Chapter Text
Eugene kept his back to the stone walls. His head was low as he checked around the corner of a large-leafed bush. Sticking to the stark shadows of the late afternoon sun bleeding across the gorge, Eugene moved closer to his target.
Ever so gently, he placed his foot in a crooked stone in the wall. Then carefully slid his fingers into the crack at the corner of the aqueduct leading to the servants' quarters. With a muffled grunt, he lowered himself behind one of the larger pots in the garden. His soft leather boots not making a sound against the tiled floor. Carefully he peeked through the branches, avoiding rustling the leaves. Eugene didn't want to alert his target to his presence.
He could see the long dark hair of his mother, tied back with a scarlet ribbon. The queen was sitting on one of the many plush couches scattered around the courtyard. A dark green tea service, a tall silver pitcher, and a tray of cookies on the small table by her side. Some of her ravens were settled on the other chairs and surrounding bushes, basking in the summer heat and rare sunlight. Queen Alexis slowly turned the pages of a thick book in her hands, her entire focus on her reading.
The prince sidestepped around the dark rose bush. A brass horn hooked to his thigh slipped into his fingers. He stepped up behind his mother, lifted the bugle to his lips ready to blow-
"Don't even think about it, Eugene." Without even turning around, Eugene could hear the smile on her face. His blow sputtered into the horn with a sad blubbering blapbp!
But Eugene quickly shrugged off the failure. After greeting his mother properly with a quick kiss on her cheek, he collapsed onto the opposite couch, startling a few of the ravens sitting on the armrests. He snatched a handful of cookies from her tray as he went.
"How'd you know I was there? I did all the sneaky stuff Adira and Hector have been teaching me!"
"I'm your mother, I know everything." Queen Alexis carefully placed a sprig of mint into her book to hold her place.
She reached for her forest green teacup. Taking a delicate sip as she studied her son. Stuck in that awkward place between child and manhood.
His face had a few blemishes and his voice still cracked in protest of his growing up. Eugene's gangling limbs, desperate for the rest of the growth spurt, were draped over the settee. He started tossing small cookies into the air and catching them in his mouth.
She waited until the exact moment her son threw another cookie into the air.
"Like I know you missed your last two astronomy lessons with Sister Virgo." She took another calm sip of her tea.
The prince sat up so quickly and choked on the cookie that had been half inhaled. The Queen's timing had been perfect.
Taking pity on her son, she wordlessly slid the second teacup across the table.
Eugene took the cup and downed the chilled drink in three solid gulps. Once he had his breath back he took a moment to stare at the space between his shoes. Realizing what his mother's invitation to the garden was actually about.
"She told you?" anger and betrayal in his voice.
As Alexis refilled his cup, one of her eyebrows rose. Did Eugene honestly think so little of his tutors? or of her for that matter, that she would need someone to tell her when Eugene was avoiding his classes?
"No, you did... just now."
Eugene slapped his hand to his forehead.
Alexis chuckled softly. Eugene was thriving in his stealth lessons with Adira and Hector, but her son still had much to learn when it came to the games of whispers.
Skipping his lessons, wasn't the problem.
"Now, where were you?" her tone bit sharper than she had intended.
"I thought you knew everything?" he muttered into his teacup.
"Eugene."
He flinched at her tone. She obviously wasn't in the mood for their banter today.
"I was just hanging out around Brothers Keep." his voice raised as he answered a tad too quickly.
"Alone?" she already knew the answer, but she let the question suffocate the courtyard.
Sneaking out, wasn't the problem.
Eugene rubbed at his neck, one of several nervous tells that all but proclaimed his true feelings to the world, and more importantly to her.
"Lance and I were just..." his innocent smile shaky under the intensity of his skeptical Queen's raised eyebrow. They both knew that if he had been with Lance, they wouldn't be having this conversation.
Arnwaldo Schnitz, wasn't the problem.
A moment of pause went by without even a twitch from his mother. Eugene shut his eyes and let out a big sigh. Accepting his fate.
"... I was with Stalyan." the blush on his cheeks was obvious.
That girl, was the problem.
That girl, and the look in her son's eyes. Alexis had never seen him look more like his father.
The Prince of the D'arque Kingdom was in love.
In love with a thief and a con artist.
What dreadful news.
The Queen had expected as much. But it still stung, her warnings had fallen on deaf ears. And soon her baby boy's gentle and sensitive heart would be shattered and trampled.
She rose from her couch to sit beside Eugene. She brushed his bangs away from his adorable face. He was due for a haircut, she thought absently. His eyes shut at the soothing action.
"Oh sweetheart-"
"She's not like you think Mom!" Eugene pulled away from her. His hands twisting together in frustration, another tell.
"She doesn't care that I'm a Prince or anything. She really loves me!" he looked at his mother so desperately, his chocolate eyes were melting with dampness. Alexis felt her heart break.
But years of royal court life had drilled discipline into her emotions. She managed to keep her face and her voice hard and flat.
"Does she love you or Flynn Rider? or should I say, does she love you, or all the things you've stolen for her?"
Eugene's face went from determined to shocked to angry to fearful to devastating regret in less than a breath. He turned away.
"How'd you find out about that?" he whispered brokenly.
"Your father and the brotherhood may have more important matters to worry about than some missing bric-a-brac."
Her eyebrow raised into a disappointed frown.
"But when two sets of silverware, three fine bottles of wine, five candlesticks, seven goblets, four vases, Sir Gwalen's snuff-box, Lady Veronica's silver hair combs, and a pair of my earrings all go missing within four months. All disappearing just a day or two before one of your late-night adventures across the gorge..?"
At every item his mother listed, Eugene sank further into himself. Wanting to be anywhere but on this plush couch.
It hadn't seemed like so much... well it had, but Stalyon kept saying that they needed just a little more.
"Honestly Eugene, were you even trying to go unnoticed?"
He didn't know what to say. So he didn't say anything. Feeling foolish and transparent, he thought he had been so sneaky. Eugene just stayed silent and hoped that it would be over soon.
Mom was gone, she was in full Queen Alexis mode now. She rose to her feet and to a step away from him. Her hand reached out to pet one of the ravens sitting on the tea table.
"She asked you to try, didn't she? She told you her family was starving or that one of her other street friends was sick and they couldn't afford the medicine?"
Eugene stared at his mother
"How'd you-?"
But Alexis raised her hand for silence.
"You've taken nothing that can't be replaced, no doubt your Stalyan has already pawned everything you've brought her to prove yourself a worthy thief."
"That's not what-" Alexis' hand raised again.
"But this game of hers stops now Eugene. That girl is lying to you. She does not live on the streets, she's not even an orphan." Her voice got louder, her frustration and fear getting the better of her. "Her father is the head of a powerful crime family in the Seven Kingdoms, and they are both manipulating you for-!"
"I know about all that!" he yelled in desperate outrage.
Alexis stopped talking as Eugene lept to his feet, staring down his own mother like an enemy. There was desperate anger in his eyes.
"She told me about her dad, and that he wanted the "Secret treasure" from the castle and how she was supposed to find someone in the palace who could get her inside, and how he made her try and recruit me -er recruit Flynn Rider to help her steal it! Mom, she's told me everything!"
After Eugene's tremendous outcry, silence filled the courtyard garden.
"I see." Alexis' rhythm was thrown off at the revelation. Cursing herself for underestimating an ambitious young woman. She had to take a deep breath.
"And when exactly did she tell you all of this?"
Eugene's face flickered with irritation. Alexis hadn't bothered to keep the dubiousness out of her voice.
"Last month. After we got back from our trip. She told me everything about her dad." His entire body was tense and he looked half-ready to storm away.
Alexis closed her eyes. Of course.
Last month, Alexis had taken Eugene on a weeklong trip to the seashore past the Great Tree. He had become so withdrawn and quiet, she had hoped to reconnect. Strengthen their bond and help him see the truth. Help him remember that there were other people he could turn to besides Stalyon.
Over the week, Alexis had dropped hints about how they had to be careful that people might take advantage because they were royalty. She had talked to him about her own family, her father, her brothers, and her stepmother. How they had all been cruel to her, but she hadn't fully realized how cruel until she had left to marry Edmund. Even after she'd left, they tried to use her position and their relationship to gain favor in the court.
By the end of the week, Alexis could tell that the trip had helped Eugene see more clearly.
Alexis could see the change in Eugene over the week. Her stories had spoken to him, and he recognized her feelings in his own. Even if he wasn't ready to admit it to himself.
Eugene disappeared again after they returned home. Alexis had hoped it would be to break off his relationship with Stalyon. Hoped that Eugene had enough sense to see past her pretty face and false words and see how much she was hurting him.
But barely two days later, Lady Veronica's silver combs had mysteriously disappeared. And Alexis knew she had failed, and her son was still trapped.
"And I told her that I was the prince." He braced himself, expecting this shameful confession to finally bring the full fury of his mother's wrath down upon him.
But his mother said nothing. It was hard to stand there under her intense gaze.
"Lie by telling the truth." She whispered it like an old mantra she could never forget.
"What?" Eugene had barely heard his mother whisper.
Alexis reached out and held him close.
"Eugene, Some people." There was a catch in her throat as she tenderly brushed a loose bang behind Eugene's ear. "Some people can lie, by telling the absolute truth."
That was too much for Eugene. His face turned angry. His fists were tight. Shoving her away.
"She's not lying! What would you know anyway!" He shook his head and pushed past the Queen herself heading toward the castle.
"You're exactly like everyone else! You just want me to stay locked up in this nightmare kingdom for the rest of my life!"
Outraged that his mother thought he was a naive fool. He realized that she would never allow him and Stalyan to be together. And there was no question about his father supporting the relationship.
Stalyan had been right. Of course, she had been right, right about everything. He couldn't stay here, not anymore.
They would have to leave as soon as they could.
If the prince had bothered to look back he would have seen his mother lean back against the table as she watched him leave. Her eyes were tight but dry. She looked surprisingly calm, her ravens hopping around her. One landed on her shoulder.
"Love makes us blind," Alexis whispered to herself as she looked up into the cloudy sky.
Queen Alexis stood at the window of the rookery tower. Her many ravens fluttered around the room. Landing and taking off again, preening her hair and nipping at her fingers for attention and treats.
Absently she divided seeds among each of the hanging feed dishes. Glancing out the window every minute she could spare. It was nearing midnight.
It had been almost a week since their "discussion" in the garden. Alexis had finally told Edmund about their son's activities. She had told him that it would do no good to confront and punish the boy.
Eugene was young and in love. Parental disapproval and punishment would not dissuade him. If anything, it would only drive him further to rebel.
But Edmund was a man of direct action. He lacked his wife's delicacy when it came to strategy. He had confronted the prince and demanded an explanation.
The fight between father and son could be heard from across the castle and lasted for several hours. It ended with Eugene being escorted to his chambers by Hector. The prince had been grounded and forbidden from crossing the gorge for at least three months and he was to never see the girl Stalyon again.
Eugene had locked himself in his room. Refusing to see anyone, even Lance had been turned away. Only leaving twice a day to silently collect his meals from the kitchens.
Or so it seemed. Over the last few days, Quirin had reported that food had been going missing from the storerooms. And with that clue, Alexis knew Eugene was making preparations.
The Queen gazed up into the sky. The moon was full, the autumn fog thick and heavy.
Alexis gave a heavy sigh. She was sure he would try to leave tonight. "Escaping" as he thought of it currently. Ignoring the wisdom of everyone he knew and respected. Abandoning his throne and his kingdom and his family.
For love.
Alexis couldn't help but laugh sadly. It seemed that her son was the worst kind of romantic.
The movement below caught her eye. And there he is.
She was too far away to see any details, but she would know that scrawny frame and rich brown hair anywhere. No doubt the bag over his shoulder was full of stolen valuables and pilfered food.
Eugene loaded his supplies onto one of the gondolas. Checked his surroundings one more time, and shut the door. Very slowly, the gondola began to move across the gorge. It was half-hidden by the fog. And moving so gently and quietly that even if anyone were awake at this late hour, they probably wouldn't even notice.
Unless of course, they were actively watching.
Alexis raised her arm. One of her ravens, Arden, quickly took the favored roost. Absently she scratched under his chin, he cawed happily. When she looked up again, the gondola was across the gorge. Eugene's long blue coat waved in the wind as he hurried into the forest.
She carried Arden to the window. Many of the other birds looked up with interest. Arden nuzzled the Queen for a moment, then tilted his head. Asking a question with a soft caw.
Alexis ran her fingers through the midnight plumage. Then answered.
"Follow him."
With a sudden lift of her arm, the bird took flight. Several others took their cue and followed along the same flight path. Across the gorge toward the forest.
Her ravens all loved Eugene like their own fledging. Following him around the kingdom ever since his first steps. They could always find him.
From her tall tower, she could see the imposing figures of her husband and the other knights on horseback. They would follow her birds and find the runaway prince.
She just wished it were not too late.
Her ravens had started to return just before dawn broke.
Eugene was safe then.
Queen Alexis stood at the gondola station nearest the tree line. Varian clung to her like a lost kitten. The poor boy was exhausted with worry, unable to sleep.
Quirin had left his son with the royal nursemaids. But the child had awoken not long after Quirin and the others had left. Varian had been inconsolable when he realized that his father and both of his big brothers were nowhere to be found. The poor girls were driven to desperation and had brought the toddler to the Queen.
Alexis had taken the screaming child into her arms. After ten minutes or so she had been able to distract him with charcoal and parchment. He had fallen asleep after detailed descriptions of his future inventions and several very impressive drawings.
When the sky began to lighten, Alexis had tried to leave the playroom quietly so as to not disturb the little boy. But Varian had woken up at the slightest sound. Wanting more than ever to see his big brother. He demanded to go with her.
Now they stood together, at the edge of the forest waiting for their loved ones.
Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long.
Yellow sky crept over the hills just as Edmund and the others appeared from the forest.
Quirin and Hector were herding at least a dozen coarse and rough men at swordpoint. Hector's rhino at the rear and his bearcats circling them, occasionally snapping at their jumpy ankles. The soldiers stationed at the cable car entrance stepped forward to assist them.
Adira was helping support Lance. The poor boy looked like a stiff wind would blow him over. His left arm was wrapped in a makeshift sling, and he was favoring his left leg.
Edmund sat upon his horse. Looking as angry and frustrated as she had ever seen him. But as he grew nearer, she could see the anguish on his face. Against his chest, half-hidden under his cape sat Eugene.
Eugene's face was deathly pale, lost in a disorienting shock. His pants were ripped and he was covered in dust and dirt. His left eye was already bruising and he had two or three shallow cuts across his face. Scraped hands clutched the king's cloak like he wanted to burrow away and never come out.
"Eugene!" At first sight of the Prince, Varian erupted into awareness. He scrambled out of her arms before Alexis could stop him. Varian stumbled toward the king's horse. He had waited long enough, he wanted his big brother, now.
Edmund pulled Dominoe to a stop. The experienced mare was more than familiar with the wild ways of human foals. She didn't even flinch when the child grabbed her leg in his efforts to get to his brother. Calling his name over and over.
It didn't seem possible, but Eugene's face looked even more miserable at the display. He turned his head deeper into his father's chest, hiding from everything.
The prisoners were under control. Quirin appeared and lifted his son. Varian seemed pleased at the arrival of his father, but he still muttered Eugene's name as Quirin led them away.
Alexis approached her husband and son. Eugene reluctantly uncurled from his father's side. Her heart shattered at the broken look in her baby's eyes.
His first love was now his first betrayal.
A few hours later, Alexis was to be found at her son's bedside in the healer's wing. After some time of manic busy noise, it was quiet. The only sounds were the Queen's occasional humming and Lance snoring loudly in the next bed.
Eugene's wounds were mostly superficial. Several bandages now covered his face and hands. He had bruises all over his body including a bad black eye that would probably last for a while.
The healers predicted that the prince would be sore and uncomfortable for at least a few weeks, but he would be back on his feet in a day or two.
He was curled up against a mountain of pillows, lost to the crash of post-battle exhaustion. At some point, Eugene had taken her hand and had still not released it. Alexis was not about to complain.
She rhythmically stroked his hair while humming some tune or other. Maybe later she would ask a servant to fetch her violin. But for now, she was in no mood to play.
While the healers attended to Lance and Eugene. Edmund had told her what had happened. She had burned with impotent rage as her husband described the depths of manipulation and cruelty her son had endured.
There was a small balm for her fury. The man responsible, The Barron, had been killed in the battle. In his blind rage at being foiled and captured, he had tried to strike Eugene down.
Edmund had run the man through before he could deal a finishing blow to the Prince.
The Barron's men, at least those who had survived the attack, were in the dungeons. Alexis would happily see them rot.
But the girl, Stalyon, had disappeared. Somehow during the battle, she had managed to slip away. Deep into the forest, or perhaps she would go further and return to the Seven Kingdoms. Perhaps she was now all alone in the world, with nowhere to go and no one to care for her. The false story she had used to gain Eugene's sympathies, now true.
She deserved a thousand times worse. If Stalyon was ever foolish enough to return to the dark kingdom, Alexis would personally see to it that she got exactly what she earned and more.
"Mom?"
Alexis smiled at her son. The white linen of the hospital shirt made him look slightly less pale.
"How are you feeling sweetheart?" she stroked his cheek with her thumb, careful to not disturb the bandage on his chin.
Eugene frowned and sat up straighter. His hands twisted together.
"All right I guess." he attempted one of his usual charming smiles but winced when it pulled at one of the bandages. He sighed as he curled forward and held his arms. "Pretty stupid actually."
Alexis said nothing. Once Eugene got started he would keep talking until he had gotten enough of his feelings out.
"You were right." He sounded so broken. "You were right about everything. All she wanted, no- all they wanted was the stone! And when I didn't have it... she said- she said...she said." He took a deep breath, deep but shaky. "I... I love her or loved? Urgh! I'm not sure anymore!"
His voice cracked. Tears started to flow. Alexes shifted onto the bed beside her son and pulled him close.
"All this time she kept saying that she was mine and I was hers, that I belonged with her that we belonged together! She said that she loved me and I belonged with her."
His voice got hard and quiet.
"And I believed her mom, I actually believed her."
He wiped his eyes with his sleeve. Looking ashamed and humiliated, but he didn't pull away from her. He pulled her even closer.
"Then last night, she said that if I wasn't going to do what she said, then I wasn't worth the trouble."
He broke down into sobs.
Alexis held her son as tightly as she could. Tears poured down her own face. That witch of a girl had hurt him so much. Alexis wanted to make it all better with a magic kiss, like when Eugene was a little boy, hurt in a childhood misadventure. But such simple times had long passed.
"I'm sorry."
It was so quiet, Alexis thought she had imagined it. But it quickly came again.
"I'm so, so sorry Mom. For the stealing and the lying and all that stuff that I said in the garden last week. You were right about everything and I just, I was just so stupid, i didn't even... No, I wouldn't listen, I'm just so-"
Alexis placed a finger to his lips. Eugene fell silent. She used a damp cloth to wipe his wet and blotchy face.
"Hush now my love. You are hardly the first teenage boy to lose his good sense over a girl. Just ask your father about how we met." she added in a teasing tone.
Eugene raised his eyebrow, clearly curious. But his mother continued.
"You will apologize fully for your errors in judgment. You have made many mistakes, and you will be making amends for them," she said firmly, Eugene nodded in acceptance. "But for now, that can wait."
"You were manipulated and lied to. You do not need to apologize for that." She kissed his hair. Feeling absurdly happy when he didn't pull away as he had been for the majority of these past few months.
Eugene was quiet for another minute. They were both fully on the bed now. The comfort of holding each other was a soothing cure for all the stress of recent weeks.
"I thought that she... I know I shouldn't... But I think I still... I still." Eugene's eyes fluttered, he was clearly still tired.
Alexis smiled and carefully pulled away. Gently she lowered Eugene onto the bed.
"How about, next time you find a girl you like," She tucked him in like she hadn't been able to in years. "You bring her to meet me as soon as possible."
She kissed his forehead. Eugene smiled, already half-asleep.
"I promise I will."
"I love you, sweetheart."
"I love you, Mom."