Hollow Kingdom

The first thing Alec did when Evan got back was go off to warn the baker and his family about what he'd heard. The man didn't like being involved with the rebels, but ever since the increase in taxes had made it near impossible to keep the bakery open, he couldn't help but support them. He seemed disappointed to see Alec when he opened the door, and even more disappointed to see Evan standing behind him. Prissy poked her head out too, excited to let the boys in right away.

"We won't be long," Alec reassured him, trying to ignore Prissy as she pulled him in by his sleeve.

Looking over, he saw that her older sister, Genevieve, and their mother were in the kitchen preparing the next day's bread rolls. Evan cracked a half smile at Genevieve, giving her a tiny wave, but she gave no warm response.

"Evening, Ginny," he chuckled nervously. "It's been awhile, hasn't it? How've you-"

Evan ducked when one of the day-old pastries on the tray beside her was suddenly flung at his head, straightening out again with wide eyes.

"I told you that I didn't want to see your stupid face again until your funeral, when this stupid revolution goes nowhere," she growled.

"That's actually why we're here," Alec interrupted, facing the baker again. "We’ve just received news that your home is to be searched. Not sure when exactly, but it will be tomorrow.

“What?” he frowned. “How did my name get put on a list?”

Everyone turned to glance at Prissy, who sank in her seat. She’d been too invested in the rebels to not be noticed, and she rarely took care to hide it.

“Is Lily your source?” she squeaked.

Alec said nothing, but the look gave it all away. The family quickly set to work getting rid of all evidence of the rebellion, handing it off to Alec and Evan. The Baker tried paying Alec for the kind deed, but he refused. People needed all the money they could get around here. Genevieve gave Evan a kiss on the cheek, making him turn a bright shade of red. Alec had to nudge him to snap him back into reality. They were off within an hour to prevent being followed, or causing more trouble for the family.

“Is Lily on our side now, then?” Evan asked as they walked back.

“I never said anything about Lily,” Alec answered.

“You don’t have to,” Evan shrugged. “We all know.”

Alec kicked a pebble along as he reluctantly came up with an answer. They were close to home, and he hoped Evan would accept a change of subject for the short walk left. “She’s not taking a side. She wants the best for everyone. End of story.”

“Do you love her?”

Alec froze in his tracks, staring at Evan like he’d just spoken a different language. Evan stood by the question, waiting patiently for an honest answer.

“What kind of a question is that?” Alec asked.

“One that would like an answer,” Evan said, brow furrowed. “What has gotten into you lately? We tell each other everything. You’ve been acting like you just met me. Like you don’t trust me.”

“We have to be cautious in this day and age,” Alec said, his tone cold. “You never know who the hypocrites out there are. They could be right under your nose.”

“What are you accusing me of?” Evan said, narrowing his eyes at Alec.

“It’s not a secret, Evan,” Alec snapped. “You’ve been keeping secrets. And for your sake, I’ve been keeping those secrets, too. Your little love affair with the Queen? I’m not an idiot.”

“That’s my business and my business only,” Evan argued, raising his voice as well. “I’ve been nothing but loyal to the cause. You of all people should know that, Alec.”

“If you were loyal to the cause, maybe we’d have actually gotten somewhere in the last month,” Alec said, shoving Evan back. “You know, the last month when the people of Aegara were starving and you were lying in the Queen’s bed, sipping fine wine and eating little cakes. You like being King, don’t you? Who cares about all these other peasants when you get to be a King?”

“You’re stepping completely out of line, Alec,” Evan growled. “I’m nothing close to a king, and you know that. You know I’d never do that.”

“I thought you’d never lie to me, either,” Alec said. “Yet here we are. You’ve been lying to me since the start. If Daniel was here, he’d be disappointed. He always told you that you were far too soft. He was right.”

“Don’t bring Daniel into this,” Evan warned.

“Daniel would be here right now if you hadn’t been so careless and stupid-”

Alec didn’t get to finish his sentence before Evan suddenly punched him square in the nose. It certainly hadn’t been the first time Alec had been hit as of recent, but none of those hurt as much as this did. Probably because neither of those hits came with the actual intention of causing serious damage. Not to mention Evan was twice the size of both of those girls. Alec looked at him in shock, both of them locking eyes with bottled up infuriation bubbling up inside of them. Alec opened his mouth to say something, but instead snapped it shut again and threw a punch right back at Evan, hitting him in the jaw. He didn’t give Evan a chance to pull himself back together before attempting to punch him again, but Evan had been ready this time, blocking the hit and sending a fist straight into Alec’s stomach, knocking the air out of him.

He took the moment of disorientation to tackle Alec to the ground, and soon both men were engaged in a full-blown fist fight. Alec could feel his nose bleeding, and there was also a warm, wet spot somewhere on the back of his head. He shoved Evan off of him and pushed him hard into the cobblestone. Evan winced when his head hit the stone, but he managed to shove Alec back off of him, too.

“Alec! Evan!”

Alec was about to hit Evan again when two pairs of hands pulled him off of Evan, while two others picked Evan up. The fight had gotten some attention, luckily from people they knew. It took a moment for Alec’s vision to come back, but he saw that most of them were members of the rebellion, who must have been gathered at the tailor’s shop to discuss what was happening with the Baker. Belle ran over to Alec first, then Evan, checking them both over. Evan was in pretty bad shape, bleeding quite a bit, and Alec knew he looked just as bad if not worse. He’d never gotten into a physical fight with Evan, but he quickly learned that Evan wasn’t an easy target.

Belle looked like she wanted to yell at them, but instead directed the men to help Evan and Alec limp back to the shop, so she could put them in separate rooms and clean them up. She started with Evan, who had a bit of a worse head injury after Alec had slammed him into the stone.

“Stand in the corner and face the wall,” she told Alec.

“What?” he frowned.

“You heard me,” she said, glaring at him.

Alec reluctantly did as he asked, crossing his arms over his chest stubbornly. Evan had it coming to him. Alec didn’t regret a single hit landed on him. He was sure that Evan was probably just as pleased with himself. Alec hadn’t been this bruised up since he was fourteen years old.

After Belle had cleaned both of them up, giving them each an appropriate amount of time in the corner, she had Evan taken to a friend’s home to spend the night so he and Alec wouldn’t be in rooms right next to each other. Alec almost felt guilty making her this angry, but he was too stubborn to apologize for the fight. Belle changed his bandages before he went to sleep, insisting that he stay in bed before he hurt himself even more.

“I can’t believe you two,” she grumbled, wiping blood off his face. “You’re best friends.”

“Were,” Alec corrected.

“What happened?” Belle demanded.

Alec thought about telling her everything, but decided against it. Liar or not, he wasn’t going to throw Evan under the bus like that. The concussion was probably enough to knock sense back into him.

“We got into a fight,” Alec grumbled. “That’s all.”

Belle sighed, shaking her head. “Tomorrow, everyone is meeting with Dominic to discuss the situation more. He’s going to hear about you and Evan fighting, there’s no doubt about that. The least you two can do is act civil around each other.”

“Fine.”

“I suggest you invite Lily, too,” Belle admitted. “She was a big part in this. Marie and Dominic will both want to meet her.”

“I can take care of it,” Erwin said a little too eagerly, climbing up onto the end of Alec’s bed. “After all, you did tell her about my… speech.”

“Fine.”

Erwin happily hopped down, making his way to the window and slinking out into the night. Alec had hoped he’d be there when Lily witnessed the talking ferret for the first time, but he just had to trust that Erwin wouldn’t scare her too badly. Pushing all the worry from his mind, he finally went to sleep.



Like Belle had predicted, Dominic was not happy about Evan and Alec’s little scuffle. Evan showed up with Belle’s friend, Sienna, who had taken care of him for the night. His ice-cold grey eyes bore holes into Alec from where he stood, leaning on a wooden crutch since apparently he’d rolled his ankle at one point at well. Alec ignored him and stood on the other side of the room, watching the door for Lily. She eventually found her way into the large library in Dominic’s home, which was used as a meeting room. She held Erwin tightly to her chest for comfort, hurrying over to Alec as soon as he saw him.

“You know, when you said your ferret could talk, I thought you meant- What in the heavens happened to you?!”

Her eyes turned wide when she saw how beaten up Alec was, reaching up to gently trace her fingers over his bruised cheek. Her gaze flit over to the side of the room, where she saw Evan. She looked back and forth between them for a bit, then narrowed her eyes at Alec.

“What did you do?” she whispered.

“Don’t worry about it,” he whispered back, taking her hand and moving it away from his face to place a quick kiss on her knuckles while no one was paying attention.

From Lily’s other side, Prissy suddenly appeared, looking up at her like some kind of a goddess. Lily eyed the girl before giving her a little wave hello.

“I just wanted to say thank you,” Prissy said softly. “You saved my family. I’m sorry I was mean to you.”

“That’s quite alright, Prissy,” Lily said gently. “No hard feelings.”

“You have pretty hair,” Prissy pointed out randomly, inching a little closer to Lily. “You’re pretty. In general.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

Everyone went silent when Dominic stormed into the room, closing the grand doors to the library behind him with a loud bang. They all watched him move to the other side of his desk at the head of the room, banging his fist on the wood.

“Where are they?” he yelled, his face beet red.

There were a few hushed whispers, but everyone knew who he was talking about. Evan and Alec sheepishly limped their way to the front, staring straight ahead to avoid looking at each other. Dominic glared at them both for a few silent moments before yelling again.

“What were you two thinking?” he barked. “You’re lucky Belle found you before the guards did. How are we supposed to send you two back to the palace looking like this? No man of any refined background looks like this. You look no better than two street rats! Some questions about why you look like this can lead to you boys being targeted and followed, eventually ruining this entire plan. Because of your absolute insolence, and because of your arrogance, I had to spend all morning trying to find a way to fix this.”

Evan and Alec’s eyes both shifted to their feet, unable to look at Dominic anymore. The older man took a deep breath and sat down, rubbing his temples. He lowered his voice to a much gentler, quieter tone, but he still didn’t look up.

“The girl. Where is the girl?” he asked.

Lily hesitantly stepped forward, hiding behind Alec a little bit like she was nervous to see Dominic. He lifted his head to give her a gentle smile, and she came out from behind Alec, a little more comfortable now.

“You must be Lily,” Dominic said. “I know this must be difficult for you, and you must feel hopelessly outnumbered, but I am afraid I must ask you if you would continue to help us.”

“I don’t want anyone on either side to get hurt,” she said. “I won’t hurt anyone.”

“And you won’t, Dominic reassured her. “However, because these two idiots have put themselves out of the job for at least two weeks, I must ask you to cover for them. Perhaps tell the Queen they have gone on some sort of a trip, for trade purposes. You can surely come up with something good.”

“Alright,” Lily nodded.

“One more thing,” Dominic added. “I must ask you to let someone into the palace. We need eyes in there, especially with a new advancement we’ve discovered. We can’t afford to lose sight of it, now that Alec is out of the picture.”

He shot a stern look at Alec, then opened a drawer and took out the ring Alec had given to him before. He looked over and found Belle in the crowd, waving her over. She stepped up next to Alec, taking the ring that was handed to her. She glanced at Lily, then back to Dominic.

“This is the ring of a Samuel Denholm,” Dominic told the girls. “He is somewhere in the castle, presumably under a fake name, refusing to step forward. Mr. Denholm could change the game for us all, and he must be found. Belle, I trusted your brother with this. He ruined it for everyone. Now I am trusting you. No matter how close to the Queen you get, you must not let your feelings get in your way. Lily, on behalf of the people of Aegara, I am putting my trust in your hands. I need you to get Belle in there, disguised as a friend, or family, or whatever you decide is the easiest way to bring her in there. Can I trust you with this?”

“Yes,” Lily said simply, though she seemed a little hesitant about it.

“Wait a minute,” Belle interrupted, brow furrowed as she stared at Lily. “I am not going anywhere with her.”

“Isabelle,” Dominic warned. “What would your father say?”

Belle pursed her lips into a tight line and looked back at Lily. “Fine. Don’t slow me down.”

She pushed past Lily as she stormed out of there, people moving out of her way. Lily looked up at Alec, a little bit worried, but he gave her a reassuring half smile.

“Don’t worry about the attitude giving you two away. She can put on quite a convincing mask when she wants to,” Alec promised. “Good luck, Lily.”

“I’ll need it,” she sighed. “I’ll come to check on your when I can. Don’t hurt yourself even more.”

With that, Lily hurried out the door after Belle, running to catch up. Alec’s smile dropped off his face as soon as they left. While he knew Belle was a fantastic actress who wouldn’t give up the rebellion to the Queen, he wasn’t so sure how merciful she’d be with Lily.