EIGHTH BLOOD

Chapter 79: The promise

.

.

Rin hurried through the castle, keeping her head low as she neared her destination. Fortunately, none of the soldiers had contested why she wasn't in her room or with Tsunayoshi, but they were bound to say something when she tried to enter a restricted zone without their lord's permission.

Her heart pounded as the large wooden gate that marked the entrance to the jail sector slowly came into view. The two soldiers manning the gate raised their heads when they sensed her coming, then assumed defensive stances. Their naginatas glinted in the harsh midday sun.

Her expression quickly changed from calm to worried as she broke into a run.

"Intruders!" she shouted once she reached them. "They ambushed us in the Stone Garden! One of your comrades is hurt! Please help him!"

The demons lowered their weapons and waited for her to catch her breath.

"How many?" one asked.

"I'm not sure," she whimpered. "It happened so fast . . ."

"You're all right now," the other demon assured her. "We'll deal with the matter from here. You said this took place in the Stone Garden?"

She nodded, then whispered hastily, "Please don't tell Tsunayoshi-sama that I was there. I wanted to surprise him with a nice bouquet of flowers, so I asked the guards to sneak me outside. They put themselves in harm's way so that I could get away safely. I'd hate for them to get into trouble on account of my foolishness."

To her surprise, the two demons smiled broadly. They were probably thinking how frivolous human women were. If only they knew what she'd done to their comrade on the night of the invasion.

"Fear not, my lady," the first one said. "We won't speak a word of this to anyone."

She smiled back. "Thank you for your consideration. I won't forget it. Now go. And please hurry."

They bowed low before sprinting away with their weapons drawn.

Rin waited until the sound of their loud footsteps petered out before smiling wider. The lie would probably come back to bite her in the ass later, but at least it would buy her enough time to learn what she needed from Kohaku.

She turned and yanked the gate open, then pulled it shut behind her. There weren't any soldiers inside the jail sector itself, so searching the cells was a fairly easy task, albeit monotonous. There were over a hundred cells to check, and each one had a heavy iron door with multiple latches and a rectangular slot. The latter made her job a lot easier, since it saved her the trouble of opening and closing every single door. She thanked the gods for her latest growth spurt. If she'd been a couple of inches shorter, she wouldn't have been tall enough to peer through the slots.

Her stomach fluttered when she saw a pair of human-looking feet sticking out of the shadows in one of the cells. She scrambled with the locks and opened the door as quickly as she could. Light forced its way into the cell and landed on a boy who looked like he'd been in a fistfight.

"Kohaku?" she called out softly.

He raised his head and stared at her with dark, lustreless eyes. His face was a mess of cuts and bruises, and the right side of his jaw was badly swollen. Her eyes travelled down to his clothes, which were shredded in places, revealing thick welts all over his arms and torso.

Her throat burned when she saw recognition flash through his features. "Rin?" he whispered hoarsely. "Is that you?"

She threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and squeezing. He grunted in pain but made no attempt to push her away. She felt him press his face against her shoulder and shudder. "You're freezing," she said, massaging his bare forearms vigorously.

"What are you doing here?" he mumbled.

She pulled back slightly and locked eyes with him again. "Isn't it obvious? I'm here for you." She reached down to take his hand, only to find that his wrists were bound together with rope. The flesh where the fibres had rubbed looked bloody and raw. Tears blurred her vision and threatened to spill. "I should've come sooner. I didn't think they would . . . I'm sorry. You must hate me."

"How could I hate you?"

Sniffing, she reached into her robes and pulled out a flask of water. His eyes brightened when he saw it, encouraging her to unscrew the cap and touch the flask to his cracked lips. He drank until his thirst was quenched, then panted heavily. Rin waited until his breathing returned to normal before combing her fingers through his matted hair, untangling the knots.

"Do you know where Kirara is?" he asked.

"I thought she was with you."

"They moved her yesterday. I heard her chains dragging across the floor. The usurper hasn't said anything to you?"

She shook her head.

"What about Shippo? Is he . . ."

"He's alive," she answered.

His shoulders sagged in relief. "Thank the gods."

She scrubbed the tears from her eyes and exhaled deeply. "Listen to me," she said. "We don't have much time. I didn't come to break you out. I'm here because I need your help. I know that probably isn't what you wanted to hear, but it's the truth. I'm so sorry, Kohaku—"

"Quit apologising. Just tell me what you need."

His eyes blazed with determination, no longer dull and lifeless.

"I need to know which plants are toxic to dragon youkai," she whispered. "If there even are any. I know Inuyasha-sama can't eat onions because he's part dog youkai, so there must be a dragon equivalent. It doesn't have to kill him. I just need to weaken him a bit."

Kohaku frowned. "There's the akai shi flower, but it only grows at high altitudes. You can sometimes find them in the Western Mountains."

"I've never heard of them," she confessed.

"It's an endangered species," he explained. "Ingesting the flower's poison triggers a disease known as the Red Death, which – as the name suggests – is fatal. When demons learned that the flowers were just as harmful to them as they were to humans, they wiped most of them out.

"When I was a boy, my father told me a story about a young woman who used the akai shi to punish those that harmed her. Her parents sold her to a pleasure house when she was nine, but she didn't discover the flower until her seventeenth birthday. Once she'd learned what it was capable of, she realised that she could mash the petals into a paste and wear it as a rouge. After that, every customer that bedded her died a slow and painful death. It was obvious that they were being poisoned, but there wasn't enough evidence to incriminate her.

"Eventually, the owner of the pleasure house ripped up her contract and threw her out. Now that she was free, the woman no longer needed her deadly rouge, so she gifted it to the youngest of her former sisters and left – never to be seen again."

Rin processed the information carefully. Needless to say, the story had given her an idea.

"How long does the disease take to kill someone?"

"It depends on the dosage. The more poison you've consumed, the faster the disease sets in and kills you." His frown deepened. "Don't do anything stupid. The usurper doesn't stand a chance against Sesshoumaru-sama and he knows it. Have faith in your lord, Rin."

"I do!" she insisted. "But faith isn't enough on its own." The howling was at her back, and the sound of paws on the forest floor clogged her ears. She could still feel their teeth tearing into her—hear the scrape of their claws as they dragged them across her already bruised and battered flesh—smell the blood that oozed out of her like scalding hot mud. "I learned that the hard way."

Kohaku's frown faded.

Rin banished the horrible thoughts and gazed into his brown eyes deeply. "Why did you lie?" she asked, tearing up again.

He blinked. "About what?"

"You said you'd write to me. You promised. I sent you dozens of letters, but you only replied to a few of them. Did they annoy you that much?" He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off. "You never came to see me, either. Not once. You were my best friend. I missed spending time with you. Were you really that busy or were you just sick of me? You were, weren't you?"

"Of course I wasn't sick of you! My work is pretty demanding, so I couldn't always write back, but I did read all of your letters. I looked forward to them, actually. Do you know why? Because every word I read reminded me that there was more to life than slaying monsters." He flashed her a tender smile. "They were more than just letters, Rin. They were pieces of you."

She swallowed thickly. "I don't know what to do, Kohaku. I know I have to stop him, but I'm so afraid. I can't eat—I can't sleep. All I can think about is how scared I am. It's not fair. You never let fear get in your way, no matter how bad things get. Why can't I be like you?"

He snorted. "You don't want to be like me. Besides, you're plenty brave yourself."

She shook her head. "I thought I was . . . But I was wrong. The villagers were right about me. I really am a blight upon anyone who comes into contact with me."

"That's not true. Those cowards who hurt you—they were the ones in the wrong. You were a child. They should have protected you."

"People rarely help unless there's something in it for them," she countered.

Kohaku's eyes softened and he clutched her fingers weakly. "Not you," he whispered. "You don't need an excuse to help people. You just do it. Me, on the other hand . . . You never give up. It's one of the things I love about you. Don't you get it? I wanted to be like you."

Her cheeks warmed at the confession. She'd had no idea that he viewed her in such a positive light. In fact, she'd always felt like somewhat of a nuisance to him, especially when he'd stopped replying to her letters. The knowledge that he admired her at least half as much as she admired him was incredibly moving.

"Fear isn't evil," he told her. "Everyone gets scared sometimes, including me. Bravery isn't the absence of fear. It's what you use to fight it. Remember that."

She nodded frantically. "I will."

"Good. Now go. You have to get out before the guards come back and find you here."

"I can't just leave you."

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."

"Promise?"

He smiled. "I promise. And I mean it this time."

Tears slipped down her cheeks and pooled beneath her chin. Kohaku's grip on her fingers tightened and he leaned in to press his forehead against hers. She closed her eyes and shuddered, wishing he would just swallow his pride and swear fealty to Tsunayoshi like Shippo had.

Before she could suggest it to him, a loud bang echoed from outside the cell, followed by booming footsteps. Her eyes snapped open and she scrambled to her feet. She contemplated slamming the door shut with her still inside, but there was no guarantee that whoever the footsteps belonged to wouldn't check the cells for intruders. Plus, if she was discovered in such close proximity to Kohaku, there was no telling what Tsunayoshi would do to him.

She held Kohaku's gaze one last time before dashing out of the cell and closing the door behind her. The slam thundered through the prison, making her pulse quicken as the intervals between each footstep grew shorter. She sprinted away from the sound, but there was nowhere to run. She stopped at a dead end and punched the wall with her fists. If she were a demon, she could make the entire wall crumble with a single blow. If she were a demon, she could best the thing that was following her and free Kohaku without breaking a sweat. But she wasn't a demon. She was only human. And just like last time, it was going to be the death of her.

"I underestimated you," the usurper's voice echoed from behind her. "You're craftier than you look."

.

.