Susan: I'm baaack! With another chapter of The Slave! I hope that you have enjoyed reading this far. Thank you everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited or followed. It is nice to know that others are reading this.
Alara: Susan doesn't own Yu-gi-oh or anything like that.
Yugi's POV
My work today seemed to pass quickly as I ran to and fro trying to finish my tasks. The female servants around me snickered quietly when I misplaced things, or made mistakes, and I remembered that Naeemah mentioned that many of the girls she worked with were mean to her. This wasn't anything that I couldn't handle, but I didn't need it after last night. With my mind split between Adom, the key, and the scarab, I felt even more flustered as I got lost within the walls of the palace.
Rounding a corner, my butt and back became well acquainted with the stone ground as I collided with someone quite a bit taller than myself. "What is he doing here?" Glancing up, I saw that a large, stone door was open, and there was a dimly lit room beyond. Large carvings covered the visible part of the wall in the room, but I was too far away to distinguish exactly what they were of.
"A servant?
"Here?"
"Is he a fool?"
"He must be."
"No servant would come here otherwise." I could hear a shuffling of feet as I looked around the cloth covered faces that surrounded me, and I saw odd objects with the same eye on them somewhere on each of the people around me.
"Yugi?" it was Yami's voice, and I turned my head to look at him. He stood to the side, on his guard as usual, which meant that the Prince was somewhere nearby.
"Yami, you know this servant?" one of the figures, a man by the sound of it, asked, and Yami nodded, back straight.
"Yes." Yami paused for a moment, as if debating something. "I asked him to come meet me a few rooms over, but it seems that he got lost and ended up here instead. I apologize that my badly phrased directions caused this interruption."
"It's alright Yami. I am sure that you would never intentionally do something that would create problems for us like this one has." The same man was still speaking, the rest silent since the initial surprise of my arrival. "Which is why I am going to put this boy in your care. Since he is already a servant, we might as well make him your slave, so you can keep a better eye on the servant you seem so friendly with." His voice and words made me believe that there was a double meaning to everything that he said, and I only had to look at Yami to see that I was right, though exactly what else the cloth-covered man meant remained a mystery to me.
Yami seemed to have paled from things that I did not understand, but nodded again. "Thank you for your confidence in my faithfulness to the royal family." He bowed to the covered figures before reaching down to help me to my feet. "Come on Yugi," Yami whispered, pulling me from the room, and leading me down different halls until we came to an empty one where he pushed me against the wall. "What were you doing in there Yugi?" he growled at me, anger evident in his eyes.
"I-I got lost! I swear! I didn't mean to interrupt whatever it was that was happening!" I closed my eyes, sure that I was going to be punished. A fist connected with the wall behind me, right next to my head, but I was left unharmed as I heard Yami sigh.
"You don't realize how lucky you were today! What if the Prince, or worst, the Pharaoh, had been in there? You would be dead right now, and I would have been the one who killed you. If it had been anyone other than Priest Seto, you would have died the moment you stepped foot in that room." Yami shivered, gripping my shoulders so hard that it hurt, and I knew that his hands were going to leave bruises.
"I'm sorry Yami. I'm so sorry. You're going to be punished because of me." Seeing one of the elite members of the royal guard this shaken scared me, and I felt as if a weight had been dropped on me. Everything that had been happening all seemed to hit me again with their full force, and I fell to my knees in front of Yami. Tears were running down my cheeks, and I didn't try to stop them.
"Yugi, let's go." I didn't move, just continuing to cry where I was. "Hey, it's all going to be alright. Priest Seto made you my personal slave. That means that no one can hurt you without my permission, and I can make sure that you won't get into trouble." Yami tried to sooth me, but I was so frightened, not only of the threat that I had unknowingly avoided, but also of the man who had been in my family's room, and the guards and the Prince, who had hurt my brother to the extent that he could barely move around on his own. I was scared of the cloth-covered people in that room, and that I would still be punished for my blunder, but most of all, I was filled to the brim with the fear that more of my family would disappear.
"Yugi!" Yami's voice was harder, and he grabbed my left wrist, dragging me into an awkward hug. "Why are you crying? There is no need for you to be sad."
"B-b-but, it's all falling apart!" I could feel Yami's hand in my hair as I cried, and I leaned into it.
"What's falling apart?"
"My life, my family, everything! And I don't know what to do!"
"What? Yugi, you need to tell me what's going on. This can't just be about what happened today."
So I told him. I told him everything that I could, only leaving out the key, the scarab and what Mother had told me about my grandfather. Everything else, I let the guard know, feeling a tiny bit of the weight disperse. Adom isn't strong enough to protect us by himself anymore. That one small thought hurt more than I had guessed it would. No longer could I rely on him to help keep the family safe, and of course it was now that he couldn't that, things became more dangerous than we had ever encountered. Yami didn't say anything for the longest time, even after I had finished the tale and began to cry once more. He just held me, much like Adom had when I woke from nightmares as a child. I didn't even know that guards could be kind before meeting Yami...
Eventually, Yami moved his hand from my hair to my shoulder, and pushed me back slightly so that he could look me in the eyes. "I want you to go back to your room. Stay there with Adom, and if anyone comes other than Isis and I, do everything you can to keep him or her out. There's someone I need to have a chat with." Again, there was a hidden meaning behind the words spoken, and I nodded quickly, not wanting to cause Yami more problems.
When we split off, Yami once more had the air of a royal guard, and looked prepared for an attack at any second. I was jumpy the entire way back, hiding behind corners and pillars to avoid everyone I could. Luckily, I didn't pass Ryou. I wasn't sure that I could lie to him again after I had this morning. Adom was awake, staring as the scarab when I entered the room. "Hey," my voice sounded choked, and I tried to clear it quietly.
"Hello." He glanced up, eyes widening. "What happened?" Adom's right hand clenched into a fist around the scarab, and I saw that he was trembling slightly in anger. "A guard?"
I must look worse than I thought. I knew that my eyes were red from crying, but I hadn't thought about that as I had walked to the room. "I-I got into some trouble." My brother dropped the scarab instantly, and was out of the bed quicker than I thought possible in his current condition. He grabbed me, pressing his hand across my wrists, back, and calves, the areas that the guards usually aimed for with their whips. "Adom, wait-"
He gave me a look that told me I had better spit out what took place before he got even more upset. "Yami saved me. I'm okay." Other than the bruises on my shoulders. "You don't have to worry. He's been protecting me as much as he can. I was made his personal slave today." Adom's eyes narrowed at the word 'slave', but he didn't do anything other than brushing his hand across the slowly healing cut on his chest. It had become an action that he did when a guard, Yami, or the Prince was mentioned.
"I don't like it. You shouldn't be his slave, and we shouldn't be here. We should be at home." Adom gave me a hug, his strength almost crushing me, but I knew what he meant.
If we were at home, none of this would have happened. Mother wouldn't be gone, and I wouldn't be terrified of the masked man that Adom told us about, and I wouldn't be relying on Yami for protection instead of my own brother. I felt as if I were betraying him by relying on another, but it was clear that with his injury, we would need others to help keep Shani and Naeemah safe from whatever threat had set its sights on us. "Yeah, we should be."
Yami's POV
Once Yugi and I had parted ways, I headed straight to the dungeon. A few of the many prisoners there were from past wars, but the majority were high-ranking criminals from both our city and from the surrounding area. It was uncommon for us to house any that were extremely dangerous, and that could pose a threat to the royal family, instead choosing to execute them, but there was one that we kept in the most secure cell. He was someone that we'd hunted for years; only just managing to capture him a few days before Yugi and his family had been moved to the palace.
For over a decade, the man had been stealing anything of value. Gold and gems were at the top of his list, but in the past he had also taken tapestries and rugs, as well as entire pieces of furniture that the royal family had had transported from far off lands in order to furnish their palace. Other things that he sometime stole were food and drinks, expensive tableware, and from time to time, a slave girl or one of the lesser ladies would go missing along with luxurious clothing.
In all that time, we had known him both by his title and his name, but nothing of his appearance or where his base was. It was only through luck, though none of us in the royal guard would admit it, that we managed to catch him. The oddest thing, as I stopped outside his cell, was that I recognized some of his features from someone who I'd seen around the palace many times, not as a guest, but as a servant.
The King of Thieves' long white hair was filthy from being dragged through the dirt on the dungeon floor, and his wrists were bloody from the thick chains that were clasped around them. Along with the iron, shadows were wrapped thickly around his body, making it nearly impossible for him to move more than a few inches. From what I'd heard through Prince Atem, the Pharaoh had told the guards in the prison that the thief was to be deprived of food until he spoke of where the objects he'd taken had been hidden, but the Thief King's will hadn't been broken yet. He was still given water, just enough to keep him alive, but most of the time the white-haired man simply spit the water at the guards.
I opened the door, taking a step inside with a torch so that I could see the King of Thieves more clearly. "Someone broke into the palace last night."
"Really? Oh, you poor things. What was taken?" he jeered.
"I want to know how they got in."
"And you think that I'd tell you?" the thief laughed loudly, a bellowing laugh that echoed around the dungeon, startling some of the others in nearby cells.
"Yes."
"Wow, you guards are much stupider than you look."
"It was in the south wing, on the third level; one of the usually unused rooms." I gritted my teeth, trying to ignore how this man managed to make my temper flare.
"A good thief never rats on another thief, even if I did know who it was." He was smirking now, his white teeth gleaming in the torchlight.
"Just tell me how they could have gotten into that part of the south wing without being seen!"
"How about no, Yami."
I was taken aback at the fact that the King of Thieves knew my name, though I guess it shouldn't have been that big of a surprise. Along with Mariku and Malik, I was one of Prince Atem's main guards, so it made sense that someone who stole from the Prince would find out information about who would be in charge of the guard. "And why not?"
"I have no reason to."
"Oh, you will, soon enough." I growled, turning my back on the thief and locking the cell door from the outside. "Touzuko Bakura."
Susan: Thanks to all of the fabulous people who have been reading. I am quite happy to be back to writing this. I can only write for so long on one story before it just ends up dying, so variety is good, no? :) Anyway, review if you wanna, cause it makes me so happy!
