Chapter Eleven
Micky hissed to Davy, “Shit, this is for real!” And his grip shifted on George as he twisted, pushing George toward Davy. Davy grabbed him and flipped him toward ‘Mike.’
Gavin raised the staff he was leaning on and—instead of swinging it and striking George with it, he planted the end in George’s armor-clad stomach, using the momentum to reverse his direction and send him back toward Davy. Davy ducked down, covering his head as George tumbled over him, landing on the catwalk with a metallic thud.
The extra soldiers suddenly gasped out, “What’s going on here?”
“This is for real,” Gavin hissed back. “These men are trying to really hurt us! Get down and out of the way—make it look like part of the play!” With that, he swung at the man, who took the opportunity and made himself a small ball. The staff hit the catwalk with a loud smack and Gavin hissed as the impact sent thrills of pain through him. George smiled as he lunged, his mailed fist sailing towards Gavin’s exposed back. Davy caught the movement from the corner of his eye and turned, snapping a kick that hit George in the chest, clotheslining him.
Gavin turned and saw it, smiling at Davy. “Thanks, man.”
“Welcome, Mike! Pull it together, we need you!” Davy then turned to see ‘Gavin’ hike up the skirts and snap a high-kick toward Richard’s chin. “Uh . . . ” The Tiger was now completely confused.
The skirts made Mike’s kick slower than usual; Richard grabbed Mike’s foot and wrenched, sending Mike spinning to the floor. He landed with a grunt of pain and shot a glare at Richard over his shoulder that even the heavy make-up couldn’t make look ridiculous. All that came through was pure, animalistic rage. Richard grabbed the dress, hauled Mike up, and starting to heave him over the edge. Mike, whose ankle still throbbed from where Richard had grabbed it, found himself off-balance and unable to straighten as he was pushed to the edge of the fake parapet.
“Now, Princess!” Richard boomed so the audience could hear. “Time to die!” And he shoved.
With a gasp, Mike went over the railing of the catwalk. The audience gasped and then breathed out an “aaahhh” as the Horse twisted his body and grabbed the edge of the catwalk with an audible smack. He hung there, the long skirts swinging wildly as he swayed with momentum.
“Princess!” Peter shouted, somehow managing to stay in character. His eyes snapping, he grabbed Richard. “You have killed my love!” Roaring with the misery of someone who has just lost his true love, Peter lifted Richard up and tossed him over the edge. The black-mailed knight screamed as he crashed full-force into one of the set pieces (a clump of trees), which collapsed on him once he landed.
Peter whirled on George. “Wanna see if you can fly too?” George shook his head violently, his hands rising in surrender.
“My lord!” Gavin said, still trying to remember the audience, who had suddenly become dead quiet. “The princess lives!”
Micky and Peter reached over the edge and helped Mike back up. “My princess, are you well?” Peter asked. Mike, unable to speak, just nodded.
Peter supported him for a moment, then called over the edge. “Your ambitions are ruined, Sir Harold!” he called. “What say you now?”
Only one other person in the theatre other than onstage caught the double meaning. Bennett slid to the lobby and picked up the phone. “Hello, police?”
Richard raised his head and gasped out “I . . . I surrender!” He lay back down and the Winds made out his lips moving. “Least I’m alive,” he whispered.
“For now,” Micky muttered. Shadows passed over them as the curtains were drawn.
“Is it over?” Peter asked, panting slightly. The fight had been brief, but his body was unused to fighting while shrouded in heavy mail. Strands of damp blond hair stuck to his forehead.
George nodded. “If you surrender, then . . . then I surrender too!”
“It’s over!” Gavin reported and they headed down off the catwalk as the lights went down.
“So what now?” Micky asked, shoving George in front of him.
“We finish it,” Gavin said. “The show must go on.”
Peter and Mike pulled Richard to his feet and held him between them in a pair of iron grips as the other three gathered slightly away from them—still close enough to help if needed. The lights came up and Gavin nodded toward Mike to finish it.
Mike leaned his weight onto his good leg, hiking his hands up on his hips. “Well, you have kidnapped and threatened to kill the woman that you were gonna marry!” Richard rolled his eyes, silently mimicking “her.” “I hope you have some sort of an explanation!”
“I despise you!” Richard snarled.
“I didn’t ask for an apology, stupid!” Mike shot back, and the audience laughed appreciatively. The soldier extras walked over and grabbed Richard and George, leading them away and straight into the arms of the policemen waiting in the wings.
Smiling genuinely to see it, Mike walked over and shone the grin onto Peter. “And you, my knight in shining armor—” He paused, the rest of the line disappearing from his mind. He shot a look at Gavin, who smiled and mouthed it. Nodding, Mike picked it up, “—by way of reward, I will grant you any wish your heart desires!”
“Anything?” Peter asked.
“Oh, anything at all!” Mike said.
Peter looked back at Micky, Davy, and Gavin. “What’ll I ask for?”
“As her to marry you!” Gavin hissed.
“No! I—I couldn’t!” Peter protested.
“Sure, ask her to marry you! What a groovy-looking chick with a body like that I’ve never seen those sidebur—”
“Cool it!” Micky said, loud enough for the audience to hear. They laughed.
“I’m scared!” Peter said, his expression bewildered. “I’m too young to get married!”
Gavin started chuckling. “Oh, man . . . that’s funny!”
Peter turned to Mike. “Princess?”
“Yes?” he screeched.
“Princess, will you marry me?”
“No, I won’t marry you!” Mike said in his normal voice, reaching up and taking off the wig. The audience gasped to see two identical men up there, then laughed heartily.
“Michael!” Peter gasped, when the line was supposed to be “Gavin!”
“Yeah,” Mike said, removing the false eyelashes. “I’m already married—man, you know, Phyllis and Christian, my little kid . . . ”
Peter tried to look crestfallen. “Oh, wow she’s married, man!” Gavin groaned. “What a bu—” His words were cut short by Davy, who feigned being hurt when Gavin thumped his staff on the floor even though it was nowhere near him.
The town crier walked out and spoke the words that ended the play. “And thus the power of sweetness and niceness and friendship and love saved the town of Avon-On-Calling from the vicious Sir Harold! And they all lived happily ever after!”
The lights went down and came up and everyone but Richard and George came onstage and bowed. As they left the stage, Mike was leaning heavily on Peter as they all walked into the large dressing room. “That’s that,” Mike sighed as he lowered himself into a chair.
“How’s the ankle, Mike?” Gavin asked as he sank down in a chair opposite. The performance had taken its toll on him.
“Hurts like a bitch,” Mike said, peeling his costume off piece by piece. “I’ll be fine, though. Nothin’ an hour or two of healin’ sleep won’t cure.” He looked at Gavin. “You?”
“I have a week’s vacation coming up. Now’s as good a time as any to take it. From the sound of the applause tonight I think we’re a smash.”
“I think so too,” Peter said with a grin. “Just one thing puzzles me—who are Phyllis and Christian?”
“My wife and son,” Gavin replied, beaming. “I told Mike about them when we were going over my lines together.”
“And since we switched places,” he grinned at Micky and Davy as that was said, “I just went ahead and used it as if it were really Gavin.”
“You mean that's been Gavin all along?” Micky asked, pointing at the man with the staff. “Was that why you didn't fight hard?”
“Yeah that and the fact this—” he said, suddenly swinging the staff and watching it break into two pieces when it met the floor, “is just a prop.”
“And just when were you going to tell us you’d switched?” Davy said, crossing his arms and trying to look indignant.
“Never,” Mike smirked. “Didn’t want you two hotheads giving us away.”
They rolled their eyes in unison, but their grins said they forgave him.
Mike then turned to Gavin. “And the next time you get in trouble, don’t hesitate to come to us. Just one thing.”
“What’s that?” Gavin asked, smiling their shared smile at his double.
“You can forget about me wearin’ a damn dress ever again!”
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