Chapter Thirteen
Shizuka, worried for her brother, walked the entire castle, never going into any of the rooms except for the one that was given to her. As she paced towards the parlor doors, she heard voices, one that she recognized as her friend's. She hesitated and then inched towards the doors that slid back instead of swinging open. She gently moved them apart and peered in to see Anzu standing over Malik, who was laying on one of the divans, looking like he didn't have a care in the world. "You should have warned them," Malik told Anzu without any expression.
"I didn't think that you would provoke him!" Anzu howled at him. "You saw how I reacted to being called a peasant! Did you expect it to be anything different, Malik?"
"Don't try and put the blame all on me," he growled at her, glowering slightly as she walked from him and out of Shizuka's vision. Then she came back, her hands buried in her cinnamon brown hair. "If your friend wasn't constantly looking for a fight, then he wouldn't be up in the tower with Bakura. No doubt, Bakura is close to ripping his head off, too, if he's as smart-mouthed as he was at breakfast." He pointed a finger at her, snapping out, "He needs to learn respect."
"He doesn't know respect because no one shows it to him!"
"That's not my issue." Anzu took a steady breath and smoothed her hair out before sitting on the floor, her skirts forming a pillow around her.
"Malik...Please. Don't kill him if he's rude again. Just...just keep him in there. Please? He's my childhood friend and my other friend's brother." Malik turned to look at Anzu and Shizuka blinked as he sat up and bent down, sliding a hand on her cheek. She half-expected him to slap her. But instead he leaned down and kissed her, gently.
"I won't kill him," Malik promised, standing up and moving towards the doors that Shizuka was at. She hastily hid behind a wall, hearing him call airily, "I'll have Bakura kill him." Shizuka watched Malik disappear and blinked, gaping at the place where he had been. She shook her head and inched over to the parlor.
"Anzu?" Shizuka murmured. Anzu raised her head and blinked at Shizuka, quickly smiling. "Are you...alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine, Shizuka," Anzu assured, getting to her feet and brushing her skirts off. She tucked her hair behind an ear, meeting Shizuka's worried gaze. "I'm sorry about all of this...I really am."
"I know. So am I." Shizuka ignored the confused look on her face and led her out of the parlor, resting her head against Anzu's as they walked. She understood then why Anzu was so reluctant to leave this place. It was obvious by the way she acted towards Malik and the softer nature he held towards her that they were in love. This is the only man that Anzu has ever felt this way for. How will she be able to leave him? "Anzu...You love Malik, don't you?" She pulled away and looked at her friend, who had paused at the bottom of the stairs that would lead to her part of the wing. Her face had become a bit pink and she was gazing down at the ground. "You can tell me."
"...I do," Anzu softly said. "But he...He's never said the words to me and he won't let me say them. He's afraid he can't say them back. But I know he loves me and I love him. It's just..." Tears pooled in her azure depths and she quickly wiped them away, muttering, "He's going to die soon, Shizuka. From the curse on the castle."
"Oh, Anzu..." Shizuka whispered, hugging her.
"I don't want to go, but if he's going to die, what's the point of staying? He said it himself last night." She cried in Shizuka's shoulder, shaking from the sobs. Shizuka gently rubbed her back, momentarily forgetting her brother.
"I'm so sorry," was all she could say to her.
X
Bakura watched as Jou curled up against himself in a corner of the cold room. He frowned, glancing out the thin, glassless window. Malik would be here any moment now. Jou was shivering like mad, his thin frame like a cornstalk in the wind. His teeth were chattering, filling the deep silence in the tower. Bakura was getting a bit chilled himself. His good mood had been lost ten minutes ago when the beginning chill of winter had flown in through the window and caused him to shudder. His cloak was relatively thin, made for autumn. By the clouds outside and the temperature, he suspected it was going to snow soon.
Where the hell is Malik? He thought, glaring down at the ground. A few minutes later, Malik appeared at the door to the room. He glanced at Bakura, who frowned at him.
"You can leave, Bakura," he dismissed. Bakura nodded mutely, vanishing in a flash. Malik, having endured worse temperatures when his father had been alive, stepped in front of Jou and nudged him with the tip of his shining black boot. Jou, shivering, raised his head. "Do you like the tower much?" He queried curiously, a teasing tone entering his voice.
"Fucking bastard," Jou hissed at him between his teeth's chattering. Malik knelt down and grabbed Jou by the throat, his fingers tightening slightly.
"Be thankful that Anzu spoke to me in your behalf," Malik whispered, his face inches from Jou's. "If she hadn't, I would crush your mind to bits because of that comment of yours. I told her I would have Bakura kill you, and I'm sure he wouldn't mind since he had to stand out in the cold because of you. He's not in a good mood." A feral smile curved Malik's mouth upward. "However, I am." He threw Jou against the wall, his blonde head hitting the stone wall. Jou gritted his teeth, spots appearing in front of his eyes. He glared up at Malik, who smiled a soft, charming smile that had Jou wanting to rip his eyes out. But he didn't. Malik wouldn't forgive him for attacking him. Not even Anzu could save his life then.
"What is Anzu to you, anyway?" Jou growled through tightly gritted teeth.
"...She would be my wife if my circumstances were different," Malik stated in a thoughtful tone.
"The hell if she would! I wouldn't allow it! You don't give a damn about her."
"You think that?" Malik asked with an arch of one of his smooth eyebrows.
"Yeah, I do."
"...You're mistaken." Malik struggled with himself for a moment and Jou watched, bewildered as his face twisted. In a quiet voice, he said, "I love her." Jou stared at him, his jaw dropping open in shock. For a moment, he tried convincing himself that he had heard him wrong. But he knew he hadn't. The emotion swirling in Malik's mauve eyes clearly said that he did, indeed, love Anzu.
A gust of wind slammed through the window and Jou flinched as it wracked his bones. Malik glanced at the window and then looked back to Jou. "Dinner will be sent up to your room." The next thing he knew, Jou was out of the cold tower and in his room, a warm fire crackling in the fireplace. Ryou looked up from sitting in front of the fire and beamed at Jou, who stood, swaying, by the bed.
"Good job, chap," he cheered. "Now, let's get you cleaned up and in bed, alright?"
"He...he said..." Ryou's eyes turned sharp and he eyed Jou with an interested expression. Startled by the look, Jou shook his head. Ryou smiled then and helped Jou to the washing room downstairs. All the while, Jou was thinking about that strange look that had covered Ryou's face.
X
After dinner, Anzu offered to show Seiji and Shizuka the library while the mages went to the parlor. As soon as the doors shut, Yami flicked a hand and locked both sets of doors. No one would be able to get in (or out, for that matter.) Ryou, with the bottle of Seto's in his hands, sat at the window seat with Bakura standing across from him, one of his feet planted on the seat. Yami took his place on his divan and Malik sat in the chair across from the blazing fire. Bakura handed out glasses of brandy to each of them, excluding his brother, and returned to his place by the window, taking a small drink from his glass.
"Has Anzu told you what her decision is?" Yami asked Malik after awhile with no one speaking. Ryou turned from the bottle that he was turning in his fingers, looking to Malik. The prince hadn't so much as moved or changed expression. After a moment, he closed his eyes and sighed through his nostrils.
"No, I made the decision for her," he responded. Yami's face lit up. "She's leaving us." Horror had Yami's face falling. Bakura frowned at Malik, but didn't say anything. Ryou returned to look at the bottle, having expected that to be Malik's conclusion.
"But...But I don't understand, Malik," Yami sputtered, his brows drawn together in honest confusion. Malik opened his eyes and looked at him. "Why would you do that? Why would you let her go?"
Malik gave a brittle laugh, asking, "Why else would I let her go, Yami?" Yami fell silent and then he slumped on the divan, staring up at the ceiling. He kept his glass positioned on his chest, the brandy lapping at the glass. Bakura and Ryou were quiet by the window, Bakura staring out through the glass towards the dark gates. Ryou continued to finger the bottle. "I'm a coward," Malik muttered, taking a drink of his brandy. "I'll never be able to tell her the truth to her face."
No one spoke.
They had nothing to say. Ryou had already told him that he was a coward. Bakura didn't want to get involved with Malik's relationship problems, especially since he didn't know the first thing about what Malik was feeling for Anzu. None of them did. None of them had ever been in love with a woman. Bakura supposed it was odd that the worst of them was the first to fall in love. The curse won't be broken until he says it to her, he added to himself, shifting near the window. He can't. He won't. We're all going to die, but we knew that a long time ago. We shouldn't have had any hope.
"I'm going to my room to start looking at this," Ryou murmured to no one in particular, rising to his feet. Yami raised a hand and the locks he had put around the doors vanished. "I'll have it figured out by tomorrow night at the latest." Malik merely nodded. Ryou hesitated and then left, the door swinging shut softly behind him.
"We have about a day and a half left until Anzu leaves," Bakura commented, taking a drink of his brandy, finishing it. "You could try and tell her, Malik." When he looked to Malik, he blinked, seeing that he was gone. He looked at Yami, who merely shrugged and shook his head.
X
The next day went by slowly. Jounouchi never came down for the meals, claiming he was feeling ill. Ryou, too, did not attend the meals, too absorbed in his work. Malik was quiet throughout breakfast and lunch, his face dark. Anzu suspected that it was her leaving that was upsetting him. By the time dinner came, Ryou was finally finished with his inspection of the bottle. He handed it to Shizuka and then took his seat across from his brother. Yami, usually very social, was withdrawn. Bakura was the only one of the four mages that was his normal, caustic self. "So what did you find out, Ryou?" He grunted as soon as his younger brother sat.
"It's dragon's blood," he stated with a look of wonder in his eyes.
"Dragon's blood?" Malik murmured, resting his elbow on the table and leaning his cheek in his hand. "That's impossible. The dragons have been extinct for centuries, Ryou."
"Yes, I know, but there's no doubt about it. This is the blood of the first dragon, Slavaji. He was a Light-powered dragon. I would know if it was he. His element sang to mine." Malik merely stared at him before dropping his arm and leaning back in his chair. "Only Slavaji's blood could help cut through the curse, since the curse is Dark-based."
"What took you so long, then, if you could see that it was full of your element?"
"I knew it was full of Light power, but I never knew it was Slavaji's blood until I went over it thoroughly. Even after I had found out it was his blood, I had to be sure, so I ran multiple tests on it. But there's no doubt about it. This is the great dragon's blood." Ryou drummed his fingers on the table, before saying, "It's such a small amount, though, that it only allows four people to travel to and from this cursed land. If it were larger, we could leave here, but..." He trailed off and Malik nodded curtly.
"That's fine," he told him. "At least Anzu will be able to leave here with her family."
"But we can't leave anytime soon," Shizuka spoke up quietly. All eyes turned to her in question. "Jounouchi is ill. I went and saw him. He can't eat or barely stay awake." She sent an accusing look to Malik. "If he hadn't been out in the cold or wherever you put him, he wouldn't be sick and we could leave this Godforsaken place and the people!"
"Godforsaken," Malik musingly said, giving a twisted smile to Shizuka. "Yes, God has forsaken us – has forsaken me, that is. I'm glad you've made that observation, girl, after being here for a day. You should have stated that it was Godforsaken as soon as you entered this castle." He let out a harsh bark of laughter. "But of course, you're as dense as your half-wit brother. It must run in the family."
"Malik, my boy," Yami began, but Malik gestured sharply with his hand, suddenly glaring at Shizuka. He fell silent, sinking in his seat a bit.
"Let me remind you that Anzu was locked in here for a while, too. Think about that before you fling your words around uselessly. I won't have you insulting myself and my...court...simply because your brother didn't think about who he was talking to when he fought with me. I should have killed him, but your friend," he jabbed a finger in Anzu's direction, "begged for his life. Yes, Shizuka Katsuya, this is a Godforsaken place, but the only person you can blame for that is me. Don't malign my other three mages and Anzu because of what the prince of this castle caused." He rose to his feet, anger simmering off him. "Ryou!" He snapped out suddenly.
"Malik?" Ryou politely questioned with a slight waver in his voice.
"Make a brew for the fool upstairs. The sooner he's better, the sooner they can be gone." With those last words, he briskly left the dining room, not bothering to shut the doors behind him. Anzu bowed her head, pursing her lips together tightly to keep from crying.
He wants me to leave, she thought, closing her eyes against the tears. Why, Malik? Why, when I love you so much?
X
Jou raised his head slightly, watching Ryou make his brew. Bakura had visited him earlier to laugh at him and say that his younger brother would be up with a tonic later on. Jou hadn't had the energy to make a comeback, so he just stared at Bakura as he chuckled and then eventually left. He supposed he might not have fallen sick if not for Malik's words of affection towards Anzu. It had seemed like his whole body had shut down on him.
"I love her."
The words still made shock rumble through Jou's bones. He couldn't imagine Malik – a cold-hearted bastard, from what he could tell – being with his ever-gentle friend. He would be even more surprised if he discovered that Anzu felt the same way. He knew that she had been searching for someone to love so that she could marry, but with her being stuck in her village, it hadn't seemed very likely.
"Here," Ryou's kind voice broke through the hazy mist of his thoughts. He raised his eyes to Ryou's and took the goblet filled with steaming, light liquid. He hesitated and then took a careful sip of it. "Drink all of it. You'll be better by tomorrow." He smoothed his hands over the blankets nervously, clearly with something on his mind. "Jounouchi?"
"Eh?" Jou swallowed the last bit of the drink, smacking his lips, feeling a hot flush in his face from the brew. "What?"
"What did Malik say to you at the tower?" Jou's eyes made a quick survey of Ryou's earnest face. He could tell by his deep, expressive eyes that he was only concerned and nothing else.
"Well..." Jou mumbled, handing the goblet to him. Ryou took it, keeping his eyes on Jou's face. "He...he said..." He stumbled over his words, even though they were there, right in the back of his throat. Something prevented him from saying them, though, as though he could not say the words that had been whispered from Malik's lips with such mourning.
"It's alright." The mage smiled at him, vanishing the goblet, cauldron, and his ingredients. "You needn't try and tell me. The curse prevents it. I am glad that he at least admitted it to someone other than himself." Jou stared at him in total confusion. Ryou had spoken so quickly that he'd hardly caught the words.
"What're you talking about? He can't really feel that way about Anzu, can he?"
"Of course he can," Ryou responded in surprise, his eyes widening. "Malik is a human, too. He has feelings."
"No!" Jou sat up and swayed, his face paling. He gripped the sheets and stubbornly remained upright, his eyes firing up furiously. "I won't allow it! Anzu can't...She can't be with him!"
"Be at peace." Ryou put a hand on Jou's shoulder to calm him and softly said, "Anzu feels the same way. You needn't worry that Malik will steal her from you, though. He has decided that she is to leave. He has had a hard life, Jou. You must understand that it is hard for him to show his feelings unlike you or anyone else. It is even difficult for Bakura and I to do so, but we were fortunate. We did not have the father and stepmother that Malik did." He paused. "Malik will never be able to tell her what he feels, so he's letting her leave, sparing her the pain that will come when he dies...And when we die, too."
"You all are dying?"
"Yes. Anzu wouldn't survive were she to stay here and wait until Malik's death to leave. Malik accepted his fate the first day we were cursed and we accepted our own fate, too." Ryou smiled wanly and patted Jou's hand lightly. "But you have nothing to worry about. You, Anzu, and the other two will leave here and things will be normal again."
Normal, Jou snorted inwardly as Ryou bid him farewell and left. How will it be normal when Anzu will be heartbroken? She'll never get over Malik...Maybe I can work something else out. For Anzu's sake.
X
Malik heard a knock on his door and raised his head, clearly irritated and surprised that anyone was bothering him. He had strictly told Bakura that he wanted no one to see him. His friend had shrugged and then said that the only person he would have to worry about would be Anzu. Apparently, Bakura hadn't given her Malik's message. When he flipped out of his bed with only the lower part of his body clothed, another knock sounded, and this one more insistent. Frowning, Malik crossed the room, realizing that it couldn't be Anzu since she would have entered after the first knock.
He swung the door open and blinked, seeing Jounouchi standing there, his skin returned to its normal lightly tanned color. For a moment, Malik merely gazed at him with a displeased expression on his face, twisting his handsome features. It was almost luncheon. After they ate, Anzu and the others would be leaving. Malik had "discussed" it with them that morning, saying simply that they would be leaving immediately after luncheon. Yami would make a pack for Anzu and replenish the other's packs with food and refreshments. Shizuka had nodded in answer, but Seiji was quiet and wouldn't meet his gaze for some reason.
"Can I talk to you?" Jou asked in a polite tone, even though the tightness of his jaw indicated he was having trouble with it.
"Fine." Malik ushered him in and snapped the door closed. A shirt appeared in his hands and he pushed his arms in the sleeves, and then buttoned it and the cuffs. "What do you want?" Jou fidgeted, rubbing his head wearily. He was feeling a bit ill, but it couldn't be helped. Shizuka was insisting on leaving as soon as possible, claiming that the company in the castle was rude and threatening. He couldn't disagree with her on that, though he did like talking with Yami.
"Listen...I was thinking – "
"Imagine that."
Struggling to ignore the comment and not respond to it, Jou resumed, " – and I know how much Anzu would hate to leave you behind and, um, how you'll hate to watch her leave, so um..."
"Just say it!" Malik barked at him, glaring at him with dark eyes. "I'm not in the mood for your stuttering! Stop explaining and just tell me what the fuck you want!" Jou blinked, honestly surprised. What had brought that explosion on?
"Alright...I think you should take my place and go with Anzu." Malik stiffened and then shuddered. He paced away from Jou, his hands in his pockets. Jou watched him nervously, wondering what was wrong with him. Malik pivoted on the heel of his foot, drawing his hands from his pockets and letting them hang uselessly at his side.
"No."
"No?" Jou repeated in incredulity. "Why not?"
"I will not leave my castle and my court to be eaten up by the darkness." He shivered again. "I have an obligation here. A prince doesn't abandon his castle, not even in death. I won't change tradition. If I must die, I will die here. The age of the mages is over. There is no place out there for me. You cannot stay here, either. No one will be able to protect you from the creatures. They will be trying to protect themselves."
"But what about Anzu?" Malik looked thoughtful, spinning one of his gold rings on his hand. "She'll never be the same without you. She might as well stay here."
"She will not stay here!" He snarled suddenly. "If she goes home, she'll be safe. When I die in May, my nemesis, another prince, will come after the remaining three. If Anzu is here, she will die, as well. It's best that she leaves."
"...Yeah. I guess." Jou sighed. "I just want Anzu to be happy."
"She will be. Eventually." Malik nodded to the door. "Go. Lunch is soon."
Jou moved towards the door with Malik following him. He opened it and paused, glancing at Malik some ways behind him. He still disliked Malik, but understood that he was hurting himself in order to keep Anzu alive. It was admirable. "Hey, Malik...Thanks." The mage frowned at him in reply. Jou shrugged slightly and exited out of the door, shutting it behind him.
End Chapter Thirteen