank is a size too short from the knobby wrists pointing out over the end of his sleeves, gathers up a stack of envelopes from Kamenashi's outbox and walks out. Tegoshi says nothing until the thick doors click closed behind him, and then he takes five long steps down the green carpet to stand at loose attention in front of Kame's imposing oak desk, hands drawn up behind his lower back.

"Tegoshi," Kamenashi says, "have you been to your office today?"

"No," Tegoshi answers, easily, and settles out of brisk stiffness into a looser, more casual stance, arms crossed across his chest and right hip cocked. "I was headed over when I heard you verbally eviscerating poor Nakajima."

"I wasn't eviscerating anyone, verbally or otherwise," Kamenashi grumbles, tapping his middle finger on a pile of papers. His face is pulled into unattractive, out of sort lines when he speaks again, asking, "What’s your schedule this afternoon?"

"Nothing, until a shift commanding the guard tonight," Tegoshi answers, after a moment of thought, "why?"

The Captain looks relieved, by a fraction. "You need to go to the shipyard and collect a political prisoner."

"Who?" Tegoshi asks, thinking hard about the scarce news they've gotten from the capitol lately.

"The oldest daughter of one of the lords who's been charged as an accessory in the plot against the queen," Kamenashi says, "Ridley, or something." He sorts through a folder and hands Tegoshi a trio of pages across the desk. "It's all in there. She's to be delivered directly to the Warden, and treated gently. Tell him she's to be sequestered in the center chambers with a single guard."

"I'll make sure the Warden knows," Tegoshi says, stiffness undercutting his acknowledgement, and Kamenashi leverages a weighted, serious glance at him before he nods.

"You have leave to take the cable car," Kamenashi says, "if you want to."

Tegoshi offers the Captain a proper salute for that. "Thank you, sir," he says, and turns on his heel, a grin already flitting over his face.

The cable cars run from the prison fortress' top level across the canyon where the prison sits, to the shipyard teetering on the sheer cliffs on the other side. There are two ways to the shipyard--the cable cars, and an old-fashioned, pulley-system elevator from the heart of the prison itself, up into the bottom level of the shipyard.

Tegoshi likes the cable cars, because it's as close as he can get to flying until he gets to take a zeppelin home on leave, and because of the nature of his service--the fact that he enlisted rather than go to jail--he won't get to take leave for another three years, until the first five years of his service are up. The cable cars are unmanned, run by magicians on either end of the cable, and Tegoshi is alone in his cart as he leans halfway out the high window to look up, at the sky pressing down on him. He's changed from his gray training uniforms to the black-and-blue dress uniform, wearing a layer of magic-infused chainmail underneath the jacket and his rapier at his hip. One political prisoner, to be treated gently, Tegoshi reminds himself, and peels himself away from the view to finally look at the papers folded in his right breast pocket.

He settles on the bench underneath his feet, crossing his legs at the ankles and laying the papers across his knees. Genina Ridley, newly at her majority at the age of twenty, is a young lady of high-born breeding. High-spirited and well-educated, but had never received weapons training despite her position as her father's heir. Tegoshi thinks that this is strange--ever since the law that had mandated daughters could inherit, most parents had seen fit to educate daughters as well as their sons, and Genina Ridley is just the right age for that trend to have forced her through at least gun training at her college--but then her father's holdings plant themselves on Tegoshi's mental map of the mainland. The Ridleys, says the paper, hold--held, now, probably--the Altas, the highlands on the edge of the kingdom's borders and as far from the capitol as you could get before you weren't in Tilda anymore. Atlas had always been the most traditional of the holdings, and it was likely Genina was the older style of heiress, the kind that got married at twenty and had a boatload of children for the man ruling her lands, unless her father tried to overthrow the queen and got caught. Tegoshi nearly feels bad for her, and then throws that moment of weakness away. Besides escort from shipyard to prison, she isn't his responsibility.

The cable car docks too fast, lurching to a stop and nearly sending Tegoshi across the cart, but he catches himself on the handle by the door and manages to settle down, looking as unflappable as he can when the mage's apprentice opens the door and immediately begins stammering apologies. Tegoshi waves the kid away and settles his eyes on Kato, the shipyard's head magician, with irritation writ across his mouth. Kato alternately colors red about the ears and then coughs, trying to regain his composure, before he speaks. "Lieutenant Tegoshi, what a surprise to see you here," Kato says, and dips his head in half a bow. Technically, he's ranked higher than Tegoshi, but Kato had known Tegoshi before, and Tegoshi had been a Duke's son. Kato's common, scholarly background had ingrained a couple of habits when it came to Tegoshi that even graduation and promotion hadn't cured.

"Who were you expecting," Tegoshi asks, arching an eyebrow, "I'd hate to be whoever it was who pissed you off."

"No one," Kato sniffs, trying to look superior.

"Requisitions Officer Yamashita stole his novel draft."

"Koki," Kato groans, and Tegoshi has to laugh. The battle of 'who could give each other the most grief' had been going on between Yamashita and Kato for years, and Tegoshi didn't see it stopping any time soon. Head Mechanic Tanaka is underneath what Tegoshi identifies after a moment as a zeppelin engine, a wrench dangling from his right hand and a contraption Tegoshi doesn't recognize in his left. He slides out from under the large piece of suspended machinery and twists the piece in his hand around to look at it better in the light, and then he curses, dropping his wrench and skimming his hands over his tools until he finds a screwdriver.

"I'm here to collect a prisoner," Tegoshi says, looking at Kato. "Where's Lady Ridley?"

Kato makes a certain pinched, annoyed face when he doesn't have an answer for a question; Tegoshi remembers it from their days at the college. He makes it now, before he glances back over his shoulder. "Our guardsmen have been very secretive about prisoners lately," he says, finally, "you should talk to Matsumoto."

Tegoshi hums; he's expected that, but it's nice to rile Kato up a little. "Thanks, Shige," he says, dipping into the childhood nickname, and pats his shoulder as he passes.

Matsumoto's office door is closed; Tegoshi pushes it open anyway. Matsumoto's face cycles through several shades of irritation before he realizes who it is, and then he offers Tegoshi his full attention. "Lieutenant Tegoshi," he says.

"Corporal Matsumoto," Tegoshi returns the offered politeness. "Captain Kamenashi sent me over for a Lady Ridley."

To his surprise, Matsumoto stands immediately, circling his desk and leading Tegoshi back out of his office. "Lady Ridley is being held in a waiting room down one level," Matsumoto explains, as he leads Tegoshi through the wide airship berth and to the spiral staircase that leads to the private rooms on the lower level. They pass countless featureless doors, ignoring the eyes of mechanics and guardsmen alike, until they stop at the end of the hallway. There are men on either side; Matsumoto ignores them and raps once on the door. "Lady Ridley, your escort is here."

From inside, a light voice bids them enter, and Matsumoto pushes the door open. He steps back and motions Tegoshi inside; Tegoshi does so, and jerks when the door shuts behind him. Genina Ridley is turned half away from him, bent at the writing desk that dominates the tiny office where she's been locked, but after a flourish of her quill she turns in her chair and looks up at him.

Tegoshi makes a noise of surprise, and her mouth falls into a slack, soft 'o'. Her hair is longer and darker, and her clothes are different, richer, more colorful and more modern in style, but Lady Genina Ridley isn't Genina Ridley at all. She's Becky Vaughn, and she's the reason he's here in the first place. He coughs, to cover it; he can't speak to her here, not with Matsumoto likely eavesdropping outside. "Lady Ridley," he says, and bows at the waist. There's a flicker of something on her face that looks like gratitude; at least, Tegoshi hopes so. She inclines her head, a lady's greeting, and speaks in a bright easy tone entirely unlike the rough, rowdy cursing of the last time they met.

"Good afternoon," she says.

"I'm Lieutenant Tegoshi," he introduces himself, so they're clear, "I'm escorting you down to the Insula Centrum."

"Happy to meet you, Lieutenant," Lady Ridley--Becky--says, and she's careful to keep her face carefully schooled to polite regard. "Shall we depart, then?"

At her feet, standing on its end next to the writing desk, is a purple trunk. Tegoshi crosses the room and lifts it, leaning over her long enough to see a flash in her eyes, and finds it not heavy at all. Tegoshi's glad for it as he leads her back down the hall to the central staircase. The elevator trip down to the Insula Centrum is long, and Becky lets silence stew for a moment before she speaks again.

"Is Insula Gratia full of many unsavory characters?" she asks, playing her role of sheltered gentlewoman admirably, in Tegoshi's opinion.

"No, no," he says, and tries to hold back his laughter. "We're by and large responsible for important, political prisoners. Lots of noble guests doing a little hard time. On top of that, in interest of protecting your virtue, you'll be sequestered in solitary chambers for your stay." He doesn't tell her where those chambers will be--in the very center of the fortress, surrounded on all sides by guards and maze-like hallways, with her only companion the Warden's second, Yokoyama. Tegoshi can't think of much worse a punishment for an innocent girl. Even if Becky isn't exactly innocent herself.

Yokoyama--the tall, pale, easily flustered second in command to the Warden, and Ridley's jailer--is waiting at the doorway to her chambers. "Lieutenant Tegoshi," Yokoyama says, and sounds kind of disappointed. Tegoshi files that away for later, and glances down at his charge.

"Lady Ridley, Lieutenant Yokoyama." Tegoshi hands Yokoyama the trunk. He sketches a loose salute-slash-bow to them both, and then makes his way across the Insula Centrum to the elevator to the guard fortress. He has a captain to talk to.

"Sir," he says, and forces his way into Kamenashi's office with the force of his right hip. Kamenashi is standing at his bookshelf, a slim tome in his hands, when he turns to take in Tegoshi's ruddy face and the tilt of his mouth.

"What happened?" he demands, equal parts panic and resignation coloring the question.

"I have a request," Tegoshi says, before the Captain can get carried away.

Kamenashi blinks owlishly, confused, and then gestures Tegoshi to continue with a flick of his wrist. "Go ahead," he says.

"I want to be Genina Ridley's guard," Tegoshi says.

"What?" Kamenashi asks, "why?"

"I--" Tegoshi thinks of the carefully prepared statements he'd come up with on the way over, and tosses them out on their asses, figuratively. "I just think it's time I went below sometimes. And I know Lieutenant Yokoyama's been putting in requests to transfer up into the air for the past six months. He could use the fresh air and you could use a change in... scenery, so to speak!"

Kame's eyes have narrowed. "If I find out you've seduced her, I will make you wish you'd drowned that time the zeppelin crashed, are we clear?" he asks, and Tegoshi knows he's won.

"I'll be on my best behavior," he promises.

"That's what I'm afraid of," Kamenashi grumbles.

---

Tegoshi doesn't move from his quarters, and Yokoyama's not anywhere near the kind of swordsman he is, so Kamenashi doesn't actually relieve him from most of his training duties, but three days into her sentence Tegoshi takes Yoko's place in delivering Lady Ridley her breakfast. Her chambers are locked with a rotary lock made by the mages, and then her bedroom--where she's left each night at curfew--is further locked with a key Tegoshi is directed to wear around his neck, under his jacket.

He opens her bedroom door at exactly eight, a tray of oatmeal, a pre-peeled orange, and brewing pot of tea balanced on his hip. She's already awake and dressed in a blue, knee-length dress in the style of the Capitol, plaiting her hair behind her ear. She doesn't look up--Yoko has likely been too shy to strike up conversation--and Tegoshi sets her breakfast down on the small side table to approach her at the vanity.

"It's lopsided," he says, and plucks her hair from her suddenly slack fingers to tug it loose. She stares at him in the mirror, equal parts surprise and suspicion, as he draws on years of his older sister forcing him through tea parties and rebraids it.. When he's done, he reaches blindly over her shoulder for the white ribbon stretched out over the top of the sturdy, well-worn vanity, and ties the braid off.

Becky rises as soon as he's done, and rounds to stare at him. This close Tegoshi can see that her dress is a little out of fashion, and worn down. Her mouth pulls in, and then she raises one eyebrow in what is clearly a demand. "Where's Lieutenant Yokoyama?" she asks.

"He was re-assigned," Tegoshi says, "so instead you get the Tegoshi experience." In Tegoshi's opinion, this is a large improvement: spending months with Tegoshi as her only company is basically a blessing.

Becky clearly doesn't agree, and pushes past him to settle at the side table and begin spooning oatmeal into her mouth. Tegoshi takes the opportunity to look over her belongings, now set out on nearly every surface. There are three other dresses of similar style on the bed, and a pair of heavier ones over a chair by the bureau in the corner. Her shoes are lined up along one edge of it, and there are other ribbons on the vanity. Everything has color and a bit of embellishment, but they do not, by and large, resemble the wardrobe of a Duke's daughter, even in captivity. Then again, Becky's not actually a Duke's daughter, and Tegoshi isn't sure why she's acting as though she is.

He turns to look at her, and sees her bent over her orange, peeling parts off and eating them. She looks up, bliss stretched over her face, and her expression doesn't change as she puts another slice between her lips and chews on it. Tegoshi swallows, and looks away when she finally lowers her head to her oatmeal again. It's only when she's done and waiting for her second cupful of tea to finish stewing that she meets his eyes, and when she does Tegoshi jumps on the opportunity.

"When did you become a Duke's daughter?" he asks, "If I'd known you had such powerful friends I wouldn't have put my neck out for you at my parent's estate."

Yes he would have--she and her friend, they'd saved his mother. Even if they did have powerful friends Tegoshi wouldn’t have been able to leave them to be executed for a crime they didn't commit--and from the angle of her eyebrows he thinks she knows that.

"Only a year or two," she admits, surprising him with her honesty, "I was--adopted. After the previous Lady Ridley died of sickness."

"And why are you here?" he presses, "What is there for you in here? You could have escaped from that estate any time you wanted to."

She snorts. "He caged me in," she says. "Better than any jail cell I've ever seen."

"What do you mean?" he demands, and she shakes her head, looking down at her tea and picking it up. They spend the rest of the morning in awkward silence. She reads from the small library in the outer chamber, and draws whimsical stars and ladies in fine dresses on vellum for a time, and hums under her breath as she half-dances across her bedroom as if she's at home, not surrounded by earth and metal and Tegoshi on a bench, examining the shine of his boots. Tegoshi escapes to bring her back lunch, and when he does he's decided to try something different.

"You do know your dress is out of fashion by a season, right?" he asks, before he puts down her tray. She turns from where she's sketching and glares at him, but the effect is lost because the end of her braid is closed between her lips, and his mouth quirks at her.

"Atlas gets the fashions slowly," she says, after she spits the hair out, "besides, the current fashions have hoops. No, thank you."

Tegoshi imagines her in hoops, and snorts, which she catches, and then they're both laughing. "When did the Queen start wearing hoops?" he asks, when they settle down, sitting knee to knee at the table in the library with lunch between them.

"Oh, she didn't, she thinks they look silly," Becky says, "the Duke of Manshiba's wife started wearing them because I guess she wants the fashion from a hundred years ago to be back in fashion, and they got popular off of her because she did a tour of the other lands and claimed everyone at court was wearing them. The Queen says they make women look like they're going to fall over--she's started to wear pants, as often as she can."

"When did you speak to the Queen?" Tegoshi asks, thinking, "when you were at the college?"

Becky shakes her head. "I was--when I was first adopted, I spent time with the duke in the capitol. We struck up a friendship, kind of, can you imagine that? A pirate girl and a queen."

"A pirate girl turned duke's daughter," Tegoshi corrects her. "Lady Genina."

She rolls her eyes. "He made that up on the spot, because he's an idiot who doesn't think ahead, except when it's interfering with my plans--his wife's name was Regina. Everyone thinks the name is so inspired. I think it's stupid. It's not even a real name!"

"I like Becky better, myself," Tegoshi agrees.

Her expression softens. "Please call me that in private," she half-begs, "I haven't seen Jin in months, no one knows who I am anymore."

At the mention of her loud-mouth ex-partner, Tegoshi feels his good humor start to dip. "And where is your other half?" he asks, trying for casual and probably only getting to snobbish.

Becky looks down at her lunch, and picks up her spoon to work on her still-steaming chicken soup. After a mouthful of thought, she licks her lips and meets his eye. Her shoulders are tense, and she looks wary. "He's with the queen," she says, watching his reaction, "she's commissioned us to track down this conspiracy."

Tegoshi thinks it's probably strange that he doesn't disbelieve her for a second, but the fire that's been burning in her since she started talking about the queen doesn't feel like a lie. "Then why are you at Insula Gratia?" he asks, "there's no ducal conspiracy going on here--the only person with any ties to a duchy at all here is me, and I haven't been home in three years, Becky. Three years."

"I'm not here on purpose," she snaps, "the queen's spies found the duke's... involvement. Since their methods mean take captives first and ask questions later, no one ever thought to ask if I knew anything. So now I'm stuck here while they sift through his things and they're not going to find anything, he figured me out and hid it all! I watched him burn the letters."

"If you could leave, what would you do?" he asks.

He thinks she's going to say 'sail away'. Instead she seems to light up even more, and says, "save the Queen, properly. We were hired to protect her on her summer holiday when the conspiracy was discovered by her spymaster. Jin and I split up--he's schmoozing in the capitol, and I managed to get an in with the Duke Ridley. His daughter died and he never told anyone--he wants a good son to help him rule, have his back, and I was a poor but educated girl from the city. I made him think it was his idea to adopt me, and then he introduced me to all of his friends as 'my beloved daughter, making her debut!'"she rises, and begins to move around the room, acting out the parts of her aged, adopted father, and hapless, charming Jin--"and brought me home with him. He figured out I'd betrayed him when he found me going through his papers, and when the queen's spies started taking people prisoner he called me his 'fond daughter' and sent me away. Two birds, one stone--it's not like I could say 'oh, by the way, the queen hired me to do your job for you!', and he was rid of me. Cue a miserable zeppelin trip to Insula Gratia, the jewel of Tilda's justice system. Tried and tested by the finest thieves, and never escaped. And you, in my pretty jail cell with me. What a life. Meanwhile, the dukes are joining together to cut Her Majesty off from the capitol and force her into a marriage."

Tegoshi watches her flit around, and finally settles on the hopefully neutral, "I see."

"You don't believe me," she accuses, her eyes narrow.

"I've always believed you," Tegoshi snaps, and surprises them both with the bite--and the truth--of it. "When is Jin coming?"

"He's not coming," she says, and it's clear to him that she believes it.

"You're an idiot," he says, "he's coming. You'd come for him, right?"

"If I knew where he was, I'd go to the ends of the Earth for that idiot," she swears, and it's vehement, heated, "but he'll never know where I am."

"Self-pity looks terrible on you," Tegoshi comments, and she regards him with something that's both shocked and, somehow, touched, and Tegoshi keeps his eyes fixed on her until she smiles down into her soup.

"It does, doesn't it," she agrees, "guess I'll have to make my way out to him, then."

The way she says it hits him somewhere in the vicinity of the pit of his stomach, and he soon makes his excuses and goes out to train against a dummy for a few hours, working out his frustration in sweat as he tries to think of how to help her. There's no doubt in his mind that he's going to help her, either: she's never been anything but truthful to him, when other people would have found benefit in a lie. He's put his neck out for her and Jin before--he's still paying for it, years later--and he'd do it again in a second. Yuya of the house of Tegoshi doesn't hide from his lumps. Even if those lumps include five years away from his home in order to ensure his older sister can still ensure their full property when the time comes.

The idea comes to him as he's in the middle of trouncing a sergeant in front of his unit. He settles the match with two points, and then steps neatly away, bowing his head to the man and his troops before going down to the baths to freshen up. He stinks of sweat, mud, and jealousy, and he won't have it.

His plan is simple, and he's struck by how brilliant he is as he collects dinner for them both from the Centrum's kitchens and begins the trek down into the fortress. He puts dinner down outside of the chamber, and hits the numeric code to open the outer door, then crosses to the bedroom where Becky has once again been locked in. It's a simple matter of creating an opportunity for her to figure out how to escape, and then helping her, so when he unlocks the door he leaves the key out, silver glinting against the dark black of his jacket. Becky looks up from the bed, where she's reading, and her eyes zero in on the key immediately, as he'd suspected.

"Oh, crap, dinner," he says, when she looks him over, and turns, leaving the door open. He thinks he might be too obvious as he hits the rotary lock to collect the tray, but he knows the solution she's going to come to, because it's the one he'd come to: if Tegoshi is being careless with the combination, that means the combination will be changing, and soon, so she doesn't have much time. A night, if she's lucky.

That's exactly what Tegoshi is counting on, and he doesn't have much time. He's so busy thinking and thinking that he doesn't even notice Becky plucking the heavy soup bowl from the tray he's now set on the table, pouring it out on the floor, and swinging it at his head until the last minute. He ducks with a squawk, and moves to tackle her, but she swings the bowl again and he goes stumbling back. He trips over the edge of the bedroom door and goes stumbling back, and by the time he falls all the way back she's heavy on his chest, her feet on either side of his biceps and the bowl held threateningly over his head.

"You should be glad you're wearing pants under this dress," he says, and she shifts the bowl to get more lift. Damn it all.

"Don't move," she says, and pulls the key from his chest. "This won't hurt too much, I promise."

"There's a guard change in an hour," he says, desperately, "and right afterwards the lower deck clears out when the guards catch dinner."

"...go on," she says.

"Once you get there, you have to put in a code, and it changes on the hour," he continues, which is false, but if she's really planning on getting off this island she needs his help, and she'll only let him help her if she really thinks she needs him. Not that he doubts her ingenuity, but his plan involves a lot fewer dead friends.

"In an hour," she decides, "we'll go to the elevator."

"No," he says, "I have work to do--they'll notice if I'm gone. When have I ever let you down?"

That's a low blow, and he knows it, but it does the job, and she clambers off of him. "Go," she says, swinging the key in her hand.

"I'll see you at the elevator," he says, as he leverages himself to his feet, and then he escapes her chambers, mind racing.

"Captain," Tegoshi says, pushing his way into Kamenashi's office, "do you--have a minute?" He stares awkwardly between Kamenashi and Yokoyama, who is leaning on the edge of Kamenashi's desk with a half-folded piece of paper in his hands.

Yoko coughs, moving away, and excuses himself for the moment. "I'll be right back," he says, fidgeting with his uniform's lapels, and makes his escape. Kamenashi's face is a model of a poker face but for the pinched-together line of his eyebrows.

"What is it?" Kamenashi asks.

"Am I interrupting anything?" Tegoshi asks, widening his eyes. Kamenashi's lip curls, and Tegoshi blinks back to normal. "I have a request. A kind of weird one."

Kamenashi sits back in his chair, and raises an eyebrow silently. "Go ahead," he says.

"I want to get some old books shipped in here for Lady Ridley," Tegoshi says.

Kamenashi rolls his eyes. "Talk to Ninomiya--he's the Warden, that's his job."

"He won't do it! He says I have to wait until the next supply zeppelin is going to go out, but she's already read basically everything in the library we have here. So. Can you... write up a requisition approval for me?" Tegoshi offers his most winning smile.

Kamenashi stares hard at him. "Remember what I said about seducing daughters of dukes," he warns, and then reaches into the right top drawer of his desk for the--yes!--generic supply request approval letter he'd pre-written about three hundred of on cold nights in the winter.

"It's not seduction," Tegoshi complains, "she's just--she's only twenty! She's lonely and in a new place and I thought it might cheer her up."

"Keep going and people are going to accuse you of having feelings," Kamenashi teases, and Tegoshi draws back, settling his hand to his chest in mock shock.

"The only person I have feelings for is myself, Captain," Tegoshi says, carefully icy, "no one else meets my impeccable standards."

"More like no one else is willing to spend any amount of time with you staring at your reflection in the mirror," Kamenashi corrects, and then breaks into laughter, reading over the paper in front of him to be sure of his writing. Then he signs and seals the letter, and passes it to Tegoshi across the desk. When Tegoshi closes his fingers around it, Kamenashi doesn't let go, and Tegoshi meets his eye.

"Don't come into the office without knocking next time," Kamenashi says, seriously.

"So I was interrupting something!" Tegoshi says, swallowing his smirk, and turns on his heel to leave. Outside, Yokoyama has a folder under his arm, shifting around waiting for Tegoshi to open the office door, and Tegoshi favors him with a heavy pat to his bicep as he passes.

Lifting the seal is easy enough, heated knife sliding carefully underneath the bright blue wax, but re-writing Kamenashi's letter is harder, and it takes all of Tegoshi's modicum of magical talent--magical talent he's kept carefully under wraps, after his month of spy training at the training barracks in Corceus and his departure for Insula Gratia as a rank-and-file officer, cushy job at a cushy prison fortress for a duke's son since he's too 'self-absorbed' to serve Tilda properly, whatever the hell that means--to replace the part of the text that talks about supplies and change it out for a movement order. Tegoshi throws an apology at Kamenashi under his breath as he watches the magic vellum sink into the paper, and he crosses his fingers and concentrates as hard as he can, sagging with relief when the letter appears like it's never been tampered with. Re-affixing the wax is harder, but he manages it with a low curse. Kato is notoriously rough with letters--an imperfection in the wax won't be noticed, and it's not like anyone's going to accuse Tegoshi of being allied in rebellion against the queen in any event, especially since the only person on his side is apparently a gently bred noble girl.

Tegoshi likes being underestimated. The look of surprise when he slides his rapier between unsuspecting ribs makes it that much more satisfying. After a stop in his quarters to say a quiet goodbye to his things, pack a small bag (water, food, a whetstone, herbs and a change of clothes, he reads to himself off his mental list), and change from dress blues to something that will travel easier--casual gray pants, waterproof black boots and a green shirt dark enough to be less visible at night--he makes his way toward the Centrum. He's tense the entire walk back down, feeling as though every eye on him is suspicious instead of the usual sardonic, and it's only when he sees some of the hand gestures going along with the glances thrown his way in the Centrum mess hall that he remembers why he's usually a topic of conversation, and he's able to put it behind him. Kamenashi is certainly his dearest friend, but the things that seem to be going around about him lately are just perverse. And probably physically impossible, if he's understanding the reference correctly.

Tegoshi walks the maze to the other side of the Centrum, and waits in the dark by the elevator for fifteen minutes. Becky appears just as he's worried she's been caught, her knee-length dress hiked up over what look a lot like the boots she was wearing the first time they met and her long hair bound back behind her neck in a ponytail. She nearly crashes against his side, wrapping her hands around his forearm to steady herself, and then smiles at him. Tegoshi smiles back, but they don't have time, and he hits the elevator code quickly.

They're alone in the elevator--thankfully. "Things went smoothly, then?" Tegoshi asks, as he watches the tunnel lights pass.

"They were just as you said they'd be," she agrees, and makes a noise of surprise when he draws a pistol from behind the small of his back and presses it into her palms.

"I'd wear that under your skirt for now," Tegoshi says, "your cover doesn't have weapons training, so it'd be remarkable."

Becky rolls her eyes, mouthing 'obviously' at him, and flips her skirt up to reveal a holster on her thigh. "Mine are back at Ridley's estate," she says, sounding mournful, "I thought I'd never fire anything quality again." She turns the pistol over in her hands for a moment, admiring it, before she shoves it away.

"I'm not anywhere near as good a shot as I am a swordsman," Tegoshi says, "it seems better that you should have it than me."

Then they're in the shipyard, and it's go time. Becky goes still, staying close at Tegoshi's hip and acting so convincingly Tegoshi nearly has a hard time believing she's a hard life pirate most of the time. Shige is alone at the security station--Matsumoto takes an hour to eat dinner with his mechanics, leaving Shige to approve orders (or, more usually, spend time with his nose in his book ignoring everyone)--and Tegoshi leans inside to drop the letter on the desk without a word. "We have boats left, right?" Tegoshi asks.

Shige shuts his book with a snap, and lifts the letter carefully between his fingers. "There are two boats left," he agrees, and pops the letter open. His eyes flick up at Tegoshi repeatedly as he reads it, and he lowers the letter slowly. "They're letting you back on land?"

"I'm dropping her off with the guards," Tegoshi says, and his smile is probably shark like. "I'm never actually going back on land. Aren't I clever?"

Shige rolls his eyes. "I guess you can't be expected to keep with the spirit and the letter of the law," he says, and marks something off in the transport log on top of a neat pile of ink glasses. He knocks over the top most one, and then squawks as ink begins to get all over his book.

Tegoshi takes that as a hint to get going, and loops his fingers around Becky's wrist as he tugs her along. Someone's going to discover the letter is fake soon enough. The boats are docked underneath the shipyard, tied to the small dock. It's not even manned--Tegoshi will have to send a note back to fix that--and Tegoshi watches Becky inspect the boats with one eye as he scratches out a halfway apologetic note on the travel log. Becky seems irritated about something, and it's only once she drops her bag and starts stripping off her dress that Tegoshi figures out what it is. He laughs at her as she tugs the thing up, and continues to laugh when she stuffs the dress into her bag with a scowl, but he stops when she approaches, her hair hanging half around her face and her pistol suddenly seeming very, very prominent on her thigh.

"The smaller one's in better condition, but the bigger one's easier to steer," she says, "but I guess it doesn't really matter where we end up as long as we end up on the coast, right?"

Tegoshi thinks, for a moment, then nods. "And a smaller boat will be easier to hide, when the time comes," he points out, and Becky takes that to heart as she begins untying the smaller boat. It looks like a fisherman's skiff, with a flat bow and a covered compartment where one person--or two skinny, tiny people, Tegoshi hopes--could slide in to sleep, covered from the elements. There are oars latched to the sides, and Becky already has one in each hand as she clambers aboard.

"We have to go," she says, over her shoulder, "I want to catch as much distance as we can before that storm blowing in from the east sets in, come on."

Tegoshi feels remarkably flat-footed and useless as he eases his way into the small boat. Becky has the oars in her hands, and she pushes off without a word, sending them drifting out to open waters as Tegoshi settles on the floor of the boat across from her, stuffing his bag next to hers in the sleeping compartment. Put him on a horse, and he's nearly peerless. On water he feels like a child; the inland state where he'd grown up hadn't created much opportunity for boats, besides the ones that came down the river sometimes. The closest he's ever gotten is the summer home in Corceus on the waterline, and now living on an island he never leaves except in the air.

"You're smiling," Tegoshi says, "for real this time."

Becky's eyes are bright when she turns them on him. "It's the sea," she agrees, "it always does this to me."

Then they're off. An hour later, the storm sets in, and Tegoshi learns for the first time what it is like to be seasick. He can't lie fully below, because he keeps needing to retch, but he manages to curl up in the center, where the motion is the least. After a time, the storm settles, and Becky leans over to stroke his hair and rub his back and make him drink a little water, a tarp set over the both of them like a blanket; the cloth ones in the compartment are a bit wet, and wouldn't do any good, she says, when he asks about them, and then tells him to be glad it's so warm around Insula Gratia. "The storms up north are cold, and fiercer than this," she explains, and then he thinks he falls asleep.

---

It's a very long few days, and he spends most of them miserable, trying to help her row and only making himself sick on every attempt. Eventually he gives up and curls up in the sleeping compartment, loudly bemoaning his every life decision that had ever brought him to this particular situation until Becky offers to shove him into the ocean and end his eternal misery. That shuts him up, at least for an hour or two. He manages to hold down some bread on the third day, and from then he feels much stronger. His balance in the boat improves quickly once he's over his seasickness. He takes to the boating business like he takes to pretty much everything else, and soon he's taking long turns rowing so Becky can steal some sleep. It's on one of his turns when land appears, and Tegoshi reaches out with his foot to jerk her sleeping body into wakefulness.

"Look," he says, "land!"

"Thank god," Becky groans, and wiggles out of her cocoon. She's stripped to the waist, and Tegoshi looks away from the wrapping on her chest when she stretches her arms high above her head, yawning. It feels mildly pornographic. She shuffles over to him, and puts one knee next to his hip, the other up on the bow, to look. "Hold onto me," she says, distracted, and hauls his arm about her waist. This puts them even closer, and he ignores the heat of her skin at his ear as she talks loudly to herself in boater's language he understands none of.

"Move," she orders, and shuffles him out of the way to get her hands on the oars herself. She turns the boat toward the left with a few long pulls of the oars, and then she settles into a rhythm. "At this rate we'll be on land by sunset," she tells him, "we'll dock the boat and try to at least eat on land. It's probably still a little damp out from all that rain, so we're still sleeping in the boat. I want to set out early, so I'm gonna leave you on first watch, okay? Yuya?"

The use of his first name jerks him out of his less-than-complimentary feelings about her bossiness, and he nods absently as he tries to remember what it was he didn’t like about her. She's all business as they come into the beach, looking around for fishermen or smugglers or other pirates before they haul the boat up behind a rock to hide it. Tegoshi starts a fire as soon as she says it's safe, and as he pokes at the driftwood on the beach, trying to find something less damp, she wanders into the trees further inland, pulling her shirt on to protect her from insects and the elements. By the time Tegoshi has a fire burning, the sun has sunk down toward the water, bathing the sea and the sky alike the saffron color for which the nearby city, Corceus, was named, and he watches the sun continue its journey until a pile of oranges fall suddenly into his lap.

Tegoshi's up on one knee immediately, hand going back to the rapier at his hip, and Becky raises an eyebrow at him. Tegoshi relaxes. "Don't do that," he says, "I'd have stabbed you!"

Becky ignores him to settle on a mostly-dry rock at his side, and pokes one of the oranges now scattered over the sand. "Eat one," she says, "or you'll get scurvy, and then we'll really be in trouble."

Dinner is simple, besides the oranges: the last of the bread, some cheese, and water from the second of Tegoshi's five canteens. "I think I've mostly figured out where we are," Becky says, as night properly starts to set in on them. "We're about three day's journey on foot from Corceus, or at least that's what the old woodcutter I met in the woods tells me. That means it's probably a fortnight to the capitol, if we go on foot. I'm suggesting we try sticking to the water for a lot of it--it won't cut down on time too much, but it'll be safer for us to be seen as little as possible, and if we're going into towns, we're going to be seen."

Tegoshi flops back on the scarce grass that has started to grow in from the sand, ignoring the rock digging into his right shoulder. Above him, the stars are beginning to twinkle, and as he thinks he traces out the wide arc of Senmurzan's Belt above his head. "You're the professional," he says, "I'm just a soldier."

"And the son of a duke, and a tactical genius," Becky corrects, "I went to the college at the capitol for a few months! I know all about your exploits, Yuya of Tegoshi."

Tegoshi snorts. "My tactical genius isn't much use when we're playing forest rangers," he says.

"It seemed to work fine back on Insula Gratia," Becky points out, mildly, and Tegoshi shrugs.

"That's different," he says, "people are easy. And land's easy, too, when I'm commanding troops. Not when I'm moving myself. Which is why I put so much work into being a perfect physical specimen."

"Oooh, Mister Tegoshi, oooh," Becky twitters immediately, and Tegoshi preens.

"Anyway," he says, when they've recovered from their mutual laughing fits. "You're the expert here. If you think we should hug the coast and row, then we'll hug the coast and row."

"Excellent," she says, "now. I'm going to bed. Wake me after a few hours, all right?"

She slides into the bed compartment, and he stretches his legs out on the bow, back against the opening of the compartment and his rapier resting over his knees. He doesn't hear a sound all watch, and when he rouses Becky from her sleep to take her turn, he falls asleep so quickly it seems like he blinks and then Becky is poking him into breakfast and setting out in the low light before the sun rises.

---

For eight days, they continue their plan, filling up their water canteens at the runoff of the river Baltia in the middle and harvesting more fruit and, once, a deer, which they lose a day roasting and neither regrets one bit. It's only when they arrive near the estate holdings of Kimura, located in a fortress at the center of the oldest town in the duchy, Kalendell, that they decide it's time to abandon the sea trip.

"From here, it's only a week's worth of riding," Becky says, sitting next to him on the prow of the boat and dipping her bare toes in the water occasionally. "The boat's in good condition, so we could probably sell it to some idiot, and from there it's as simple as buying a horse. We'll have to ride the same horse, but honestly. It’s not like there's much too us. That said, Kalendell's well-guarded. They get a lot of smugglers and slavers around here, and the bounty on my head may still be posted. Glad I grew out my hair..." Then she stands, and starts to change, pulling her loose tan shirt off and tugging the worn blue dress she's been wearing since the morning of the day they left (and how long ago that seems now, Tegoshi thinks) over her head. Then her pants and boots come off, and she stuffs the pants in her bag. Her boots go back on, and by the end of it she looks like a poor woman in a halfway nice dress, her hair damp and sticky with saltwater around her face and her dress hanging off of her. The past few days have shorn pounds off of them both--Tegoshi has had to add a new notch to his belt, in the interest of keeping his pants up, and his shirt will probably need to be taken in, and soon.

All in all, they don't look much like a pair of fugitives, not once Tegoshi wraps his rapier's leather sheath in canvas and Becky tucks her pistol under her skirts. They tie the boat off in the harbor and pay the one silver fee, hoping to make it back before the day is done, and Becky leads Tegoshi past the big-haul fisherman, where men looking to hire boats were standing.

"I've got a two man compartment skiff in excellent condition, oars and all included," Becky calls, "and I'm willing to sell." That brings a crowd of men, and Tegoshi listens with half an ear as Becky haggles with men. Finally, she takes two gold coins for it from a foolish-looking young man in polka-dot print pants, and grins wide at him as they approach the guard station to get into the city.

The guard on duty looks them over. "You here to stay?" he asks, looking curious and sounding disapproving.

"No," Tegoshi says, "my wife and I, we..." He leans closer, and lowers his voice. "We had a fire, and we, uh, we lost our house, see, so we're moving in with my parents out in the country. My wife, she--she lost the baby, and she's been so upset I thought she was gonna waste away from grief! But a man'll starve while she cries her eyes out, and that's no way for either of us, you know?"

The guard looks faintly misty-eyed, and he nods them through without much more trouble besides a cursory examination of their meager possessions. He wishes them blessings, and when they're out of view Becky grabs Tegoshi by the forearm. "What did you tell him?!" she demands.

"That our house burned down and you had a miscarriage," Tegoshi answers, and turns back to her. "What else should I have told him?! It got him to leave us alone, didn't it?"

Becky doesn't look annoyed; she's smiling, her expression fond. "You are a genius," she says, and pats his bicep before leading him through to the marketplace.

"W-well, of course I am!" Tegoshi recovers with, a second too late, and followers her.

They're in the midst of looking through a man's horses when Tegoshi realizes there are guards all around them. "Becky," he hisses.

"I noticed," Becky says.

"Excuse me, miss," a man says, from behind them, and Becky sags against Tegoshi's shoulder before she turns around.

"Captain Ueda," she says, and defeat is already heavy on her. Tegoshi turns, eyes wide, and he takes in the sight of Kimura's guard captain.

"...you're shorter in person," Tegoshi says, and that seems to be the cue to surround them. With so many people around and so little in the way of weaponry, Becky seems to see very little merit to a fight, and after a tense staring moment between her and Captain Ueda, she flips up her skirt and drops the gun in his hands. Tegoshi finds his rapier being pulled out from under his hands, and without the weapon to curl his fingers around he reaches for Becky's hand. She curves her fingers around his. They're very small, smaller than he keeps thinking, and covered in rough callus, but they're sure and dry and it bolsters the slow burn of panic edging at him. Kimura will know him for sure, and then he's in real trouble.

"Throw them in separate cells," Ueda orders, when they finish their march to the guardhouse. "Or else she'll just escape. Again."

Tegoshi swivels his head to stare at her, and she shrugs. When they're alone again Tegoshi will demand the story from her, but for now they're being marched into identical cells across from one another in the basement of the guard house. Tegoshi glances around--there's a cot and a bucket along the back wall, suggesting to Tegoshi this is a holding cell for drunks on most nights. He settles gingerly on the cot, bending his knees and pulling his feet up in front of himself, and looks up in time to see Ueda ordering a metal ring around Becky's ankle.

Then they're left alone. Becky rises immediately from the floor, and starts across the cell. The chain keeps her an arm's length away from the door, and Tegoshi can see she'd expected it by the way her face doesn't change expression. "How well can you pick a lock?" she asks Tegoshi.

"I don't know, I've never tried," Tegoshi says, "spy training kicked me out before we got to that."

"Time for some field work, then," Becky says, and reaches into her hair for something. She comes out with three metal sticks Tegoshi belatedly recognizes as lock picks, and she gestures him closer. "Check to see if there's anyone here," she hisses, and he leans against the metal of the cell. There is a guard posted at the end of the hall, but his attention is down the hallway toward what Tegoshi recalls is the secondary entrance to the guardhouse.

"We're safe," Tegoshi says, and Becky aims her throw very carefully before she tosses one pick, then the next and the third, onto the stones at Tegoshi's feet. He ducks to gather them up, examining them, and has finally figured out how to balance them between the second knuckles of his right hand when a very familiar voice echoes through the hall. Tegoshi freezes.

"No, Captain Ueda, I will take them with me. They are prisoners of Insula Gratia, and that's where their sentences will be served," Captain Kamenashi says as he rounds the hall. Tegoshi jerks away from the lock and falls flat on his behind; he manages to shove the lock picks into his hair, right behind his ear, and then Kamenashi comes to a sharp stop in his vision. He's dressed in field blacks, his hair combed just so, and he is terrifying as he looks down on Tegoshi.

"Kamenashi," Ueda says, "I really think I should let His Grace decide that."

"No," Kamenashi says, sharply, "this mess is embarrassing enough. You'll release them to my and Lieutenant Yokoyama's custody. He's going to send them along anyway, save us both the aggravation."

Ueda mulls it over for a minute, and then nods. Tegoshi doesn't know what outcome he was hoping for, just that he's still half-frozen when the door swings open on rusty hinges. "Do you want them in chains?" Ueda asks, leaning back against the stone of the wall.

Kamenashi glances between them, and shakes his head. "I think they'll behave," he says, "their weapons...?"

"Are with your Lieutenant upstairs," Ueda says, as Kamenashi ushers both of his new prisoners toward the stairs.

"Thank you, Captain Ueda," Kamenashi says, as he passes by.

"You owe me, Captain Kamenashi," Ueda teases, and then Kamenashi shoves both Becky and Tegoshi forward with a solid hand to the middle of their backs. Tegoshi stumbles forward and hooks his hand around Becky's wrist, sliding his hand into hers; she squeezes back, and her palm is damn with sweat. Tegoshi appreciates the fact that he's not the only one apprehensive about this whole thing.

"Lieutenant Yokoyama, prepare the horses for departure," Kamenashi says.

---

There are five horses: sleek, well-groomed creatures of the highland style, and Tegoshi finds himself hitched to a lead line behind Becky and then Kamenashi in short order, following the path back east, toward Corceus. Becky seems out of sorts, balanced precariously on the back of her beast, but she doesn't seem likely to fall off just yet, so Tegoshi drags his attention away and spends a few minutes re-acclimating himself to the steady rhythm of riding a horse. When he looks up again he sees Yokoyama glancing at him. Curious, Tegoshi stares at the other man for a long moment, and Yokoyama looks away, flushing.

"What?" Tegoshi asks, when his curiosity gets the better of him, "something on my face?"

"No," Yokoyama says, shortly.

"Shut up back there," Kamenashi orders, and Tegoshi has had enough.

"Or what? You'll gag me?" he asks.

"No, but I'll make you wish I had," Kamenashi snaps, "I cannot believe you. You can escape from Insula Gratia but you get captured in the first town you come to? What kind of soldier are you?!"

"What?!" Tegoshi squawks, "how was I supposed to know Becky is apparently a very popular lady in Kalendell?!"

"And you," Kamenashi says, stopping his horse to turn and scowl at Becky. "Are you a pirate, or are you an idiot?"

Becky looks nonplussed. "Can I take a minute and summarize here? You're not mad we escaped, you're mad we got caught."

Kamenashi seems brought up short by that, all the winds taken out of his sails, and he visually deflates a little. "And mad you didn't think to let me in on your plan," he adds, "you're not the only ones interested in protecting the Queen."

Becky glances back at Tegoshi, but he's as surprised as her. "How do you know what we were doing?" Tegoshi asks, carefully.

"Kato installed a listening device in Miss Becky's chambers," Kamenashi says, and his smile is gleeful as Tegoshi curses.

"That's why it took so long to transfer me," Tegoshi accuses, and Kamenashi looks pleasantly peaceful for a moment, which is all the confirmation Tegoshi needs. "Then why didn't you say anything when I came to you for the transfer letter?"

"I thought we'd catch you before you got to the boats, but Kato missed my message to detain you because he was too busy arguing with Yamashita," Kamenashi says; his eyebrow twitches in a way that's as interesting as it is mildly alarming, and Tegoshi is glad he's not the only one Kamenashi is mad at. Not that he's that concerned; clearly Kamenashi is interested in keeping them alive, at least.

"So now what?" Becky asks, "some of us are on a schedule."

"Now we meet up with Yamapi and Kato, and ride with their caravan until we get to the Balta River. Then you guys go on ahead and we turn north to keep Ridley's forces occupied," Kamenashi says.

"Caravan?" Becky squeaks, "like... horse caravan?"

"Yamapi's father is a horse lord," Kamenashi says, slowly, "so yes. It's slower than if we were going on our own, but it's safer, with troops all over."

Becky looks down at her mount, and takes a deep breath. "Well, the faster we get to them the faster we get to the capitol," she says, "which way, boss?"

"Don't encourage him," Tegoshi groans, but Kamenashi looks gratified.

"All right, children," Kamenashi says, and turns at the waist to unhook Becky from the back of his saddle. Becky blinks at the loss of the lead line, and then turns her head to look at Tegoshi. He bumps his horse forward with heels to its side, and pulls himself off of her lead line on his own.

"Don't you make me ride this horse without help," Becky hisses at him, and Tegoshi swallows laughter to affix the lead line hanging from her horse's neck to the peg at the back of his saddle. Becky seems much happier once she's on a line, and her horse follows Tegoshi's readily.

Tegoshi follows Kamenashi’s horse at a ready canter, despite only having his knees to direct the animal, and he still manages to be a better rider than Yokoyama, who is pale and desperately holding on. Privately, Tegoshi congratulates himself. (He does it publicly, too, when Yokoyama comments his hair is looking a little long, much to Yokoyama’s chagrin.)

The sun has begun to set and Kamenashi is beginning to look a little suspicious of the compass attached to his saddle horn when the line of trees abruptly stops, and camped out on the flatlands beyond is the caravan. It’s lean, well-armed and mostly riders; Tegoshi has only ever seen the horse caravans during their winter exodus across the border to the Republic through the mountains, where land is still green even when it is white and cold in the flatlands. Those caravans center on the women and children, and are bulky and fat with tent carriages, elders, and food and supplies to trade.

Yamashita is at the center of the camp, in an open, well-lit tent. Even from across the camp Tegoshi can make out that he’s shining his long, hooked pole arm, and that next to him, huddled miserably in his cloak and trying to balance a book on his knees simultaneously is Kato. Tegoshi sets his heels to the horse, and it’s off immediately. It’s clearly a horse from the tribe’s stocks, since it picks its way through the tents easily (and, if Becky’s desperate squawks are to be believed, leading the second horse well, too), and Tegoshi pulls the horse up with the Rendan word for stop, affirming his suspicions.

Yamashita is up on one knee, his pole arm out, and Shige is ducked halfway behind him, one hand up in his ready position. They both freeze when Tegoshi slides off the horse, and then Shige finds himself with Tegoshi’s arms heavy around his waist. Yamashita laughs at them both, hand warm on Tegoshi’s bicep for a moment, and behind them Tegoshi can hear him greeting Becky.

"I see you still look seasick when you’re around horses," Tegoshi teases.

"Shut up," Shige drawls.

---

He’s pressed around a low dinner table with Kamenashi and Shige for the midnight meal. "So how’d you end up bringing Yamashita along?" Tegoshi asks, between bites of well-spiced meat. Becky is across the tent, already in with the soldiers and telling stories that keep them in roars of laughter.

"Funny story, that," Shige says, with a half-laugh, "apparently, Yamashita was never in the army at all--he came to Insula Gratia as part of a diplomatic envoy to see if the rumors we were shipping Rendan horses in as meat were true, and he got confused and ended up in charge of food."

Tegoshi thinks that might be the funniest thing he’s heard in days, and falls into a fit of laughter that leaves him teary and breathless. "So we drafted the prince of the horse lords into being our requisitions officer?" he demands.

Kamenashi looks perplexed. "I didn’t think the horse lords had a king."

"Oh, Kame," Tegoshi says, "Kame, Kame, Kame. You didn’t pay attention in school! He’s the heir of the Rendan horse lords, and they’re the eminent tribe, he’s the de facto prince of the horse lords."

"Oh god," Shige says, and makes a strangled noise, "I told the prince of the Rendan horse lords he was the world’s biggest idiot."

"I think he likes it," Tegoshi admits, winking at Shige, "did you know the horse lords don’t limit marriage to child-bearing couples? He might be thinking of proposing to you!"

"Marriage?!" Shige squawks, and it’s then exactly that Yamashita chooses to join them, slinging an arm around him.

"Are you okay?" Yamashita asks, "is the meat all right? I don’t want you to be uncomfortable..." There’s unfortunate innuendo there, Tegoshi’s brain decides, bringing on another laughing fit that has Shige flushed to the roots of his hair and Yamashita looks like a deer in the headlights.

"I’m okay," Tegoshi says, breathlessly, "go on without me!"

Tegoshi likes traveling with the caravan for the five days it takes them to reach the river. Yamashita calls a stop at noon each day to give the horses a chance to rest when the sun is highest above them, and in the gap of time his warriors hone their weapon skills. Becky tracks down the weapons master on the second day and manages to get ahold of a pair of small pistols designed to be fired in tandem by a smaller person, and she returns Tegoshi’s back-heavy dueling pistol to practice on her own. She’s terrifying, and her aim rarely misses.

Kamenashi spends time whipping Yokoyama into something like shape each day with sparring matches using their military-issue long swords. Kamenashi is vicious and focused, and Yokoyama’s height and sense of self-preservation keep him from being too easy for Kamenashi. The horse warriors are fearsome with their dancing spears and curved sabers, and they impress Tegoshi, but the same can’t be said about him at first. His rapier is flawlessly kept, but the whip-thin blade always seems too small to be much use until it’s singing through the air. Tegoshi sees the exact moment Yamashita’s personal guards, Takizawa and Imai, change their opinions about him--when he shoots from the low Heron in Grass to the Heron in Flight deathblow. He sheaths his rapier at the end of the set, just long enough to receive fifteen (or so) sparring challenges. He beats them all.

Tegoshi joins Becky among the warriors for dinner that night, and listens to her regale them with ridiculous misadventures, wordlessly resting his hand light on her left knee.

"And then," she says, throwing her hands up in an energetic flourish, "Jin says, ‘oh, I just needed to see, so I lit a match’. I look at him and I say, ‘Jin, you just blew up a Republic cannon ship because you needed a light? You have a lantern tied to your waist!’ And he looks down and he goes, ‘oh, that’s right, I do’."

Tegoshi laughs, because he can see her pirate partner’s face. "He’s an idiot."

"The world’s biggest," Becky agrees, and she sounds unspeakably fond.

It hurts, and Tegoshi pulls away, pushing his plate away and leaving the tent with complaints of an aching stomach. It’s cold now that the sun’s gone down, but Tegoshi ignores it as he moves through the calming moves of the fourth set of stances his master taught him. He’s hyperaware of every movement as he ducks into Wolf Lunges and then jumps forward into Raven Dives. Becky is standing just outside his reach as he straightens and sheaths his rapier, and in each hand is a horse saber. She offers one to him in silence, and he takes it, unbuckling his sword belt one-handed and dropping it on the grass. After a moment of thought, he strips off his sweat-heavy linen shirt, and drops it across the pile.

She follows suit without any hesitation, and then they’re both set. Becky has been training with the horse warriors for the past few days, strengthening both her horse-riding and her sword arm, and Tegoshi has no doubt she’ll be a talented opponent. They both feel the moment the fight truly starts--a quickening that coils in Tegoshi’s spine and along his muscles--and Becky is immediately in his reach, forcing herself to his loose left side and ducking his strikes at her with the right. It’s a maddening strategy and obscenely effective. Tegoshi grunts when she gets an elbow in at his ribs, stumbling back, and then he over-reaches on the recovery, which is when she gets a foot on his shin and shoves him onto his ass. She’s immediately on top of him, her sword clattering against his and her small hands spread wide over his wrists.

The air outside has gotten colder, and the soil underneath him is chilled with it, but he’s warm all over. Becky leans back, and smiles. "My win," she says, and he nods, grudging.

"So in celebration of my victory, you can tell me what’s wrong," she says, poking him in the ribs so he jerks under her hips.

"You’re going to join back up with that idiot pirate and leave me behind," he accuses, finally.

It hangs in the air between them for a moment, and her face goes still. "You’re an idiot," she says, finally, "no one’s ever asked if I want to go back to being a pirate, have they? They just assume--"

Then she gets off of him, and she’s off, ignoring him as she hauls her shirt on over her head. She ignores him in the tent they share, and when he wakes the next morning she’s already gone, her bedroll packed up on her horse outside and her voice coming from within a knot of women warriors. Tegoshi is in the midst of checking his saddlebags when Kamenashi approaches, and he nods at his Captain in greeting.

"Yamapi says you should go south starting after the lunch break," he says. "When you get into the capitol, try and find the Queensguard. The captain, Nagase, will be able to help you." He watches Tegoshi move to the stirrups of Becky’s horse, and after a moment of awkward hedging, he begins to speak again. "Tegoshi, about Becky..."

"Save it," Tegoshi warns, "don’t talk to me until you have your eggs in order."

That brings Kamenashi up short. "We’re about to be at war, I have too much to think about, and, anyway, there are no eggs to get in order!"

"Uh-huh," Tegoshi says, raising an eyebrow.

"Your eggs are splattered all over the floor, so you are in absolutely no position to talk," Kamenashi says, finally, expression icy. That’s the last they speak of it; Tegoshi’s always admired his superior’s ability to multi-task in that sense.

---

Tegoshi directs for Becky to tug on the reins, and when she does he touches the hinge of the bridle. Satisfied it will hold up under duress, he lets go and steps away, catching her eye. Her horse is named Andras, the Rendan word for ‘tempest’, and it suits both her and the gray-black creature underneath her. In comparison, the dun he’s chosen--Nelta, or hawk--seems a poor substitute, but underneath her skin is the buzz of powerful, coiled muscles, and Tegoshi is content with his choice.

"Sorry about yesterday," she says, "that wasn’t fair."

Tegoshi shrugs. "Not a big deal," he says.

Yamashita and Shige wave in eerie tandem, and Becky waves back, whistling a tune Tegoshi recognizes as a dirty drinking song, and it reminds him once again that she’s not as innocent as she appears. Then Tegoshi hauls himself up into his saddle, and digs his heels into his horse’s side. Nelta breaks into a trot, and then they’re off.

Becky’s become a much better rider in their time at the caravan; Tegoshi’s impressed, and he says as much, when they’re several hours down the trail, making their way between more regular patches of trees. Becky’s thrown herself up in her stirrups to get a better look in front of them; she turns her body toward him at the waist and preens for all of a moment before she nearly unbalances. She settles back on her saddle with a tight grasp of the saddle horn between her hands.

"Let me take point," Tegoshi says, as they crest a hill. Below them is a much darker glen of trees, and Tegoshi’s not terribly interested in watching Becky pick her way down at half speed.

Becky pulls back and waits for him to pass, and Nelta reacts naturally, scaling down the hill easily. Andras follows after a moment, and it isn’t until the sun has begun to sink below the horizon that they make their way to the edge of the forest. Tegoshi pulls up short before they stumble out of the tree line, lifting his fist to signal Becky to freeze, and he hears the movement of her horse stop immediately. In the clearing ahead are troops, Kimura's by their sigils, though Tegoshi can't recognize any of the officers. It's a small force, only fifty men or so. Judging by the way they're breaking bread together in front of their tents, they're setting a lightless camp, and they look miserable about it.

"We need to go around," Tegoshi says, and spurs Nelta backward until she can turn around. "Doubling back is going to take us a while, but I'd rather not get arrested by Kimura's men twice on one trip."

"Once was good enough for me," Becky agrees, and they begin the long trip around in the half-light of sunset.

By the time they both feel comfortable enough to try and get a night's rest, the moon is fat and bright above them. The horses fall to grazing and dozing nearly immediately once Tegoshi ties them off and they strip off the harnesses. Becky pulls bread and a pair of canteens out of her bag, tossing a canteen to Tegoshi, and raises her own in solemn salute. Tegoshi bumps his canteen against hers, and they eat quickly. Tegoshi had had an orange in the afternoon, but he's eaten little since, and he's ravenous all of a sudden.

When he's able to slow down a bit, he looks up at her. "So, after all this is over," he says, "what do you want to do?"

Becky blinks, surprised by the question, and then shifts around, stretching her legs out straight in front of her. "I think I'd like to be a diplomat," she says, and cuts off his raised eyebrows by continuing, "no, really! You get to go all over and see all sorts of things, and while you're there you try to get people to do what you want. Sounds like a dream job to me! Think of all the clothes and the art and the technology and the food!"

"Ruthless, cutthroat negotiations in secret rooms and public functions with everyone admiring you..." Tegoshi adds.

Becky rolls her eyes. "I'd love to see the Sky City. Or even better, live there."

Tegoshi hums, thinking of everything he's ever heard of the Sky City. "There are worse places," he agrees, "though I’d think the novelty must wear off after a while."

"Apparently," Becky says, and she's electrifying as she gets into recounting the rumors she's heard, "whenever the city starts to get a little stale, their President has the entire city flown somewhere new, so they all have somewhere new to learn the customs and fashions from. The city is basically separated into streets that are this country or that country, and the fashions change with every one! How exciting is that?"

"Meanwhile, half of Tilda's still wearing last summer's fashions because half the dukes won't let their daughters go to the capitol," Tegoshi says, "I wish they'd see--the Queen's made everything even better than her mother managed to. Fifteen years ago we were the poorest duchy in the kingdom, and now my father does business with nearly every nation in the world."

"Change scares them," Becky says, quietly.

Conversation dwindles from there, and they huddle together in the chill of night, ducked under a blanket on their bedrolls. Becky wakes with the rising of the sun, and despite the sleep clinging to his eyes, Tegoshi rouses himself to gobble down another orange and pull himself up on his horse. They have two days of travel to go, and Tegoshi intends to be as early as he can. The trip is largely silent, both of them quiet for once under the heavy cloak of exhaustion, and it's only when the sun is high above them that Becky seems to perk up. She points out a cloud above them that resembles a swan, and they make a game of it until they're forced to stop by the darkening of the sky.

"Do you want to stop?" Tegoshi asks, as the sun begins to set.

Becky shakes her head, fiercely. "We've wasted enough time," she says, and Tegoshi agrees. They ride until Tegoshi thinks he's about to drop off his horse, and they crash until sunrise after a quick, cold meal of jerky. Becky's up at sunrise again, her eyes serious, and they ride the horses faster for this, the last day of their trip. Nelta seems to enjoy running for its own sake, but Andras makes everything into a race, and Tegoshi takes the horse's challenge seriously (despite Becky not caring one way or another about Tegoshi's rivalry with horse, she goes along with it, anyway, her good humor matching Nelta's). The race that takes them within a stone's throw of the capitol's massive front gates is a tie, it's decided later, and they're both in high spirits as they duck into the city. Porphyreus, the crown of Tilda and the capitol of the kingdom, doesn't seem to realize the tensions that threaten it from outside, the guard lax and easy to avoid as long as they're quick. Becky ducks in among a caravan of pilgrims, pulling a scarf over her sweat-slick hair, and Tegoshi adds to a column of pages gathering their master's horses, ducking his head away from familiar guardsmen until he can break off and stow the horses at the Rendan horse pavilion outside the marketplace.

"Thanks," he says, in low Rendan, making the young woman renting horses out to travelers jerk in surprise. Tegoshi tilts his hand at her in easy farewell, and then he weaves between loud merchants hawking their wares. It's easy to lose himself in the rhythm of the city, easy to become anonymous and forgettable, until he steps inside their agreed-on meeting place, the tavern Tabi. Becky is already there, tucked into a booth in the rear corner, her hands wrapped around a mug of ale.

"Ale, over here," Tegoshi calls at the bar as he slides in across from Becky, and the owner--a slim, dark-haired woman from the neighboring Republic of Jamus--pours it for him before coming over herself, handing it off and folding herself in next to Becky. She smooths her hands primly over the pleats of her skirt, and finally settles her weight forward on her elbows.

"Tegoshi," she says, "nice of you to come home."

"Nice to be home," Tegoshi drawls. "Nicer to get a free beer out of it." He bats his eyelashes ridiculously, and the owner delicately ignores him.

"Now, why are you home," she asks, arching an eyebrow.

"I need to find the Queensguard," Tegoshi says.

To his surprise, the woman laughs, full and throaty. "That's easy," she says, "find the loudest tavern and look for the loudest man. Captain Nagase is a capable captain and even more capable drunk, if you understand my meaning."

"He's been relaxing with the Queen away?" Tegoshi asks.

"Relaxing's not the word I'd use," the woman disagrees, her voice taking on a sort of gravity. "There've been fights, instigated by ducal troops, you see. Nagase incites them and then throws them in jail. And drinks a lot doing it, but every man has their vices, right?"

Tegoshi nods. "Any idea where we'd find him this evening?" he asks, trying to stay casual, "we've got a question for him."

"He likes cheap bars--the kind where soldiers drink. He was at the Crane night before last, so I'd bet he's at the Raven tonight. If I were a betting sort of woman."

Tegoshi nods, and gathers up the beer he's barely touched. In nearly one gulp, he guzzles it down, and passes the woman a gold coin. "For the information, and the beer," he says, "I miss good Porphyrian beer on the Insula."

"Good luck, whatever you're mixed up in," the woman says, as they're leaving; she's already wiping down their mugs in the relative silence of the bar.

"Thanks," Tegoshi says, and follows Becky down the street.

They're stopped, when they reach the corner, by a sleepy-looking man in the sharp blue uniform of the mage corps. He looks confused, and Tegoshi sniffs the air to see if he can find alcohol on him, but instead all he catches is the sharp herbal scent of paints and the fresh whiff of sea salt. "You're trying to help her," the man says, "you're Shige's friends."

Becky glances up at Tegoshi, eyes wide, and Tegoshi bends closer to talk to the man in low tones. "Yes," he agrees, "we are. On both accounts."

"Good," the man says, sounding satisfied, "then this will probably mean something to you: the duke of Mantsua was seen with the Queen's spymaster in a secret meeting place last night. Take from that what you will." The man pats Becky's arm companionably, and begins to depart; Becky catches him tightly by the sleeve, and tugs him back.

"What's your name?" she asks.

"Ohno, of the Magisterium Aquatic," Ohno introduces himself, "nice to meet you."

"Yeah," she says, and lets him go to wander down the street.

Tegoshi meets her eye, and her expression matches his own surprise. "Guess we have a name," he says, "the duke of Mantsua is only second to the duke of Atlas in all the rumors I've heard."

"Sometimes I thought--from the way they spoke to each other--that the duke of Mantsua is really the power in this whole thing," Becky says, face grim. "If he's being directed by the Spymaster, I might just be right."

---

"That's him," Tegoshi says, when the massive captain of the Queensguard enters the bar, flanked by what appears to be nearly half of his unit. They easily fill half of the bar; adding onto that the group of guys with the rough accents of Mantsua, and the sudden tension in the air presses in on all sides. Tegoshi sidles a little closer to Becky, hunching over his beer and trying to be inconspicuous.

Becky's adjusted her outfit, tugging on a leather shirt not unlike the ones worn by the female Rendan horse warriors under her loose linen shirt, effectively squashing her breasts so she looks like a slim, pretty young man with long hair. A nobleman's son, escaping from the castle for a night of ale in privacy, with his page or servant, perhaps, and Tegoshi only rankles a little, since it allows him to sit as close as he can. Becky calls for her third beer of the evening, ignoring Tegoshi's warning glance, and downs half of it in one gulp. That draws the attention of a Mantsuan man, and in short order, Tegoshi finds himself cheering Becky on in a drinking contest, judged by none other than Nagase himself.

Tegoshi thinks Nagase will drink both contestants under the table by their eighth (and his tenth) mug of beer. The man looks entirely unfazed by the alcohol in his belly, though Becky's been ruddy and giggly since about the third or fourth. The soldier seems to be pacing himself, eyes unfocused but his grip sure as he downs one after another. Becky goes down after her thirteenth, cursing them all in slurred, half-asleep syllables, and Tegoshi hauls her off the table to make room for the next poor sucker. Tegoshi drops Becky on a bench, calling for a glass of water, and shakes Becky awake enough to drink it without choking on it.

"Yuya," Becky says, "you are not bad, you know that?"

"Thanks for that ringing endorsement," Tegoshi drawls, nonetheless touched. "Here, drink." Becky takes a sip dutifully, and then puts it on the table. She struggles upright, resting her hands on his shoulders with some force, and smiles at him so brightly Tegoshi's insides do something funny. Then, to his surprise, she hauls him down for a messy, sloppy smooch, which is why Tegoshi misses whatever happens behind him in the crowd and incites a fight. From what he can make out, a chair has been broken, and no one can agree on who broke it. Nagase is half-heartedly calling for order, but it's obvious from the way he's not forcing the two arguing men apart that he doesn't care as much as he should. Tegoshi shoves Becky off long enough to wipe his mouth with the back of his hand--her aim was off, and wet besides--and turns to watch the first punch being thrown.

"Is there a fight?" Becky asks, and reaches blindly for the pistols Tegoshi confiscated before they even got into the bar.

"Not for you, there isn't," he says. The fight has begun to spread, and Tegoshi stands to avoid being stepped on. Soon nearly the whole bar has packets of scuffling going on, and Tegoshi's body is singing for a fight. He's had two beers, and he's buzzing to move around, when a man stumbles at him, and he settles back into a boxing stance automatically. Tegoshi's never been much of a hand-to-hand fighter (rather, the opposite, as he likes his face too much to get punched there, and he's aware jealousy will incite lesser men to greater violence, or something like that), but against an off-balance, drunk man, even he's able to get a solid punch in under the flail of his arms.

As soon as his knuckles thud against the man's cheek, the man drops to the ground, groaning and otherwise motionless. Tegoshi steps back, staring down at him, and then turns on his ankle to help Becky sit up.

Then, the fights begin to disperse, and from outside, it seems obvious why: Nagase has joined the fight, cracking skulls and mercilessly tripping guys with hooks of his feet behind their ankles, and the duke's troops know enough to back off. Nagase's troop rounds the rowdier soldiers up and escorts them out. All told, the bar's not in terrible condition, besides a few broken mugs on the table and the aforementioned broken chair. Nagase bends to lift both the broken leg and the rest of the chair, and he peers at them both.

"Sorry about your chair," he says to the bartender, "needed something to piss them off. I'll get it fixed tonight. What do I owe you for the glasses?"

The man names off a price that Tegoshi thinks is probably a little high, but Nagase seems to take it in stride, and tosses the coins on the bar top. "Good night," he says, "I think we've got most of their Lieutenants now!"

"You're welcome," Becky calls, and Nagase turns toward her. He takes her in, from lolling, frizzy head to her boots, and he throws his head back to laugh.

"Thank you," he says, after a minute, "that drinking contest was badass. I'll pick that one up myself--I get to get drunk and have a fight! And at the end I'm still the good guy! Big change from when I used to get into bar fights."

Becky nods, displaying all the wisdom of the well and truly trashed. "I'm sure you'll do well," she says, "now, Captain Nagase, my friend here has words for you."

"What about you?!" Tegoshi demands, whirling on her.

"Sleep now, shhh," Becky mumbles, and settles on her side, right there on the bench, to nap.

Nagase scratches at the back of his neck and gestures at Tegoshi uselessly. "Go ahead," he says, "if this is a love confession, I appreciate it, and you're real pretty-like, but I'm not interested."

"You are an idiot," Tegoshi says, "they told me you were but I never believed, my god. No, I need to talk to you about the Queen."

Nagase seems to sharpen, immediately, his attention falling fully on Tegoshi, and when he stalks across the bar toward Tegoshi he feels the first whiff of real, true danger from this man. "In the back," Nagase says, and points him toward the stairwell. Tegoshi climbs it easily, and at the top of the stair is an unmarked door that opens when Tegoshi touches the doorknob. Inside are a bed and a desk, and Tegoshi settles uneasily at the desk chair as Nagase sits on the bed.

"Is it safe to talk here?" Tegoshi asks, as the door shuts with a quiet click.

"It's spelled," Nagase answers, "Her Majesty and I meet here sometimes. Now what the hell are you talking about?"

"Her Spymaster may be involved in the ducal conspiracy," Tegoshi spills. "A mage named Ohno stopped us and said he saw him talking to the duke of Mantsua."

Nagase has gone very still. "Miida? Goddamn it, can't we trust anybody around here?" he demands. "What's your angle? Money?"

Tegoshi cocks his head. "I'm not sure what you mean," he says.

"Why're you trying to protect the Queen," Nagase rephrases.

"I like the Queen," Tegoshi says, "I'm, ah, I'm the son of the duke of Galeos. Yuya Tegoshi."

Nagase stops to take stock of what that means, and Tegoshi can nearly see the cogs working in the man's mind. Finally, after a tense moment, Nagase nods, and Tegoshi sags in relief. "This mage of yours, he was sure it was them?"

"He was a Mage Aquatic," Tegoshi says, "they can't lie, so I'm sure he thinks so, at least. It's hard to forget the Spymaster; honestly, he's kind of... remarkable?"

"Remarkably ugly," Nagase corrects, "he's a snake and a sleaze, but he did good work, so Meisa leaned on him for help when she locked herself away in the Pugnaculum Albus."

"She's locked herself on the White Island?" Tegoshi asks, "sorry, we've been--out of the loop, since we came down from. Um, from Atlas."

"That's Ridley's girl out there, right?" Nagase guesses. "She's a rough sort, isn't she? The first time she came to a royal meal she almost toasted the Queen."

Tegoshi nearly chokes on the mental image of that, and finally manages a nod. "She was a pirate, before," he says, "Her Majesty hired her and her partner to do reconnaissance."

"She said something about that once," Nagase agrees, "I dunno, she talks a lot. I ignore her most of the time, unless she's telling me to beat somebody up. Works better for everybody that way, right?"

"...absolutely," Tegoshi says, "I'm glad the Queensguard is responsible for Her Majesty's safety, with your leadership behind them."

"In front of them, you mean?"

"Either way, sir."

"Heheheh."

Tegoshi thinks Captain Nagase is a very tiresome man, but he carries Becky down to the guard quarters for Tegoshi, so he lets it slide without (much) (vocal) comment.

---

Becky wakes at morning, and immediately wishes she hadn't, forcing her eyes shut again at the beams of sunlight passing in through the windows, and only after a few minutes have passed does she open them again. She has a pounding headache, her mouth is dry as cotton, and she feels heavy and sticky and gross. She's always been a morning person, in the sense of being able to get herself moving and ready to go (with Tegoshi and Jin as her long-time traveling companions, it's become a necessary skill), but her hangover is like a hammer pounding on her skull over and over again. She groans, reaching around for the side table to haul herself upright, and nearly knocks over a glass full of cloudy, green-brown liquid. She sniffs at it, curious, but she can't smell anything weird from it. She remembers going home with the Queensguard captain the night before, and after a moment of carefully considering, she decides anything has to be better than the pounding in her skull. She lifts the glass to her lips and sucks the liquid down in short order.

It's disgusting, and bitter, but after ten minutes she notices a lifting of her headache. "Thank god," she mumbles, and forces herself out of bed, changing out of the loose linen clothing she'd been put to bed in into the Rendan leathers she's picked up during their time in the caravan, and after a moment of consideration she pulls on a light green shirt to cover her shoulders from the sun. She's barely finished brushing out the hair she'd spent an hour cleaning at a public bath house the day before when the door swings wide open, and Tegoshi walks inside, his hair perfectly coifed and his pants--red, where the hell had he gotten red pants from--perfectly pressed. "I see Yuya the duke's son is back?" she asks.

"No, Kato the merchant is here," Tegoshi corrects, evenly, and when the joke hits her she collapses into laughter.

"He is going to be so angry at you for using his name," she says.

"He'll never find out, if you don't tell him," Tegoshi answers, and it's such a perfectly arrogant answer she shakes her head and goes back to pulling on her boots.

"We're trying to find a ship to take us to the Queen," Tegoshi says, "Nagase and I, I mean. He's going to stay here and put the dukes under house arrest while we go to the Pugnaculum Albus. But apparently no one with a ship fast enough to get there before dinner is willing to hire out for us."

Becky shakes her head. "We're not renting a ship," she says, "I'm a pirate, remember?"

"I didn't forget," Tegoshi snaps, "but stealing a ship in broad daylight might be tough even for us."

"What? No, we're not stealing a ship... can I send a message from here?"

"I would think so," Tegoshi says, and trails off as she launches herself off the bed to go through her pack, tossing a piece of vellum and a quill on her bed. Ink follows a moment after, and then she's writing in her curved, childish script across the paper.

"Idiot," she reads off, when she's done, "meet me today. Time to fly the red flag high."

"Is that code?" Tegoshi asks, because he can't let that pass without comment, "because if it is, it's pretty terrible. Did Jin come up with it?"

"Are you stupid? Jin can't remember a code for the life of him. No, I just like the red flag. You pass this off to a messenger--his address is on here--and I'll check my guns. Time to get busy."

---

Tegoshi remembers very clearly the first time he met Jin Akanishi; he'd been alone in his bedroom, training alone with the rapier that was at the time his dearest friend, when a young man dressed all in black tumbled through his bedroom window with a shout. Tegoshi had bared his blade at him, only to find a pistol pointed barrel-first at him, and he'd marveled that a woman would be so bold as to wear riding leathers in a ducal palace only to remember that thieves don't much care for etiquette.

"What are you here for?" he'd asked, voice shakier than he'd wanted to admit.

"We were here for a jewel, but the idiot here messed it up," the girl had said, "so we're just heading on out, if that's all right with you?"

"Of course it's not all right with me," Tegoshi had snapped, "I'm the son of the household, you know."

"And?" she'd asked, "pistol beats sword every time."

"Rapier," Tegoshi had corrected, immediately, "it's not a sword."

She'd sighed. "All right, pistol beats rapier every time! Better, Your Highness?"

"Your Grace, if you insist," Tegoshi had said, around a smirk, and been gratified by the flush in her cheeks.

Meeting Jin Akanishi this time is much like the first, in that Jin makes most of his entrance by falling over; he trips down the dock ramp and nearly crashes into the water, tumbling to a stop right at the edge. "I'm okay," he calls, after a minute, and Becky throws her arms around his neck in a display of joy so unfettered by embarrassment Tegoshi is embarrassed for her, looking away.

"Jin, you remember Tegoshi, right?"

"The duke's kid," Jin recalls, and sticks his hand out for a shake. Tegoshi takes it and shakes, once. One side of Jin's mouth lifts up in a smile, and the other joins it when he looks down at a beaming Becky.

"Should we get this show on the road?" Tegoshi asks, tired of their happiness already.

"Onward," Becky calls, "your captain commands it!"

"Aye aye," Jin says, and soon they're off. The ship isn't huge--with only a crew of two, it couldn't have been large--but it's much larger than the fishing skipper, and despite his fears that he'd be throwing up over the deck the whole way over, Tegoshi's all right besides a few queasy rumblings. He's at the bow of the ship with Becky for most of the ride, looking forward for the first site of the Pugnaculum Albus, the massive white fortress-palace of the Queen and her forebears. The white marble structure doesn't disappoint when Tegoshi sees it for the first time, and he doesn't notice he's squeezing Becky's hand within his own until she pulls away, wincing.

"Sorry," he mumbles, but his face must say something, and she only shakes her head.

Jin manages to pull them in without a collision. "Wow, you are capable," escapes Tegoshi's mouth before he can stop it, and Jin pulls a face at him before Becky turns around to glare them both into silence. There are few guards in the castle--Tegoshi would guess that most are with Nagase in the city, holding the harbor quiet while Tegoshi and Becky do their part--and Jin seems on a first-name basis with most of them, leading both of them through the throne room and up to the center spire's staircase.

"Up there," he says, pointing his thumb up, "I've gotta make sure our friend the Spymaster's troops are occupied when shit goes down."

"Good luck," Becky says.

"Don't die in there, partner," Jin says back, and they touch fists. Tegoshi pushes down a roiling wave of jealousy, and begins the trek up to the Queen's study.

There's a girl outside, wearing a pistol on her hip, when they arrive at the top. "We're here to talk to Her Majesty," Becky says, "I'm Becky. Jin's partner?"

The girl salutes Becky. "Go on in," she says, eyeing Tegoshi's weapons suspiciously but letting them both pass without comment.

The Queen--Her Royal Highness, Meisa, Duchess of Albus and Sovereign of the Kingdom of Tilda--is curled up at her desk, reading from a book. Tegoshi drops to one knee immediately, protocol ingrained in his bones, and Becky bows low at the waist when Meisa looks up at them.

"Becky," Meisa says, brightening, "why are you here?"

"News," Becky says, "we have a reliable report of who your traitor is."

Meisa nods for her to continue, and Tegoshi can see her holding her breath before Becky speaks. "It's Miida. The Spymaster."

Meisa sags in her seat. "Of course it is," she says, "damn it. The one person I trust with all my secrets and it's the one man out to usurp me."

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty," Becky says, "a Mage Aquatic saw him meeting with the duke of Mantsua."

"No, thank you for bringing me this info--" there's a sound of shouting outside the room, and Meisa directs both Tegoshi and Becky toward the back room of the office. Becky ducks down behind a bureau, and Tegoshi tucks himself between two massive fur coats that smell as if they've never been worn. He's able to see into the main room if he cranes his neck carefully, and once the pot-bellied Spymaster passes the door Tegoshi does so.

"Your Majesty, that pirate brat you're so enamored with just took my guard prisoner!"

"No, Miida, I'm sure Akanishi is just making the best possible use of my guardsmen. And they are my guardsmen, aren't they? They're not mercenaries you hired, they serve the crown. You are perfectly safe here in the Pugnaculum."

"Not without my guards I'm not!"

Tegoshi twitches at the man's tone. Meisa's voice is icy when she speaks next. "Careful, Miida, remember who put you where you are."

"Remember who put you where you are, Your Majesty, I've always served you to the best of my--" there's the ringing sound of a shot, and Tegoshi stumbles out of the coats with Becky right behind him and his pistol already in his hand, hoping the Queen is all right--Tegoshi stumbles to a stop.

The Queen is sitting coolly at her desk chair as if it's a throne, a smoking pistol held steadily between her fingers. "I believe I find myself in need of a new spymaster," she says, gaze flicking up over Becky.

"Not me, I'd be terrible," Becky says, "why not Ohno? He's a Mage Aquatic, so he can't lie to you, and he seems like he knows things. Secret things. Which is exactly what you need!"

"A Mage Aquatic as spymaster... and Nagase really deserves a promotion, but I need a Queensguard captain and none of his lieutenants are really capable..."

Jin stumbles into the office then, with a gun held in his hands. "What the hell is happening in here?!" he squawks.

Meisa smiles, and it's a terrifying smile. "Jin," she says, "what do you think about working for me?"

"Is beer part of my stipend?"

"As much as you want."

Next to him, Becky presses her fingertips to her temples, and Tegoshi gains a new respect for her sunny personality. "As for you," Meisa says, and they both straighten up.

"What am I to do with you?" she asks, "a pirate and the second son of a duke, fugitives from Insula Gratia--oh, yes, I know all about that--and nowhere to go but back to prison? That seems like a waste of resources."

Tegoshi glances at Becky. "I have an idea," he says.

"Go on," Meisa says, and leans forward.

---

It's been a year, and Shige can barely remember most of the rush of it. He'd served in a battle as Yamashita's battlemage, then spent most of the rest of the small skirmishes helping light signal fires and aiding the wounded, and when he'd gone to the capitol to meet with the Queen afterward, he'd found himself promoted. The green and black stripes of the Court Magician on his left shoulder are gratifying, and Shige's glad for the way that he gets to boss people around and perform research without having to explain himself to his teachers, but it's still a little strange to him.

Especially since he's concerned half the reason he got the promotion was to play babysitter to Her Majesty's other agents. Ohno, the spymaster, is a smart man, and talented at spying and secret-keeping, but he's continually escaping the palace to go fishing, and Jin is... himself. Thankfully, with Yamashita permanently installed at the palace as the Rendan diplomat, and Kamenashi serving as the much-beleaguered Minister of Finance, Shige’s not completely alone.

When he lets himself into the Queen’s Chamber Council, where her closest ministers and agents gather to discuss details without the interference of the dukes into every conversation, it’s already nearly full. At the foot of the table is Kamenashi, apparently having his daily argument with Yokoyama, who splits his time between the palace and the system of orphanages the Queen has recently established. Jin and the Queen are nowhere to be seen, but Shige folds himself into a chair between Yamashita and a sleepy-looking Ohno just as she enters.

The Queen seems more relaxed than usual when she sits at her chair at the head of the table, and when she unfolds a piece of paper Shige can see why. "Becky sent me a letter. Shall I read it before we get distracted by whatever ridiculous budget Minister Kamenashi wants to bombard me with today? Excellent."

’Greetings, Your Majesty

The Sky City is even more beautiful than I could ever have imagined. Tegoshi has taken to the court here like a bird to flight. He already has half the royal family imitating his every move, and that’s only in the arena of fashion! He’s made quite a splash here.

Tegoshi says I have, too, but I merely won first place in a hunting contest. Other than that all I do is make deals behind closed doors, I’m nothing remarkable.

Progress on the project we were sent here for is going slowly, but smoothly. I anticipate that, when Tegoshi’s sanction is up in a year, we will be fully capable of returning home and having the second biggest wedding in Tilda. I’ll let you have the biggest, since you’re the Queen and all.

Give everyone my love, and tell Jin to behave.

Yours,
Ambassador Vaughn’

"Wait, she’s getting married?!" Jin manages, and Meisa folds up the letter in order to hit him over the head with it.