THE FOUR LOVERS: DEEP IN THE HEART
ninx
CHAPTER THREE
Deja Vu and Nasties, Too
Endymion raised his head, and groaned.
he thought to himself.
The explosion had thrown both he and Serenity to the
ground, and into a crumbling mass of rock. He'd managed to
hastily erect around her and him a shield before they'd
fallen...fallen...fallen to where they were now. He pushed
himself off the ground and looked up; wherever they were
now, they were far from the surface. It appeared to be some
sort of cavern of dark, rough, unfinished rock, dully
gleaming at him in the darkness.
"Serenity?" he whispered suddenly, wondering aloud where
the Princess could be.
There was no answer, and for some seconds he thought she
was buried somewhere in some rubble. Again he called out, a
little louder now, "Serenity! Where are you?"
No answer.
He moved slightly, eyes lighting blue in an attempt to see
in the cave. However, the effort was unnecessary, for
within a few inches of himself he bumped into something
dusty and warm. He let his hand unconciously walk up her
arm, and his fingers splayed over the familar features of
her face, stroking through her long hair. The movements
seemed to bring her awake, and she gave a little gasp at the
darkness.
"Shhhhh," he said quietly. "It's all right, Serenity.
You're alive."
"Endymion? Ion?" she whispered quietly.
"Yes, Princess."
"Where are we?"
He let out a small sigh, and then said, "I'm not sure,
Princess. In some underground caverns...do you know of
any?"
"No...no, I don't recall," she replied, her voice slightly
worried. "I didn't pay much attention in class."
He smiled in the darkness, unsurprised; he never thought of
her as an academic. Yet unknown to both, Serenity would've
never learned of these tunnels, buried in the moon; they
were remnants of something long before the Moon Kingdom, and
only the ancient had faint glimmerings of their legend.
"Is there anyway we can get out of here?" she asked then,
voice drawn and quiet.
"Walk, I suppose, once we get some light."
She gave what sounded like a sob, and he sighed to himself.
he thought.
Within hours, he found out just how much worse it could be.
Unlike their last time spent together under such a
situation, she was formal, aloof, and nearly cold to him.
He found himself almost disgusted with her, and overly
puzzled. he wondered to himself as they walked
along, her locket providing their only light,
Serenity, for her part, was not enjoying her performance in
the least. It was TOO good, TOO easy for her to be this cold
towards Endymion, almost as if she'd been born this way and
had to learn to be warm and cheerful; as if this was
reverting back to type.
she wondered to herself.
a dark inner voice would reply,
* * * *
It had taken a little time to get an investigations into
the explosion organized; after all, it was late at night,
and most people had put their energies into planning for the
wedding celebration. Quickly, the leaders of the
investigation were deemed the Senshi and the Generals; the
Knights and the two Seers would journey out to the site in
order to find clues, pinpoint the Princess and Prince, check
for any enviromental breaches, and clean up the mess.
The investigation's first volunteer was a calmly distraught
Prince of the Sea, Priam.
Now, as the final dawn mist whisked away, they gathered in
the Library in order to try and see what they could come up
with. They knew this: both Serenity and Endymion had made
trips to the Gardens unexpectedly, and therefore the time
chosen for the explosion was probably not the appointed time.
So they were checking out people's stories for who had been
in and around the Gardens sometime before the wedding for
reasons OTHER than to plan for it.
The first names to come up were the Senshi and Generals.
Their covert picnic attracted attention immediately, and
Priam was asking questions; that is, until Selenity whisked
through, destroying his doubts. "I asked them to," she said
cooly. "I wanted them to discuss security and the future."
He'd bought it.
Soon--much sooner than you'd think--they'd narrowed down
their list. Most recognized the names; they were nobles,
mostly of the Moon, a scattered Earth, and even a Sea party
of Priam's friends that had come up for the wedding. One,
though, no one except Priam knew.
"Who's Thren Orndike?" asked Kunzite, his finger tapping
the name.
"Who?" Mars asked, looking up from where she and Jaedite
hunched over their section of the names list.
"Thren Orndike," he repeated. "It sounds familar, but..."
he shrugged. "Are Venus and Zoicite back from their check
yet?"
"No," Mercury reported. "Neither are Jupiter and
Nephrite."
"I guess that leaves us," said Jaedite, eyes flashing.
"I'll go," came the sudden, quick silk of Priam's voice.
Kunzite turned to the Prince, who was jotting down notes in
a soft colored, brownish ink.
thought Mars and Jaedite in near unison,
glancing at each other. Priam had been a desk jockey all
day, preferring to cross out names then go check them out.
"I know him. He's a personal friend of mine," replie (
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