Chapter 10

Listening to Hakkai's shallow breathing, Sanzo watched as the morning light chased and shifted the shadows in their cell. He had given up rousing the youkai hours ago, when his efforts had become pure torture for both of them. There was a limit to what he was ready to put this particular demon through.

And Wu Tai…

Wu Tai had not sent a doctor.

Sanzo did not know what to make of these people's indifference. Gyomao and his followers thrived on destruction and chaos, so their goal still had its own parcel of logic. But this? What could justify this? Had Wu Tai gone home to a wife's loving welcome? Had he sat at his table, commenting on the weather and how tired he was from a long day's work? Would he receive family and friends today for the Festival, aware that, as he laughed and joked, a bright young man had died or was dying because of him?

How could this be?

You tried to kill Gojyo.

No.

The memory of his hesitation in the barley field was enough to stir guilt and self-hatred, but he would not have let Gojyo be killed. No more than he would have pulled the trigger himself. It had been just a morbid fantasy—like the one that whispered "Jump!" every time he stood near the edge of an abyss and looked down. In the end, he would never do it. Never.

You've seen what your anger is doing to the team. To Gojyo. You've been torturing him deliberately and loving every hurt glance, each slump of his shoulders.

Yes.

He tolerated Gojyo's juvenile idiocy and Gojyo's loud comebacks and Gojyo's provocative body language, but he would not be toyed with. He might now be an unwilling participant in one of Gojyo's vulgar games, but the rules were still his own. And since Gojyo was too stupid to quit gambling when he was losing, Sanzo obligingly gave him his due. Such as contempt. And sarcasm. And hatred.

Besides… Besides, Gojyo was annoying in his bubbling vitality, but utterly enticing in his subsided misery. With his mouth shut for a change. With his head lowered, casting anxious looks at Sanzo's back. Waiting for a word or a gesture that would warm his heart or crush his soul.

Sanzo always decided on the latter.

Oh, Buddha, and is this deliberate cruelty really necessary?

Yes. No. He was not sure of anything anymore. Even his anger, his constant, unfaltering anger, was gone. He felt empty.

And if the worst happened, if he did lose Hakkai and Gojyo to this place…

The idea was too awful to be contemplated. Too hideous. Better to shove it back to its murky depths and let it rot there, to hound his conscience and his nightmares. But wasn't it indeed priceless that he, the highest priest in all Togenkyo, the Gods' Chosen, the Sanzo, had really ended up attached to the demons with whom he had been stuck?

There were steps and hushed voices in the corridor now, and suddenly Hakkai stirred, growling. Sanzo spared him a glance, not sure if Hakkai was indeed waking up or if youkai sharp senses were merely registering the approach of strangers; and when two soldiers carrying lanterns stepped into the room, Sanzo just pulled Hakkai closer, too exhausted physically and emotionally to second-guess anyone's intentions. He recognized the boy who hovered uncertainly between the door and the bunk as being…

"Eng Ho!" grated a nasal voice. "What are you doing? Get out of my way! We're always falling over you."

Sanzo groaned. It was too early to deal with Wu Tai's secretary.

"Sorry, Fei Ru-sama," Eng Ho stuttered, contrite. "I don't know where I should put the light—"

"Yes, yes, of course you don't know. You never do. The lantern always goes here. There is a hook for it, see? Even you can remember that from now on, right?" Fei Ru focused his attention on Sanzo. "Now, you. Take your friend and go. Get out of our town and never come near it again."

Sanzo did not allow the surprised relief he felt to surface. "Where's Wu Tai?"

"Captain Wu Tai went home hours ago," Fei Ru bristled. "What, did you think that he would be at your disposal even now?"

"The coward ran away," Hakkai slurred, and Sanzo felt a corner of his mouth twitch up in response. He welcomed Hakkai back with a brief nod, his anxiety level dropping significantly when a glazed green eye peered up at him.

"Watch your tongue when you talk about the captain, youkai lover!" Fei Ru warned heatedly. "You've done enough, don't you think? Maybe I should lock you downstairs for a month, to teach you manners and common sense. It's what you deserve!"

Sanzo swallowed a remark and got up, trying to ignore the painfully cramping muscles and the complaints from a full bladder. At least Wu Tai had had the decency to keep Hakkai's true nature a secret.

"Here, monk." And Fei Ru threw a bundle of folded papers at Sanzo's feet. "The captain told me to give you these."

For a split second, Sanzo dared to believe that Wu Tai had given him a pass for Gojyo or whatever document a youkai needed in this town. The papers on the floor had been in his pockets for far too long not to be immediately identified, though. His own recommendation letters. The ones that high priests and a myriad of so-called authorities had written and signed to help him during his journey. He bent to pick them up, noticing that one corner was wet and tinted a rosy hue. Bloodied water from the basin. Hakkai's blood. "What about my other servant?" he demanded through gritted teeth.

Fei Ru dismissed his entourage with a brusque gesture. "If you're referring to that monster of yours, the creature was transferred to another prison. It's no longer our concern."

"Transferred against Wu Tai's orders," Sanzo replied as he turned to Hakkai and helped him to sit. "It's his responsibility—"

"Captain Wu Tai dealt personally with the situation," Fei Ru said in a low, acid tone. "The insubordinate officer was punished. Not that it is any of your business."

"If you think I'm going to leave this dump without my other servant, you're sorely mistaken." Sanzo tightened his hold on Hakkai and, with an apologetic expression, hoisted him up. Hakkai swayed and leaned heavily on him, but managed to stay upright.

"You foreigners bring nothing but trouble to our land!" Fei Ru accused indignantly. "The captain did you a favor, and you pay him back by disrespecting him in front of his men—"

Sanzo swung Hakkai's left arm over his shoulders. "Oh, really? I suppose that now I should say 'thanks?' I can't fucking believe this!"

"Yet, belief should be a way of life for you, monk," a well-humored voice intruded from the corridor.

The little room seemed to grow smaller as the tall man barged in.

"Fei Ru-sama, do you want me to take care of this?" Zhou Jun proposed. "I can take the garbage out."

The secretary frowned. "Of course not. That would be highly irregular! It's my function—"

"We've received a new message from the Colonel. I thought you would want to read it and answer him right away, sir."

"Message? And at this hour!" Fei Ru spared a last rancorous look at Sanzo and headed for the door. "Yes, I have to go. Throw them out, Corporal—"

"Sergeant," Zhou Jun corrected softly, his eyes on Sanzo's. "I'm a sergeant now."

Fei Ru made another impatient gesture and left, still complaining: "I knew that monk was serious trouble the moment he entered my office, I simply knew…"

Zhou Jun sneered. "I knew, too. Unfortunately, old Fei Ru just doesn't appreciate life with a touch of spice." He hooked his thumbs onto his sash and transferred his insolent gaze to appraise Hakkai's body. "Do you collect pretty boys, Servant of Buddha?"

"Come on, Hakkai, let's go," Sanzo exhorted. Hakkai's labored breathing was painful to hear and Sanzo had to support most of his weight, but at least they were moving.

"And where do you think you're going like that, hmm?" Zhou Jun followed their efforts with an amused expression and chortled when Hakkai's knees crumbled. "Whoa there! Are you planning to drag this poor boy through our crowded streets, monk? You'll make quite a pair!"

"Piss off." The furious rebuff was a point in his harasser's favor, and Sanzo knew it. He quickened his pace, dragging Hakkai out of the room.

"Soon, it will be hot enough to fry eggs on the pavement, hon," Zhou Jun said from behind them. "I've heard that sunbathing isn't advisable when one has a head injury."

Sanzo focused on the end of the darkened corridor where he could make out silhouettes outlined against the breaking morning. The irony of the situation was not lost to him: the previous night he had struggled to get to this very hall, then a bright beacon; now he wanted to escape it, with the promising light exactly at the opposite side of the tunnel. And in both circumstances, like a particularly pesky Demon Guardian of Gates, Zhou Jun delayed his steps towards his goal.

"How do you plan to get your missing youkai's papers if you have to take care of this boy?" the taunting voice reached him again. "This one is cute, very cute indeed… But are you willing to give up beautiful Gojyo?"

Sanzo froze. And turned slowly.

Zhou Jun was propped against Wu Tai's closed office door, a smug half-smile in place. I can take you if you wish, his lewd comments sounded again in Sanzo's mind, undeterred. In Captain Wu Tai's office. On Captain Wu Tai's desk. All we'll have to do is wait a little. "Yes," Zhou Jun drawled. "I, uh, saw Gojyo last night."

The suggestive tone made Sanzo hold his breath.

No.

It was impossible.

But…

Gojyo had spread his legs for that grotesque youkai in the temple.

Gojyo spread his legs for anyone. The whore. The cheap, third-rate whore.

"Sanzo?" Hakkai murmured, squinting up. "What is it?"

Muttering a curse, Sanzo turned his back to Zhou Jun and resumed walking. He knew the drill in these circumstances: don't talk to them; don't supply them with enough energy to keep haunting you.

"Nasty injury Gojyo has on his left arm," Zhou Jun purred. "Hellish to have it … touched."

The sudden halt caused Hakkai to moan aloud.

Zhou Jun raised his eyebrows at Sanzo's Glare and straightened from his slouch, walking past his furious prey with measured laziness. "Come on, hon." He canted his head towards the exit. "Your pretty friend is in no condition to walk. So..." A lecherous smirk. "I'm going to give you a ride."