Takeo's Chronicles, page 153
“What honor? I’m a childless widow, incapable of bearing another heir. Trust me, you’re not the first to try. I’ll not marry some stuffy old daimyo who didn’t do a damned thing while Nobu and I were imprisoned. Oh, my son. My son! He’s dead, he’s dead, and you’re all I have left now. Marry me, I command you!”
“There is no need,” Takeo pressed. “An alliance through marriage is too strategic. Who knows, perhaps we can avoid bloodshed by marrying you to the eldest Nguyen brother?”
Zhenzhen’s hand came across Takeo’s face with an extra dose of malice. It went beyond stinging, almost to the point of bruising. The blow raised a level of hate within him.
“You will not suggest that again,” she said. “I will not marry one of those vile brood. You will conquer them as you conquered the Katsu, and this time, you will show no mercy. Am I understood?”
“Yes, my lady,” Takeo replied.
“And you will marry me. You will reign as my husband, indomitable and merciless, the sort of man I always dreamed Nobu would be. I will fill your heart, and you will fill my bed, and all will be right in the world. You will! Say it. SAY IT!”
Madness glinted in her bloodshot eyes, all the more highlighted by her pale skin. As she eluded the sun, so too did sleep elude her, and she bared a snarl at Takeo with teeth perfectly flat, having been gnashed together night after night. Yet, even still, she was beautiful, as beautiful as she was in dire need of someone to care for her.
Unfortunately, that person could not be Takeo.
“I will not,” he replied. “My heart is spoken for.”
He spoke with more than words. This conversation could not be allowed to continue, so he dropped his cowed expression and gave his daimyo a taste of the defiance that lurked behind his black eyes.
You raped me. In ways I didn’t understand, you took from me all that you pleased, which I gave away in fear. However, even then, I could live with that. I’ve been abused in far more damaging ways. It’s not you, my lady, that I am rejecting, but everyone. I will never marry. You own my body, but not my soul. You demanded I love you like I loved her, and so I have done, but I will never give you more than I gave her.
I am spoken for.
Zhenzhen gazed back, an understanding passing between them, and her snarl grew. She raised her hand with all the noble savagery her privileged kind was capable of and flung it towards Takeo’s face. He caught her wrist a finger’s length from striking.
She gaped.
“Let’s get one thing straight,” Takeo said. “You need me just as much as I need you.”
“Unhand me, you wretch!”
Takeo released her, and she snatched her hand away. She glared, pausing for a moment to rub where he’d grabbed, then swung at him again. Takeo did not catch her this time, but instead stepped back and dodged the blow. Zhenzhen screamed and followed, assailing him with clawed nails and wild swings. He avoided her with ease until she tripped over her own gown and sprawled across the rug-adorned floor.
“I’m leaving now,” Takeo said, looking down at her. “I’ll be back soon, and then we’ll conquer this land together, as shogun and commander. I suggest you find someone else worthy of your hand.”
“Don’t you tell me what to do,” she seethed from the ground, heaving from her efforts. “You will obey me! Don’t you walk away.”
Takeo did not look back.
“I own you! You’re mine!” Zhenzhen screamed like a banshee. “Don’t think you can get away with this, you dirty ronin. You’re not half the man my son was. You will kneel before your shogun!”
The doors banged shut behind Takeo, and Lady Zhenzhen’s next scream was muffled. He retreated to the courtyard, only stopping to bring his companion along for the ride.
Not that Emy would have referred to herself as such.
Their destination, the mansion of the late Lord Rithisak Zhao, was not far from the Hanu capital. They could have ridden the entire way there in silence and not felt a bit of unease, but there was one thing that bothered Takeo enough to break their silence. He waited several hours before attempting to speak to her.
“I have to ask,” he said. “How did you not know what I would do?”
“I’ve asked myself the same thing every day since you killed him,” she replied, swiftly and without pause.
Emy did not disguise herself anymore. She walked around in her rakshasa skin, with brazen orange fur fluffing out of her human-designed clothes like a pet komainu club dressed to entertain. So revealed, she was taller than most, and she stood with a spine so straight it would bring a tear to the eye of an old knight back in Lucifan. It seemed all charades were gone now. Only the ugly truth remained.
“I suppose I thought we had an understanding,” she continued, dropping her head, one ear twitching in the wind. “When I went for Gavin, it was my way of saying that I would protect what you cared about, and in return, I assumed you would return the favor.”
“You had to know there was no saving Krunk,” Takeo said. “Not only did Botan have my sword, but I was surrounded, and Krunk had lost his mind. He couldn’t help me, or us. He could barely comprehend where he was.”
“What are you saying? That what you did was merciful?”
“No. I’m saying that what I did was inevitable. You should have known that.”
“I did!” she growled back, then recollected herself. “I did. But I hoped otherwise. I believed in you.”
The silence between them resumed, though it proved to be short-lived, in relative terms. Emy had a question of her own, and she waited until their destination loomed before them to bring it up.
“So, I’m a prisoner again?” she asked.
“Weren’t you always?”
“What is your plan? To bring me along when you face Qadir and use me as either bait or leverage? Surely, you must know he’ll be too smart to fall for either. He’d rather look for a new female.”
“You’ve never met a male of your kind before,” Takeo replied. “Their feral side comes out in the pursuit of a mate. He’ll try something, or so I hope. But you can rest easy, Emy. I will not kill you. After this, I’ll consider your sentence complete, and you can go free.”
“Really?” She scoffed. “You, with your unbridled hatred for rakshasas, would let one such as me go?”
“So long as you serve out your term amicably, I have no issues turning a blind eye to your nature. I owe Krunk far more than that.”
Takeo paused, dropping his head and letting out a long sigh.
“Besides, it’s not your wrath I fear,” he said. “It’s his.”
Emy glanced up the path. There, barring their way into the mansion grounds with folded arms, stood the silhouetted figure of Sir Gavin Shaw of the Knights' Order.
Chapter 23
Gavin’s arms did not fold so easily with his left hand missing. The stubby end kept trying to roll off the opposite forearm, rather than perch as one expected. The good news was that this awkwardness distracted any onlooker from spending too much time examining Gavin’s long, gaunt cheeks and the malformed scar along the side of his head. Botan had cut the ear clean off, but the shogun had provided little else beyond a thin gauze for his victim’s recovery. The resulting fever had wracked Gavin’s body. From his spindly arms to his shrunken chest, Gavin’s once imposing figure was reduced to that of a peasant's. Even his yellowed hair seemed thinner.
Yet all this Takeo would have preferred to see, if only to avoid Gavin’s eyes. Where once green light warmed him, the ronin instead found only embers, dying a little at a time under the cold cruelty of the world.
“Emy, good to see you,” Gavin said as the two approached. “Takeo.”
“It’s good to see you, too, Uncle,” Emy replied, nodding and dismounting. “Where is my father?”
“I buried him in the Zhao family graveyard. I didn’t know what else to do, and Kuniko said it would be fine. I figured it was better than anywhere else. He lies alongside Takeo’s other victims.”
Emy paused to glance at Takeo. He nodded.
“We'll give you time,” he said.
She bowed, low and respectfully, and then headed off. Zhao servants arrived, and Takeo dismounted to hand them the reins. When he and the knight were alone again, Takeo sighed.
“My victims, hm?” he said. “You know, there was a time when I knew you were joking. Now, I’m not so sure. Do you really hate me?”
“I mean, that’s what they are. Maybe only Krunk died to your sword, but the blood of the others stains your hands. You know it, too. I know you know it.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
Gavin hung his head and unfolded his arms. He went to put his hands on his hips out of reflex, but inevitably only one caught. The stub of his left arm rolled off. The knight sighed this time and strolled off into the nearby gardens. Takeo followed.
“I,” Gavin started, pausing, “I should. I have every reason to, but I don’t. It’s not hate I feel, but I can’t describe it either. I’ve been thinking about it a lot. You were once my enemy, and hate you I did, but that time has passed. We got to know each other, understand each other, and we even shared a loss. I pledged myself to you, in a way, and even helped further your cause. You never tried to wrong me, not directly, but there came a moment when I realized that I couldn’t go on with you anymore. You were headed down a path that I could not follow, and I felt powerless to stop you. Even then, when I left to oppose you, my feelings didn’t turn to hate. Even now, when all I had has been brought to ruin, I still can’t bring myself to say it’s hate. I don’t know what it is. Pity? Regret? Grief?”
“You talk as if I died.”
“To me, maybe you did.”
They turned down a path that would take them to the graveyard, though on a scenic route. Gavin meandered from plant to plant in the Zhao family garden, so well-tended by those servants who seemed on edge now that their mistress was home.
“I know why you’re here,” Gavin said.
“I think everyone does, to visit and collect my viking for the next battle.”
Gavin shook his head and replied, “No, that’s just the excuse. The real reason echoes back to that first day we truly met. Not in the streets with the vampire, but in the ruins of Lucifan, when you tried to drown me.”
“I didn’t try to drown you.”
“Of course not. You needed me. You needed me to beat you. You wanted to be punished, harshly, for your failure, like your brother used to do to you time and time again. It was all you craved, and you provoked me until I cracked your jaw open with my fist. Redemption through pain, that’s what you wanted, and here you are doing it again. You came because you want me to berate you for Krunk’s death. You want me insult you, threaten you, tell you just how vile and horrible you really are.”
“And why would I want that?”
“Because it’s more comfortable than what’s happening,” Gavin replied. “You’re being treated like a hero by Kuniko and all the other Hanu troops. As you stand over Krunk’s corpse, they cheer, and you can’t stand it.”
Takeo’s stomach twisted into a knot. Surrounding noises dimmed as his focus drew inward. A measure of cold ice washed through his veins.
He shook his head.
“You know me so well,” he said. “Better than anyone ever has.”
“It haunts me, too.”
They reached the graveyard where Emy was on her knees before the wide mound that made up Krunk’s grave. His plot was twice as large as all the others, which made it easy to see. The three adjacent were relatively recent, as well. Two were the headless bodies of Kuniko’s parents. The last was Dhyana.
Emy had surely heard their approach, but she waited until they neared before standing and retreating. She made for the mansion, to do what, Takeo was not the least bit concerned.
Not with his sword at his side.
“I have to admit, she’s taking this entire thing rather well,” Gavin said. “I’m afraid to ask. Will you kill her, too?”
“Please, Gavin, give me at least some respect. I’ll let her go once the task is done.”
“And which task is that? Slaying Qadir? Conquering Juatwa? Savara? The world? Ah, what does it matter? At least her sentence has a term, and she’ll one day taste freedom, unlike me.”
Takeo cocked an eyebrow and glanced about their surroundings from the fruit-heavy trees to the large mansion upon the hill.
“Some prison you’ve found yourself in,” Takeo mocked. “Your warden must be real scum.”
“Can I leave?”
“Gavin, we’ve been over this. You and your family are a prime target, and this is a culminating moment. Ninja clans may be wary of me, but Qadir is not. I let you go once, and look what happened. You’ll never hold a shield again, and I blame myself for that. At least you got out alive, though, with your wife and child. I can’t take that risk again. If you want to lament living a life of luxury, that’s fine by me, but you’ll do so under my protection.”
“Right, right,” Gavin muttered. “Protection. No wonder I feel so safe.”
A scream echoed out from the mansion, and Takeo whirled on instinct, hand flying to his sword. However, Gavin remained motionless, and Takeo paused. Another scream, then another, and Takeo realized it was Gavin’s daughter.
“What is that about?” the ronin asked.
“Who knows, bloody tantrums,” Gavin replied, sighing. “I swear, I don’t know where she gets it from. She’s in a fury from dusk to dawn, screaming about anything and everything, running everywhere, kicking, biting—angels know what else.”
Gavin buried his face in his hands, just in time to miss Pleiades breaking away from the mansion in a full sprint down the hill. She was easily recognizable with her blond hair and brown skin, such an odd mix in this uniform land of pale skin and black hair. Some Zhao servant went after her, but Pleiades was surprisingly fast. She was among the grounds and out of sight in no time, though her position was revealed by her screams.
“No offense, but I’m glad I never had children,” Takeo said.
“I’m telling you, that’s not normal,” Gavin replied. “I used to frequent an orphanage, remember? I know children, and Pleiades is something special.”
“That’s one word for it.”
“She’ll mellow out one day, I know it. All children do, but I swear something happened to her. Every time I bring up Pleiades’ attitude, Yeira just shuts down. I don’t know. Maybe something in her family tree got into Pleiades. I’m not sure. I’m working on it. I mean, what else can I do?”
“What about Yeira? Why isn’t she working on it?”
Gavin went deathly still and gulped. He didn’t look at Takeo anymore, not even in fleeting glances. The knight stared at the graves, turning a touch pale.
“Yeira’s not the same anymore,” Gavin whispered. “After you fought Botan, he lost his temper. He came back to the keep broken and battered, holding that sword with his bare hands, and I knew we were in trouble. Until that point, he’d been fine mutilating me in small, methodical doses to get to you, but not anymore. He wanted to hurt me this time because he thought I had lied to him.
“He locked himself in a room with me and demanded answers. He told no one else that you were immune to your own sword lest morale fall further, but he told me. I tried to explain that I didn’t know—that even you didn’t know—but he wouldn’t listen. He was in a blind rage, so he called out the worst people under his command and brought them up. They chained me to a wall, and I was terrified at first, but not half as terrified as when they brought in Yeira.”
Gavin stopped. Tears filled his eyes, and his throat swelled. Takeo didn’t press. He knew what vindictive men did to beautiful women, and in fact, so did Yeira. However, this time wouldn’t have been like the others when she was a prized concubine of a Savara warlord. This time it would have been savage, and they had made Gavin watch.
“Don’t say you’re sorry,” Gavin said.
“I wasn’t going to,” Takeo replied.
“Don’t say we brought this on ourselves.”
“I wasn’t going to say that either.”
“They shouldn’t call you a lord. No human should hold that title. Only angels are worthy of ruling, and this is why: Power corrupts and is abused. You’re not a lord, Takeo, not like the angels were—of light, and of good. You hold that sword, knowing it’s slowly killing you, and you don’t care. You don’t care at all. You’re not a lord of anything, except, I don’t know—darkness. You’re soulless.”
Tears continued to drip down Gavin’s face, and the knight lost the strength to stand. His knees hit the dirt before Krunk’s grave, and there the knight stared, as if his old friend might rise to wrap his arms about him and say everything was going to be okay.
Meanwhile, Takeo stood dumbfounded, feeling just as lost as Gavin looked. The ronin’s gaze drifted to his mother, buried as he’d ordered in the only place he thought he might remember finding her again. He stared, waiting for that surge of remorse to resurface, the one he’d felt when he’d realized she had died in his arms, but there was nothing. His heart beat cold and steady, and no matter how many times his mind stated that he should feel something, he did not. For a brief moment he wondered what had changed, until his arm brushed his sword handle and a wave of fire burned through him. He remembered then and thought no more of it.
He surveyed all the damage he’d done to all those closest to him and thought that perhaps it had been a mistake to come here at all. There was nothing more to gain. He was no good to these people. He wasn’t even good to himself.
“I think we’re done here,” Takeo said, turning to leave. “I am sorry for the pain I’ve caused you and your family, Gavin. I hope you find peace, for both our sakes.”
Gavin sniffed back a tear, and Takeo got a few paces away. He thought the conversation concluded, until Gavin called out to him.
“Do you want to know how I met Krunk?”
