The Cair Royals

"I will cause law and merciful justice to be executed in all our judgements-"

"Shout. We need to get their attention."

Edmund didn't have enough fight in him left to even make a sarcastic 'really?' comment at Lilith's words.

"Who's got the loudest voice?" Lucy asked, looking around.

"Sanya did."

"DOES. She DOES." She turned to her brother, full of fury. "STOP giving up, Ed, it doesn't suit you. And I meant out of us fo- out of us five."

"I do." Gentle Susan said- many a time she had had to calm down her relatively rowdy siblings. "But you should all yell with me."

"Alright." Peter nodded before bracing himself- the shouting would surely worsen his headache.

"WHAT do you want? We don't accept you as rulers here." Another rebel spy glowered as he walked in the room, being made to answer the Monarchs' screams.

"We'll cooperate." Susan said, her tone painstakingly soft and seemingly genuine. "We'll give up the Thrones, we'll give you everything you want- just let us and my future sister-in-law go."

Lilith didn't recognise this new member- must have joined in the last 8 months, then.

"I a- was one of you." She told him. "Believe me when I say that they are absolute idiots when someone they love is in danger. They really WILL give up everything."

"And yet you turned against us?"

"That's WHY I turned against you." The redhead shook her head. "Leave us bound, if you must, but if the-if we are killed, thousands of secrets Andrews would die to get his hands on are buried forever too."

"We could just torture it out of you." He replied, seemingly nonchalant- but he was afraid of Andrews and if what this ex-member was saying was true...

"Look at him." She jerked her head towards Edmund, whose face was ashen now. "He has nothing to live for, if you kill his fiancée. Torturing him would be a mercy, as would killing him. Same goes for all of them. You kill one of them, you might as well have killed them all. You kill one, your boss loses all chances of getting those secrets."

Alden was practically new at Fortis. But one thing he knew- if you cost Andrews what he wanted, the consequences were dire.

"Fine." He said and Lucy worked hard to conceal her triumphant grin as he knelt at her feet, undoing the ropes there.

'Kick him, kick him in the face' mouthed Susan to her sister but she shook her head. Not enough force.

Thankfully Peter had more than enough force in his kick and soon had an unconscious Fortis agent at his feet.

"That was surprisingly easy." Lilith said- like all of them, now standing. "If only he'd agreed to undo our hands too..."

"He was gullible, not stupid." Edmund shook his head, Susan and Lucy flanking him in case he tried to run to find Sanya. "What now?"

"Find something sharp to cut through the ropes?" Peter suggested, wanting to be of some use to his family.

"It's metal rope, you won't be able to." His wife was frustrated at the thoroughness of her old agency. "Rope we could've cut through, handcuffs we could've broken our thumbs to get out of but not metal rope."

"Could've used his gun." Susan said, prodding his belt with her feet to make the weapon slide out.

Lilith bent down to grab it, managing to hold it despite her tied up hands.

"What?" She asked, looking at the others. "Anyone else ever shot a gun?"

"Yes." They all chorused. "It was part of training."