For about the fiftieth time that night, Arimis sighed. They had been waiting in the ally for an hour (though not sure if it was the right ally) and nothing had happened.
"So!" echoed a loud, snake-like voice from the shadows. "You were brave enough to come! I must say that I am greatly surprised! I was afraid that one or all of you might not come!” the voice hissed.
“Why did you call us here in the first place?!” Demanded Arimis of the dark shadows around them. Despite his normal calmness, he could be rather outspoken at times.
“I invited you here, so that I may warn you.” A black-robed figure glided from the shadows and snapped the bottom of its cape. Pulling down the hood, they all saw the same, old, red-haired girl. Her all-too-green eyes shone in a witchlike way that made Diego shudder.
“You are all surrounded by an aurora of danger.” She said. Every time there was an s sound it sounded like a snake hissing. “It is stronger around some than others, but you should be conscious of it…I was not…” A sad, faraway look came into the girl’s eyes.
“Danger is following you all, so be wary of it…”
Her speech was cut off by the clatter of hooves on cobblestones. Around the corner and into the ally they had been standing in rode a dozen or so of the Cardinal’s Guards…and at their head was none other than Jussac.
The Guards did not slow, but thundered straight towards them. Not one of them could move…
They did not have to. For, as soon as it seemed that they were to be pounded into the earth, they were in an office that they all recognized as M. de Treville’s. The red-haired girl was nowhere to be seen.
But in Diego’s bloodied hand was a note:
My job is done. Now, no one can be seen for a hundred yards of M. Treville’s mansion, so would you please find the book labeled “Deaths, 1500-1600” and flip to page 215?
~A Friend
D’artagnan found the book and opened it while Arimis began to bind Diego’s hand with his sky-blue handkerchief. Page 215:
Name: Duboise, Monique
Birth: 2/28/1526
Death: 11/19/1537
Cause of death: Killed in a duel.
A light went off in D’artagnan’s head. “Arimis, what is today’s date?”
Arimis thought for a moment. “The nineteenth of November, unless I am mistaken.”
Diego’s head began to ache, and then spin, and the room around him began to fade. He remembered nothing except waking up in his own bed. Bernard and his father were on each side.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Later that day, looking back on it all, Diego was about to declare it a dream. But then he noticed that he was still wearing a sky-blue hankerchief around his scarred left hand. On it was embroidered a fancy letter A and in tiny embroidery next to it, the kind of embroidery which could be seen only if you looked close enough was r-i-m-i-s.
Table of Contents
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
