The Arrow's Flight 2/?
Title: The Arrow's Flight 2/?
Pairing: Changmin/Junsu (Jaejoong/fc, Yunho/Heechul, Yoochun/Yoohwan [incest], Junho/fc)
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Here is another world that I wish existed in a place other than my mind, but it doesn't and I don't own them and I can only place them into this delusion.
Summary: Greed and corruption rule two neighboring kingdoms: The Kingdom of Mountains and the Kingdom of Trees. Two princes are planning a coup. Their success or failure depends on the shadow in the woods, the rogue of the forests, the arrow in the sky.
A/N: Totally inspired by Robin Hood. Can you blame me?
Warning: het
A/N2: I made Exo the bad guys again, just fyi, and they all die.
Part 2:
The Grip
The grip is the middle part of the bow handle grasped by the archer for stabilization before shooting.
Junsu had fallen asleep. A necessity, though he tried to stay awake as long as possible. He was not in a safe place, though he was hidden in a little used room in Jaejoong’s part of the castle compound. But it was easier to sleep than to think of his guards that had not made it. Kyungsoo and Jongdae had been shot down as they rode. He mourned for them. His guards were his best friends and he trusted them. To lose two, and in such an underhanded way, hurt too much to bear and it was easier to sleep than to think that they would not have been killed without Changmin’s orders.
Still, there were enough people in the castle that wanted to kill him on sight, so he should have kept awake. He stayed in his rooms, ate the food that Jaejoong brought to him. He planned on leaving in the middle of the night, before dawn.
The door to his room slammed open and Junsu jerked alert, flinging a knife toward the door. It glanced off a shield and thudded into the wall. He had his sword drawn and took a step toward the intruders.
“Junsu, stop!” Jaejoong said.
Junsu blinked his eyes. A torch flared in the darkness, and then another was lit by his door. Jaejoong was there with all five of his personal guards.
Always sleep with your sword, Junho had warned him, and now he was grateful.
“Where have you been the last few hours?” one of the guards asked.
Junsu looked at Jaejoong in surprise and motioned around the room. “Here. Ask your guard who is outside of the door.”
Jaejoong smiled. “I told you.”
“He could have snuck out the window.”
“I did that one time!” Junsu said. “And I had a good reason! Pretty sure this one was chasing me.” He pointed at one of the guards.
Jaejoong held out his hand to silence his guard’s retort. “Seohyun has been kidnapped,” he whispered.
Junsu stared with wide eyes. “W-what? How?”
“These were left in her room.”
A guard threw down three arrows that had blue and green fletching. Changmin’s clan.
“No way, Jaejoong. There is no way--”
Jaejoong held out his hand. “I know that. No one in his rabble is sloppy enough.”
“How did this happen?” Junsu asked, and then choked. “Minzy! Is Minzy--”
“She’s fine and with her nurse. I checked on her first thing. It gets worse though. Your guards are missing. The five that you arrived with.”
“W-what? How ... what?”
Jaejoong frowned and nodded. “All of them are gone.”
“What do we do?” Junsu asked, trying to keep his knees from shaking, his heart from plummeting.
“They can’t have gotten far,” one of the guards said. “The body of her guard was found less than fifteen minutes ago, and he had just gotten on his shift two hours before that.”
Junsu started gathering up his things. “Give me Swift-Feet. I’ll either overtake them or find someone to help.”
“That is not--”
Junsu held up a hand. “You cannot come, Jaejoong,” he said. “You can’t. You have to stay here, where you are safe and surrounded by guards. They’re my responsibility. My ... my ... Either I will find them first, or Cha-- or our friend will.”
Jaejoong frowned. He looked over at one of the guards and nodded. “Take him to the stables. Seungri, you run ahead and get Swift-Feet ready to go.”
The guard bowed and took off down the hall.
“Daesung, run to the kitchens. Bread, apples, cheese.”
“Yes, sir!”
Junsu shook his head. “There is no time,” he said and accepted the knife that he had thrown. He put his bow and quiver over his back.
“My men are quick. You are probably hungry. Don’t be foolish.”
Junsu moved to him and hugged him tightly. “I’ll send word.”
“If I have not heard from you in three days--”
Junsu nodded. “In three days it will be too late. If you have heard nothing by morning, send out a search party.”
“As soon as this is made public, there will be war.”
Junsu grimaced. “There will be.”
“Be swift, my friend.”
“Like the wind through the trees,” Junsu returned. He pressed a quick kiss to his cheek and then left down the hall, following one of Jaejoong’s guard. He arrived in the stables just as the last pack was secured on the back of Jaejoong’s deep brown horse. He put a foot in the stirrup and lifted himself into the saddle. He had the horse turned around when the other guard arrived with one more bag, this one full of food.
Jaejoong’s men were indeed fast.
He took it gratefully, shouted out a thank you, and then galloped out of the stables, down the cobbled roads, over bridges and into the trees.
His guards would have taken Seohyun on the shortest route to the castle. Not the one he had purposefully taken for Changmin to rob him, but the one further north. He wondered how far and wide Changmin’s network of spies ran and figured that it stretched through the thickest parts of the trees.
He tried not to think of what happened if he was already too late. If Seohyun, and her child, were already dead.
He pushed Swift-Feet to his limits. He raced over the road, ducking under branches when the trail thinned too much. He did not slow. The princess was more important than his safety. He took shortcuts when he could, through streams and on side trails almost too rocky for even the best horse. But Swift-Feet was better than the best.
In three hours, he heard a scream. He stopped Swift-Feet abruptly and moved slowly. His heavy breathing echoed in the sudden quiet. A pinpoint of light bobbed nearby. A lantern? A candle? Something small.
How close were they? Junsu knew they were only tens of meters ahead of him. He let Swift-Feet move nearer until one of the guards shouted, “We’re being followed!”
It sounded like Luhan.
Junsu swallowed down sudden heartache. These were no longer his guards. No longer his trusted travel companions. Their treachery proved that the King of the Mountains knew that Junsu was going between the two Kingdoms in secret. It had been a plot, a way to get into the Kingdom of the Trees and kidnap the possible heir to the throne.
For what purpose? To start yet another war, probably. Wars were profitably for the crown, but not profitable for the poor villagers who had to pay even higher taxes.
He dismounted from Swift-Feet and crept towards their camp. The five of them had stopped. Junsu could barely see. But barely was better than not at all.
He removed his bow and an arrow. He nocked the arrow and pulled back on the string. A tear dripped down his cheek as he let the arrow fly with a sharp twang of the string. The guard did not move quickly enough. But Junsu did, and he took out another one before the first had hit the ground.
“Stop! Or I will slit her throat.”
Again, Luhan.
Junsu froze with another arrow nocked.
“Good choice, Junsu,” Luhan said and laughed.
Guessing. Just guessing. But he was right. Luhan was always right. It could have been someone else, but this trail was farther north than Changmin’s band usually traveled. Most of the travelers were on horseback because of the terrain. The heavy laden carriages went the other way, so Changmin guarded that route more.
That did not mean that Changmin did not have spies this far north.
Hell, Junsu had no idea where Changmin’s main hideout was. It could be around the next bend or over a tree-covered hill.
He hoped it was close. There were three more of them, and he had to keep them away from the princess. It was possible. But it’d be way easier if he had some help.
You hear that, Captain Shim Changmin. Come and help me.
Junsu put his bow and quiver of arrows down against a tree. He walked forward, toward the party, and unsheathed his sword. He kept it loose at his side, ears primed for the sound of an arrow in the air. His guards were not good shots but did very well with their swords. Junsu had sparred with them often during practice.
As soon as he was close enough for the others to see, he stopped. The small light was from a torch, held aloft by Suho.
Luhan, Suho, and Sehun.
Junsu gulped. He’d much rather taken out Sehun with an arrow. It was a horrible thought and gut-wrenching to remember that he had already killed Minseok and Chanyeol, two of his friends, but Sehun was a real weapon with his sword. Junsu rarely ever beat him during sparring matches.
The three of them smiled. Not nice smiles, and Junsu again had to push away the heartache. They had been his friends. Very good friends. He thought of asking questions, get them talking, but he did not want his shaking voice to betray the turmoil in his heart. He could keep his face blank. He could not keep his voice void of emotion.
They climbed off their horses. Seohyun hung stomach-down over the back of Luhan’s horse. Junsu prayed that the position had not hurt the baby. She was not conscious that he could tell, though she had screamed earlier.
Light reflected off a sword and Junsu lifted his own to deflect the blow. He spun it by the hilt, pushed away another attack and shoved one of his own into Luhan. Luhan blocked it and Junsu had to spin away from a slice at his leg by Sehun. He had no time to think. Just react. Deflect. Move. Pain blossomed on his arm. He pushed it away.
Even if he died, he hopefully was giving Changmin enough time to catch up to them later and save Seohyun.
<|---------<<<
Changmin woke up to a sharp smack on his face. Damn the trees, he had been sleeping! He rarely slept.
“Get up,” Yunho said and went to smack him again.
Changmin rolled out of his hammock the other way. As soon as his feet hit the ground he was alert, bow in his hand. It was dark. Too dark to be awake when he was not out on patrol or on watch. “What is it?”
“Travelers, about a kilometer north, going fast and noisily through the forest.”
Changmin snapped his fingers. “What else? The important part.”
“It’s the guards we let live the other day, the ones with the prince.”
“And?”
“The prince is not with them, but someone is. Someone who is very pregnant and not exactly going willingly.”
Changmin’s eyes widened. “You’re certain?”
Yunho lifted an eyebrow.
“You can tell me I told you so later. She is alive?”
“She was less than an hour ago.”
“Come on.”
Changmin checked his weapons, noted that everything was where it should be and then took off running. Yunho flanked him. A moment later, Yoochun and Yoohwan were there. They ran as fast as they dared without making noise, going further north through the trees.
“They’re on the northern road,” Yunho said.
Good and bad, Changmin knew. It was the shortest official route between the kingdoms, but also one of the hardest to travel with anything that had wheels. Even traveling swiftly from one castle to the other, nonstop and with the best horse, meant an entire day’s journey.
The four of them would be there in no time.
How those guards managed to kidnap the princess from her own castle and actually leave the grounds was something for Jaejoong to worry about.
Changmin had to worry about getting her back before anyone else knew she was missing. Did they already know she was missing? If they did, there would be more than just a few guards in the woods right now. There were no soldiers from the Kingdom of the Trees searching for her. Not yet. It meant Changmin had time.
A plot ... but why? How? Who was involved?
Junsu?
No, there was no way. Junsu risked his life every day being the liaison between Junho and Jaejoong. Both princes wanted peace. They all wanted peace. Was Junsu devious enough to fake such sincerity and steal the princess from her own bed?
Changmin doubted it. He trusted Junsu. And the Twin Princes had trusted him long before he left the palace.
But was Junho planning something covert? Did Junho tout peace but secretly want the kingdom to himself? Enough to kidnap the princess and the unborn child?
Changmin did not know. He had only seen Junho from afar for the last fifteen years. A man changed drastically in that amount of time.
But Junsu had promised support from his brother. He was his brother’s words and actions. And Changmin trusted Junsu, more than he had ever trusted anyone else.
The sky to the east turned a lighter shade of black, almost gray, deepening the shadows. Everything was so still during this hour as the night creatures retreated back to their homes and day creatures woke up.
Changmin heard the scuffle long before he saw them. Shouts, warnings, and then metal. Swords clashing. How many? Three swords, perhaps four. Were they fighting with themselves? He hoped so. He did not want to think of the alternative. But an uneasy feeling settled in his gut, and he just knew that one of those swords belonged to Junsu.
Changmin motioned the brothers ahead and to the other side. They ran for longer than normal, giving up stealth for speed, the sounds of the fight masking their footsteps. A shout of pain, and the sword noises stopped for a moment.
Changmin saw their shadows in the moonlight, still moving too much, too fast. He did not dare slow down and pushed ahead of Yunho. A fire flared in the darkness. A torch knocked over, and Changmin stopped in his tracks, almost skidding on the soft dirt. There were three men fighting, two on the ground with arrows in their heads, and one struggling to move with his arm mostly off, blood spraying around them.
Junsu.
His Junsu, arm bloodied and body weak, but still fighting against two men. Two of his own guards. Given a bit of luck, Junsu would survive the battle, but Changmin did not believe in random luck. Changmin made his own luck. And provided it when he was able.
Changmin lifted his bow and released an arrow that thunked through the face of one man. Yunho’s arrow took out the other’s throat, and then Yoochun and Yoohwan were in the firelight. Yoohwan moved from man to man and slit their throats.
Junsu collapsed into Yoochun just as Changmin ran up to them. “Took you ... long ... enough.”
Junsu fainted.
Changmin did not like the look of either wound: Junsu had one in his arm and one on his side.
Yunho was tending to Seohyun, removing the knots of rope on her wrists and ankles. And the dirty gag out of her mouth.
“Max,” Seohyun said in relief. Yunho offered her water that she sipped gratefully. “My hero.”
“It was Junsu that saved you. Let’s get off this road, as quickly as possible.”
“The bodies?” Yoochun said.
Changmin jerked his head to the flames that spread into the grass. “Burn them. Bury the bones. We have to get the princess to safety.”
“Safety? With you, rogue?” she said with a grin.
“Better me than Mountain Palace guards, your highness.”
She laughed. “So true. I am too weak to ride.”
“Yunho will ride with you. I’ll hold on to Junsu.”
“Where are we going?” Yunho asked.
“Home,” Changmin said. “I must ask that you be blindfolded, my lady.”
Seohyun laughed again. “Of course, Rogue Prince.”
“I was never a prince and you know it.”
“Then you are king to those you lead.”
“And that is treason.” Changmin vaulted onto the back of one of the horses and steadied her before Yunho handed Junsu up to him. “Let’s go! Yoochun! Before you return, send Swift-Feet back to his home with a note on its saddle.”
“All is well?” Yoochun asked.
Changmin smiled. “For now!”
Part 3: The Anchor
Part 1: The Shaft
.
Pairing: Changmin/Junsu (Jaejoong/fc, Yunho/Heechul, Yoochun/Yoohwan [incest], Junho/fc)
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Here is another world that I wish existed in a place other than my mind, but it doesn't and I don't own them and I can only place them into this delusion.
Summary: Greed and corruption rule two neighboring kingdoms: The Kingdom of Mountains and the Kingdom of Trees. Two princes are planning a coup. Their success or failure depends on the shadow in the woods, the rogue of the forests, the arrow in the sky.
A/N: Totally inspired by Robin Hood. Can you blame me?
Warning: het
A/N2: I made Exo the bad guys again, just fyi, and they all die.
Part 2:
The Grip
The grip is the middle part of the bow handle grasped by the archer for stabilization before shooting.
Junsu had fallen asleep. A necessity, though he tried to stay awake as long as possible. He was not in a safe place, though he was hidden in a little used room in Jaejoong’s part of the castle compound. But it was easier to sleep than to think of his guards that had not made it. Kyungsoo and Jongdae had been shot down as they rode. He mourned for them. His guards were his best friends and he trusted them. To lose two, and in such an underhanded way, hurt too much to bear and it was easier to sleep than to think that they would not have been killed without Changmin’s orders.
Still, there were enough people in the castle that wanted to kill him on sight, so he should have kept awake. He stayed in his rooms, ate the food that Jaejoong brought to him. He planned on leaving in the middle of the night, before dawn.
The door to his room slammed open and Junsu jerked alert, flinging a knife toward the door. It glanced off a shield and thudded into the wall. He had his sword drawn and took a step toward the intruders.
“Junsu, stop!” Jaejoong said.
Junsu blinked his eyes. A torch flared in the darkness, and then another was lit by his door. Jaejoong was there with all five of his personal guards.
Always sleep with your sword, Junho had warned him, and now he was grateful.
“Where have you been the last few hours?” one of the guards asked.
Junsu looked at Jaejoong in surprise and motioned around the room. “Here. Ask your guard who is outside of the door.”
Jaejoong smiled. “I told you.”
“He could have snuck out the window.”
“I did that one time!” Junsu said. “And I had a good reason! Pretty sure this one was chasing me.” He pointed at one of the guards.
Jaejoong held out his hand to silence his guard’s retort. “Seohyun has been kidnapped,” he whispered.
Junsu stared with wide eyes. “W-what? How?”
“These were left in her room.”
A guard threw down three arrows that had blue and green fletching. Changmin’s clan.
“No way, Jaejoong. There is no way--”
Jaejoong held out his hand. “I know that. No one in his rabble is sloppy enough.”
“How did this happen?” Junsu asked, and then choked. “Minzy! Is Minzy--”
“She’s fine and with her nurse. I checked on her first thing. It gets worse though. Your guards are missing. The five that you arrived with.”
“W-what? How ... what?”
Jaejoong frowned and nodded. “All of them are gone.”
“What do we do?” Junsu asked, trying to keep his knees from shaking, his heart from plummeting.
“They can’t have gotten far,” one of the guards said. “The body of her guard was found less than fifteen minutes ago, and he had just gotten on his shift two hours before that.”
Junsu started gathering up his things. “Give me Swift-Feet. I’ll either overtake them or find someone to help.”
“That is not--”
Junsu held up a hand. “You cannot come, Jaejoong,” he said. “You can’t. You have to stay here, where you are safe and surrounded by guards. They’re my responsibility. My ... my ... Either I will find them first, or Cha-- or our friend will.”
Jaejoong frowned. He looked over at one of the guards and nodded. “Take him to the stables. Seungri, you run ahead and get Swift-Feet ready to go.”
The guard bowed and took off down the hall.
“Daesung, run to the kitchens. Bread, apples, cheese.”
“Yes, sir!”
Junsu shook his head. “There is no time,” he said and accepted the knife that he had thrown. He put his bow and quiver over his back.
“My men are quick. You are probably hungry. Don’t be foolish.”
Junsu moved to him and hugged him tightly. “I’ll send word.”
“If I have not heard from you in three days--”
Junsu nodded. “In three days it will be too late. If you have heard nothing by morning, send out a search party.”
“As soon as this is made public, there will be war.”
Junsu grimaced. “There will be.”
“Be swift, my friend.”
“Like the wind through the trees,” Junsu returned. He pressed a quick kiss to his cheek and then left down the hall, following one of Jaejoong’s guard. He arrived in the stables just as the last pack was secured on the back of Jaejoong’s deep brown horse. He put a foot in the stirrup and lifted himself into the saddle. He had the horse turned around when the other guard arrived with one more bag, this one full of food.
Jaejoong’s men were indeed fast.
He took it gratefully, shouted out a thank you, and then galloped out of the stables, down the cobbled roads, over bridges and into the trees.
His guards would have taken Seohyun on the shortest route to the castle. Not the one he had purposefully taken for Changmin to rob him, but the one further north. He wondered how far and wide Changmin’s network of spies ran and figured that it stretched through the thickest parts of the trees.
He tried not to think of what happened if he was already too late. If Seohyun, and her child, were already dead.
He pushed Swift-Feet to his limits. He raced over the road, ducking under branches when the trail thinned too much. He did not slow. The princess was more important than his safety. He took shortcuts when he could, through streams and on side trails almost too rocky for even the best horse. But Swift-Feet was better than the best.
In three hours, he heard a scream. He stopped Swift-Feet abruptly and moved slowly. His heavy breathing echoed in the sudden quiet. A pinpoint of light bobbed nearby. A lantern? A candle? Something small.
How close were they? Junsu knew they were only tens of meters ahead of him. He let Swift-Feet move nearer until one of the guards shouted, “We’re being followed!”
It sounded like Luhan.
Junsu swallowed down sudden heartache. These were no longer his guards. No longer his trusted travel companions. Their treachery proved that the King of the Mountains knew that Junsu was going between the two Kingdoms in secret. It had been a plot, a way to get into the Kingdom of the Trees and kidnap the possible heir to the throne.
For what purpose? To start yet another war, probably. Wars were profitably for the crown, but not profitable for the poor villagers who had to pay even higher taxes.
He dismounted from Swift-Feet and crept towards their camp. The five of them had stopped. Junsu could barely see. But barely was better than not at all.
He removed his bow and an arrow. He nocked the arrow and pulled back on the string. A tear dripped down his cheek as he let the arrow fly with a sharp twang of the string. The guard did not move quickly enough. But Junsu did, and he took out another one before the first had hit the ground.
“Stop! Or I will slit her throat.”
Again, Luhan.
Junsu froze with another arrow nocked.
“Good choice, Junsu,” Luhan said and laughed.
Guessing. Just guessing. But he was right. Luhan was always right. It could have been someone else, but this trail was farther north than Changmin’s band usually traveled. Most of the travelers were on horseback because of the terrain. The heavy laden carriages went the other way, so Changmin guarded that route more.
That did not mean that Changmin did not have spies this far north.
Hell, Junsu had no idea where Changmin’s main hideout was. It could be around the next bend or over a tree-covered hill.
He hoped it was close. There were three more of them, and he had to keep them away from the princess. It was possible. But it’d be way easier if he had some help.
You hear that, Captain Shim Changmin. Come and help me.
Junsu put his bow and quiver of arrows down against a tree. He walked forward, toward the party, and unsheathed his sword. He kept it loose at his side, ears primed for the sound of an arrow in the air. His guards were not good shots but did very well with their swords. Junsu had sparred with them often during practice.
As soon as he was close enough for the others to see, he stopped. The small light was from a torch, held aloft by Suho.
Luhan, Suho, and Sehun.
Junsu gulped. He’d much rather taken out Sehun with an arrow. It was a horrible thought and gut-wrenching to remember that he had already killed Minseok and Chanyeol, two of his friends, but Sehun was a real weapon with his sword. Junsu rarely ever beat him during sparring matches.
The three of them smiled. Not nice smiles, and Junsu again had to push away the heartache. They had been his friends. Very good friends. He thought of asking questions, get them talking, but he did not want his shaking voice to betray the turmoil in his heart. He could keep his face blank. He could not keep his voice void of emotion.
They climbed off their horses. Seohyun hung stomach-down over the back of Luhan’s horse. Junsu prayed that the position had not hurt the baby. She was not conscious that he could tell, though she had screamed earlier.
Light reflected off a sword and Junsu lifted his own to deflect the blow. He spun it by the hilt, pushed away another attack and shoved one of his own into Luhan. Luhan blocked it and Junsu had to spin away from a slice at his leg by Sehun. He had no time to think. Just react. Deflect. Move. Pain blossomed on his arm. He pushed it away.
Even if he died, he hopefully was giving Changmin enough time to catch up to them later and save Seohyun.
<|---------<<<
Changmin woke up to a sharp smack on his face. Damn the trees, he had been sleeping! He rarely slept.
“Get up,” Yunho said and went to smack him again.
Changmin rolled out of his hammock the other way. As soon as his feet hit the ground he was alert, bow in his hand. It was dark. Too dark to be awake when he was not out on patrol or on watch. “What is it?”
“Travelers, about a kilometer north, going fast and noisily through the forest.”
Changmin snapped his fingers. “What else? The important part.”
“It’s the guards we let live the other day, the ones with the prince.”
“And?”
“The prince is not with them, but someone is. Someone who is very pregnant and not exactly going willingly.”
Changmin’s eyes widened. “You’re certain?”
Yunho lifted an eyebrow.
“You can tell me I told you so later. She is alive?”
“She was less than an hour ago.”
“Come on.”
Changmin checked his weapons, noted that everything was where it should be and then took off running. Yunho flanked him. A moment later, Yoochun and Yoohwan were there. They ran as fast as they dared without making noise, going further north through the trees.
“They’re on the northern road,” Yunho said.
Good and bad, Changmin knew. It was the shortest official route between the kingdoms, but also one of the hardest to travel with anything that had wheels. Even traveling swiftly from one castle to the other, nonstop and with the best horse, meant an entire day’s journey.
The four of them would be there in no time.
How those guards managed to kidnap the princess from her own castle and actually leave the grounds was something for Jaejoong to worry about.
Changmin had to worry about getting her back before anyone else knew she was missing. Did they already know she was missing? If they did, there would be more than just a few guards in the woods right now. There were no soldiers from the Kingdom of the Trees searching for her. Not yet. It meant Changmin had time.
A plot ... but why? How? Who was involved?
Junsu?
No, there was no way. Junsu risked his life every day being the liaison between Junho and Jaejoong. Both princes wanted peace. They all wanted peace. Was Junsu devious enough to fake such sincerity and steal the princess from her own bed?
Changmin doubted it. He trusted Junsu. And the Twin Princes had trusted him long before he left the palace.
But was Junho planning something covert? Did Junho tout peace but secretly want the kingdom to himself? Enough to kidnap the princess and the unborn child?
Changmin did not know. He had only seen Junho from afar for the last fifteen years. A man changed drastically in that amount of time.
But Junsu had promised support from his brother. He was his brother’s words and actions. And Changmin trusted Junsu, more than he had ever trusted anyone else.
The sky to the east turned a lighter shade of black, almost gray, deepening the shadows. Everything was so still during this hour as the night creatures retreated back to their homes and day creatures woke up.
Changmin heard the scuffle long before he saw them. Shouts, warnings, and then metal. Swords clashing. How many? Three swords, perhaps four. Were they fighting with themselves? He hoped so. He did not want to think of the alternative. But an uneasy feeling settled in his gut, and he just knew that one of those swords belonged to Junsu.
Changmin motioned the brothers ahead and to the other side. They ran for longer than normal, giving up stealth for speed, the sounds of the fight masking their footsteps. A shout of pain, and the sword noises stopped for a moment.
Changmin saw their shadows in the moonlight, still moving too much, too fast. He did not dare slow down and pushed ahead of Yunho. A fire flared in the darkness. A torch knocked over, and Changmin stopped in his tracks, almost skidding on the soft dirt. There were three men fighting, two on the ground with arrows in their heads, and one struggling to move with his arm mostly off, blood spraying around them.
Junsu.
His Junsu, arm bloodied and body weak, but still fighting against two men. Two of his own guards. Given a bit of luck, Junsu would survive the battle, but Changmin did not believe in random luck. Changmin made his own luck. And provided it when he was able.
Changmin lifted his bow and released an arrow that thunked through the face of one man. Yunho’s arrow took out the other’s throat, and then Yoochun and Yoohwan were in the firelight. Yoohwan moved from man to man and slit their throats.
Junsu collapsed into Yoochun just as Changmin ran up to them. “Took you ... long ... enough.”
Junsu fainted.
Changmin did not like the look of either wound: Junsu had one in his arm and one on his side.
Yunho was tending to Seohyun, removing the knots of rope on her wrists and ankles. And the dirty gag out of her mouth.
“Max,” Seohyun said in relief. Yunho offered her water that she sipped gratefully. “My hero.”
“It was Junsu that saved you. Let’s get off this road, as quickly as possible.”
“The bodies?” Yoochun said.
Changmin jerked his head to the flames that spread into the grass. “Burn them. Bury the bones. We have to get the princess to safety.”
“Safety? With you, rogue?” she said with a grin.
“Better me than Mountain Palace guards, your highness.”
She laughed. “So true. I am too weak to ride.”
“Yunho will ride with you. I’ll hold on to Junsu.”
“Where are we going?” Yunho asked.
“Home,” Changmin said. “I must ask that you be blindfolded, my lady.”
Seohyun laughed again. “Of course, Rogue Prince.”
“I was never a prince and you know it.”
“Then you are king to those you lead.”
“And that is treason.” Changmin vaulted onto the back of one of the horses and steadied her before Yunho handed Junsu up to him. “Let’s go! Yoochun! Before you return, send Swift-Feet back to his home with a note on its saddle.”
“All is well?” Yoochun asked.
Changmin smiled. “For now!”
Part 3: The Anchor
Part 1: The Shaft
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